Words In Scripture Explored

Peace

The world we live in, wants peace! The world is unified around the concept of peace! However, the peace the world wants requires the manipulation of circumstances. God's peace, however, comes regardless of circumstances.

Peace Definition: 'Shalom' was the Hebrew word used in the Old Testament. It means a wholeness of well-being & mind; the total absence of conflict and turmoil evidenced by an untroubled mind and a heart that does not fear! It is total harmony with God, man, circumstances & self. That is true peace!

History of Peace

The end of peace was when Adam sinned and fellowship was broken with God and between humans. God is a God of peace (1 Thessalonians 5:23). and the Kingdom of God is about peace in the Holy Spirit (Romans 14:17). Jesus is referred to as the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9v6). As a Christian Disciples, you have peace with God through Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection! There are three scopes of peace.

Peace with God.

As a Christian Disciple, you have peace with God because you are justified by faith. This peace gives you access into God's grace and blessings (Romans 5:1-2). Jesus Christ is your bridge of peace between God & yourself. Jesus is also the peace between other people and you, and all hostility has been removed (Romans 2:13-18).

Peace with Others

You are to live at peace with everyone and not to be proud or vengeful (Romans 12vv17-20). You are to do what is right in the eyes of other people and exhibit positive goodness. You are to make every effort to do what leads to peace & mutual edification Romans 14:13-19, and not place stumbling blocks in front of others!

Peace within

As a Christian Disciple, you have the gift of peace with God, from the God of peace (Philippians 4:4-9) given to you by Jesus Christ who is the Prince of Peace! (John 14:27). You are to be a peacemaker, by having internal peace, this shows the fruit of the Spirit. When faced with troubled times & a troubled world, you can have peace through an untroubled, unfearful heart & mind (John 16:33).

How do you gain peace within?

As you live a life in obedience to Jesus, you bear the fruit of righteousness, which is peace, quietness and confidence (Isaiah 32:17). A mind controlled by the Holy Spirit of peace gives a life of peace and total trust in God! (Isaiah 26v3; Romans 8v6). Lastly, when you are content whatever the situation , this enables the peace of God to guard your heart & mind (Philippians 4v11-12). Go, and be at peace with God, others and yourself!

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Be Thou My Vision

(as sung by Julie McMinn)

Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart,

naught be all else to me, save that thou art;

Thou my best thought by day or by night,

Waking or sleeping, thy presence my light.

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Be thou my wisdom, thou my true word,

I ever with thee and thou with me Lord;

Thou my great Father, I thy true son;

Thou in me dwelling, and I with thee one.

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Be thou my breastplate, sword for the fight;

Be thou my dignity, thou my delight;

Thou my soul's shelter, thou my high tower:

Raise thou me heavenward, O Power of my power.

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Riches I heed not, nor man's empty praise:

Thou mine inheritance now and always;

Thou and thou only first in my heart;

High King of Heaven, my treasure thou art.

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High King of heaven, my victory won,

May I reach heaven's joys, O Bright Heaven's sun!;

Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,

Still be my vision, O Ruler of all.

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Think Spot 10th September 2012

God came down

Have you ever known certain meetings that stand out in your memory? Occasions when you went to your usual church meeting and suddenly during the meeting it was transformed and you couldn’t take your eyes off the preacher and your ears were so tuned in to God and the message you didn’t want it to end. Time stood still and you left that service still with the message ringing in your ears and you took home with you a sense of the presence of the Lord with you that lasted for days and maybe weeks even months afterwards. It was awesome.

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The question is why was that service so different ? Why was it you felt God's presence in such a way seldom before experienced. Was it something about the preacher that day? Was it that you had been seeking to live much closer to the Lord the days preceding and God was rewarding you? Or did you pray for it to happen? Were you expecting it to happen?

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Following the meeting did you find it easy to explain to others what you experienced to people absent from the meeting.? More interestingly did other people in the meeting sense that same sense of God's beautiful awesome presence as you did or was it only you? How did you know it was God? One of the evidences of God drawing near like that is that people recognised God's presence very close to them and became burdened for their sinful condition and cried to God in repentance. They desired a complete change of life. They saw their need of Jesus Christ.

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When I read through the book of Acts I find occasion similar where God came down and those present sensed the power of God's presence there. How did Paul and Silas feel when in the middle of praising God in the prison cell the doors all opened and the ground trembled and the sound of of thunder filled the place?

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Way back in the Old Testament days after the temple was built how did the people of Israel feel when God came down as they worshipped and smoke filled the air at the opening of the temple and the ministers could not stand to minister because of the overwhelming sense of God's presence.

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During revivals in Scotland, Wales, South America, England, we read of similar incredible things occurring. The sense of God's presence was not only inside buildings of worship but God's presence could be felt on the outside too. People began to seek God as they became aware of God's closeness to them and as they did so it produced tears of repentance and peoples lives were changed significantly as God drew near. Children formed themselves into groups and began to seek God in prayer. It was spontaneous and awesome. People remained behind in church after services finished to hear more not wanting to go home.

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Recently and sadly I heard the very opposite. “Hope the preacher doesn’t go on more than ten minutes today. The church should know that no one has the capacity these days to listen to someone for more than ten minutes.” Of course if someone is speaking in a boring fashion I would agree. But if a person is anointed and chosen by God to preach and filled with and led by the Spirit its a different story isn’t it?

On one occasion I remember well when God drew near to our Mission hall in a remarkable way and God came down and His presence was felt around and about the vicinity of our hall for a month or so and it was amazing what transpired during that time. As a result of this event I was requested by a number of the children who attended the Mission if they could come in to my home before school (which happened to be nearby) each morning and have Bible teaching for 30 minutes or so.

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I can still see them in my mind sitting attentively and quietly drinking in every word, the story of Joseph from Genesis 37 as I applied its teaching to their young lives. They were so receptive. They were concentrating not wanting to miss a word. Could we learn a thing or two from those children may

Think Spot 3rd September 2012

Strengthen Your Church

When Paul was writing to the church at Rome he said “I long to see you that I may use my gifts to strengthen you”Partakers

God's spiritual gifts are given for the strengthening and building up of the faith of brothers and sisters in Christ's body the church. We can exercise our natural talents, playing a musical instrument, encouragement, financial wizardry, driving a car, cooking, and of course much more to strengthen the church.Partakers

But when God chooses and gives us spiritual gifts some spectacular like the gift of the word of knowledge, wisdom, faith, miracles of healings etc as with our natural gifts they too are for the strengthening of the church.Partakers

So what are you doing in your church? Are you a private Christian who only looks to themselves and does not look upon the needs of others? Or from the church leadership level are you looking out on the membership and noticing and recognising the gifts being used already for the building up of the church? The gifted should be recognized in the fellowship!Partakers

Of course we know the trouble caused in Corinth over spiritual gifts and cliques appearing and there seems also a lack of caring for the church in allowing all manner of sin openly to persist rather than deal with it. Was there also rivalry there? I think we see that it is clearly seen there.”I am of Appollos I am of Cephas, I am of Paul” you would hear people say.Partakers

So are you a New Testament Church? How far removed are you from that status? It may be a mistake of a church to hold a voting system whereby favourites are voted into Office who are not necessarily gifted or called by God for those positions. They may appear to be but how well do you know your fellow church members.? May be there is the need to request the gift of discernment to recognise gifted persons.Partakers

Now we know that no Christian is perfect otherwise there would be no need of the great quantity of teaching on how to live out the Christian life in the epistles of Paul, Peter and John. Why then do we sometimes fail?Partakers

The Holy Spirit is sometimes forgotten or neglected in the Believers life. Yet He is ever present within every believer and always speaking into our hearts to show us the right path to take and what ministry he wants us to perform in the body of Christ. We `are warned not to “grieve the Holy Spirit” and to “Keep in step with the Spirit”Partakers

Whether we are multi gifted or have difficulty in discovering what our one gift is we all have a part to play and when we discover that role life takes on a far greater meaning and we will be fulfilled in knowing and doing God's will.Partakers

All the resources your church needs is available in and through God. “Ask, seek, knock and the door will be opened to you” for since Jesus went back to heaven God has poured out his blessings and gifts to His church to receive and implement both in their individual and corporate church life.Partakers

So what do we need to become the kind of person who wakes up in the morning thanking God for our great salvation and then says “Lord how I want to strengthen peoples faith today. Grant that at the end of this day somebody will be more confident of your promises and much cheered up because I crossed their path.Partakers

If you do not wake up like this then as you seek to help someone in some way it will not be long before The Spirit will reveal ways in which you can help others as you yield to Him. Have a nice day and step out in faith.

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Joys Prayer

Partakers

Gracious Lord, Thank you for setting the perfect example to me of loving your people. It is my desire today to think more about others than myself. I need to feel the links I have with other believers because I am a Christian and to feel compassion for the injured and bereaved in my fellowship and to take an interest in their lives as w

Partakers Friday Prayers!

31st August 2012!

We pray together and when Christians pray together, from different nations, different churches and different denominations - that reveals Church unity! Come! Let us pray and praise together!

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Opening prayers

Confession

Praise

Petitions

Doxology (as sung by Jeff Wooldridge)

Amen!

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30th August 2012

Jeremiah 29:11 “I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

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What a glorious promise to hang on to, the most powerful person in the universe has plans for you and me. These plans are for our good. I think this is what prosper means in the context above it doesn’t mean God plans to make us all billionaires. He does however promise to supply all our needs and in a climate like Great Britain – that means a roof over our head and food and water and clothes.

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He has our future in His hands, it is a future to look forward to in wonder and awe at what God is going to do with our lives. He says they are plans to give us hope, so if your life isn’t the way you want it at the moment , hang on in there, God’s going to change it, all you have to do is be obedient.

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God loves us so much, this promise proves it for me and if God has declared it, it must be true and it will come to pass. So you can tell Satan to go away, the next time He makes you despair of your future and quote this verse out loud, then believe it.

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Things To Come

Some of the final words of the Bible are in Revelation 22v7 Jesus speaking “Behold, I am coming soon! To which the Apostle John replies in Revelation 22v20, “Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.”

As Christian Disciples living almost 2000 years after Jesus spoke those words, this is our hope – to be with Him who is coming again. He who is the object of our faith, worship and life of discipleship! And not just Christian Disciples talk about the “end of the world as we know it”.

There are a plethora of books written about it from all sorts of people, from all sorts of backgrounds with all sorts of opinions. But what does the Bible say about the time when Jesus comes again and how are we to respond to this fact? What does the Bible say about the future things to come, seeing as it is the authorative source for the Christian Disciple?

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1. The Second Coming of Jesus

I will come back and take you to be with me (John 14v3). He will come back the same way He went to heaven (Acts 1v11)

When will He come?

No-one human knows (Matthew 24v36)

It will be unexpected (1 Thessalonians 5v1-3)

There will be signs preceding His coming (Matthew 24)

When the gospel has been preached in the whole world (Matthew 24v14)

2. Our Response to Eschatological Prophecy

Be ready, waiting, watching and working (Matthew 24v42-44).

Be alert, self-controlled, sanctified and encouraging of each other (1 Thessalonians 5v6-8, 11)

3. Different Responses to Eschatological Prophecy

The three main schools of prophetic interpretation are Amillenialism, Postmillenialism & Premillenialism. These 3 views depend on whether the prophetic parts of Scripture are to be interpreted literally or figuratively (Spiritually). I wont tell you my opinion as to which I think is the correct interpretation, but let you decide that for your self!

Amillenial View - Primarily a figurative/spiritual interpretation. This view sees the O.T. promises to Israel are being fulfilled in the church. The Millennium is the reign of Christ in the Church - the new Israel. The Church is already experiencing tribulation.

Postmillenial View - Christ will return at the end of the millennium - a golden age of the Church.

Premillenial View - Christ will return to set up His kingdom on earth for 1000 years (Revelation 19v1-7). God promises to Israel of restoration, a future king and temple will await fulfilment. God has a separate programme for the Church.

4. Second Coming of Christ

The Premillenial view sees 2 stages in the second coming:

His coming in the rapture. This is when Jesus Christ returns to take His people to be with Him (1 Thessalonians 4v16). The dead in Christ are raised and the living are changed (1 Corinthians 15v51-54)

His coming to Earth (Revelation - parousia). He will return to the Mount of Olives (Zechariah 14v4; Acts 1v11). He will come with power and glory (Matthew 24v30) and everyone will see Him.

5. Christ’s return to Earth

To judge the antichrist and his followers (Revelation 16v12-16, 19v11-16)

To bind Satan (Revelation 20v1-3) during the Millennium. Amillenialists see this as having already been done. However, Satan is still the ruler of this world (John 16v11).

To save Israel (Zechariah 14v1-3). Israel will repent, recognizing the One they pierced (Zechariah 12v10-13v1; Romans 11).

To judge the nations (Matthew 25v31-46; Joel 3v11-17)

6. Premillenial return of Christ

Christ will come and set up an earthly kingdom for 1000 years (Revelation 20v2-7). Amillenialists see this as speaking figuratively about Christ’s current reign in the Church.

7. History of Premillenialism and Amillenialism

The view of the church for the first 2 centuries was of a literal millennial return of Jesus Christ after t

Think Spot 27th August 2012

How is your reading going?

When I was first converted over 45 years ago I was privileged to be converted in a church which had regular expository preaching and keen prayer meetings as well as a strong support for several missionaries abroad and in England. Week following week we had a feast of good things as we were taught on Sunday evenings the depth of the meaning of each of the Ten Commandments from Exodus 20. On each of those same Sundays in the mornings we went through a section of Paul's letter to the Colossians a few verses at a times. I had no idea how important this type of teaching was for me. I didn’t realise at the time how privileged I was.

Little did I know also that God had carefully arranged my spiritual education to prepare me for future ministry. He called me first to Missionary work in London. “Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” ( Luke 5:1ff)

I was then encouraged to wait upon the Lord for a clear word from Him to lead me into such a valuable, important and necessary work in an extremely hard place, a city with a multitude of different nationalities and religions, where only a sovereign God could break through . This teaching concerning God's almighty power was so vital for me to grasp before I began. “Go now therefore and I shall be with your mouth and teach you what to say” Exodus 4:12.

Before church membership it had been a regular feature I believe, to be taught three important teaching sessions on three major doctrines, Justification, Sanctification and Glorification. Yes we were certainly grounded in the faith and discipled which was so important when about to be sent into such a challenging work for God. This work in London witnessed God moving in and changing peoples lives of all ages through His powerful Word. This was followed by various Bible teaching posts in evangelical churches throughout the country. Time and time again I praised God for such a great education at the beginning of my christian life. Such brilliant preachers and mature Christians ready and available and so willing to help a young believer.

Now retired and having a lot of time to write devotional booklets to help all kinds of Christian through my life experiences I can now advise from personal experience which good Christian books to read which have helped me. Two questions I would like to ask as I look at the church today. First I ask “Is discipleship such an important part of a regular church programme today?” I think of Jesus called his disciples for three years training before He sent them into the mission field.

The second question I ask is how much do Christians read today of Christian Doctrine and experience? I thought I would share my knowledge of good christian authors and books which have helped build me up in my faith and have been such a help to me in all kinds of different situations which needed clear understanding of how to deal with them.

Books on Prayer which have helped me are Hallesby on Prayer as well as David Pawson's teaching online on the subject of “The Lord's Prayer” from the Sermon on the Mount, so helpful to build you up in your faith in addition to your regular dipping into the Scriptures to feed your souls. Prayer is not easy and can he helped by lessons learned by these men of God.

The first books I was given to read as a new christian were JC Ryle's “Expository Thoughts on the Gospels.” These are still excellent to use in your daily devotions today so easy to read and understand and divided very helpfully into useful portions to use on a daily basis. I recommend them highly. USB Notes are also very helpful and “Our Daily Bread” from RBC Carnforth.

But in addition to this form of study may I suggest you read regularly biographies of some great men and women of God from the past. I was helped early on in my Christian life in reading Charles Haddon Spurgeon's Biography

Partakers Friday Prayers!

24th August 2012!

We pray together and when Christians pray together, from different nations, different churches and different denominations - that reveals Church unity!

Today we are specifically praying for churches and church services this weekend! Come join in! Play & download the video!

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23rd August 2012

Luke 10:38-42 tell the story of two sisters. Jesus drops in for a visit and Mary sits at His feet listening to Him whilst her sister makes preparations for the meal. Martha complains to Jesus that Mary has left her to do all the work but Jesus says that Mary has chosen the best thing.

How often do we fill our lives with church meetings, church activities and leave out the most important thing - spending time with God? Of course there is a place for church meetings and house groups and prayer meetings but sometimes we miss out doing the things that God would have us do like visiting those in prison or hospital, feeding the hungry, befriending the lonely because we simply don’t have any time to do those things after we’ve been to all our church meetings.

So take time out to ask God which meetings He wants you to attend, you may be surprised at the result. And then if He frees up some time for you ask Him what He wants you to do instead, it may be joining the local golf club so you can tell people there about Jesus or it may be spending time with your family. But you won’t know until you ask.

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