Ge 4:9 (NKJV) Then the LORD said to Cain, "Where is Abel your brother?" He said, "I do not know. Am I my brother's keeper?"
Nine years ago a 13 year old boy was abducted from a bus stop in Australia.
This week six witnesses have testified before a magistrate.
They have evidence which will probably lead to a criminal conviction for kidnapping and murder but they did nothing to help the boy escape at the time.
They only reported to the police weeks or months later, long after the boy had been killed.
One man “told the Brisbane Magistrates Court that he saw a fight between a child and a man in the back of a car as he drove towards Caloundra.”
A woman “said a man was punching down into the seat and a shoe kicked up defensively at the man. She wrote down the car's number plate but lost the piece of paper.”
A man was waiting outside a shop when the 13 year old victim pleaded for help and told him his name, Daniel Morcombe.
The kidnapper then caught the boy, spoke harshly to him and gave the witness a fierce look. The witness said he felt intimidated and did nothing.
Months later he saw a missing person report and went to the police, months too late.
I am ashamed of my country, Australia, but looking around the world, if wonder if other countries are better.
The Bible speaks of a future time when the love of many will grow cold, when people will be self centred and hard hearted. This describes our time so well.
It seems for many people, life has become a spectator sport.
We read gossip magazines, watch TV for hours or browse the internet looking for entertainment.
Elite sports attracts bigger crowds and more money while more and more people in rich countries grow fat while they just watch.
We feel uneasy about the rise of violence around us. TV programs about violence and killing are immensely popular, both fiction and true stories.
We watch and we feel stressed but we are spectators.
We have accepted the role of passive spectators of evil, so when we are actually confronted with the real thing, we behave like spectators.
Jesus has the answer. He taught about the Good Samaritan who rescued a man who had been beaten and robbed on a public road.
I am sad about the moral sickness of my country but I also wonder about many Christians. How much better are we who claim to believe in Jesus?
I know Christians who visit brothels and help prostitutes escape from slavery.
Our church frequently goes out on the streets of the night club district to reach out to lost and dysfunctional people. I have tried to help homeless people myself.
However in the past I have sometimes felt frustrated in churches where the main focus of attention was church meetings for church members.
- So many Christians are actually encouraged to be spectators in meetings where the musicians and preachers perform.
- I was once a willing church worker, going to meetings, doing little jobs and keeping the system going.
I went to prayer meetings which were so boring and predictable, praying for church activities.
Then I realised I was too busy being a good church member and I was part of the problem.
There are people in need of rescuing all around us.
In my city between 15% and 20% of all psychiatric patients kill themselves less than 24 hours after being discharged from full time medical care.
What are we doing? What are you doing? What does God want you to do NOW?
2Co 6:2 (NLT) For God says, “At just the right time, I heard you. On the day of salvation, I helped you.” Indeed, the “right time” is now. Today is the day of salvation.
If you have never committed your life to Jesus, the Son of God, today is your opportunity to be reconciled to God and to escape His judgement.
But what if you are safe in your faith in Jesus and you are confident of your eternal future in heaven?
Who needs you today?
Who needs your words or deeds of love TODAY?
Matthew, Mark, Luke and John tell how the Son of God lived on this earth for 33 years.
In his last three years on earth, Jesus preached and taught the people of Israel.
One of the most prominent features of His teaching was the way He consistently performed miraculous healings.
Acts 10:38 (NLT) And you know that God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. Then Jesus went around doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.
This is how the Apostle Peter summarised the healing ministry of Jesus.
He makes no distinction between exorcisms and healing physical sickness.
Jesus saw demon possession, deafness, blindness and physical sickness as manifestations of evil.
When John the Baptist was in prison, he was tempted to despair of his faith. He sent his disciples to Jesus, seeking reassurance.
Matthew 11:4-5 (ESV) And Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see:
the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them.
Clearly Jesus also saw Healing as a central feature of His ministry.
When Jesus appointed His Apostles, the first thing He did was to give them authority to heal.
Matthew 10:1 (ESV) And he called to him his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every affliction.
If we look at church history and examine the practices of many churches in the Western World, we see only some churches emphasise healings and miracles.
For Jesus and the early church, healing the sick was an essential part of the Good News of the Kingdom of God.
Where did the Western church go wrong?
Why have we strayed from the ways of Jesus so clearly presented in the New Testament?
After the fall of the Roman Empire in the Europe, most people were poor and illiterate.
Faith the Word of God was replaced with faith in religious traditions including prayers to saints and bathing with holy water. Healing and miracles became associated with very unbiblical practices.
When Luther and Calvin restored the Bible as the only source of spiritual authority, they rejected the papacy. They also condemned faith in miracles obtained by prayers to saints or touching sacred objects. This was idolatry.
However they made the mistake of rejecting all healing miracles.
Calvin taught that the miraculous ministry of Jesus and the Apostles were not a model to imitate.
He taught they did miracles to prove that Jesus was the Son of God and to confirm the truth of the Gospel of salvation.
Once the church and the gospel were established, they considered miracles were no longer necessary but were counterfeit miracles associated with Roman Catholic idolatry.
Once the miraculous element was banished from much of Western Christianity, faith in scientific materialism was blended with biblical belief.
Faith in human reason began to supplement and then replace faith in the Word of God.
This is why many Christians in Britain, Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand find it difficult to receive divine healing or to exercise faith for miracles.
Our whole culture has been corrupted by systematic unbelief in God’s supernatural power.
Faith is a personal matter but it is also corporate. Faith is contagious but unbelief is also contagious.
Conservative Protestant tradition and academic theology have made unbelief respectable in in Europe and North America.
The result has been a catastrophic decline of faith amongst professing Christians and the abandonment of Christianity by the majority of Europeans.
But God has not changed and the Bible has not changed.
God loves you.
He knows you are broken and wounded in many ways. We all are.
We all emotional issues that cause us pain and prevent us from being all we could be.
We all get sick from time to time and many of us have bodily functions that don’t operate as they should.
God wants to heal you, to change you life, to set you free of the painful limitations that stop you fulfilling your potential.
Both Israel and the Palestinian Arabs claim East Jerusalem as the rightful capital of their nations.
As Christians, we have only one Teacher, who is Jesus.
We have only one source of Truth, the Bible.
What is EAST Jerusalem?
"East Jerusalem ... refer to the parts of Jerusalem captured and annexed by Jordan after the 1948 Arab-Israeli War ... and then captured and annexed by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War. It includes Jerusalem's Old City and some of the holiest sites of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, such as the Temple Mount, Western Wall, Al-Aqsa Mosque, and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre."
"East Jerusalem is the proclaimed capital of the proposed Palestine although Ramallah serves as the administrative capital. Israel has declared all of Jerusalem, both East and West sections, as its undivided eternal capital."
What does Jesus say about Jerusalem?
“But I say to you, do not swear at all: neither by heaven, for it is God's throne; nor by the earth, for it is His footstool; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. Matthew 5:34-35 (NKJV)”
JERUSALEM .... IS THE CITY OF THE GREAT KING.
The apostle Matthew wrote the book bearing his name to present Jesus to the Jews as their heavenly King.
Matthew 1:1 (NKJV) The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham.
Jesus is referred to in the New Testament as the Son of Man, the Son of God and The Son of David.
David was the first great King of Israel who conquered Jerusalem and made it his capital city over Israel, reigning from there for 33 years, which is the same time period as the earthly life of Jesus.
The whole of Israel was given to David by God, including Jerusalem as its capital city.
God also promised to establish the Kingdom of David as an eternal kingdom that would never pass away.
Psalm 89:3-4 (NKJV) "I have made a covenant with My chosen, I have sworn to My servant David: 'Your seed I will establish forever, And build up your throne to all generations.' " Selah
Christian tradition has spiritualised this and robbed God’s promise of much of its meaning.
Generations of Christians not understood that Jesus will not only reign has heavenly King of Kings.
We must know Jesus will also rule and reign as the Jewish King of Israel on earth with Jerusalem as His capital city, the capital city of the restored Hebrew Nation of Israel and of the whole world.
Isaiah 2:3 (NKJV) Many people shall come and say, "Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, To the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us His ways, And we shall walk in His paths."
For out of Zion shall go forth the law, And the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
Isaiah 60 speaks of a great spiritual world war in the end times.
Isaiah 60:1-2 (NKJV) Arise, shine; For your light has come! And the glory of the LORD is risen upon you.
For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, And deep darkness the people;
But the LORD will arise over you, And His glory will be seen upon you.
Here we see God restoring His people to glory in a time of great spiritual darkness, which is surely today.
The glory of God is not yet seen in the lives of most Israeli Jews or in the lives of a great many Christians but God speaks of a time in which His glory will be revealed on all people who love Him and receive Yeshua the Messiah (Jesus Christ).
We have seen some of this glory already in the great revivals in Azusa Street, Wales, Korea and Latin America.
We have seen hundreds of millions of Africans and Chinese turn to Jesus since the rebirth of Israel.
We see a great Christian Zionist movement rising up to love the Jews and support Israel.
Isaiah 60 also speak specifically of Jerusalem as the centre of God’s End Times plans.
Isaiah 60:14 (NKJV) Also the sons of those who afflicted you Shall come bowing to you,
And all those who despised you shall fall prostrate at the soles of your feet;
And they shall call you The City of the LORD, Zion of the Holy One of Israel.
If you grew up after the war in Australia or another English speaking country, you may remember a conversation like this.
“Mummy, where do babies come from?”
“Babies come from Mummy’s tummy.”
Of course we know that the tummy or stomach is for
digesting food and babies grow in the womb, or uterus, a totally
different thing.
But in all three languages of the Bible,
Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic, there is an interesting word which can be
correctly translated as stomach, belly or womb.
In the
last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If
any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on
me, as the scripture hath said, out of his BELLY shall flow rivers of
living water. John 7:37-38 (KJV)
But
this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would
receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not
yet glorified. John 7:39 (NKJV)
The word BELLY is the translation of the Greek KOILIA.
The equivalent Hebrew word is BETEN. When Jesus spoke these words in the temple, He may have been speaking Aramaic.
The Aramaic Bible uses the word: K'aRSeH, which can
also mean BELLY or WOMB. These words are often interpreted figuratively
as HEART or INMOST BEING.
In the flesh, the womb and the stomach are quite distinct and only a woman has a womb.
But in the spiritual realm it is a different story.
Jonah
went down into the belly of the great fish or whale. When he came out
of the fish’s belly, it was like a resurrection. The belly of the fish
was like the womb giving birth to a new man.
The
satisfaction of hunger and thirst sustains life. This is the function
of the BELLY, to convert food and drink into life, to keep us alive and
refresh us.
But
the function of the WOMB goes further. The WOMB is the place where a
seed sown grows into new life until a new person emerges. The stomach
sustains life but the womb reproduces and multiplies life.
The
inmost being of every born again Christian believer is potentially both
a spiritual stomach and a spiritual womb. In this spiritual dimension
there is no male or female. God desires to fill us with the Living Water
of His Spirit to nourish, sustain and refresh us but He desires more.
God fervently desires to satisfy our thirst but then to take us further,
to make us bearers of new life for others.
To
hunger and thirst for new life and refreshment in your own soul is not
selfish. It is essential. But it is not enough. God wants his people to
be like healthy young mothers, reproducing, multiplying, bringing new
born again believers into the world.
The conversion of unbelievers is the birthing of new
life. Nothing is more wonderful than the restoration of a sinner to the
heart of the Father in Heaven.
But evangelism is not the only way to birth a work of God’s Spirit.
To sing an inspired song, write a book or paint a picture
with God requires a joining together of the Spirit of God with the
human spirit in an intimate connection like a husband and wife producing
a new person.
Every work of faith involves the bearing of living fruit, like giving birth to a child.
Have
you been feeling tired and heavy lately? Maybe you need to stop
struggling in your own strength. Get filled with the Spirit who can
produce new life in you and then through you.
Or can it be that you are heavily pregnant in the Spirit?
Do
you have a vision for a ministry, a mission, a book, a business, a
child, a family revived and restored, a move of the Spirit in your city?
You may feel heavy because the baby is nearly due.
Be encouraged!
Christmas
and New Year are seasons of New Birth, New Life, New Beginnings. Some
of you are in labour now and your dream or vision is about to be
transformed from faith into sight.
James 3:17 (ESV) But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.
The peace of God is a lovely thing. It is full of kindness and understanding. God enables us to be tolerant and reasonable with most unreasonable people.
Jesus taught us to maintain our dignity when provoked and insulted but not to respond to arrogant aggression in the same aggressive spirit.
Matthew 5:11-12 (NLT) “God blesses you when people mock you and persecute you and lie about you and say all sorts of evil things against you because you are my followers.
Be happy about it! Be very glad! For a great reward awaits you in heaven. And remember, the ancient prophets were persecuted in the same way.
The peace of God is holy.
When you live and move in the peace of God, you are like Jesus Himself, who was and is gentle and kind but never at the expense of holiness and truth.
There are Christians who campaign against abortion who have no peace in their hearts. They threaten abortionists with violence and right angry letters to women, accusing them of murdering their unborn babies and condemning them to hell fire.
There are other believers who minister the peace and holiness of Jesus.
An evangelist addresses women by telling them their aborted babies are in heaven and then tells them how to repent and be reconciled to God and reunited to their own children who have gone to heaven before them.
The peace of God is not weak but strong like the water of a great river, the River of God that flows from heaven and cascades down upon the thirsty earth.
Isaiah 44:3 (NKJV) For I will pour water on him who is thirsty, And floods on the dry ground; I will pour My Spirit on your descendants, And My blessing on your offspring;
Revelation 22:1 (NLT) Then the angel showed me a river with the water of life, clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb.
In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. Revelation 22:2 (NKJV)
This River is a manifestation of the Spirit of God Himself who is the Spirit of Jesus and the Spirit of peace.
Galatians 5:22 (NKJV) But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace ...
John 7:37-39 (NKJV) On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink.
He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water."
But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
To understand how the River of Life in you generates NEW LIFE, click on this link:
OUT OF YOUR BELLY WILL FLOW RIVERS ...
Over a hundred years ago, in a grammar school in Europe a wonderful old teacher would walk into his class and bow to his students.
He told them he was showing respect because he expected the young gentlemen would one day be very successful and important members of society.
Many Christians have been deceived. We have been taught to believe there are two classes of Christians.
Ephesians 4:2 (NIV) Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.
The upper class are the leaders and preachers, who are super Christians with supernatural powers.
Ephesians 4:11 (NIV) It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers.
Fortunately, the Bible does not teach this at all.
ALL believers are called to be completely humble and gentle and to treat all other believers with love, understanding and deep respect. Senior pastors and apostles are not a separate class.
We are supposed to submit to spiritual authority but ALL believers have been given spiritual authority. If you respect authority, you must submit to all believers.
Ephesians 5:21 (NIV) Submit TO ONE ANOTHER out of reverence for Christ.
Remember the schoolmaster who bowed to his students.
Matthew 23:8-9 (NIV) "But you are not to be called 'Rabbi,' for you have only one Master and you are all brothers.
And do not call anyone on earth 'father,' for you have one Father, and he is in heaven.
Of course this does not mean a parent, teacher or pastor should let anybody do anything.
- However, even when a leader corrects or disciplines, the aim must be to raise people up to realise their high potential, never to keep them in permanent submission to the leader.
The New Testament books which chiefly deal with church discipline and correction are First and Second Corinthians.
A man in the church has been sleeping with his step-mother and refuses to repent. Paul writes to instruct the church to discipline the man.
Does Paul address his letter to “The Senior Pastor” or “The Board of Elders” or “The Leadership Group?” No.
1 Corinthians 1:2 (NIV) To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy...
Few Churches today would even begin to think like this. We have strayed very far from the ways of Jesus Christ.
And what does Paul say about submission to authoritarian leaders?
2 Corinthians 11:19-20 (NIV) You gladly put up with fools since you are so wise!
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.
Paul describes authoritarian preachers as “fools” and rebukes the Corinthians for submitting to them.
Clearly Jesus does not call preachers to establish a hierarchy to which Christians are supposed to submit.
So why does Jesus give power and authority to leaders?
It is not to rob other believers of their freedom, respect and authority.
A leader is called to raise up and equip believers to exercise authority as ministers of Jesus Christ.
Jesus has gifted apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers...
“...to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ” Ephesians 4:12 (ESV)
Jesus did not heal the sick to be admired. He healed the sick and worked wonders and then sent out his disciples to do the same thing.
Luke 9:1-2 (ESV) And he called the twelve together and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal.
First Jesus sent the Apostles but then He sent out 72 disciples (believers like you and me) to do the same thing.
Luke 10:1-2 (ESV) After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them on ahead of him, two by two, into every town and place where he himself was about to go.
And he said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest.
Philippians 2:1-2 (ESV) So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy,
complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.
What does it mean: BEING IN FULL ACCORD AND OF ONE MIND?
Some people might find it difficult to see a difference between some Pentecostal leaders’ apparent claim of infallible authority and the similar claim of the Roman Catholics for their traditional leadership.
This begs the question, what does it mean to be “of one mind?”
The emphasis is not on the infallibly superior wisdom of the leaders but on active participation of all believers in spiritual connection with the Holy Spirit and with one another.
In every part of the New Testament, so called ordinary believers are called to scrutinise leaders and doctrines for themselves.
Matthew 7:15-17 (NKJV) "Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.
You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.
Many of us have been taught to rely on the judgement of the pastor to warn us of unsound leaders and preachers.
The sad thing is that it is often the senior pastor or the prominent leader himself who can be the source of the problem.
So many trusting Christians are torn apart when their leaders fail. Congregations are taken by surprise when their church, splits, collapses or is taken over by leaders who behave like dictatorial cult leaders.
I thank God for the great many pastors and leaders who do not fail.
Christians are also often at fault when they fail to realise how much leaders need prayer support to stay on track.
If we consider that some Pentecostal leaders wrongly claim to sit on the seat of Moses or behave like popes, we must not go to the other extreme.
There are many who don’t want to respect any spiritual leadership. They will not recognise the amazing gifting that God has clearly given some people.
God does not give people powerful gifts by accident or for no reason.
Philippians 2:3 (NKJV) Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself.
I am thankful that I am in a congregation with a very gifted but also very humble and kind leader.
He has wonderful spiritual gifts of leadership, healing, word of knowledge and wisdom but he also has great respect for others with gifts which he does not have.
This is so important, to honour people who are in some way better or more gifted than ourselves. This should teach us to honour genuine leaders and many of us fail in this.
However, it should also teach leaders to respect fellow believers amongst those they lead. In a healthy church, there will always be members who have some spiritual gift which the pastor does not have in the same measure.
We hear much teaching about honouring leaders and there is much truth in this.
However, there are churches in which the duty to honour leaders is so unreasonably emphasised, that the honour due to every believer is not given. Jesus saw this danger clearly.
Matthew 23:8-10 (NIV) "But you are not to be called 'Rabbi,' for you have only one Master and you are all brothers.
And do not call anyone on earth 'father,' for you have one Father, and he is in heaven.
Nor are you to be called 'teacher,' for you have one Teacher, the Christ.
