The HARVEST Festival?

Another opportunity to reach  Out!

This time of the year is very traditional for many, especially in the country side, a time is made to give thanks to God for the fruits of hard labour and farming is a very unpredictable profession to be in with many a sad disappointment dependent on the weather and many other factors such as disease?

In the Holy Bible we find that Pentecost or Shavo’ut was also the harvest of the first fruits and the significance of it seems to many lost with the giving of the Holy Spirit to the early Ekklesia? This harvest signifies that believers empowered by the Holy Spirit will produce fruit in winning others to Jesus!

So which ever way we approach the thanksgiving  or Pentecost, we have the opportunity to invite others to receive Jesus into their lives! Much can be done during the Harvest, than just flowers and food and their is the ability to think up new things to keep the valued introduction and much more going?

Genesis 8:22,   Proverbs 10:5,   Jeremiah 8:20,   Matthew 9:37,   13:30,   Revelation 14:15.

Saved by faith ALONE?

German reformer Martin Luther!

Introduced the word alone to emphasise his idea of the doctrine of salvation, which caused the split from the Roman Catholic Church over 400 years ago! But on reflection with modern technology and the easy grasp of Biblical languages today we now know that this is not correct?

Because of two incidents in the New Testament, where people were saved in the moment of belief and no mention of this doctrine exists in the Greeks texts, apart from that of the King James Bible!

The Thief on the cross and the Ethiopian eunuch  made no known confession of faith, but they just believe and were saved?

Today many Christians are not aware of many things and Salvation seems cheap when its a card signed or a short prayer, yet perhaps we should not be quick to Judge since the almighty can do whatever He pleases!

James 2:17,  24,   Greek Kata Strong G2596,   Luke 23:42-43,   Acts 8:27-39.

Effective Ministry?

Many groups and Meetings!

Some fellowships do very little and rely on the community, others act in a silly way bringing golf and the funfair to their buildings in the hope of raising the attendance numbers? While others are full of activity, from house groups to meetings and yet there is no essential results of attendance or growth?

Good leadership is needed from the Pastor to the elders or deacons or what ever way you make that call! Organisation and review is as important, while the prayer meeting is one of the focuses of the believers to pray weekly on the events, the direction of the Ekklesia, the sick, troubles and the surrounding community!

Preaching the Gospel with emphasis on the Cross, the need for personal salvation and that believers share their faith at work, home, school and other without the fear of humans is the key to success!

Leviticus 19:15,   Psalm 91:5,   Isaiah 8:12,   Acts 8:25,   1 John 4:18,   5:9-11,   Revelation 22:20.

The Value of Preaching? Two.

The Altar Call?

At one time this was the essential of leading those who were ready to repent to faith in Jesus, despite the terminology it remained an effective tool in Evangelism to lead to the lost to Jesus!

The preaching of Jesus death and resurrection remains essential today in ever increasing hostile and anti-Christian world! Our societies are in a state of moral collapse and the world is justifying sin, since it sees the Church doing the same!

An active Church is one that is preaching and reaching, while also comforting and helping the needy of the believers conscience rather than some far flung government scheme! Prayer must not be used as an excuse not to talk to people and share our faith with them?

Colossians 2:12,   1 Timothy 2:1-7,  2 Peter 1:8,    Revelation 1:4,   11,  20.

Sunday evening Services! Two.

Ekklesia is not like the Kosmon?

What is being lost in not having an Sunday evening service is that of fellowship of believers ahead of the working week! The world is very hostile most of the time to believers, we are attacked for what disagrees with their standards and ours are dismissed as archaic?

A two hour slot of praise, prayer and preaching with an after fellowship of just meeting and talking with folk is the varied ways of helping and leading others to God! When you have worked prior to going into ministry, you are more likely to see the needs in particular loneliness and despair!

God came to save sinners and the Ekklesia is a place for believers to meet together and be built up, its not a club or some unneeded tradition of religious observance! We need to help those who are seeking God and keep our flocks well watered and fed?

Acts 2:42,    Romans 16:8,    Philippians 2:1,    Philemon 1:6,    1 John 1:6.

Sunday Evening Services! One.

No longer Popular?

Many fellowships today only have Sunday morning services and have ended their evenings for the pleasures of the television and other?

They see no value in pressuring their congregations into attending Church twice on a Sunday! But one has to say I think this is wrong, the opportunity to share the Gospel is slowly being eradicated and we will have to give God an account for missed souls?

Many in ministry have it easy, compared to normal 9-5 work and so it seems another chip off the block can be sacrificed? Many people today work in the gig economy and would like to break bread before or after work, to be fed spiritually and have the opportunity to bring a friend?

Isaiah 40:11,    56:11,    Ezekiel 34:2,    Luke 2:20,    1 Peter 5:2. 

HELL?

Who will be There?

The Holy Bible says all who have refused to believe and wicked cruel people! But that definition of sinners has changed today, because not all sin is sin, like loving children and same sex relationships?

Society and some elements of the Church have accepted sin on this one level, which does now justify the right to kill, steal, lie, be dishonest and disobey God! But this is not Gods way and we will have to give an account of our actions in this life!

Hope in God being fair is not good enough, because He has no favorites and what He says remains because we are believers we know that He does not change. There is a separation from God and it is well listed wither some leaders believe it or not in the Bible that not everyone is going to be in heaven!

Darkness, fires, unquenchable pain and all mentioned along with the bottomless pit and the torment of the Devil for Eternity! We cannot afford as leaders, evangelists and Pastors to ignore these facts and lead others in to a false sense of security when this is the reality of all who will be lost!

Deuteronomy 32:22,   Psalm 55:15,   Proverbs 27:20,   Isaiah 28:15,   Ezekiel 31:16,  Matthew 23:33,   Mark 9:43-48,   Luke 16:22-23,   1 Corinthians 6:9-10,   Ephesians 6:16,   2 Peter 2:4,   Revelation 1:18,    21:8,   22:15.

The value of Preaching? One.

Has the Gospel any real value Today!

What a strange statement to make, but is it not true when every command in relation to sexual sin, except that of abusing children is ignored by most people who claim a faith in God?

But we have a faith in Jesus that is based on being born-again of the power of the Holy Spirit and we know God as our Father more personal than an idea of Him or an entity!

The message of the Gospel is as relevant today as it was nineteen-hundred years ago, because without it people will be lost to the eternal separation from the light of God and burn in the fires of hell!

We wonder what is wrong with our society, why narcotics, why knife and gun crime, but what we fail to recognise is if we deliberately excuse one sin then all of them can be excused by the world who have no knowledge of the truth?

Revelation 14:6,   Mark 9:44-49,   Romans 6: 7-9,   11-12,   Ephesians 3:9-11,   Colossians 1:23.

Amnesia in Ekklesia? Part-One.

Amnesia 

In the 1950’s western Christianity in the U.S and in the U.K. was described by many as sleep walking into religious observance over that of real faith, but it cannot be said for every believer?

World War-II (1939-45), left the allied nations with a great loss of its youth generation, as much as the previous world war-I (1914-18), but Spiritually the Church recovered only to be knocked once more!

Today we have the lines blurred between some denominations, with the rise of the Islamic Jihadi’s there is a desire to unify on many levels post ecumenism and no longer see any doctrinal barriers?

Yet those barriers do remain unchecked and so some believers are pick and mixing into their own form of faith that is no longer based on the reformation, while on the other hand there are increases of groups that have some strange mixed ideas that are not found in the Holy Bible and they are leading many astray!

1 Timothy 1:3,   10,   6:3,   Isaiah 9:15,    29:13,    1 John 2:27. 

The Resurrection of Jesus!

Sometimes not fully Understood?

We like to think that all believers understand the fulness of the Easter message as we who have to teach and share it? But many just go along with it as part of the ‘Churchy experience,’ but they do not really believe that it was possible!

It is strange but it is easier to believe that someone, Jesus would die for us to make that final atonement for sin taking our failure on Himself, but at the same time refusing to understand the fulness of what the resurrection means in relation to conquering death and allowing us to enter into the New Life?

More emphasis on this is needed today, so that believers will once more be effective in sharing their faith and not afraid of losing it if attacked by the world? Being active remains an essential of being Born-Again, slackness is the work of the enemy to make the Gospel of Jesus ineffective and our witness non-existent?

Zephaniah 3:8,   Acts 2:31,   Romans 6:5,   Philippians 3:10,   Hebrews 6:2,   1 Peter 1:3.