The ethnic Bhuiya are one of the most unreached people groups in India, with less than one-tenth of one percent of the tribe professing Christianity – until this year – when the gospel reached 35 of their villages, freeing many from the grip of the evil one. (more…)
August 28, 2016 – Robert and Maureen McQuillan share some recent experiences…We often receive requests for prayer, mentoring and counselling. Emails, mobiles, SMS and Skype are great tools the Holy Spirit uses!
Or we find he sets up God appointments — ‘God-incidents’ — not always within a local church’s ‘sacred’ four walls but ‘out there’ where ordinary people live, work and relax. We’ve always claimed that ‘out there’ is the real marketplace of mission activity.
But then we see mission activity worldwide not only as opportunities to witness Jesus as Saviour but as one who cares for the hurting, misunderstood, disillusioned, disappointed and the sick. Ordinary people, Christian and non-Christian, need caring, understanding, unselfish love and an arm thrown around them! (more…)
August 23, 2016 – Dr Jim McClure, well-known theologian, is highly appreciated for his biblical insights and explanations of scripture. Here he shares a personal note regarding his timely new book.I do not know who first made the comment, ‘Marriages are made in heaven,’ but that person was wrong – totally and stupefyingly wrong! (more…)
GLEANINGS August 27, 2016:
GEELONG
Fresh biblical insights on a most important relationship
Jim McClure, B.A, M.T.S, Ph.D, opens his new book, Love, Marriage, Divorce and Remarriage, with an intriguing quote by Martin Luther: ‘Let the wife make the husband glad to come home, and let him make her sorry to see him leave.’
Dr Jim is a highly respected theologian with wide experience in researching scripture and explaining the depths of the meaning of Hebrew and Greek words. His Teaching articles such as this month’s https://connectingwithyou.net/2016/08/06/words-of-life-august-6-2016/ bring revelation and understanding to those desiring deeper knowledge on aspects of God’s word. Christians concerned by certain current church trends gain peace by his insights into what the Bible really says, not what some so-called ‘Bible teachers and prophets’ claim. (more…)
August 27, 2016 – Author Hope Flinchbaugh shares…I love to go to prayer meetings!
There is nothing like being in the same room with people who are motivated to seek God and find out what he’d like to do on planet earth.
Take last Thursday for example at our church’s small prayer meeting. We were all praying beautifully, but I had this sense that we were not breaking through to see God’s will accomplished in our little town.
Suddenly the Lord kindly gave me a picture in my mind – I saw many people who were intercessors standing outside together and everyone was looking up in the sky swinging (wielding) a sword or knife above their heads!
Knowing our position in Christ
Above these intercessors was a large dragon, much like a paper dragon or a float that people in China carry over their heads on Chinese New Year parades and celebrations. (more…)
August 17, 2016 – Robert and Maureen McQuillan reflect on the season…In the 1979 classic, Being There, Chance, a simpleminded gardener who has resided his entire life in the Washington, DC townhouse of an unnamed wealthy employer and only been educated by television, is brilliantly played by Peter Sellers.
Forced to vacate when the old man suddenly dies, wearing the deceased’s expensively tailored 1920/30s clothes, Chance wanders the unfamiliar streets. An accident leads to meeting Ben Rand, a business mogul and confidant/adviser to the president.
His manners old-fashioned and courtly, Chance is presumed to be an upper-class, highly educated businessman, and mistakenly called Chauncey Gardiner. His simple words are repeatedly misunderstood as profound; in particular, his simplistic utterances about gardens and the weather are interpreted as allegorical statements about business and the state of the economy.
Growth has seasons
One conservation goes this way… (more…)
August 5, 2016 – Mark Ellis shares yet another incident of answered prayer and the supernatural…As a staff physician at the University of Texas Health Center he was well acquainted with the symptoms of a heart attack. But this time, the MD wasn’t examining someone else – he was grappling with troubling signs of his own.
At home, Dr Gerry Landry (55) felt overwhelming fatigue and crushing pain in his chest for more than an hour. ‘Denise! This is serious! Please pray!’ he called out to his wife.
Peace defying understanding
Denise Landry began to pray after she called an ambulance. She also called Christian friends to pray. (more…)
August 5, 2016 – Dr Jim McClure, noted theologian, begins a series on some scripture words…The Hebrew and Greek words of scripture are like inexhaustible mines and one finds new treasures each time the words are examined.
I have selected just a few words from the Old and New Testaments and have sought to open them up to reveal just some of the amazing truths they contain. Firstly – salvation… (more…)
August 6, 2016 – Robert and Maureen McQuillan challenge both ministers and churchgoers…Recently we’ve heard Christians comment that they feel God is giving them, their church, our nation, America and the world a wake-up call. Wake-up calls are meant to be acted on!
Decades ago, English bandleader Billy Cotton was particularly known for his rousing catchphrase intro to his BBC radio and television shows – ‘Wakey, Wake-aaaay! ’
A London choirboy, Cotton was awake to living life. Not yet 19 he had seen action in World War 1, become a pilot, worked at several jobs and commenced his own orchestra (even though he couldn’t play an instrument or read a word of music).
Billy Cotton went on to become a boxer and a racing driver and lived life to the full. His was a life regarded as ‘a life less ordinary.’
This first August Encouragement article is a wakey,wake-aaaay call to both ministers and churchgoers!
Don’t miss out
Paul encouraged Jesus’ followers not to miss out on life: ‘So be on your guard, not asleep like the others. Stay alert and be clearheaded’ (1 Thes. 5:6NLT). (more…)
August 5, 2016 – Erica Grace, ex-missionary to South America, challenges us to remember unsung Hebrews 11 type heroes!Have you ever known people in the ministry that you felt didn’t receive their due recognition? Marie Monsen was one of those people.
Born in Sandviken, Norway in 1878, Marie became a school teacher. She went to China in 1901 initially to help the missionary couple sent there by her Lutheran church who needed a teacher for their children.
But because of the national unrest and turn of events in China, the missionaries left shortly after Marie arrived. The mission agency back in Norway didn’t have the funds to send for Marie as well, so she stayed back waiting for her ticket to arrive.
So many people needing help
Meanwhile, people kept coming to the mission home looking for help but Marie (left) was the only one there. She would rush out to see what the emergency was and would face squalid conditions of starving, sick children. She didn’t know what do, she felt helpless and overwhelmed. The situations she faced each day seemed insurmountable. Her only solution to every situation would be to pray. (more…)
Connecting with You! 