Month: April 2022

HOLY – EMPHASIS HOLY – COMMUNION

(April 08, 2022) Dr Robert McQuillan responds to a friend troubled by certain ‘pushed’ teaching…

Dear Dr Robert

I always delight to take communion. But many times our ministers talk so much about receiving ‘other blessings’ beyond being forgiven of our sins, rather than solely remembering and honouring God and the Lord Jesus Christ for His tremendous sacrifice of paying the debt on our behalf. It seems to me that they just keep pushing other blessings, not what communion is all about. As it’s almost Easter, please comment on this. Kelvin.

Dear Kelvin

Yes, you’re right… Easter is a special time to Christians when we should remember and honour our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. But then we should always do this. You’re right too about communion… it’s a momentous time when He should be honoured for all He has done, especially securing forgiveness of our sins, and not other blessings alone being constantly pushed (or ‘constantly hammered’ to use a current catchcry).

Communion… Holy Communion, The Eucharist, Last Supper, Lord’s Supper, The Sacrament. Holy Sacrament or whatever name your church may use for this special service is indeed a very precious time.

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STUPIDIEST QUESTION EVER ASKED!

(April 07, 2022) Maureen McQuillan shares that Jesus truly cares…

When good friend Hope Flinchbaugh (Nehemiah-God’s Call to Build the Wall 2) enquired last month how Robert was going after several sleep-interrupted nights, he shared that he was now sleeping right through each night.

Hope then sent this note: ‘It sounds like you’ve learned to sleep in the boat when the big storm is on you!’ Robert had replied along the lines of ‘Not as restful as Jesus was… but I fully trust in Him.’

With various storms of life round us at this time, one needs to be at rest by knowing and trusting our Lord. Meditating on being at rest by trusting Jesus had me reflecting on Mark 4… Jesus asleep in a boat when a huge storm hit.

Jesus needed rest Himself
Verse 35 tells us that one evening Jesus had requested His disciples to take Him across the lake by boat.

He’d already had a very busy day teaching kingdom truths to crowds lined up along the shore. Now He was not only tired (Yes, ministry can tire us!), but maybe His mind was on the next day’s even busier one of supernatural ministry… finding and freeing that poor Gerasene man bound by many evil spirits, travelling dust roads, raising a little girl from the dead, and encountering that desperately troubled woman who would dare to boldly touch the hem of His robe believing to be healed, not to mention more criticisms (Mark 5).

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FINDING JESUS WHILE STUDYING FOR HIS BAR-MITZVAH

(April 06, 2022) Charles Gardner shares…

An innocent question about Jesus from a primary school classmate set a 10-year-old Jewish boy from London on the road to discovering his Messiah.

Gerry Cohen, now 63, looks back on the monumental effect this has had on his life, and why he is still passionate about the need for fellow Jews to find Jesus for themselves.

Searching
In an interview with Jane Moxon for the CMJ (Church’s Ministry among Jewish people) website, Gerry recalled that time, 53 years ago, when his friend Nigel asked him: ‘What’s Jesus when you’re Jewish?”

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TITANIC ‘IF ONLYS’

(April 06, 2022) Robert McQuillan shares some April thoughts…

110 years ago on Sunday 14 April 1912, the massive White Star liner RMS Titanicstruck an iceberg. That catastrophe is generally reported as happening at 23.39… Three hours, one minute later, at 2.40am Monday morning the so-called unsinkable, luxury liner was gone in the calmest but coldest seas (28 degrees under).

Only 750 were plucked from the frigid sea. Sadly, 1523 had perished.

 It was indeed, as the Walter Lord‘s prolific 1955 book and subsequent 1958 movie called it, A Night to Remember.

Titanic’s ‘If Onlys’
Among other beliefs – and ‘believed mysteries or conspiracy theories’ – the following have been associated with that horrifying disaster.

If only…

  • The British Board of Trade ruling had called for more lifeboats.
  • The crow’s nest spotters binoculars hadn’t disappeared.
  • Iceberg warnings had been taken more seriously.
  • Bruce Ismay, White Star managing director, hadn’t pressed for a speedier (24k) crossing.
  • First officer Murdoch hadn’t reversed the main engines, handicapping the turning ability.
  • The ship had had a double hull.
  • The watertight doors had been higher than three metres (and there had been more doors).
  • There had been more red flares on board.
  • The mysterious ship nearby had responded to the distress signals
  • The Carpathia hadn’t been so far away to steam to the rescue (four hours away).
  • ‘We’ hadn’t booked on the maiden voyage.
  • Morgan Robertson’s 1898 romantic novel The Wreck of the Titan or, Futility had been taken seriously. (Later this book would be regarded as ‘prophetic’ as it centred on ‘the largest craft afloat… unsinkable, indestructible she carried as few boats as would satisfy the laws’ being sunk by an iceberg. ‘Fourteen years before the greatest civil maritime disaster of all time, this story eerily prefigured the actual calamity’ of the Titanic).

That’s 12 ‘If Onlys.’

Thirteen is often regarded as unlucky. Christians don’t believe in ‘luck’ as we trust God (or should!), but here’s a thirteenth ‘If only’, a sad one…

  • God hadn’t been mocked! Seems it was mockingly, jokingly claimed that even God couldn’t sink Titanic (not that He would have!).
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FAMOUS LAST WORDS FROM THE CROSS

(April 04, 2022) Richard Winter challenges…

We’ve all been in a discussion when we wanted to get the last word… but sometimes that’s the wrong thing to aim at.

For example… Guys, you may say when asked: ‘Yes, Honey, those jeans do make you look fat.’ But they may be your famous last words!

Let’s look at Jesus’ last words.

The context is that Jesus is on a cross and Luke 23: 32-33 tell us that ‘Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed. When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him there, along with the criminals – one on His right, the other on His left.’ 

What had led Jesus to this point?

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TREASURED MEMORIES WITH JESUS BRING HOPE

(April 04, 2022) Carol Round challenges us to share good memories…

A recent morning devotional reminded me of treasured memories of my childhood. Growing up in southwestern Louisiana, I spent many hours outdoors on sunny days. Barefoot most of the time, I loved lying in the grass.

On my stomach, I would search for a treasured four-leaf clover. Other times, I’d lie on my back and study the clouds. My imagination ran wild as I spotted a dinosaur shape or maybe a fluffy sheep.

A large mimosa tree at the edge of our property also became a treasured spot to hide among the lacy leaves. I daydreamed about the things I read in books. My thoughts often turned to fantasies of being swept away to a land filled with princes and princesses.

Treasuring the Prince of Peace
Next weekend with joy we’ll worship and celebrate our Saviour, the risen Christ, on Easter Sunday!

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I MIGHT HAVE MISSED THAT MIRACLE!

(April 02, 2022) Mama Lava shares a challenging Easter meditation…    

The very first Easter morning was unique to all that have come since in that it dawned in apparent defeat. Have you ever thought about that?

Jesus’ resurrection had happened, but nobody knew it! His family and followers awoke in grief, unaware of the glorious victory and power that had changed everything. They might have missed the miracle… if not for the faithfulness of Mary, Mary and Salome.

These three women, who had followed and served Jesus daily, woke up in despair. He was gone. They had seen Him beaten, nailed to a cross, ridiculed and confirmed dead. Because of strict Sabbath rules, He’d been buried quickly. There hadn’t been time to properly embalm His body with the customary spices.

Dedicated
But the Sabbath was over, and they would be able to do this one last thing for the One to whom they’d been devoted. So, they got up and prepared to do what they’d done every day – serve Jesus.

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THE CHALLENGE OF EASTER

(April 02, 2022) Dr Jim McClure, noted theologian, shares great Easter truths…

Many years ago when I was ministering in the north-east England, I received a phone call from my brother to tell me that our father had died. In deep grief my wife, Jean, and children got in the car and drove overnight to Stranraer in Scotland to catch the ferry to Northern Ireland. During the drive in the dark of night I was consumed with sadness.

As dawn arrived and the sun began to rise and dispel the darkness, I remembered that in a few days Christians throughout the world would be celebrating Easter with is message of Jesus’ resurrection – death had been defeated and its darkness had been overcome! 

That glorious message penetrated my despair as I realised that the sting of death had been forever removed when Jesus rose triumphantly from the tomb. Of course the sadness remained but the bleak darkness had been defeated, and I was comforted by the knowledge that because of Jesus’ victory over the death, I would see my father again.

I love Easter!  I love its glorious affirmation of the triumph of God over Satan, the triumph of life over death, the triumph of good over evil.

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NEHEMIAH – GOD’S CALL TO BUILD THE WALL(2)

(April 1, 2022) Hope Flinchbaugh continues her Nehemiah series challenging us to know that God has a plan for us…

The television screen showed tiny Chinese infants, lying on the bare floor like so many scattered rugs. The BBC reporter said, ‘These are the dying rooms of China…’

Deeply moved, my eyes couldn’t leave the scenes before me and I whispered, ‘Lord, somebody needs to do something about this.’

God’s challenge to me
‘Why don’t you do something about this?’ I heard the Lord reply.

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EVERY CHRISTAIN A MINISTER

(April 01, 2022) Charles Schwab shares that every Christian is a minister so let’s cut to the chase…

I feel led by the Holy Spirit to share here my long-term convictions about Christians taking up their God-given capacities to be vessels of God towards a whole range of needs in the lives of others.

Yes there can be challenges to Christians – ordinary Christians – when it comes to being mobilised in ministry. We will come to these in a moment.

Biblical truth
Since the Protestant Reformation (1517 AD – 505 years ago) which highlighted the biblical truth that justification – being made right with God – is a consequence of faith in Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord (Romans 5:1), various other biblical truths have been resurrected from relative obscurity.

One such truth is that every believer has one or more areas of ‘ministry’ or service to which the Lord has called and is equipping them. We don’t get to ‘call the shots’; God determines and in such a way that we are not consulted!

The notion that ‘the priest is the minister and does everything that is central in the life of the church’ had its ‘back broken’ in the Reformation.

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