Fixing Brokenness

Fixing Brokenness

Henry Ford is apocryphally accorded some credit for the expression – “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” I wonder how much brokenness is accounted for by ‘fixes’ that were un-necessary? It has been truthfully accredited to the church that Christianity doesn’t pick up nor help its own wounded. They simply leave them to die or otherwise sort themselves out. This may be true because there is no means anywhere in church structure for recording wounds. Christians seem to either not care or they ‘don’t want to know or get involved’.

So sad isn’t it?

Our whole ministry is round about the area of fixing broken things – people in particular. To the church’s everlasting shame, their record of hurting, wounding, and then discarding people is well known. Whether it is legalism, jealousy, or downright ornery-ness, the church has it taped. If it was an Olympic event, the church would have multiple gold medals. It seems folk in the church can be very little different from those outside her boundaries in wanting to see people fall.

A person gets appointed to do a job and someone, somewhere, for whatever reason, starts to try to undermine them. Calls to the pastor complaining. Claims of unbiblicality. Complaining, murmuring, and muttered dissent are all part of Satan’s armoury for pulling that appointee down. And when it happens, oh my, how “shocked and disappointed” everyone claims to be. The poor appointee is left hurt and wounded, often with no explanation at all.

We see good folk shunned and terribly hurt by church legalism. “You used to drink?” or “You were divorced?” are two very common ‘crimes’. That these things happened before salvation don’t seem to matter – the person is shunned and even put out of fellowship by weak-minded and stupid leaders and pastors. That Christ died for sinners seems to go over the dissenters heads. There is no forgiveness, no understanding – only wounding and hurting to the point of destruction.

The church has so much for which it must one day answer.

We minister to such as these. Hurt and wounded soldiers of Christ need TLC too – Christ’s TLC. If we can rescue just one soul and restore them to faith, then our ministry will be worthwhile. I just wish more would recognise the damage the church and church people have done to His Kingdom and help restore many of the ‘fallen heroes’. I am not talking about those who have fallen because of their own actions, but of those whom the spiteful and legalistic have damaged and discarded – often, sadly, beyond repair.

Please don’t get me wrong. We are just a very small ministry among many others much bigger and better than us who make themselves available to the hurt and wounded. This is one problem that is truly iceberg-like. Ninety percent is never acknowledged or seen or talked about.

What a disgrace we sometimes are to our Lord and Saviour.

Can You Imagine - part 2

Can you Imagine 2

Having imagined one side of the “coin”, when we thought about Jesus at work in our lives, I want to take a quick peek at the other side. Today, we need to ask ourselves, can you imagine if we somehow manage to miss the boat; if we miss the rapture? What a horrible thought – but we need to understand what it might mean for us and for those others left behind when Jesus comes in the clouds for His Bride. I believe that it is only when we understand some of these things, that we will begin to understand why the Word of God says that the Lord wants “that none should perish” but that all would come to a relationship with His Son, Jesus Christ.

There you are, suddenly left behind – all the Christians snatched up to meet Jesus – how do you feel at that moment? Just for one moment, imagine yourself in that position. How would you feel? Devastated is how I imagine I would feel. “Why didn’t they tell me?” “Did they dislike me, even hate me so much that they wouldn’t warn me about all of this?” I have a video clip by Penn Jillette, of Penn and Teller fame. He is an atheist who was once given a Bible and he asks, “If you really do believe there is a God, and that either heaven or hell awaits everyone, how much must you hate them NOT to tell them about it?” He compares it to allowing someone to stand in the path of a huge truck and just allowing them to get hit rather than warning them first.

So, can you now imagine a little bit more of how you might feel getting left behind after the rapture? Maybe you can imagine how broken hearted God will feel at that moment seeing so many of His precious creation, that’s us, left behind. But this is only the beginning of God’s woes.

Now you have the beginnings of an idea how either you or our heavenly Father might feel if we get left behind. Let’s change the scene a little. We are now at the judgement seat of Christ, and there is a long queue waiting to stand before the Lord. Can you now imagine the heartbreak He will be feeling as He has to say to so many hopefuls, “Away from Me. I never knew you!” Jesus has warned us about this very thing.  Matthew 7:22-23 “Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ ”

What a desperately sad day that will be – unless, of course, we do something about it. You already have the answer. It’s called the great commission and it starts at home with family and neighbours. The Lord hasn’t called all of us to be missionaries, travelling the world winning thousands to the Kingdom. Our mission field starts at the door to our church.

There should be a notice board hung above every church door in the world. The notice faces inwards and it addresses each congregant as they leave their church. It reads, “You are now entering YOUR mission field.”

It’s time for us to stop breaking God’s heart and simply obey His call to each of us to make disciples of all men. Sure some will still turn Him down, but we will at least have started to show more of Jesus love to our neighbours.

Just letting my imagination run a little bit – that’s all.

Can You Imagine - Part 1

Can you imagine?

Ephesians 3:20 “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us,”

Now I don’t know about you, but I can imagine BIG - very, very big indeed. This scripture verse is like one of those children’s story ‘magical’ moments that happen in a child’s world. “Immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine” – has a sort of ring to it doesn’t it? “Immeasurably”, and “more” for a start conjure up visions of vastness and then we can add ‘more’. What more could that possibly be that is bigger than vastness? Then, as if to rub it in a bit, we get more than “all we ask or imagine”. Help!! I’m getting overwhelmed here. When I allow my imagination to run around unchecked, all sorts of ‘big’ comes to mind – and it ain’t cheap either!!

Can you imagine when Holy Spirit comes and gives us freedom to worship Him and sing and dance for hours on end without getting tired?

Can you imagine when we pray for hours and hours and just want to stay in His presence “a bit longer”?

Can you imagine when the offering is so big we have to start being careful how we count it and how we take it to the bank without a security company in tow?

Can you imagine when people who do not know the Lord come running into our meetings, healed even as they walked past us, to find out what is going on?

Can you imagine when services and meetings multiply to three or four a day; they are all packed out; and they run into the back of each other so that, in effect, we have one 18 hours or so meeting?

Can you imagine when pastor announces that all previous planned schedules are scrapped and that Holy Spirit is now in control of all our meetings?

Can I imagine these things? Of course I can – and much, much more on top of that. Why or how? Just look at the final part of the text – “according to his power that is at work within us,” According to HIS power – not ours. That’s Zechariah 4:6 “So he said to me, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty.” At work WITHIN US !

Oh WOW !!!

Clear the decks. Make way for the King. Keep the runway free for Him to land any day He wants to. Holy Spirit is on His way to a church near you any time soon and the effect will be beyond my powers of description.

You doubt me? Fine – that’s more to share around among those who do believe. Miss out at your peril.

Can You

A Crucified Bride

A Crucified Bride

"A Crucified Lord must have a Crucified Bride." - W.B. Dunkum

This may be one of the most powerful statements that you will ever hear about the church today. It says everything we need to know in a single short sentence. But what is a crucified church – because the church is, after all, the Bride of Christ?

If we are the church, then a crucified church must be one in which the majority of people are crucified. Yet, hold on a minute, we don’t crucify people any more – do we? So I suppose we need to look at what the Bible means by being crucified in Christ

Romans 6:6 “For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin.”

Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

Galatians 5:24 “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires.”

Galatians 6:14 “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.”

I think you get the general idea here. Crucified in this context means a total denial of self in order that we might be “hidden” and only Christ is seen in us. Crucified means not even able to take offence at anything the world throws at us either verbally or physically. John Wesley was a bit like this. The story is told that he was riding his horse one day when it occurred to him that he had not been persecuted for three whole days. No insults hurled his way and, even more unusual, no stones or bricks had been thrown at him. Wesley thought about this and determined that he must be backslidden. Dismounting, he knelt and repented, asking the Lord for a sign that all was well. Someone promptly threw a brick at him and Wesley rejoiced in God his Saviour once again. Now that, I would like to suggest, is the epitome of being “crucified to the world”.

So, if we as individuals need to be crucified like this, then for the Bride to be crucified then a majority of believers have also to be so crucified. If we are to accept "A Crucified Lord must have a Crucified Bride.", then my assessment is that we all need to do some repenting before the Lord comes again and puts us all to shame – again.

I Surrender All

I surrender All

You all remember the old song, don’t you - "I surrender all, I surrender all. All to thee my blessed Saviour, I surrender all." All the times you have sung that song, all the times you have had that warm fuzzy feeling, all the times you have almost whispered those words to God - did you mean it? Did you really mean it? How much of the “all” did you actually mean? What bit of all have you held back – for whatever reason?

I so well remember ministering to a good friend of mine, with whom God was trying to talk. The guy just didn’t want to listen. The price was potentially far too high for him to risk. The Lord was saying to him, “Give me everything and see what I will do with it.” “Everything, Lord? Job, home, family, and finances?” the man countered. “Yes – everything”, the Lord said. The man thought about it for a few seconds. “I can’t,” he said, “He might keep it.” My mind went to the rich young man who gave much the same answer. I also remembered the Lord’s comment, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” You see, here was one man who had indeed sung that song but didn’t really mean it.

This is typical of so many Christians over the centuries. God calls them to surrender all to Him but, although they try to do so, there is nearly always something that is held back – something they cannot quite let go completely. It has happened to you. It has happened to me. It has happened to all of us. There is always that certain something that we feel we must retain control over it. For many it is a ‘biggie’ like finances, or career, or where we live. For others, it is something relatively minor, even insignificant, we feel we have to keep to ourselves. We even tell God, more in hope that He’ll believe us, that He has everything. We forget He is all seeing, all knowing, and all understanding. Don’t be silly, of course God knows you still hold it back from Him. He wouldn’t be God if He didn’t know that now, would He?

Yet “all” is what our loving Heavenly Father still asks us to give to Him and “all” is what He really does expect from us. We have discovered that the more we surrender to Him, the more freedom we have. It’s crazy and it’s a contradiction in terms, but it’s true. The more we have, the more we give to Him to control, and the more He gives back to us. Yet it is still that word ‘control’ that we are still so unwilling to surrender.

It has to be a pride thing doesn’t it? When will we learn? My wife and I are still learning and I hope more and more is being surrendered every day but I am sure there is still even more to go. To be very honest, I don’t even know if there is anyone in our circle who is totally surrendered.  All I do know is that it is working for us and I intend to try to get to that position of “All to Jesus I surrender – I surrender all”.

"All to Jesus I surrender" - Do you really? If you do, then God will surely take you at your word. It is only when we really are completely surrendered that He can fulfil His every purpose in us - including revival.