JURONG OUTREACH - AUG 05

BORED AGAIN CHRISTIANS
7 Aug 05

"...that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you
to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner
being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith--
that you, being rooted and grounded in love,

may have strength
to comprehend with all the saints what is
the breadth and length
and height and depth..." (Eph. 3:16-18)

Jesus and the apostles expressed the necessity of being "born again"

(Jn. 3:1-8); There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews: The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him. Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.  Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born? Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.  The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.

(1 Pt. 1:22-23); Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently: Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.

But, some become "bored again," after being born again

(2 Pt. 2:20-22).  For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.

Such a boredom runs like a deep rut away from kingdom joy (Jn. 16:22-24) And ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you. And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.

(1 Jn. 1:4). And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full.

But, is the lack of joy in one's life critical or simply undesirable? The Bible says, in Deuteronomy 28:47: "Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joyfulness and gladness of heart, because of the abundance of all things, therefore you will serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you."

Ecclesiastes 1:2 reads, "Emptiness, emptiness, says the Speaker, emptiness, all in empty."

So, let us hear again the ordering sound of the high call of God (Ph. 3:14) I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

Let us live out our lives in a multi-dimensional, 4-D Christianity: of breadth, length, height, and depth.

To see the word again, afresh, suggests that our new birth will always be relevant.

Live in love; journey in joy; banish the boredom.

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 Jesus’ prayer is for us to:

Get along with each other,
love each other,
look out for each other,
and follow the will
of the Father together.

When we engage ourselves in doing these, we will not be bored.

PRAYER POINTERS
14 Aug 05

We all are subject to drifting into behaviour and speech habits that convey unscriptural concepts.  Sometimes such speech habits are manifest in the prayers in our assemblies.  Such mistakes are doubtless made innocently, but they are mistakes, nonetheless.

God, our Heavenly Father (not His Son) is to be addressed in prayer in the name of His Son.

(Mat 6:9)After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.

(John 14:13-14) And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.

(John 15:16) Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.

(Ep 5:20) Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;

This precept is often forgotten, as indicated below:

1. Prayers are sometimes closed with the words, “In Thy name we pray.”  Such a prayer is addressed to the Father and offered in the name of the Father, instead of in the name of Christ.  It is both contrary to Scripture and (we mean no unkindness) nonsensical to pray to God in the name of God.

2. Prayers at the Lord’s table often say, Father we thank Thee for Thy table….,” or “We thank Thee for Thy body….blood.” The prayer leader is either addressing Christ in his prayer or he is saying that the Father sacrificed His body and blood and that the table (supper) is the Father’s rather than the Lord’s (Christ’s).  Likely, leaders of such prayers have simply not considered the implications, but both concepts are wrong.  Not the Son, but the Father, is to be addressed in prayer.  The Son, not the Father, sacrificed His body and blood.  The supper (table) belongs peculiarly to the Son (it memorialises His sacrifice).  The wording of our prayers should keep these distinctions clear.  The following (or similar) prayer-words at the table will correctly convey these concepts: (“Father, we thank Thee for the Lord’s table and for this bread which represents the Lord’s body sacrificed for our salvation…., this fruit of the vine which symbolizes the blood of Christ poured out for our sins.  In Christ’s name we pray, Amen.”

3. Prayer leaders occasionally address fellow human beings in prayer.  Brethren leading a prayer before a “fellowship” dinner sometimes say, “We thank these ladies who have prepared this food.”  We should certainly be grateful for those who thus serve, but if we mention them in prayer, let us remember we are addressing God.  Therefore, let us thank God for the ladies (or for whomever we are grateful), rather than thanking those people directly in a prayer addressed to God!

Hopefully, these few reminders will help us have more nearly correct concepts and will therefore help us in properly wording our prayers.

 Father Hear My Prayer
By Chris Herd

Father teach me how to pray,
so that closer to You I may be.
Let me take some of my busy day,
and devote some time for Thee.
For You are ever mindful of me,
and ever earful to my prayer.
So please help me prayerfully speak to You,
so that You know I care.
Life is pressing on me,
precious little time for You I seem to fine.
It’s not because I don’t love You,
or that you’re not on my mind.
Believe me when I say to You,
I’m sorry we haven’t talked for a while.
Because I’m not much of a talker,
talking is just not my style.
But I’m sure You know this already,
You know everything about me.
Though Jesus found the need to pray,
in the garden of Gethsemane.
Didn’t You know your only Son,
I guess the truth I now do see.
If Jesus never talked to You,
what sort of a relationship would that be?
Sure You know me, sure You care,
You are my God my keeper true.
So sure I see the need I have for keeping in touch with You.

(John 9:31)

GOD OR GODS?
21 Aug 05

Oannes was the Greek name for a fish/man god of Nineveh. Oannes was represented as a creature with a fish on the upper side and a man on the underside. He had come to Nineveh when the citizens were completely uncultured. He came out of the ocean in the daytime and spent the day teaching the Ninevites culture, wisdom, all sorts of knowledge and civility. He never ate while out of the water. In the evening he would return to the ocean to rest and eat.

It is interesting that the cuneiform symbol for the city Nineveh was a two story building with a fish on the bottom floor. Nineveh was considered "the house of the fish." We find in Jonah 3:3 that Nineveh was a city of three days' journey. An interesting sidelight considering Jonah was in the fish's belly for three days.

Jonah had been told by God to go and preach to the Ninevites. But Jonah did not want to preach to those people. Instead of obeying God, he decides to go in the opposite direction. God could have stopped Jonah before he ever got on the ship. But God allowed Jonah to board the ship. Only after they have set sail does God bring the storm and the circumstances by which the sailors throw Jonah overboard. God has prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah.

After three days of prayer and repentance God has the fish throw Jonah up on dry land. It is then that Jonah goes and preaches to the Ninevites. Not only is Jonah preaching the truth from the Lord God, but the events by which he went to them show the Lord God to be greater than Oannes. Jonah came from the belly of a fish. But he was not part fish. Jonah was not teaching them a false religion but a true religion. The truth of God is far higher than the wisdom of man. Jonah was in the city for forty days and nights. He did not need to go back to the ocean to eat and rest.

God had used the plagues of Egypt not only to punish Egypt but to show that He was greater than their gods. He used Jonah to show the Ninevites that He was greater than Oannes. He was not dependent upon the ocean to live. He created and controlled the ocean.

Do what the Ninevites did when they learned the truth from God. They obeyed and followed God when Jonah preached to them. Obey God.

In Bible times many people believed in idols. They made images out of wood, gold and silver. They would bow down to these images and worship them.

In Psalm 115, we read that these idols had ears but could not hear. They had mouths but could not speak. They had eyes but could not see. The images were not living beings. And they did not represent living gods.

Then in verse eight, we read, "They that make them are like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in them." God says that even though they are living people, they are just like the idols in a spiritual sense. They have ears but they are not listening to the truth. They have eyes, but they refuse to see that God is the one living God. They have mouths, but they refuse  to acknowledge with words that there is the One and Only True God.

There are people today that are like this. They look at the wonderful world we live in but refuse to see that it could only be here because of God. They have ears to hear the Bible preached but they refuse to listen. They have mouths to speak good things but they only speak evil things. They refuse to profess a belief in God. Do not be blind, deaf and mute. Read your Bible. Study it. Learn all you can from it. Obey God.

To be a child of God, we must:

believe in Him (Acts 16:30-31), And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house,

turn to Him in repentance (2 Corinthians 7:9-10), Now I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance: for ye were made sorry after a godly manner, that ye might receive damage by us in nothing.  For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death,

confess Him before men (Romans 10:9-10), That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

and be baptized (immersed) into Him (Acts 2:38; Galatians 3:27), Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.

and then continue to live for Him (1 John 1:7).But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.

Kiss a Mummy?
28 Aug 05

I recently made a trip to Ukraine. While there I had the opportunity to visit catacombs. These catacombs are tunnels and rooms built under the ground in rock. Hundreds of years ago people associated with the Russian Orthodox church lived there.

The Russian Orthodox church has priests. The people believe that the priests have special understanding of the word of God. The priests have great authority at times over all the people.

When certain priests died they were buried in the catacombs. Three years after the burial the body was dug up. If the body had mummified the mummy was placed in a special place and worshipped. The priest’s mummified body is declared
to be a miraculous healer. Prayers are said to the mummy. The glass covering the mummy is kissed. One day per year the people are allowed to even kiss the mummy.

In the Greek New Testament one of the words used for worship is 'proskuneo.' This word means to bow and kiss. In the secular world it was used at times of a dog licking the hand of a man.

The picture given by the word is that man is to bow down before God and submit to God like a dog is submissive to a man. We spiritually kiss the hand of God when we worship him.

In Luke 4:8, Jesus told Satan, "Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve." The word for worship in the greek is 'proskuneo.' Only God is to be kissed through our worship. Satan wanted Jesus to worship him. But Jesus said only the Lord God is to be spiritually kissed.

It is sad that many Russians and Ukrainians have been taught to kiss these mummies. Instead they should be worshipping God. They need to study their Bibles and learn what God wants.

The Russian Orthodox church teaches that the mummification is a sign that the priest was holy and is now to be seen as a miraculous healer. The mummification is seen as a miraculous event. Supposedly if a person kisses the mummy they are healed of all infirmities.

In Matthew 9:12-13, Jesus said that he was a spiritual healer. He came to heal those with spiritual diseases.

But when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

Jesus did not become a mummy to prove that he was a holy man. Jesus was the Son of God and rose from the dead. He showed himself to many individuals to demonstrate that he was indeed the Son of God. When Jesus was on earth, he performed many miracles of healing physical diseases. He did not have to die and become mummified to prove anything.

In John 20:30-31, we are told that the miracles Jesus performed were to help prove that He was the Son of God. Physically healing was not done as an end to itself. It was done to prove that Jesus was teaching the truth.

And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book: But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.

Study your Bible. Learn all you can from God's word. Do not worship man. Worship God. Do not believe in false miracles. Believe in the miracles we read about in the Bible.

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The Great Physician

The great physician now is near,
The sympathizing Jesus.

He speaks the drooping heart to cheer,
O hear the voice of Jesus.

Sweetest note in seraph song.
Sweetest name on mortal tongue.

Sweetest carol ever sung.
Jesus, blessed Jesus.