Hello from cold and foggy London. We pray all is well with you. We as a family just want to say Merry Christmas to each one of you. We take this time of the year to celebrate the birth of Jesus who is the Savior of the world. Some might say He was not born on the 25th of December while others might believe that He was. To me it does not matter. What matters is that we take this time and celebrate Him. One of the reasons He came was to destroy the works of the devil and if that was the only reason then He is worthy to be celebrated on Christmas. But that is not the main reason, so what is it? You, you and I (the world), we are the reason He chose to come and take on human flesh.
There is no other religion in the world where their god “so loved the world [you] that He gave His only begotten…” that is Jesus (John 3:16). May we all realize that we are fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14) and because a young teenage girl was willing to be the “maidservant of the Lord” a Child was born and because He was born we have access to the God of all creation. May you know this Christmas how loved and cherished you are. Merry Christmas
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A young man in the ministry had said to some other young men that the anointing draws the women. So if you want women you need to know how to use the anointing. Have we come to a place in this time that the anointing is for our lustful desires? Or is it for the One who has suffered for you and me? His name is Jesus. 1 John 2:20 says, “but you have an anointing from the Holy One…” The anointing comes from Him who is Holy. How should we walk in it or “use” it?
I just read an article and here is a quote from it. “One Vicar interviewed on television said ‘If I was to meet someone who was 21 and still a virgin I would think there was something seriously wrong with them and counsel them and relate to them on that basis.’” And here is one more quote from my reading. “Enough of this moralizing. Sleep with whoever you want, whenever you want, but do it carefully.” This was on a leaflet handed out by a student union group on a campus. The Bible says, “but because sexual sin is a danger, each man should have his own wife, and each woman should have her own husband.” 1 Corinthians 7:2 NCV
So is our Bible out of date? Is it too old fashion? Or is it relevant for today? I also want to be clear on one thing, and that is, temptation is not easy to turn from especially today with TV, movies, internet, magazines, etc. But God is faithful and will not give us more than we can handle (read 1 Corinthians 10:13). May the Lord bless you and keep you, and if you need to repent just do it and turn to Jesus. He will never let you down. And be accountable, we need each other. Let’s set the standard.
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I think I would have let everyone know who I was. But not Jesus; His mind set was to leave everything and serve His creation. What a God, what a Creator, what a lover of His creation (that’s you and me)!
I read an article by J. Lee Grady the other night that kept me up thinking about our mindset of ministry and being ministers. Here are some of the excerpts: A pastor had invited a prominent preacher to their church to speak and here are some of the requirements they “needed” to preach the good news. “A five-figure honorarium; a $10,000 gasoline deposit for the privet jet; a manicurist and hairstylist; a suite in a five-star hotel; a luxury car for the airport to the hotel (2004 or newer), and room-temperature Perrier.”
Also at a charismatic conference recently “a pastor stood on a stage in front of a large crowd and smugly announced that the guest speaker was “more than an apostle”. Then the host asked everyone to bow down to the person, claiming that this posture was necessary to release God’s power. “This is the only way you can receive this kind of anointing!” And 80% of them fell prostrate on the floor.”
My heart is heavy for the name of God and how He is being represented. As well as the body of Christ and for those that are lost who see leaders that are portraying the Gospel and our Suffering Servant (Isa.53). We serve Him and not our gift; people serve Him and not us or our gift! For those of you that are serving the Lord, let us take on His mindset and humble ourselves that He will receive His reward for His sufferings. That is you, me, and all those He created.
Be filled with His love today.
]]>Where did Caleb get his confidence? In Numbers 14:24a it says “But my servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit in him and has followed Me fully…” Now the different spirit referred to here is not talking about the Holy Spirit but his inner man.
Caleb chose to believe in the Lord and he followed God fully. Caleb was not moved by the walled cities, by the giants, or by the largeness of the land. What moved him was his trust in the Lord. No matter how big the situation if we can see the Lord, He will always be bigger. Faith does not deny the reality of difficulty; it declares the power of God in the face of the problem. Who are we following with the promises that God has given to us? The ten spies with the bad report or Caleb and Joshua, both of whom, had a different spirit. “We are well able.” May we walk in a different spirit. Blessings, Rob
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Missions in Post-Christian Europe
Isn’t Europe a Christian continent? The answer to this question is a resounding, “NO!” Europe is now a post-Christian continent where for many, the presence of the Christian church has more to do with history books than with the present or the future. That Christianity at one time was pervasive in Europe is very clear. In the Netherlands for example, church holidays such as Pentecost, Ascension Day, Easter, and Christmas are all national holidays celebrated with not one, but two days each. Nearly all stores are closed on Sundays, and many massive cathedrals and churches can be seen which at one time were attended by thousands of weekly worshippers. Now many of them are businesses, restaurants, night clubs, mosques, or just historical monuments.
The decline of the Christian church in Europe is alarming. In the United Kingdom for example, five major denominations (the Church of Wales, the Church of Scotland, the Methodist Church, the Salvation Army, and the United Reformed Church) have publicly stated that if things continue to decline at the present rate, they will be non-existent sometime during the 2030s. This is significant in that many of our American churches, including Pentecostal churches, have their roots in these movements.
A team of 35 Americans from Great Commission Missions came to Amsterdam, the Netherlands, to scout it out as a potential site for a church plant. During that trip, this team spoke to random people throughout the city about their opinions regarding church and God. They were shocked when they found out that not one random person whom they spoke to during that entire trip had ever set foot in a church.
This sad spiritual state is further seen in the lack of Christian education available for the children. One 13-year-old boy who heard the Christmas story for the first time thanked his teacher for telling it to him. However, he wanted to know why in the world anyone would name the child using a curse word. Another young girl upon hearing that Jesus died when he was 33-years-old responded by saying, “Oh, yeah? What did he die of?”
As a mission field, Western Europe is financially prosperous but spiritually destitute. The church in Africa is growing 50 times faster than the church in Europe. The church in Asia is growing 43 times faster. As a whole, the church in the United Kingdom has not experienced growth since the 1950s. Many European nations have less than 1% of an evangelical Christian presence. Thousands of cities and villages do not have even one evangelical Christian church. What should our response be as the body of Christ to this situation?
Two shoe salesmen were once sent to a distant island where, upon arrival, they discovered that the people did not wear shoes. The first salesman returned home discouraged believing that he could never sell a single shoe in that land since no one there wore shoes. The second salesman however called back to the shoe factory excitedly, asking them to send a large shipment of shoes to the island. He exclaimed, “No one here wears shoes yet. This is the chance of a lifetime that we can not pass by!”
Two hunters went searching for wolves in order to get 500 dollars for each pelt. After a week of hunting and finding nothing, one of them woke up in the middle of the night to find a pack of wolves closing in on them. He woke up the other hunter and said, “Wake up. We are going to be rich!”
Church history is full of men and women who had this kind of faith to see nations changed by God. The Scottish Reformer John Knox is known for having once said, “God, give me Scotland, or give me death.” This man’s passion and faith was influential in changing Scotland from being the most “sinful, wicked and superstitious nations of all Europe” to becoming one “noted for its honesty, piety and morality centuries after his death.”
Dutch religious and political leader Abraham Kuyper, at the founding of his Free University in Amsterdam, proclaimed, “...there is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, ‘Mine!’”The call to reach Europe is one that demands a firm commitment to prayer, to give, to go and to stay. Persevering prayer is a must for our families and ministries here on the front lines of this spiritual warfare. We often hear people passing through our cities describing a dark spiritual atmosphere hanging over this continent. This will only change as we pray.
We also need prayer for fruitfulness, growth and multiplication in our churches. Western Europe is described by many as hard spiritual ground. What may take a short amount of time to start a ministry in other parts of the world may take years or even decades here. Yet as we ask the Lord of the Harvest for the workers and resources needed, we can believe God for a miraculous speeding up of this process.
As missionaries in the Netherlands, we are focusing our ministry on reaching a new generation for Christ. Weekly kid’s clubs where children, many of whom are Muslims, can hear Bible stories and learn about the love of Jesus is one strategy. Also, making disciples by building relationships grounded in prayer, Bible study, and accountability is another. We pray that from these relationships, new leaders will develp and have the impact Wesley, Kuyper, and Knox had on their nations. Fruitful ministry in these areas can have influence for generations to come and will play a pivotal role in changing the spiritual landscape of this continent.
Europe is not Christian any longer, yet let us dare to believe that God will use our lives and prayers to change the destiny of these nations. “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field (Luke 10:2)”“As a God of the knowledge of all that is knowable, He has the answers;
As a God of limitless power; He has the ability to communicate in every language.
As a God of infinite wisdom, He knows how and when to communicate.
As a God of total justice, He will only tell us to do what is right and just;
As a God of absolute righteousness, He will never tell us to do anything unholy of inconsistent with His character or the principles in His Word, the Bible
As a God of unfathomable love, He longs to communicate with us.”
Just take a few minutes and think about Him and apply His character to your situation. If it is sickness He is the Healer, if loneliness He is the Comforter, If lack He is the Provider. May we know Him, and be changed so we can change the world around us.
]]>No, God was not lonely, bored or had nothing to do. He created you because He wanted you. You are not an accident! It doesn’t matter how you were conceived, you were on His mind. (Psalm 139)
In Myles Munroe’s book, Understanding Your Potential, he writes, “God has a good attitude toward you. He created you in His image and drew you out of Himself. Before you were born, you were in God. Part of His potential has been placed within you. God designed and predetermined you to be a success story, and you are here because God wanted you to be born.” Now some of you might not feel like a success story but you are to our Father in heaven. If there is anything in your life that is not right turn from it which is repentance. God has great plans for you, just wait and see. He can do far more than we can ask or think in our lives (Ephesians 3:20). You are wanted and you are loved. May His blessings overtake you today!
]]>May the blessings of Father overtake you today!
]]>We have been itinerating now for about 9 months and let me tell you there have been alot of ups and downs, feels like more downs though. But we are closer today then when we started with our budget, praise the Lord! Today we went to a small church building (the Church is the body not the building as Dr. Brown taught us at FIRE School). There were about 9 people at the service but it was a blessing getting to meet new people and to minister. I felt to speak on 2 Peter 3 today and I kept coming back to verse 4 which speaking of the scoffers, says, "where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation." Let us not get into a form of religion where all things continue as they were Sunday to Sunday. We can become complacent in our walk with Him and miss the calling on our lives and a move of God in our towns. Let our hearts burn for Him, and let us see what He will do in us and through us. Oh, we also picked up some support today. Thank you Father! Much love and blessings
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