Grace and Truth

…all the words of this life…

Tag Archives: God


by 3 Comments

Bible Prophecy: In the News?

As we sit in front of our televisions and observe the present conflict going on between Israel and

Source:wikipedia

Source:wikipedia

Hamas in Gaza, one cannot help but recall that Gaza is sometimes mentioned in God’s Word, the Holy Bible. Following are a few important scriptures concerning Gaza and we cautiously ask whether any of these scriptures have any relevance to this present conflict?

Firstly, we wish to point out that some of these scriptures prophesied events that were to take place shortly after those prophecies were given; when God was angry at the way the Philistines had treated His Covenant People. However, it is also worth pointing out that the Bible is often written with “multiple fulfillment” in mind; that is there may be numerous fulfillments of a particular prophecy until the final prophetic fulfillment occurs. The classic example is the appearance of the antichrist. A number of antichrists have already appeared, such as Antiochus Epiphanes, until the “final” antichrist appears. This is confirmed in 1 John 2:18 where we are told that many antichrists have already come. So is it possible that those prophecies of old have any relevance to the situation in Gaza today?

Whether they point to the present conflict or not, they are nevertheless important to consider in the light of this present conflict.

Jeremiah 47:5

Verse 1 of chapter 47 of Jeremiah tells us that the prophecy was written before Pharaoh attacked Gaza and in verse 5 it was fulfilled when Pharaoh attacked. Yet we have to ask the question whether it is not being fulfilled yet again at this point in time? It reads:

“ Gaza will shave her head in mourning; . . . “

Gaza is presently in a terrible state; much of it because its own foolish behaviour towards Israel.

Amos 1:6-7

6 “This is what the Lord says: “For three sins of Gaza, even for four, I will not turn back my wrath. Because she took captive whole communities and sold them to Edom, 7I will send fire upon the walls of Gaza that will consume her fortresses. . . . . “”

It is thought that the “whole communities” referred to in that scripture were in south Judah. Yet, in many ways does this not describe what has been going on there now? Certainly through use of their tunnels, Hamas operatives planned to abduct Israelis and take them back to Gaza where they were to be held hostage and possibly even killed. Certainly Gaza has had reprisal heaped upon her.

 

Zephaniah 1:14 reads:

“The great day of the Lord is near- near and coming quickly.”

Verses 4 to 7 of chapter 2 are about judgment on Philistia, of which Gaza was a part. Here we specifically look at verse 4 of chapter 2 which reads:

“Gaza will be abandoned . . . “

In these passages Zephaniah is exhorting all to repent, not only Gaza, before the destruction comes that will sweep over the earth in the day of God’s wrath.

Zechariah 9:5

Zechariah chapter 9 is a Judgment on Israel’s enemies. In verse 9 we read:

“. . . . ; Gaza will writhe in agony, . . . “

Surely we can say that at this time Gaza is in agony; presently as the Israelis try to destroy the bases from which rockets and other acts of war have been aimed at her. But there will come a time when God Himself does it – for His own name’s sake.

Chris, from our fellowship, has an interest in Bible prophecy and from time to time will share his views with us on current events and how they relate to prophecy in this new series “Bible Prophecy”.


by 6 Comments

Do You Have a Secret History?

With God I mean.wind

Do you look back at all the times when you were alone with Him in His presence? When He had called to you “Come away” with Him and you hearkened His voice and went?

Do you have a “secret place…in the clefts of the rock
Where He can see your face,
Where He can hear your voice;” ?  (see SoS 2:14)

Do you remember those times when you sat at His feet and wept?

When you sat there like Mary and learned of Him…?

When He shared Himself with you and He was revealed…?

When your eyes were opened to His beauty and glory…?

When He unfolded the work He has for you…?

 

Do you have a golden thread running through the tapestry of your life?

gold threadAll those times when nobody else knew or saw, but you were with Him, where He was?

Times that you look back on with almost painful joy….

When the household was dark and quiet, asleep, but you were there on your knees wrapped up in the glories of heaven, tears streaming down your face?

All those times in the dark quietness of the prayer closet, where your roots went down deep.  Where you were established. Where nobody else saw.

Only your Creator.

It is those times spent with God, where nobody else sees – where if you were to try to describe it to another that words just woudn’t do justice – that is the place where your relationship with Jesus is rooted and established, like the roots of a tree. That is where true Holy Ghost ministry is born. That is where His life is imparted to you and to me.

 

A secret history with God is necessary first to establish roots in each of us. Once the root system has been established below in the dark then the tree is able to begin its slow emergence up into the sunshine.   This is the realm where others can see the result, or the fruit, of the work of the unseen deep.

“Deep calls unto deep at the noise of Your waterfalls…” Psalm 42:7

The result of your time spent alone with God.

It’s never too late to start….Jesus2

Get alone with God.

Spend time with Him. Don’t count the minutes.

Just be unhurried…

 

The secret is unhurried prayer.

 

 

God bless you friend.

 

 

 


by 6 Comments

Street Preaching Tonight

It was different tonight than it’s ever been.flinders st

It began pretty much the same as usual, but at some point I noticed the Hare Krishna’s dancing their noisy way towards us.

Great

With their colourful clothes, tambourines and dancing they make it all but impossible to preach the gospel.  They usually pull up in a wide circle in front of where we are preaching and dance and sing for sometimes 10-15 minutes.

Usually we get pushed to the sidelines amongst all the colourful chaos and the tourists bustling to take photos of them.  Standing on the sidelines politely waiting for them to finish their worship ceremony to their false god is absolutely frustrating.  It feels like Satan has got one over on us.

Something I’ve learnt: if you give Satan an inch – he will take a mile.

We are in a spiritual battle and being on the city streets you cannot forget it.

So tonight as they approached I grabbed the microphone and began preaching. As they came up to us I kept going.  They waved to me, I waved back.  I was polite, but not polite enough to stop. I preached:

“Jesus said ‘I AM the Way, the Truth and the Life, no man comes to the Father but by Me”.

They kept going.  I kept going: “There is no other name under heaven by which man can be saved, than the Name of Jesus!”  Sometimes I just called out “Jesus! Jesus!” over their noise.

They stayed for maybe two minutes then gave up and left.

But then it happened…

bourbonstreet1As I was preaching, I began weeping.

Yes, weeping.  In front of lots of people. It was weird. I couldn’t stop it. I felt God’s heart breaking for these lost sinners.  I felt Him yearning for them to come home.  It wasn’t me being emotional or sad – it was Him calling to them through me.  I wept as I preached to them His heart.

But then I stopped preaching because I began to think.  That can be a problem whilst preaching.  The anointing lifts off when you start to really think, especially if you wonder what people are thinking of you.  Now I kind of wish I kept going because that’s never happened to me before and I think I probably stopped it before God was done.  Sorry Lord.

Important point: I believe God wants to raise up preachers who are broken for the sins of the people.

You see, there are preachers who preach the cold, hard truth of the gospel.  They want the authority that gives them, but they don’t take any responsibility for the people.

Then there are preachers who in response to the above have taken out most of the truth of the gospel and replaced it with psychology or self-help or something else human.  They want to take responsibility for the people, yet they have no God-given authority to do so.

God is raising up those who will “speak the truth in love”.  We can get rid of neither love nor truth, and that is what so many have done.

God gives authority to those who will take responsibility.  And being willing to take street_preaching in chicago 1930responsibility for others brings authority.

We need to speak the whole truth of the gospel – yes, including sin, the law, hell and judgment.  BUT we need to speak the truth from a heart that has been broken for the people’s sins.  We have no right to be preaching to people about whom we couldn’t care less. That is not God’s heart.  That has never been His way.  Think of Moses, Samuel, Jesus, Paul…  We need to be willing to take responsibility for them by standing in the gap and interceding.

Preaching and intercessory prayer go hand-in-hand

Just as:

Authority and responsibility go hand-in-hand

May our mighty God bless you!

“If sinners be dammed, at least let them leap to Hell over our bodies. If they will perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees. Let no one GO there UNWARNED and UNPRAYED for.” Charles Spurgeon

 

 

 

 


by 2 Comments

Missionary Quotations: CT Studd

CT Studd gave up professional cricket to become a missionary to China, Africa and India.  In a letter home, upon the approach of his soon death, C.T. Studd wrote of the outstanding events of his life:ctstudd

“As I believe I am now nearing my departure from this world, I have but a few things to rejoice in; they are these:

1. That God called me to China and I went in spite of utmost opposition from all my loved ones.

2. That I joyfully acted as Christ told that rich young man to act.

3. That I deliberately at the call of God, when alone on the Bibby liner in 1910, gave up my life for this work, which was to be henceforth not for the Sudan only, but for the whole unevangelized World.

My only joys therefore are that when God has given me a work to do, I have not refused it.”

Going to be with His Lord in 1931, C.T. Studd’s last word he spoke was “Hallelujah”!

Praise the Lord

 


by 1 Comment

Missionary Quotations: Jackie Pullinger1

“Now and again, people would say (concerning her ministry in Hong Kong), “Isn’t it WONDERFUL that God wouldjackie pullinger choose a woman to go? I would say, “No, it’s not wonderful.  Excuse me for being rude about God, but He can pick who He likes.” I mean, it’s no more wonderful for Him to send a woman than a man, or an old man or young woman.  He picks who He wants.  That’s His business.  It was God’s wisdom that sent me.  I was just doing what He made me for.  That’s no credit to me; it’s all credit to Him.  If He’s made you for something, you just do it.”

Spoken by Jackie Pullinger


by 9 Comments

A Call to Prayer – a Poem

It is the mark of a Christiangirl praying

The test of one’s inner strength

It is work

It is labour

Our wall of defense

 

It is the prevailing muscle

That moves the Almighty’s arm

It is a mighty weapon

To the enemy disarm

 

It is the place of communion

With a holy God above

The means of transforming

Us into His great love

 

It is sharing in His burdens

And being privy to His heart

It is being in Jesus’ presence

Kneeling before the holy Ark

 

Why then-

Is this the way we resist

More often than not?

Perhaps because the way

Of the flesh it is not

 

But now –

Put that flesh man down-

Tell him to submit!

Then fall upon your knees

Where the flesh

Can have no credit.

 

Yes, there is a price to pay

-the flesh-

For a hidden ministry.

You may not be a preacher

Nor a church celebrity,

 

But with Christ you will enter

The highest work of all.

It is the one of Prayer, where

Before God’s throne

You are called


by 8 Comments

Jesus Christ – the Fulfillment of Passover

“Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29)1071010299Behold5Fcard

Jesus is the fulfillment of the Passover feast, the Passover lamb and the feast of Unleavened Bread. Whilst these Old Testament shadows pointed to the One to come, He is the reality behind the shadow. There is so much in the feast of Passover that foreshadows Christ that I don’t have a hope of covering all of it here. So this is just to skim the surface of these treasures:

The Lamb:

  • Type: A lamb was selected for the Passover sacrifice on tenth of Nisan. “Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying “On the tenth of this month (Nisan) every man shall take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household.” Exodus 12:3
  • Anti-type: Jesus rode the donkey into Jerusalem on the tenth of Nisan. As He entered the city, so too were the Passover lambs being brought into Jerusalem in preparation for the Passover sacrifices.

lamb

  • Type: The Passover lambs were reared in Bethlehem and brought into Jerusalem for the feast
  • Anti-type: Jesus was born in Bethlehem and came up to Jerusalem for the feast

 

  •  Type: As the Passover lambs were ushered into Jerusalem the crowds cried out “Hosanna!”
  • Anti-type: Jesus was greeted with “Hosanna!” as he entered Jerusalem.  (Hosanna means “Save now” or “Please save”)

 

  •  Type: “Your lamb shall be without blemish….you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight.” (Exodus 12:5, 6). The lamb was kept by each family until the fourteenth of Nisan when it was sacrificed. During this period of four days the lamb was inspected to ensure it was without spot or blemish, which would preclude it from being offered to the Lord.Jesus2
  • Anti-type: Before Jesus Christ, was offered to God as a sacrifice He too was also examined – by Annas, by the High Priest, by the Sanhedrin, by Pontius Pilate and by Herod. No spot nor blemish could be found in Him, indeed He was wholly without sin.

 

The Leaven:

  • Type: “For seven days no leaven shall be found in your houses….” (Exodus 12:19). Homes needed to be cleansed at this time. (For Jews it is still a time of spring cleaning). Leaven needed to be searched out in each home and removed as this was also the time of the Feast of Unleavened bread.  Leaven in scripture is, of course, a picture of sin.
  • Anti-type: Jesus having arrived in Jerusalem, goes straight into the temple and begins to cleanse the leaven from House of God, driving out those who bought and sold in it. (Luke 19:45) Jesus, of course is the fulfillment of “Unleavened” bread, Him being without sin.

jesus passoverThe Passover:

  • Type: Jesus’ fervent desire is to eat the Passover seder with His disciples. The Passover was a remembrance of what God had done in setting the Israelites free from their bondage in Egypt. The blood of the lamb was painted on the lintels and doorposts so that the angel of death would pass over the Israelite’s homes and they would be saved.
  • Anti-type: It is at Passover that Jesus institutes the Lord’s Supper. “And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me. Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you.” As Jesus broke the matzah He was telling them that His body would also be broken. Just at the Passover lamb’s blood was shed and painted on the lintels and doorposts – so too would His blood be shed. Under the covering of Christ’s shed blood we are set free from our bondage to sin and the matzahjudgment of God passes over us so that we are saved.

(The Jewish day begins at sundown. Jesus shared the Passover meal with His disciples at sundown as Passover began. He was crucified the next day before sundown, therefore, on Passover.)

The Sacrifice:

  • Type: During the time the temple was standing in Jerusalem, three lambs were sacrificed on Passover.
  • Anti-type: Jesus was sacrificed on the cross at the same time that the first Passover lamb was killed in the Temple. Around the time the second lamb was being slain in the Temple, everything went dark. At the time of the third lamb’s sacrifice, Jesus gave up the ghost on the cross and the veil in the Temple was ripped in two.

God had commanded in the Law that everyone was to be in Jerusalem for the Feast of Passover. That means that everyone got to witness the veil being ripped from top to bottom. The New Covenant was now instituted through Christ’s shed blood and the way into the Holy of Holies was made open by the death of the spotless, perfect, sinless Lamb of God – Jesus Christ.

jesus lambOh if we could only truly comprehend what He has done for us! He laid down His life for us – Him who never sinned. His body broken, His blood shed so that we could enter into communion with the Father. The veil of His flesh torn so that the way to God is open for us now!

“For the Law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things, can never, by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year, make perfect those who draw near. Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, because the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have had consciousness of sins? But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year by year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.… Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins; but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, SAT DOWN AT THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD….For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.” Hebrews 10:1-14

By one offering Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, took away all the sins of the world…. Hallelujah to the Lamb!

 

 

 


by 5 Comments

The Master’s Vessel

The Master was searching for a vessel to use; On the shelf there were many – which one would He choose? broken-vessel

“Take me”, cried the gold one, “I’m shiny and bright, I’m of great value and I do things just right. My beauty and luster will outshine the rest And for someone like You, Master, gold would be the best!”

The Master passed on with no word at all; He looked at a silver urn, narrow and tall;

“I’ll serve You, dear Master, I’ll pour out Your drink, and I’ll be at Your table whenever You dine, My lines are so graceful, my carvings so true, And my silver will always compliment You.”

Unheeding the Master passed on to the brass, It was wide mouthed and shallow, and polished like glass.

“Here! Here!” cried the vessel, “I know I will do, Place me on Your table for all men to view.”

“Look at me”, called the goblet of crystal so clear, “My transparency shows my contents so dear, Though fragile am I, I will serve You with pride, And I’m sure I’ll be happy in Your house to abide.”

The Master came next to a vessel of wood, Polished and carved, it solidly stood.

“You may use me, dear Master”, the wooden bowl said, “But I’d rather You used me for fruit, not for Bread!”

hisloveThen the Master looked down and saw a vessel of clay. Empty and broken it helplessly lay. No hope had the vessel that the Master might choose, To cleanse and make whole, to fill and to use.

“Ah! This is the vessel I’ve been hoping to find, I will mend and use it and make it all Mine.” “I need not the vessel with pride of its self; Nor the one who is narrow to sit on the shelf; Nor the one who is big mouthed and shallow and loud; Nor one who displays his contents so proud; Not the one who thinks he can do all things just right; But this plain earthy vessel filled with My power and might.”

Then gently He lifted the vessel of clay. Mended and cleansed it and filled it that day. Spoke to it kindly. “There’s work you must do, Just pour out to others as I pour into you.”

Author Unknown