A Parable written in the desert sands?

This is an amazing story in its own right, but as I read it, I began to wonder if it was a word from God, a parable for our pastors and leaders in the West. In short, did the physical desert have something to tell us about the spiritual desert that is Western Christianity?

I came across it in 'The Telegraph' a UK national newspaper. The first thing worthy of note is that it mentions answers to prayer!  This is all but a miracle in the current socio-political climate.

The article is by a Geoffrey Lean, a journalist specialising in environmental issues. I have no idea what he may or may not believe but his article is fascinating.

The underground forests that are bringing deserts to life.

An Australian missionary, one Tony Rinaudo, working for World Vision, one day gazed despairingly out on the unforgiving desert, wondering: “How many saplings, how many people, how many millions of dollars would I need for this?” 

Driven to prayer, he says, he “saw for the first time what had been there all along. Seemingly useless small bushes scattered over the dry land, which we had despised as weeds, were actually the outward signs of a vast underground forest.” (quote from Geoffrey Lean's article)

He realised that what was thought to be scrub and weeds were in fact shoots from the buried stumps of long-felled trees.

Anyone who knows the Tenach/Old Testament should, by now, be thinking of Isaiah 11.

Once he realised what was happening, all that was needed was pruning, protection, provision and then trees! Followed by praise, to wit:

Rinaudo – who now works internationally for World Vision – still finds that previously “hopeless” people “dance and sing” when they discover the underground forest, and how they can “change their lives, and the world, with a pruning knife”.

The meaning of this parable.

Pastors, priests, presbyters, prelates, preachers, patriarchs, prophets, popes or whatever you want to call yourselves, this is for you.

In the arid desert of Western Christianity many of the people you serve, note serve, do look like weeds and scrub. As a preacher and a teacher, I know the feeling. We need to see that many of them have been battered by life and by something that looks a lot like the church. They are haphazard Christians with shoots that go all over the place.

Like the forest, can two thousand years of Christianity just disappear? We have a godless younger generation, but there are still many of the older and middle generations who know something of Christ.

Firstly, you pray.  

Let God show you who these people are and what they are really like in His sight.

Secondly, you prune.

John 15:2 Starting with your own heart and then, with divine wisdom, lovingly discipline the disciples. This is the Cross, this is sacrifice, laying down our lives for God and our neighbours. Our pruning hook is the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God. Go carefully here.

Thirdly, you protect. 

Which is to say, protect the Church from false teachers and false prophets. Watch out for the wolves in sheep's clothing, the demons disguised as angels of light. Guard your pulpit. If the Bible says it is sin, it is sin; no matter what the world, the governments and even some senior leaders in the Church may say.


Fourthly, you provide. 


Which is to say, you preach and you pray. May I refer you to Acts 6:4  and also to God's-conditions-for-revival-taken-from.html

Fifthly, by God's Grace and Spirit, you praise.  

So many forget to thank God for what He has done, but if you want to preserve all that has been so hard to win, then praise God and give Him the Glory.

There are 7000 who have not bowed the knee to Baal. God's-power-and-compassion-our-weakness.html

There's the parable and the sermon outline. It's not exegeting scripture, rather using scripture to exegete Nature. 

So please, prayerfully consider, is this not God's word to us; a parable written in the desert sands?

You can see and learn more about Rinaudo's method below and even more here.

Prophecy, prediction and psychics

One of the subjects that I will be returning to, on occasion, is Biblical prophecy and current events. Before I start blogging on specifics, I want to include a post on definitions - and spelling.This latter, because I used to be a school-teacher and I became very familiar with the common mistakes.

Spelling first.

PropheCy is the noun. It is the thing itself.

PropheSy is the verb. It is the act of making a prophecy.

US visitors, please take note. The above confusion is rather common on US sites

Prophet, a noun. The person making the prophecy.

Phrophet - a spelling mistake.  

Profit - a confusion and nothing to do with our subject. See the end of the post for a definition.

Definitions

Prophet. 

 

In the Old Testament/Tenach, a prophet was generally a person of high moral character and devotion to YHWH who, when filled with the Spirit of God, would speak and/or write on behalf of God. What he, or she, said, was held to be as good as God speaking directly to the hearer/reader. Exceptions to the high moral standard of prophets were Balaam, Saul and David. All prophets were human and did, on occasion, sin. 

Some prophetic ministries were associated with miracles, such as Moses and Elijah .

In the New Testament, prophecy was more common, all the Apostles were prophets as well as others who dealt solely in the ministry of a prophet. The high moral standard was and is essential.

In many ways, a prophet has the same standing with respect to God as an Ambassador does with respect to the Head of State.

Again, miracles can be associated with the prophetic ministry, but not always. 

Prophecy may or may not include prediction, but when it does it is a major test of legitimacy.

The Church, as a whole, has a continuing prophetic role when it obeys God as does Israel in a different way, but also when obedient.

False prophets. 

Prophets of false gods, see also psychics. People claiming to be prophets of God usually for status and/or financial gain. Money is nearly always the giveaway. Also the failure of their more significant predictions.

A prophet can be rich independently of his or her ministry but if prophecy becomes the path to riches there is something wrong.

Psychics are a subset of false prophets. They do not always worship any particular god and some will even claim to be Christian or devout Jews. They lay claim to powers that generally mimic the ministry of a prophet or apostle. Again, money is the giveaway. If psychics do have any power it is either that they are exceptionally intelligent and observant, as in the TV series 'The Mentalist', or their abilities come from a source other than God i.e. demonic in nature.

Predictions 

Not everyone who makes a prediction is a prophet or psychic. Meteorologists, seismologists, futurologists etc. etc. all make a living from making predictions. It's all perfectly lawful as long as it is done honestly and scientifically. Honest mistakes will happen as aell as foolish and even dishonest ones.

Interpreting prophetic scriptures in the light of current events other wise known as the signs of the times is also lawful. However, different schemes of interpretation do produce different results. This can be very significant in one's attitude to some current events. I will examine this aspect in a future post. (A prediction!!)

Jesus compared prophetic interpretation to weather-forecasting.  This is worth bearing in mind. He expected understanding as the events were closing in on them. The closer the path of a hurricane gets, the easier it is is to predict its future path.

Interpreters can get things wrong. As long as they do not say, 'Thus says the Lord' there is not a problem. A mistaken interpreter is NOT a false prophet. They may or may not be a false teacher.

It is also foolish to set dates where the Church is concerned. I will deal with this aspect in a later post. Setting dates where Israel is concerned is another matter. The Bible is full of examples and in my next post I will look at some of these. In particular, I will examine the "Moses-Ezekiel clock" which is very interesting and explains a great many things for Jews and Christians.

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1a financial gain, especially the difference between the amount earned and the amount spent in buying, operating, or producing something:record pre-tax profits [mass noun]:his eyes brightened at the prospect of profit

• 2 [mass noun] advantage; benefit:there’s no profit in screaming at referees from the bench

verb (profits, profiting, profited)

[no object]

• obtain a financial advantage or benefit:the only people to profit from the episode were the lawyers
• obtain an advantage or benefit:not all children would profit from this kind of schooling
• [with object] be beneficial to:it would profit us to change our plans