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From the Minister’s Study
Pentecost¾ the power for
mission
Dwight L. Moody once held a series
of remarkable evangelistic meetings in Birmingham, which intensely stirred
that city. Dr. Dale, who was warmly sympathetic yet greatly amazed at the
marvellous results which it produced, once said of the famous evangelist
"the work must be of God for I could see no real relation between him
(Mr. Moody) and the work that was done." That is ever the conclusive
proof of the Spirit's presence and active power. In Acts, Peter disclaimed
all honour for the healing of the lame man: Paul forever protested by
attributing the success of his mission to the grace of God which was within
him (1 Cor. 15:10 ).
An old man once
said, that it took him forty years to learn three simple things: the first
was that he could not do anything to save himself; the second was that God
did not expect him to; and the third was that Christ had done it all, so all
he had to do was to accept the accomplished fact. When it comes to living in
the grace of God while filled with the Holy Spirit, always keep this little
saying in your hearts and minds: You can't. God never said you could. He can;
He always said He would!
John Wimber in his
book, Power Evangelism says that "most Christians do not come
together to prepare for battle with Satan and conquer territory for Jesus
Christ. They enjoy talking about the battle . . . they sing and preach about
the need to advance God’s Kingdom, even weep for it, and then go home to live
secure lives far from the battlefields." The New Testament pictures
joining the Church as being similar to joining Christ’s army in order to do
his works of subduing Satan’s kingdom.
Jesus’ pattern
during his earthly ministry is portrayed in the gospels as one of Proclamation
of the good news of the Kingdom of God and Demonstration of its
power through miraculous works, which proved its presence. It is on the
latter that the church seems to fall flat. The powerlessness within the
church makes its proclamation self-contradictory. How can the church present
a powerful God in the gospel, who seems impotent in its life? Throughout
Church history, it’s the omnipotent–omnipresent God in the gospel who has
challenged a cynical world to sit up and listen. This is why Pentecost and
what it represents is pivotal to the church and its mission.
In his book, The
Real Satan, James Kallas says " a war is going on! Cosmic war! Jesus
is the divine invader sent by God to shatter the strengths of Satan".
Commenting on Matthew 11:12 "the Kingdom of heaven has been forcefully
advancing and forceful men lay hold of it", George Ladd in A Theology
of the New Testament, remarks that "the Kingdom of heaven exercises
its force, makes its way powerfully in the world. We are thrust into the
middle of a battle with Satan, a tug-of-war, the prize being the souls of men
and women". That is why the church needs power in order to engage in
Mission. Joining the church is like joining a Navy, not a Caribbean Cruise on
a luxury liner. Involvement in Christian Mission represent what Alan Tippet
calls "power-encounter", the clashing of the Kingdom of God with
the kingdom of Satan in his book, People’s Movement in Polynesia
(1971).
As we celebrate Pentecost,
we need to remember that on the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit came to
create a new nation from many nations, a new race from many races. One nation
needs one language and the Christian language from the Day of Pentecost is
one of power and victory from the Triune God through the Holy Spirit. True
Christians through out the world acknowledge one fact; God’s Kingdom can only
be built through the power of the Holy Spirit. Their mission creed: "not
by might, nor power, but my spirit, says the Lord of hosts Zech. 4:6)
Their mission motivation: "We can do all things through Christ who
strengthens us" (Phil 4:13) On the day of Pentecost, an
international army was born. That is why the book of Acts reads like war
chronicles, with the early Church having exploits from Pentecost power. What
has happened to the Power of the Holy Spirit in the church? As one author
remarks "The church is an organism, a living body . . . (but) many
congregations are like corpses: well ordered but lacking the life of Christ .
. . what God wants is a living body, where the Holy Spirit is free to
operate."
In the New Testament,
those outside the church were afraid because they did not know what would
happen to them if they moved in among Christians, they would be consumed by
God’s power. What a contrast to today’s church? Today many churches have
become so secularised (even-profane) that the non- Christian community has no
thought or concern about entering church premises. In fact the world often
sees the church as only another organisation in need of help. When the world
is in need of spiritual encounter the last place it thinks about is
the church, hence the current resurgence on witch-craft, spiritism and the
occult. If the church needs to re establish its place as the source of
spirituality, we need to rediscover the Pentecost power. The church needs to
be the place of the Acts of the Holy Spirit, the place where supernatural things
are happening.
And if the church
needs to engage in mission, it needs power and authority to fulfil the Great
Commission. Please note how, before commanding us "to go and make
disciples," Jesus prefaced his command with the statement "All
authority in heaven and on earth has been give to me". All authority is
in Christ for anything he commands us to do, we have access to the power
required to do it, the power of the Holy Spirit released on the day of
Pentecost.
What the church
needs is Pentecost Power for mission not powerless programmes. However gifted
a speaker may be, it takes the power of the Holy Spirit to move passive
listener. Conversion and new spiritual birth occur only to participants
spurred by Holy Spirit not passive spectators. It is obvious that
"Presence Outreach", being present in the community and doing good
works amongst people is supping the energy and the resources of the church
with little results what our presence programmes needs is the toning with the
power, persuasion and conviction that only comes from the Holy Spirit
unleashed on the Day of Pentecost. May we this year more than any other
discover a fresh, the purpose of Pentecost, power for mission.
Daniel
G.O.S.P.E.L.
"God offers sinful people eternal life"
Golden Jubilee
It’s not everyday there’s a Royal,
Golden Jubilee. The last time a monarch reached 50 years on the throne was
115 years ago; British History only records five or six who have reached this number.
But what is a
Jubilee? It’s certainly a time of rejoicing, because it gives us the word
‘jubilation.’
In fact, the Jubilee
was part of the Law given to Moses, and is described in Leviticus 25:8–55.
That God devoted so long a section of His Law to the Jubilee shows how
passionately he desired it. Here are the main points:
Every seventh year,
the people were to observe a ‘Sabbath’ in which no grain was sown, no
harvesting permitted, allowing the people more time to worship God. The year
immediately following seven Sabbaths (and 7 ´ 7 = 49) was the Jubilee¾which is why the Queen’s fiftieth
anniversary on the throne is called a ‘Jubilee.’
During this year of
Jubilee, all slaves were to be given their freedom, and all land sold during
the preceding 49 years had to be returned to the original owner, because it
was an inheritance from God. All debts were wiped clean, and the poor given
their liberty. Incidentally, this also explains why the ‘Jubilee 2000’
campaign chose its name.
Furthermore, it
seems that God wanted the Jubilee to be a time when the people conducted a
‘moral audit’, and analysed who they were, spiritually.
Tradition says that
the first Jubilee was a time of great rejoicing, although it’s not recorded
in Scripture, but it is a sad fact that there is no evidence that the Jewish
people ever participated in a second Jubilee.
What acts of
liberation are we going to perform during this year is a Jubilee?
Do we need a new creed?
After
a recent meeting of the heads of the Anglican Church, its 38 Archbishops
published a new creed, as reproduced below. What do you think: does it update
the Apostles’ and Nicene creeds that we say regularly in
Church? Indeed, does it clarify or confuse? For that matter, is it necessary?
Our God is a living God: We believe that God is real and active, creating and
sustaining the universe by power and freedom, and communicating with us out
of unlimited holy love so that we may share His joy. God is infinitely more
than a thought in our minds or a set of values for human beings.
Our God is an incarnate God: We believe that God the eternal son became human for our
sake and that in the flesh and blood of Jesus of Nazareth, God was uniquely
present and active. All claims to knowledge of God must be brought to Christ
to be tested. Through Christ alone, we have access to the Father. We believe
that Christ’s resurrection is an act of God in raising to life the whole identity and
reality of Jesus. We believe that it is not simply a perception or
interpretation based on the subjective experience of the apostles.
We believe in a triune God: We believe that by the gift of the Holy Spirit bestowed through
the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we are able to share the
eternal intimacy and delight which is the very life of God in the mutual love
of three divine persons.
Our God is a faithful God: We believe that God is always as He shows Himself to be in
Jesus. In Holy Scripture we have a unique trustworthy record of the acts and
promises of God. No other final criteria for Christian teaching can supplant
this witness to the self-consistency of God through the ages.
Our God is a saving and serving God: We believe that God calls us into
the Church and commissions us to proclaim and work in active hope for the
dawning of God’s Kingdom in the World.
Morning glory, starlit sky,
Leaves in springtime, swallow’s flight,
Autumn gales, tremendous seas,
Sounds and scents of summer night;
Soaring music, tow’ring words,
Art’s perfection, scholar’s truth
Joy supreme of human love,
Memory’s treasure, grace of youth;
Open, Lord, are these,
Thy gifts,
Gifts of love to mind and sense;
Hidden in love’s agony,
Love’s endeavour, love’s expense.
Love that gives gives ever more,
Gives with zeal, keeps not, all outpours,
Spares not, keeps not, all outpours,
Ventures all, its all expends.
Drained is love in making full;
bound in setting others free;
Poor in making many rich;
Weak in giving power to be.
Therefore He who Thee reveals
Hangs, O Father, on that Tree
Helpless; and the nails and thorns
Tell of what Thy love must be.
Thou art God; no monarch Thou
Throne’d in easy state to reign;
Thou art God, Whose arms of love
Aching, spent, the world sustain
Reproduced
from Love’s Endeavour, Love’s Expense by W H Vanstone
Why Evil?
I
don’t always agree with everything I read in Salt & Light, and
that is what makes it an interesting magazine to read, but I really must take
issue with the article entitled ‘Why evil’ in the May 2002 edition.
Don’t
get me wrong: I deplore everything the writer deplores and I believe that
society pays in some way or other for its sinfulness; but to say, ‘And being
the gentleman He is, God has calmly backed out’ is to say something about God
which is unbiblical and untrue.
Many
of us have tried to make sense of what happened on 11 September; particularly
those of us involved in preaching and teaching. Those horrific events pose
complex questions; questions that don’t have easy and ready answers and maybe
because, ‘now we see through a glass darkly,’ questions we can never answer.
The
root of the problem is original sin and free will. Because we’re not puppets
but people who can think and choose for ourselves¾and how often we choose our own
way, rather than God’s¾there has always been and always will be outrages such as 11
September.
Because
of our sinfulness, He could have washed His hands of us¾‘calmly backed out’¾but what did He do? He sent His
Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ who died a horrific death to deal with our
sin. Jesus Christ who promised to be with us to the end of time. Is this the
action of a God who has ‘calmly backed out’ ? The action of the God of the
New Testament? The action of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ? I
do not think so.
I
am the father of four children. I have on occasions wondered under what
circumstances I might stop loving them and cannot conceive of any
circumstance when I would either stop loving or being there for them, whatever
they have done. If they have done wrong, I would tell them in no uncertain
terms, but to walk away from them¾I hope that I would never do that.
If I as a sinful, human father fell like that, then how much more our loving
heavenly Father?
God
is grieving and angry by what we do. I am sure that he is grieved and angered
by what happened on 11 September, but he hasn’t ‘calmly backed out.’ he never
has and he never will. Rev.
Andrew Howell
Nine-fifteen thoughts on prayer
Any objective look at prayer must
point out that intercession¾the shopping list part of prayer¾is only a fraction of the time
spent talking to Father. It may well be that there will be no intercession in
Heaven; so let us make the most of it whilst we have opportunity and
responsibility.
The Lord’s Prayer
("The Disciple’s Prayer") is a wonderfully balanced outline to
follow. Some people like to use the acrostic ‘A C T S’: Adoration,
Confession, Thanksgiving and Supplication. It is pointed out that
thanksgiving leads to praise, and this takes us to worship, which may well be
a quiet relationship between our spirit and God.
Let us not forget
confession. We cannot ask for acquittal without first forgiving others.
**
Time to go: there is work to be
done¾some of it being
the answers to my prayers!
(Useful
scriptures: 1 Samuel 12:23, Matthew 6:9–15, Psalm 100:4 and Matthew 9:35–10:1
ff.). E.
Lees
From a Church Magazine
Our annual sale
in aid of Church funds will be held in the Church Hall . . . come and hunt
for the white elephant in the wilds of the jumble
Notes· Quotes· Anecdotes
In this month of the Queen’s Jubilee, may she know God’s
richest blessing and may Jesus, the King of kinds, and Saviour of all, reign
in her heart by faith.
God set a year of Jubilee. Six years after they claimed the land He
gave them, the seventh was a Sabbath. After seven Sabbaths¾that is, 49 years¾the fiftieth was a year of
Jubilee. Leviticus 25:1,2
A year of joy and restoration when, on the Day of Atonement, the
people were to make the trumpet sound throughout the land. Leviticus 25:9
JOY is the flag on the citadel of the heart when the King is in
residence
Cameo
Character Corner : Enoch
Father of Methuselah
all his life he walked with God.
Genesis 5:18–24
Hebrews 11:5 tells us :–
He pleased God
He did not see death, for¾
God had taken him. (Read Hebrews 11:6)
Why God made families
God made the world a wonderful place,
Blessed with beauty and filled with grace.
He made for us this special home
With mountains, forests and fields to roam
Then to provide the finishing touch,
He gave us people who love us much:
Parents to care, who guide us and teach;
Children with tiny hands that reach;
Brothers and sisters to always share
The tears and laughter or just be there.
God gave us families to help the world grow,
So His everlasting love should show.
Jill Woolf
Did You Know?
It
seems that all Bible writers knew that men normally wore beards, and
that shaving or plucking a man’s beard was a sign of shame and humiliation.
The words in Jeremiah 41:5 and Isaiah 15:2 can only be understood this way.
This idea also explains the shame inflicted on the servants of King David who
were captured and parts of the their beards cut off (see the story in 2
Samuel 10).
In
a similar way, a Nazarite was a man who had separated himself to the
Lord for a specified vow or purpose. Numbers 6:5 describes such a man,
saying, ‘During the entire period of his vow and separation, no razor may be
used on his head.’
There
are several Nazarites in the Bible, including Samson, who was enabled to
possess extraordinary strength only while his hair remained uncut (see the
command forbidding the cutting of hair in Judges 13:5); and, according to
very ancient traditions, John the Baptist was also a Nazarite who did not
shave his head. The priests were also set apart, so Ezekiel 44:20 commands
that the priests in the Temple were not to shave.
Book review
Whose Promised Land? by Colin
Chapman, Lion, 1998, £8.99
The
book’s sub-title anticipates what follows. It is ‘Israel or Palestine? What
are the claims and counter-claims? Are the ancient promises of the Bible
relevant today? Is there a way forward?’
Colin
Chapman is a specialist on the Middle East, and has had a long career as both
an Anglican Minister and as a University lecturer. This book is a welcome
re-release of a classic and thought-provoking study.
 The author is neither a pro-Israel
Zionist nor pro-Palestinian. With an easy prose style, he manages to explain
the complex and generally painful history of the region, starting with
Biblical times. He is especially careful to outline the tortuous negotiations and subterfuge which surrounded the rise of the
political state of Israel in 1948, and which dominates so much of today’s
thinking and prejudice.
Then,
for the ‘meat’ of the book, Chapman provides an overview of the crisis as
viewed through the lens of all the Bible verses which are quoted so
often by both the sides in this conflict. And be assured that he is careful
to place each in context.
Ultimately,
the book demonstrates how everyone involved in the conflict has both right
and wrong on their sides, and all are victims as well as aggressors. Indeed,
he is so determined not to be partisan that he gives an over-riding
impression of balance.
Finally,
he tentatively suggests a few areas that may help reduce the tension between
the Israeli and Palestinian. A ‘must read.’
Iraq
Straddling
the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and stretching from the Gulf to the
Anti-Taurus Mountains, modern Iraq occupies roughly what was once ancient
Mesopotamia, one of the cradles of human civilisation.
In
the Middle Ages, Iraq was the centre of the Islamic Empire, with Baghdad the
cultural and political capital of an area extending from Morocco to the
Indian subcontinent. Mongol invasions in the 13th Century saw its influence
wane, and it played only a minor role in the region until independence from
Britain in 1932.
Following
the overthrow of the monarchy in 1958, and a coup in 1968, Iraq became one of
the centres of Arab nationalism under the control of the ruling Ba¢ th
political party. Oil made the country rich; when Saddam Hussein became president
in 1979 petroleum made up 95% of its foreign exchange earnings.
Under
the leadership of Saddam Hussein, Iraq engaged in two major wars: against
Iran in the 1980s and against an American-led alliance in 1991, in response
to its invasion of nearby Kuwait.
But
these two wars, together with the subsequent imposition of international
sanctions, have devastated its economy and society. In 1991 the United
Nations said Iraq had been reduced to a pre-industrial state, while later
reports described living standards as being at subsistence level. The
government stands defiant in the face of the sanctions, which have caused
severe hardship for the people but which are unlikely to be lifted until Iraq
satisfies UN demands concerning weapons inspections.
The
stand-off with the UN continues, with US and British planes patrolling
so-called ‘no-fly zones’ in the north and south, while the Kurdish community
has broken away and created a semi-autonomous region of its own.
Iraq Fact file: Population: 22 million Capital: Baghdad
Major religion: Islam (1.55% of the population are Christian)
Please pray:
·
For
the oppressed of Iraq¾a country with some of the worst human-rights violations in the world
·
For
the families of the million or so Iraqi people who have died as a direct
consequence of the western sanctions against Iraq
·
For
those living in fear that the United States will resume their bombing of Iraq
after 10 years
·
For
the Kurds in the north, and the minority Shi’a tribes, who are being
systematically killed by Iraq as an act of genocide
·
For
our Christian brothers and sisters in Iraq who are assumed to support the
‘Christian West’ and the proposed bombing campaign, and who are now fleeing
because of persecution
·
The
Christian Church in Iraq suffers less persecution than in almost any other
Muslim country. Praise and thank God for this mercy
A heated exchange?
A
local Church had problems with its heating system. After various amateur
attempts to get it functioning properly, the Minister called in a plumber.
Hours
later, and having made very little progress, the plumber scratched his head
and knelt down in front of the radiator in order to scrutinise it yet again.
Just then, the Minister re-appeared.
‘Don’t
bother, he said smiling. ‘We’ve had the whole congregation attempting that
method of repair!’
The prodigal son¾a parable in ‘F’
Feeling
footloose and frisky, a feather-brained fellow forced his fond father to fork
out the family fortune. He flew far to foreign fields and frittered his
fortune feasting fabulously with faithless friends. Finally facing famine and
fleeced by his fellows in folly, he found himself a feed-flinger in a filthy
farmyard. Fairly famished he fain would have filled his frame with the
foraged foods of the fodder fragments left by the filthy farmyard creatures.
‘Fooey’,
he said, ‘My father’s flunkies fare far fancier,’ the frazzled fugitive found
feverishly, frankly facing facts. Frustrated by failure and filled with foreboding
he forthwith fled to his family. Falling at his father’s feet, he floundered
forlornly. ‘Father, I have flunked and fruitlessly forfeited family favour.’
But
the faithful father, forestalling further flinching frantically flagged the
flunkies. ‘Fetch forth the finest fatling and fix a feast.’ But the
fugitive’s fault-finding frater frowned on the fickle forgiveness of the
former folderol. His fury flashed. Fussing was futile, for the far-sighted
father figured, such filial fidelity is fine, but what forbids fervent
festivity? The fugitive is found!
‘Unfurl
the flags, with fanfares flaring! Let fun afrolic freely flow!’ ‘Former
failure is forgotten, folly is forsaken! And forgiveness forms the foundation
for future fortitude.’
Dearnley Greenhill Smallbridge
Smithy Bridge Wardle
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