Bombs not food

Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many. You will hear of wars and rumours of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains.

 “Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. Matthew 24: 4 - 14

The other day I went to a concert at The Royal Albert Hall, the iconic concert hall, in London. They searched our bags as we went in. Whilst we were waiting for the concert to begin, a young man asked me rather worriedly, if it was alright to bring food into the hall because they had searched his bag. I told him that I thought the security people were searching bags for bombs, not food. The young man obviously felt rather foolish when he realised the seriousness of the situation. 

Over the last few days I have come to realise that we really are living in serious times. There have always been e mails floating around about how the west will be overrun by Muslims in 20 years time.  I have not taken this too seriously as statistically it never seems to quite add up and many Muslims have no intention of overthrowing our nation and imposing Sharia law. However the events in the Middle East and especially what is happening in northern Iraq and Syria have changed my mind. 

Christians are being martyred, persecuted and forced from their homes in huge numbers not just in the Middle East but in North Korea, China, India, Indonesia, Sudan, Nigeria to name but a few places. There can be a real tendency in the western church to think that this persecution is happening over there and we may pray and give to help them and even be thankful that it is not happening here. 

However the rise of extreme violence, barbarism, terrorism and brutality on a scale not known for many years have forced me to realise I must stop worrying about the metaphorical food in my bag and start thinking and praying about the very real prospect of bombs in the bag of the person next to me. 

Twice recently I have read that the Archbishop of Mosul in northern Iraq has said:  "Our sufferings today are the prelude of those that you, Europeans and Western Christians, will also suffer in the near future.... Your liberal and democratic principles are worth nothing here. You must consider again our reality in the Middle East, because you are welcoming in your countries an ever-growing number of Muslims.... Islam does not say that all men are equal. Your values are not their values. If you do not understand this soon enough, you will become the victims of the enemy you have welcomed into your home." 

I report this not to frighten us because Jesus said not to be alarmed but to be aware, alert and praying.  I have been asking God to show me how to pray and what I can do.  It is early days yet but God has shown me a few things to pray and do practical things about.

Firstly Jesus assured us that the gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations.  Never have we had so many nations in UK as today, so never have we had such an opportunity to preach the Gospel to them without ever leaving our shores. 

Many Muslims from scattered communities are now in refugee camps with wonderful Christian organisations ministering to them both in terms of humanitarian aid and the Gospel. We can both pray and give to these organisations. 

I have been praying for the gathering of intercessors to pray authoritatively with divine wisdom into these times. I pray our churches will awaken to these days and as individual Christians we will be alert and active in our faith and prayers. 

This is not the time to fear but to rise up in faith. Many of us have been Christians for decades; now is the time to pay back the investment we have had into our lives in terms of teaching, ministry and prayer. I believe God is calling us to higher things and to fulfil a destiny and calling on our lives that has not yet been fully realised. 

There are battles to be fought, prayers to be prayed, souls to be saved and God is calling each one of us to play our part. Hallelujah! 

Is it nothing to you?

“Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by?
Look around and see. Is any suffering like my suffering
that was inflicted on me, that the Lord brought on me in the day of his fierce anger? Lamentations 1: 12

I am a big fan of John Stainer’s Crucifixion and he uses this verse from Lamentations, which was really written about the fall of Jerusalem, to show the indifference of the crowd on the day of Jesus’ crucifixion. The most important event in history was happening before a largely uncaring and even mocking crowd.  According to Luke people watched, rulers sneered, soldiers mocked and even one of the criminals flung insults at him.

I wondered if they had realised what was really happening, would they have repented?  Well in the days following Pentecost a very large number did. Most of them would have heard if not seen Jesus’ crucifixion and cut to the heart by Peter’s words, they turned to Jesus (Acts 3:41, 4:4 and 6:7). But on the day, apart from the already believing disciples, only a condemned criminal and a Roman centurion realised who Jesus was.

I am cut to the heart by what Jesus did for me on the cross yet for years I too was indifferent to him, even though I knew all about it. I was not ignorant of Jesus’ death and resurrection and what it meant but I ignored his pleas.  Jesus however never gives up. Till our dying day he cries to us ‘O come unto me, O come unto me, for why should you die?’ the words used by John Stainer.

It spurs me to renew my efforts in prayer, by friendship, witness and words to tell people the magnitude of God’s amazing grace to each one of us. I want to be more effective and I think one of those ways is through miracles and healings. Time and again people believed because of what they saw Jesus and his disciples doing because these things pointed to the kingdom of heaven is near.

Let’s be encouraged to press on to being vessels used by God to bring his good news, the Gospel to an indifferent yet dying world.

The harvest is plentiful

Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest therefore to send out workers into his harvest field. Matthew 9: 37 – 38

We all know that we are not saved by works but by grace, through faith, and even this is a gift from God (Ephesians 2: 8). There is nothing we can do to earn our salvation for which we are all very pleased I hope. It is not down to us, but it is all about God’s wonderful gift to each one of us.

However there is a wonderful harvest waiting to be reaped out there and that does require ‘work’. Jesus said to ask the Lord of the harvest to send out workers and workers work.  It is true that the work may be prayer or giving to missions but it is also work that each one of us needs to get involved in.

I am currently in South Africa and every week we have a team of people visiting the homes of visitors and attendees to our church. Every week people are getting saved but every week we have to go out and work for the harvest. It will not happen whilst we think happy thoughts or even stay home and pray. People have to be told the good news. Paul says that people have to be told in order for them to call upon the Lord Jesus and be saved (Romans 10: 14 – 15).

I have to confess that I never thought I was an evangelist. I never thought I could do that work. I could pray for others and I could witness about Jesus but I was not much good at sharing the Gospel. I have now been bitten by the bug! 

To bring in the harvest requires some work. In Luke 5: 4 – 11 we read how Jesus had been teaching the crowd and afterwards he told Simon to go out fishing, to put down his nets into deep water. They had been out fishing all night and were tired. To go out to the deep water would require rowing or putting up the sail but because Jesus said it, they did it.

They caught such a large number of fish that the nets began to break. Even when they called their partners to help, there were so many fish that the boats began to sink. This was hard and dangerous work. They could have lost their boats but instead they were commissioned to be fishers of men. To bring in that harvest required some effort but it was worth it on every level. They may have had to repair their nets, sort out their boats but the harvest was plentiful.

Today the harvest of souls is as plentiful as in Jesus’ time and we not only need to ask the Lord of the harvest to send out workers as Jesus did but to be willing to be a worker. If the thought of sharing the Gospel frightens you, ask God to give you courage to talk about Jesus whenever there is an opportunity.  Take some time to learn a clear Gospel presentation and be ready. It does take work but the rewards of plundering hell when souls are saved is worth every bit of effort that it takes.