Jesus is coming

Are you ready?

That we are in some sort of end times is, I think, generally accepted by most Christians. Whether it is the rapture, as some like myself believe, or whether it is the Final Judgement – does it really matter? Jesus is coming – are you ready?

Am I ready for what? Perfectly valid question. Let me turn it around for you. If you were to drop dead right now, what would you be able to say to Jesus when, or if, you meet Him? Are you certain you will meet Him rather than ending up somewhere else? What makes you so certain? “Not all who call me Lord, Lord, will enter. To some I will say, ‘Away from me you evil-doers. I did not know you.’ “

How sure, how certain are you of your salvation? How sure are you of your right to enter eternity in the presence of our Lord? Come on now – this is not rocket science – where is your ticket? OK, OK – like me, you are Blood bought and paid for. A sinner saved by Grace and by the Blood of the Lamb shed for us at Calvary.

But the question remains, are you ready?

What did you do with the people who surrounded you all your life? Your family, your workmates, your friends, your neighbours, local shopkeepers and workers – what did you do with them all? Do they even know you are a Christian?

What did you do with the gifts God gave to you? Did you even know that God gave you His gifts? Do you know what they are? Did you explore the gifts of the Holy Spirit? Did you seek the baptism of the Holy Spirit?

What did you do whenever God spoke, or tried to speak, to you? Did you know that He will speak to you whenever you ask Him to do so? Did you listen to Him or were you too busy telling Him what you wanted from Him? Was, or is, your prayer life a one way system of letting God know what you want, what you think, and telling Him what you would do if you were in His shoes?

How did you react when God called you closer and deeper into Himself? Did you recoil in horror? Did you say ‘No’ without even talking to Him? Did you ask Him about the price to be paid for going deeper? Did you even ‘put your toe in the water’ before you rejected Him? Did you grieve the Holy Spirit by ignoring Him completely?

Are you as holy as you should be – as holy as God wants you to be? Well, of course you’re not. Not one of us is as holy as we should be nor as holy as God wants us. Do you trust Him enough to say to Him, ‘I am willing Lord. Make me holier than I am now. Begin your work in me today, Lord.’

Why didn’t you even try when God asked those little things of you? Did you simply ignore Him? Did you just leave it for someone else to do? Did even bother to listen to His still small voice as He called to you – time and time again?

When Jesus comes, He will ask you these same questions. There will be great sorrow etched in His face as He asks you because He already knows the answers and He knows how you will answer too.

Scary isn’t it?

Time, perhaps, to accept that invitation to go deeper in Him. Time, perhaps, to ask the Lord to start His work in you. Time to prepare for His coming. Preparing yourself, and those around you.

It’s never too late to start preparing a way for the Lord in your life.

Revival begins with US

Revival Begins With Us

I’ve probably written about this before, but, as so often happens with the Lord, He has spoken to me afresh about it. My wife and I watch very little television. A little bit of sport perhaps; the news now and then just to keep up with events; and some Christian TV for an hour perhaps some evenings. One specific series of programs we have been watching is something call “The Bay of the Holy Spirit Revival” on God TV. It is live broadcasting of revival style meetings across mostly the Southern States of America. Last night was a particularly good one. The anointing was heavy, so heavy, in fact, that we could feel and experience it in our living rooms here in the UK.

People of God - something is breaking in the heavenlies. I get the feeling that there is a start coming to proper revival. Whether or not it’s another false start remains to be seen but something big is breaking. As we were sitting watching this, with growing excitement, my phone shouted that I had a text. I assumed it would be one of our usual group of friends watching and feeling the same things as us. No – it wasn’t. It was, in fact, one of our growing band of on-fire younger members. I must not reveal the conversation but one remark he made was that, ‘revival starts with us’.

The Lord reminded me of this again this morning, and yes, revival does start with us. To revive something we, literally, make it alive again. Where would the 1904 Welsh revival have been if God had not first revived the faith of Evan Roberts? Where would the Azusa Street revival have been if God had not first re-awakened the faith of William J Seymour? The first thing God did in the 1848 Hebridean Revival was to re-affirm the faith of two elderly ladies who were praying for revival. Then He moved on the local Pastor, Duncan Campbell. Without these revived saints, where would revival have gone? More recently, what would have been missed if the Lord had not revived the faith of Dr Claudio Freidzon for the 80’s Argentine Revival?

The point is this – revival starts with perhaps just one person. It doesn’t have to be anyone special, although the experience of leading a revival marks a person for life. I mean, who were Evan Roberts, William J Seymour, Duncan Campbell, or Claudio Freidzon before revival hit their churches. They were simply pastors of not-very-big churches whom God chose as His vessels for revival. Any one of us today could be in the same boat. God will choose whomever He wants as His vessel for revival. None of these here were great preachers, none of them were particularly gifted teachers. All of them were Pastors with a heart to see God moving in their community.

Is your heart set on the things God wants rather than the things you’d ‘rather like to see’, or the things you want? A few years ago, the main man behind the Bay of the Holy Spirit revival was not even a Christian. Yet God took this young man, he’s only 29 or 30 now, and anointed him as a revivalist preacher in the old style – fiery, fierce, totally passionate, and one completely prepared to make himself a fool for Christ’s sake.

I wonder, is the young man at our church the next one? He has a heart for it that’s for sure. He has the passion and zeal for it. Or will it be another? Perhaps you or even me? Revival has to start with someone, somewhere and it might as well be you or me or one of the other wonderful youngsters at our church or in the other churches around our town. Yet even that is misrepresenting the way it happens, because revival is a sovereign move of God. He sends revival to us, and He uses one whom He chooses to lead it. One who loves Him, listens to Him, and is obedient to Him. One He can trust with the great responsibility of a revival. He found one such in the 90’s at Pensacola and that man is again involved with Bay of the Holy Spirit.

Is this the start of that long promised and long awaited ‘end-time’ revival? I don’t know. All I know is that I am prepared to be used in any way the Lord wants to use me in His service. All I know is that, if revival is to start in my area, then God needs to start with me – or you – or you – or you. Any one of us.

Don’t know about you but I’m getting quite excited at the prospect.

A Plan for Today ??

Today’s Evangelism

Here is a four point evangelism plan for today’s busy lifestyle. I have heard it several times before but I was reminded of it today. I was watching God TV during the day – only because our internet and telephone services were still down after 5 days, but that’s another story. The question really is, or seems to be, why was our internet and phone down. I believe that God wanted to show us a couple of things and to teach us not to rely so heavily on them for communication.

I thought about this for a while and I realised that, for all my on line ‘preaching’, for all my supposed ministry – both alone and with my wife, for all these things, how many people am I truly meeting? I am almost certainly meeting fellow Christians and encouraging them. This is good, BUT, how many non-Christians do I reach? Not many. Do I need any further proof of Pauls words in Phil 3:8, “for all my efforts I count it all rubbish compared to my salvation in Jesus Christ” That’s right. All my efforts are loss, rubbish, garbage, filthy rags compared to my gain on Salvation through Jesus. All of my efforts, that I have fondly believed were being helpful and serving His Kingdom – even admired by some – are as nothing in the great scheme of things. Many of us are in the very same place. Working earnestly and feverishly but sadly, working somewhat ineffectively for the Kingdom of God.

So, what form might be better for my evangelism; my efforts for the Lord? I offer you a system for evangelism, or even a program for new Christians, which at first sight is how the first church worked. It is based upon Luke 10:1-24 where Jesus sent out the 72 disciples. It is also the same process as Jesus Himself used.

Meet together in the church or, if folk are wary of entering a church, then in your houses. Acts 2 relates how the first church met in each others houses, sharing everything so that none were in need. The time before a meal is for getting to know any strangers around you. Social chit chat may be a little stilted at first but as folk relax because you are NOT preaching at them straight away, they will simply start to enjoy themselves.

Eat a meal Jesus said to the 72 disciples, whom He sent out, to eat “Whatever they put before you” (Luke 10:7) They simply shared food. If you hold a bring and share meal, where everyone brings a little something, then just eat what’s on offer. There’s nothing like a meal for breaking the ice. People feel at home and relaxed eating together. There is always chatter going on round a meal table.

Fellowship and ministry – healing and prayer were meat and drink to Jesus and they should be to us too. Never ask how somebody is or how they are feeling if you don’t want to know the answer. If they are feeling low, or ill, or bothered by something, offer to pray for them or with them. Pray expecting answers, especially healings. How many times in the New Testament do we read that Jesus “healed all who were sick” before He began preaching or teaching them. It was His Modus Operandi and I see no reason whatsoever to change that. Feed them, heal them, then teach or preach to them.

Preach and teach the gospel was the last thing Jesus did when in a crowd. That’s because the last thing people expect or want is for a complete stranger to immediately start haranguing them about God and faith and things. Give people a break. They should know where you’re coming from, if you set the meeting up right, so treat them with respect and gentleness, with mercy not condemnation.

Well ??????

Why we lose so many

So this is how we did it

I think that sometimes we do not give enough credit to those around us for the incredible anointing and inspiration they bring to our lives. Take my wife, for example, every so often she comes out with a truth that takes me ages to realise. Then it takes a while to sink in and I find myself answering a question I asked earlier. So it is with this remark.

Yesterday, I posted a blog questioning the reason for our churches remaining half empty. I asked how we would account for the fact that the Lord has given us thousands of new Christians, yet what we did with them was that we simply lost them back to the world again. I received one comment that, “I suspect that it is a combination of things, not the least of which is the selfish concern of churches to try to do everything themselves.” I thought, yes, that is the selfishness of only wanting all these new people for themselves. An unwillingness to share anything.

My wife’s comment was this “I find it incredible that Christ would die for the sinner in all their mess yet we're the ones who look at them and scorn.” I found the comment this evening and, as I thought about it, I thought, Yes – another excellent, if damning indictment of the church’s attitude towards unity or any lesser kind of sharing in these times.

Selfishness is perhaps the besetting sin of the Church today. Firstly there is the selfishness of wanting to do it all themselves. This is more a pride issue. Some people can never admit they had help as it would lessen the glory for themselves. The fact that God share glory with no man and, as He said, “they have received their reward in full.”

Second is the selfishness of greed. Greed for keeping all the new people for themselves. Greed of counting all those lovely tithes before the feet are barely over the threshold. All this despite the fact that no program is in place for discipling the new people, no program is in place for teaching the new people, and no program is in place for even welcoming these very tender new Christians – rarely even an Alpha course.

Scorn and contempt is another reason. It puts new people off quicker than anything else to be confronted by snobbery, cliquishness, and plain bad manners and ignorance. If there is no training for new converts then there is even less for present members on how to welcome and absorb new people. How many times has a church found out a little about a new person and promptly shunned them as “not good enough for us”. So many professing Christians today are from generations of previous Christians and they are simply incapable of understanding that another Christian, no matter how new, does not understand any of their buzz-words. Words like ‘sanctification’, ‘redemption’, or ‘atonement’. They cannot comprehend anyone who does not know or understand the relationship between the God-head. Who is the Holy Spirit? What’s the difference between the Holy Spirit and the Holy Ghost?

So we hold such people in contempt and we scorn them as coming from the wrong type of family. Even worse would be someone who was, maybe still is recovering from being a drunkard. Worse still, one who has been to prison. Oh how the Church is capable of scorning such as these whom Jesus died for yet whom we hold in utter contempt.

I even heard that some churches would not join in a joint Alpha course because they wanted to make sure all the attendees stayed with their church only. God help our self-centredness and totally selfish attitude.

So this is how we threw away so many people from God’s Kingdom. How will we possibly answer for this??

How do we account for this?

Why are the churches empty?

If we are indeed in the end times, and the great revival is beginning, what is the church doing with their harvest. Let me ask you all something. We are all aware of the wonderful crusades and series of meetings, frequently called revivals, taking place all round the world. We see, daily it seems, Christian television broadcasting services and meetings where, seemingly, hundreds are being saved. What is happening to all those newly ‘saved’ people? Why are the local churches not heaving with people? Why is not church growth locally off the scale? In the 1904 Welsh Revival AND in the 1906 Asuza Street Revival, within 6 months between 50 and 70% of new converts were LOST.

Is that happening again today? Are we simply throwing the harvest away again? Oh heaven forbid that we should be accused of such a thing. Yet I firmly believe that we are doing just that. Not by rejecting them but more by not ensuring they know of a church where they will be welcomed and loved. Benny Hinn, love him or not, always has materials on local churches for new converts – why not everyone else?

Here we are, watching all the prophesied end time events unfolding, pulling thousands into God’s kingdom, yet we may well be wasting the resources that God is giving us.

So we have end time signs and the church’s own ’carelessness’ combining to pervert our minds taking on board the full implications of present world events aligning with Biblical prophecy.

It’s almost criminal. How will we account for this when we stand before the judgement seat of Christ?