Grace and Truth

…all the words of this life…

Monthly Archives: June 2013


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Holy Fire vs Profane Fire

” A fire shall always be burning on the altar, it shall never go out.” Leviticus 6:13

This verse jumped out at me the other day as I was reading that most mis-understood of books, Leviticus. I’d like to share with you what God brought to my heart.

Leviticus 6:8-13 is the record of the law of the burnt offering. This is Old Covenant stuff yes, but the principle presented here is eternal, and is recorded for our benefit.

God is here setting forth His commands to the priest, Aaron and his sons. All believers are now priests unto God under the New Covenant, so there is something here for us.

“And the fire on the altar shall be kept burning on it, is shall not be put out. And the priest shall burn wood on it every morning, and lay the burnt offering in order on it; and he shall burn on it the fat of the peace offerings.” Leviticus 6:12

Two points here:
1. God requires that the fire on the altar never goes out
2. God requires that the priest shall keep the fire burning by bring wood every morning

Where does the fire come from? It is a divine fire, lit by God Himself.

“…Then the glory of the Lord appeared to all the people and fire came out from before the Lord and consumed the burnt offering and the fat on the altar. When all the people saw it, they shouted and fell on their faces.” Leviticus 9:23, 24

The fire must be lit by God to be holy. God will never accept our self-effort, it is a “profane fire” to Him. The fire must be initiated by Him and comes from Him alone. We see on the Day of Pentecost the fire of God settling upon each of those in the Upper Room (Acts 2:3). This was fire sent by God, as John the Baptist had prophesied “I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance but He who is coming after me is mightier than I… He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.” Matthew 3:11.

All of our fleshly works must be consumed. Look at what happened to Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu when they offered the “fire” of their own self-effort…

“Then Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it, put incense on it and offered profane fire before the Lord, which He had not commanded them. So fire went out from the Lord and devoured them, and they died before the Lord.” Leviticus 10:1, 2

So we see that God will never accept fire, or works, initiated by man. However God does require man to play his part too.
Whilst the fire is initiated by God, God gives the responsibility to maintain the fire to man. God will never do for us what He expects us to do ourselves. So He commands the priests to keep the fire burning, to not let it die out.

How do we keep it burning continually? Well God even tells us how to do that…
“And the priest shall burn wood on it every morning…” Leviticus 6:13
Praying and spending time with the Lord, in His Word daily keeps the fire burning.

“…and lay the burnt offering in order on it…” Leviticus 6:14. How?
“And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice–the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.” Romans 12:1

“You never have to advertise a fire. Everyone comes running when there’s a fire.
Likewise, if your church is on fire, you will not have to advertise it. The community will already know it.” Leonard Ravenhill

Be blessed!


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Address on Revival

By Duncan Campbell

The Attitude Of The Church

I am disturbed by the attitude of the Church in general toward aggressive evangelism or revival.

By evangelism I do not mean just an effort to get people back into the Church; this effort, while commendable, does not get us very far. What I mean is something much more: it is the getting of men and women into vital, saving and covenant relationship with Jesus Christ, and so supernaturally altered that holiness will characterize their whole being: body, soul and spirit.

It seems to me that the time has surely come when we must, with open mind and true heart, face ourselves with unqualified honesty and ask the question: “Am I alive to my responsibility as a laborer in God’s vineyard?” I, personally, have constantly to remind myself that I can be a very busy man, yet a very idle minister. How easy it is to live more or less in the enjoyment of God’s free grace, and yet not realize that we are called to fulfill a divinely appointed purpose. Our commission is to declare the whole counsel of God in the midst of men: “to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God” — that, brethren, is our privilege and our task.

And yet we must confess that too often the great things of God have not been the predominating things: the lesser things of life have been allowed to absorb our interest, and the lure of the lesser loyalty has blurred our vision and robbed us of our passion to win souls for Jesus Christ.

What, then, is the essential to recovery and revival?

Surely a whole-hearted desire to be right with God, to stand before Him in an adjusted relationship. I am convinced that if we are to see the hand of God at work, we must give to our lives the propulsion of a sacred vow, and with Hezekiah of old say: “Now it is in mine heart to make a covenant with the Lord God of Israel.” Brethren, the new truths that grip us this morning must find expression and embodiment in a new dedication — that is, if we are to be men whom God can trust with revival.


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Day-time Street Preaching

Misc 051

Yesterday morning I went into the city to street preach with two other women.

Every kind of opposition was thrown against us beforehand to try to stop us from going, including the fact that my five year old son came down with a severe case of croup on Monday night and was still sick yesterday.  Praise God for mothers though, mine looked after Tom while I went into the city.  I was reminded of CT Studd’s words: ” ‘Preach the Word’ is the rod the Devil fears and hates”….

 

But we got there.  It was a completely different ballgame to open air preach during the daylight hours.  At night time there are a lot of homeless people, youth hanging out, as well as people going home from work and others out for the night.  During the day there were older people, there were high school students on excursions with their teachers, there were tourists and group outings.  I felt conspicuous setting up the PA on the little raised area at the front of the station.  During the day, there is nowhere to hide, no cover of darkness at all.  You are very much out there.

 

It was my friend W’s first time out on the streets.  She was a complete natural.  After the three of us prayed together she immediately started going over to the people sitting on the steps and handing out tracts.  I began to preach after a moment of panic wondering in my new PA was loud enough.  It was, as long as I held the mike pressed against my chin.

 

After a while I thought that it is easier preaching during the day because nobody screamed at me to “Shut up” or anything worse.  What a breeze. I saw people laughing and mocking of course but people were quite polite.  That is until I went over to a nicely dressed couple after I had preached, to talk to them and saw that the opposition was in fact there, bubbling away just as fierce, but hidden under a well-dressed facade.

 

“Your literalism is wrong,” he sneered at me, “everything you say is wrong.”

 

We talked for a little while.  it was one of the hardest conversations I’ve ever had.  I can honestly say I have rarely spoken to anyone who has been so bitter and angry.  And he used to be a pastor for 20 years.  Scary. As we parted, he still spitting venom at me, Holy Spirit gave me the words to say to him: “And yet, Jesus, knowing that you were going to reject Him, still died for you…”  He shook his head and walked away.

 

That was just one experience though.  We had a good time. The Word went out and seeds were sown through the preaching, conversations and hundreds of tracts that were handed out.  At one point as I was preaching, some high school students out on an excursion, gathered in front of me and listened, much to their teacher’s consternation.

 

I’d like to thank those who were praying for us.  I thank God for the Body of Christ.

 

As we left the city and were driving home, W said to me, “I feel my whole life was building up to this point.  I am a different person.”

 

The preaching of the Word not only changes others, it changes us.

Hallelujah.

 

 

 

 

 


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How far are you willing to go?

The Holy Spirit showed me this one night in prayer and then I put it in a poem as best I could:

 

He waits for me

So joyful that I will follow

Follow the path of death

That leads to light

I need that light

To be full of that light

For then He says:

“These nail-pierced hands and feet

Are going into the darkness

I want you with Me

Will you come?”

Oh Lord, I just want to be with You

Where You are.

He says “There is much work to be done,

Come.”

We must redeem the time

For there’s not much left

 

We walk slowly

He could go ahead

But He waits for me

He steadies me when I stumble

He talks to me while we walk

I see that He really wants me there

With Him

Where He is

He says “The deeper we go into the darkness

The brighter your light will shine,

How far are you willing to go?”

(They plucked the beard

From His face)

How far are you willing to go?


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Hmmm..considering the black box

I am now the proud (also excited and a little scared) owner of this black beauty….

IMG_2606

I am excited because it means more autonomy as a street-preacher.  Also it means not having to rely on others’ and their equipment which will allow me more freedom.  It means that I can now go out during the day time as well as the night. But mainly it’s because owning this little baby is the consolidation and the establishment of a vision God gave me for my life years and years ago….

I remember the first time I ever saw an open-air street preacher.  I was walking through the city with my boyfriend (now husband) Matt.  We were out for a lovely day, strolling in the sunshine, holding  hands.  I saw this young guy with black hair standing on a little ledge at the bottom of an Anglican cathedral. He was holding a black Bible and reading from it.  There were three gothic youths standing around him listening respectfully.  Something about him, about what he was doing, laid hold of me.  It made no sense to me whatsoever, that he would stand there and do that, I mean to read from the Bible in public and not care what anyone thought of him was a foreign concept to me.  Yet I was drawn to him. I really wanted to stop and listen, but I couldn’t.  I don’t know why.  My legs just wouldn’t stop.  I couldn’t do it.  I kept on walking, but I kept looking back.  I remember the primary feeling I had for him was respect, because my primary thought  “That is something I could never do“.

After many experiences and years had gone by, there was one day when God gave me a vision of myself standing on a busy city street during the day and preaching.  Yes, preaching. No one was more astonished at the vision than I was, believe me.  It seemed so random that I actually dismissed it from my mind as an impossibility.  However I couldn’t dismiss it from my heart, because God had put it there.  It kept popping up, and popping up, and popping up until God must have decided that I was especially thick, and He had to make it very clear to me by calling me to go out to the road, (as I’ve detailed in “The Call” post).

So whilst I have been preaching in the city on Friday nights for two and a half years now, to be able to preach during the day is new to me.  This Friday, in fact, is when I will be starting this new adventure with a small group of ladies.  So it is very exciting that a vision which God gave to me years ago, as of Friday, will be brought into existence.

(I just want to take a moment here to encourage you to hold on to the dream or vision God has given you for your life.  And the more of an impossibility it seems to you, the more God will get the glory for it.)

However, it is also very scary to be the owner of this black box.  Why?  Um, because street preaching is scary.  Yes, I still find it scary.  I still get the shakes from nerves.  I still wonder why I am doing this to myself every time I drive into the city.    (That is, until the fire of God begins to burn so deeply within my soul that I just HAVE to preach, have to warn, have to share Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.  And the fire burns up the fear of man. It drives away the shakes and the fear…oh my friend – God is good, He will never leave you stranded – just try Him.)

It’s also scary to be entrusted with this responsibility.  The black box seems to stare at me from its solid position at my feet as if to say “You do realize that with me also comes more accountability, don’t you?  Don’t  you take me lightly now….”

I don’t ever want to take it lightly.  I want to appreciate more and more every day what my Jesus has done for me and is still doing for me and will continue to do for me.  He is my Lord and Saviour, He is my life, He is the reason for my being.  He is the love of my life.

Jesus, all for Jesus, all I am and have, and ever want to be…

God bless you

 


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Ha! Love it….

“It was strictly forbidden to preach to other prisoners, as it is in captive nations today. It was understood that whoever was caught doing this received a severe beating. A number of us decided to pay the price for the privilege of preaching, so we accepted their terms. It was a deal: we preached and they beat us. We were happy preaching; they were happy beating us – so everyone was happy.”

Richard Wurmbrand


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Tonight’s F-f-f-freezing Street Preaching 14 June 2013

flinders st

Christian – do you know that most high school and uni students think that the Theory of Evolution is a proven scientific fact?  Do you know that they don’t even know it is called the Theory of Evolution?  It has somehow along the way become simply “Evolution” and accepted as fact.

Christian – do you know that most heavy metal rockers are intelligent, deep thinkers who do not fit into society?  That these “outcasts” are angry at a world that they can’t fit into and are open to the gospel.  Some of the best, most articulate conversations I have had are with these guys.

Christian – do you know that most Westerners who accept Buddhism and its teachings do so because they think it’s all about peace and love and have no idea of the real teachings of the Seen Ha, karma, the wheel of suffering and reincarnation.

Christian – do you know that most youth are looking for direction?  That they cover up their fear with mockery.  Do you know that if you persist with them as a mother or father would and speak the truth (even hard truths) to them in love that the mockery and fear will break away and they will come to respond to the gospel and even respect you for it?

Christian – do you know that a lot of people will actually thank you for taking the time to speak to them on the street?

 

“Preach abroad…It is the cooping yourselves up in rooms that has damped the work of God, which never was and never will be carried out to any purpose without going out into the highways and hedges and compelling them to come in.”  John Wesley

 

Love & blessings to you


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Fortress by Robin Mark

“That this love pursued us is a mystery
For the heart is base
And You are holy
Yet the streams of mercy
That flow over me
Will afford me grace to stand in glory

Where with men and angels
Where with slaves and kings
I will sing my praise to You alone

For there’s no heart greater than the Father’s heart
And there’s no love sweeter than the Son’s

Hallelujah, to my King
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Jesus Christ my Everything”

Praise God for Jesus!

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SdzgwIErio

 


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A Sower Went Out to Sow

Said Jesus:
“Behold, a sower went out to sow…”

out to sow
out to sow

a sower went out to sow
and walked on down the road.

His eyes beheld the pastures
the sun beat on his head
he saw some dirt rocky,
he saw some dirt red.

But to him
it mattered not
what the ground
consisted of –
whether dry and dusty
or even full of weeds,
for where-ever he walked
he simply
scattered
seed.

From his breast/ into his hand
the precious seed was passed

but not for long
did he hold on
for that seed was soon cast

cast far
cast nigh
cast low
cast high

that seed was not spared.
For the sower knew
that fruit only grew
when that precious seed was shared

(The “seed” is the “word of the kingdom”, Parable of the Sower Matthew 13:1-23)