Grace and Truth

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The Old-Time Gospel Vs Seeker-Sensitive Model

You can’t adopt the Church Growth model Hillsongconf instagramand remain faithful to the truth of the gospel.

You can’t be “seeker sensitive” and fear God at the same time.

Seeker Sensitive Movement:

  • no talking about divisive, uncomfortable topics such as hell, sin, judgement, the blood, the cross or repentance;
  • contemporary music;
  • 20 minute sermons on relevant topics such as Self, motivational talks or psychology;
  • facilities, facilities, facilities

Even though one of the founders of the movement, Bill Hybels, has since repented of his part in creating this model, it has infiltrated and influenced the church across the Western world. Many younger people have no other experience of church but this hyper-loud, blacked out, motivational system.

We need to decide: who do we serve? God or mammon? Who do we seek to please ? Christ or man? Who do we follow? Jesus Himself or some dude with a business model.

The man in the street can see it, but sadly Christians can’t. The man in the street (ie Twitter) is asking why Hillsong charges $379 per ticket for their conference. With over 20,000 people in attendance this week millions of dollars has been raised. When there is that much money and power changing hands over a period of a few days it is necessary to question, critique and judge whether this movement is godly or Biblical.

We are told to “judge righteous judgement “ by Christ. Does this movement stand up to the scrutiny of the Word of God? At the Hillsong conference did they preach the gospel? Was sin addressed? Were thousands of people told the truth about heaven and hell?

And how does it compare to revivals of the past? (Did the Welsh revival charge an exorbitant ticket price to gain entrance?)

“Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness: from such withdraw thyself.” 1 Timothy 6:5

I’m over it. I just want Christ. I want the truth of the gospel: the bloody, gory, self-sacrificial truth of someone having to die for sinners on a cross. I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ.  I just want to see Him glorified. He who is ascended to the right hand of the Father, the One who is coming back and whom will rule the earth. I want to hear about Him, not a church, a system or self.

Friends, the gospel works. The old rugged cross, death to self, Christ and Him crucified: this is what saves people, regenerates people, transforms people. I’ve seen it. I’ve seen prostitutes come to Christ, people saved out of the occult, out of drugs. Not through some self-help motivational psycho-babble but through the truth of the shed blood of a Saviour who came from heaven to earth to save sinners!

It’s time now to make a stand for the truth for which Christ died.  We are at a significant point in the history of humankind, whereby we need to decide whom we really serve: man or God?

I don’t know about you but this is what I want to hear one day when I stand before the judgment seat of Christ,

”Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’” Matthew 25:21

 

 

 

 

 


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The Church is Busy with its Programs While Christ is Outside of it

Much of what is missing in the organized Church today is the work, or move, of the Holy Spirit.

We totally underestimate the Spirit of God and what He can do if we let Him.

We have over- organized and created programs for this and that instead of seeking God and letting Him lead by His Spirit.

God has a will, an opinion, a way but we don’t even recognize that fact anymore.

I often feel like the organized church is a slave mill: keeping people over- busy, working them in to the ground, churning out program after program- and what for? “There is a way that seems right to man but the end of it is death”.

God Himself has a way. It is by His Spirit. It is the centrality of Christ. The Spirit of God when He is working will always point to and exalt Jesus Christ. If Christ is not center, if He’s not there, then it is a work of the flesh. Get rid of it! Stop wasting everyone’s time, repent and seek God’s face.

We often use this scripture “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.” (Rev 3:20) as an evangelistic tool. But it’s not. Jesus said this to the CHURCH in Laodicea. He was outside the church. Pushed outside His own church because He wasn’t needed anymore, “we have a program”!!

Lord have mercy, wake up your church.

amen

 

 


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God’s Hidden Dealings with His Servants

When God calls someone to His service He begins by dealing with them in secret.

In a hidden place is where our ministry for God begins. Secretly, just you and Him, hidden away together. Like a lovers’ tryst. We meet with Him in the secret place and we tell Him all that’s in our hearts, our worries, our sins, our thoughts, our hopes and dreams. And He speaks to us, He shows us things, meets with us. It is in the secret place that He does His deepest work in us. When we meet with Him there is nothing He cannot do, for we willingly offer ourselves to Him, simply in the deliberate act of going to spend time with Him. Healing, deliverance, forgiveness, joy, cleansing, calling, commissioning, authority, anointing are all available in the secret closet of prayer.

Written on my heart in and in my spirit are the special times I have spent with the Lord in prayer, times that I will never forget.

It is where I got to know Jesus. My prayer closet used to be in my living room on the rug after everyone else had gone to bed. I remember one day in the sunshine I looked at that rug and was amazed to discover it was covered with many little dots all over it. At first I wondered what the circles could be. Suddenly I realised they were my teardrops, shed over many years in the presence of the Lord on that rug.

That rug was the first place I met the Lord and was broken under the weight of my sin. The rug was where He kept calling me and drawing me back to, like the beloved in the Song of Songs. I had young kids at the time and I remember through the exhaustion of days with toddlers I would long to get to night-time just so I could meet with Him again.

The Principle

The prayer closet was where Christ called me, commissioned me and got me to preach to Him the first time. He told me to begin the food pantry from our garage which lasted 8 years and springing off from that a prayer meeting was borne, a home fellowship began and people were saved.

That was my training ground. It was years of apprenticeship before my life’s work began. The secret place was where it all really begun, yet the fruit spread out in the open and things began to happen.

“But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret, and thy Father which seeth in Secret shall reward thee openly” (Matthew 6:5-6).

When something is birthed in the Spirit in the secret-ness of prayer, then it is a true work of God and it will start to move out in to the open without our having to force it.

God said to Elijah, after he proclaimed a drought in Israel to evil King Ahab

“‘Get away from here and turn eastward, and hide thyself by the Brook Cherith…’ ” 1 Kings 17:1-3

Go hide thyself. Just you and me. And thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly… God had more work to do in Elijah before He would send him out for the huge victory at Mount Carmel. He had to be made ready, sharpened and polished for his work.

The Fruit

It was “after many days that the word of the Lord came to Elijah….saying “Go show thyself…” 1 Kings 18:1

When it was time and God had finished His preparatory work in Elijah then he was sent out from the Lord’s presence.

A true prophet, (one who speaks for God), has been with the Lord, spent time in His presence before he/she goes out and speaks to man on God’s behalf. And Elijah carried out from the Lord’s presence a word from God. It was to tell Ahab that “I will send rain on the earth.” 2 Kings 18:1

“…a man who kneels before God will stand before men.” Leonard Ravenhill

If we want to truly minister then it begins in secret, just you and God. When it is time, He will send you out to carry His Word to others and you will begin to bear fruit for Him.

You see it comes down to this: from where does it originate?

You want to work for God? From Where does your work originate: heaven or earth?

One is the heart of God, planned in the counsels of heaven and revealed and birthed through the Holy Spirit in His Church on earth. When the Spirit works through the Church eternal fruit is brought forth.

The other is the arm of flesh. Man looks around at the needs of man on earth or in the Church-system and plans what he can do to help. But there’s no divine imprint on it and it will be dead works because it originated on earth rather than in heaven.

 

This principle also applies to Moses, Christ Jesus and the Apostle Paul. All were dealt with secretly for years before God sent them forth on their divine missions. We are often in a hurry but God is not. God is after fruit that will last and He will spend much time and energy in preparing His servants for His work, after all the testimony of Christ on this earth is a stake! Let us seek God Himself in secret, and from that place of living relationship He will reward us openly.

 

God bless!

Belinda


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A Message for the New Year

Dear friends,

As we are about to see in the year 2019 I felt to share the sermon which the Lord used to save me.  It has been over 10 years since I last listened to it, and having just re-listened it has spoken to me, challenged me, changed me again by the power of the Spirit of God.

I encourage you to listen to it prayerfully.  I believe that anyone who does so cannot remain the same.

I don’t know about you, but I am over the programs, formulas and business strategies that are being used wholesale in the Western church today in the pursuit of building our own kingdom.  I am sick of Church without God and a cross-less Christianity.

“That’s what the Chinese Christian said you know when he got back to China: “what’s impressed you most about America?”  he answered “the great things Americans can accomplish without God”

Ten Shekels and a Shirt by Paris Reidhead

https://youtu.be/9d7mhAY5FVw

May God bless you as you listen to this message.

Belinda


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Missionary Quotations: A.B. Simpson

AB Simpson

AB Simpson

“The chief danger of the Church today is that it is trying to get on the same side as the world, instead of turning the world upside down. Our Master expects us to accomplish results, even if they bring opposition and conflict. Anything is better than compromise, apathy, and paralysis. God give to us an intense cry for the old-time power of the Gospel and the Holy Ghost!”  A. B. Simpson


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Missionary Quotations: Derek Prince

“Brothers and sisters you are missing a lot if you don’t get involved in reaching the unreached.  You can sit here in a comfortable church and derekhave a wonderful time but the real rewards are for the people whose hearts are with those who have never heard.”

Derek Prince


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You May Not Like it, But I’m Gonna Say it

We seem to have forgotten that

It’s all about Jesus.

All of it.

He is the centre of it all.

 

It breaks my heart that I can now visit a church and not hear His Name even mentioned.church now

Bono is mentioned.

A new Christian super-star leader is mentioned

Mother Theresa and even Buddha may be quoted

(How very relevant and emergent of you)

 

But where is Jesus?

He who is the Door, is now outside the door.

 

Jesus is unfashionable in His own church:whoever

Truly the Father’s heart is grieved

 

The worst part?

Nobody even notices

 

They’re so busy laughing at the Pastor’s jokes

Busy building up their Christian reputations,

Their earthly kingdoms

Busy gettin’ known in Churchianity

 

Nobody cares

That the Body is dead if there is no Head

 

Oh yes,

There is a Body,

An eternal, living, breathing, organic, victorious Body

Of which Christ is Head!

 

But it is not thererob bell

Not where Jesus is forgotten

Dismissed, cast out

 

Not where people are ashamed of His Name

And His Word

 

(Funnily enough, there is no shame in distorting and abusing it

In order to compel the flock to “tithe”

There is a business to run after-all)

 

Where are you Jesus?

My Lord and My God

You are not there.

He who has eyes of fire

Would vomit that out of His mouth

 

There He is!

He is outside the camp

Always

I wonder who is willing to go to Him there?

 

Who is willing to let go of Christianized kingdoms?

Christians being crucified by ISIS

Christians being crucified by ISIS

Who is willing to forgo Christian-fame?

Who is willing to lose friends for Him?

Who is willing to be considered a crack-pot for Him?

Who is willing to go outside the camp

To bear with Him His reproach?

 

This will be the test of the Christian in these the last days.

What is it you are after?

What do you really want?

 

Is it Christ Jesus Himself?cross

Not a ministry, not a creed, not an organisation,

Not structure, not even Christianity

 

But Him, the Person

At the end of it all,

That’s what it comes down to.

There is nothing else

But Him

holyforchrist777.blogspot.com

holyforchrist777.blogspot.com


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Missionary Quotations: Leonard Ravenhill6

leonardravenhill“Not many Christians today can forget the fact that the devil goeth about as a roaring lion, but we seem to

The Lion of the Tribe of Judah

The Lion of the Tribe of Judah, watercolour/pencil

have lost sight of the fact that the Lion of the tribe of Judah has defeated the roaring lion of hell, and therefore every anointed Samson or Gideon or church can also slay the lion of hell. Though wicked men are doing wickedly, God’s promise to us is that “the people that do know their God shall be strong and do exploits” (Daniel 11:32).”

Today’s Sleeping Giant, Leonard Ravenhill


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Gay Marriage and the Church

One thing that bugs me about the debate over gay marriage is that when both sides bring the Bible into the discussion they always seem to miss something. And it’s something HUGELY important.

One side says it is about justice and equality. The other side says it is about the family and the rights of the child. Both sides are passionate, heated and emotional.

But it is important to see something bigger is going on: whilst there is much emotional rhetoric on both sides, the battle is actually spiritual.

There are two people who care more about marriage than even the most verbal and passionate of activists:

These are of course God and Satan.

I have heard both sides discuss Leviticus 18 & 20, the story of Sodom and of course Romans 1. I’ve heard Christians and non-Christians, gay and straight argue these scriptures.

And of course, whilst these scriptures are valid, something vital is constantly overlooked.  And that is the fact that the whole Bible, the whole story of redemption is about marriage.

It begins with a marriage – the Garden of Eden

It ends with a marriage – the marriage supper of the Lamb

And in between is the great and wonderful story of the redemption of humanity through marriage.

The Eternal Truths of Marriage

As followers of Jesus Christ in this post-modern age it is easy to miss the beauty and significance of the eternal truths displayed in marriage.

It is oft-repeated that Jesus never said anything specifically against homosexuality, thus saying in effect, that He condoned it. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact everything Christ said and did was in order to institute a covenant marriage-relationship between Himself, the Bridegroom, and His Church, the Bride.

Jesus used the Jewish marriage customs of the day to illustrate to His Jewish disciples the significance of why He came. We need to remember that Jesus is a Jew and it was to other Jews that He spoke. We, as non-Jews who have been grafted in, can often miss the significance of Christ’s words.  (I have written extensively about this here)

In point form here are just a few of the Jewish marriage customs showing forth Christ’s redemption:

  • The Bride-Price (Mohar)

In ancient Jewish customs the Bride-price was agreed upon by the father and the Bridegroom-to be.  The Bride-price was a very high price to pay. The higher the price that was paid, the less incentive for a young man to divorce his betrothed.  This gave the young woman comfort that her betrothed would in fact return for her after he had finished preparing a place for her in his father’s house.

Jesus Himself paid a very high price for His bride, the ultimate price – He paid with His own blood.  His life was poured out for her.  No higher price has ever been paid than what He paid.

  • Paid in Full

When the young man paid the price in full to the father of the bride the marriage covenant was established….

…and so we see Jesus.  Upon the cross He cries out with a loud voice “It is finished!” (John 19:30)

There He paid in full the debt owed, our debt, for the sin of mankind to the Father.

  • The Glass of Wine

After the bride-price was agreed and paid, the Jewish bride-to-be would be called in and offered a glass of wine to drink. To drink from the cup would show her acceptance of the covenant with the groom.

So too Jesus, the Bride-Groom, offered His disciples a cup of wine.

“Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, and they all drank from it.  This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many,” he said to them.  Mark 14:23

Jesus gives the cup to his disciples at the last supperThis was Christ’s “marriage proposal” to His Bride.  Jesus offered to His disciples the Cup, and in doing so He was instituting the New Covenant.

The Old Covenant was between Jehovah and His Wife, Israel.

The New Covenant is between Christ and His Bride, the Church.

And every time the gospel is proclaimed throughout the world it is Christ once again issuing His marriage-proposal to the lost sinner.

Satan Hates Marriage

And of course, this is why Satan hates marriage. Because every time a man and a woman enter into a marriage-covenant with each other it is proclaiming the victory of the Bridegroom and the redemption of humanity through Christ’s Bride. Marriage is a prophetic sign-post pointing to Christ and His Bride. And more than anything Satan wants that sign-post removed from the earth.  This is the reason he is pushing the gay-marriage agenda so vehemently.

God Loves Marriagejewish-wedding-gift

And of course, this is why God loves marriage. Because He designed it to be a pointer to His beloved Son, Jesus Christ.  He put it in this earth to point to the true marriage of Christ and His Bride.  He wants people to see marriage and to know there is something deep and mysterious shown forth that cannot quite be grasped.  Something that will turn people to Christ and be saved.

“For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.” Ephesians 5:31, 32

Marriage is the fight of our day. I urge you not to become side-tracked with emotional rhetoric, but to see this issue as it truly is – a spiritual battle.  And one in which the Church must be engaged. Care about this. Pray. Write to your MP’s too.  Encourage church leaders to speak up.  Pray, pray, pray.