Pepper and Salt 6
Labels:
Important messages
Friday, I received the following message on Skype: “We were invited to a round-table meeting, in which, we were told, there would be a study. We went to receive something from God. We went with our Bibles, but what we discovered was a discussion about marketing and planting churches. It was sad, cold, professional and intelectual. They put everything in today’s context, assuming that everything has changed since Bible times.
At the end, the chairman said that we should think about something we would do from now on and what we shouldn’t do. A young man, who came with us, raised his hand and said, ‘What I am going to do is to seek the old paths and pray for God’s guidance.’ He was immediately cut off. I wanted to say, ‘I think what we need is revival.’ What a shame! I wish I would have said it! What would Jesus have said, if He were there?”
I wrote back: “Welcome to 21st Century evangelicalism! What you experienced is the work of man that does not permit anything from God’s part to enter in. I’m going to post you an article on revival, in which God does not permit anything from man to enter in!”
That will serve as an introduction to our sixth document of the writings of a man of God, contradicting what he found in the church before he died in 1986. Has the spiritual life of the church improved since then? I also suggest you listen to this man's voice as he delivers a sermon, Getting Used to the Dark...
http://ia600708.us.archive.org/17/items/SERMONINDEX_SID0205/SID0205.mp3
At the end, the chairman said that we should think about something we would do from now on and what we shouldn’t do. A young man, who came with us, raised his hand and said, ‘What I am going to do is to seek the old paths and pray for God’s guidance.’ He was immediately cut off. I wanted to say, ‘I think what we need is revival.’ What a shame! I wish I would have said it! What would Jesus have said, if He were there?”
I wrote back: “Welcome to 21st Century evangelicalism! What you experienced is the work of man that does not permit anything from God’s part to enter in. I’m going to post you an article on revival, in which God does not permit anything from man to enter in!”
That will serve as an introduction to our sixth document of the writings of a man of God, contradicting what he found in the church before he died in 1986. Has the spiritual life of the church improved since then? I also suggest you listen to this man's voice as he delivers a sermon, Getting Used to the Dark...
http://ia600708.us.archive.org/17/items/SERMONINDEX_SID0205/SID0205.mp3
About Mukti Revival...
Labels:
revival
Friends:
I want to inform you of the revamping of an article written in 2010 about a revival in Kedgaon, India. This account has so much to teach us about the ways of God that I felt compelled to call your attention to it again. Please read it carefully and let the Holy Spirit cause your heart to burn... burn for spiritual reality, for a moving of God that is rarely seen these days!
Kedgaon, 55 kilometers east of Pune is a village difficult to find on a map of India. It is another place like Nazareth, without importance, but chosen by God as the place where He would pour out of His Spirit and revive the church. Those who know the ways of the Lord, will understand that that is a characteristic of His work.
I will attach some photos from that trip to India, when I was privileged to discover the Mukti mission. Paul Șerban is a Romanian friend. Years ago, when I was invited to be speaker of a camp in Albești, Paul found the Lord and thereafter was called to India as a missionary. Since then, he has married Daniela and I was privileged to speak at their wedding. How satisfying it is to see two Christian young people come together to serve the Lord! Paul has been my host three times now in India and he is the one that introduced me to the Pandita Ramabai mission in western India. Here then is the link to the article that tells the exciting story of true and classical revival:
http://calltocommitment.blogspot.com.es/2010/06/account-of-mukti-revival.html
I want to inform you of the revamping of an article written in 2010 about a revival in Kedgaon, India. This account has so much to teach us about the ways of God that I felt compelled to call your attention to it again. Please read it carefully and let the Holy Spirit cause your heart to burn... burn for spiritual reality, for a moving of God that is rarely seen these days!
Kedgaon, 55 kilometers east of Pune is a village difficult to find on a map of India. It is another place like Nazareth, without importance, but chosen by God as the place where He would pour out of His Spirit and revive the church. Those who know the ways of the Lord, will understand that that is a characteristic of His work.
I will attach some photos from that trip to India, when I was privileged to discover the Mukti mission. Paul Șerban is a Romanian friend. Years ago, when I was invited to be speaker of a camp in Albești, Paul found the Lord and thereafter was called to India as a missionary. Since then, he has married Daniela and I was privileged to speak at their wedding. How satisfying it is to see two Christian young people come together to serve the Lord! Paul has been my host three times now in India and he is the one that introduced me to the Pandita Ramabai mission in western India. Here then is the link to the article that tells the exciting story of true and classical revival:
http://calltocommitment.blogspot.com.es/2010/06/account-of-mukti-revival.html
The Valley of Vision
Labels:
Isaiah
 |
| The Western Wall in the valley of vision |
Please let me remind you to have your Bible open, so
that you can follow this study verse-by-verse. Thank you and may you be
blessed, as you contemplate this chapter.
21.
An expository study of Isaiah, chapter 22
The
valley of vision
“(I) will bring them to the place where
I have chosen to cause My name to dwell” (Neh.1:9). This is one example of the multiplied times,
in which God tells of His selection of Jerusalem, as His special possession,
over all the cities of the world. We have already learned of His descriptive
language, in speaking of cities and lands. A few chapters back, He called
Ethiopia, “the land of whirring wings” and just in the last chapter, He labeled
Babylon, “the wilderness of the sea”. However, no other place on earth, besides
Jerusalem, could be called “the valley of vision”. It is His own poetic title
for this city of prophets. It holds a bittersweet
charm, because it introduces a portion, which is anything but charming.
“The valley of vision” brings to mind Psalm 125:2, “As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so
the LORD surrounds his people, from this time forth and forevermore.” (We
have a Jewish boys’ choir singing this verse on our Spanish blog… http://alaentrega.blogspot.com.es/search/label/el%20v%C3%ADdeo#.V0Cap_mLSUl)
Because it is surrounded by mountains, Jerusalem
appears to be a valley.
Pepper and Salt 5
Labels:
Important messages
A worldly Christian?... a heavenly devil?
We cannot be
part-time Christians. We are all in full-time Christian service, or we should
be. A man who is faithful to his wife most of the time is not faithful at all.
A man who is a Christian and something else is not a Christian. The friend of
the world is the enemy of God. Billy Sunday used to say, “This is no such thing
as a worldly Christian. You might as well talk about a heavenly devil.”
Million-dollar launching pads
We build
expensive churches and sometimes it is like erecting million-dollar launching
pads to send up firecrackers.
Repentance and Permanence
On his second
evangelistic mission to Great Britain, D. L. Moody preached repentance. It was
said: “He had come to know that unless there was a genuine turning from known
sin in life and thought, there was little permanency of change.”
Fall of Babylon, Dumah and Arabia
Labels:
Isaiah
20. An expository study of Isaiah, chapter 21
 |
| The Arabian desert within yellow lines. Babylon is above it in the north-central part |
We will simply try to follow Isaiah, as he takes us
from place to place. On his part, he is following the inspiration of the Holy
Spirit and it is always our goal in Bible study to hear the Word of the Lord.
We only want to get out, what He has put in. From time to time, we will look at
parallel passages or other references, which will help us to see the plan of
God more clearly. We may make applications, in some cases, in order to see the
relevancy of the Bible to our times.
Fallen,
fallen is Babylon
We will trust the order of revelation as it comes to
Isaiah. He received another oracle, a burden, for Babylon. Babylon plays an
important part in the Bible account and is a major prophetical study. It is
also important in world history and especially in the history of the Jews.
Some of the descriptions in Isaiah’s writings are not
easy to discern at all. There is much discussion about the meaning of “the wilderness of the sea” as it
relates to Babylon. Could this statement
take us back to the origins of the city? Is it depicting the wilderness, in
which it was built, to show us its roots? Roots have everything to do with how
anything develops and also show us the end to which it will come.
Ethiopia and Egypt
Labels:
Isaiah
19. An expository study in Isaiah, chapter 18 - 20
 |
| Ancient Cush or Ethiopia superimposed on modern map |
Ethiopia,
land of “whirring wings”
At the end of the last chapter, we learned of the
color and rhythm of God’s literature, so effective because it provokes our
thoughts, moves our emotions and even stirs our imagination. It is more than
accurate information. We have entire books of poetry and song in God’s Word,
the Bible; in fact, we have a whole section, from Job to Song of Solomon, given
to poetry. The prophets, as well, sometimes with a direct, “thus says the
Lord”, embellish their works with poetry. Now this chapter begins to describe
Ethiopia, “land of whirring wings” (v.1).
The first word, an interjection, is either a word to
bring the reader to attention, or may be, a word of warning. In the case of a
warning, it would have the same effect as a title, containing “the burden or
oracle”, as we have seen at the beginning of previous chapters (see notes on
ch. 15, 16, 17). It is directed towards the land by the rivers of Cush or
Ethiopia.
The expression whirring
wings is not only colorful, it is also complicated, as to its meaning. It
seems to refer to the shadow or the sound of wings, both of which would
describe the invasion of a swarm of locusts. Certainly Ethiopia could be
described as a land of locusts, but also, as in verse 2, it is a land of
papyrus vessels, so the expression may in some way refer to those boats. We
will have to just leave it at that and go on. The land was closely connected to
and associated with Egypt in the days of Isaiah.
Pepper and Salt 4
Labels:
Important messages
Many will find the simple writing of Vance Havner barely intelligible. Many modern Christians know nothing of the principles that he lays before us. They seem to be from another world. Let me assure you that the reason is not because we know better today, but that we are more familiar with the ways of men and are alienated from those of God. Havner walked under the sun of heaven and we seldom get out from under the synthetic light invented by men. There is another school of Christianity that has been forgotten, set aside and is collecting dust. Our only hope is to get back and reopen its doors. Read, then, and learn!
Doesn’t he
look nice?
A mortician can make a dead man look better than he
ever did when he was alive. So churches like Sardis may appear very much alive
when they are dead in the sight of the Lord. There are experts who are very
clever at this business of making church corpses appear very healthy so that
they have an image for robust vitality in their own sight, among other
churches, and up at headquarters… but God knows the difference.
Defeat turns
to victory
A Frenchman became a naturalized British citizen. “Yesterday,”
he remarked, “Waterloo was a defeat but today it is a victory.” When one
becomes a Christian, defeat changes to victory.
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