Your friend from Tennessee, USA. Praying for revival. Praying for reform.
Hi all, let's look ahead and prayerfully ask about how this venue might fit into the future. The site is finally functional and has good potential if God wills.
Good news! We are just getting started and have already found 2 others who are eager to assist and oversee. They are proven workers and are already quite active elsewhere in the Lord's Vineyard. @irnawan silitonga and @Onesmas Riungu.
In view of the grim statistics about traditional church closures, we are very concerned. We believe that many churches can and should be saved, along with their property if they own any. This will require honest evaluation and simplification in every possible way - thus simple church.
Some failing churches will need to depend less upon their denominational headquarters and their seminaries, if those have been corrupted. Sadly, this is usually the case. Many exceptions, thankfully.
Looking forward, we are more interested in challenging unscriptural systems - not waging endless war with individual saints. We are not interested in duplicating the efforts of others - we have plenty of unique free content of our own to publish. We are interested in activating every believer into service or ministry (diakonia).
If you did not notice, we are advocates of a commercial-free version of Christianity. Requiring that we take a look at modern methods of church finance and the associated traditions.
Nor do we want to fall out with any saint over pet doctrines. Our unity is much deeper than that. We are definitely not here to attack other believers. Many other sites have that covered. Our beliefs are offensive enough...
So, we desire to see mass conversions, which will result in more churches and in some churches getting a needed refresh! More voluntarism on the part of men, women, and even youth! More of Jesus pulling down the strongholds in every area of life and learning - in every neighborhood in every country.
What would YOU like to see with regard to this site? And how might you fit in?
A non-governmental organization, Twin Alive Foundation, has called on the United Nations and the Federal Government to designate December 2 as a global day to celebrate Mary Slessor, the Scottish missionary credited with ending the killing of twins in Nigeria.
The founder of the foundation, Mr. Jude Idongesit Mbonmkponam who is also a twin, made the appeal during an interview with Radio Nigeria.
He said the petition, once signed, would help immortalize the extraordinary contributions of Mary Slessor to humanity.
Mary heard that David Livingston had died and she knew she wanted to assist in the work of God in Africa. Soon thereafter she boarded an ocean liner.
Her denomination in Scotland, the Presbyterian Church, did not allow women to preach.... unless they did it far away. :)
There are a number of statues of her in Scotland and Nigeria. She is depicted holding two precious African children. She had taught the natives that twin children were a blessing and not a curse.
Psalm 139:14.
It is estimated that tens of thousands of different types of chemical reactions occur in the human body. However, in terms of sheer volume, your body processes an astonishing 30 billion billion chemical reactions every single second (30 followed by 18 zeros). Source: Google AI
I mention this fact because one of the main pillars of the modern system is that blind fate brought this world, and everything in it, into being. All from nothing.
Go to the link below and view all the Presbyterian Churches for sale right now in Scotland. Dozens and dozens. With more on the way. Thousands, across Europe.
Even though this denomination is named after the "eldership" - they completely misunderstand the New Testament concept of it. Not to mention the Old Testament concept as well. And not to mention their mistaken concept of "preaching".
If the mere principle of eldership parity (equality) had been brought into view, none of these useful properties would have to be sold.
(On a minor note, notice the belfry which contained a bell which was rung on the hour. Since clocks were a rarity. Also notice the usual adjoining cemetery for the burial of the dead. Reminiscent of the early church purchasing land for burials.)
Grab a handkerchief and as you scroll and scroll.
Bad doctrines - do they not have bad consequences?
Amen, brother. So many wonderful thoughts you bring to us.
God could have sent Angels to perform this harvesting task. It would have not taken so long, I suppose. However, that was not the plan.
He has appointed us to it - not unto some phantom group known as clergy. It is He, the Lord of the Harvest, who has commissioned all of us to this work.
So let us arise. And be filled with the Holy Spirit. More than a work - it is a privilege to be his ambassador in reconciling others to their Creator.
For every $100,000 church members give to American churches - only $102 funds missions to Unreached People Groups.
People who know missions financing far better than I will say those numbers are likely pessimistic. So let’s imagine they’re off by a factor of 10. That gets us to 1.02 percent for UPGs.
Is 1 percent of American church budgets enough for the least reached parts of the world? We’re talking about places where people have virtually no access either to the gospel or to the Scriptures in their languages? Source: Gospel Coalition.
Such statistics are difficult to verify, of course. And some modern church leaders would declare that their whole budget is for missions. I would challenge such a sentiment and inquire: Is the modern church really a charity or merely a charity unto itself?
Good points, my brother. Most Christians associate the priesthood of all believers with only the New Covenant or New Testament. This relationship was God's design from the beginning as you have noted. Let's read more:
Ex. 19:1 In the third month, when the children of Israel were gone forth out of the land of Egypt, the same day came they into the wilderness of Sinai. 2 For they were departed from Rephidim, and were come to the desert of Sinai, and had pitched in the wilderness; and there Israel camped before the mount. 3 And Moses went up unto God, and the LORD called unto him out of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel; 4 Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto myself. 5 Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine: 6 And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation.
An interesting book on a timely subject. Many of our brotherly opponents insist that prophecy was a miraculous, supernatural event. Not for Christians today.
The author of this book - then President of Princeton Theological School, claims to have demonstrated several unique contributions:
- a central thesis that early Christian prophecy functioned as theology
- the view that the use of "glossolalia" was understood as an ecstatic event which was a sign of genuine prophetic inspiration
- the argument that prophetic speech was extended discourse of a sermonic kind rather than brief ejaculatory oracles
Think about it - if every prophecy was directly from God, bypassing human faculties, why would prophecies need to be weighed and possibly rejected? And why would The Almighty give prophecies to several people at the exact same time, thus resulting in confusion and persons being interrupted before others could finish their own prophecy? And why all the talk of false prophets is prophecy was always directly from the immediate influence of the Holy Spirit.
Personally, I do not have all the answers on this subject. Still, we are especially encouraged to covet to prophesy. If 2 or 3 prophets were to speak on one occasion, would 4 be OK? Likewise... What about the needy widows, required to be 60 years? Could an exception be made for one a year or two younger? For sure, we see numbers rounded off throughout the Bible. Think of Jesus feeding the large crowds, for example.
Anyway, I am getting off the subject. This book was published in the 90's. So it shows the present drift of modern scholarship on this fascinating but misunderstood subject.
Hi all. I wanted to share this link and inform you about a bold Christian News channel. Of course, I cannot endorse everything they publish. :) It's called CBN News.
Of old, the tribe of Issachar were known for their wisdom and ability to understand the socio-political and spiritual climate of their time to discern what actions Israel should take. This ability is highlighted in 1 Chronicles 12:32, where they are described as "men who had understanding of the times to know what Israel ought to do".
The landscape is changing everyday. Still the Kingdom shall go from strength to strength. And at last, every knee shall bow.
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone.
It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.
The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities. It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population. It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals. It is some 50 miles of concrete highway.
We pay for a single fighter plane with a half million bushels of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people.
This, I repeat, is the best way of life to be found on the road the world has been taking. This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron. - President and war hero Dwight D. Eisenhower
Now to the church - how has she spent her money? Her hundreds of billions of dollars? Is she a true charity for the benefit of the world or a charity unto herself?
Looking at Christianity on the television would suggest that taking in money and lots of it, is of the highest priority.
Those saddest words of tongue of pen? The words are these: It might have been.
D
In the above post I mentioned "grim statistics". Here is the source.
According to predictions, one third of the country's 350,000 Christian congregations are "on the brink of extinction."