Month: October 2016

Reflection on Luke 18:1-8

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Passage: https://www.biblegatesway.com/search?%s=Luke+18.1-8

Scripture

“Will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night?”

Observation

Jesus tells His disciples a parable to illustrate that they should always pray and never give up.

He tells about a corrupt judge who didn’t care about other people or God. A widow keeps coming to him to plead for justice.

For some time the judge refuses her, but he grows tired of her persistent requests and in the end he gives in to her, just to get her off his back.

If an unjust judge is like that, how much more will God answer the prayers of those who call out to Him day and night? He will see that they get justice.

Application

We live in a world where everything is instant. Waiting is something we find hard to do. At times a four minute microwave meal seems too slow.

When we pray and our prayers seem to go unanswered, we should not give up. God answers faithful persistence. But His answers come in His time not ours.

Jesus here tells us to pray and keep on praying, believing that God is working on answers to out prayers.

Prayer

Lord please help me in the battle of prayer to keep on trusting that you will answer. Amen.

Reflection on 2 Timothy 3:14-4:5

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bible-Sunlight

Passage: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Timothy+3.14-4.5

Scripture

Preach the word of God. Be prepared whether the time is favourable or not. Patiently correct, rebuke, and encourage your people with good teaching.

Observation

Paul encourages Timothy to hold on to what he has been taught. He has been taught the Scriptures from childhood. All Scripture is inspired by God, and is useful for teaching and correction so that God’s people are equipped for every good work.

We need to proclaim God’s word whether is is favourable or not. A time is coming (I suspect that time has always been with us) when people will not listen to sound teaching, but will look for teachers to tell them what they want to hear, rejecting the truth for myths.

Application

Scripture is the bread of life. As Paul tells Timothy, it is inspired by God.. It teaches us and equips us for every good work.

Too many christians are unfamiliar with the Bible. Very few ever read it right through. Too many fail to spend time in the word each day.

Like someone who only ever eats potato chips, we ignore a full diet and wonder why we lack stamina. The biggest reason that the church is losing ground in many Western countries these days is that many christians neglect the word of God. Instead we settle for the latest fad teaching that sounds good but carries little power.

If you want to do the works of God in this world, you need the word of God.

Prayer

Lord, please help me to establish a time for your word and for prayer in my daily schedule so that I can be equipped for the work you have for me to do. Amen.

Apostolic- Belonging and Sending

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apostolic

One of the results of being in a truly apostolic church is that the New Testament experience of community is being restored. One of the main anointings of an apostle is that of fathering; an establishment of authority based in relationships rather than legalism, position or denominationalism.

As denominations slowly (or in some cases, rapidly) crumble, the growth of true apostolic networks is becoming more real and more important. In the “good old days” when someone moved away, whether to go into some kind of ministry or just for employment or family reasons, they could be released knowing that the denominational covering would look after them.

Because of the deep relationships being developed within congregations that have discovered apostolic grace, it is vital that people enter into the community of faith correctly and that they leave correctly. If this is ignored there will be a tearing of relationships, a breaking of hearts, and a rupture of community.

There are four words that help describe the dynamic of apostolic community, none of them popular in our self-centred individualistic culture.

Surrender

In order to enter into the Kingdom of God, and hence into community, we have to surrender everything to Christ. In some ways this is a life-long process; as we grow closer to the Lord we discover more and more parts of our lives that have to be handed over or surrendered to Christ. The Bible calls this process sanctification.

Sins have to be repented of and stopped. Relationships have to be healed. And the thousand and one idols we carry in our hearts that we secretly depend on to give us strength have to be handed over to Him.

People who have an attitude that they are OK with God on their terms rather than His terms will never fit into the community of faith. That’s not because you have to be perfect to be acceptable. No, not at all! It’s quite the opposite really; the people who fit most into the rag-tag army that is the church are those who recognise that they will never in this life be perfect or good enough, except by the grace of God.

Surrender to God is a process of constantly letting go until the only thing we cling to is Christ.

 

Submit

In Ephesians 5:21 Paul exhorts us to “submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.”

The soul infected with the virus of rebellion or self-empowerment will shrink from these words. But those whose hearts are alive with the concept of community will embrace it.

The apostolic revelation is that everyone needs to be a spiritual son (or daughter) to a spiritual father (not a gender-specific term).  I’ve written at length about this, as have many others, so I won’t labour the point here.

Community happens when we submit our own personal preferences and desires to the direction of the community. We willingly allow others to speak into our hearts for encouragement and correction with the desire that together we grow closer to Christ.

To submit means that we allow our hearts to be knitted with others. It means we give up our own rights to self-determination, but we gain the love, support and grace of a true body of Christ.

Again this is a gradual process as we take baby steps of trust.

 

Belong

Somewhere along the path of surrender and submission we discover that we belong. This is my community, these are my people.

Belonging is a two way street. In a sense the congregation “owns” me, but equally I “own” the congregation.

Our hearts have become united in the love of Christ.

Our focus no longer is on what I get out of church, but on the mission and ministry of us, the people of God.

One of the ways you know that you belong is that other places, conferences and events no longer hold the same appeal as they might have once. Margaret and I rarely go to other churches when we are away because we know that no matter how good the church, no matter how great their community is, it’s not where we belong. That’s not a judgement that other places are inferior; we just do not belong there so our experience is not what we expect.

One of the dangers of “belonging” is that we can become a closed community that implicitly excludes the outsider. The true community of faith is constantly reaching out and inviting others to join in and journey to belonging.

 

Sent

The word apostle comes from the Greek word apostello which means to send. Apostles are people who have been sent on a mission and have the grace to send others on their behalf. This flows from their fathering anointing.

When a person has been in an apostolic faith community, the time may come when it is right for them to leave. It is important that the community then exercises its apostolic grace to send them.

We have seen that people often decide to go somewhere without reference to what the community, pastors or group leaders think. They determine “This is what I am doing,” and off they go.

Two things happen when this occurs.

  1. The person or family leaving struggle either in their work or ministry, or else in finding  a church where they belong. The problem is that they have left without being sent and have gone without a blessing that might have helped them to flourish. Rather than being under authority, they leave on their own authority.
  2. The faith community is hurt, and continues to experience hurt,  because a part of the fabric of the community has been ripped away. It goes through a grief process because it has not had the chance to let go properly. Because an apostolic community is a “sending” community its identity is violated when members leave without being sent.

What is the difference between leaving and being sent? The heart of community is submission one to another, that is of open hearts. If someone is a part of a community, the issues need to be discussed openly in the community, before the decision is made. Pastors and cell leaders should be aware of and invited into the decision. This could be as simple as asking a cell group to pray with a family as they consider a job offer that would take them away; but it must have the option of the group saying “We think this is a bad direction.”

Being sent means that we give the community a chance to pray and to bless us as we go. That simple step means that we go with blessing and favour and have God’s grace with us rather than having to go in our own strength.

 

Surrender, submit, belong, sent. These four words are the cornerstones on which apostolic community is built.

 

 

Reflection on Jeremiah 31:27-34

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holy-spirit-fire

Passage: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Jeremiah+31.27-34

Scripture

“This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God and they will be my people.”

Observation

The days will come when the Lord will plant Judah and Israel amongst the children of men. Just as the Lord watched over them to pull down and uproot, He will watch over them to plant and build up.

The Lord will make a new covenant, a very different covenant from the old one. In the new covenant the Lord will write His commandments in their hearts. No one will need to encourage his neighbour to know the Lord because they will know Him.

Application

We are the people of the new covenant. The Lord writes His covenant in our hearts so that we are motivated by the indwelling Holy Spirit rather than by the written law.

The church is the community of people who don’t have to exhort one another to know the Lord.” Again it is the Holy Spirit living in us who stirs up within us a love for the Lord so that we want to know Him and grow in Him.

Prayer

Thank you Father for the gift of the Holy Spirit. May I always be attentive to the Holy Spirit so that I walk in the ways of the Lord. Amen.

Muslim Woman Rises from the Dead After 2 Days in Morgue

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From Christian Today

Muslim Woman Rises from the Dead After 2 Days in Morgue, Tells Family Jesus Brought Her Back to Life

Pixabay

 

This Muslim woman was pronounced dead and lying cold in a morgue in Moscow, Russia for two days already.

Suddenly, she returned to life and stepped out of the hospital gurney!

Based on her testimony, the woman, named Sabina, says while she was lying at the morgue surrounded by corpses, she had a vision of a tree growing at the top of the well, according to Assist News.

From its trunk, a branch moved toward her. The branch then changed into flesh as Sabina heard the words, “If you grab onto my hand, I will bring you back to life.”

Sabina did as instructed. She then woke up and heard the voices of doctors searching for a missing cadaver—hers.

“I’m alive. Don’t worry,” she shouted at the frightened doctors.

The medical staff offered her water, food and clothes, and arranged for her transport to a university research hospital in Moscow, where she had traveled from Central Asia to visit her imprisoned son.

Mystified hospital personnel could not explain how Sabina returned to life after spending two days in a coma and then two more days in the morgue.

When she returned to her home somewhere in Central Asia, Sabina had another big surprise for her family. “There’s somewhere I have to go,” she told her daughters.

She headed for a Pentecostal church and promptly professed her faith in Jesus Christ, leaving behind her Muslim faith.

The hand that lifted her from the gurney at the morgue, returning her to life, unmistakeably belongs to Jesus. That’s why she readily embraced Him upon returning home in gratitude for His saving grace.

After she told her six daughters and a son about how she came back to life, they all converted to Christianity.

Last year, Sabina, who is now 63 years old, saw her 92-year-old mother and a niece also embracing Jesus.

More recently, Sabina’s oldest daughter—who just this summer was highly critical of Christianity—also turned to Jesus.

Hurricane Drought Continues in USA

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Despite the alarmist squeals of the climate change crowd that the frequency of “extreme weather events” (one of those very vague terms that the very unscientific boosters of man-made climate change like to use to hide the fact that they are telling porkies), the US is undergoing a very large hurricane drought that has lasted for 4001 days- almost 11 years.

The Greens will be all over Hurricane Michael when or if it lands in Florida and say it is evidence of man-made climate change and we must act now, as if this is the first ever category 3 storm to hit America.

The fact is that the southern parts of the USA like the northern parts of Australia have historically been subject to regular tropical storms- called cyclones in Australia, hurricanes in the USA.

Here is a graph that looks at the 78 hurricanes to hit the US since 1900. For each one (labelled 1 to 78) on the horizontal axis, the graph shows the days between that storm and its predecessor. The red line shows an estimated “trend” line, although I am not sure that on this type of graph that is very helpful, especially as we do not yet know if this latest “drought” will be followed by a dozen storms in quick succession.

From wattsupwiththat.com

If there is any statistical link between temperature, CO2 and storm occurrences I think it is clear that rising temperatures are associated with fewer storms not more.

Reflection on Luke 17:11-19

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10-lepers1

Passage: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+17.11-19

Scripture
Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”

Observation
Jesus is travelling to Jerusalem. At one village ten men with leprosy call out to Him.

Jesus sends the ten of them to show themselves to the priests to confirm their healing. Along the way, they discover they are healed. One of them, a Samaritan, goes back to thank Jesus.

Jesus asks where the others are. Only one of the ten, a foreigner, has returned to praise God. He then tells the man to rise for his faith has made him well.

Application
There is no consistent pattern to Jesus’ healing ministry. That is really frustrating for those of us who like to work out principles and procedures. It is as if Jesus deliberately sets out to prevent us from producing four step programs for healing.

In this case, he sends the lepers off to show a priest to receive confirmation of their healing. They are healed along the way. Nine go on their way, presumably to see the priest. One of them praises God and only then is he told his faith has healed him.

God still heals those who earnestly seek Him. His methods may not always be expected, and no sure fire recipe can be written up. When faith, worship and thankfulness come together, heaven comes down and miracles emerge.

Prayer
Lord Jesus, please send your healing grace to me today. Tank you. Amen.

A Torah Scholar Helps Explain the Age Of Foolishness

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An interesting insight into the foolish age in which we life from crisismagazone.com

A Torah Scholar Helps Explain the Age Of Foolishness

JONATHAN B. COE

Maybe it takes a Torah scholar and religious Jew to help us understand the roots of the inverted values that animate Western civilization. For over ten years, author and radio talk show host Dennis Prager taught the first five books of the Bible verse-by-verse at the American Jewish University in Los Angeles. According to Prager there is no greater concept in the Torah than that of “distinction,” or, put another way, the clear separation God makes between certain things: God and man, animal and human, life and death, sacred and profane, good and evil, male and female. He even goes so far as to call these distinctions “God’s Signature” on the created order. Like six pillars holding up a great house, when the structural integrity of those columns becomes significantly compromised, the whole house comes crashing down.

Of the six distinctions listed, the one between God and man is antecedent to all the others: once it is compromised, the others will fall too like so many dominoes. When Adam and Eve succumbed to the serpent’s temptation, they switched places with God and made themselves the arbiters of truth and morality. The seeds of their godship that were sown in Eden are coming to full flower in our age. In his magisterial work, The Study of History, the eminent historian Arnold Toynbee divides world history into twenty-one ages and makes the case that our present age is the first one whose prevailing ethos does not appeal to a divine text or a holy tradition for guidance in the major areas of life. To say that we are living in a post-Christian age is as obvious as saying that the sun rises in the east.

What’s sometimes overlooked is that this godship is not exclusively driven by agnostics and atheists, but receives major contributions by those calling themselves Christians. I can’t help but think of the recent effort by Catholics for Choice to overturn the Hyde Amendment thereby allowing taxpayer-funded abortions. Their position on this issue rejects two thousand years of Church teaching.

Then there are large sectors of the mainline Protestant denominations who have become so accommodating to the Zeitgeist that they are actually just the cultural ethos dressed up in religious vestments (e.g., the United Church of Christ). Chesterton was right that only dead fish swim with the current. Without guilt I admit that I am encouraged each time I read about their precipitous decline in membership and finances and look forward to their eventual placement on the slag pile of history. As the late, great Richard John Neuhaus used to say, “The mainline has become the sideline.”

When man becomes God, the other distinctions that Prager identified become blurred and introduce toxins into the cultural bloodstream. If people are not created in the image of God, then it follows that they are no different than animals. Prager cites the example of animal rights groups like the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), who call the slaughter of chickens a “Holocaust on a Plate,” thereby equating such an act with the slaughter of Jews during the Holocaust.

For over thirty years Prager has asked high school seniors the question, “If a stranger and your pet were both drowning and you could only save one, who would it be?” In this informal poll, about two-thirds of the students chose their pet. An Associated Press pollrevealed that half of American pet owners consider their pet just as much a member of the family as anyone else. Prager is right to say that we live in the Age of Foolishness with our folly being rooted in a lack of reverence for God: the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom.

No reverence for God = no wisdom. No wonder our secular universities have become institutions where great knowledge (e.g., the hard sciences) is juxtaposed with great foolishness. In recent years, at Swarthmore College, a course was offered called “Interrogating Gender: Centuries of Dramatic Cross-Dressing.” Examples like this are plentiful. And practicing Catholics will be embarrassed to learn that the University of Notre Dame has twice hosted the Queer Film Festival.

Read the rest of the article here

Jo Nova: SA Blackout: Three towers, six windfarms and 12 seconds to disaster

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wind-fail.jpg

(Generic photo, not necessarily indicative of anything in SA)

I heard SA Premier, Jay Weatherall (there’s an ironic name for you). the man must be the biggest dill in politics in Australia. When the AM presenter asked him about the AEMO report indicating that the sudden shut-down of the wind farms was a big factor in the state-wide blackout he flat out denied it. Then he blustered for a few minutes and said that there was a glitch that shut down these wind generators on that day. And the cause of the shut down? At this point I couldn’t take any more and went for a shower.

Jo Nova details the steps that led to the catastrophic shut down of a state.

SA Blackout: Three towers, six windfarms and 12 seconds to disaster

Finally, the gritty info we’ve been waiting for: The Australian Energy Market Operator’s (AEMO) preliminary report. The message here is of how a combination of both transmission towers failing and probably the auto-shut-off of wind farms combined in 12 seconds to crash the South Australian system. It’s looking awfully bad for the wind industry. The AEMO pins the crash on the sudden reduction from the wind generators, but stops short of declaring why they dropped power so suddenly. Was it the auto-shut-offs, lightning strikes, a software glitch,  turbine failure, or was it a key transmission line that broke?  Reneweconomy is about the last-man-standing trying to defend the wind industry in Australia. Giles Parkinson argues it was the third transmission line that took out some wind generation.

Even if the third transmission tower took out two “farms”, the fragility of wind-dominated grids is on display. And above and beyond this, South Australian electricity is a management debacle. The only question is, which mistake was the worst: Is this is epic indulgence of running the wind farms flat out in a storm only to trigger a blackout with their auto shut offs? There’s a compelling case, but there are tenths or less of a second between events in these graphs, and no confirmation.

If it was transmission towers that ultimately broke the system, things don’t look better for wind power which needs so many long transmission lines to capture energy from sites spread far and wide, rather than connecting a few centralized spots like coal stations — and that’s expensive (thanks to Tom Quirk for pointing out that).

We’re still left wondering why were these towers so weak, was it freak tornados — where is that documentation?  Then there is the unknowable — could it have been prevented if the Port Augusta  coal station was still running, or if the wind farms had turned off earlier in an orderly fashion, or if the transmission towers had been solid?

The bottom line is that wind energy comes at a very high cost and makes the system either very expensive or horribly fragile or both. Given that wind farms aren’t providing cheap electricity — when the infrastructure and the costs of having back up “spinning reserve”  and baseload is taken into account — what’s the point of adding all this risk to the system? To change the weather?

How many engineers saw this epic fail coming?

Read the full article here