Emergency Operation

 This week is my birthday. I will be 72.

This month I had a dangerous operation. After the operation, my blood pressure suddenly dropped to 60/45, and my pulse to 29. Medical staff quickly gathered around my bed in ICU.

I was thankful to God for good doctors and nurses who knew what to do. They immediately gave me an injection with a heart stimulant.

I didn't even feel afraid. I trusted I was safe in God's hands.

My life with Jesus is eternal, but my mortal body is perishable.

What can I do this week that will make a difference to those around me?

How can I make God's love and truth known today?

“LORD, make me to know my end, And what is the measure of my days, That I may know how frail I am. Psalm 39:4 NKJV

What is your purpose in life? Do you know why God put you on this planet?

If not, have you asked God seriously? He loves you. He wants to answer. He is not deaf and not dumb.

My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. John 10:27 NKJV

Just leave ...

Are you one of those people who is always right?
What does the Bible say about that?

If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know.
But if anyone loves God, he is known by God. 1 Corinthians 8:2–3 ESV

Anyone who claims to know all the answers doesn’t really know very much.
But the person who loves God is the one whom God recognises. 1 Corinthians 8:2–3 NLT

The apostle John said of Jesus, He is full of grace and truth.

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14 NKJV

Truth is so important. Bible knowledge is essential because the Bible is God's Word.

But if Bible knowledge is your first priority, if you think your job from God is to always correct Christians, where is your humility? Where is your Christian love?

John did not say Jesus was filled with truth and grace. He said Jesus was filled with grace and truth.

Grace and truth, not truth and grace.

What did Paul say about Christians with different opinions?

Receive one who is weak in the faith, but not to disputes over doubtful things.
For one believes he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats only vegetables.
Let not him who eats despise him who does not eat, and let not him who does not eat judge him who eats; for God has received him.

Who are you to judge another’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. Indeed, he will be made to stand, for God is able to make him stand.
One person esteems one day above another; another esteems every day alike. Let each be fully convinced in his own mind. Romans 14:1–5 NKJV

Perhaps you are a trained Bible teacher with impressive spiritual gifts. You have a calling as a pastor or church leader.

Be careful. Being self-righteous is not a virtue. A know all attitude does not come from God!

And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 1 Corinthians 13:2 NKJV

Do you always know better?

For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. 1 Corinthians 13:9 NKJV

But maybe you're not a trained church leader, but your pastor or an elder is authoritarian and expects you to agree with everything he says. You are not obliged to always give in.

For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. Galatians 5:1 ESV

If the leaders in your church are domineering, if they demand unquestioning submission, if they always put you down when you express your own ideas, then just leave ...

But Paul himself could also be very sharp and dogmatic. He was especially tough on legalism and lawlessness. Some sensitive issues are important and others not so important. We need the wisdom that comes only from God.

But if you experience bullying in a church, just leave ...

Paul himself admonished Christians not to give in.

In fact, you even put up with anyone who enslaves you or exploits you or takes advantage of you or pushes himself forward or slaps you in the face. 2 Corinthians 11:20 NIV84

Feminism, from God or the World?

Many conservative Christians believe that feminism is anti-Christian and has its origins in radical secular social reform movements.

Radical feminists around the world aggressively advocate abortion and gay marriage.

But who were the actual pioneers of the movement that campaigned for equal rights for women?

John Wesley established Adult Bible classes over 250 years ago. Many groups were led by women.

The first college in North America where men and women studied together was founded by the famous revivalist Charles Finney. In Finney's college, men and women, blacks and whites studied in the same classes.

In North America, Charles Finney and DL Moody trained women preachers. In England, William Booth promoted women preachers and women in leadership.

A. B. Simpson, founder of the Christian Missionary Alliance (CMA), included women in all levels of his leadership.

In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, many Christian missionaries went to China. There were twice as many women as men.

The women were only allowed to minister to women. So Chinese Christian women became the majority. 

Now, despite communist persecution, there are more than 50 thousand house churches. More than 75% of the pastors and leaders are women.

Women's equality does not come from the world, but from God.

There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3:28 NIV84

What does "no difference" mean? Of course mothers are women and fathers are men.

But women and men should have equal authority, in marriage, in the family, in the church, in politics, in society, in the office, in Christian leadership and all areas of spiritual service.