BULLYING IS NOT LEGITIMATE AUTHORITY

There is a doctrine which makes “brokenness” the supreme virtue. It is supposed to be the mark of humility and absolute surrender.

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. Psalm 51:17 (ESV) 

I still do not fully understand this doctrine. 

• I suspect that like many extreme and dangerous doctrines, it contains important elements of truth which are taken out of context and twisted until it no longer faithfully represents the character of our loving God.

The LORD is near to the broken hearted and saves the crushed in spirit. Psalm 34:18 (ESV) 

If you live a life of cruelty and perversion and God reveals His goodness and holiness and His willingness to forgive, your heart may well be broken by the realisation of the harm you have done and your sorrow for sin. 

• This is a healthy reaction to the goodness of God but it is not supposed to be an ongoing way of life.

On the other hand, there are ultra zealous holiness preachers who are obsessed with sin and rebellion even more than with the love and goodness of God. They see it as their duty to lead their congregations into a chronic attitude of brokenness. They actually try to break the will of their people. 

• It is cruel perversion of spiritual authority. 

There are parents who think they must break the will of their children to train them into obedience. 

• This is not what David meant when he wrote about the broken spirit of the repentant sinner.

A son or daughter, an employee or soldier whose spirit is broken by cruel authority figures is a broken human being. 

This is not the will of God for His children. God is LOVE.

• If you are a wife and you are taught you must give your husband total, unquestioning, unconditional obedience, you are being abused, oppressed and potentially deceived.
• If you are a young adult and you are told you must unconditionally obey your parents, you are being misled.
• If you are a church member and leaders tell you that you must never leave one church to join another, you are hearing a man made doctrine. Look for it in the Bible. It is not there.

I heard of a church which taught that everything that happens is the will of God. If you die of cancer, it is the will of God.

• A boy was timid and felt unable to evangelise his friends, so he prayed God would give him cancer, so he could die bravely and people would believe in Jesus because of his faith. After he prayed, he really did get cancer. Four people were converted to Jesus at his funeral.

So did God answer his prayer? Did God give him cancer? NO! NO! NO!

• God is good and the devil is evil.

• Dark spirits also listen to your prayers.

Jesus said:

The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. John 10:10 (NKJV) 

If you listen to harsh, negative preaching, you may not pray to get sick and die but you may pray to be broken. As a very young man I was a new convert in a very fanatical and authoritarian church. I was taught that I must be broken, so I prayed that God would break me.
I was mistreated by church leaders and I had a nervous breakdown.

Negative authoritarian religion is terribly dangerous.

I once asked a young Muslim wife how she hurt her face. She said a door hit her. I didn’t ask her if she reported the door to the police. 

So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual up building. Romans 14:19 (ESV) 

God is love. God’s purpose for his children is to build us up, not to break us down.

I thank God that I escaped from this perversion of Christianity. I now count good and gentle pastors amongst my friends

THESE ARE NOT NORMAL TIMES

To everything there is a season, A time for every purpose under heaven: Ecclesiastes 3:1
In peaceful times only unbalanced people will be obsessed with disasters. 

• There are people who cannot be happy without extreme drama. There are fire fighters who start fires to create excitement and pose as heroes.

The Old Testament prophets warned Israel and Judah about their sins. They warned of disaster to come if they did not repent. 

• They were ridiculed as mad trouble makers but they were right.

In the 1930's Winston Churchill was warning Britain of the threat from Nazi Germany. He urged Britain to prepare for war. 

• It was not long before he was proved right but for several years he was seen as a dangerous extremist. 

The Prime Minister of Britain from 1937 to 1940 was Neville Chamberlain, a religious idealist who believed in human goodness. 

• He was a man of peace who believed he could keep peace with Hitler by diplomacy. 
• The doctrine of Neville Chamberlain from 1937 to 1939 was “land for peace”. It didn’t work.

When Chamberlain was finally forced to declare war in 1939, Britain was not prepared and Hitler succeeded in conquering most of Europe. Britain came dangerously close to defeat.

Events proved Churchill right and in May 1940 Winston Churchill became the Prime Minister of Britain, the leader of the British Empire and the champion Christian civilization’s resistance against the evil coming from Berlin.

Business as usual can be a good policy in peaceful times but a very dangerous policy in an emergency.

• We must be ready to respond urgently in a crisis. Like Winston Churchill we must  recognise emergencies before it is too late.

It is very good to learn from history but we must also live in the present, not in the past.

• There are some people who still see Germany as a bad nation and a potential enemy. This is quite wrong and very unjust! The enemy today is not Germany. 
• The Nazi spirit is alive and menacingly powerful in militant Islam, not only in Iraq and Afghanistan but in fanatical groups in Europe and America. 

But the enemy is not only fanatical Islam. 

The enemy is also in our own society, in the decline of our own culture, in the indifference to the love and truth of God all around us and sometimes in our own hearts. 

These are not normal times. Moral corruption and extreme violence are increasing alarmingly around the world. 

• The news is full of terrorism, random brutality and civil wars. 
• It seems strange that so many people today do not believe in a real personal devil, the Prince of Darkness and his legions of demons. 
• Your Muslim neighbours are not the enemy but rather the spirits of darkness.

As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.

• For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; 

• and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. 

• That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. Matthew 24:37-39 (NIV)

In the book of Genesis, the days or Noah are described rather differently.

The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. So God looked upon the earth, and indeed it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. Genesis 6:11-12 (NKJV) 

We see the same opposite trends in today’s world. We see horrific crisis and complacent business as usual. 

Will you listen to the voice of Jesus?

• Will you hear the urgent call of His Spirit and enter into His presence, so He can use us as His messengers.

And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.

• But he who endures to the end shall be saved. 

• And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come. Matthew 24:12-14 (NKJV) 

HOW DOES GOD FEEL?

If you are a mother or a father with a heart for your children, you know what it means to be vulnerable. 

• When your children suffer, you suffer. 

• If your son or daughter has ever run away from home, been addicted to drugs or gone missing, you know what anguish can be. 

Jesus is respected by millions around the world as a great teacher and prophet but this is not what Jesus said.

Jesus said he was sent by Father God to show us what our heavenly Father is like. 

God is not a remote creator and judge, as Mohammed taught. Mohammed taught Allah is NOT a father and Allah has no son and no children. The Qur’an pronounces a curse on all who believe Jesus is the Son of God.

Jesus taught something quite different.

Jesus prayed to God as his Father.

After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed: "Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.

• For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him.
• Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. John 17:1-3 (NIV) 

The ancient Greeks, like the Hindus of today, believed in many gods. Like the ancient Greeks, Hindus believe some of these gods have visited the earth in human form.

But Jesus was different. 

He was born as a human baby but claimed to be the only son of the one and only supreme God.

No one has ever seen God. But the one and only Son is himself God and is near to the Father’s heart. 

He has revealed God to us. John 1:18 (NLT) 

Only Jesus revealed God as the supreme creator who is also a supremely loving Father.

... the Father himself loves you dearly because you love me and believe that I came from God. John 16:27 (NLT) 

The Father in Heaven gave his only son to reveal his love and truth to his lost children, including you and me.

Jesus always acted with love and compassion for suffering men and women.

The Apostle Peter summed up the practical love of Jesus in these few words.

You know the message God sent to the people of Israel, telling the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all. 

 You know what has happened throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached-- 

 how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him. Acts 10:36-38 (NIV)

If you are a heartbroken mother or father, God understands your pain because it is also His pain. 

• He wants you to know Him as your Father who also loves your children. 

If you are a young person abandoned by your parents or a wife rejected by your husband, God wants you to know He watched His son Jesus dying in agony on the cross, a victim of cruel religious leaders.

God is not the supreme puppet master who determines everything. 

• He has given you and me freedom to choose. 
• That is why this world is a mess, because of the bad choices of  men and women, including you and me.

You must choose what to believe and who to trust. 

• Will you decide to trust in the Father in Heaven who loves you enough to sacrifice His only Son Jesus for you?

Jesus suffered and died on the cross but he did not stay dead.Three days later he returned from the grave. Death could not defeat the eternal Son of God.

"I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies;

• and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?" John 11:25-26 (NIV) 

SUPERNATURAL LOVE

But you, dear friends, BUILD YOURSELVES UP in YOUR most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit. 
Keep YOURSELVES in God's love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life. Jude 1:20-21 (NIV) 

It is so important to build YOURSELF up in your faith. So many of us depend too much on others for spiritual inspiration. This is a mark of spiritual immaturity but many Christians have been like this for years and years.

• It is not wrong to ask a pastor or evangelist to pray for you. I do at times. 
• But the Bible speaks again and again about YOUR faith, YOUR prayer, YOUR devotion.

These two verses speak about YOUR holy faith, YOUR prayer in the Holy Spirit, YOUR experience of the Love of God, YOUR expectation of the mercy of Jesus Christ and YOUR possession and experience of eternal life.

I love meetings where the blessing of the Holy Spirit flows and I my faith is inspired by the faith of others.

• But neither Jesus nor Paul ever described the Christian life as a series of meetings.

You can be so busy attending meetings, that you have little time or energy left for quality time with God or quality time helping and reaching people outside the church.

Does this mean fellowship is not important?

• Is it only about “ME AND JESUS”?

That is going from one extreme to the other.

Jude addresses his readers as DEAR FRIENDS.

The foundation of really fruitful Christian life is deep loving relationships, firstly with God and secondly with other believers and not only believers in your own church. 

Many Christians experience pressure to attend lots of meetings and conform to the expectations of church leaders. 

• This kind of pressure often leads to busyness and conformity but not spontaneous love or deep friendship. 

• Over organised church programmes can produce shallow relationships.

If you transfer from one church to another, some people who were friendly to you in your former church may no longer be interested in you.

• This pattern of church life is not Christian at all. 
• It is superficial sectarian religion and it does enormous damage.

On two occasions I visited churches where I had once been a member.

• In one, the pastor greeted me with cold politeness. 
• In the second, the pastor greeted me with spontaneous enthusiasm, as a dear brother. Here we see dead churchianity and true Christianity.

If you belong to Jesus, ALL Christians are your brothers and sisters.What gives true power to Christianity? 

By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another." John 13:35 (NKJV) 

• Where does this love come from?

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8 (NKJV) 

• Jesus did not dies only for you or for members of your church but for ALL, for every human being on the planet and for ALL Christians.

This love is supernatural.

Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. Romans 5:5 (NKJV) 

How do you know this supernatural love is active in your life?

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. 1 John 3:16 (NIV)

Do you actively love, serve and care for other Christians?

Do you see Christians in different churches and traditions as your dear brothers and sisters?

• If not, why not?

Is it because they believe differently, pray differently, teach differently and think differently?

Who are you to judge your brother or sister?

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. Romans 14:4 (NKJV) 

God is the judge and He loves everyone who trusts in Jesus.You and I cannot be right about everything.

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

And if anyone thinks that he knows anything, he knows nothing yet as he ought to know. 

But if anyone loves God, this one is known by Him. 1 Corinthians 8:2-3 (NKJV) 

 

ARE ALL CALLED TO PROPHESY?

Pursue love, yet desire earnestly spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy. 1 Corinthians 14:1 (NASB) 

• If you are not experiencing and enjoying God’s love for you every day, your Christianity can become a dead religion. 

GOD IS LOVE.

So many of us live at this level of dead religion, that the world has started to believe that one religion is as good as another. 
This is tragic.

God sent His only eternal Son to live as a man on this earth to show us what He is like.

When Jesus lived as a human like us on earth, He loved the Bible and studied the Hebrew scriptures but He never descended to the level of being a mere religious expert. 

He loved to spend time in the presence of His Heavenly Father.

When Jesus began preaching, He always faithfully explained the Scriptures. He believed the Bible was the Word of God but He didn’t just teach Bible courses, as many do today.

When the devil tempted Jesus to turn stones into bread, Jesus relied on the Scriptures to resist the devil.

And the tempter came and said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread." But He answered and said, "It is written, 'MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE, BUT ON EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD.'" Mt 4:3-4 (NASB) 

Jesus was quoting the Hebrew scripture but He was also teaching spiritual truth.

We do not sustain our spiritual life only by reading and knowing what the Bible says.

• Jesus speaks of “every word that PROCEEDS (or IS PROCEEDING) out of the mouth of God.”

• The Bible is not just a collection of more or less inspired religious texts but the FULLY INSPIRED WORD, which proceeds out of the mouth of God Himself. 

• But Jesus did not just rely on the written text which was inspired when it was written. He listened to the Spirit of His Father who inspired the Bible writers.

If your spiritual ears are not open to hear the voice of God speaking through His words, you are in danger of living a dead religious life. 

Jesus never relied only on the inspired written text but always listened to the WORDS PROCEEDING (NOW) FROM THE MOUTH OF GOD.

Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? 

The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. John 14:10 (NIV)  

Jesus was the eternal Son of God before He was born in Bethlehem. When He lived as a man on earth, He did not stop being God but He chose to live with the limitations of human flesh. 

• He relied on the Spirit of Father God living inside Him. 

• He listened to God to know what to do and how to speak.

Bible knowledge alone cannot tell you when to correct and when to encourage. Every person you meet is unique and every situation is different.

We are called to FOLLOW JESUS, to be like Him, to live like Him.That means loving the Bible and learning to know the scriptures. But don’t stop there.

Jesus lived a totally supernatural life, constantly aware of the presence of the Spirit of His Father who lived inside Him, inside His body, in union with His Spirit and His soul.

• You are called to live in the same way, filled with the Holy Spirit, hearing the voice of God in your spirit every day, following the supernatural inspiration and leading of the Holy Spirit, hearing what God says to you and sharing God’s inspirational encouragement with others.

My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. John 10:27 (NIV) 

Jesus does not say His exceptional holy ones will hear His voice but His sheep, all His followers.

"'In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. 

Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Acts 2:17 (NIV) 

Peter does not say “your pastors and leaders will prophesy” but rather YOUR SONS AND DAUGHTERS WILL PROPHESY, your grandchildren, your young converts, your church members.

WHAT WILL WE DO IN HEAVEN? PART ONE

I love travelling and I am good at languages but in heaven there will be no language barriers.

• There will be no sickness or toothache in Heaven. What will doctors and dentists do?

• In Heaven the best housewives will have nothing to clean.

• In Heaven there is no need for accountants, lawyers, police officers or prison guards.                     

• Pastors will not be needed because Jesus will be our Shepherd there.

• Evangelists will have no unbelievers to convert.

• Mother Teresa will have no poor people to feed.

So what will we do? Just sing spiritual songs? 

Jesus told a story about talents. A master gave his servant two talents and the servant invested them wisely.

"The man with the two talents also came. 'Master,' he said, 'you entrusted me with two talents; see, I have gained two more.' "His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! 

• You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. 

• Come and share your master's happiness!' Mt 25:22-23 (NIV) 

In this life God has given you abilities and opportunities. Sometimes these involve great achievement and fulfilment but there is also often a lot of responsibility which can be stressful, boring or unpleasant.

In the Kingdom of Heaven which is still to come, God will reward your faithfulness with your talents and give you even more responsibilities 

• but He will take away the boredom and frustration.

In Proverbs Chapter 8 we see a picture of Jesus in happy partnership with the Father, working together to create the universe.

Proverbs 8:22-31 (NKJV) 

22  "The LORD possessed me at the beginning of His way, Before His works of old. 

23  I have been established from everlasting, From the beginning, before there was ever an earth. 

24  When there were no depths I was brought forth, When there were no fountains abounding with water. 

25  Before the mountains were settled, Before the hills, I was brought forth; 

26  While as yet He had not made the earth or the fields, Or the primeval dust of the world. 

27  When He prepared the heavens, I was there, When He drew a circle on the face of the deep, 

28  When He established the clouds above, When He strengthened the fountains of the deep, 

29  When He assigned to the sea its limit, So that the waters would not transgress His command, When He marked out the foundations of the earth, 

30  Then I was beside Him as a master craftsman; And I was daily His delight, Rejoicing always before Him, 

31  Rejoicing in His inhabited world, And my delight was with the sons of men. 

The Kingdom of Heaven is here and now, alive within every believer. 

• If you are a believer and a follower of Jesus, God has appointed you to be His partner on earth, working with His Spirit and representing His eternal Son here and now. 

• We are called to help establish the Kingdom of God on earth and to prepare the way for the return of Jesus Christ.

But the Kingdom of Heaven or the Kingdom of God will one day be totally fulfilled.

Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. Revelation 21:1 (NKJV) 

But this will not be the end. 

We will sing love songs to God but there will also be much more to do.

Your Dreams are Keys

When people say untrue things about you and you believe them, you begin to build a false identity. Your understanding of yourself is not based on reality. 

• Maybe you are intelligent but you had learning difficulties at school. Your parents or teachers said you were not very smart and you believed them.

• There are also parents who idolise their oldest or youngest child. He grows up thinking he is a genius who knows better than everybody else. How sad!

• A girl who grew up in a very dysfunctional family. She had serious emotional problems and her parents told her she was schizophrenic. As a young adult she saw a good psychiatrist. After careful assessment, the psychiatrist confidently assured her she was not schizophrenic at all.

• Supposing a very intelligent person goes through troubled times and cries out to God. He joins an apparently dynamic Bible based church and God begins to help him with his serious problems. This young convert has a good education, a lively imagination and a God given gift for bold, creative, original and sometimes critical thinking. 

• The first church he joins is rigid and authoritarian. Conformity and passive submission is expected and often harshly enforced. The young convert is told he is rebellious, proud and demonised. 

• If he accepts the teachings of the religious preacher, he believes a mixture of truth and lies. He no longer knows who he is.

God sees you differently.If you are a truly converted believer in Jesus Christ, you may be assured that:You are a son or daughter of the living God.God loves you with all of His heart.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. 2 Corinthians 5:17 (NKJV) 

God made you as you are and He never makes junk. 

• Not only that but what you see in yourself now is only a pale shadow of the wonderful person God sees you as, a man or woman created in the image of the glorious eternal God Himself.

But Bible truth alone is not enough. You must come to know the ONE who stand behind His promises.

• If you learn to know God personally, He can teach you who He is and who you are. 

If you only know what other people teach about God, your faith can become a copy of someone else’s thinking rather than the personal adventure of discovery that God wants you to have. If you base your life on other people’s thoughts, you cannot fully understand who God is or who you are.

• Even good Bible teaching or accurate prophecy is not enough by itself. 
• Heavenly truth is like a seed. You must learn to apply it to your life and situation. 

Only the Holy Spirit Himself can make the good seed grow in you the way God intends. Only with God can you discover who you really are.

God made every one of His sons and daughters for a unique purpose. You are not a copy of any other believer, nor should you try to be one.

One key to finding release from this prison of unknowing is our dreaming, our daydreams and secret desires.

We can see this clearly in two Bible characters.

• Saul was a young Jewish scholar who dreamed of becoming a great rabbi. He was a champion of the truth and righteousness of God. He hated and persecuted the Christians but when he was converted, he became the great theologian and apostle of the New Covenant of faith and grace. 

• His original dream was not entirely wrong. It was a God given clue to his destiny.

Moses dreamed of liberating his captive Hebrew countrymen but he got it wrong. He killed an Egyptian and was seen by both Egyptians and Hebrew as a murderer. His dream was from God but he needed to be changed by God, so he could fulfil his dream WITH God.

• God has created you. You have dreams and desires. 

• Why not ask God to shine His light on your secret dreams and reveal the true purpose of your life?