EVIL! Two.

World War-I/II+ We Remember?

There is much pride in the human heart to remember the fallen of past wars and conflicts and it would seem honorable to do so, but not was all right in these two world wars and all wars!

Men in fear were treated as cowards and shot and their families not compensated with a war pension, greed and spite came to the fore, those who refused on religious grounds were either killed or rejected by society?

Meanwhile the suffering of nerve gas, high-explosive ammunitions left men with terrible if not horrific wounds and in the 1939-45 war many nations refused the Jews prior to the Nazi-Holocaust while others avoided their rescue and Britain maintained similar prison conditions in the Middle-East until Winston Churchill got challenged by the events?

Wars have to be fought to save our systems of politics and at one time supposed Christian values, but this is a smoke screen to cover arms sales and the pride of royal families, madness of dictatorship and excuses for sin and they will continue until even the Day of Armageddon!

Genesis 44:4, Numbers 13:32, Job 19:19, 35:12, Psalm 78:68, Proverbs 24:1, Ecclesiastes 9:3, Jeremiah 31:3, Hosea 11:1, Matthew 5:11, Luke 7::47, John 3:14-18, 12:43, 13:34, 15:9, Romans 8:37, Ephesians 2:4, Revelation 16:16.

Harvest Time!

From the window box to the plains?

When serving in the inner cities we tend not to see the point of having a harvest festival and yet many members have allotments, gardens, window boxes to sow a few fruit and vegetables so they can count the pennies?

On the other hand the countryside and the small ports have their respective catches of grains and fish and have something to give God the thanks for!

Not many today see a value of the harvest festival, since they associate it only with the material, but Jesus referred to the Spiritual side of all of our callings to witness our faith, share our testimony, speak and pray and then the Angels will reap fields that are white for souls for Eternity?

There are many ways to do these services, giving thanks, involving children, young people and older folks, talking about experience or just a plain service?

The use of the community is important in the role of the food bank and also in growing the wrong crops such as narcotics, showing people a right way and asking them to consider Jesus!

Genesis 8:22, Exodus 23:16, 2 Chronicles 32:28, Matthew 6:26, 13:30, Galatians 6:9, James 3:18.

Gifts of the Holy Spirit!

What are they for?

A great debate rages in the Ekklesia today in relation to the gifts of the Holy Spirit, with many claiming that that time in the book of acts is over?

But if we take time and end our doctrinal blind spots we will take note that in 1 Corinthians chapter 12 and verse 4 we are told the essential reason, before hitting the juicy bits!

Gifts, service and activity are the essentials of being touched at His will by the Holy Spirit, one who will remain active and effective in the lives of all believers who remain in fellowship with God.

We cannot preach, teach, witness, share, talk about God without the Holy Spirit, we have to be touched and given each individually our gifting, so that we may serve, so that we will remain active no matter what Satan tries to use to draw us down?

Romans 15:17, 2 Corinthians 9:12, Ephesians 4:12, 2 Timothy 4:5, Hebrews 12:28, James 2:22, Revelation 2:19.

The Prodigal Son! Three.

Jealousy?

Infuriation might be a better word for the son who worked away and did not flout his fathers inheritance!

But like many Christians today in Ekklesia they miss the point when a prostitute or a big time criminal gets saved, it makes the place, reputation of good living look dirty?

Because their hearts were blinded to God’s love and mercy on the lost, just as this father took back his son and so we have a powerful evangelism tool with Luke 15 that can be applied in the community and worldwide today?

As believers we are always now with our father who through the good works of Jesus has bought us with blood and when we see the uncomfortable coming in let us rejoice for God has brought another home!

Luke 15:11-32, Romans 15:9-13, Ephesians 2:1-10.

Christian despair & Depression!

‘Not a bed of Roses?

The statement, ‘It is hard to be a believer, should not be under estimated, since many of us who are now long in the faith now the pain and costs that are involved as we progress in that race that the Apostle Paul encourages us with!

Ekklesia has much to answer to when it comes to depression, mental-illness and despair amongst believers? What was at one time referred to for missionaries is now widespread in the body, since many of us live in pluralistic societies that are hostile to Christians?

Nothing much has changed from the times of the pagan world of the early followers of the way to modern times, the world has turned back to the worship of nature and abandoned the God of the Holy Bible and many believers are starting to fall away, as we are told is to happen!

But we have a God who loves us and His son Jesus who died for us, we must run to Him and trust to endure and to press on? It is indeed very hard, but the price for us is too great to know give up or let go? Let us encourage one and another and help, pray, financials and a roof?

2 Corinthians 4:8-11, Psalm 56:2-3, Proverbs 8:10, 1 Peter 1:7, 4:12-14.

The Prodigal Son! One.

The Fathers love for Us?

This story that Jesus told is about the young waster and his failure and his redemption being welcomed back into his family!

The illustration is a lovely one of Gods love for this lost world, the meaning of the story could be applied to each one of us, unless we came to know the Lord as a child?

In this series we will start with the last verse since it is the key of the message that we need to rejoice as we see New believers enter into the Ekklesia the family of God!

Luke 15:11-32, Isaiah 35:10, Hosea 14:9.

The continued Value of….

Preaching?

We tend in the west today to excuse the need to stand on a soap box and degrade our dignity on a street corner to tell dying society around us of the Good News of Jesus!

Christians have allowed the standards of the world to influence us and so in many places the faith is in decline? Some say it is different now with technology and the Internet, but one did not see much to qualify this during the pandemic in the British Isles so it is not true!

The world cannot see and does not want know, unless someone has the courage to speak and share Jesus and from this point to that of the pulpit, people need quality teaching and the altar call for people to believe that God loves them and gave to us His One and Only son, forgiving us of our pasts and promising to us the Eternal Life!

It is a simple message that needs to be got out and proclaimed by believers who will surrender all, not just the words of a hymn on a Sunday morning, but everyday?

Acts 2:26-31, 8:25, 14:6, 21, Romans 10:14, 1 Corinthians 15:1, 11, Galatians 4:13, Philippians 1:30, Colossians 1:23, 1 Timothy 3:16, Hebrews 3:7, 15, 2 Peter 2:5, Revelation 1:9, 20:4.

The Resurrection!

The second element of the Easter Event!

It is strange that many people who claim to be Christians do not fully believe or understand what the resurrection of Jesus is about or even believe it?

But the New Testament is full of scriptures that are related to the raising of Jesus from the grave for our Salvation to be completed and there is really no excuse not to believe by faith this event as to that of the atoning work of the Cross/Stake/Tree?

Without the resurrection of Jesus from the grave we cannot be saved these are the two essential parts of the Easter story and they are both important, since Jesus always told His Disciples and the Gospels still speak to us today of these events of being rejected by people and being murdered and rising from the dead on the third day!

Acts 2:27, 29, 31, 13:34-36, Romans 8:34, 1 Corinthians 15:4, 2 Corinthians 5:15, 1 Thessalonians 4:14, 2 Timothy 2:8, Hebrews 13:20, 1 Peter 1:21.

The Cross!

Signpost to Salvation?

This is the main emphasis of the Easter story and the fulfilment of Jewish prophecy in relation to the role of the Messiah Yeshua Ha’Adon!

Jesus purpose in coming into humanity was to make that one and final atonement for our failures, no more animals blood and no more keeping rules and regulations for all like us who have faith in Jesus death and His resurrection from the grave.

We are a forgiven people with the New Life of the ever new and the promise of Eternity if we stay the course and for some of us it can be very hard and costly, but onward we must go?

Much uncertainty remains as to wither it was a cross/stake or tree, but it was all, because when the sign was placed by the Romans above Jesus head we get that shape!

Isaiah 53:1-12, 1 Corinthians 15:1-11, Galatians 3:13, Revelation 2:7.

‘Which Bible!

Translation is the Best or is Right?

Many of us who preach will use a modern version to get what we want to say out in modern language of today to people who do not have any understanding of anything to do with God? But when it comes to our own study we seek the basis of the King James version to get refences to Strong’s lexicon or something similar!

But a knowledge of the ability to read the Hebrew and Greek does not always make it as easy as many lay people think and this has been an ongoing problem for the last two thousand years? Since the Greek raises more options in the choice of words that can be used and many people do not fully understand this getting hot under the collar in relation to the KJV being so called adulterated when it is not!

What is more important is the application of the message that is being taught, preached or shared, by others or in our own reading and understanding of it for daily living?

Proverbs 3:2, Matthew 4:23, Mark 9:31, John 8:51, 1 Corinthians 11:23, 2 Timothy 3:16, Hebrews 6:1-2, 2 John 1:9, Revelation 3:8.