When is the Road the Ditch and the Ditch the Road?

Sanctify them [purify, consecrate, separate them for Yourself, make them holy] by the Truth; Your Word is Truth. John 17:17 (Amp. Bible)
In my days as a Police Officer I had to give evidence in court many times. The first thing that happened when you entered the ‘witness box’ was to give an ‘oath’, “I swear by Almighty God that the evidence I shall give, shall be The Truth, The Whole Truth and nothing but The Truth.” TODAY I think we need to take up that oath as people and change the wording to….“I swear by Almighty God to use, to speak, to live by,
THE WORD, THE WHOLE WORD AND NOTHING BUT THE WORD!”

BECAUSE WE DON’T SEEM TO KNOW WHAT TRUTH IS ANYMORE??????????????

I write this at the end of a week that feels like I have come off a stomach churning ride on a wild rollercoaster BUT there has been NO funfair! I just want to be sick!!!!
I want to walk away and I’ll never do that again BUT do it again I and ALL of us will.. UNLESS?

Monday in the United Kingdom saw the Government there pass the initial Bill to change the

Definition of Marriage, thus allowing same-sex couples to have recognition beyond a ‘civil partnership’. On the same day The General Assembly of The Church of Scotland passed a quite similar motion to allow the ordination and for congregations to call as their minister people who are in same sex relationships! 

Tuesday Oklahoma City was devastated by a huge Tornado that tore through buildings including Briarwood Elementary School and in its wake left grieving families who had lost loved ones among whom were children from that school!
Wednesday, back in London a young off duty soldier was savagely butchered to death in broad daylight. An act of terrorism by two Radical Islamists who believed they were doing the will of their god?

 
Friday, well you might think me insanely trivial after all of the previous but still they are connected? I find a post which I go on to share on my Facebook page. A post purportedly coming from the Prime Minister of Australia which has been applauded by many especially in the UK following the events of Wednesday!! The post was of an alleged speech given by Julia Gillard in which she basically tells anyone including Muslims, if you don’t like Australia, or its language or its laws or the fact that it is a Christian Country then leave…BUT the whole thing was a hoax! It was a compilation of speeches and statements made by Australia’s Prime Ministers over a number of years and in different contexts but most of the content was from a former PM!

I have just finished preparing the Message I will be preaching at Cristianos Community Church (www.crisitanoscommunitychurch.com)  this Sunday. Last week I began a series on the Apostle Paul’s Letter to the Philippians.. This week we are looking at Chapter 1 verses 7 to 11 and as I was studying those verses something struck me that seems so very important to us right now.

It feels to me that our world is drifting aimlessly from one tragic event to another with, it seems, NO solid, dependable, unequivocal, reference or standard to which we can look for certainty and truth and hope??? I know we kicked out absolutes like right and wrong and truth and untruth long ago in the name of post-modernism and perhaps NOW is the time when this needs to be reversed!
There is a source, a Book where we can find a reference, a standard, a basis for government, and principles that are worth living by. It is called THE BIBLE!

The Apostle Paul had a special place in his heart for the Church at Philippi and from that heart he wrote this very personal letter..


I write today from a heart that is overwhelmed and out of a sincere love I want anyone who chooses to read on, to know what Paul wanted those in Philippi to know… Philippians Chapter 1 verses 9+10
“And it is my prayer that your love may abound (grow, abound) more and more, with (will have) knowledge and all discernment (understanding, wisdom), so that you may approve what is excellent (not just to know what is the good or the bad BUT the very best), [discern/test and prove what is best] and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ” To make sure they were grounded in the Scriptures so that with that knowledge and discernment they could approve everything and in so doing strive for what was good, yes, right, yes, the best, yes, yes and yes! The Word APPROVE literally means to test, examine, to recognise as genuine after examination, prove, scrutinise (to see whether a thing is genuine or not), as metals or coins!
It’s root comes from laying something alongside another so they can be compared and is

thought to stem from the idea of placing something in pure sunlight so that any imperfections can be revealed that might otherwise be hidden.
Enough of the dictionary!!
The point is we need something that is true, absolute and upon which everything else can be tested by comparison. AND we have it, The Word of God.. I know it’s not popular to talk about such things. I know I will be labelled right wing, bigoted, narrow-minded and a whole lot more BUT there is ONLY ONE ANSWER to where we are TODAY. To get back to God’s standard; get back to GOD’S WORD. If we want to know the right, the best, the excellent, if we want to know how to make the correct decisions, if we want to avoid extremism that brings horror onto our streets then we need to understand the Whole Counsel of God’s Word..
OR ELSE WE JUST GET ANOTHER WEEK LIKE THIS ONE!!!!

The Mother of ALL Parliaments as was once the phrase coined for the United Kingdom seat of Government and as I understand was formed on the Basis of God’s Word. It passed its laws in accordance with that Book. It defined the Country it governed as a ‘Christian’ Nation yet it acts now in complete contravention to it???

The Church of Scotland had an open letter written to its Assembly after Monday in which were written these words, “Many of the members of my congregation grew up in the Church of Scotland and came to faith through its witness and work. They love its Reformed theology and worship, its biblical foundation, its long history of fighting for the truth of the eternal Gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.” The Church itself says it believes in the Bible, it is its sole authority, BUT then passes a motion that dismisses that Scripture altogether..

Am I missing something??? Am I wrong when I ask can either government or church call itself ‘Christian’ if neither do what Christians are commanded to do.. John 14:15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”

What about Oklahoma you ask? John Piper a well-known and well respected Bible commentator spoke with the desire to bring comfort and hope and sense to the people bearing the brunt of the horror. BUT then he was attacked by one  Rachel Held Evans in an article where she calls God an abuser and that He is not in control otherwise He would not allow such things as natural disasters to happen..in his blog Douglas Wilson wrote (http://dougwils.com/s16-theology/rachel-held-evans-denies-the-cat.html)
“John Piper lives in a universe where terrible things happen, but he knows that when we come to know the whole story, we will stop our mouths, and bow before a holy God in order to worship Him — and all manner of things shall be well. To acknowledge God’s sovereignty in such things does not keep our hearts from breaking in the midst of such devastation. The sovereignty of God is a hard shell case that carries and protects the tender heart”
I don’t suggest to you today that I have all the answers to such disasters BUT if you were to take time and as is suggested above read the WHOLE BIBLE, get to know THE WHOLE STORY then all of us might be better equipped to understand.. might just see and do things a whole lot differently and better?

Oh! One further point, why I raised the Australian connection.. For I do accept that there are those who can take a good word, even verses from the Bible and though they are true in themselves when used out of context or in some twisted interpretation they can prove to be the cause of something as dangerous and insidious as any of the events above?

SO WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?
ANSWER…THE WORD, THE WHOLE WORD AND NOTHING BUT THE WORD!
I BELIEVE IT IS TIME WE GOT BACK TO THE BIBLE! AND I BELIEVE IT IS THE CHURCH THAT SHOULD BE LEADING THE WAY…SO TAKE NOTE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND!

And with that, one final word, well it is actually R Kent Hughes who quoted this one.
“To see falsely is worse than blindness. A man who is blind that he cannot distinguish the ditch from the road still may be able to feel which is which. BUT if he sees the ditch as the road and the road as the ditch, HE IS IN BIG TROUBLE!

A Prayer for our day...indeed!
Just a little snippet of an addendum to my latest two blogs. Found this today and thought wow was this man a 'prophet' or not??? If the world needed that prayer then boy do we need it more today.....
Joe Wright is the pastor of Central Christian Church in Wichita, KS. On January 23, 1996, He was asked to be the guest chaplain for the Kansas State House in Topeka. He prayed a prayer of repentance that was written by Bob Russell, pastor of Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, Kentucky. 
According to an article in the Kansas City Star from January 24, 1996, his prayer stirred controversy, and one member of the legislative body walked out. Others criticized the prayer.
The controversy didn’t end there. Later that year in the Colorado House, Republican representative Mark Paschall angered lawmakers by using Joe Wright’s prayer as the invocation. Some members there also walked out in protest.
Paul Harvey got a hold of the prayer and read it on his program. He got more requests for copies of it than any other thing he had ever done. Here’s what he prayed:
“Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask Your forgiveness and to seek Your direction and guidance. We know Your Word says, “Woe to those who call evil good,” but that’s exactly what we have done. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and inverted our values. We confess that:
We have ridiculed the absolute truth of Your Word and called it pluralism.
We have worshiped other gods and called it multi-culturalism.
We have endorsed perversion and called it an alternative lifestyle.
We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery.
We have neglected the needy and called it self-preservation.
We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare.
We have killed our unborn and called it a choice.
We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable.
We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self-esteem.
We have abused power and called it political savvy.
We have coveted our neighbor’s possessions and called it ambition.
We have polluted the airwaves with profanity and called it freedom of expression.
We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment.
Search us, O God, and know our hearts today; try us and see if there be some wicked way in us; cleanse us from every sin and set us free. Guide and bless these men and women who have been sent here by the people of Kansas, and who have been ordained by You, to govern this great state. Grant them Your wisdom to rule and may their decisions direct us to the center of Your will… Amen
May this be our prayer personally BUT make it our PRAYER for our leaders and Governments and Nations!
Pray without ceasing..................................

Dynamite or Dynamism?

“For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power (dynamis) of God.” 1 Corinthians 1:18
“our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power (dynamis) and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. 1 Thessalonians 1:5

Porn and Paper Pastors (that grabbed your attention!!!) was a blog I read this week posted by Dan Phillips (http://teampyro.blogspot.com.es/2011/03/porn-and-paper-pastors.html?m=1)  In that he made comment of people attending church, ‘whose heart belonged to another’ NO, not idol worship as we would understand it, not that they had, as such other gods, BUT rather they viewed, they listened or didn’t listen to their Pastor because he fell way short of the Pastors that they read, that they really loved!!!
Dan said this..”Their real pastor isn't you. It's Dave Hunt. Or it's John Piper. Or it's John MacArthur, or Ligon Duncan, or Mark Dever, or David Cloud, or Joel Osteen. Or it's Charles Spurgeon, or D. M. Lloyd-Jones, or J. C. Ryle. Or Calvin, or Luther, or Bahnsen, or de Mar, or R. B. Thieme (Jr.), or J. Vernon McGee. And they're such better pastors than you are! You know they are!”
He continues by viewing things from the Pastors side, “Yet how many pastors know that there are people in their flocks, thinking, "John Piper would never say it that way. Dave Hunt says that what he just preached is heresy. John MacArthur isn't like that. Mahaney says that... Mohler says that... Lloyd-Jones said...."
His conclusion..”Brother, sister: John Piper isn't your pastor. John MacArthur knows nothing about you. Dave Hunt never got on his knees and prayed for you. Lloyd-Jones won't come to your house when you're recovering from surgery, or one of your children shatters your heart, or your marriage is shaking and rocking and barely hanging on. Charles Spurgeon won't weep with you as you weep.”.

Now that started a train of thought for me that parallels Dave’s that the beliefs of, the conviction of these men, true as they may be, become MY beliefs, MY convictions rather than my own!
For example when I Pastored my first church in Tenerife I came across a lot of people visiting who when asked to give their testimony would say, “I’ve done an Alpha Course” and that was it? I know it’s not the fault of Alpha but those who conduct the course but the point is they viewed completing the course as a testimony to their relationship with Christ. In the same way I find many Christians adopting a similar thing.. growing up on a diet of John Piper, Mark Driscoll, Matt Chandler, David Platt but to name a few of the contemporary guys. They watch and post their videos and read their books and quote them ad infinitim.. 
NOW don’t shoot me yet!!!
I love some of these guys. I agree with a lot they say and I disagree with some of what they say and I have quite a lot of their books too in my dwindling library, HOWEVER, do I want my beliefs, do I want my convictions to be mine or someone else’s no matter how great that someone else might be???

Before I go on, I need to say it is NOT the fault of ANY of the people I mention, it is YOUR fault alone..These men are men for our time BUT they are at best MEN and only MEN at best? They are not the Holy Spirit, their words are not God-breathed, and their Theology is just that THEIRS!!! Maybe absolutely true BUT it is NOT YOURS..

I am taking our Church through the Gospel of John at the moment in our Bible Studies. When you get into the Gospel itself from verse 19 of Chapter 1 you meet John the Baptist and his testimony about himself and about the Lord Jesus Christ. It struck me afresh as to the way John the Baptist used the words of Isaiah to describe himself, do you remember?
“I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness..” v22 after he has categorically dismissed the questions of the Jewish enquirers, NO I am NOT the Messiah, NO I am NOT Elijah, NO I am NOT the Prophet Moses spoke of, I AM A VOICE, only a Voice, as Lesslie Newbiggin puts it in his book, ‘The Light has Come’ “The speaker has no importance. He is NOT one of the dramatis personae. You must listen to the voice. When you do you will find that the words do not enable you to fix the speaker in his context. His voice is the voice of Scripture..It  speaks of the still awaited presence of the Lord…..It requires you to look up, listen, wait for the ONE who is coming” (Page 13)
Similarly the Apostle Paul when confronting the Corinthians about their appetite for the then celebrity preachers, Apollos, Peter and Paul himself, Paul declares What is Apollos, What is Paul (1 Cor.3:5) NOT WHO BUT WHAT??? What are they??
I am sure the men that I speak of today are men of God who would like to see themselves as John the Baptist saw himself, a voice that pointed to the greater. I am sure that they too would echo his words, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” John 3:30. That what they write, what they say is to help and encourage us ALL to find and to follow the Lord Jesus Christ, “to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” Philippians 2:12

I thank God for such an abundance of literature, for the ability of great men to put things down clearly for us to read and understand. For their courage to take a stand for truth. I commend them, I appreciate them, I use them BUT my friends they CANNOT, MUST NOT replace my responsibility, as the Bereans, “they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.” Acts 17:11

As Dan Phillips said in his blog, you are more likely to hear these days, ‘that’s not what John Piper says, that’s not what Calvin believed’, etc, etc, ‘instead of that’s not what the Bible says’ ..
Should not ALL things, ALL men, ALL doctrines, ALL opinions be put to ultimate litmus test, against the Scriptures themselves???

So read the Books, listen to sermons, watch the videos BUT DO NOT use them INSTEAD of reading your BIBLE. That’s the BOOK you really need to know. That’s the ONLY Word that IS God breathed. That’s the Word that is Powerful and living and worth putting YOUR convictions, YOUR belief, YOUR faith, YOUR life on and that’s the WORD FROM ME TODAY!

God IS calling US to PRAY-Really !

“if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”
2 Chronicles 7:14

I am going to stick my head above the parapet this week! Last week I wrote on the sense I felt that God was calling His people to PRAY! It was the least read of ALL the blogs so far? I was not surprised! There’s cliché around that says, ‘you can tell the state of a church by its Prayer Meeting!’  I think you can take that cliché a little further ‘you can tell the state of our Nations by the Churches Prayer Meetings!’

I, like everyone else laments the state of our world and I like so many others am often pointing my finger at people and angrily hollering at the television screen on which they are pontificating their warped opinions. I’m looking to blame somebody or some ‘Body’ for the corruption, for the senseless slaughter of children in countries ravaged by warlords, for the endless millions dying every year from needless starvation, over 4 million every year, for the unwarranted taking of life in abortions, some 125.000 every day that’s almost 2 every second!! For the insidious perversions that I am forced to see as normal or at least acceptable in these modern days? Like homosexuality? For the horrendous tide of sexual exploitation that goes on unawares in our suburbs, because we choose to ignore it, to even suggest it happens in my street is unpalatable? These are just to name a few, I could go one and on!  (By the way please take time to look at this video of a young Christian friend of mine who took his stand on homosexuality and pornography and needs our prayers and support www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6A9Vd7T0qE)

When I get going I get enraged and infuriatingly frustrated until I realise that the problem is not with the world at large! The problem is not with a lack of proper government or the enforcing of law and order it is with ME and it is with YOU? Those of US who profess faith in The Lord Jesus Christ, who are the ‘people of God’, who are the ‘Body of Christ’, who are ‘The Church’!!! My Bible tells me this.“For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first..”  1 Peter 4:17              Do you get that??                             

 It was Harry Truman when President of the United States kept a sign on the desk in the White House that said, ‘The Buck stops here’
We can point the finger and holler at whoever we like but the people of God have got to accept some responsibility for the state we find our world in today because like God’s people of old we have turned away from the ways of God and we have forsaken the Prayer Meeting.. And those of us who are in spiritual leadership must accept the major part of that blame, as the Prophet Joel said,
“‘Yet even now,’ declares the Lord, ‘return to Me with all your heart, and with fasting, weeping and mourning; and rend your heart and not your garments.’ Now return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in loving kindness and relenting of evil. Who knows whether He will not turn and relent and leave a blessing behind Him, even a grain offering and a drink offering for the Lord your God? Blow a trumpet in Zion, consecrate a fast, proclaim a solemn assembly, gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children and the nursing infants. Let the bridegroom come out of his room and the bride out of her bridal chamber. Let the priests, the Lord’s ministers, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, ‘Spare Your people, O Lord, and do not make Your inheritance a reproach, a byword among the nations. Why should they among the peoples say, ‘Where is their God?’”
Joel 2:12-17

Closer to home, these last couple of weeks have seen elections in Great Britain, where UKIP (United Kingdom Independence Party) polled extremely well. It seems it was a protest vote against both the over dominating of the European Union on the British national affairs and the rise in immigration that has led to a perceived, if not actual decline in Britishness! Never mind the devastating recession that there seems no end in sight of.
Then there was the Queens Speech to Parliament where Her Majesty outlined the present  Government’s plans for the coming months.
I am not able to work out facts and figures but the future is bleak, to say the least. The Coalition has little or no answers for the real problems. Is that why they introduced the scandalous act that will change the Bible definition of Marriage? To divert attention away from the economic disaster that the greed of men caused and continues to cause?

Ah! When I then go to my home country I find the people fighting over flags, and the people who represent the people still arguing over whose fault it was that former terrorists are standing shoulder to shoulder with others in power sharing. If it wasn’t so serious it would be  laughable that there we have the so called leaders still standing on their own hilltops playing the ‘blame game’ clodding stones at one another and wondering why the people down in the valley are doing just the same?

Back in 1940, Britain had come to a time in its National Life described by the then Prime Minister, Winston Churchill as ‘Britain’s Darkest Hour’. As the forces of evil advanced through Europe, 300.000 British troops found themselves cut off in retreat on the beaches of Dunkirk. It looked very likely too that with the Battle for France now won, Hitler’s eyes would now turn toward England and the Battle for Britain would begin. So it was that Churchill requested King George the VI to call a National Day of Prayer and repentance and on Sunday 26 May 1940 the Nation responded. Churches were inundated with men and women, royalty and politicians and from every avenue of life the people came to pray to God for help! The call to prayer was made at a time of sheer desperation, at the time when everything else had failed. Deliverance didn't seem possible at the time, but it came. By the grace of God, nearly a third of a million souls were saved as a result, as was the British nation.

Are we not at that place of desperation? Do we as the people of God not recognise the need of the day? Have we so lost our understanding of the Power of Prayer? Have we given up HOPE?

Great Britain has had neither a Prime Ministerial nor a Royal proclamation calling for a National Day of Prayer since WWII. (Would it not have been more profitable for Her Majesty to call her people to prayer last week than a mere speech?) On one occasion Rev. Ian Paisley asked the then Prime Minister, Tony Blair. "Would the Prime Minister remind himself that before each sitting of the House, prayer is offered to the God of heaven and earth? Would he also remind himself that, in days of crisis in this nation, the one who held his office advised the monarch from time to time to call a national day of prayer? Does he not feel that, in the present crisis, the nation should express its desire to have our nation healed, and that the way to have it healed is to call upon the sovereign God of heaven?
The Prime Minister’s answer was “I am sure that the nation will pray in its own way for what the honourable Gentleman says. I do not know whether it is right for Government to impose that, but I am sure that, according to their own consciences and faith, people will pray for the objectives that he has set out.” (I very much doubt if Mr Cameron would even have that answer?)                                                                                                                          
Give the folks in USA their dues they continue a call to a National Day of Prayer every year on the first Thursday in May and was held this year on Thursday 2 May 2013, however their call is for a Day of Prayer being a time for people of all faiths to pray together in their own way. BUT there is ONLY ONE God and He alone has the answer and it is ONLY through Jesus Christ that we can come to God. (John 14:6)

To get back to where I started! Folks I am not suggesting that the Nations are called to Days of Prayer, although that would be good BUT what I am saying is, that it is absolutely the time when the Church needs to be called to DAYS of PRAYER..I am completely sold out to God’s word that tells me, “if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:14. Can God make it any clearer?

I think of my own home country.. so many of the men and women in leadership are ‘born again’ believers.. Don’t they read the same Bible as me? Would it not be far better for the people of that Country to hear those leaders calling those people to prayer? Would it not be better for them to join the Church leaders in calling God’s people to pray? Would I be naïve to think that so many other Countries Christian leaders could and should do the same???
BUT rather than just wait and hope…WHAT excuse have I myself.. I look on hopelessly at what goes on around me. I throw up my arms in disbelief and in horror (EG as I watch those three young women released from ten years of captivity in Cleveland this week!) and ask who is going to do something about this?

Catch yourself on! YOU and I know WHO can do something about this!! BUT we have forgotten Him, we have forsaken Him we have abandoned His Word and His Will, WE have refused repeatedly to answer our spiritual leaders in the past as they TRIED to call us to pray and until we do, until we turn to God!!! That’ right until WE, HIS PEOPLE turn to Him in repentance and pray and pray and pray we will NOT see any change. BUT if we do? Just go back and read last week’s blog that you thought wasn’t worth reading then!

PS. Just in case you think I have made little of events in Northern Ireland or England, in the time it has taken me to writes this blog, 521 people have died from malnutrition BUT worse 3195 had died across the world and how many of those without hearing the Gospel of Jesus Christ??

God is calling US to PRAY !

“if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:14
“SO Peter was kept in prison, BUT earnest  prayer for him was made to God by the church. Acts 12:5
“You do not have, because you do not ask.” James 4:2

I read this tragic statement this week…”Faith is just a crutch. God is just for the weak minded, the losers, the ones who can’t survive, who can’t win themselves?”
You know I’ve got to the point that when I read or hear such utterly ridiculous words like those, I laugh, I laugh loud! As I was writing this, Lorraine, my wife shared a post on my Facebook, a quote of Phil Robertson via Mark Driscoll. The end of the quote says,
“Many have told me through the years: 'I think I'll take my chances without Jesus.' And I always come back and say, 'so what chance is that?'"
Faith for me is my absolute trust in Jesus Christ. It is based on His Power, Love and Ability to look after me through every situation in life and to finally take me home, to heaven, that where He is I will be too, FOREVER!
Faith isn’t easy, no one, certainly not Jesus, ever said it would be, His Word in John 16:33  “In the world you will have tribulation.”  BUT that’s not the end of the verse…” take heart; I have overcome the world.”
I know for some family and friends of mine these last few weeks have been dreadful to say the least..
I know that there is also around a general sense of despair and bewilderment abounding in the hearts and minds of so many..What is our world coming to, everything is falling apart and NO ONE seems to have the answer? This week in the UK voters went to the polls to elect their Local Government representatives and it seems no one is sure of who to believe any more..Well for those who say my faith is just a crutch what of politics and the politicians who we trust to fix things?
Jeremiah has a Word for those who put their trust in men, “Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who draws strength from mere flesh and whose heart turns away from the Lord. That person will be like a bush in the wastelands; they will not see prosperity when it comes. They will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives.” Jeremiah 17:5-6. Talk about prophetic!!!!


Whether we are enduring difficulties personally or if we are gazing upon our declining world desperately seeking assurance and answers I want to take you to a fantastic story in the Bible. You will find it in the Book of Acts Chapter 12.

The Chapter begins with a despotic King who is only in the place of power by manipulation and intrigue. The story of Herod Agrippa I is well known in history and would make a great storyline for any contemporary Jeffrey Archer Book! Herod has had one the Apostles executed, James one of the Sons of Thunder. Calculated to ingratiate himself with the Jews and to send fear into the infant church.One of their most vociferous men is dead and now Peter, one of their leaders is imprisoned and about to face the same fate! The Church it seems is impotent and powerless and amidst all this the time is Passover and their remembrance of the Crucifixion of Jesus heightens their anxiety.. As
R Kent Hughes goes on to say in his commentary on Acts. “Their apparent weakness was underlined by the fact that all they could do was pray (v. 5).”
Sometimes we feel the same way about situations we face — cancer in a loved one, growing unemployment, trying to turn a straying son or daughter back from disaster, overcoming the hurt of a loyal friend OR seeking to reverse the tides of evil in our land (terrorism, abortion, violence, open immorality, deceit).
Hughes continues. “Does anything look more ridiculous to oppressors than a ragtag, harried group of believers praying for God’s help in the midst of oppressive darkness? To those outside the family of God, this is terminal weakness……..What good would this effeminate praying do? A CRUTCH!!!!

BUT God’s people continued to pray — and rightly so! “The church was earnestly praying to God for him.” The word “earnestly” means “to stretch” or “to strain.” They were straining in prayer! — praying “with agony,” as G. Campbell Morgan says.
What fools they were, their opponents thought, to pray about the situation. After all, Herod’s power was irresistible. The axe had fallen once, and it would fall on the helpless neck of another of their leaders. Who were God’s people to dare to believe anyone or anything could help them now?

What follows is a story of the divine intervention of God, He sent an angel v7 and the miraculous release of Peter from Prison.. WHY because the Church prayed earnestly for HIM!!!
(Did they pray that way for James or maybe they didn’t pray at all.. Perhaps they thought God would never let that happen to a godly man like James? After all some people believe that bad things don’t happen to good people????)
Well Peter found himself out in the street a free man again and immediately went to the house where the Church has been praying earnestly for him, they will be expecting him won’t they???

Well what follows so funny yet so sad because the people who had spent all night really praying for Peter they got the shock of their lives when he actually put in an appearance at their prayer meeting!!! Wow! unbelievable don’t you think!! BUT before you get to critical just think, when was the last time you were surprised when GOD DIDN’T answer your prayers.. Let’s be honest have we not ALL been guilty of praying at times and NOT believing!!!

John Piper commenting on James 4:2 “You do not have, because you do not ask.”  Said this
“The verse does not mean the reverse, I.E. You will have it anyway even if you don’t ask! That means prayer causes things to happen, that wouldn’t happen if you did not pray. That is just a staggering, glorious privilege. To be taken by the Sovereign God of the Universe who runs ALL things according to His infinite wisdom and folded into His causality, breath-taking! If YOU do not avail yourself of the privilege of bringing to pass events in the Universe that would not take place if you did not pray. YOU are acting like a colossal fool! If YOU are offered the privilege of engaging with God in such a way and you do not……it is folly of the highest or lowest order”
Wow! staggering indeed.. My friends do you understand anything of this? Do you not realise that God has permitted things to come into your and our lives to get us back onto our knees to pray and to pray earnestly for your family, for you neighbours, for your church, for yourself, for your Government and yes for this World..
Going back to Acts Chapter 12. The King, Herod who had caused so much trouble for the Church presents himself to His people,  “On the appointed day Herod, wearing his royal robes, sat on his throne and delivered a public address to the people. They shouted, “This is the voice of a god, not of a man.” V21-22 AND THEN….”Immediately, because Herod did not give praise to God, an angel of the Lord struck him down, and he was eaten by worms and died.” V23
Don’t miss the irony of this probably the same angel that visited Peter in his cell but when he struck Peter it woke him out of his sleep but when he struck (same word) Herod he died!!!
“But the word of God continued to spread and flourish.” V24

My friends Faith is NOT a crutch, faith is the reality of God’s people understanding who they are in Christ AND appropriating through Christ the Power of God to change things. Overwhelming power was/is in the hands of people, like the ragtag bunch who prayed in Mary’s house, like the people who will be meeting and praying tomorrow in churches in every part of the World… In the midst of darkness and decay and decline God is calling His troubled Church to become His Triumphant Church and we will do this ONLY by getting on our knees..

“Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.” Psalm 50:15
And you will find this. “Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh. Is anything too hard for me? Jeremiah 32:27