Monday, 29 December 2014
The Harvest is Plentiful
Friday, 28 November 2014
Learning from the past
Thursday, 30 October 2014
Go...
- Then Jesus came to them and said, INITIATOR OF MISSION
- “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. POWER OF MISSION
- Therefore go DIRECTION OF MISSION
- and make disciples - OBJECTIVE OF MISSION
- of all nations, EXTENT OF MISSION
- baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, INITIATION OF MISSION
- and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. OBEDIENCE OF MISSION
- And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” PROMISE OF MISSION
- I must presume that I need also to 'obey everything Jesus has commanded'
- Obedience requires teaching
- Teaching is by disciples who have gone
- The command is made to disciples not to a disciple
- How many of the commands of Jesus are to do with what to believe compared to how to act?
- Is it possible to be a disciple of Jesus if we are not going and making disciples?
- Was this command meant for just the apostles or to all disciples of Jesus?
- Is it reasonable to understand the verse in this way? Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, BY baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you
- What are the 'everything' commands of Jesus?
- Don't try to teach others until I am doing this myself
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Surely the early disciples would have understood that this very command of Jesus was one of the commands that should be taught to the nations. This would therefore mean that all disciples should: go, make disciples, baptise, teachChallenging thoughts and huge possible implications
Monday, 29 September 2014
What kind of boat are we?
Friday, 29 August 2014
Persecution - The Seed of Blessing
The centenary of the start of the First World War has just taken place and I alongside many others have been deeply moved by the stories of the sacrifice of so many for the benefit of others. Laying your life down is the ultimate withdrawal of your own desires, wants and needs for the benefit of others. Recognising that your own hopes, dreams, plans and ambitions have to become subservient to a larger, wider requirement of a more important mission
Jesus said it perfectly when he said that 'Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.'(John 15:13) Many of our Christian brothers and sisters in different parts of the world are not so much laying down their lives but having their lives snatched from them in the most grotesque and barbaric way. People that Jesus loves and died for, have somehow come to the point where they think that killing Christians is God's will. I wonder if any of them realise that they are inadvertently copying probably the greatest Christian missionary of all time -the Apostle Paul.
It is not The Islamic State who invented Christian persecution, all they are doing is pathetically copying many others who have gone before. Paul, before his conversion, set the bar very low in his hate-filled opposition to the followers of Jesus. 'Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples.' (Acts 9:1) Fulfilling the words of him whose followers he was seeking to destroy, he failed to see that all he was doing was planting the seeds of his own salvation. The very seeds of persecution would drop into the ground and bear fruit leading to the greatest Christian expansion of all time.
'I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. 25 The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. (John 12:24) Jesus was of course talking about his own death and the beautiful impact that it would have on the rest of history. The devil, the Jewish religious hierarchy and the might of the Roman Empire thought that killing Jesus would end his subversive activities. In reality, like today, the death of God's people is the very seed that will ensure that the Kingdom of God will keep growing and one day will fill the whole earth, in fact the whole creation
None of this of course means that we should not oppose Christian persecution, that we should not do all we can to stand alongside our brothers and sisters in Christ and pray for their protection. However, what is happening is not a sign that God's plan is being thwarted but rather is an indication that the world is ready for a new proclamation and demonstration of the beauty and wonder of the gospel of Christ.
And how am I going to respond to this changing opportunity, am I going to be quiet and act as if the message of Christ is an out of date, irrelevant, un-scientific load of clap-trap. Or am I going to renew my love for Christ, my love for His word, my love for his people and my belief that Jesus is the hope of all nations including the Islamic State, Syria, Iraq, Israel, Palestine etc.
Sunday, 27 July 2014
The Gospels
Monday, 30 June 2014
You Belong to Me
Thursday, 22 May 2014
Riddled with Grace
Sunday, 27 April 2014
Whoever....
Saturday, 22 March 2014
Followers of Jesus
Thursday, 27 February 2014
Continue in what you have learned...
- A simplicity of church life
- A closeness of relationship
- A passion for prayer
- A growing unity in the local church
- A worldwide vision
- A place for all
- A reality of God's presence
- A love for the lost
- A freedom from unreality
Tuesday, 7 January 2014
Marks of a Movement
- White hot faith
- Commitment to a cause
- Contagious relationships
- Rapid mobilisation
- Flexible methods
- Matthew 22:37 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. No half-hearted commitment
- Matthew 28:19,20 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you
- John 4:39-42 Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. And because of his words many more became believers. They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world. John 1:40-42 Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ). And he brought him to Jesus. Also Cornelius in Acts 9
- Luke 9 Jesus sends out the twelve and Luke 10 Jesus sends out the seventy-two. Both happened within two years of Jesus starting his ministry. Mark 5:18 As Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed begged to go with him. Jesus did not let him, but said, “Go home to your own people and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.” So the man went away and began to tell in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him. And all the people were amazed. Also John 4 as above shows the Samaritan women being mobilised quickly
- Different ways that the gospel spread demonstrating flexible methods
- Acts 3. People respond to an individual healing at the temple
- Acts 5. Many healed and people impacted
- Acts 8. People scattered through persecution and preached wherever they went
- Acts 8. Philip sent to one man - the Ethiopian
- Acts 9. Saul converted with no human involvement
- Acts 9 Tabitha raised from dead and impacted whole of Joppa
- Acts 10. Cornelius has a vision and then gathers his family and friends
- Luke-warm faith
- Either commitment to the status quo or no commitment to a cause
- Either non contagious relationships or lack of relationships
- Slow or non existent mobilisation
- Inflexible methods