Answers to Prayers

1 John 5:14-15: "This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us - whatever we ask - we know that we have what we asked of him" (NIV).

Parenting tests this passage like few other experiences. Because we love our children, we assume we know what is best for them. We pray for God to honor our plans and are shocked when God sometimes leads us down a more difficult path, with testing and pain.

For me, the turning point came when I realized I was looking at God as a "cosmic vending machine". When I prayed, I somehow felt He was obligated to comply. Then, a colleague gave me a simple guide that changed my perspective on prayer. He said, "Prayer is asking God to align you with His will, rather than asking Him to be aligned with yours."

God knows what you and your children really need. When we pray, He is at work answering those prayers, but in a way that suits Him and His Kingdom. Faith trusts the wisdom of His answer, even when His answer is different than what we expect.

Pray for God's will to be done and your prayers will be answered.



COURTESY: DAILY PARENTING DEVOTIONAL

Back to Basics

I recently read an excerpt from a book by David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons called "UnChristian." Loaded to the hilt with statistics and survey results with regard to the current perceptions and thoughts of twenty-somethings when it comes to the Church, the results indicate that the vast majority of twenty-somethings, when asked whether or not the Church today reflects the Person of Jesus Christ, answer "no." The surveys span a time frame of around three years of research. The following words describe present-day Christianity:

* judgmental 87%
* hypocritical 85%
* old-fashioned 78%
* too political 75%
* out of touch with reality 72%
* insensitive to others 70%
* boring 68%

Why these negative characterizations flourish, the extent to which they are deserved, or whether they are even accurate, are all interesting and complex questions. But at least we can say this much — the emergent community of those who had followed Jesus gained a different reputation; they "enjoyed the favor of all the people" (Acts 2:47). Why the contrast between then and now?

After a period of confusion, doubt and disbelief following the gruesome execution of Jesus, and despite threats from the religious and government authorities, his followers became convinced that "God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact. We cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard" (Acts 2:32, 4:20).

To the shock of most everyone, these unschooled and ordinary Jesus followers proclaimed their message with courage and boldness. In Jerusalem, converts joined the movement en masse, first 3,000 people, then increasing to 5,000 (2:41, 4:4). Luke gives us a snapshot of this vibrant Jesus-community that helps to explain the appeal of their message, its consequent expansion, and their local reception:
All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had. With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was with them all. There were no needy persons among them. From time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need (Acts 4:32–35).

Luke's depiction of the Jerusalem believers identifies a signature characteristic of their movement — in a word, generosity. Their social generosity expressed itself in community, and their financial generosity expressed itself in compassion.

Following the example of Jesus, the first Christians broke down social barriers and disregarded religious taboos that distinguished between the ritually clean and the unclean, the worthy and the unworthy, the respectable and the unrespectable. They were "one in heart and mind," writes Luke. They subverted normal social hierarchies of wealth, ethnicity, religion, and gender in favor of a radical ONENESS before God and with each other: "There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:28).

About a century after Luke wrote, the early Christians had a well-known and well-deserved reputation for social generosity that built bridges of community rather than walls of separation.

Luke also says that the selling of property occurred "from time to time," which is to say that it was sporadic and based upon a person's sense of God's call rather than compulsory or systematic. None of these caveats, though, diminish the revolutionary impact of financial generosity expressed in compassion for the needy.

Luke concludes his general description of the believer’s social and financial generosity with a specific example: "Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas (which means Son of Encouragement), sold a field he owned and brought the money and put it at the apostles' feet" (Acts 4:36–37). Luke describes Barnabas as "a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith" (Acts 11:24), and even as an "apostle" (Acts 14:14).

I get discouraged when I read studies like UnChristian, partly because I think they have a point. I wish that we Christians could somehow recapture the witness of those first believers who, because "great grace was with them all," demonstrated overflowing generosity to their neighbors, and who consequently "enjoyed the favor of all the people."

How open are you to change?

The Church, as we have seen from a lot of my earlier posts, is a movement.
It is not a machine.It’s a cycle of progress that we have been observing: Man- Movement- Machine- Monument- Museum.
As long as you are open to progress, you will still be in The Movement phase.
The Apostles were open to progress. In Acts 10, we see Peter has a transviion. This was 13 years after he began professing and preaching to the Jews. At his transvision he realized that he had to open up to the Gentiles. They were as worthy of the Gospel as the Jews. And if he had a problem, deal with it. Peter realized delayed obedience is still disobedience.
Thus 13 years after the Day of Pentecost, began the evangelisation of the Gentiles.
So remain open to change always. The Bible may have been written 2000 years back and it more than relevant even today. Read it for relevation rather than information because revelation takes you to Salvation.

In His Time

Peter wrote, "For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?" 1 Pet.4:17.

The ancient Greeks had two words for time, chronos and kairos. Chronos refers to chronological or sequential time. Chronos time is measured by the clock and calendar. It is orderly, rhythmic, and predictable. It is what we moderns typically think of as time. Kairos time, on the other hand, refers to “God’s time.” It is a time, not measured by the clock, where God has chosen “the right moment” or the “opportune” time. Kairos time usually involves a period of disruption to the normal flow of things.

In the New Testament kairos means "the appointed time in the purpose of God", the time when God acts (e.g. Mark 1.15, the kairos is fulfilled). It differs from the more usual word for time which is chronos (kronos). Kairos time is usually perceived as a time of crisis. The Chinese word for “crisis” is a picogram of the two words “danger” and “opportunity.” With this in mind, one has a possibility of participating in a “new creation.” One has the choice of danger or opportunity, a chance to build something new out of the old. Kairos time bridges the tearing down of the “old way” with the building of a “new way.”

In Daniel Ch 9, one of the most amazing prophetic passages in the Bible, it’s said that the Antichrist will definitely try to change Kairos.

What Our Father desires from us is that we are so close to his heart that we are able to discern the times and seasons of His Work. When Jesus has purified His church and she is without spot and wrinkle He will return for her. This is our blessed hope.

Apostolic Governance

A sequel to my earlier blog that tells you more about the present Wave of Christainity﷓ Apostolic Governance.

As we look through the first few verses in each epistle as they generally begin with the writer identifying himself as an apostle: “Paul an apostle of Jesus Christ. . . “ (Col.1:1).

We know from reading the gospels that it was God’s plan to call and prepare apostles to work with Jesus to transition the people from the faith of Moses to the faith of Jesus Christ, from the First Covenant Faith to the Second Covenant Faith. After Jesus prayed all night to God He called unto him his disciples: and of them he chose twelve, whom also he named apostles (Lk. 6:12-13).

It was these men that Jesus prepared to be His voice to lead His people after He had completed His mission to establish Himself as the New Covenant.

Reading from the gospels, the book of Acts, and the epistles we observe that God planned for apostles to direct the church in doctrine and function. The church, after Jesus’ resurrection, did not disband and each believer go their separate way to devise a faith independent of the apostolic stewardship. That being true, we learn God’s mind:

• That God had not intended that prophets, evangelists, pastors, or teachers to act independent of Apostolic Stewardship.

• That God had not intended each individual to decide how their faith should be expressed.

• That after Jesus ascended into heaven, His apostles were His ambassadors; they represented Him.

As Apostles, we have to be discerning enough to know the times and seasons of God’s work.

We are called of God to bring the church into the unity of the faith. Through the Apostolic Governance, our Lord is now transitioning the church back to her first love.

The Progress of Christianity

If you look back into the history of Christianity, all you would notice is a lot of misunderstanding.

For one, Jesus isn’t ,wasn’t, and never will be the founder of Christianity.

The Religion of Christianity, in fact has nothing to do with neither the crucification, resurrection of Christ nor the fire that fell on those in the Upper room.

It all began with a dream of an emperor who had turned a blind eye to persecutions within his empire and needled unnecessarily launches war against his unfaithful aide.

The night before Emperor Constantine I dreamt of winning battles upon the strength of the insignia of the Cross. Promptly, he added the new insignia to his coat o farms and gave his subjects a choice-Either follow me and I follow Christianity or die.
He was a very persuasive man, ably aided by his sword and thus a majority of today’s populations were born to parents of Christian origin.

So there you have it- contrary to our textbooks, Emperor Constantine I, not Jesus, is the founder of Christianity.

Jesus never professed a religion. He talked about a way of life. He came here willingly on His Father’s orders to tell us of His Father’s likes and dislikes.

Constantine laid the foundation rules for his newfound religion and those that he subjugated added some more of their earlier traditions and beliefs and eventually we landed up with a set of beliefs that had nothing to do with what occurred in the Upper Room.

In the 16th century began the Protestant Reformation began when a Catholic monk rediscovered a Catholic doctrine in a Catholic book. The monk, of course, was Luther; the doctrine was justification by faith; and the book was the Bible. Some felt that the Reformation was progressing too slowly. And it was among these reformers that the Anabaptist movement formed its roots.
What characterized their faith more than anything else, clearly distinguishing Anabaptists from other religions, was the conviction that baptism was for adults and not for children.

Mid 17th century, the Anabaptists lost some of their rigidity (today’s Amish or Mennonites are common examples of what Anabaptists are) and thus became the Baptists. The one thing both movements had in common was baptism by immersion.

The Pentecostal movement had its origins in believers who intensely desired more of God in the late 19th century. People were getting interested in world evangelization and realized that they needed the original power of the Holy Spirit to do this. They sought God and prayed. Many Methodists and Salvation Army people were among those who were most hungry for God, and embraced the move of the Holy Spirit.

People had been thinking that God no longer spoke except through the Bible, and that speaking in tongues had ceased, but the early Pentecostal pioneers challenged that. Contrary to the then Baptist beliefs on the cessation of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, Pentecostals believed in the baptism of the Holy Spirit, evidenced by speaking in tongues.

On April 9, 1906, at a prayer meeting in a modest home, a few men and women spoke in tongues. They had been meeting to pray for "an outpouring" of the Holy Spirit. The tongues speech convinced them that they had "broken through."

Thus was the Azusa Street Revival. It shook the foundations of the church and changed the lives of six hundred million people forever! The faithful announced that this was a reenactment of the New Testament Day of Pentecost: "All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages as the Spirit gave them ability" (Acts 2:4). God was restoring New Testament experiences of the Holy Spirit -- or, as devotees of the movement put it, restoring the apostolic faith.

At the heart of this movement was William J. Seymour, a one-eyed black pastor from Louisiana, son of a slave, who preached the message of “Apolostic Faith.”
At Azusa Street, one could see and hear the "utterance gifts" listed in 1 Corinthians 12:8-10. People interpreted tongues and prophesied -- phenomena with which few Christians had any direct experience. The sick came for healing. Global Pentecostalism has multiple origins, and the Azusa Street revival was one of several impulses that birthed a distinctly Pentecostal form of Christianity.

As the Pentecostal and Charismatic movements plateaud, up arose evangelists such as Billy Graham and Oral Roberts with Praise and worship and Healing revival, tele evangelism.

In the 1960s, came the Catholic Charismatic Renewal and in the 1990s, as church members in growth churches attribute their success to the movement of the Holy Spirit, strong church leadership, evangelical outreach came the New Generation Churches.

In the midst of all this change, the one thing that has withstood the test of time has been the persecution and ridicules each new revival faced at the hands of the earlier.

As each wave goes by, James 5:7,8 are quoted for the Latter Day rains. Christianity today is experiencing the Fourth Wave. If you are ready to UN-learn and be governed by the Holy Spirit, you can make progress.

It just isn't fair!!!

Is there someone in your life who has hurt you so badly, so deeply, whose sin is so great, that you find it difficult to forgive them? Perhaps it's good to remeber today the spectacular unfairnesss of God.....and that He offers garce to them just as he does to you - EVERY DAY!!
Do you think that you are any better than the unrepentant thief on the cross? He sure didnt deserve God's grace! None of us do......

That's why grace is Grace-unmerited favor. Thank God, His grace isn't FAIR!

Reach out and forgive-His Grace will see you through!