You abandoned us! - Is this how we see God?

I seem to be having a lot of interesting dreams lately. I have never known anything like it.This one occurred last Tuesday, just before I met with my prayer triplet. ( Now about three weeks ago as I have been very busy).

I had been very tired and decided to take an extra half-hour of sleep. It was during this period that a story in dream unfolded.

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A man had escaped from some oriental, communist country and made his way to England. (This is not so unusual. The Vietnamese Boat People are an example).

Some years later, his daughter made it to England. She was hostile towards him, seeing him only as a source of money which she clearly felt she deserved. When he finally confronted her about this lack of love and respect, she replied, " You abandoned us!"

He was astonished at what she said, but after comparing stories, the truth emerged. He had been sending money faithfully, via a transfer agency, to his wife. He had also been sending letters saying how much he cared, what he was doing for them and how he longed to be reunited with them. Neither the money nor the letters had reached his wife and daughter.

In the dream, for some reason, I was dispatched to find out what had happened. The Agency and the local Post Office handling the money and the letters had been corrupted. The money had been stolen and used to build a house for someone else and the letters had been destroyed in order to prevent exposure of the crime.

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When I awoke, I wondered what it was all about and then the interpretation came to me.

The woman and the child represent generations of the Church. The man is Jesus. The money is God's provision for His Church, being both material and spiritual (i.e. The Holy Spirit). The letters are the Scriptures and the sound exposition of the Word by faithful preachers.

False teachers have diverted resources for their own uses. Some have built themselves mansions, others have funded ungodly causes. The have quenched the Spirit or abused the gifts and brought Him into disrepute. All of these have failed to preach the Word as this would have promoted discernment and exposed their wrong doing.

My part in the dream is that of all those who seek to preach the truth and work with the Holy Spirit in the hope of Revival and the Return of Jesus.

If you agree with this message, then I represent you and your call to your part in bringing true Christianity back into the hearts of all denominations and people who are called by His Name.

God has not abandoned His people, but some of His people have abandoned Jesus and His Church.

Does Obama care about Meriam Ibrahim? Update.

There are suggestions that the Sudanese government has realised that it has gone too far and will overrule the barbarous sharia law that has sentenced Miriam Ibrahim to death. See the BBC news here.

See also articles in the Telegraph and the Daily Mail .

However, this is by no means certain and it remains to be seen if the fanatics will take the law into their own hands as they have done in Pakistan and other Islamic nations on many occasions.

International outrage has been immense.The UK can, for once, be proud of its leaders.

Prime Minister Cameron, the Deputy Prime Minister and leader of the Liberal Democrats and Ed Miliband, leader of the Opposition have all condemned this outrage and are putting diplomatic pressure on Sudan. They cannot withdraw aid to Sudan as there is no direct aid to withdraw.

The silence from the USA and, most especially, the White House has been deafening. I know that US politicians have been protesting about this situation, but there is no voice that can speak for the nation coming out of the USA.

Why is President Obama so silent about this Christian family. Do they not resemble him closely enough?

You may find some answers at the following websites:

The PJ Tatler Just how much of an apostate is Obama?

Grumpy Elder

Maggie's Notebook

I find these whilst searching for an explanation of Obama's silence. If they are to be be believed then one of Obama's brothers is working for the Sudanese at a high level.

The USA has some hard questions to put to its silent President.

In the UK, a protest is being planned outside the Sudanese Embassy see here.

Does Obama care about Christian, Black Americans? Not if they are in a Muslim prison for being Christian.

If you live in the UK, you may well have read about this. If you are a US citizen who reads WND or the USA's most read online paper The Daily Mail (UK!) then you will have read about it.  If you read Mark Steyn, you will have read about it. You could also try The Telegraph. Other than that, it will probably be news to you.

The Mail link shows why she was accused in the first place. Her Muslim family want what she's got, without earning it.

Two US citizens are about to be forcibly removed from their parents and brought up as Muslims, because by sharia law they are Muslims and not Christians. Their mother will be flogged 100 times for adultery. She married their father when she was not married to ant one else, but her absentee father was a Muslim. She was brought up a Christian. After that she will be executed for apostasy - leaving the faith of her father and believing the faith of her mother, who brought her up as a Christian.

If nothing is done then this brave sister in Christ will die a martyr.

Mark Steyn documents it here.

 

You can sign anyone of a myriad petitions by Googling "Miriam Ibrahim petitions" or going here.

A quote from Mark Steyn:

On Saturday, President Obama issued a Tweet in observance of International Anti-Homophobia Day:

"No one should face violence or discrimination—no matter who they are or whom they love." —President Obama

Fine words, but, as is often the case with this man, utterly empty. An American citizen is about to have his life ruined because of "whom they love". Daniel Wani suffered discrimination from the US Government because he fell in love with Meriam Ibrahim. And, because of that discrimination, he now faces violence from the Sudanese Government, which presently has his entire family - his wife and unborn child, and his two-year-old son - shackled in Khartoum. After Meriam gives birth, she will be hanged, and Daniel, because he has committed the crime of being a Christian, will never see his children again.

Those children are American citizens, and this is not a Sudanese news story but an American one.

The United States bureaucracy failed Daniel Wani, grievously. Washington should make Meriam Ibrahim a US citizen. The Ambassador in Khartoum should then demand access to the family. And the US Government should make plain to its Sudanese counterparts that it expects the entire family on a plane out of there in 48 hours.

Everyone, even the U.N., is protesting. Your former 'oppressors' the evil Brits are protesting. Some of your politicians are protesting. Where is your President?

On the golf course?

Don't hold your breath.

More on Boko Haram - it isn't just the girls.

Prominent Anglican blogger Cranmer has two powerful posts on Boko Haram's war in Nigeria.

Firstly, this one where lays out his point in words. Then he posted this one where his pictures speak for themselves.



As I said in my previous post, the war between Islam and Christianity in Nigeria has been going on for years.

Australian cleric, the Rev. Dr. Mark Durie has posted an interview in which he exposes the ancient Islamic roots of Boko Haram. You can listen to the interview below or read his additional; material by following the previous link to his blog.

He is not alone in declaing this information. Over at The Omega Letter, J.L. Robb has posted an article doing much the same thing but also enumerating the effects of Sharia law on women. Here is a sample of that list.

• Adultery is a capital crime, punishable by whipping and then death, often by stoning.
• Apostasy (saying or thinking something uncomplimentary about Islam or Muhammad) is a capital crime to be punished by death. Apostates are to be “killed wherever they may be found.”
• Female genital mutilation to make sure sex isn’t too enjoyable for the women.
• Women are considered inferior to men. Court testimony by a woman only counts for half of the testimony by a man. Women receive only half the inheritance that a man receives. A woman’s vote, if she is allowed to vote, counts one-half of a man’s vote.

It carries on in the same vein.

The excellent 'Barnabas Fund' has been involved in the campaign in the US to get Boko Haram registered as a terrorist organisation. The following is part of the article on their website.

"Our honorary director in the US, Bishop Julian Dobbs, worked with others to petition the State Department and other government agencies to designate Boko Haram as an FTO. On one occasion Bishop Dobbs was assisted by the Most Rev. Nicholas Okoh, Primate of the Anglican Church in Nigeria who made the case in the corridors of power on behalf of suffering Nigerian Christians. 
Bishop Dobbs, who is an Anglican missionary bishop of the Church of Nigeria, said the FTO designation was significant for three reasons:

Firstly, it shows that the US government has realised that it’s a serious situation and is concerned about it. Secondly, the FTO label enables certain US resources, such as military and intelligence, to be involved in circumstances like we are seeing now with the kidnapped girls. And thirdly, it helps us to heighten awareness about our brothers and sisters in Nigeria suffering at the hands of what we can now call a terrorist organisation.

He said that the US government continues to dismiss the religious motivation of Boko Haram, insisting that it is an ethnic and social issue:

The next step is to get all Western governments to recognise the clear religious motivation of Boko Haram, which wants to impose sharia across all of Nigeria and rid the country of any Christian presence. Our brothers and sisters in the North continue to suffer on a daily basis as a result of the group’s atrocities."

According to  UK national newspaper 'The Daily Mail', Boko Haram have links to the Nigerian Army, which could well explain why this is all taking so long, see here.

Britain and the US have both sent teams and equipment to Nigeria.

The abductions have triggered a worldwide social media campaign under the Twitter hashtag #BringBackOurGirls, and prompted the U.S., Britain, France and Israel to offer help or send experts to Nigeria.
The U.S. has already sent military, law-enforcement and development specialists.
Two U.S. officials said on Tuesday a mix of manned and unmanned American surveillance aircraft were being used to aid the search for the missing girls.

One U.S. official identified the drone as a Global Hawk, which is a high-altitude, unmanned spy plane manufactured by Northrop Grumman.

Britain has also offered Nigeria a surveillance plane and a military team to help with the search for the missing schoolgirls, Prime Minister David Cameron said yesterday.
'Today I can announce we have offered Nigeria further assistance in terms of surveillance aircraft, a military team to embed with the Nigerian army in their HQ and a team to work with U.S. experts to analyse information on the girls' location,' he told parliament.
The Ministry of Defence clarified that one Sentinel plane would be sent.
The new offer of help comes after Britain Britain last week sent a team of experts to Nigeria including officials from the ministry of defence.
Mr Cameron's spokesman said on Monday they had met Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan.
Britain's minister for Africa, Mark Simmonds, is also travelling to the Nigerian capital today for talks on further assistance, the Foreign Office in London said.

I don't know what the French are doing, but 'Israel Today' has reported that Israeli security forces have joined the effort to free the girls, see here.

Boko Haram are not some crazy African terrorist gang, but part of a back-to-basics Islamic reformation that takes its example from Islam's founder, see here and here. 

Rev. Doctor Mark Durie's video: 

 

Dreams from my Father concerning the Church (Part Three)

This was a complex dream with three distinct parts.

In the first part, I dreamt that I was to build a town. This future town was in a desert place. I was being asked, most persistently and several times, what I would build first and where in the town would it be. 

I was equally certain, indeed adamant, that I would build a Church and a place of prayer. I was also certain that they would be in the centre of the town and that the other essential buildings, law courts, financial institutions (all the stuff one finds in the centre of towns) would be built later.

In the second part of the dream, I had started to build and as I cleared away the dust to build the foundations I discovered the foundations of an older church with a tiled floor. The foundations were sound, but some of the tiles needed attention and/or replacing with new ones. In my dream I was engaged  in this process.

Finally, I was told that God would be calling Evangelicals to account. Some individuals would find themselves called into God's Presence, by accident or illness, to account for their failure to evangelise. They would then be sent back to finish the job. Somehow, some evangelical churches would find themselves having to give the same account before being released back into His work. How this will come about, I have no idea.

My interpretation is as follows:

The town is the present state of Western civilisation. It needs re-building with the Church at the centre. It is in a desert place as it is Godless. The additional building for prayer is often a practical essential as many active churches can find it hard to provide proper places for continuous prayer.  This resonated with my vicar as we often have that difficulty.

Nevertheless, it also means that  continuous prayer needs to exist alongside the other proper activities of the Church.

When this is in place then the other institutions of the town can be built.

In the West, we tend to think that Law and Money can sort out everything. We are surprised when we discover the level of corruption inherent in our society. See also here.

The second part of the dream showed me that sound foundations for the Church already exist, to wit, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Prophets and the Apostles. Ephesians 2:20.

Also, many mainstream denominations have sound statements of faith based on these foundations. For example, the Church of England needs to start enforcing the 39 Articles.

The tiles in the floor, are individuals who have been built into the church but may need repair or replacement (pruning again).

The third part of the dream is self-explanatory and somewhat disconcerting. It shows again how seriously God is taking the current state of His Church. He is already acting to renew His Church. He will take sovereign and miraculous action when it is needed.

This is not a picture of foundations in a desert place, but the ruins of Egglestone Abbey near my home town. I couldn't resist it.

Boko Haram kidnap over 200, mostly CHRISTIAN, girls.

In the UK and the US. the mostly Christian affiliations of the girls kidnapped for slavery have been kept secret. This is conversion by rape. As slaves they will be forcibly married and they and their children treated as Muslims. Any attempt to escape will be apostasy and punishable by death.

 

Robin Harris in The Spectator tells all. Is it true? Well, about 25 years back, I was involved in fighting for the asylum of a Nigerian family. He was a Muslim convert to Christianity and dared not return to Nigeria, in fear of his life and of the lives of his wife and family.

We won the fight on other grounds as the UK government did not believe his story.

They believe it now.

If My people who are called by My Name, humble themselves and pray (Part Two)

Part One of this post goes back nearly a year, see here and was addressed to the Church and to the Nation. It contains a prophecy of judgement.

I'm posting a video and linking to WND's article because most of what Rabbi Cahn has to say is valuable and apposite to the UK and the rest of the Anglo-sphere as well as to the USA.

A couple of small issues should be dealt with. Israel's covenant with God was initiated by God. The USA's 'covenant', if it exists was initiated by the USA. There is no record of God agreeing to it.

The USA is not the only nation with a biblically based constitution. It may come as a surprise to many, but the UK has a biblically based constitution. You can read the Coronation Oath here. This is the most relevant part to our post:

Archbishop. Will you to the utmost of your power maintain the Laws of God and the true profession of the Gospel? Will you to the utmost of your power maintain in the United Kingdom the Protestant Reformed Religion established by law? Will you maintain and preserve inviolably the settlement of the Church of England, and the doctrine, worship, discipline, and government thereof, as by law established in England? And will you preserve unto the Bishops and Clergy of England, and to the Churches there committed to their charge, all such rights and privileges, as by law do or shall appertain to them or any of them?

Queen. All this I promise to do

Which means that although only the Church and Israel have Divinely initiated covenants, the UK  and the USA have covenanted themselves to God and must live with the consequences. If the Rabbi's argument has any validity, it must be valid for the UK as well.

Some time back I posted a Power-Point on Prayer triplets here.

At the end of my sermon I listed need for prayer and quoted the same verse that Rabbi Cahn quotes. 

All the sins he lists are applicable to the UK, but so is the Gospel he proclaims. 

If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. 2 Chronicles 7:14

Dreams from my Father concerning the Church (Part Two)

In the previous post of this series, I forgot to mention a 'picture' and a word of prophecy that was given at a prayer triplet I attend. (I have posted teaching on Prayer triplets here and here .)

The picture was of a 'standard' bush or tree. This is a gardening term for a particular style of topiary.

 

In the picture, the bush had become overgrown and dense. It bore neither fruit nor flower.

The word of prophecy said that it was necessary to let light into the centre of the bush. To do this the dead wood would have to removed, followed by branches in the wrong place and branches not bearing fruit or flowers.

We would rejoice at some of the pruning as long-standing sin and opposition would be removed. We would be less happy with the costly nature of some of the pruning when it was necessary to cut into live wood.

On a personal level, seeing the back of some long-standing sins will be a relief, but others may come as a surprise to us and we may find it hard to bear.

On a Church level, even deadwood is still made up of living people. Some will be moved to other fellowships, but others will be a cause for great pain.

Nevertheless, God intends to have His church back. The pruning process has started.

Ken Livingstone's Anti-Semitic assumptions.

All Jews are rich.
Rich Jews all vote Tory.

It doesn't get any cruder than that. The evidence is here in the Telegraph.

Ken Livingstone, former Mayor of London Photo: PA

“If we were talking 50 years ago, the Roman Catholic community, the Irish community in Britain, the Jewish community was solidly Labour. Still the Irish Catholic community is pretty still solidly Labour because it is not terribly rich.

“As the Jewish community got richer, it moved over to voting for Mrs Thatcher as they did in Finchley.” 


On the other hand, Mr. Adrian Cohen of the London Jewish Forum said," 
"Ken Livingstone last made comments to this effect during the Mayoral election. It's pretty obvious that politicians shouldn't write off parts of the electorate based on crude assumptions about their perceived relative affluence.
"Many Jews are not rich, indeed many struggle to make ends meet. In any event there are many factors which influence how a person chooses to vote and one shouldn't refer to Jewish Londoners as if they were homogeneous." 



 

The Syrian 'little shop of horrors'.

From the people we are told are good rebels against the evil Assad come two more horrors to add to our growing collection. See here for the previous horrors.

Now we can add two more sickening examples of evil.

Daphne Anson has posted this:

You can read all about it here.

This photograph apparently shows the infant child of Christian parents being threatened and tormented by Islamic jihadist rebels in Syria.

Is this a thief or  a Christian? It depends on what you read and whom you believe.



See the Daily Mail here and here or Frontpage here and the Christian Telegraph here.

Daily, it become more obvious that we are being lied to about Syria.

Dreams from my Father concerning the Church (Part One).

I admit it, I'm being a little naughty with the headline. I mean real dreams that I believe are from my Heavenly Father. It's part of being a new creation and a somewhat different inheritance!

About two weeks ago, I had a most interesting dream that stayed with me.

(When a dream stays in the memory and doesn't fade with the morning, it could be significant and is always worth some prayer and meditation).

I dreamt that my wife and I were out walking when we saw a young woman in a business suit collapse through sheer exhaustion. I knew that she was the Church. We passed by, but I knew that I had to return to help her.

When I got back to her, she had, seemingly, recovered and was getting up. As she turned to face me, she no longer had the face of a young woman, but of a bearded young man, quite trimmed and stylish. Nonetheless, he was hostile. I knew him for an evil spirit.

In my dream, I spoke to him in tongues. He recoiled acknowledging the spiritual power. I spoke again, but he would not yield.

Then I spoke to him in English. 

"You have seven days to release her. After that, everything you have will be taken from you and divided up. Furthermore, you will be divided," (As I said this, I was pointing at him and then I drew a line up his abdomen, from his belly to his neck - indicating the manner of his division), 

"And by division you shall die".

I knew that the spirit was one of gender confusion and that he held the church in thrall. I realised that God had declared war against this spirit. I believe that Jesus will rescue His bride and will release her from this powerful spirit. 

I do not know if the seven days are seven literal days or seven years, but if they are seven literal days, and my hunch is that they are, then certain areas of what calls itself church are about to find that God is at war with them.

I should add that it might take seven years to rid ourselves of this evil spirit. 

Ed. note 2016. It looks like seven years might be the interpretation.

That same day, when I had awoken, I read in the Telegraph that two 'priests' had 'married', see here. Also, a gloating Roman Catholic analysis here. He has no idea of what God will do.

Ed. note 2022. In 2021  a programme of 'educating' the church in 'Living in Love and Faith' began.

I've been busy. Street preaching can be fun!

Just a note in the blog to my few regular readers. I've been busy with a mission at church, organising the street preaching - nobody got arrested! In fact, a lot of people discovered that it can be fun! We hope to start a monthly street witness in the near future. I've also been a little under the weather, which hasn't helped matters.

I intend to start blogging again in the near future. I think that I will some interesting things to post, so please keep looking in.

Clueless politicians, unspeakable evil and spineless Western Christians.

On Saturday, I read something in another blog that was horrifying, moving to the verge of tears and made me angry and ashamed.

I was angry with Western Christians who seem to lack the spine to preach the gospel to our culture and also lack the courage to speak out about the persecution of our brothers and sisters in Syria and other such places.

Further down this blog you will see a picture of unspeakable evil that rivals the distressing picture I posted in January. http://thealmondrod.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/the-girl-in-blue-story-of-two-little.html

You are warned that the picture is equally distressing. It is a picture of unspeakable evil and of the martyrdom of a sister in Christ.

The famous Anglican blogger, Cranmer, has posted about Syria.

 

 I've used his header because I don't want you to see the image below unless you choose to view it. This header should appear in the links to my post on this subject.

I don't intend to rant about the perpetrators of such evil. 'Vengeance is mine ', says the Lord, 'I will repay'. Nor do I intend to belabour our clueless politicians in the West

I just think that 

it is time Christians in the West started to speak out about the Gospel and about the persecution of Christians elsewhere in the world. 

It is time that the Churches and their leaders ceased from PC navel-gazing and trying to conform to this world. 

It is time to call out people to prayer and to repentance. 

It is time to encourage Christians to share the gospel without fear and in a genuine love for the unsaved.

It is time to preach Christ and Him crucified.

It is time to be a prophetic voice to our nations and speak out against sin in all its forms.

It is time to sow the seed of the Word.

It is time to reap a harvest.

It is time to prepare for the coming of Christ Jesus.

It is time.

Cranmer's post is here: http://archbishop-cranmer.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/disremembering-syria.html

 You are warned that the picture is extremely distressing. It is a picture of unspeakable evil and of the martyrdom of a sister in Christ.

'How to grow a fish in a desert' and 'Arab -Israeli conflict?'.

Just to be going on with, these two videos are linked by apparent paradox. This stuff is not supposed to happen. Fish don't grow in deserts, IDF soldiers and Arab children are like oil and water - or target practice for one or the other. We all know that don't we? Don't' we?

Enjoy.

Slitting throats - kosher and halal food in the UK

The President elect of the British Veterinary Association (John Blackwell) has pronounced, from the dizzy heights of his medical knowledge, that kosher and halal food should be proscribed, because letting animals bleed to death is inhuman.

Is he right?

Letting any creature bleed to death is inhuman, but is that actually what happens? He certainly thinks that is the case, see this Telegraph article here by Miranda Prynne. Mr Blackwell graphically and convincingly describes the slow death of ritual slaughter. However, he does not say where he has witnessed this, in a Muslim slaughter house, a Jewish one or elsewhere.

Let us think this through. Special Forces are trained to slit throats. Is this because the still-beating heart will spatter blood everywhere, including onto the assailant, and the slowly dying victim will strive to raise the alarm? Or is it because, properly done, it is quick, silent and mostly bloodless?

Jews have been slaughtering animals in this manner since the time of Moses and Aaron, if not before, at least 3500 years. The ritual at the Temple was the duty of the priests (Hebrew - Kohanim). Would this have continued for so long if before the first couple of sacrifices were done there was blood everywhere and on everyone? It would render the whole thing ritually unclean. They will have learned how to do the job properly and efficiently. The animal's heart would stop and gravity would be used to bleed the animal out. See this picture illustrating the Telegraph article (below).

Chickens are hung in a slaughterhouse during the ritual Kapparot ceremony in Jerusalem Photo: Marco Longari/AFP/Getty Images

Consider this article, also in the Telegraph, by one Harry de Quettville. He also graphically describes a ritual slaughter.

 Now the ritual slaughter that I saw was part of Eid al-Adha, the Muslim feast to celebrate God’s intervention to stay Ibrahim’s hand after asking him to sacrifice his son, Ishmael. In the Torah the story is of Abraham and Isaac. 

He continues with the description of a makeshift slaughter -'tent' in a car park behind a housing estate in the outskirts of Paris. The slaughterers are the heads of families. This approach takes us back to pre-Mosaic times, so there is no trained class of slaughterers. de Quettville describes the fear - of the men about to do the deed. The most important paragraphs in his article are these:  

What followed depended entirely on the man with the knife. If his hand was shaky, death was grim. If his hand was steady and very firm, however, I was astonished, really astonished, to see the speed with which the strongly kicking and twisting animal of a moment before was absolutely still and dead.   

Now I was there to report on such illegal slaughterhouses (so unregulated that some of the sheep had even been kept in bathtubs in tower block flats beforehand). No doubt conditions there could not have been more different to those currently in regulated ritual slaughterhouses (which I haven’t seen). But that is not what I am comparing. I am simply stating that right up close, at the sharp end, it was my impression that, when done effectively, death through the knife was extremely swift.  

My highlights. 

Which rather takes us back to our putative Special Forces assassin. What does Mr Blackwell want? Is he just ignorant of the medical and actual facts? Does he really imagine that Islam will abandon the practices of some 1500 years in Islam and at least 4000 years since Abraham? 
Is it about having a go at religion? Certainly the militant atheists have crawled out of the woodwork to have a go at everyone, including Christians - but we don't do kosher or halal  for other reasons.

Another quote from Miranda Prynne's article:

Shimon Cohen of Shechita UK which aims to educate people about Jewish slaughter customs, said bans on kosher and halal slaughter had been designed to drive out Jewish and Muslim populations since the 19th century.

He questioned why the Government was only considering labelling religious methods of killing and not including information on non-religious slaughter practices such as shooting, gassing, electrocution and drowning.

He said: “I will be seeing the Muslim Council of Britain shortly. We are at one on this.” 

A rare instance of Jewish-Islamic unity. Note, if you are not a Jewish reader, that he is a Cohen (plural Kohanim, see above).

Shechita UK  is clear, simply explained and very informative.

Does Mr Cohen really think that the Muslim population is about to be driven out? Somehow I doubt it.

It's all about the Jews.

The Wedding at Cana - The proof of an active faith is an act of faith

We've been doing a series on the Symbols of the Holy Spirit at HTWB, see here . In the morning they are part of the monthly all-age service and this morning we reached 'Wine'.

My readings for this sermon were Amos 9:13 - 15 and John 2:1 -11. Amos is an old friend from my days at Bible college, when I had to sit a three hour examination, without a Bible, on him and Hosea. 

The Wedding at Cana was a part of the syllabus I used to teach at the first school I ever taught in. In those days we could teach a Judeo-Christian syllabus. 

US readers are reminded that I was a teacher of Religious Education at a State school in the UK. I can promise you that it is not indoctrination.  Some friends committed to pray for me one  day and the lesson caught fire. The kids were totally attentive and afterwards I realised that I had the makings of  a brilliant sermon. Since then, I have preached on the Wedding on many occasions. This is only one of them.

	Photo © Israel Museum, Jerusalem, by Avraham Hay. Large jars
The numerous large barrel- and goblet-shaped vessels that were discovered in Jerusalem are among the most impressive examples of Jewish stoneware from the Second Temple Period. They were shaped on lathes, each one from a single block of stone. The New Testament tells of stone jars, apparently of this type, that were used “for the Jewish rites of purification” (John 2:6).

I hope you find the PowerPoint interesting and instructive.

I've been busy - Mission, Prayer and my apologies for the prolonged absence.

To those who look in regularly, my apologies. I have been busy with many things. Our church is organising a mission and there is much to do  We are staging our outreach to West Bromwich in conjunction with another church from a different denomination. 

The mission will take place during Holy Week. You learn more about it here. Not every planned event has been listed, as yet.

One of my tasks is to encourage people to underpin the mission with constant and regular prayer. I would like to ask you to join with us is seeking the Lord's blessing on this outreach.

I'm looking for committed intercessors. If God burdens you for this outreach , please contact me.

Every Blessing in Jesus,

Ian

Drop the dead dummy and talk to the Builder.

This morning I had a dream. I was and am still rather tired and decided, unusually for me, not to go to church, but to get some much needed rest so that I could concentrate on other church-related matters. But when God wants to speak to you, He gets to speak to you; sleep notwithstanding.

I dreamt that I was visiting a friend's church on the other side of the city. The church he pastors is mostly Nigerian and rents space from a Baptist Church. My own church has a similar arrangement with an Asian Church, as do quite a few churches. I should add that my friend is a man of prayer and faith and a dedicated intercessor.

In my dream, I was not actually in the Baptist church but in a house. As my friend came towards me, he seemed to be headless. As he got closer, I realised that he was carrying one of those headless tailor's dummies. It was dressed exactly as he was and, for the most part, obscured him.

Then the scene changed. Clearly the house was being renovated. Signs of building were everywhere but it was chaotic. There were a great many people in the house doing various things. (It was clearly not intended to be a message about his church as everyone else in the dream was white. The reason for this is explained above.) I could see toddlers playing with the building materials, seemingly under the illusion that they were helping - as children do.

People were living in the house as it was being renovated, but without any sense of demarcation between work areas and the rest of the house.

One man spoke to me. Everything about him said 'builder' and at first I thought that he was a contractor. He told me, in no uncertain terms, that the situation was dire. People had stepped out in faith and invested money in the works, but the money was running out and the work was no-where near completion. It was piecemeal and chaotic. He was actually doing some of the work and I thought that he was worried about being paid, but then it turned out that he had invested in the building and was a part of the congregation. The way he spoke to me left me thinking that he expected me to do something about the situation.

I sat down at a table with some of the people. A slim, attractive, dark-haired, young woman joined us. "Everything will be alright", she told me. She had invested money and was full of faith that it would come right. Despite her obvious beauty and faith, I found myself wondering if she was being naif? I thought that the builder had a better grasp of the situation.

After prayer and reflection, once awake, I decided that the dream was from God and when I shared it with a friend and prayer-partner, she also found that it spoke to her.

On the personal level (see my advice in my post on The Magnificat - slide twelve), I have to ask what am I carrying around that looks good, but is headless (Christ-less and dead) and is obscuring the man of prayer ( the New Creation)? It is a serious challenge on use of time, money and gifts within the church.

Secondly, what is it that the Builder expects me to do? He was the Builder and a part of the Body (The Head). He has made the major investment in the building. Clearly I need to speak to others as well. But what else should I do? How can I be most effective in helping to right the situation?

On a wider level, many churches need to take a hard look at what they are doing. Are the spiritually immature (the toddlers) being left to 'help' when they are hindering? What of the dead dummy? Is there Christ-less leadership that is obscuring spiritual leadership?

On the denominational and universal church level, the question becomes, how do we get rid of the dead dummy? 

As to the investment that had been made, we have to ask about our stewardship, not only of our own time and talents, but also that of others. Are we using our gifts and the gifts of others to the best effect? 

At the widest level, and increasingly, local churches and even dioceses, are asking if it is right to fund godless leadership. The same is true of many denominations.

We have to drop the dead dummy.

We need to be better organised

And we need to talk to the Builder about the building works.

 

The Power of Three - more about prayer triplets.

This sermon advocates the need for prayer triplets  as a part of our regular prayer discipline. 

It is based on Exodus 17 and Ephesians 6: 10 - 20. It emphasises the need for prayer triplets and explains them.

It is based on the very first battle that Israel fought after the Exodus at Rephidim. Much of this I learned years ago at Bible College from the Rev. Bob Dunnett, former vice-Principal and a Canon of Birmingham Cathedral. For clarification that is Birmingham, England.

The PowerPoint has been amended, so the MP3 recording doesn't quite match. We had some technical glitches during the service, but we got nearly everyone praying in triplets as a "taster".

Birmingham Cathedral -St Phillip's

The sermon is part of a series on prayer and part of our preparation for a Mission during Holy Week at Holy Trinity West Bromwich and in partnership with Asian Calvary Church .

Despite the little loud-speaker symbol there is no sound, for some reason Skydrive won't allow it.

If you want to hear the MP3 recording, click on the quaver. However, I cannot do both at once and I doubt that you will be able to either.

The girl in blue. A story of two little girls and the Devil's work

This post comes with a warning. The content is distressing and, although the visuals are upsetting, it is the stories which are heart-breaking.

If you have a legitimate celebration today, read this tomorrow.
The first little girl is Jewish. Her name is Hadas Fogel.
 

The inset is Hadas Fogel before she was murdered.The rest of the image is her tiny coffin. A little girl in blue.

Her family was murdered by Islamist terrorists (from Arab Palestine). They were walking away from the slaughter when they heard the baby crying...

This took place in 2011.

What follows is more recent.

 

This little girl's parents were Syrian Christians, and like them, she became a martyr to her faith.  A martyr to her parents' faith, I suppose I should say in view of her tender years.  A martyr at the very hands of the cruel and ruthless Islamists and Jihadists who wish to wipe Israel ahttps://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Emmaus-Group/157999294338029nd Jews and Christians and Christianity from the face of the Middle East. 
The Facebook page of the Emmaus Group explains:

Child “crucified” in Syria.

The image ... shows a very young girl tied to railings in a crucifixion style position and left until dead. The image was sent to us via facebook from a contact in Syria. The girl’s crime, as if there could be one? Her parents were Christians. She was tied up and made to watch her parents being killed then left. This evil act was perpetrated by Syrian rebels. The same rebels the West continues to support financially, with training and technology and supposedly, “non lethal hardware.”\

 Sadly this practice is not new. Christian children have been crucified in Iraq in an attempt to terrify their parents and the Christian population in general. See link

My sources are Daphne Anson and the http://www.emmaus-group.org/

Sometimes, evil is so utterly appalling that terms like 'The Enemy', 'the Devil' and 'Satan' are all that are left to describe who has done this thing.

The Church of England is expunging all mention of the Devil from its new service book.

Update: It would seem that at least one other source attributes the picture somewhat differently.

  "chained up for being Shia Muslim"

http://beforeitsnews.com/middle-east/2013/06/horrifying-picture-child-chained-up-forced-to-watch-parents-executed-by-obama-backed-syrian-rebels-2452386.html

In either case, the act is attributed to Syrian rebels and is horrendous. However, the link above has credibility issues, see the following quote - the brackets and highlighting are my insertions.

The Syrian civil war is an ongoing armed conflict in Syria between forces loyal to the Syrian [?] and outside foreigners paid by zionist intellegence [sic], a system build to weaker the arab army, esspecialy [sic] those who are a threat to the pro-american diplomacy, in other words ”those who do not bow down to them”.2013 

 I am seeking further clarification.