“Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews” – Pilate wrote the words, in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek, atop that cruel Roman cross. That was the harshest punishment for the cruelst criminals in Rome. Did Pilate write those words because he believed Jesus to be the king? Far from it. It was a warning of the fate of all would-be trouble makers. At a time when Jews were under the control of Rome and continous Jewish insurrections to fight for independence had been a constant headeache for Rome, for one to declare himself king was quite a treasonable offense. Crucified, up on top of that hill, people were suppose to be afraid of the terrible fate that awaited those who were zealous for an independent Jewish kingdom. However, the faith of desciples and believers did not wane. Theirs was not the kingdom of this world. Like a mighty flame of fire the Gospel spread in Jersulaem and across into Gentile nations! It was not a Gospel of a dead Jesus but the resurrected One whose presence we can feel in His Word and in His manifestations to this day!
Category: Inspirational Notes
In the Jewish tabernacle they used to have a lamp which burnt continually. God said to Moses: “thou shalt command the children of Israel, that they bring thee pure oil olive beaten for the light, to cause the lamp to burn always” (Exo.27:20).
Notice that it was to be PURE OIL! I read somewhere of how impurities in oil can affect the lighting it produces. And talk about LIGHT, we have all sorts of light today! Over in taverns and pubs there are lights with blue, purple and red in them. That is not light. It is an excuse for light! Isnt this what has happened to Christendom today, having a dim and dark compromised Gospel in place of the Glorius pure Light of God’s Word?
For the light in the tabernacle to burn continually, priests were dedicated to tending the lamp. The practice went on from generation to generation. However, one day there arose a priest who served for so many years, he grew old and could no longer effectively tend to the lamp. Just how many believers have served God so long until they have become so used to it, thereby foregtting their work to tend the lamp? As for Eli “his eyes began to wax dim, that he could not see” (1 Sam.3:1). Well, God’s Word is the lamp onto our feet. We have to yield to it prayerfully. We have to sit under the blessed pure anoining of the Spirit to keep the Word burning in our hearts.
But Eli could no longer see “and the lamp of God went out in the temple of the LORD” (1 Sam.3:3). Just in how many assemblies (‘temples’) today has the light gone out and people gone to sleep? The trouble is, when eyes are getting dim and the light is going off, one may not notice that it is getting dark….
Let us wake up and tend our lamps. Be in prayer. Fellowship with believers. Always pray with your wife and children together. Let us keep the lamp on!
Have a blessed day!
—
(Preached at the Zambia Revenue Authority Lunch Hour Fellowship)
Teacher pointed to a shorter stick and said “One” and we repeated after him.Then he pointed to a longer stick counting “Two“…
Next day, the lesson was to repeat but this time he raised the longer stick expecting us to start counting. “No, there is a mistake here” one pupil corrected him: “We have to start counting with the shorter stick!”
To the young mind the objects – the sticks – embodied numbers. The sticks were numbers and the numbers were sticks. So, to posess sticks was to posess numbers. Did teacher despise our ignorance when we asked that question? No. He gladly complied knowing that “precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little” (Isa.28:10). However, growing up later, we could count without the aid of sticks. We could count ‘in the heart’.So we threw away the sticks. However, throwing away the sticks did not amount to throwing away arithmetic. Sticks are not numbers no more than works of the Law are righteousness.
Sticks were ‘shadows’ pointing to the REAL CONCEPT of numbers! When they FULFIL their purpose, one is no longer bound to OBSERVE them. I love God so much that I dont need a written Law on the doorposts of my house telling me “Thou shalt not profane the Name of the Lord”. He lives in me. I am dead to the flesh and Christ liveth in me. I dont need to be warned that if I dont go to church I will be punished. Like Jeremiah prophesied: “And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me” (Jer.31:34). Everyday is church time and I earnestly look to gather with the saints whenever there is opportunity. “Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ” (Col.2:16-17).
We are so very happy to finally start the construction works of the place where believers will be gathering to study and hear the Word. I am also glad that I bought my house plot just next to the one for the church (the house is on the right in the picture below. We have often saved up finances for keeping foreign visitors in hotels). Even so, that has not gone without the blessing of the Lord. However, finally there is a place that will be called home with no cost. If the Lord tarries, it is my desire for this to be a house of prayer, love and fellowship for ministers and believers. All this reminds me of the time when our fellowship had just started as a very small gathering in the living room of my mother. She was Catholic then. But one day the Lord healed her of her disease and she got baptised in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ and ever since she has been a faithful member of the fellowship.
Back in the years when I used to be in Pentecostal Holiness Church, the church owned their building and it was always wonderful for individual christians to go there at their convenience to pray, fast, and study.Thats the time when I spent so much time alone in prayer and seeking the Lord. Those years will forever be remembered as the time I developed a closer relationship with God. Over the years, after Believers Assembly started, gathering in a classroom has been quite an inconvenience. But to God be all the glory who has supplied all our needs according to His riches in glory. Now we have a place where we have started our construction works. The place is in a good, well-planned and serene area.The building will have a library, Bible study and fellowship hall. We are also glad that our recordings for the YouTube channel will be clearer in sound quality. But all this is only how far our eyes and desires can see. But we are comforted with words of Martin Luther – “Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.”
All the works havent been an easy process, but it is so amazing to see local believers so zealous and determined to see the structure completed as soon as possible.
As we build this structure we are careful not to get obsessed with the physical block-work. There are spiritual ‘blocks’ we must look for and establish in the Faith.
It is “living stones” which will constitute the building of the Holy City, New Jerusalem. On 1st, 2nd and 3rd December we will be having a crusade around this area where the construction works are taking place. Join us in prayer for the Light of God to reach out to that ‘stone’ which is still lost in the dark.
Amen
There is the mysterious so-called Dark Energy which makes up about 68% of the Universe and yet we dont know what exactly it is! And then there is Dark Matter which is about 27%. How much do you think is the rest of matter observed by humans? Nasa states: “The rest – everything on Earth, everything ever observed with all of our instruments, all normal matter – adds up to less than 5% of the universe.” And this is what we should call normal matter? “Come to think of it” Nasa continues, “maybe it shouldn’t be called ‘normal’ matter at all, since it is such a small fraction of the universe.” One wonders how much more, besides Dark Energy and Dark Matter, we don’t know. Well, something new came up this week. A new super large exoplanet has just been discovered in our galaxy. “The new discovery is called OGLE-2016-BLG-1190Lb and is thought to be more than 13 times bigger than Jupiter, our solar system’s largest planet. The Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute announced the discovery in a paper published on arXiv.org” (RT news).
It appears the much we learn about the universe, the more we become aware of our ignorance about it. But the important question to consider is, Why is there a relentless quest for various phenomenon in the Universe? Well, the current much talked about interest is it to find another life-supporting planet we can flee to, after destroying Earth. But then, why should we so treasure Life? Materialists do not see any divine purpose of our existence. We merely exist and craft our own purposes. We are simply a result of a cosmic accident. But the one thing we know about accidents when they occur is that someone wants to clear the mess as soon as possible. But out of our ‘accident’ came DNA, and this DNA is such a complex information processing unit which keeps being propagated to-date. How could such perpetual order have resulted from a happenstance accident?
Remembering Martin Luther
“When I am angry” said Luther, “I can pray well and preach well.” Luther is well known to have been a temperamental person. But how could anger characterise such a great servant of God? Well, it is important to know that when the enemy comes in like a flood God will raise a standard that is equal to the challenge. He will prepare a man with a behaviour, mannerism, and passion that is fit for the purpose. Isaiah proclaimed, “So shall they fear the name of the LORD from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against him” (Isa.59:19). God will always choose a man with a requisite character for the challenge at hand. Today, had we not known the story, we wouldn’t have believed that one man broke down the iron-power of Papal Rome. The man had the message of the hour, and the anointing of the hour!
Remembering Martin Luther:
“I am more afraid of my own heart than of the pope and all his cardinals. I have within me the great pope, Self”
“Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree”
Martin Luther
This month marks 500 years since Martin Luther began what became known as the reformation. Like someone said, the outstanding characteristic about the man was how he maintained a sober mind amidst a world lost to superstition. “The just shall live by faith” he proclaimed, shaking the Catholic system to its foundation. In memory of Luther, it is refreshing to reflect on some inspiring words he said.
“You are not only responsible for what you say, but also for what you do not say“, Luther said. How true! Imagine if Luther had seen all the wrongs of the unjust and ungodly religious system but decided to keep quiet. The Dark Ages would have continued to-date! It takes one man to take a stand, and only the heavens know how many souls rely on his words.
What made Luther outstanding was his sincerity. He was on the outside what he was inside. He never sat on what his conscience believed in, in trying to be ‘open minded’, ‘friendly’, or ‘understanding’ – modern terms for compromise, hypocrisy and cowardice. Standing before the political-religious men who wanted to force him to recant his doctrines and faith, he declared: “I cannot and will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand, I can do no other, so help me God.“
The sincerity of Luther ofcourse attracted many people to become his followers. But Luther was a spiritual man who knew that not every follower is a saint. Whenever there is a revival, it stires both the spiritual and the carnal man. Out of a genuine move of God, there will also follow a false and counterfeit one. Luther admonished: “For where God built a church, there the Devil would also build a chapel.” However, if we are prayerful we will discern Truth from Falsehood.
Speaking about prayer, Luther said: “To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing.” But what really is prayer? Its not just about what sound is coming from your vocal cords but what your heart utters to God. Prayer should be seasoned with sincerity and revelation.“The fewer the words, the better the prayer”, the reformer admonished.