The Organic Church, download
Today I am offering another PDF document to help those interested in a study on the organic church. It consists of three articles that have been posted earlier on this blog. It begins with a chapter on the Laodicean Church, a church that typifies a lot of what we see in these times. Needless to say, this church does not please the Lord and He had nothing to say in her favor.
In the second chapter, I attempt to portray Jesus as the sovereign head over His church and in the third, you will find a demonstration of an organic church. I hope that these will give you a deep desire to see it in action in our days.
To download the document, print it or simply read it, click the following link:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/70625813/Organic%20Church.pdf
Food for Sheep, download
I have previously offered three articles individually, called, 1) How Deep the Love of God, 2) Intense Desire, and 3) The Individual Call. Now, I have combined the three in one PDF document called "Food for Sheep". I am providing the link below, so that you can easily download it.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/70625813/Food%20for%20Sheep.pdf
How many times have I said, at the beginning of a message these days? "This is something that is strictly for sheep. If there are "goats" here, close your ears." People always laugh, but truthfully, in every congregation, of any size at all, you can be sure that there are goats among the sheep. Goats are not true Christians and they cannot enjoy the delights that God wants to share with his sons and daughters.
It is extremely important that the sheep are taken to pasture. Christ gave Peter a commandment to feed His lambs and sheep, showing thereby His concern for them. At tmes, we are so preoccupied in evangelizing an unbeliever or two, who might come to a meeting, or we feel the need to give advice or scold the Christians, and we forget that the sheep need to eat.
I think that these three studies, given in PDF format, will provide green pasture for true disciples of Christ. I hope and pray from my heart that each reader will receive something from heaven that will truly provide nourishment to your soul.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/70625813/Food%20for%20Sheep.pdf
How many times have I said, at the beginning of a message these days? "This is something that is strictly for sheep. If there are "goats" here, close your ears." People always laugh, but truthfully, in every congregation, of any size at all, you can be sure that there are goats among the sheep. Goats are not true Christians and they cannot enjoy the delights that God wants to share with his sons and daughters.
It is extremely important that the sheep are taken to pasture. Christ gave Peter a commandment to feed His lambs and sheep, showing thereby His concern for them. At tmes, we are so preoccupied in evangelizing an unbeliever or two, who might come to a meeting, or we feel the need to give advice or scold the Christians, and we forget that the sheep need to eat.
I think that these three studies, given in PDF format, will provide green pasture for true disciples of Christ. I hope and pray from my heart that each reader will receive something from heaven that will truly provide nourishment to your soul.
Oh, Supreme Moving Cause
Labels:
Important messages
"Who has cleft a channel for the torrents of rain and a
way for the thunderbolt, to bring rain on a land where no man is, on the desert
in which there is no man, to satisfy the waste and desolate land, and to make
the ground sprout with grass? Job 38:25-27
Synchronized
water ballet
Years ago during the Olympic Games, I walked into the
room of someone watching a performance of synchronized water ballet on TV.
Sitting next to him, he expressed to me that he didn’t like the individual
efforts of the various athletes, because they tended to exalt one person, but
he enjoyed the perfect unity of the team events, such as water ballet. It didn’t
take much discernment to see that he was spiritualizing what he was watching,
comparing it to the intentions of believers to carry out the will of God.
I didn’t respond to the comment at the time, but that
rather poor example gave me much to think about and I really have meditated
over the matter. I would like to share the view that I have of Christians
involved in fulfilling God’s purposes on earth. In doing so, I am considering
Christ’s Church, which He said that He would build (Mt.16:18) and, according to
Paul, Christ would give gifts to men to equip the saints for the work of the
ministry and to build His body (Eph.4:8,12). I will make use of the same water
ballet analogy.
John Bunyan's Confessions
Labels:
Important messages
Some sincere pastors and teachers have “goat-phobia” and I hope that I can
include myself in their number. What I mean by “goat-phobia” is that we
hesitate to state some things, which are very true, but we are afraid that
people, who feign Christianity (goats… Mt.25:32), might take advantage of these
doctrines to justify themselves. The subjects can be quite delicate and they are
meant to feed and comfort the sheep. The “goats” need awakening and conviction
of sin; comfort is not on the menu for them. So, I have hesitated, but now I
want to share a page and a half of a very rich offering from John Bunyan…
Grace
Abounding
 |
| John Bunyan 1628-1688 |
Of all the temptations that ever I met with in my
life, to question the being of God and the truth of His gospel is the worst,
and the worst to be borne; when this temptation comes, it takes away my girdle
from me and removes the foundations from under me. Oh, I have often thought of
that word, “Have your loins girt about with truth”, and of that, “When the foundations
are destroyed, what can the righteous do?”
Sometimes when, after sin committed, I have looked for
sore chastisement from the hand of God, the very next that I have had from Him
has been the discovery of His grace. Sometimes, when I have been comforted, I
have called myself a fool for my so sinking under trouble. And then, again,
when I have been cast down, I thought I was not wise to give such way to
comfort. With such strength and weight have both these been upon me…
The Church - A living Body
Labels:
Important messages
A few days ago, I wrote an article called “The Individual Call",
in which I had comments about the Laodicean Church. The church continued to
function even after it had abandoned Jesus, and at the same time rejoiced in
being “rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing”. See the
self-sufficiency: “I have become wealthy” and in the satisfaction that it
gives: “I have need of nothing”. I can’t enjoy it with them, because my eyes
have seen the invisible and my mouth has tasted the sweetness of heavenly
honey.
Few Christians these days know
anything about a church that is not under man’s control, where only Christ is
the architect with the plan and is building His people beyond human knowledge.
I mentioned that I had written more fully about the church in the book, God
Made the Country, and I thought it might be good to post the chapter that
I referred to. It will give an idea of the true church and how it functions,
even in modern times, if Christ is the Head and has the control.
GOD MADE THE COUNTRY
Chapter 16
THE CHURCH – A LIVING BODY
“(The Father)
put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all
things to the church, which is His body, the fulness of Him who fills all in
all.” Ephesians 1:22-23
A
Christian of German descent in Wisconsin was reading a small-town newspaper
from North Dakota. His eyes scanned the church announcements and suddenly he
felt a compulsion to pray for one of these churches. It seemed strange to him,
because the church wasn’t of the same denomination as his own church and he had
never visited it. Every year he drove 500 miles to North Dakota to help
relatives (who sent the paper to him) with their harvest. Months later, during
the next harvest season, in his curiosity to discover the reason behind the
strange desire to pray, he walked into the little church in Finley, ND.
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