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Episodes
Friday Feb 09, 2018
Friday Feb 09, 2018
Partakers Friday Prayers
We pray together and when Christians pray together, from different nations, different churches and different denominations - that reveals Church unity! Come! Let us pray together!
Behold, Lord,
I am an empty vessel that needs to be filled.
My Lord, fill it.
I am weak in the faith;
strengthen me.
I am cold in love;
warm me and make me fervent,
that my love may go out to my neighbour.
I do not have a strong and firm faith;
at times, I doubt
and am unable to trust You altogether.
O Lord, help me.
Strengthen my faith and trust in you.
In You I have sealed the treasure of all I have.
I am poor;
you are rich
and came to be merciful to the poor.
I am a sinner;
you are upright.
With me, there is an abundance of sin;
in You is the fullness of righteousness.
Therefore, I will remain with you,
of whom I can receive,
but to whom I may not give.
Amen
(A prayer of Martin Luther)
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Wednesday Feb 07, 2018
Wednesday Feb 07, 2018
4. Spiritualism:
How Do Spiritualist Treat The Bible?
By Jim Allis
Beliefs
Spiritualism sums up its teaching in the following seven points: Spiritualists mainly agree on seven points: 1. The fatherhood of God 2. The brotherhood of Man 3. The communion of spirits and the ministry of angels 4. The continuous existence of the human soul 5. Personal responsibility 6. Compensation and retribution hereafter for all good and evil deeds done on earth 7. Eternal progress open to every human soul I will not write down in detail all they believe but will point out where in particular they differ from the Bible and Christianity.
Question 1. : On what basis are we allowed into Heaven ?
What Spiritualists say: The home that awaits us in the spirit world depends upon the life we have led on earth. If we have honestly tried to do the best we can, then we need have no fear of death. We have fitted ourselves for the result which is automatic; a better, happier life where we are reunited with our loved ones and friends. If, on the other hand, there has been more selfishness than goodness and service in our lives, we will automatically have to pay the price. This is part of the law of sowing and reaping, which is another way of saying that effect must follow cause. It is perfectly summarised in the sixth principle of spiritualism, which says that hereafter there is compensation and retribution for all good and evil done on earth. Acts of service that we have performed will naturally increase our spiritual status. Sins of omission or commission will just as naturally retard it. There is, however, no hell in which its inhabitants are condemned for eternity. What the Bible says “For by grace are we saved through faith and that not of ourselves it is the gift of God and not of works lest any man should boast” Ephesians 2:8. Grace is the operative word here. God’s riches at Christ’s expense. Heaven cannot be earned. God has made a way whereby we may enter heaven.
- Whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life” John 3:16;
- The gift of God is eternal life” John 3:36;
- “There is none righteous no not one” Romans 3:10;)
- Jesus said “IFor God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that am the way, the truth and the life no one comes to the Father except by Me.” John 14:6;)
- “There is no salvation in and through no one else For there is no other name under heaven whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12;)
Question 2 : What do Spiritualists say about Jesus?
“We do not believe in vicarious atonement as preached in some orthodox religions. We regard Jesus as an exemplar, not a saviour. Man has no saviour but himself. We are each personally responsible for our sins and must atone for them here and hereafter. It is far more moral to acknowledge our sins and try to make amends than to try to place them on the shoulders of another. We believe that Jesus was Divine, but only in the sense that we are all divine. There is a difference of degree but not of kind.”
What does the Bible say concerning Jesus? People have needed a Saviour ever since Adam and Eve broke the first commandment....”You shall not take of the tree in the centre of Garden if you do you will surely die” (Genesis 3) The Bible goes on to say that every person entering the world after that were born separated from God by their sin and needing someone to come and save them from their sin and that Person is clearly seen in our Bibles to be Jesus Christ the eternal Son of God.
Paul writing to Timothy writes “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.”(1 Timothy 1:15;) Romans 3:23” says We have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
An atonement was required in order to redeem sinners. The Redeemer is Jesus and through His sacrifice all who believe on Him and repent of their sin are delivered from their sin and receive the gift of eternal life. It needed a perfect Saviour to save us and only Jesus was fit for that task,. He remained sinless through all His thirty three years upon earth and He alone could atone as he surely did upon a cross of wood over 2000 years ago. The proof of the success of that atonement is that the grave could not hold Him and he rose from the dead three days after his crucifixion took place. this present time Jesus is in Heaven preparing a place for all believers and one day will come again into this world to take into heaven all who have trusted in Him for their salvation to join with those who are already there arriving after they had died upon earth. It doesn't just happen God made it clear from the beginning that the soul that sins dies and has no hope apart from an awakening by The Holy Spirit (Third member of the Trinity).
We come into the world biased towards sin and we need to be changed and for that purpose Jesus died to remove our sins and The Holy Spirit imparts spiritual life to the believer. He is “born again to newness of life” He could not achieve this by himself. Spiritualists believe they don't need a saviour and say that they have to save themselves. Only perfect beings can arrive in heaven and we can only be made perfect through being in union with Christ and receiving the newness of life in Him.
This clearly is seen in (2 Corinthians 5:17-18; (Amplified Bible) “Therefore if any person is (engrafted) in Christ, the Messiah, he is (a new creature altogether) a new creation; the old (previous moral and spiritual condition) has passed away, behold the fresh and new has come! But all things are from God, who through Jesus Christ, reconciled us to Himself.
Spiritualists teach that Jesus was nothing more than a medium, He was not divine as unique from us who are mere mortals. They say He is an advanced spirit in the sixth sphere and his death was only a martyrdom heroic devotion to humanity. Oh! How they have missed out on who He really is. The Son of God the third member of the Trinity. His mission accomplished was to deliver man from his sins. I say accomplished for when he died he gave up His own life it was not taken from Him. He gave up His life unto death so that when all was concluded the triumphant words rang out from that cross “It is finished” or “Tetalesti!” as it is in the Aramaic.
Finally they say “Hell does not exist” but that is one of the prime reasons Jesus came to deliver us from hell and bring us safe into Heaven. The authority of my words are with God Himself in His written Word the Bible.. His Word is Perfect (Psalm 12:6); His Word is Truth (John 17:17;) Test everything by The Bible. May I encourage you ‘Read it to be wise, believe it to be safe and practice it to be holy’.
** Disclaimer: The author of this article, Jim Allis, is a guest podcaster and Partake Ministries may or may not agree with his opinions and writings, either in their entirety or part thereof.
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Monday Feb 05, 2018
Monday Feb 05, 2018
Think Spot - 5th February 2018
We have the start of a new week! Its Monday! How and in what circumstances are you trusting God? How did Jesus Christ trust in the Father? Jesus knew that the Father was going to bring Him back to life after his death on the cross. Jesus trusted the Father in this area of His life, just as he did in all aspects of his life. How are you doing? Do you have concerns and areas of your life where you need an assurance that God the Father will help you?
Here are some simple steps which may help you maintain a trust in God.
- Pray, casting all anxiety on God. He cares for you because you are His personal concern (The great apostle Peter, one of Jesus' closest friends wrote this in 1 Peter 5v7 "Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.")
- Accept and thank God that His peace has filled that area (Another great apostle, Paul, wrote this in Philippians 4v7 says "Then you will experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.")
- Learn to be content whatever your circumstances are, resting in God (Paul goes on in Philippians 4v11-12 "Not that I was ever in need, for I have learned how to be content with whatever I have. I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little.")
- Allow the Spirit to control your mind for life and peace (and again from the pen of the apostle Paul, this time in Romans 8v6 "So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace.")
- Trust God to fulfil your every need (Matthew records these words of Jesus in Matthew 6v32-33 "but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need." )
- Obey and follow God's commands to love God and love others (Jesus is recorded in Matthew 22v37-40 "You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.' The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.")
- Finally, be prepared to be obedient to the Father, in supplying the needs of others you meet and therefore showing you love God and other people! One way to show you are trusting and loving God is to be the answer to the prayers of somebody else and showing that love to them! Ask God to show you, how you can help somebody else in need this week and showing your love.
Go in peace this Monday, into this week, knowing God is worthy of your trust! God will take care of you, but not always in the way you expect! Expect Him to allow circumstances and situations to arise where you are to trust Him fully! He will help you if you ask! After all, He knows you better than anybody! And don't be afraid to help somebody else because by doing that, you show you are loving and trusting in God!
Father, I pray that You would help us to trust in You and that You would supply our needs, calm our concerns and help us to love You and others more fully. I ask this through the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ and in the power of the Holy Spirit who lives inside all those who have peace with you. Amen
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Sunday Feb 04, 2018
Sunday Feb 04, 2018
Exploring The Bible
48. Old Testament
Psalm - 1000–931 BC
G'day and welcome to our series, "Exploring the Bible" This is also the title of our latest book available on Amazon by clicking here or visiting PulpTheology.com
Key Verses:
- Psalm 23:1-8
- Psalm 145:21
The Book of Psalms, mostly written or collected at the initiative of King David, tells the full range of human experience in a very personal and practical way. A lot of the Psalms foretell the coming of the Messiah, not only for Israel but the world.
Nearly all of them contain praises to the Lord. They have formed the songbook and prayer book of the people of God for nearly 3,000 years.
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Saturday Feb 03, 2018
Saturday Feb 03, 2018
Part 130 - Revelation 2:26
Given authority through Christ
The ‘gem’ is in the promise that ends the letter following the words ‘to the one who is victorious’. Here is the rest of the letter :
To the angel of the church in Thyatira write:
These are the words of the Son of God, whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze. 19 I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first.
20 Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols. 21 I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling. 22 So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways. 23 I will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds.
24 Now I say to the rest of you in Thyatira, to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets, ‘I will not impose any other burden on you, 25 except to hold on to what you have until I come.’
26 To the one who is victorious and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations— 27 that one ‘will rule them with an iron scepter and will dash them to pieces like pottery’—just as I have received authority from my Father.28 I will also give that one the morning star.
Jesus continues his imaginary journey through his churches in the city of Thyatira. It was another manufacturing centre though not as large as the last one, Pergamum. It seems to have had much the same problems as Pergamum. The main difference seems to have been that where the Christians in Pergamum had a rather fragmented fellowship with several splinter groups teaching different things these folk had only one split - though that a big one. A woman, here referred to as Jezebel (unlikely to be her real name), had a considerable following in the church. She was leading people astray, probably not teaching sexual immorality directly but encouraging people to enter fully into the culture of the city, which would rather inevitably lead to participation in various sexual events.
The reason for that was the same as in Pergamum: the necessity to be in a guild with its strict rules about who might or might not carry on a particular trade in the city. You had to be a member of the Guild of Bakers if you wanted to bake and sell bread as a business etc. You would then be required to attend a certain number of the regular feasts, eat the food provided, some of which would probably have reached the table via a sacrifice at a pagan temple, drink the alcohol provided, and participate in the general socialising, which might well include sexual activity with cult prostitutes. Much of that was contrary to Christian teaching. But ‘Jezebel’ was encouraging her disciples to full participation in all that went on.
Most cultures round the world today have not descended quite that far, but many are on a slippery slope headed that way. So what do we do? The depth of your problem will depend on what is going on in the particular society you are in, or would like to be in.
The fundamental principle has to be ‘no’. Of course, you may, with a clear conscience, do all you can to fit in with the society you want to be in provided you do not do anything that following Jesus would mean you should not do. The WWJD, What Would Jesus Do, slogan has rightly been criticised by many people but in this particular situation it is good and appropriate to use it.
We simply cannot step right outside our culture and society. When Christians have tried to do so, in Calvin’s Geneva, some early American States and so on, it has never worked satisfactorily. It is not possible to get those who have not set out to follow Jesus, of whom there are always some in every society, to follow the same pattern of behaviour as those who have done so. It cannot be done and shouldn’t be attempted. That is the way human behaviour has been since the Fall.
So we, who do strive to follow Jesus, must accommodate ourselves to the situation around us. To help us do so we have the great promises given to this church in Thyatira. When we set out to follow Jesus he comes to us, loves us in a new way and grants us the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, his Spirit. We receive something of his authority and status over all nations.
(The words are a quotation from Psalm 2:8, 9.) But we have always to remember who he was and how he behaved.
Of him it was said that ‘“Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him, and he will bring justice to the nations. He will not shout or cry out, or raise his voice in the streets. A bruised reed he will not break, and a smouldering wick he will not snuff out. In faithfulness he will bring forth justice; he will not falter or be discouraged till he establishes justice on earth. In his teaching the islands will put their hope.” (Isaiah 42:1-4). As we receive him into our lives we must be like that too. Tough, but infinitely rewarding.
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Friday Feb 02, 2018
Friday Feb 02, 2018
Partakers Friday Prayers
2nd February 2018
We pray together and when Christians pray together, from different nations, different churches and different denominations - that reveals Church unity! Come! Let us pray together!
A prayer of Bonaventure
Lord Jesus,
as God’s Spirit came
down and rested upon you, may
the same Spirit rest upon and be within us.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
O Yahweh,
Grant us the gift of
understanding, by which your
precepts may enlighten our minds.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
O Jehovah,
Grant us counsel,
by which we may follow in your
footsteps on the path of righteousness.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
O Great God,
grant us courage,
by which we may ward off
the Enemy’s attacks.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
O Sovereign God,
grant us knowledge.
by which we can distinguish
good from evil.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
O Merciful God,
grant us piety,
bywhich we may acquire
compassionate hearts.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
O Holy God,
grant us fear, by which
we may draw back from evil
and submit to what is good.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
O ineffable God
made known through Jesus,
grant us wisdom,
that we may taste fully the
life-giving sweetness of your love.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
For we ask this O God our Father,
In the power of the Holy Spirit who lives within us
Through the Son who died and rose again!
Amen.
Based on a Prayer of Bonaventure 1221 –1274
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