2008

What a year!

I got engaged. I was privilged to be involved in some way with over 20 people being miraculosly healed. I was involved in around 10 deliverance sessions which saw people freed from all sorts of stuff. I got married! I moved house. I got accepted as a cadet for Training College next year. Go For Souls was awessome, 12 people getting saved and a stack of people getting fired up for aggressive evangelism. I finished up at Plenty Valley. I had my first married Christmas. And I had the awesome privilige of leading over 20 people to Christ (3/4 of them are still in Christian community!)

Ive had a big year and am looking forward to seeing what God has instore for next year!

Worldliness

I have been wondering of late what i am and am not allowed to watch on TV. How I am and am not allowed to spend my time. I have been wondering about worldliness. We are told to be "in the world but not of it," we are told "not to love the world or anything in it, and "whoever is a friend of the world is the enemny of God!" These passages which seem pretty clear say that we can not be worldly.

Catherine Booth gives us 4 points on what worldliness is:
1) That which tells us it is worldly
2) That which in sentiment and spirit the people of the world love, esteem and enjoy
3) That which has no reference to God
4) Everything that is adverse to the Spirit of God

I had a pray and the verse that came to mind was "Do not have anything to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness." It began to make sense to me. Worldliness is when we begin to engage that with that which has no good fruit and that which engages in the fruits of darkness.

That means when I watch the cricket this weekend that I need to examine whether it will be fruitful and whether it is dark. It will be fruitful if I mentor or build relationships over this time, or use the time to relax (as long as the resting ends...) But if it is just me at home on my own then it probably could be considered fruitless and darkness.

I considered my life today and have made a few changes. Perhaps you will join me and examine your life to see what needs adjusting so we are not involved in fruitless deeds and the deeds of darkness.

Word and Faith and Creation

God has placed His own value on His word. He calls it a "Fire," a "Hammer," and a "Sword." Now fire burns; a blow from a hammer hurts; while a cut from a sword causes real pain. And when His word is proclaimed in the power of the Anointing it will have exactly the same results. It will burn like fire, break like a hammer and pierce like a sword, and the spiritual or mental pain will be just as severe and real as the physical. And if not, then there is something wrong either with the messenger or the message. - Oswald Smith on Conviction

For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Hebrews 4:12

Have you experienced the word of God? Its not just letters on a piece of paper in a book. Its supernatural, its alive, it speaks into your heart. God spoke and BANG it happend. Creation. The Holy Spirit reacted to the word and brought about the creation of the world. The same is true today, the Holy Spirit will bring conviction when the word is spoken!

Many scholars fall into a trap when it comes to the word of God. The trap is not intellectualism or criticism of the texts, rather the trap is looking at the word with no faith. When faith is missing the Holy Spirit doesn't work. The Holy Spirit needs faith to create. So when we look at the the Bible without faith and souly our minds then stuff doesnt make sense, and doubt creeps in and out goes our beliefs that were formed by the word of God with faith.

The Bible is full of supernatural stories and teachings. Christianity is based on the belief that Jesus rose from the dead. The apostles described themselves as witnesses of the risen Christ. You cant be any more supernatural than that! And so is much of the rest of the Bible. But to believe the supernatural you either need to experieince it or have faith! And many scholars go into the Bible without faith and leave with doubt never experiencing the living word.

I offer this suggestion to those who are searching the Bible for something, those who are searching for the true Jesus, those looking for life. Read the Bible with faith. Allow the Holy Spirit space to create in your heart. He will and God will change your life!

The Bible

There is always a bit of debate about the Bible and how inerrant it is, where it was inspired and how accurate it is. I'll try to write a little bit more in the days to come! But heres the first bit, what was introduced to the Bible and why? While I was at uni these criteria came up as to what made it into the Bible or not:

Apostolic Origin — attributed to and based on the preaching/teaching of the first-generation apostles (or their close companions).
Universal Acceptance — acknowledged by all major Christian communities in the ancient world (by the end of the fourth century).
Liturgical Use — read publicly when early Christian communities gathered for the Lord's Supper (their weekly worship services).
Consistent Message — containing a theological outlook similar or complementary to other accepted Christian writings.

There are different views on the inspiration of the Bible too. Some believe that the Holy Spirit wrote through their arm the author not having a say. Others say that the events were the inspiration, they wrote what they saw Jesus do. Other say they are inspired what God said to them and they wrote that down. Other say that it was a mix of all of the above. Im sure there are other theories of inspiration as well.

As Salvationists "We believe that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments were given by inspiration of God, and that they only constitute the Divine rule of Christian faith and practice."

To declare positively that people are sinners, condemned already and on their way to hell, is accounted as 'uncharitable judging', 'really dreadful', and no one we are told, can possibly be justified in coming to such a conclusion. All this we could understand perfectly, coming from the camps of infidelity or from the haunts of vice; but to find it passed off in connection with the same name and teachings of Jesus Christ is monstorous! - Catherine Booth

In todays world we evangelists and 'fundamentalists' are told not to talk about hell, sin or judgment. It scares people. It puts people off, it gives Christians a bad name. People then go on to say how it was ok for Christians to do it in another year, but its not relevant anymore. Well, it was exactly the same in Catherine Booths day as we can see from the above quote. There has always been part of the church that can not make the link between justice and love.

Its sad becasue these people are generally genuine and wanting to love all people. Where is that people have gotten all muddled up and replaced justice for hate? Where have they lost the fact that God is holy? Where have they lost the fact that sin is an abomination to God? Or that sin separates us from God? Where did they lose the fact that God wants everyone to be saved so He sent Jesus to die for us, to take our place? Where did they lose the part that says God loves us even though we sin? How can they not see that sin leads to death but Jesus leads to life?