nobrokenreed

Dying for the Truth

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And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child – Luke 2:17

What is truth? – Pilate

[seems I missed posting this just before Christmas – Happy New Year everyone!]

This year I wrote a Christmas letter to everyone engaged in our business, now numbering some 40 and told them of how good the year has been for us. After some contemplation, I decided to try and bring my faith in Jesus Christ into it. After I wondered, why do we ever shrink back from such a task?

Then today I had lunch with someone who works for us, who I haven’t caught up with for an age. He was eager to talk to me about…my letter, and especially about my faith.  He didn’t know I had one.   This was a man who recalled a faith he had many years ago, and so we spent an entire Christmas lunch discussing what is only appropriate for such an occasion – the reality of Jesus Christ. My friend, like most of the universe, is dying to know the Truth. There was a spark rekindled after decades of dormancy and I can’t tell you how elated I felt.

It reminded me that I must never, ever stop sharing the person of Jesus Christ with people. So often we hold back for whatever reason, yet we never know when a difference will be made.

So, let us together make it our mission that this New Year coming, we will not shrink from sharing the Gospel with whomever we meet. At our doorstep lies a world that is dying to know the truth, and searching everywhere they can, but ending up with nothing.

Does it ever occur to you or me that God is dying for us, those of us who have been shown the truth, to share it with those who have never known – the truth of his Son who is life itself?

All of us, let us be joined in our assignment to share Jesus, even when we least feel like it or think it will make a difference. It is not us that makes the difference, but him.

Christ, God’s Word and Truth, the privilege for us to know and to share.

Happy Christmas. May you know his peace this Christmas and be able to tell someone what that means to you personally.

But what if they’ve never heard about Jesus?

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“They know the truth about God because he has made it known to them. For ever since the world was created people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can see clearly see his invisible qualities, his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.” – Romans 1

There’s a dangerous doctrine floating around Christendom, and it goes something like this. If the wild man of Borneo has never heard of Jesus Christ, then God will not judge him guilty in the final count. He will be saved. Of course, it goes further then as well; if the wild man of Borneo is not guilty before God, then neither are those in our own community who haven’t been able to grasp the significance of what God has done through Christ. How can a loving God condemn such people?

Where has such thinking come from – the Bible perhaps? Clearly not. As we see in Romans, God tells us that everyone can see the evidence of God before them. Further on, God tells us something else as well, that all men have rejected Him, and rebelled against Him. We are all guilty, and our conscience and the law tell us we are. As an entire race, we will have no excuse before God.

Such thinking is prevalent in the world today, but also it seems, prevalent in the church now as well. We say, how dare you, or God for that matter, tell us we are guilty. We buy it hook line and sinker. It comes about partly because of our disobedience to the commands of Christ. Many who call themselves Christians today, have become ashamed of the Gospel which saves us.

At the beginning of a New Year, we will do well, all of us, to take stock of what the Bible really says on this matter. That mankind will have no excuse before God, outside of faith in Jesus Christ. That without faith, God will condemn us to hell. He will do so, because we are guilty and He is just. He has provided an alternative in Jesus Christ, but we reject that as well.

I read this week that there are some one billion people in the world who have never heard of Christ and around 4 billion who do not call him Lord. Clearly then, a lot of lives are at stake.

Want to know what God’s solution to this problem is? Well, a little further on in Romans, chapter 10 in fact, he tells us about the importance of those who bring good news to those who don’t know. It seems that God put a great deal of store on our bringing the good news to those who either have never heard, or haven’t yet decided about his Christ. On the whole, we are God’s agents for bringing the good news to a lost world, and Christ commands us to go into the world and proclaim him.

Perhaps we have allowed the world’s viewpoint to override what the Bible says, because we have by and large, failed in our duty. Clearly there is a mismatch between God’s expectation of our doing the task of making disciples, and our willingness to carry out that task, and so we have put the onus back on God to be lenient when it comes to the crunch. Not our problem we say, you deal with it.

All of us have much to learn about ‘dying to self’.

This week I read of a missionary couple who decided to leave everything they had behind, and go to a remote part of Sumatra in Indonesia. There, they met groups of people who had never heard of the name, Jesus Christ. When the villagers were asked, ‘do you know who made the world?’ they replied no, but had been wondering. What about who brings the rain or the sun? Nope. What happens when you die? Don’t know that one either, but we were really wondering about that question. So, the missionaries were able to explain who Jesus was as part of God’s plan, to a people group who had never even heard his names before. Soon, entire villages were saved and baptised into Christ.

Such a delight to read, their willingness to die to self enabled God to bring such blessing to those otherwise condemned.

At the beginning of a New Year, you and I must ensure that our priorities align completely with God’s purpose and will, nothing else must interfere. Unless they do, we will soon adopt any philosophy to cover our tracks. God will not change his view to fit in with our human thinking, and we simply cannot turn away from those around us who face hell.

Let us make it our primary goal this year, that whatever the cost, we will speak up. Others must hear the Good News.

 

Have we failed?

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Arise, shine; for your light has come, And the glory of the LORD has risen upon you. “For behold, darkness will cover the earth And deep darkness the peoples; But the LORD will rise upon you And His glory will appear upon you. “Nations will come to your light, And kings to the brightness of your rising. – Isaiah 60

As I sit and write this of an evening, I am listening to Kings College Choir Christmas carols. Has so much ever been written or sung of one person, that is the Christ? Have hundreds, maybe thousands of songs and hymns been sung of Buddha or Mohammed? Have so many devoted themselves just to the study of the person of Jesus, and written tomes of thought on the experience? Is there any period in history where this person of Jesus has not had influence on a person or group of people somewhere to change for the better, the circumstance and lives of those around them? We do well to remember who is the real King, especially at such times as this. And what times we live in.

Last week we went onto the streets for several hours, and managed to talk to many about this person of Jesus. Not once in nearly a decade of witnessing on the streets have I been confronted with such confusion, such darkness of thought. Is our society changing I wonder?

Are we collectively no longer able to call wrong for what it is, or good for what it is? Have we so completely fallen for the lie that all paths lead to God, that Jesus was merely one of many great teachers and that each must find the path that suits them? I fear so. To so many, God’s holiness is a thing almost of scorn, after all, aren’t we gods ourselves, able to control our destiny and understanding all things in the light of our own wisdom and knowledge? If I believe in reincarnation, then it must be so and I will be able to will it into being. What need do I have of Jesus?

Friends, how did this thinking come to be part of our everyday society?

One thing is for sure, there will be consequences which our children and grand children will need to face and I feel very much after bringing this before the Lord, that we are to blame. My generation and those recently past, we who have been all too quiet on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Did we stand silent as in daily conversation, the person of Jesus Christ was put on a level with others, were we more concerned with our comfort rather than whether our neighbours are heading for hell?

Surely had your life been different, or mine then we would have seen Christ preached on the street corners, people healed, set free and the power of God move on our world as in times past. What, do we not believe that is as He wants? Surely Scripture would tell us otherwise, that our God is not a mute with nothing to say to this world. Do we forget that he alone, through his Son, has the only answers to this present tragic darkness. No friends, we have been the mute.

I fear then that soon, perhaps very soon, there will be moves to banish the name of Jesus Christ from our society altogether. Look at our schools, our laws, our governments, our very fabric of society. Have not the enemies of Christ done such a good job in persuading us that he is little more than a good man, yet still there might be better. If so, why ever pay him much attention?

So when we come to talk to everyday people, people with real needs in their lives, so many are so completely blinded not only to what is on offer, but what is to come.  Our work it seems, even if we start today will be so much harder than before. Decades of portraying God as a liturgy found only in a building, whom can only be approached while wearing our Sunday best has blinded an entire generation to the beauty and answer found in Christ alone.

Has not God already proclaimed that it would happen regardless, did I hear you say? Surely he has, but do we not think that for the sake of those around us, he will move heaven and earth to reveal himself so that they will be saved.

The question just remains, as it always has – what will you and I do, at what cost, to bring the will of God down to our earth such that his Son’s name might be proclaimed in the darkness, the only true Light of the World.

Will we wait until there are no believers left, till there is no example for the next generation to follow? Pray not, then move out and let the world know that this Christmas a Light has come to the world, one that saves as no other. He has no equal.

Alcatraz

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the people living in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned. – Matthew 4

A year ago, we met Mannie on the streets down here in Sydney. I remember it so clearly because it was Melbourne Cup day. There we were, 3 of us sitting on the steps outside the Municipal building chatting, praying, sharing. We were dressed in ragamuffin clothes while around us people in their finery were rushing to make it to lunch before the race.

Emmanuel has a mother who lives in the local housing commission, affectionately known as Alcatraz. Picture it for a moment; a 100-unit block right on the Sydney waterfront. Imposing, yet almost unknown locally, it is home to those whom society has both forgotten and mostly discarded. Ever since coming here we have been drawn to the place and have met, over the past months, quite a few Alcatraz inhabitants. We have prayed extensively (though not enough) and over time, met more and more people. Our sense from the Lord is to keep going, to watch as the power of God is unleashed through his Spirit, as the Gospel of Christ is preached to those who are captive.

Captive?

For most here, life is an endless round of depression, addiction, drugs (illicit or prescription) and visits by well meaning medicos whose role is to keep them away from mainstream society. The Webster packs (daily drug doses administered in weekly or fortnightly packs by nurses) can run 14-deep. Who will set them free?

We have toiled with this question a great deal. Like to know what we have learned? Firstly, that God heals and delivers today, and he wants to heal much more. He chooses us (on the whole) to heal through. Friends, nobody else will set these people free from the darkness that envelopes them. Secondly, the task is huge. The demonic, the darkness, the deliverance doesn’t get dislodged by a few 10-min prayers here and there. We are in a battle, and the stakes are high. Can you imagine what would happen if the wider community began to become aware that people were being delivered and set free down here? Lastly, we need to believe. This is a big mountain. Will God really set this place free? We, the believers at least, must trust God implicitly that he wants to do this.

Despite our doubts, we believe more than ever that God wants to demonstrate his mercy and power in this place. Over the past 12 months we have made inroads. Monthly, we run outside BBQs down by the waterfront. Tenants are starting to notice, and they now hover around to find out what is going on (as well as get fed). At last week’s meal, we prayed for Colleen whom we had never met before. She has emphysema, so desperate yet so lovely. Every time we meet, we run Discovery Bible Study around the picnic table and pray for each person.

As a result, a few more opportunities have started to spring up. Some are willing to meet during the week for Discovery Bible Study and prayer, and we encourage them to open their homes to others within the complex.  We are looking to rent the local community centre to encourage some to come out during the week.

Still though, we need prayer. Lots of prayer, lots more than we currently have. We need labourers too; those who live locally who are willing to labour with us in Christ.

We want to see Christ move through his Spirit. To see the oppressed set free. As we listen to the stories of lives that somehow got derailed, I realise how it could have so easily been me. Born into different circumstances, or with just a few things changed in my life, I could have been there. So, could you. How would you go as a pubescent girl with an alcoholic mother who force-fed you Vodka from an early age? What would the chances of ‘normal’ be for you today?

There are dozens of other stories. Are they all innocent, of course not? But is God rich in mercy, so much. He loves them, his Son died for them. He wants to save them and only he can. Friends, if you will, pray with us. Pray for more workers, and against the darkness of Alcatraz, that the Father of Heavenly Lights would shine on those in darkness.

We come into a seasonal time that is especially beautiful for believers, a time when God decided to act decisively against the darkness of this world. Pray especially that the darkness over Alcatraz might be lifted, and the light of Christ would shine in.

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