Reflection on Colossians 1:1-6

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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

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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

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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

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Photo by Mat Napo on Unsplash

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.

—CovidWorld

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

Quote for the Day

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As scripture describes, Assyria (modern-day Iraq) committed terrible atrocities and greatly afflicted and oppressed the people of Israel, yet God saw to it that through the prophetic oracle of Jonah (meaning “dove”) a gateway would be established through which His mercy, love, and forgiveness could be released. Andrew White