Grace and Truth

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Tag Archives: Faith


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The One Lost Sheep in our New Home

I was on my knees praying for the outreach to the homeless that night.  We always meet at the same place when we go out. But as I was praying I saw in my heart a different carpark in the next suburb. 

“Is that where we should start tonight Lord?” I questioned.  It was a strong prompting that wouldn’t go away.  The verse on my heart for that day was Luke 15 – Jesus going out to find the one lost sheep.

I decided to take a step out in faith and let everyone know that tonight we would be beginning our search for the homeless in this other carpark.

There was a bit of anxiety within me as I wondered if I was doing the right thing.

Recently we have started going out to the streets to reach the poor, marginalised and homeless.  This is something we have stopped and started doing since moving to our new home in our new state of Queensland, Australia.

Having left Melbourne during the Covid madness, God has been slowly directing and leading how He wants to use us here.  There has been an adjustment period and there have been many, many battles.

But now, at the specific guidance of the Holy Spirit, we have been going out with the young people from our home Bible Study group and trying to minister to people on the streets with physical and spiritual food.

And here we were, on this night two months ago, driving to a different carpark.  On the way there we could see no homeless people around.  What have I done? I wondered.  We drove into the carpark  where we were meeting the young people and drove through it, searching.  Not one homeless person around that we could see. 

Matt said that we will just pull into a carspot and wait for the others to arrive and then we would go on to where we would usually begin.

So we pulled in next to a station wagon.  As I opened my car door to get out I noticed there was a woman sitting in the drivers seat of the station wagon and that all her back windows were covered with blankets.  Her window was open so I just asked her

“Are you living in your car?”

“Yes” she said.

“Can I offer you some dinner? we have hot food, hot tea etc”

She was so excited and said she was just about to eat some dry noodles. 

“Why are you doing this?” she asked, “it’s so nice of you.”

I said we are Christians trying to share the love of Christ with others.

“Oh!” she said, “I’ve been trying to pray and read the Bible on my phone.  I want to join a Bible study”

She ended up jumping out of her car and hugging and praying with all our young people when they arrived.  They surrounded her.  She said she misses her children.

It was such a divine appointment.  Nadia* and I exchanged numbers and she informed me that she was going away to visit family for a few weeks.

I messaged her a few times over the next 2 months and she informed me that she was still with family.

The story continued yesterday…

Same thing, I was praying again before we went out to the streets last night.

There was such a strong prompting in my spirit to take the large pile of clothes that a few weeks back I had pulled out of my cupboard in a random act of clothes-purging and had since been sitting on my bedroom floor, and to put them in the boot of my car.

So I did in obedience. We had never given out clothes on the street before.

Then I felt strongly to text Nadia out of the blue and tell her that I have clothes and food for tonight if she wants to meet.  As far as I knew she was still far away with family.

Amazingly Nadia texted back – she would see me there!

So last night she came and took a garbage bag full of clothes out of my boot.  She had just returned the night before and has a job interview today and needed clothes.  We are going to catch up for coffee next week and she says she would like to join the outdoor Bible study that we do with the homeless.

Jesus loves the one. And He still goes out searching for that one.

“Then all the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to Him to hear Him. 2 And the Pharisees and scribes complained, saying, “This Man receives sinners and eats with them.” 3 So He spoke this parable to them, saying:

“What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? 5 And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. 6 And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!’ 7 I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance” Luke 15

*name changed for privacy


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Faith to keep going

It takes as much faith to stay where God has brought you to as to get there in the first place.

When He told you to go, you obeyed in faith, like Abraham, unquestioning.

It was hard to go, to leave behind all that you knew, even though it was a place that became too small. But the sense of the unknown, the anticipation of adventure ahead led you to follow Him to the promised land.

But you didn’t know there would be giants there.

You were shocked at the size of them as you entered the gates.

The fruit of their unrighteousness was massive.

One by one they came against you.  Blow after blow.  Cut you down till you thought you would never recover. Till you were sure your body would be always broken, your mind might just go.

One more giant and you will be broken for good, you think.

You begin to look back longingly to Egypt.  You forget the slavery and hard bondage and remember the flesh-pots and the yummy cucumbers you enjoyed there.

You thought the promised land would be different.

What am I doing here?

It takes as much faith to STAY where God has put you as to get there in the first place.

It takes vision to see past the giants and the constant battering to see the beauty, the freshness, the new thing that God is doing.

Occasionally you catch a glimpse before the next blow lands.

Sure you’d heard the stories of the children of Israel…but you didn’t know you would actually have to face a fierce battle to take new territory.  They were just Bible stories right?  Nah, it’s actually real, you discover. A picture of what is happening in the spiritual realm when God moves you to a new place.

Will you stay?

Or will you go back?

Then one day the last giant is gone.  Of course you didn’t know at the time it would be the last giant. That was the biggest one.  The last-ditch effort to destroy your faith and send you packing.

And then as you lie on the blood-soaked ground, not wanting to examine your wounds, wondering how or if you will ever recover from this… God sends a messenger to you out from Himself.  A kind one who sits with you, tends your wounds, listens to your trauma, acknowledges what you’ve had to face.  One who looks like he’s faced a few beatings himself.

He helps you up and walks with you. 

Did I fail Lord by even wanting to go back?

No, He says, you have overcome: because you are still here, and you are still following Me.

Eventually you look up and see the sunlight bouncing on the leaves in the promised land, you notice the air here feels freer.

You don’t just believe God is good anymore, you know it, deep within your being.  Because every time you thought this giant was the one who would kill you, a Man with scarred hands would show up on your behalf. 

And now you have scars too. 

And then the people start coming to you, one by one.  There is need here too in the promised land.  And suddenly you see that the scars and the desolation is what will be used to help others to overcome and bear their Master’s scars too.

“Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” Isaiah 43:19

Don’t give up my friend, the Lord Himself fights for you.  He sees you, He loves you, He will carry you.  Keep looking ahead, moving forward.  Don’t look back, forget the former things, He wants you to stand in the new thing He is doing. He has much for you to do.


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A Word from the Lord

I don’t usually do this…but today I have received this word from the Lord and felt to share it.

Here is is:

They’re running ahead of Me, like Esau, to make their cities, their kingdoms, their names.

They want greatness, they want glory.

But I desire a man after my own heart who will slow down and walk with those who struggle to walk, those who can’t keep up.

A man whose hip has been touched.

These have no power in themselves , they are the weak and foolish of this world.

I see them. I see them.

I have not forgotten them. I am the LORD of the weak, the foolish, the nothings. In weakness I was lifted up, now I call all men unto Me.

They are my treasured possessions. My glory shall be seen in them.

They are not intellectual

They are spiritual

Think of …(name of a Christian with schizophrenia)

Think of …(name of a Christian who struggles with alcohol)

Think of …(name of a child who has turned to Christ)

These are precious to me. Oh so precious. The world has no idea how precious.

The church for the most part has absorbed the thinking of the world. The church runs to glory and greatness.

But they miss My greatness in the weak.

Their eyes are blind to them.

They want crowds. I want one.

They want money. I want My treasure I died for.

The broken, the lame, the marred, the nothings, the foolish, the weak: these are My glory, these are My precious stones.

“Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it”

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True Ministry is Accredited by Suffering

True ministry, the kind that bears fruit, the kind that is of eternal value, that is born of the Spirit is accredited by God one way : through suffering.

I have recently had to re-submit my application for Re-Accreditation for Chaplaincy. Generally it was filling in paperwork, submitting references and governmental checks.

Pretty boring.

But this world’s ways are not God’s ways. He doesn’t care about university or seminary qualifications, although He can and does use them.

God’s way is to put His man through the fire. Rather than go through courses and units, programs in churches, Gods course and purpose is to get us to the point of death. This is what He wants.

I’m not necessarily talking about physical death, but to that place where we come to an end of ourselves and see we are so weak, so useless, so nothing , that we just go “Lord, I can’t even breathe without Your help! I submit to You wholeheartedly! Use me in whatever way You want”.

Ah this is the place where God can now use us. The place of death.

“For we do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, of our trouble which came to us in Asia: that we were burdened beyond measure, above strength, so that we despaired even of life. Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead, who delivered us from so great a death, and does deliver us; in whom we trust that He will still deliver us,” 2 Corinthians 1:8-10

“The sentence of death in ourselves” Paul says here.

Why?

“that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead,”

That place of death is where we learn we can no longer trust ourselves, only now on God. We, who used to be so strong, so brave, so efficient, can no longer even get to the bathroom without someone helping us.

This was the point I got to last month, so physically unwell.

I re-submitted everything to God in that place. My family, my health, my life, any ministry I may have left… I lay it all on the altar. I gave it all up to Him. Again.

Whilst I was also re-submitting my chaplaincy accreditation..,

This is how He showed me His ministry, true ministry is birthed through death.

Then when everything is laid on the altar, He sends His fire to consume it, and He raises up what HE WANTS, only what He wants, in the power of His resurrection life.

Now all of Him. Nothing of self.

Just like Jesus. Just like Paul.

This is ministry He puts His stamp on. The stamp of death, in order to breathe His life into it.

God’s ministry credentials are born in the fire. Don’t doubt it my friend. If you’re going through suffering God is doing something in you, something of eternal value.

“that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead” Philippians 3:10 ,11

God bless!


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The Old-Fashioned Power of the Blood

“Old-fashioned” but never-ending

source:wordlive.org

“Old-fashioned” but never-failing

“Old fashioned” but ever speaking

Give me the old-fashioned power of the blood, that old rugged cross and the exaltation of Jesus Christ as Lord and there’s nothing that can stand in my way as a blood-bought child of God.

The old fashioned power of the Blood of Jesus Christ is still there on the mercy seat in Heaven before the Father.  It has never been removed, it has never lost its power and it never will.

But the devil doesn’t want the Church to know the power of the blood.  In particular there has been a sustained effort to cover it up over these last few decades.  So let’s have a look at it.

What power does the Blood have?

What gives the Blood its power?

And how can we experience the Blood’s full power in our lives?

 

The Power of the Blood of Jesus

  • Peace is made between man and God   Colossians 1:20

“ and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.”

  • Forgiveness of sins   Colossians 1:14

“ in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.”

  • Eternal Life   John 6:54

“Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.”

  • Satan is Overcome   Revelation 12:11

“And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.”

  • Continual Cleansing from all Sin    1 John 1:7

“But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.”

  • Set Free from bondage to a Guilty Conscience to Serve God   Hebrews 9:14

“how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”

  • Liberty to Enter and Remain in the Holy of Holies of God’s Presence   Hebrews 10:19

“Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus,”

 

What Gives the Blood its Power?

sacredsharingsforthesoul.blogspot.com

Like the old hymn says “There’s power, power wonder-working power in the Blood of the Lamb”…

The Blood of the Lamb surely has power even now.  We can testify to its power to cast demons out of people, save people and set them free..

But it is the power of the blood of the Lamb.

  • Jesus Became the Lamb of God

Not a mighty warrior, a conquering superhero, but a Lamb.  A lamb has a meek and humble disposition. A lamb doesn’t fight.  A lamb is led to the slaughter quietly, a lamb doesn’t protest.

It is the power of the blood of the Lamb

“So he said to me, “These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” Rev 7:14

Jesus became the Lamb of God, who took away the sins of the world.  He was the final Lamb in fulfilment of all those thousands of lambs in the Old Covenant that were killed on the altar for man’s sin.

He literally became the physical Lamb as an atonement, but it was more than that.

  • The Disposition of the Lamb

He was also the Lamb in disposition.  Jesus was meek and unresisting.  In total submission to the Father He allowed man to do whatever they wanted to Him and He didn’t fight back, He didn’t resist, nor protest.  He yielded the whole time, even to death.

“And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.” Phil 2:8

“He’s not merely the Lamb because He died on the cross, but He died on the cross because He’s the Lamb.”  Roy Hession

Hebrews 9:14 says “how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God…”

Truly Christ was so humble that He offered Himself to God as the Lamb, willing to do whatever the Father wanted.

It was because of this disposition of utter self-denial, of the complete surrender of the Lamb and of His deep humility that God exalted Him and gave Him the Name above every name.

So we see how valuable this disposition is to God.  This was the disposition He was after when He created Adam.  But Adam rebelled against his Creator and took the path of Self instead. Thus all mankind has followed Adam down this path of Self and rejected submission to our Creator and God. This is the essence of sin: self and pride.

But God found that disposition in one Man: the Man Christ Jesus.

And His shed blood is the ultimate expression of this humility.

“It was because the shedding of His blood so supremely expressed this disposition that it is so utterly precious to God and so all-availing for man and his sin” Roy Hession

 

How can we Experience the Blood’s Full Power in Our lives?

Just as the shed blood’s power comes from the Lamb’s disposition, so too in our own lives, the power of the blood becomes available to us as we follow the Lamb and partake of His divine nature.

Just as He submitted fully to the Father’s will and yielded up His life to Him, so we too can know the full power of the Blood as we submit to the Father, willingly and quietly obeying His will, laying down our own wants, desires, rights and ambitions.  As we offer up our bodies as a living sacrifice to Him, He fills us with His Spirit and the disposition of the Lamb becomes ours.

Lord, help us to truly submit to You.  To lay down our life for you as You lay down Your life for us.  As we do, fill us with your Spirit and may the fruits of the Spirit, such as meekness, gentleness truly become evident in our lives.  We thank you for becoming the Lamb who took away our sins, may we become lambs now and follow You wherever you go. In Jesus’ Name, Amen

 

 

*Based on teaching from Roy Hession’s book “The Calvary Road”

 

 

 


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Missionary Quotations: Gladys Aylward

“I wasn’t God’s first choice for what I’ve done in China…I don’t know who it was…it must have been a man…a well-educated man. I don’t know what happened. Perhaps he died. Perhaps he wasn’t willing…and God looked down…and saw Gladys Aylward…and God said, “Well, she’s willing…”

 

Gladys Aylward, Missionary to China


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The Reproach of Christ

Foxes have holes

And birds have nests

But the Son of Man

Hath Nowhere

For His head to rest

 

What is the cost

To follow Him?

That that too

Will be my lot.

 

I may be lonely

What is that to Him?

I may be sad

Oh that I may enter into

His suffering

With Him

 

I see it

My laying down

Of my life

My Self

Meant letting go

Of the things others have

And seek after

 

Sometimes they come to taunt me

In the dark of night

Sometimes they batter on my head

And remind me of what I don’t have

Anymore

 

And it’s true

Social: rejection

Career: outside the camp

 

But I have Him: I have Jesus

Not just in word

Or in some banal religious way

But I have Him

I know Him

I join with Him

I follow Him

I love Him

 

And the Son of Man hath nowhere to lay His head