Perseverance!

The calling of the Believer?

Suffering is now a dirty word in the Ekklesia now, because people have rights and equality and they believe that they cannot be pushed around by others, so they just sometimes have to put up with some things!

So perseverance has no meaning for many western Christians, but with all that said and done the other 90% of the world have to live with it everyday and many cannot even declare their faith or be killed for it, in other religions and in atheistic lands that refuse to tolerate anything but their own paganism?

Without suffering we cannot be tested by God to our loyalty to Him and without perseverance we cannot grow, many in the west are dry, cold, or over happy clapping, but they are lukewarm and dead!

Jude 1:17-23, Romans 9:8, Philippians 3:3, Colossians 2:7.

EASTER!

This year it is split into Three.

One has passed, the Jewish Passover is to come and the Eastern orthodox will be still much later this year, but the message is still relevant and many people are seeing the growth of Islamic influences more so in Europe and they now fear that Christians will be left behind with the many secular changes in laws and the taking away or watering down on the emphasis of Easter?

We as believers know the story well of the cross and the resurrection of Jesus but there is one area that one has never noticed being covered in the events of Good Friday and that is the darkness that fell over Jerusalem and Israel as Jesus hung dying on the cross for all human failures!

Matthew 27:45, Mark 15:33, Luke 23:44, John 3:19, 8:12, 12:35, Acts 26:18, 2 Corinthians 4:6.

When we come away at the end after Jesus death a Roman soldier believed and how many were to follow on that day alone and still do to this day?

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.