Reflection on Revelation 1:1-8

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Reference: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=revelation+1.1-8

Scripture

To him who loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood, and made us to be a kingdom of priests serving his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

Observation

This is the revelation of Jesus Christ, given by God to John. There is a blessing for everyone who reads the words of the prophecy aloud and for those who hear it.

John writes to the seven churches in Asia. Jesus is coming with the clouds and everyone will see Him.

Application

The book of Revelation starts with this big doxology of praise and worship to God. John has seen something huge and is caught up in praise.

We need to train our hearts and minds to recognise who God is, what Christ has done and the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. When we think and mediate on these things, we too will be moved to praise Him.

Jesus is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him. As followers of Jesus we can see Him before that day and worship Him in the present time.

Prayer

So soon after the celebration of your death and resurrection, Lord Jesus, our hearts are filled with awe and praise. May that continue through every day. Amen.

Is the Church Really Declining?

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There is a huge movement, a transformation, in the church right around the world with the old denominations in decline, but Pentecostal and charismatic churches thriving.

From Charisma:

Why These Closing Churches Are Fuelling the Charismatic Movement

Hillsong Church London holds four services, attended by 8,000 people, every Sunday at the Dominion Theatre. Photo courtesy of Hillsong Church London
Hillsong Church London holds four services, attended by 8,000 people, every Sunday at the Dominion Theatre. (Photo courtesy of Hillsong Church London)

Church closings are nothing new in Britain.

In the past six years, 168 Church of England churches have closed, along with 500 Methodist and 100 Roman Catholic churches.

“Christianity in Britain has seen a relentless decline for over 100 years,” says Linda Woodhead, a sociologist at Lancaster University.

Visitors to Britain are often shocked when they see the state of some of this nation’s once-proud church buildings.

But for every Anglican church that has closed over the past six years, more than three Pentecostal or charismatic churches have taken their place, according to an analysis by The Times of London.

These Pentecostal and charismatic churches are drawing young, black, Asian and mixed-race people.

Pentecostalism is one of the fastest-growing movements in world Christendom, with an estimated 500 million followers.

“A century ago the face of European Christianity could have been labeled as white, but now it is increasingly becoming multicolored,” said Israel Olofinjana, a Nigerian-born minister in London told the Times.

While aging Church of England congregations decline, charismatic churches thrive.

Hillsong Church London holds four services, attended by 8,000 people, every Sunday at the Dominion Theatre.

“It feels like God’s nightclub, with love songs to Jesus,” said one young African after attending an evening service.

Christians from Eastern Europe, especially Poland, where Catholic roots run deep, are among the participants. And their enthusiasm is contagious.

“There’s been a seismic shift,” said Robert Beckford, a professor of theology at Canterbury Christ Church University. “Christianity in Britain has become much more ethnically diverse as a result of migration from West Africa, Eastern Europe and, to a degree, Latin America.”

Elizabeth Oldfield, director at Theos, one of England’s leading think tanks, told The Times: “Church structures have to take immigration much more seriously. They’re having to listen to people on the ground that are joining the churches in quite large numbers, speaking a different language, perhaps coming from different forms of worship and working to bring change. It is shaking the church up.”

The Pentecostal growth is bringing renewed hope to many.

“I am optimistic that we will see this nation come back to God,” said Pastor Agu Irukwu of the Redeemed Christian Church of God. The group, founded in Nigeria, now has 600 congregations across England. 

Reflection on Acts 5:27-32

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Reference: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=acts 5.27-32

Scripture

“We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.”

Observation

The apostles have been arrested but set free by an angel. They are re-arrested and brought before the Sanhedrin.

The high priest says to them that despite being ordered to remain silent, they have filled the city with their teaching.

Peter and the others reply that they must obey God rather than men. God has raised Christ whom the authorities had executed. God has exalted Him as Lord and Saviour to bring repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel.

Application

The testimony of the apostles is simple. The authorities executed Jesus, but God raised Him up and now He gives salvation and forgiveness to all who trust in Him.

We don’t have to make witnessing complicated. We follow a risen Saviour. The Holy Spirit can bring conviction and faith. We just have to say what we have seen and experienced.

Peter says, We are witnesses of these things.” It’s not a myth or made up story- Jesus is alive and He offers eternal life to all who will make Him their king.

Prayer

Thank you Lord for the gift of salvation. Show me how to testify to my friends about your great grace. Amen.

Today’s Sermon

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The Good Friday sermon is ow available on the New Life web-site.

The sermon takes the form of a series of Bible readings and reflections produced by  Pastor Vince Gerhardy, St Paul’s Lutheran Church, Caboolture . You can visit his web-site here

To listen to the sermon click here or to download the mp3 click here

Book Review: Prayer Shield by C. Peter Wagner

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There are lots of books, great books, about prayer available these days. This is the only one that I have come across that dissects the needs of christian leaders for personal prayer teams and offers help in putting such a team together.

Pastors, and other leaders are often targeted specifically by satan in order to limit their effectiveness or sometimes cause them to fall from leadership altogether. It is well-known that pastors in Western countries are lacking in their personal lives- on average about 22 minutes per day in the U.S. compared to 5 hours or more in China.

Wagner suggests that for a pastor to be effective, s/he  must determine to do two things:

  1. Increase their personal prayer times, aiming for something like an hour per day.
  2. Develop a prayer team consisting of people with various gifts of intercession- he uses the terms I-1, I-2, I-3 to describe people who are at various places of prayer and personal closeness to the leader.

Peppered with examples to illustrate his points, this book is inspiring and easy to read.

Over the last couple of years I have increased my personal prayer times. Now I am inspired to seek out the true intercessors in my church and community and start building a team.

 

 

Fishy Price Tag

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The Same Sex “marriage” plebiscite scares the activists because they are afraid they might lose and actually fear democracy as an institution. So it’s no surprise that they exaggerate the cost of voting in an attempt to pressure the Government to abandon the plebiscite.

From the Centre for Independent Studies:

Something fishy about PwC’s plebiscite price tag Peter Kurti 24 MARCH 2016 | IDEAS@THECENTRE

same sex marriage equality 1Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott promised to settle the marriage equality issue democratically by allowing voters to state their views in a national plebiscite later this year.

Malcolm Turnbull has committed to honour that promise — unless he is intimidated into silencing the Australian people, and scuppers the plebiscite plan altogether.

A new report from PricewaterhouseCoopers puts a price tag on each of the options for consulting the Australian people on the future of one of our society’s fundamental institutions.

Leaving it to the pollies is the cheapest option — $17 million according to PwC. And a stand-alone plebiscite with a compulsory vote on same-sex marriage is the most expensive at $525 million.

If it looks like fish and smells like fish, it probably is fish. And this report from PwC definitely has a fishy pong to it. Especially when you add in the estimated $20 million bill for mental health costs.

Scare tactics are being used by same-sex marriage advocates desperate to keep the issue well away from the voters. Suddenly a plebiscite is said to be a waste of time and money.

72% of Australians support marriage equality, according to Australian Marriage Equality’s website. But if that is true, why worry about letting Australians have their say?

It’s not to save money that the advocates want to shut down public debate about changing the meaning of marriage. It’s because they’re worried they might lose a plebiscite vote.

So rather than trust the integrity and decency of the Australian public, advocates would rather silence the people and leave it to the elites to stitch up a deal.

Democracy has a price well worth paying; in fact, it’s a price we must always be prepared to pay. Marriage equality advocates may well be on the side of the angels with justice on their side.

But unless they place their trust in the hands of the Australian voters and allow the people to decide on marriage equality, the advocates will never quite dispel the stench of a fishy fix-up.

Ralph Neighbour- The Power of Prayer

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Ralph Neighbour gives this stunning description of prayer in the Ukraine

The Power of Prayer

 

 

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by Ralph Neighbour

Perhaps a million pages have been published through the years on the subject of prayer. Men like E. M. Bounds and Watchman Nee are a couple of my favorites, and you have others to add to the list.

The problem is not that we need another series on prayer to be penned. It is the issue of praying where we are deficient. TOUCH Outreach Ministries surveyed 500 pastors from our mailing list of those purchasing cell materials in 1986 and we learned that they averaged, by their own admission, praying seven minutes a day!

I have been powerfully impacted by Pastor Vladimir Muntyuan who has founded and led the Regeneration Church in the Ukraine. He was raised in a communist city and had no contact with religion as he grew up, spending much of his youth in prison. At 19 he had so abused his body doctors sentenced him terminal and sent him home to die. It was then he met his first Christian who witnessed to him on the street and gave him a copy of the scriptures. As he read it he was thunderstruck with the God who healed. He determined to fast and pray until he met Christ. He had a Pauline confrontation with Him and was instantly restored to total health! From the start, prayer was precious to him.

I could write pages about this man’s ministry and how he now leads one of the fastest growing cell movements on earth. But I want to focus on his prayer life. On one of my first trips to coach his church I came to lead a major weekend training event. He greeted me by saying, “I will not be with you. I am going to the Crimea to spend this week in prayer.” I soon learned from his team that he spent much of his time alone in prayer, often sending for one or more of the team to join him for a period.

But this event blew me away: he said, speaking to 12,000 delegates who were together last year for a solid month in a cell church event they call “The Mountain of Moses,” where each day begins with 3 solid hours of prayer,

“I got so busy with the team preparing for this event I missed my prayer times. When I returned to meet with the Holy Spirit after those three days, He said to me, “Vladimir, I am glad you are back! I have missed you!”

Living among his team for weeks at a time has revealed their total focus on hearing the voice of God for the entire movement. Friday nights thousands of cell members gather to pray from 8 pm to 3 am. I spoke for an hour at one of those sessions and was deeply moved when at midnight, they packed up all the chairs against the walls so they could become one huge crowd, gathering with hands raised, praying aloud for the power to move in their midst. So precious are these sessions, so filled with His glorious presence, that the home cells are empowered for their weekly ministries to their unbelieving families.

We Americans have so much to learn from our Ukrainian brothers and sisters!

Reflection on John 20:1-18

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Reference: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=john+20.1-18

Scripture

Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them ‘I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”

Observation

While it is still dark, Mary goes to the tomb and finds the stone has been removed. She runs to tell Peter and the others that the Lord is gone.

Peter and John go to the tomb and find that the body is indeed gone. They return home, but Mary remains.

Jesus then appears to Mary, but she doesn’t recognise Him. He says her name and she realises who He is. Mary then returns to the disciples and tells them, “I have seen the Lord.”

Application

The events surrounding the resurrection were very confusing for the followers of Jesus. They were not expecting this at all, despite Jesus’ prophecies concerning it.

The great fact of history remains- Jesus died but now He is alive. Because He lives, we shall live with Him forever.

Hallelujah!

Prayer

Thank you Lord for the Good News of Easter. Thank you for the promise of eternal life. Amen.