Christ Have Mercy

WHO CAN STAND?  (13/03/08)

Early this month, I dreamed that I was standing in the foyer of a packed church, looking outside at a tremendous storm which was lashing our large building. Every time a powerful gust of wind and rain hit us, groups of the people inside the church fell down, like long grass flattened in a gale.

An hour or so after this dream, in the course of attending to my ordinary daily Bible readings, I read the sixth chapter of The Revelation and was particularly struck by verses 12-17,

SHRINKING COMFORT-ZONE  (27/02/08)

In Auckland one Sunday morning recently, I stepped out of church and set off to walk through a graveyard to the street. I was confronted by debris from a considerable explosion which had blown open a two-storey building across the road a few hours earlier. What was especially disturbing were the dinner plate sized shards of broken glass which earlier had been a restaurant's front window. They were lying uncomfortably in this usually peaceful and beautiful place; aging stones, venerable trees, flowers and neatly clipped lawn ... wreckage!

" 'From the least to the greatest, all are greedy for gain; prophets and priests alike, all practice deceit. They dress the wound of My people as though it were not serious. 'Peace, peace', they say, when there is no peace. Are they ashamed of their loathsome conduct? No, they have no shame at all; they do not know even how to blush. So they will fall among the fallen; they will be brought down when I punish them,' says the Lord."  (Jeremiah 6.13-15)

The traditional Christian graveyard is like a buffer-zone (comfort-zone?) which lies protectively between the Church and the world. This space is now under siege and shrinking...with God's immediate permission. The Church in these Last Days will not be allowed to "rest in peace", conveniently and traditionally cloistered from our sin-sick and perishing world.

"The Lord...is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance."  (2 Peter 3.9)

"God our Saviour, who wants all men to be saved."  (1 Timothy 2.4)

If we will not go out, then it will come in,

GENERAL ELECTIONS 2008  (13/02/08)

In Britain in 1774, during parliamentary elections, the towering Church of England evangelist John Wesley recorded, "I met those of our (Methodist) society who had votes in the ensuing election, and advised them (1) to vote, without fee or reward, for the person they judged most worthy: (2) to speak no evil of the person they voted against; and (3) to take care their spirits were not sharpened against those that voted on the other side."

In 1981, another genuine evangelistic colossus Billy Graham (USA) declared, "Evangelicals can't be closely identified with any particular party or person. We have to stand in the middle, to preach to all the people, right or left. I haven't been faithful to my own advice in the past. I will in the future."

During New Zealand's General Elections this year, will Christians take to heart the counsel of these two Godly men, employed by the Lord to profoundly and lastingly influence the destinies of many nations according to the power of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

"I am not ashamed of the Gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jews, then for the Gentiles."  (Romans 1.16)

Or are we yet again going to be assailed and blasted by Dominion Theology ("When we rule the world for Jesus!") barked from pulpit, platform and full-page newspaper advertisement? And will the personal, inward-witness of the Holy Spirit again be brutally suppressed and trampled underfoot by Christian leaders (local church and other) claiming divine revelation concerning which political party God has commanded "the faithful" to vote for this time around?

This kind of worn-out and predictable posturing dishonours God Himself, brings shame upon the Gospel, and draws ridicule down on the heads of all the members of Christ's Body.

It would be very encouraging to think that Wesley and Graham's divine wisdom will be heeded. Sad to say, I for one will not be holding my breath.

"Whoever will listen let him listen, and whoever will refuse let him refuse; for they are a rebellious house."  (Ezekiel 3.27)

"Let him who does wrong continue to do wrong; let him who is vile continue to be vile; and let him who is right continue to do right; and let him who is holy continue to be holy."  (Revelation 22.11)

DROWNING IN FROTH  (17/01/08)

Some days ago (13th January), I dreamt I was on the coast, about one block back from the beach. I could see very big waves breaking in the distance. As I watched, I observed that huge amounts of froth and foam were being blown in from the water's edge and flooding through the basements of the row of houses which stood between me and the sea. I was concerned that this mess might even reach my car which I had been careful to park up on high ground.

"I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints. For certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you ... Woe to them! ... They have rushed for profit into Balaam's error ... These men are ... shepherds who feed only themselves ... They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shame ... They boast about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage."  (Jude 1.3-16)

"But the wicked are like the tossing sea, which cannot rest, whose waves cast up mire and mud."  (Isaiah 57.20)

"Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into Him who is the Head, that is Christ."  (Ephesians 4.14-15)

In much of Western Christendom today, gloss has triumphed over substance, celebrity has eclipsed authenticity, and God's saints are everywhere in hot pursuit of excitement and convenience ... rather than crucified obedience and servanthood.

But the truly guilty are those who are leading the charge; those "shepherds who feed only themselves". They require cultish devotion and slavish obedience from their own followers; they ("wild waves of the sea")submit to none and render account to no one ... failing to heed even the final, faint warning cries of their own dying consciences. The froth and bubble of their ministries and meetings, to which the crowds flock and in which they "boast about themselves", is really "their shame"!

The gathering of huge crowds can signify many things ... a building on fire? ... an international test of athletic power? Who can tell? But one thing is certain ... a crowd is not necessarily testimony to the presence and benediction of Almighty God. To be sure, the multitudes did flock to the Lord Jesus as He performed God-honouring signs and wonders and miracles. And yet through that day when He toiled at His great work on Calvary's brutal Tree, His supporters were exceedingly few and far between ... their former applause dead on their lips.

Last year a Christian movement lauded (adulated?) for its ability to attract huge crowds into what gave every appearance of being "church", audited itself. Its leaders "confessed" that their programmes' excitement and convenience (froth and bubble) produced numbers, but not disciples (men and women consistently maturing under the discipline of Jesus Christ's Word, Spirit and Fellowship)!

Will these people now demolish their glittering, ecclesiastical ziggurat? Will they spend the rest of their lives repenting (clothed in sack cloth, mouths full of dust and ashes) for their grievous error, which has led thousands of local churches into a blind (but seeker-friendly!) alleyway? I doubt it!

In that place where waves break upon the land, the sea can be whipped into a foaming state where there is insufficient buoyancy to float, and inadequate oxygen to breathe. This is the place where people die.

It is not a good place to be; it is a place to get out of as quickly as you can!

"There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars. On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea. Men will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world, for the heavenly bodies will be shaken. At that time they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory."  (Luke 21.25-27)

JERUSALEM 2008  (7/12/07)

The international community (on November 29) delivered Israel yet another ultimatum: Create and live alongside a separate, independent Palestinian State by 12/12/08 ... or else!

A "peace" conference (27-29/12) was hosted last week by the United States at Annapolis, Maryland, and brought together Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, and the Palestinian Authority's President Mahmoud Abbas. Their deliberations were witnessed by 40 leaders of nations (among them representatives of the UN, the European Union, the Arab League, Russia and China) and multinational corporations.

"Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against His Anointed One. 'Let us break their chains,' they say, 'and throw off their fetters.' "  (Psalm 2.1-3)

One of the most significant consequences of the "accord" of this conference, is that the nations of the earth have thrust the "problem", status and destiny of Jerusalem right to the very top of their political agenda ... ahead of ecological disaster, Africa's AID's catastrophe, and multiplying bloodbaths continuing to be perpetuated by totalitarian regimes on every side.

During the conference, the PA's President Abbas told those attending that Israel "must end (its) occupation in all Palestinian territories occupied in 1967, including East Jerusalem."

He continued by saying that it was his "duty" to point out that "Jerusalem must be central to any deal. We want East Jerusalem to be our capital."

(Prime Minister Olmert shocked many of his fellow-countrymen during the Annapolis meeting by stating that he was "convinced that the reality that emerged in our region in 1967 will change significantly". A thinly-veiled reference to his apparent willingness to consider relinquishing neighbourhoods of Jerusalem to the Palestinians.)

"The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at them. Then He rebukes them in His anger and terrifies them in His wrath, saying, 'I have installed My King on Zion, My holy Hill.' I will proclaim the decree of the Lord: He said to Me, 'You are My son; today I have become your Father. Ask of Me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession. You will rule them with an iron scepter; You will dash them to pieces like pottery.' "  (Psalm 2.4-9)

Jerusalem's continuing and escalating status as the international community's number-one problem and "hot-potato" is neither novel nor surprising. It is in fact the key to the understanding and fulfillment of all Bible prophecy concerning the Last Days. Jerusalem is God's city, and the Temple Mount in its heart will be the platform for Jesus' Throne during His millennial reign. Therefore, who is to occupy and control it will be fiercely contested and bitterly fought for, until satan himself (and his human and supernatural followers) are literally blasted out of their seigeworks around the city "by the splendour of His coming".  (2 Thessalonians 2.8)

"This is the plague with which the Lord will strike all the nations that fought against Jerusalem: their flesh will rot while they are still standing on their feet, their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongues will rot in their mouths."  (Zechariah 14.12)

"The angel swung his sickle on the earth, gathered its grapes and threw them into the great wine press of God's wrath. They were trampled in the wine press outside the city (of Jerusalem), and blood flowed out of the press, rising as high as the horses' bridles for a distance of 300 kilometers."  (Revelation 14.19-20)

This year is the 40th anniversary of the restoration of the whole of Jerusalem to Israel's jurisdiction and stewardship. This extraordinary event in 1967 was the fulfillment of the Lord's word concerning His return,

THE CRUCIAL VIRTUE  (5/12/07)

What will Christians esteem most highly as history hurtles towards its climax? Power? Revelation? Supernatural experiences? Success?

Teresa of Avila (Spain)

A ROGUE WAVE  (4/12/07)

On the morning of Thursday, November 29, I dreamt that I was standing on a beach (again!). As I looked inland, I could see a wave of water coming up out of the ground. When I looked again, I could see that it was building to tsunami-like proportions, and racing towards the coast ... full of menace and destruction.

"Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved."  (Matthew 24.12-13)

"The king (Saul) said to her, 'Don't be afraid. What do you see?' The woman said, 'I see a spirit coming up out of the ground.' "  (1 Samuel 28.13)

"Then I saw another beast, coming up out of the earth. He had two horns like a lamb, but he spoke like a dragon."  (Revelation 13.11)

During the past 16 years or so, I have often dreamed about waves rolling in onto the shore out of the ocean. On every occasion, these dreams have spoken of something God was planning to do ... especially along the lines of Holy Spirit outpouring, revival or visitation.

This is the first time I have "seen" a wave come out of the land and run to the sea. It reminds us that immediately before the Last Day (the return of the Lord Jesus Christ) the earth will be hit by a dramatic and sustained surge of unparalleled wickedness and lawlessness ... both human and supernatural.

"Concerning the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to Him, we ask you, brothers, not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by some prophecy, report or letter supposed to have come from us, saying that the day of the Lord has already come. Don't let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction."  (2 Thessalonians 2.1-3)

But God's response to this, is to grant yet greater grace and power,

HELL WILL HOWL  (15/10/07)

What are the ultimate (most significant, highest, greatest) purposes of God, so far as you are concerned? Church growth? Revival? 24/7 prayer? Israel? The success of your ministry, church, denomination? Do we need to be concerned about such a highfalutin question at all? Surely (you may say) it's enough to observe where the majority of Western Christendom is presently stampeding off to, and just run-along and join right in?

Theodore Austin-Sparks

According to the British Bible scholar, Theodore Austin-Sparks (1888-1971), we ought to be supremely anxious abut this matter because,

DIVINITY AND DESOLATION  (3/10/07)

The Last Days will be a time of glory and fury; revival and judgement! Life on the earth is going to get worse and worse...and better and better. Christians must understand and embrace this scenario and condition of apparent contradiction, in order to be engaged by God's purposes for the human race immediately before Heaven's King takes His Throne on earth in Jerusalem.

This is most apparent in Bible prophecy concerning God's Jewish People. But as it goes for Israel, so it will be for the Church and also mankind.

"There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, but glory and honour and peace for every one who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. For God shows no partiality."  (Romans 2.9-11)

The great Isaiah was granted uncommon insight and foresight along these lines. In chapter four the seer anticipates a day when the Glory Cloud will appear and remain over the city of Jerusalem, because the King is in residence. This is immediately preceded by two events ... one is glorious, but the other terrible. In verse one we read that "seven women shall take hold of one man...saying, 'We will eat our own bread and wear our own clothes, only let us be called by your name, take away our reproach.' "

Something calamitous has happened to Israel in The Land. Men have died in such numbers and such a short space of time that there is an uncommon surfeit of women. War widows?

But at the same time something glorious and miraculous is taking place (vs 2-3), "The Branch of the Lord (Jesus) shall be beautiful and glorious...and he who is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy, every one who has been recorded for life in Jerusalem."

Even as Israel suffers war and its terrible consequences, it is experiencing a unique and ultimate event in its history ... a national revival through the universal acceptance of Jesus of Nazareth as Messiah.

Then in chapter eleven, Isaiah foresees the Branch (Jesus) anointed with the 7-fold, fulness of the Holy Spirit coming to "smite the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked." In His kingdom on earth "the wolf shall dwell with the lamb...the lion shall eat straw like the ox...the weaned child will put his hand on the viper's den...they shall not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain."

The prophet anticipates a day of such divinity that "the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea." And "in that day the nations will resort" to Jesus "who will stand as a signal for the peoples; and His resting place will be glorious" in Jerusalem.

But this day is not only divine and glorious. In chapter ten, Isaiah describes (again) a concurrent calamity which befalls Israel from which "only a remnant within them will return ... though your people, O Israel, may be like the sand of the sea."

The prophecy decrees that "a destruction is determined overflowing with righteousness" (v22); days of fury running neck-and-neck with days of glory...for Israel and for the Church and for the world!

And following on, in chapter twenty four, the prophet witnesses a moment of such overwhelming majesty that the sun and moon in all of their natural beauty will feel humbled, because "the Lord of hosts will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and His glory will be before His elders." (v 23)

But how goes it for Israel and the Church and the world at this time?

"Behold, the Lord lays the earth waste, devastates it, distorts its surface, and scatters its inhabitants...The new wine (Church) mourns, the vine decays...For thus it will be in the midst (centre...Jerusalem) of the earth among the peoples, as the shaking of an olive tree (Israel), as the gleanings when the grape harvest is over...the earth is broken asunder, the earth is split through, the earth is shaken violently...it totters like a shack, for its transgression is heavy upon it."  (vs 1,7,13-14,19-20)

And then in chapter twenty eight, because of the "costly cornerstone" Jesus, which God has laid in Jerusalem, Israel's "covenant with death shall be cancelled", and its "pact with Sheol shall not stand". But God also speaks here of an "unusual task ... extraordinary work" which takes place simultaneously. "For I have heard from the Lord God of hosts, of decisive destruction on all the earth."  (28.22)

What is this? Well, what follows in chapter twenty nine gives partial light,

"Woe, O Ariel, Ariel the city where David once camped (Jerusalem) ... I will bring distress to Ariel, and she shall be a city of lamenting and mourning; and she shall be like an Ariel (altar ... Ezekiel 43.16) to Me ... I will set seigeworks against you and I will raise up battle towers against you.

"But the multitude of your enemies (the nations who wage war against Jerusalem) shall become like fine dust, and the multitude of your ruthless ones like the chaff which blows away; and it shall happen instantly, suddenly."  (vs 1-5)

The conclusion of Isaiah's repeated visions is inescapable. Before Heaven's King is finally enthroned on earth, Israel and the Church and the world will experience the very best and the very worst days in history! Days of glory and days of fury! Days of divinity and days of desolation!

And the major part of preparing to live in and engage such days is to acknowledge and accept that these things shall be so, even as God has ordained. Sticking our heads in the sand, or losing them in the clouds will not suffice. The Lord does not need extra ostriches or angels in these Last Days. He needs ordinary people abandoned into the hands of our extraordinary God.

And most especially, He requires a Church which will seize this "one-minute-to-midnight" opportunity to conclusively repent of the Holocaust and our interminable history of antisemitism. How? By identifying with and standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Israel and the Jewish People everywhere in their final season of extreme pressure and great difficulty. And also by humbly and prayerfully serving God's ancient People in their greatest and most wonderful hour ... their universal restoration to God through their and our Lord and Saviour and King, Jesus.

"Now at that time Michael, the great prince who stands guard over the sons of your (Daniel's) people (Israel), will arise and there will be a time of distress such as never occurred since there was a nation until that time; and at that time your (Daniel's) people (Israel), every one who is found written in the book, will be rescued. And many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake (Romans 11.15 'Life from the dead'), these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt. And those who have insight will shine brightly like the brightness of the expanse of heaven, and those who lead the many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever."  (Daniel 12.1-3)

"Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, tread, for the wine press is full ... Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision...And the Lord roars from Zion and utters His voice from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth tremble."  (Joel 3.11-17)

"And I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and sitting on the cloud was one like the Son of Man, having a golden crown on His head, and a sharp sickle in His hand. And another angel came out of the temple, crying out with a loud voice to Him who sat on the cloud, 'Put in your sickle and reap because the hour to reap has come, because the harvest of the earth is ripe.' And He who sat on the cloud swung His sickle over the earth; and the earth was reaped."  (Revelation 14.14-20)

"The harvest is the close (consummation) of the age, and the reapers are angels. Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the close of the age...Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father."  (Matthew 13.36-43)

TRUE CENTRE; TRUE CIRCUMFERENCE  (1/10/07)

Too many wannabe prophets are behaving desperately today, hunting for "new" revelations. They are locked in a deadly contest for platform space and money on the Western Church's adulatory and lucrative conference circuits.

Breathless acolytes rush to report the "latest, greatest" prophecies coming out of these pseudo-seers. They turn my stomach and make my blood run cold. As the genuinely great Church Reformer, John Calvin (Switzerland, 16th C) observed, "I consider looseness with words no less a defect than looseness of the bowels."

These prophecies are truly fantastic; uttered by spiritual fantasisers, they are hollow fantasies designed to lure the Body of Christ into shallow water where ship-wrecking rocks of deception lurk beneath the ocean's surface.

If any man or woman should dare or presume to speak on behalf of God Almighty, let their prophesying first of all be anchored and entirely submitted to His Word, the Bible.

"And when they say to you, 'Consult the mediums and the spiritists who whisper and mutter,' Should not a people consult their God? Should they consult the dead on behalf of the living? To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn."  (Isaiah 8.19-20)

And secondly, let them be unequivocally, unapologetically and experientially anchored to God's prophetic centre here in this world...The City of Jerusalem in Israel!

"Thus says the Lord God, 'This is Jerusalem; I have set her at the centre of the nations, with lands around her.'"  (Ezekiel 5.5)

Jerusalem has been the world's centre so far as God is concerned from ancient times.

• It has been the centre, because it has always been the place of God's Altar.  (Isaiah 29.1-2)
• It was there that the Patriarch Abraham offered his only son Isaac...a type and a foretelling of Jesus' redemptive death in that same place.  (Genesis 22)
• There King David sacrificed acceptably and so halted God's judgement on Israel.  (1 Chronicles 21 and 22)
• Solomon's Temple was raised up in that city  (2 Chronicles 3.1)
• and the Lamb of God laid down His life there.  (Matthew 16.21)

A GOLDEN VEIN  (26/09/07)

There is a golden vein of theology which runs unambiguously from the Reformation (the beginning of the End Times?) to the present. It concerns Israel's destiny in the Last Days. If mankind (and Christians in particular) paid more serious attention to this apostolic plumb line, the history books could record a vastly different and less tragic story concerning the Jewish People.

Many of those who are (quite rightly!) pro-Israel would be spared the embarrassment of behaving as if they alone had very recently discovered something novel; their pastors would be spared pressure from people who want their particular "Israelology" to be the beginning and the end of local church life and theology.

Much more importantly, we would all be spared the nauseating complacency and patronising smugness of Christians who hold that the Church has completely replaced Israel in God's plan of salvation. Such leaders are so arrogant in their position that they do not hesitate to employ their ecclesiastical and political power to stomp into silence Bible teachers who are simply appealing for a Biblical consideration of the subject.

From the days of God's 16th C Reformation of the Church in Europe, pious and scholarly preachers have dynamically equated in their teaching three ultimate truth-events.- The 2nd Coming of Christ; the national revival of Israel; a final, global "harvest" of mankind to the Lord through the Gospel.

For the English Puritans and Scottish Covenanters in particular, it was a sacred and evident truth that the return of Jesus to be this world's King of kings, would be immediately preceded by an unprecedented and universal spiritual awakening of the People of Israel. This they saw described by the Apostle Paul in his letter to the Romans,

"For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, 'The Deliverer will come from Zion, He will remove ungodliness from Jacob.'"  (11.15 and 25-26)

From this conviction has grown a centuries-old, rich tradition of Christian love for the Jews, unflinching support for the existence of the State of Israel, and unrelenting prayer for the protection and the salvation of God's Old Testament People.

I earnestly invite you to study this apostolic continuum, perchance it humble us all to become more Christ-like in all of our dealings with one another.

• "The world will be restored from death to life again, at that time when the Jews should also come and be called to the profession of the Gospel."  (Theodore Beza - 16th C - John Calvin's "successor".)


• "The end of the world shall not be till the Jews are called, and how long after that none yet can tell."  (Elnathan Parr - 16th C - English Puritan scholar.)


• "O to see the sight of Christ's coming in the clouds and our elder brethren the Jews and Christ fall upon one another's necks and kiss each other. They have been long asunder. O sweet Jesus, let me see that sight which will be as life from the dead; Thee and the ancient People in mutual embraces."  (Samuel Rutherford - 17th C - Scottish Presbyterian commissioner to the Westminster Assembly.)


• "The Jews shall return to their own land. They shall enjoy it for a quiet and everlasting possession, their adversaries being destroyed. They shall also be filled with the light and knowledge of the will and worship of God."  (John Owen - 17th C - Puritan pastor and member of Cromwell's Parliament.)


• "Nothing is more certainly foretold than this national conversion of the Jews in Romans XI."  (Jonathan Edwards - 18th C - Congregational pastor, revivalist and theologian.)


• "Are you longing for a revival to the churches, now lying like dry bones; would you fain have the Spirit of life enter into them? Then pray for the Jews. 'For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world; what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead.' That will be a lively time, a time of a great outpouring of the Spirit, that will carry reformation to a greater height than yet has been."  (Thomas Boston - 18th C - Scottish Presbyterian pastor.)


• "The second great event, which, according to the common faith of the Church, is to precede the Second Advent of Christ, is the national conversion of the Jews."  (Charles Hodge - 19th C - Principal of Princeton Theological Seminary.)


• "Let this be settled. Israel is yet to be restored. Israel is to have a spiritual restoration or a conversion. Matchless benefits to the world are bound up with the restoration of Israel. Their gathering in shall be as life from the dead."  (C.H. Spurgeon - 19th C - English Reformed Baptist pastor.)

PRECIOUS AND WORTHLESS   (23/08/07)

"Extract the precious from the worthless."  (Jeremiah 15.19)

"Who can make the clean out of the unclean? No one!"  (Job 14.4)

I dreamt recently that I was in a church where a paten (communion bread plate) holding consecrated wafers and copper coins had dropped onto the floor. I was anxious to gather up the communion wafers and put them in a safe place. The coins were left to lie on the floor.

In recent years I have happily taken part in a modest and unfinished reformation of the Church's thinking about and practical handling of money. Chief in this has been the restoration of Biblical giving ... especially the personal tithe (10th), free will offerings, and care for the poor. But many (especially Christian leaders!) have pressed this important recalibration beyond God's parameters and created (primarily for themselves) a theology of "conspicuous wealth". This distortion of the Gospel in fact has everything to do with getting, and very little to do with giving. It ties personal wealth to righteousness and (foolishly and vainly) attempts to relate the size of one's bank balance, house and car, to personal standing and favour with God. (Out of the way Francis of Assisi and Mother Teresa!)

In the past I have unremittingly waged "war" on those Christians who, once they have carefully furnished all of their private needs, have set about enforcing their own code of mean-spiritedness and poverty-thinking upon the Church; most especially on their leaders who they view as mere employees.

But equally abhorrent to me is the current bout of heretical teaching concerning money, which so dangerously mingles the holy and unholy. Money is not holy. And money employed beyond the reach of the Bible's God-ordained proscriptions is unholy. Hence the completely unequivocal verdict,

ABSOLUTELY AUTHENTIC   (21/07/07)

"You who know, O Lord, remember me, take notice of me, and take vengeance for me on my persecutors. Do not, in view of your patience, take me away; know that for your sake I endure reproach."  (Jeremiah 15.15)

"For even Christ did not please Himself; but as it is written, 'The reproaches of those who reproached You fell upon Me.' "  (Romans 15.3)

The word "reproach" here means "to blame". These verses teach us that those who want to blame God for something, usually lack the courage or temerity to have a go at the Almighty, and so take out their anger and frustration on His servants.

This is a largely (and deliberately?) overlooked subject, which is of the utmost, if not ultimate, importance today.

Bearing this reproach is one of the most fundamental responsibilities and primary marks of the prophet who is genuine and authentic. The prophet's calling is (at its very heart and core) about carrying this divine reproach for Jesus Christ. It is not necessarily the immediate consequence of anything he or she has said or done. The prophet who lives as a hermit out in the backwoods of nowhere, will be marked and distinguished by this ministry. It is what prophets do!

(It is not in any way to be confused with the deserved criticism and rejection of pseudo-prophets; such search for censure and dismissal by deliberately speaking and behaving offensively and outlandishly.)

Art

Art Katz, who recently died and went to be with the Lord, displayed this "charism" distinctly. I honour him for being a prophet of God who was utterly authentic and absolutely genuine through-and-through, in this regard most especially.

He was rarely, if ever, invited to share a platform with the current epidemic of "revelation" hawkers who are currently monopolizing the "prophetic" spotlight in the Western Church. To such the masses at present flock, panting to accumulate more personal words of prophecy for their collections.

Personal prophetic words from Art were exceedingly rare, and therefore all the more to be treasured.

It was my privilege to travel with him through Germany early in 1993 for five weeks. We ranged through churches from Hamburg in the north to Freiburg in the south; from Dusseldorf in the west to Leipzig in the east. Somewhere around the midpoint of our "tour" I noticed that word was preceding us warning churches not to allow Art to minister because his message was "harsh". At one of our destinations we were given hospitality, but the prophet was not permitted to speak.

What was going on? Some German Christians could not stomach Art's message. I believe that they knew it to be the truth, but were profoundly annoyed with God that it was so. Rather than attack the Lord and try to silence Him, they turned on His servant and silenced him.

Art Katz

ARE YOU COVERED   (18/07/07)

On June 2, I dreamt that I was in a courtroom charged with a truly vile crime. The prosecutor spewed out lying accusations against me. Nothing, not even the truth as I knew it, could halt his torrent of falsehoods. Then I stepped up very close to the prosecutor and declared, "I know Someone who will cover me, and uncover you!" In that instant his mouth was shut tight and silence reigned in the courthouse.

"The accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, who accuses them before our God day and night. And they overcome him because of the Blood of the Lamb ..."  (Revelation 12.10-11)

"Behold, My servant ... He will sprinkle many nations, kings will shut their mouths on account of Him."  (Isaiah 52.13-15)

"Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world."  (John 1.29)

"In Him we have redemption through His Blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace."  (Ephesians 1.7)

Listen to the rest of this vital message for this hour in the Audio section.
It is entitled, "The Atonement"  (track duration 1:04:43, 11mb).

IT'S TIME TO JUMP   (18/07/07)

I dreamt last week that I was scrambling around a very rugged, rocky section of coastline in the company of two younger men who will undoubtedly be significant, national leaders in the coming next/last revival.

An indescribably massive swell was rolling in from the sea, effortlessly crashing over and engulfing the huge rocks, then washing back out with undiminished force.

I said to these younger leaders that if we tried to stay on the rocks, the power of the receding rollers would kill us.

It was time to jump in and entrust ourselves and our lives to the gigantic breakers. I wondered if I would be strong enough to survive these turbulent waters; but I did not doubt that the others would be okay.

We jumped.

"Again he measured a thousand; and it was a river that I would not ford, for the water had risen, enough water to swim in, a river that could not be forded."  (Ezekiel 47.5)

"The floods lift up their pounding waves. More than ... the mighty breakers of the sea, the Lord on high is mighty."  (Psalm 93.3-4)

"And His breath is like an overflowing torrent, which reaches to the neck, to shake the nations back and forth in a sieve."  (Isaiah 30.28)

"So they will fear the name of the Lord from the west and His glory from the rising of the sun, for He will come like a rushing stream, which the wind of the Lord drives."  (Isaiah 55.19)

It's time to jump. It's time to jump off the "rocks" of that religion which is all about what we can do, and not about who He is. It's time to jump into the dangerous yet life-giving turbulence and tumult of the next/last Holy Spirit revival.

PROPHET TO THE NATIONS   (7/06/07)

From time to time, at the conclusion of meetings, I am accosted by fervent folk (bright-eyed and bushy-tailed) who are eager to inform me that, just like Jeremiah, they've received the call to be "a prophet to the nations".  (Jeremiah 1.5)

For the most part, I gather that they anticipate a life of excitement, jet-setting from country to country, being feted in packed meetings, always handsomely reimbursed, luxuriously accomodated ... and lauded as the oracle of the hour!

The difficulty is this; it's not what God called Jeremiah to do. Hence the prophet's lack of enthusiasm for the invitation. "Alas, Lord God..."  (v6)

So what does God in fact mean when He appoints someone "a prophet to the nations"?

The word "nations" as it is employed here does mean people-groups living together in particular regions. But more than that it means the "uncircumcised". (From this has arisen the pejorative term for Gentiles ... "goyim"!) And this is where it gets complicated. Jeremiah certainly did prophesy concerning nations other than Israel ... Babylon, Egypt, Philistia etc etc. But the great bulk of Jeremiah's communication on behalf of God, was with God's People ... the circumcised.

So what particular point is the Lord making by calling the circumcised, the uncircumcised? He's warning the prophet well in advance, that the people he'll be told to prophesy to, are not going to want to hear him. There'll be few "Amens!", faint praise and heaps of indifference ... along with occasional dollops of murderous rejection.

"For thus says the Lord to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem ... 'Circumcise yourselves to the Lord and remove the foreskins of your heart ...' "  (Jeremiah 4.3-4)

"Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the sons of Ammon, and Moab, and all those inhabiting the desert who clip the hair on their temples; for all the nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised of heart."  (Jeremiah 9.26)

"You men (of the Sanhedrin ... the supreme Jewish council) who are stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears always resisting the Holy Spirit; you are doing just as your fathers did. Which one of the prophets did your fathers not persecute?"  (Acts 7.51-52)

In New Testament terms the call to be "a prophet to the nations" is not about ecclesiastical celebrity status and earning a stack of frequent-flyer points. It's about being willing to go on speaking the Lord's words - stark and unadorned - no matter what, to people who gave up listening a long time ago. It's about never stopping loving all those God loves, even when they start hating the preachers He sends. It's about remaining steadfastly indifferent to the fickle court of public opinion, and craving only the approval of the One who created heaven and earth.

"If you extract the precious from the worthless, you will become My spokesman. They for their part may turn to you, but as for you, you must not turn to them ... And although this people fight against you, they will not prevail over you; for I am with you to save you."  (Jeremiah 15.19-20)

Still hankering after being "a prophet to the nations"?

IT'S TIME  (21/05/07)

I recently went to a Presbyterian church to preach, taking with me a carefully prepared message on the Book of Revelation. At the beginning of the first meeting a text for the Call to Worship was displayed at the front of the church. I realised as I read it that this was my sermon subject. I quickly prepared a fresh message during worship.

At the end of the meeting, the pastor who had led the service said to me, "I used that text this morning because I had a dream recently and a voice said to me, 'Remember Hosea 10.12!' "

This text is a word from God for New Zealand this year.

"Sow with a view to righteousness, reap in accordance with kindness; break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord until He comes to rain righteousness on you."

This prophetic word indicates something of the utmost importance concerning the next and last great awakening of the Western Church and Western Civilisation.

"Until He comes to rain righteousness (salvation) on you."

And it is this, that such awakenings (re