It is so important that we tune to the flow of Holy Spirit and receive His words with open hearts without attempting to rationalize the words that we hear. Andrew White
Quote for the Day
Month: February 2022
Reflection on Colossians 1:7-14
Scripture
We also pray that you will be strengthened all his glorious power so that you will have all the endurance and patience you need.
Observation
Paul’s co-worker,Epaphras, taught the Colossians about the Good News, and he also reported back to Paul about the love for others that the Holy Spirit gave them.
Paul continues to pray for them always. He asks that they will receive complete knowledge of God’s will with wisdom and understanding to be able to honour and please the Lord. He also prays that they will be strengthened to endure and be filled with joy. The Father has transferred us from the kingdom of darkness and into the kingdom of His dear Son who purchased our freedom.
Application
We all need the “glorious power” of the Holy Spirit. This is the power manifested in various gifts of the Holy Spirit such as words of knowledge, wisdom, faith, healing, and miracles. We should earnestly seek these things.
Paul here speaks of this glorious power leading to endurance and patients. When we know that God is with us and in us, we can endure anything. The power of salvation leads to the power to overcome opposition.
God calls us to stand firm in Him. He is the one who gives us the ability to persevere to the end and through to eternity.
Endurance and patience are underrated qualities in our culture. It is not how we start the race that matters, but how we finish it.
Prayer
Lord, grant me your glorious power so that I can endure all things and remain victorious in you. Amen.
Bill Tenny-Brittian: No One Left Behind
Bill Tenny-Brittian writes:
No One Left Behind
Leave No One Behind
Every branch of our military includes this commitment to its troops. It’s a sacred honor promise that marines, soldiers, sailors, and airmen swear an oath to. As a former Air Force sergeant, I totally support the concept … for our military. But that kind of sentiment has crept its way into the church in ways that even Jesus himself wouldn’t (and didn’t) embrace.
Over the years, I’ve noticed that Cultural Christianity has increasingly adapted to make itself as palatable to society as possible – because we don’t want to leave anyone behind. Many of the church’s adaptations have been made in response to flagging attendance and dwindling giving numbers. Who can blame them?
In a consumeristic culture, it’s counterintuitive to be countercultural, right? It’s important to fit in and work to get everyone to like you, right?
It’s not just that we have a story to tell to the nations, we’ve a story to sell to the nation – as in convincing people why being a Christian and a church member are good things. And if they’re not buying, and by-and-large they haven’t been, then we have to adapt the product. Right?
It’s an episode straight out of Shark Tank. If the consumer doesn’t like what you’re presenting, then offer something else … because we don’t want to leave anyone behind. That’s not just a commitment, that’s a sacred vow.
Funny thing, though. I don’t see any of that in the New Testament. And the times I see it happening in the Old Testament, it doesn’t go well for those who had “adapted” the Law to suit the culture. In fact, when it comes to the whole “no one left behind” concept, Jesus seems to be the worst of the worst.
Case in point. The Rich Young Ruler in Matthew 19:16–22. He comes to Jesus and clearly wants to be a part of the in-group. “What must I do?” So Jesus spells it out for him and …
When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.
Matthew 19:22
This story is retold in Mark 10 and Luke 18 – and all three versions record Jesus’ response to the wealthy young man who walks away. Instead of Jesus chasing him down to negotiate, compromise, or offer a better deal, he uses the incident as a teaching moment about how difficult it is to become one of his disciples. Jesus’ response is almost cavalier, even though Mark’s account says that Jesus loved him.
A love that allows people to be left behind?
Obviously.
Read the rest of the article here
Quote for the Day
The glory of God inside of you is not limited to the contexts, spaces and parameters that you expect Him to move in. The glory is about “all of Him in all of you.” Andrew White
Great Speech in Canberra Today
Reflection on Colossians 1:1-6
Scripture
This same Good News that came to you is going out all over the world. It is bearing fruit everywhere by changing lives, just as it changed your lives for the day you first heard and understood the truth about God’s wonderful grace.
Observation
Paul and Timothy are writing to the believers, the saints, of Colossae.
They always pray for the church there and give thanks for them. The Colossians are legends of faith and love.
The Good News that transformed the people of Colossae is now going all over the world, bearing fruit everywhere in the form of changed lives.
Application
Sometimes it is hard to see the big picture of what God is doing worldwide. We see our own little bubble, our own neighbourhood, and we think that is all there is.
Just as in Paul’s day, the Good News is continuing to transform people all around the world. It is happening in the cities and in remote rural areas, in every continent and every country.
People are being saved by Jesus everyday.
It is like a huge army that is intent on world domination spreading through every nation. Unlike a normal army, they bring new life rather than death.
In Africa, whole nations coming to the Lord. in some communities in the USA, crime rates are plummeting and decaying neighbourhoods are being renewed by business investment as a result of prayer and people being saved.
Nobody can stop the gospel because it is God’s plan of salvation for all people.
Prayer
Thank you Father for the gospel that transforms lives. Give me boldness in talking to people about the Good News. Amen
Restoration in 2022
Cell church is, as we all know, more than getting everybody into small groups. You have to train leaders, coach them, encourage your leaders, organise an equipping track, produce cell meeting agendas.
Along the way it is easy to let some things slip.
This year, I am going to be more conscientious in coaching meetings with my leaders, as well as visiting the various groups. These are just two things that the Covid pandemic disrupted for me.
While our groups mostly managed to meet except for a few weeks, I found that the all the new things that I had to cope with (online meetings, videoing sermons etc), took so much energy that I had no ability to do these other things.
The third thing I am going to restore this year is the Equipping Track, or Growth Track as we are calling it.
Our first attempt was in a cell group which ran for two years, which was probably too long. A few years later, I ran an Equipping Track as a series of classes on Sunday afternoons. The problem with this approach for a small church is that it only takes a couple of people to miss a class, and you are wondering if the session is worth it.
We have an increasing number of people on shift work and a number of parents with young children who find it hard to attend every week at a particular time. We have some tradesmen who might be called out to a break down at any time, so they find it hard to commit to in person classes.
In 2022 I am planning to offer the Growth Track on video. Participants will then be able to access the material at times that suit them. It is possible that some cells groups might choose to do some of the modules in their group time then discuss the content together.
My hope is that in the course of this year most of my people will pass through the Equipping Track and be ready to take more responsibility.
Facilitating or pastoring a cell church is not difficult. In fact it is a lot easier than being the sole expert that many more traditional styles of church expect.
But I do have to ensure that I keep my eyes on the main goal of equipping disciples to be disciple makers.
Recovering Evangelism in 2022
It is so easy to forget that we are called to make disciples. This is especially true when the pandemic has forced many of us into survival mode for much of the last two years.
The Lord has been really talking to me about this over the last month. A little over two years ago we had decided that this year would be a year to recover our focus on outreach, but people were burnt out and just tired from the stresses of the last two years.
I was despairing about how to encourage our cell leaders and I emailed Joel Comiskey to ask for his advice. Joel wisely reminded me that our call to evangelise is part of discipleship. We share the Good News in response to the call of Christ. This takes the pressure off, because we are only responsible for speaking and not for results. We sow, He grows.
To be effective in our call to make disciples, we need to be effective in all parts of the church
• As pastor, I need to re-engage in the community. I realised that I have unwittingly become cut off from unbelievers. I need to “Go” and make more friends.
• In the congregation, we will specifically devote the month of February to the topic of making disciples. Additionally the second Sunday of every month we will have a message with a definite salvation message, so that people will know that this will be a service they can bring people who are close to salvation.
• In cells, I have asked every cell leader to develop a 10 week plan in which they work towards a prayer list for unsaved friends and family members and then plan an outreach event. Each cell should then be mobilised for 3 or 4 outreach activities in the year.
• Individuals will be encouraged to talk to their friends about how their faith helps in their daily life.
People who do not feel that they have the ministry gift of evangelism can be overwhelmed by the expectation to produce converts. The idea of fishing with nets as a team means that we are all working together, sharing our various gifts to bring the catch in.
As our congregation pivots towards outreach I am very excited about what God may do in us.
Jo Nova: Huge Spike in US Military Injuries From Covid Vaccinations
From Jo Nova:
Game-changer: US Military Data shows shockingly high vaccination injuries
ABomb: Last week a lawyer for military personnel spoke about the extraordinary rise in medical conditions that occurred after vaccination against Covid. This is one of the largest and best kept medical datasets in the world, the people in it are mostly young and healthy, and the whistleblowers have signed legal declarations.
The military data suggests most national vaccination databases suffer from gross underreporting of adverse events.
In the World-We-Thought-We-Lived-In, this would have been Frontpage news the next day. Calls should be coming in from all around to pause vaccinations immediately until it can be reviewed.
The three whistleblowers noticed strange patterns in the patients they were treating. They trawled through data on medical billing from the Defense Medical Epidemiology Database (DMED).
Aside from the [300%] spike in miscarriage diagnoses, there was an almost 300% increase in cancer diagnoses (from a five-year average of 38,700 per year to 114,645 in the first 11 months of 2021). There was also a 1,000% increase in neurological issues, which increased from a baseline average of 82,000 to 863,000.
The event was a five hour hearing held by US Senator Ron Johnson. Lawyer Thomas Renz has been representing clients suing over vaccine mandates and he was on fire. As well as the risks above, there were many conditions with rates far above their long term averages:
- myocardial infarction –269% increase
- Bell’s palsy – 291% increase
- congenital malformations (for children of military personnel) – 156% increase
- female infertility – 471% increase
- pulmonary embolisms – 467% increase
“Our soldiers are being experimented on, injured and sometimes killed…”
The increase in medical reports didn’t happen during the first year of Covid, only after the vaccination program was started. In other words, Covid itself didn’t cause this.
Hopefully, for everyone’s sake, the effects will fade with time, especially if people don’t get boosted, or choose a safer vaccine, or an even safer anti-viral.
Read the rest of the article here
Today’s Bike Ride
Kangaroos are enjoying the mild summer and lush paddocks
New Life Narrabri 