Sabtu, 30 Mei 2015

Christ Spontaneously Revealed


Christ Spontaneously Revealed

“May [God] give to you the spirit of wisdom
and revelation in the knowledge of Him.”
EPHESIANS 1:17

The Lord reveals Himself to us in a variety of ways, and every testimony is different. Peter received the revelation of Christ while fishing. But Thomas received the revelation of Christ only after the Lord appeared to Him and showed him His wounds. Paul received the revelation of Christ on the road to Damascus, as he was on his way to kill Christians. One man says Christ was revealed to him as he stood watching a tree in the dead of winter. Christ was revealed to me as I sat in my backyard, arguing with the Lord over the Bible.
What do these experiences have in common? They are spontaneous unveilings of Jesus Christ. Without warning the Lord simply reveals Himself, and whereas we were blind before, today we see. It is like walking out of one room and into another room, closing the door behind us.
Source: Lord of All by Chip Brogden

Where is my family?

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I'm looking for my family.

I know who my Father is.

Are you my brother?

Are you my sister?

Are you my mother?

Read this and see if we're related:
http://theschoolofchrist.org/articles/my-mother-and-my-brothers.html



Chip Brogden
http://TheSchoolOfChrist.Org

PO Box 552, Canandaigua, NY 14424, USA

Select 3 People to Be on My Ministry Team

Posted: 11 May 2015 04:32 AM PDT
Most of you know that I’m built for collaboration.
Team work and co-laboring are part of my DNA.
Speaking historically, it’s obvious to me that the Lord has done far more when His servants worked in teams than He has with individuals flying solo, no matter how gifted those individuals happened to be.
Moving the discussion over to the secular realm, both The Beatles and Led Zeppelin were super groups. What they accomplished together trumped (by far) what each artist accomplished on their own after the bands dissolved and each member went solo.
For these reasons, a ministry coalition is something that deeply appeals to me.
Because I believe so much in the team-concept, I’ve done writing collaborations with Leonard Sweet, Mary DeMuth, Greg Boyd, Derwin Gray, and George Barna.
That said, some of you have expressed your desire to see me involved in a Christ-centered ministry coalition.
I fully resonate with that desire, for it’s been in my own heart for many years.
So here’s what we’re going to do.
I want you to dream a little bit.
If you could wave a wand and make this happen, name 3 people who you’ve benefited from through their writings and/or speaking that you’d like to see on a ministry team with me.
They could be males, females, pastors, authors, conference speakers, Bible teachers, etc. Anyone who has a visible ministry today.
Pick whomever you wish (they just have to be alive!).
Let me say this for the sake of those of you who are new to the blog and only know my work from way back in 2008 when I wrote a few books on ecclesiology.
The coalition I’m speaking about will NOT be focused on “church.” It will be a team that focuses on the Lord Jesus Christ, God’s mission, the gospel, and the Christian life.
Consequently, our target audience would be all Christians from all church forms and denominational flavors.
The team would probably do some or all of the following:
* speak together in conferences and seminars.
* collaborate on writing projects.
* create a joint website featuring articles by each of the team members.
* peer review each other’s work – i.e., written articles, spoken messages, (think C.S. Lewis, J.R. Tolkien, and The Inklings).
* periodically meet together for prayer, mutual encouragement, and strategic planning.
Type your 3 picks in the comments section below. (The Blog Manager has adjusted the comments section so that no one will see anyone else’s selections. But I will see them.)
In a future podcast, I plan to talk further about this subject and unveil the people who received the most selections.
So if you want to hear it, make sure you’re subscribed to the podcast.
I’m really looking forward to what you come up with!
As a postscript, I’ll be speaking in several live events this year. So if you’ve not yet filled out our Events Form (or you did a very long time ago), you can do so here.
The Form is how we notify people about the live events in which I speak.
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Q: What costs $762,000?

Question:  What costs $762,000?
May 11, 2015


The stunning blog post below by Felicity Dale answers the question!

It's one more reason, we are so committed to returning to the simple churches of the New Testament. Felicity writes...

 
Icame across a shocking statistic earlier today.
According to the International Bulletin of Missionary Research (2012), the cost per baptism globally is $762,000!
What are we thinking?
I’m sure these figures include seminaries, buildings, training pastors etc., but sometimes I wonder, is this why Jesus died?
I know you cannot put a figure on the salvation of a soul, but surely there is a more cost-effective model (think simple churches meeting in homes with no specially trained leaders…)

One way to help people get started with simple church is our Church 101 Course. Send this link to a friend and encourage them to check it out.  (Cost?  Way less than $762,000.  In fact, it's free!)...   http://www.lk10.com/lk10-school/church-101/

To subscribe to Felicity's blog, go to http://simplychurch.com/

Ever Present Victory


Ever Present Victory

“Thanks be to God, who gives us
the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
1 CORINTHIANS 15:57

When God is pleased to reveal His Son to us, we will learn that Victory is not a thing, but a Person; that Victory is not an experience, but a Man; that God does not give me a thing called victory, but has given me His Son in the place of victory in order to be my Victory. Then Victory will never be future-tense and far-away, but Ever Present and Now. For Victory is Christ. And Victory lives within you.
Thus, Victory has nothing to do with the devil, and everything to do with Christ. Since most Christians have more faith, assurance and reverence for the devil than they do for the Lord Jesus, it is easy to see why so many are defeated.
Source: Lord of All by Chip Brogden

"Not I, But Christ"


"Not I, But Christ"

“I have been crucified with Christ; it is
no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.”
GALATIANS 2:20

Just as salvation is ours through faith by grace, and not of ourselves, so it is with living the Christian life. The difference between a defeated Christian and a victorious Christian is simply this: the former lives by his own power and asks for God’s help and will almost as an afterthought, while the latter despairs of himself, lays down his life, and trusts Christ to live in his place, at all times.
The Cross is how God accomplishes this task of bringing us to the end of ourselves. Then we can say, “Not I, but Christ.”
Source: Embrace the Cross by Chip Brogden

Abundant Life


Abundant Life

“I have come that they may have life,
and that they may have it more abundantly.”
JOHN 10:10

Ask the Lord to open your eyes and show you the Life which is yours. Go to Him and say, “I have heard about this Life, but I don’t know how it works or what to do with it. Please show me, please teach me, please reveal this Life to me.” And He will do it.
If ever you see this, just once, you will discover the secret to the Christian life. You will shake your head and say, “All these years I thought I was really living the Christian life, and all I have been doing is playing tiddlywinks. This Life I have been given is greater, bigger, and more wonderful than I ever dreamed!”
Source: Lord of All by Chip Brogden

What To Do When Other Christians Hurt You – 8 Responses

Posted: 14 May 2015 05:09 AM PDT
When Martha complained to Jesus about Mary on His first visit to Bethany, Mary could have chosen to be offended by her sister. But there is no indication that she felt that way. She also could have taken offense when Judas and the disciples protested against her act of extravagant worship. But again, there is no indication that she did.
Don’t make the mistake of underestimating the pain that was inflicted upon Mary in both situations. Here was a woman who loved her Lord with all her heart, and she was unfairly criticized for it. Not by her enemies, but once by her sister and another time by some of the Lord’s own disciples.
It reminds me of the old adage, “No good deed shall go unpunished.”
The words of Elbert Hubbard come to mind: “To avoid criticism, do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing.”
In both cases, Mary never opened her mouth to defend herself or her actions. In silence, she entrusted the matter to her Lord. And in both instances, Jesus rose to her defense.
Point: there will always be some Christians who will undermine and denigrate your good actions.
T. Austin-Sparks once wrote, “If you get upset, offended, and go off and sulk, and nurse your grievance, you will die.”
With that in mind, here are eight things I’ve learned about being offended by others:
(1) Christians will hurt your feelings
Because of the fall, this will happen. Sometimes a person acts with malicious intent, desiring to hurt you because they don’t like you or they’ve chosen to be offended by you. Other times they will hurt you without realizing it.
I’m sure that when the other disciples chimed in with Judas’ complaint, they weren’t trying to hurt Mary. It was just the result of fleshly judgment.
(2) When others hurt you, your spiritual maturity will be revealed
You will discover how real your relationship with Jesus Christ is when your feelings get hurt. You can be the greatest speaker, the greatest worshipper, or the greatest evangelist, but when your feelings are hurt, what you do at that moment and afterward will reveal the reality of your relationship with Jesus.
People have one of two reactions when their feelings get hurt: they deal with it before the Lord, or they destroy others.
Mary left it in the hands of Christ.
(3) God intends to use mistreatments for our good
Recall the mistreatment that Joseph endured at the hands of his own brothers. Joseph took it from the hand of God, saying, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good.”
Remember King David when Abishai cursed him? David chose not to kill his detractor, but instead he saw the persecution in light of God’s sovereign hand.
To paraphrase Romans 8:28, everything that comes into our lives, whether good or evil, first passed through the hands of a sovereign, loving God before it got to us. And He uses it for our good.
Once you make peace with God’s sovereignty and His ability to write straight with crooked lines, the more at peace you will be with those who mistreat you. While God is not the author of confusion or evil, He seeks to use all things for our transformation.
When Jesus defended Mary, He transformed her act into an immortal example of what real worship entails. Her example was such that we’re still talking about it two thousand years later.
(4) Christians often get offended by reading into words and actions
This usually happens when a person is oversensitive and thinskinned. In my experience, this makes up most cases in which a Christian takes offense at another believer.
As a group, Christians are the most easily offended people in the world when we should be the least. While Mary was mistreated twice, she didn’t take offense.
(5) Christians often get offended with a person when they believe false accusations against them
Wise and discerning Christians who have been around the block ignore gossip that puts other believers in a bad light. In fact, in the eyes of the wise and discerning believer, any statement that has a defamatory tone is discredited out of the gate.
When wise and discerning believers are concerned about someone, they go straight to the person privately as Jesus taught us to do, asking questions rather than making allegations.
Some Christians, however, never think to do this. Instead, they readily believe slanderous allegations about a sister or brother in Christ without ever going to that person first.
The question “How would I want to be treated if someone were saying these things about me?” never seems to occur to them. The life of Jesus Christ always leads us to live that question. The flesh always leads us in the opposite direction.
Remember, Satan is the slanderer (that’s what “Devil” means), and he uses gossip to destroy relationships. That’s why the Bible says that believing gossip separates close friends and that one of the seven things the Lord hates is “sowing seeds of discord among brethren.”
(6) What you do with a hurt is a choice you make
You can choose to be offended and make a friend out of your hurt, feed it, take it out for daily walks, cuddle it, and protect it until it destroys you and others. A root of bitterness, if allowed to live, will defile many and prove destructive to your own spirit.
You can also choose to be offended and retaliate actively or passively.
Or you can choose to live by Christ and bring your hurt to God. Sometimes the Lord will lead you to go to the person and talk to them in a gracious manner, seeking reconciliation.
Other times He will lead you to forebear it, take it to the cross, let it go, and move on. “A man’s wisdom gives him patience; it is to his glory to overlook an offense.”
Sometimes He will show you that you’ve completely misinterpreted the actions of another.
In cases of repeated abuse, which I’m not addressing in this post, getting others involved is often wise and necessary.
Forgiving someone doesn’t mean you should enable that person to commit a crime or continue to devastate the lives of others.
(7) To be offended by a child of God is to be offended by God
When Jesus began preaching in His hometown of Nazareth, He offended His neighbors. They stumbled over Him and rejected who He really was.
When you choose to take offense at another Christian, you are rejecting who they are in Christ. Thus it affects your relationship with Jesus, whether you realize it or not. Why?
Because Christ and His body are connected, so “if you’ve done it to the least of these my brethren, you’ve done it unto Me.”
Again, I’m not equating being offended with being hurt.
(8) You can live free from offense
This doesn’t mean that you will never be hurt. Nor does it mean that you will never be angry. Jesus got angry. Remember His temple tantrum? Paul said, “Be angry and sin not. Don’t let the sun go down on your wrath.”
Anger is a normal human emotion when someone abuses you or abuses someone you care about. But what you do with your anger determines whether or not it is sin.
In addition, we should always be “quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry.” The Lord has called us to the high road of living without offense. And He has given us both the power and the will to do His good pleasure in this
area.
Excerpted from God’s Favorite Place on Earth
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Seeing Victory


Seeing Victory

“Elisha prayed, and said, ‘Lord, I pray,
open his eyes that he may see.’ Then the LORD opened
the eyes of the young man, and he saw. And behold,
the mountain was full of horses and chariots of
fire all around Elisha.”
2 KINGS 6:17

Denying the existence of the adversary will not make him disappear. We acknowledge and admit that there is a real enemy, a real spirit of Antichrist, that is out to destroy the Remnant and hinder the Testimony of Jesus. We also acknowledge and admit that more often than not, this spirit of Antichrist seems to get the advantage over us.
Even so, the issue is not the enemy. We may look at the enemy, study him, and build an entire movement around different ways to fight him. We can write books and hold seminars on “spiritual warfare.” But when we look out from the mountain, what do we really see? Here is the difference between those who overcome and those who are defeated: it is not in their ability to fight, but in their ability to SEE, and this seeing is not of themselves, but is of God.
Source: The Irresistible Kingdom by Chip Brogden

Appleseed Travel Journal - From Nairobi

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Appleseed Travel Journal - From Nairobi


Brooks
Tonight we are keenly aware of and grateful that the guys from Burundi and DR Congo are able to be here with us. Because of the tragedies going on in Bujumbura, Burundi, right now the airport that the guys flew out of has been closed down. While we are glad they are here with us, they have left behind family members and friends that they are very worried about. These people know and understand war very well and, of course, are fearing the worst in a most vulnerable nation. Many times throughout the day they have borrowed my phone checking on the situation, only to find that windows have been smashed, water lines cut, fires started and hopes of a coup to keep the current President out of office for an illegal third term dashed. Now, they are left only with fear of what could be yet another genocide. Please pray with us for God’s Kingdom to come and his will to be done in this nation.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-32732793

John Fenn, Took Away Sin not Sins? #1 (No Swimming

Hi all,
I grew up with the command not to go swimming for at least 30 minutes after eating a meal or I'd get a cramp and drown. As a child, it was never explained to me what a cramp was as I'd never experienced one, nor how that could make me drown in a pool not much deeper than my waist, but we followed that rule to the letter.
 
Ours was a round above-ground pool dad erected one summer, and I remember watching other kids swim while I sat waiting until that 30 minutes was up. "NOWWWW mom?" I would plead. "Well, it's almost 30 minutes, be careful, if you feel a cramp get out right away, we don't want you to drown!"
 
Since those days the '30 minute rule' has been proven false, what is called an 'urban legend', yet the belief persists that one must wait at least 30 minutes after eating to go swimming.
 
People do get cramps while swimming, but it is because of extreme exertion using muscles they haven't used in a while or aren't used to using that way rather than having just eaten, and people do sometimes drown as a result. But somewhere in the hazy past someone concluded his leg cramp happened because he had eaten 30 minutes earlier and an urban legend was born. People naturally connected the dots, though they are generally unrelated.
 
Sin versus sins
And so it is today I want to talk about the difference between sin and sins. When John the Baptist saw Jesus coming toward him he said: "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!"* Why did he say Jesus takes away the sin of the world instead of He 'takes away your sins'? *John 1:29.
 
Church culture connects the two like leg cramps automatically happen after eating, but like my example, they are not the same thing. Technically speaking, Jesus didn't take our individual sins on Himself, but rather the sin of the world on Himself. 
 
Weren't we were taught in Sunday School that Jesus took our sins on the cross, or that our sins put Him on the cross? How many preachers have painted a vivid and gory word picture of Jesus bleeding and dying on the cross with our individual sins killing Him? For John the Baptist's point, that isn't technically true however.
 
Getting to the root of the matter
From the sin of the world flows all individual sins, so if you take away the sin of the world then our individual sins are rendered powerless. Huh?
 
Romans 5:12 says it this way: "...because of this, through one man sin entered into the world and through that sin death entered the world..."
 
Adam didn't allow sins into the world, he allowed sin to enter the world. Think of it like a pomegranate, that delicious fruit that is filled with seeds. The sin of the world is like the whole fruit, and the individual sins are like all those seeds. 
 
If you throw away the whole of the fruit you automatically throw away all those seeds contained within the fruit. Jesus removed the whole fruit, so the seeds are included in that act. Jesus took away the sin of the world, not our specific sins individually.
 
What is sin, exactly?
When I went through the Episcopal church confirmation class I was told sin is anything that doesn't please God. That left me wondering if someone could define for me what exactly what He liked and didn't like that I might please Him, but no one ever gave me that list other than the 10 Commandments.
 
And I've heard that sins make God angry and He would normally strike me down were it not for Jesus coming to stand up to what seemed to be a heavenly bully of a Father - go Jesus, keep Him away from me - was the image in my mind back then.
 
And there is a verse that says anything not of faith is sin* but that is in context about eating choices and eating what we eat as unto the Lord, not a blanket doctrinal statement. For years I didn't know the context, so I tried to figure out if taking a shower was somehow in faith or was that a sin, as well as other normal functions of life - am I in faith while eating lunch? Was I in faith while going to work? No one ever defined what being in faith was or wasn't so I gave up trying to figure it out. *Romans 14:23
 
Here it is
And in all those times people told me sin was anything not pleasing to God, or sin was something that made Him angry or that I hurt Him when I did it, no one ever actually referred to the Bible definition of what sin is. Fortunately the apostle John defined SINS and SIN in I John 3:4:
 
"Everyone who commits sin commits lawlessness, for sin is lawlessness." (NAB)
 
Notice the definition - committing a sin (sins) is a commission of lawlessness, and sin IS lawlessness.
 
SIN is lawlessness. So what is lawlessness?
 
Lawlessness is literally the 'throwing off of all rule', or 'the throwing off of restraint'. If you think of law as God's will, God's rule, God's government in your life and the world, then lawlessness as a word makes sense - it is the throwing off of the will (government or rule) of God, first in the earth and secondarily to you and I.
 
When we sin we are committing a tiny sliver, a portion of throwing off God's rule in that single area of our life so we can do the evil thing or the thing WE want to do rather than what He wants us to do. So the 'sin of the world' is the throwing off of God's will, God's rule or government in the earth.
 
What Adam did
What Adam did was to let into the world SIN not sins, law-lessness, the throwing off of God's government and rule in the earth. By letting in sin, then naturally sins followed.
 
Up to that point in Adam and Eve's life the idea of throwing off God's rule in favor of man ruling without God was unheard of, not even in their thoughts until the tempter made the suggestion they do so. They walked with the Lord in the Garden - they had never considered shutting Him out of their lives in order to do what THEY wanted to do - they just naturally wanted to do what He wanted to do.
 
They knew only good, they didn't know evil. Though more brilliant than Einstein but with the innocence of toddlers - who don't know or care they are naked.
 
The Bible says Eve was deceived into the transgression but Adam was not*. Adam committed treason.* He figured it out as Satan tempted them 'to be like God' and knew exactly what he was doing. He willfully allowed the throwing off of God's rule into the earth, and death followed*. *Hosea 6:7, I Timothy 2:14, Romans 5:12
 
It is that law-less-ness that Jesus took away, He carried on Himself the rule of man that throws off the rule of God, the singular SIN of the world - that is why Paul calls Jesus 'the last Adam'* - Jesus carried on Himself and removed the SIN Adam had released into the earth. *I Corinthians 15:45
 
Jesus took away the sin of the world, so that means individual sins have no power over us, and once you know that it can rock your world - more next week,
    Blessings,
        John Fenn
www.cwowi.org and email me at cwowi@aol.com
 
 
 
New CD/MP3 Series
 
The 'curse of the generations' is generally regarded as demonic influence, sickness, disease, or sins which have traveled down family lines to us from past generations of relatives, affecting our ability to gain healing, deliverance, and wholeness today. Many teachings on 'the curse of the generations' have become wildly unscriptural, yet are so established in Christian culture that many believe they are believing the Word on this subject, but are actually believing non-sense that God doesn't have anything to do with. This series separates fact from fiction, looking into the Word to uncover God's teachings on the subject. For many, this teaching can be a key to freedom long sought for as it will provide Old Testament understanding in light of New Testament truths on how to stop familial spirits and how to stand strong and firm in Christ.
(2 cd/MP3, $12/set or MP3 $10)