THE NEW NORMAL

/in , /by

The New Normal

Over the past two years plus we have been fighting a pandemic. 

During that time no matter who you met or what you were doing it seems that the conversation always turned to the pandemic, mandates connected to Covid, and how it has changed your life. 

“Pandemic” became one of the most common terms in our vocabulary. 

Our focus was always drawn back to the issue of the Covid pandemic 

The daily changes and challenges we were facing as a result of this worldwide event.

I believe that the Covid pandemic has led to a number of other pandemics. 

In other words, one thing – one pandemic – has led to us facing a number of other resulting pandemics  Read more

Heaven On Earth

/in , /by

In Exodus (second book of the Bible) God tells us that He “will dwell among the people of Israel and will be their God” (Exodus 29:45). Millennia later, John, the writer of Revelation, tells us he “heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be His people, and God Himself will be with them as their God” (Revelation 21:3). This is a major theme throughout Scripture (Exodus 25:8; Leviticus 26:12; Zechariah 2:10; 2 Corinthians 6:16; Revelation 21:3).

So one of the overarching themes in Scripture — from the very beginning to the very end — isn’t to “get people saved” but for God to dwell down here with His people. We are so concerned about going up to Heaven, but God is concerned with bringing Heaven down to earth. Revelation, chapter 22 even says the new heavens and the new earth won’t need a temple because God will be our dwelling place (think back to Genesis!). We are working so hard to get out of this place, while God is working hard to recreate and come down to this place. Read more

The Five Signs of a False Teacher

/in /by

In Matthew’s gospel, chapter 24 Jesus speaks of false prophets and teachers who will rise up and deceive many by their prophetic words and teachings. I was thinking about this the other night as finishing up my study of Matthew’s record of Jesus’ life and ministry. How true this warning is for today as the internet and social media allows many to spread their messages to all who will listen. It also made me aware of how we need to be so discerning as the false can sound so much like the true.

As I then switched over the read Galatians I noticed Paul was fighting the religious spirit of false teachers and false prophets. The Words of Jesus came true and were seriously accurate right away in the early Church. And are so true even today. In Galatians we find five things we need to note and know about false teachers.

Galatians 5:7-12 NET “You were running well; who prevented you from obeying the truth? This persuasion does not come from the one who calls you! A little yeast makes the whole batch of dough rise! I am confident in the Lord that you will accept no other view. But the one who is confusing you will pay the penalty, whoever he may be. Now, brothers and sisters, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offence of the cross has been removed. I wish those agitators would go so far as to castrate themselves!”

1> They contradict the truth – Galatians 5:7

False teachers plagued the Church in Paul’s day, and they continue to multiply as we move towards the end times.

1 Timothy 4:1-2 “Now the Spirit explicitly says that in the later times some will desert the faith and occupy themselves with deceiving spirits and demonic teachings, influenced by the hypocrisy of liars whose consciences are seared.”

2 Peter 2:1 “But false prophets arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. These false teachers will infiltrate your midst with destructive heresies, even to the point of denying the Master who bought them. As a result, they will bring swift destruction on themselves.”

In order to protect ourselves and each other from error, we must know the truth and be able to thus discern falsehood. There is no gift of discernment – there is a gift of the discerning of spirits. But, to discern truth and error we need to be well rooted and grounded in God’s Word, the Bible. This means we need to be reading it regularly and studying it so as to show ourselves approved as workman of the Word (2 Timothy 2:15).

2> They are contrary to God – Galatians 5:8

The Galatians were not called by God to legalism and the law. False teachers used the Old Testament in their attempt to undermine Paul’s teachings regarding being free from the Law. Every cultist and false teacher and prophet tries to use the Bible to support his or her heresy.

3> They contaminate the Church – Galatians 5:9

Paul says that when false doctrine enters a church, it will begin permeating every area of the fellowship until it takes control of the entire church body. This has been the experience of every church, Bible collage, and seminary that has ultimately strayed from the truth of God’s Word.

4> Their condemnation is certain – Galatians 5:10

After expressing his confidence that the Galatians will ultimately choose the right path, Paul promises that those who have troubled them will face the judgment of God.

2 Peter 2:2-3, 9 “And many will follow their debauched lifestyles. Because of these false teachers, the way of truth will be slandered. And in their greed they will exploit you with deceptive words. Their condemnation pronounced long ago is not sitting idly by; their destruction is not asleep … if so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from their trials, and to reserve the unrighteous for punishment at the day of judgment…”

5> They criticize teachers of truth – Galatians 5:11

John R.W. Stott wrote in The Message of Galatians, “The gospel is grievously offensive to the pride of men. It tells them that they are … under the wrath and condemnation of God, that they can do nothing to save themselves or secure their salvation, and that only through Christ crucified can they be saved. If we preach this gospel we shall arouse ridicule and opposition.”

Keep this list close. As we approach the coming of Christ and the end of the age, we will need it.

The Passion Principle

/in , /by

I am watching the passion that some believers have for a current “truckers demonstration” heading across Canada to the nation’s capital and picking up support and more trucks as they go. Currently they have raised millions to help support and encourage those driving the big rigs from all corners of the nation. Their demonstration is in regard to wanting the government to not mandate that all truckers get double vaccinated for Covid. They believe that it infringes on their personal rights.

I must admit that I am amazed at the passion and the momentum that is behind this current public demonstration of some people’s desire to not be told what they must do. As I have watched and listened, read and studied this current national movement I have to admit that it has been a long time since I have witnessed such passion about anything in the public sphere. 

I am reminded of a verse in Scripture which I want to share…

Romans 12:11 NET “Do not lag in zeal, be enthusiastic in spirit, serve the Lord.”

Other versions render it slightly different…

MSG. “Don’t burn out; keep yourselves fueled and aflame. Be alert servants of the Master, cheerfully expectant.”

TPT “Be enthusiastic to serve the Lord, keeping your passion toward him boiling hot! Radiate with the glow of the Holy Spirit and let him fill you with excitement as you serve him.”

NIV “Never be lazy, but work hard and serve the Lord enthusiastically.”

It strikes me that some believers are more passionate about this “truckers convoy” than they are about the things of the Lord. I am seeing, hearing, and sensing more excitement, enthusiasm, and passion regarding this convey than I have seen for Jesus in a long time. It saddens my heart. My spirit weeps for the Church where we seldom witness the kind of passion being expressed for this national demonstration.

As I study the Scriptures I see The Passion Principle in a number of places and in a variety of forms. Let me briefly share my insights…

    • PASSION PURSUES. Passion is David loving God with fixed intensity as he vows to seek and pursue Him with his whole heart, obey the Word with his whole heart, and pray with his whole heart.
    • PASSION PLEDGES. Passion is David praising God with his whole heart before all other gods pledging His loyalty to God and God only (Psalm 138:1).
    • PASSION CONFRONTS. Passion is Elijah standing up to the prophets of Baal and calling down the fire of God.
    • PASSION PRODUCES. Passion is Nehemiah completing the wall of Jerusalem in a record 52 days in the face of opposition.
    • PASSION PERSISTS. Passion is Jeremiah refusing to retire from ministry, in spite of discouragement, because the fire in his bones would not let him quit.
    • PASSION PRAYS. Passion is Daniel praying, in spite of threats against his life, because prayer was the heartbeat of his life.
    • PASSION MOVES. Passion is Peter jumping out of the boat to walk to Jesus on the water, in spite of the “impossibility” of it.
    • PASSION MOTIVATES. Passion is Paul turning the zeal of his past into a fire for the cause of Christ.

I am hoping and praying that believers will, once again, become passionate about the things of the Lord and His Word, the Bible. Not just exhibiting passion for the current bandwagon and demonstration against something. Not jumping on the hottest and newest trend among believers on the internet. Or getting excited and passionate about a prophetic word that has not been tested or properly judged according to God’s standard – the Bible. Or the most current musical trend or worship team gaining everyone’s attention. For true believers “passion” should be reserved for the Lord and the Kingdom that He established that is currently continuing to expand and touch places that are in spiritual darkness and bondage.

I long for the day when the Church — Christians — will be known for what we are for and not just what we are against. When people will see our true passion for the Lord and the things of the Lord. 

Let’s Not Complicate Things

/in , /by

I think that we often over complicate the Christian faith. I believe in solid Bible scholarship. I believe that preaching should be biblical, theologically correct, practical and rooted in the reality that we face today. I believe that the Christian faith is challenging and profound in its own way. I believe that any teaching of the Bible should have depth and not just be one’s opinion with a verse or two to “proof text” the opinion of the speaker or writer. But I believe we have seriously over complicated the basics of the faith.

The Christian faith is about love. God’s love for us. God’s love in us. God’s love through us to others. It is not about human love often seen as kindness, generosity, and gentleness. It is not a ‘feeling’ love. We often mix up God’s love with a feeling we have when we say we love sailing or love hockey or ice cream. Love is a decision. God decided that He would love us regardless. God decided that when we come to know Jesus as our personal Lord and Saviour that He would pour His love into us (Romans 5:5). And, after He has done this then we can truly love Him with a God-love because He first loved us (1 John 4:19). And because His love lives within us we can love others as He would and does.  Loving our fellow Christians, loving those who don’t yet know Him. And, hold on to your hat, loving even our enemies. 

Jesus said, “By this will all people know that you are My disciples, if you love one another” (John 13:35). All people – fellow believers, unbelievers, and those that hate and persecute us. This is loving others with the God kind of love known in the Greek language as Agapé.

And based in this love we can then accept other people just as Jesus accepted us. His acceptance of us was based in His love for us and not in something we did or didn’t do. Our performance. He simply accepted us as we were – yet knowing what we had done as well as who we could become and what we could do in His Kingdom. His is an unconditional love. Love without conditions. No-strings-attached love. And we are to then, from His love residing in us, accept others unconditionally. Regardless of their status in society, their education, their wealth or lack thereof. We accept them regardless of their history, their cultural and social background, or what they have done – the sin in their lives. Jesus came to love the sinner and so must we.

As we accept others they will come to experience the love of God through us. As they see that love and experience the acceptance they will, with the help of the Holy Spirit, draw closer to the Saviour and begin to experience His acceptance and love. This will open their hearts to the conviction of the Holy Spirit which will, in time, result in godly sorrow and repentance (2 Corinthians 7:8-10) which will lead them to salvation.

The third element in the basics of the simple but profound Christian faith is total forgiveness. When a person encounters forgiveness in their relationships with believers they will begin to experience, in a small yet significant way, the total and absolute forgiveness that can only be found in knowing Jesus. As they encounter forgiveness in their relationships with Christians they will come to understand that forgiveness is not only possible but available. In the world they did find forgiveness. Revenge, yes! Rejection, yes! Judgment, yes! Offences, yes! Hatred, yes! Only in relationship with believers will they taste the total and absolute forgiveness that they seek and need in life. Because we, as disciples, have experienced total forgiveness we can offer our forgiveness to others when they speak or act against us, hurt us, or reject us. A small taste of the forgiveness they will receive when they come to know Jesus personally.

This is the Christian faith – Jesus loves us unconditionally, accepts us just as we are, and forgives us totally – past, present, and future. We are called to be like Jesus and do the same in our relationships with both believers and non-believers. Love, accept, and forgive. Let’s not complicate it. The Christian faith is profound and deep but it is also simple and practical.

The LAF Principle – Love, Accept, and Forgive. 

The Pattern

/in /by
In my study of the Book of Acts (of the Holy Spirit) I was struck by a specific verse the other day. Acts 7:44 states, “Our fathers had the tent of witness (tabernacle) in the wilderness, just as he who spoke to Moses directed him to make it, according to the pattern that he had seen.” There is a pattern to the birthing (planting) and building the Church that we would do well to understand and follow.
Starry night skies boast of a divine order in the universe. Planets crisscross the heavens in charted paths. They move precisely and predictably. Astronomers know exactly where was one will travel. Men can set their watches by the movement. Every visible star obeys the order God built into His creation.
God is not the author of confusion and disorder but of peace and wholeness.

Read more

An Apostolic Fellowship

/in , /by

With zeal 3,000 new believers turned towards their new opportunity to live out their faith. The first Christians hungered for the apostles’ teaching, prayed with tenacity, and worshipped wholeheartedly. They were not passive or neutral about it. They “continued steadfastly” in their commitment to God and to the apostolic fellowship. They had a passionate commitment.

Luke describes the believers’ zeal with a Greek word that is fairly rare in the New Testament. The word communicates an intense, consistent dedication. It means to persist in adhering to something, to be intently engaged, or to attend constantly. A verb in the imperfect tense, it signifies continuous action: ‘They kept on continuing steadfastly” in day-to-day commitment. These believers possessed wholehearted devotion.

Luke used this powerful word several other times. The 120 disciples who gathered in the upper room “continued with one accord in prayer and supplication” (Acts 1:14). The first church members were “continuing daily with one accord in the temple” (Acts 2:46). After the congregation grew into a so-called ‘megachurch,’ the apostles declared their intention to “give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word” (Acts 6:4)

As a result of Peter’s preaching, many present on the Day of Pentecost declared themselves to a whole new way of life. The Amplified Bible translates verse 42 as: “And they steadfastly persevered, devotion themselves constantly to the instruction and fellowship of the apostles.”

Believers’ lives were marked by:

      • The apostles’ doctrine
      • Fellowship
      • The breaking of bread
      • Prayers

Read more

NOMINAL OR PHENOMENAL 

/in /by

Click Here to Hear the Teaching

LOOKING AT BELIEVERS … (Their life – not their ministry) 

As a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ

As a disciple of Jesus

As someone who is following the way of the Lord

You can choose to be nominal and thus insignificant in impact and a Christian “in name only”

Or – You can choose to be phenomenal – extraordinary, exceptional, unusual and out of the ordinary – having a major impact for the King and Kingdom on those around you

You choose …

The box that you have created for yourself to live in with self-imposed limitations and boundaries

OR

The adventure that God calls you to live which is without limitations because all things are possible with God (Luke 1:37)

Your choice – Nominal or Phenomenal

Here is what I know for certain:

God wants us to be phenomenal and not nominal

God desires His people to be supernatural and not to just walk in the natural

God wants believers to be extraordinary and not simply ordinary Read more

Knowing the Bible Stories

/in , , , , /by

A New England teacher quizzed a group of collage-bound high school juniors and seniors on the Bible The quiz preceded a Bible as Literature class he planned to teach at what was generally considered one of the better public schools in the nation. Among the more unusual answers from these students were, “Sodom and Gomorrah were lovers,” and “Jezebel was Ahab’s donkey.”

Other students thought that the four horsemen appeared on the Acropolis; that the New Testament Gospels were written by Matthew, Mark, Luther, and John; that Eve was created from an apple; and that Jesus was baptized by Moses.

The answer that took the misinformation prize was given by a fellow who was academically in the top 5 percent of his class. The question, “What was Golgotha?” The answer, “Golgotha was the name of the giant who slew the apostle David.”

In case you think this is an isolated instance of biblical illiteracy, let me quote the finding of a recent Gallup poll:

    • 82% of the people surveyed believe that the Bible is either the literal or “inspired” Word of God.
    • More than half who responded to the survey said they read the Bible at least monthly — Yet half couldn’t name even one of the four Gospels.
    • Fewer than half knew who delivered the Sermon on the Mount.

USA Today reported a poll showing that only 11 percent of Americans read the Bible every day. More than half read it less than once a month or not at all.

The Barna Research Group conducted a survey that focused only on “born again” Christians and came up with the following statistics:

    • Only 18 percent — less than two in every ten — read the Bible every day
    • Worse of all, 23 percent — almost one in four professing Christians — say they never read the Word of God.

The Bible is available in more than 1,800 languages, and yet someone has observed that the worst dust storm in history would happen if all church members who were neglecting their Bibles dusted them off simultaneously. 

Sometimes I Don’t Enjoy Praying

/in , , , , , , , , , /by

https://rhm.podbean.com/e/sometimes-i-dont-enjoy-praying/

Before I was born again prayer was non-existent in my life

Oh, I prayed the prayers along with everyone else from the book of prayers during the Sunday morning service

Prayers that 50+ years later I can still repeat by memory (head) – but not from my heart

Then I met Jesus and prayer took on whole new dynamic (November 9th, 1976)

It was a very personal and private conversation between Jesus and me 

A time for solitude and stillness when I reconnected with my own heart and the heart of the Father who loves me unconditionally

A very special – and sometimes quiet – time when I experienced God’s peace and His presence that was different than what I experienced during any other time  Read more