IRAQ

These photos are from Iraq, only a few months old. When it was mooted that Iraq was to be invaded, I was totally against this invasion. Mr Bush and others proceeded to influence the world to push ahead with the invasion idea, and strategy. I am deeply saddened that Mr. Howard has involved Australia in this crime.
In our land Australia it is a crime to injure people, to use force on another person, to carry weapons, to retaliate when attacked, to defend your property from an intruder. In fact you have to have your building set up so that if an intruder breaks in and something happens like fire, all the exits have to open from the inside with ease, because if they are injured you are at fault. So if this is the way Australians are to act, then why are we involved in the plundering of another nation and its people?
The evidence thus far is that the Iraq nation is in civil unrest, with the death toll climbing daily. The brutality of the opposition forces has been underestimated, and the initial invasion did nothing to produce a better way of reacting as a community. This war has brought shame on the Christian community as non-Christian communities flag this event by the Western World as a Christian backed enterprise of suffering.

How are we to say to these people in Iraq that a Christian does not operate this way?


Zech. 3:9-10
For behold the stone that I have laid before Joshua; upon one stone shall be seven eyes: behold, I will engrave the graving thereof, saith the Lord of hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day. In that day, saith the Lord of hosts, shall ye call every man his neighbour under the vine and under the fig tree. (KJV)

WHAT?

As you look around the community, what moves you?
Is it the community that is separated from God by their own rebellion to his will? Is it the amazing growth in the attitudes that result in aggression and violence? Is it humanity suffering in sickness, and deformity? Is it the emotionally scared, who have abandoned hope and abuse their bodies by any number of means? Or is it the seemingly inability of the people of God to meet needs that are presented in community?

An amazing thing is that often the people of God are unable to cope with the support of their brothers and sisters in the church. We are afraid to be vulnerable and confess our needs and errors. We tend to live our lives under our own authority, without appropriating the promises in God’s Word. We see the public prayer altar as a place of life failure, rather than a place of refreshment in spirit, soul, and body.

How can we reach out to those alienated from God, if we do not know what we have?



James 5:13-16
Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms. Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. (KJV)

Your CHOICE!

I have heard utterances from some who call themselves the people of God that a sermon should only be 6 minutes long. From these people the celebration of the Word of God seems to have little relevance.

How then would they cope with the Apostle Paul, who spoke all through the night to sun-up? How would they cope with William Booth, who spoke with such passion and fire, for an hour or more? In their thinking Paul, and William Booth, would have been a wasting their efforts! However history would hold the Champions of God with a much different view, and esteem.

It would seem that the problem is not so much with the speaker, but the hearer. On the surface it is simply a rejection of the speaker. With further analytical discernment, the evidence is a total rejection of the Word of God. Who then, in their right mind would openly go out in opposition to not only the Word of God, but also God himself, and his servants?


Joshua 24:14-15
Now therefore fear the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and in truth: and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the Lord. [15] And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. (KJV)

DARKNESS

What is it in the Scriptures that really grab your attention? Is it a passage, a book, a verse, a phrase, or even a single word?

It was dark from the 6th to the 9th hour!
I heard these words, and tears formed in my eyes, immediately. There was no mistake about the impact of these words. My heart was breaking, because of God’s amazing love. Hundreds of images flashed through my mind. There were images of people, and situations. More important, is the scenario associated with that particular darkness for three hours.
It is a period in time, specific to when Jesus was hung on a cross, for execution. Impaled was the Holy Son, of the living God. Condemned by a world filled with hate, greed, piety, selfishness, etc. Jesus surrenders his life and dies!!!

Darkness!! What does this represent?
- God the Father backing off from His creation.
- Three hours where the Devil had an unrestricted opportunity to reign.
- The sorrowful heart of God, expressed to the world.
- A world left to it’s own devices.
- The real burden that Jesus was carrying.
- The real state of the world with out God.

What does this darkness represent?

Luke 23:44
By now it was noon. The whole earth became dark, the darkness lasting three hours— (Message)

DRY GROUND

Isaiah 53:2
For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. (KJV)

A tender plant . . . out of dry ground.

Jesus the son of the living God, born of Mary, in a town called Bethlehem. How much more vulnerable can Deity become.

The world that Jesus entered was arid, in regard to personal man – God relationships. A real desert spiritually speaking, for the One and Only son of the living God, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Surely it was the abundance of love, grace, and truth, which was the sustaining influence that nurtured him to really on his Heavenly Father.

Lord, thank you for being a tender shoot in dry ground. Amen.

TENDER SHOOT

In the windows of the ‘Farming Studies’ classrooms that faced into a corridor there were specimen jars with seeds that had germinated, and were transforming into plants, in various stages of growth suspended in alcohol solution. As a teenage student at this Technical College the contents these windows and jars were always fascinating. Although not involved with farming studies, the different stages of growth on view stirred my interest when using that corridor.

To see the earth parting, and the green shoot of a germinated seed, pushing its way up to the sunlight is just an awesome sight. The tender, vulnerable shoots, pushing their way through the earth to the sun, with great strength.

I am reminded of another tender shoot, Jesus.



Isaiah 53:2
For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. (KJV)

Lord, thank you for being a tender shoot in dry ground. Amen.

AS BEFORE

Joel 2:23
Be glad, O people of Zion, rejoice in the Lord your God, for he has given you the autumn rains in righteousness. He sends abundant showers, both autumn and spring rains, as before. (NIV)

AS BEFORE!!!

I have always sat enthralled, as the adventures of the previous generations have been recounted. Whether they are from the history of the local Corps, or from the experiences of Officers’ involved in ministry. As the stories are retold, the amazing thing is the sense of joy, excitement, and passion about the times being shared. More often than not, many of the occasions have been victories through some really tough events and times.

Perhaps if there are people that have influenced, encouraged, and inspired you, an honour roll could be shared. Lord God, we give you praise for the saints who have been influential in our lives, and who are in glory with you, like, Toppie Whiteley, Ted & Lillian Nowell.

Many young people are seeking to do ministry today with the same enthusiasm that was evident in the pioneers. The Youth, are also seeking to be pioneers into new mission areas. This is really exciting!!!

Is this the same ‘as before’, or ‘back to the future’?



Lord, you have been the all sufficiency of those who have gone before; now refresh your people in this day. Amen.