Bible College - Our Next Move

This September Catharine and I will be going to Charis Bible College which is part of Andrew Wommack Ministries.

Did you notice the 'Catharine' rather than 'Cathy'. Catharine now wants to use her full name rather than the shortened version. Actually she has wanted this for some time now but I have found it hard to remember but as we are making a major change in out lives it will, hopefully, be easier.

It was about two years ago when this process started. I was feeling really fed-up with working for other people, not really earning enough and not concentrating on my real area of interest i.e. Jesus. One morning I woke up with an idea floating around in my head; half an hour with a spreadsheet and I was almost convinced, sell the house and live on the capital until retirement age, do what God wants me to do and start enjoying life!

Catharine and I discussed this for some time, it is quite a radical idea and when we discussed it with an Independent Financial Adviser he didn't quite 'get it' at first. After discussions with his boss he soon came to realize that we were not so dumb as we looked (actually it was God's idea) and set about finding a suitable investment bond. First we had to sell the house which took about six months and we managed just before the housing market collapsed!

We have been living in a large 3 bed semi with 3 reception rooms and a large kitchen. It is bigger than we need and costs a lot to rent and heat. Christopher is expecting to go into the Army soon, the Household Cavalry (light tanks, brass breastplates and helmets etc.) so we will be better suited to a smaller place.

Why the Bible College? well, someone in our house church loaned us a teaching CD by Andrew Wommack. We thought that it was particularly good and listened to many of his free downloads especially when we were on holiday. I suppose it was there, on the Sinai Peninsula, that we started to sense that we should go to Bible College. We didn't see a burning bush, just a lovely cool pool! The children are finally off our hands, we have the money, we are not too old, we want to serve God more effectively, so why not do it now!

We are currently in the process of securing a rental house about 1.5 miles from the college. It is 2 double bed with a small kitchen diner and a large garden. We will need to dispose of some stuff and buy some stuff to fit the new place but if we can move in the next few weeks we will have plenty of time to settle in by September.

To be continued!

Why are so few saved?

I have been going through a process with God in recent months. This process has been one in which I have been re-evaluating the message of the Gospel and the effectiveness of the visible Church. This has been a period in which I have had no particular denominational or local church loyalty and have therefore been free to think 'outside the box' of conformity and without the fear of inadvertently hurting anyone with whom I might be in relationship. God has spoken to me using inspiration by the Holy Spirit, my wife's dream about a passage of scripture, a particular web-site, in the preparation of a series of Lenten studies and through chance comments made by other Christians.

I think that the process began about 5 years ago when I was a member of South Basingstoke Community Church. This growing and 'successful' church is a part of the Salt and Light group of churches. South Church, as we were known, had much to commend it and was growing mainly because it was attracting new arrivals from the rapidly expanding southern part of the town and it had many young families. I guess that there were about 150 over 18 and a similar number under 18. Any UK church that can boast those sort of numbers on a regular basis is 'doing well', so what was it that started this process of re-evaluation? I noticed that I could not remember when I had last heard the Gospel preached! I checked with others and found that they too could not recall a direct Gospel message. The quality of the preaching was often excellent containing practical application of scriptural principles to peoples lives, exposition of scripture in the areas of spiritual gifts and ministries and their use outside of church 'meetings', encouragement to be involved in overseas missions work and in the local community etc., all good stuff but somehow missing something, the direct proclamation of the Gospel of God.

Following our move to Sheffield in 2003 we found that the situation here was 'worse', I use inverted commas because I don't wish to imply any form of judgement on any of the churches with which I have been involved; how can I point the finger when for the last 30 years I have been involved in church leadership at various levels and I have come to realise that I have not been 'preaching the Gospel' and may well have been preaching 'another Gospel'! Before I begin to go into any detail about what I have come to realise I will let you know 'where I am coming from doctrinally. I was saved in an Assemblies of God Church and my formative teaching was under the ministry of David Petts (until retirement the principle of the AOG Bible College in the UK). I have no problem with the vast majority of 'pentecostal/charismatic' teaching and the areas of emphasis and teaching which I question are in fact common to both cessationist evangelicals and pentecostals.

I quote from the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association web site: 'Mr. Graham’s lifelong mission—to tell others about the love of Christ.' And that is what most evangelistic Churches have been doing since the early 1960's. But is that the Gospel? We have all heard the message, 'God is Love', 'Smile Jesus loves you', 'Come to Jesus, just as you are' etc. In a sense these are all true statements, the problem is they don't go far enough, they are half-truths and if we want to be really pointed, a half-truth is another word for a deception! The idea of 'another gospel' is in scripture: "But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed." Galatians 1:8, 9 Here is an example from scripture of an angel 'preaching the gospel':Rev 14:6,7 "And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people (7) Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgement is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.” Now, that does not sound like a 'normal' gospel message does it? It speaks of the fear of God (and I don't mean respect) and judgement. Now I come to my wife's dream. She woke up to ask me “where in scripture is there a man who sat under a vine to shade him from the sun?” The answer of course is Jonah. Read the book of Jonah, it is very short. Here we have a Jew sent by God to preach to Gentiles and to tell them that He could not ignore their wickedness any longer: "Go to Nineveh, that great city, and speak out against it; I am aware of how wicked its people are." GNB or, if you prefer, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me. “ KJV. Did Jonah have a great love for the people of Nineveh? Did Jonah want the people of Nineveh to repent? No he didn't, but the end result was that the people of Nineveh did repent:

“The people of Nineveh believed God's message. So they decided that everyone should fast, and all the people, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth to show that they had repented. When the king of Nineveh heard about it, he got up from his throne, took off his robe, put on sackcloth, and sat down in ashes. He sent out a proclamation to the people of Nineveh: "This is an order from the king and his officials: No one is to eat anything; all persons, cattle, and sheep are forbidden to eat or drink. All persons and animals must wear sackcloth. Everyone must pray earnestly to God and must give up their wicked behaviour and their evil actions. Perhaps God will change his mind; perhaps he will stop being angry, and we will not die!"

If you have read the story you know the result, “God saw what they did; he saw that they had given up their wicked behaviour. So he changed his mind and did not punish them as he had said he would. “ In other words, they were saved! (at least temporarily). These were Gentiles who did not have the Law, could not list the Ten Commandments and definitely didn't have a copy of the Gideon Bible on their bookshelves. Did you notice that Jonah knew that God would forgive them if they repented, even before he tried to run off to Spain. Jonah was on a 'good news' mission to a people he didn't care for, with a message he didn't want to deliver and he didn't even tell them the 'good news'. He told them the 'bad news': “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.”. These people knew how the 'gods' worked, you upset them and you are in big trouble! They would have known that Jonah was a Jew and that the God of the Jews claimed to be the only true God. They may even have heard what He did to the Egyptians. They knew exactly what to do, repent! God, however describes these people as not knowing their right hand from their left! I think that they knew a lot more about how to react to the anger of God than the people we live amongst. You might argue that Jonah is Old Testament and that God deals with us differently since the resurrection. Let us consider the first 'Gospel' message of the newly formed church at Pentecost.

Jerusalem is filled with thousands of Jews from many nations who have come to celebrate the giving of the law to Moses. At nine in the morning the crowd in the street hear a commotion from an upper room and people speaking to them in their own languages. Peter cuts through the speculation to explain what is happening. The essence of what he says is this:

· This is the fulfilment of prophecy.

· The day of the Lord is coming.

· Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.

· You killed the messiah, Jesus.

· God raised him from the dead and we have seen him.·

· God is going to make his enemies (you) into a stool for his feet (he is coming to get you and it won't be nice)

At this point Peter waits, he doesn't tell them what to do, he doesn't tell them that 'God loves them' and that they should 'give their hearts to Jesus' or 'invite Jesus into their lives', he just waits. He waits for conviction of sin to occur in their hearts as the Holy Spirit does his work.

The Jew's response: “Brothers, what shall we do?” And Peter responds with this instruction: “Repent, and be baptised every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Three thousand are added to the church. These people did know their left hand from their right hand, they knew the Law, they could have listed the Ten Commandments, they were in Jerusalem to celebrate the giving of the Law. They knew that they had killed messiah, some of them knew that they had 'borne false witness' regarding Jesus, some of them knew that their relationship with Rome and Herod had been more important than their relationship with God (that is only 3 of the ten). They knew that it only takes one transgression of the Law to condemn a man.

So, what do we learn from both the Old Testament and the New regarding the way God wants his Good News preached.

· Tell them the 'bad news' that God is angry with their sin and is going to punish them.

· Wait for the response of fear and sorrow.

· Tell them what to do about it.

Later give them the apostles doctrine of the love of God and the effectiveness of the blood of Jesus to cleanse them from sin.

Why have we, in our generation, seen fit to change the Gospel thinking that because the word means 'good news' that there is no 'bad news' for which the world needs the good news. I wish to propose that you cannot preach the Good News without preaching the bad news and that many in our churches are not saved because they have never heard the full gospel and never repented.

The Car Showroom

Have you ever wandered into a car showroom to have a look at the latest models? If you are not interested in cars then perhaps a kitchen store or clothes shop. You would not be surprised if a sales assistant approached you and asked if they could help or even just began to talk about the benefits of owning the latest model. When you walked through that door you LOST the right not to hear their GOOD NEWS! Of course you could simply walk out without listening to the sales talk, but unless you are a bit strange no offence would be taken at the approach of the sales person. If the sales person didn’t make a point of approaching potential customers I’m sure his boss would have something to say, don’t you?

When someone walks into your Church building for any reason they have LOST THE RIGHT not to hear the gospel.

Why might they walk in?

Sunday Meetings, Mothers and Toddlers, Coffee Morning, Scouts etc., Jumble Sale, Christmas, Easter, Weddings, Funerals, New Baby, ETC.

Who might walk in? What do you do? What do you say? Exactly what IS the gospel?

Did you know that when Peter preached the first gospel sermon most of it was actually the BAD NEWS!

Why should you preach the bad news first?

Because we don’t think we need salvation unless we first know we are sinners!

Men of Israel, give ear to these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man who had the approval of God, as was made clear to you by the great works and signs and wonders which God did by him among you, as you yourselves have knowledge, Him, when he was given up, by the decision and knowledge of God, you put to death on the cross, by the hands of evil men: (Acts 2:22-23)

This Jesus God has given back to life, of which we all are witnesses. And so, being lifted up to the right hand of God, and having the Father's word that the Holy Spirit would come, he has sent this thing, which now you see and have knowledge of. For David has not gone up into heaven, but says, himself, The Lord said to my Lord, Be seated at my right hand, Till I put all those who are against you under your feet. For this reason, let all Israel be certain that this Jesus, whom you put to death on the cross, God has made Lord and Christ. (Act 2:32-36)

You killed the Messiah, he is risen, all his enemies (including you) are going to be under His feet!

No wonder they replied: Brothers, what are we to do?

NOW Peter can get to the GOOD NEWS!