THEBUZZ (June 17, 2016)

GLEANINGS:

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA – Farsi-speaking service one-year celebration
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA – ‘Man in White’
ALBANY, USA – Internet: Holy Spirit fighting ISIS

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MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA
Salvation Army Farsi-speaking service church first year’s celebration

Robert and Maureen McQuillan report good results from a Holy Spirit challenge.

Colin Elkington was astounded when he heard the Holy Spirit clearly challenge him to commence a badly needed church service for Farsi-speaking converts to Christ. Recently that church joyfully celebrated its first anniversary.

But this story has its unusual beginnings back in 2015. Colin tells it this way…

‘How often do people come to you and say, “I want to become a Christian”?’ he asks.

Since mid-April, 2015, this Salvation Army Asylum Seekers Support Service chaplain has had Iranian asylum seekers coming to him asking to become Christians.

(more…)

THE JUSTIFICATION OF OUR EXISTENCE (June 15, 2016)

Ross Winchester challenges the church to passionately care for souls…

Irena Sendler. Perhaps still an unfamiliar name to some people, but this remarkable Polish woman defied the Nazis and saved 2,500 Jewish children by smuggling them out of the Warsaw Ghetto.

As a health worker, she sneaked children out between 1942 and 1943 to safe hiding places and found non-Jewish families to adopt them.   (more…)

CAN YOU HEAR THE CRY OF THE CHILDREN? (June 14. 2016)

Erica Grace, ex-missionary to South America, pulls no punches!

What do you think is the largest and most urgent mission field today?

Did you say Syria? Iraq? Iran?

What if I told you that by far the largest mission field today is one that is most easily overlooked: It’s the children! (more…)

BETRAYAL OF GOD (June 16, 2016)

Dr Jim McClure, noted theologian, challenges …

‘Be careful that nobody spoils your faith through intellectualism or high-sounding nonsense. Such stuff is at best founded on men’s ideas of the nature of the world and disregards Christ!’ (Colossians 2:8 JBP).

The Church of Scotland’s General Assembly recently voted to allow ministers to be in same-sex ‘marriages.’

Surrendering to political correctness pressure
Once a bastion of righteousness and biblical integrity, the Church of Scotland has surrendered – as other churches have – to the pressure of contemporary political correctness and has chosen to compromise its integrity for the sake of not appearing to be out of step with current trends. (more…)

SHADOWS (June 14, 2016)

Brian Bell shares a meditation on sorrow, shelter and security…

Robert and Maureen McQuillan’s recent article, God’s Mysterious Ways (https://connectingwithyou.net/2016/06/04/gods-mysterious-ways-june-4-2016/), brought to mind the lyrics of that old (1943) E J Rollings‘ Standing Somewhere in the Shadows song, very popular once.

Perhaps these words may be familiar to you –

Are your crosses too heavy to carry,
And burdens too heavy to bear;
Are there heartaches and tears and anguish
And there’s no one who seems to care? (more…)

DON’T FEED THE BIG BAD WOLF! (June 13, 2016)

Robert and Maureen McQuillan share a terrific little anecdote…

A great biblical truth for Christians, particularly those in ministry, is conveyed in this old story. A well-known tale, it’s been handed down over the years, even Googled … just don’t miss the point!

The two wolves within
One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about life and a battle that goes on inside people. (more…)

BEING DEFINITELY COMMITTED, DEFIANTLY RESISTANT AND PRAYERFULLY OUTREACHING (June 11, 2016)

James Boyd encourages Christian character commitment and community caring:

I was struck when I misspelled the word ‘definitely’ the other day and the auto-correct tried to get me to use ‘defiantly!’

The difference between these two words is immense – definitely ‘being certain of something’ and defiantly ‘being resistant of something.’

Certainty and resistance
There’s a lesson here: As we walk the Christian path often these two words meet in our journey. Having faith means that we can be… (more…)

GOD’S MYSTERIOUS WAYS (June 4, 2016)

Robert and Maureen McQuillan remind us that we don’t know everything … but that God does!

Experienced those moments when we want to ask God, ‘Why?’ or ‘What’s going on?’ or ‘How come you answered my prayer as you did, not how I had prayed and expected?’

Did you get an answer? Or did you come to the conclusion that it’s better to appreciate and enjoy the benefits than to query God about his ways?

God is God!
The reality is that often we’re so caught up with asking (in faith and trust which is good and necessary, of course!) and expecting God to bring about the answer exactly how we asked. And we forget that he is God who sees everything beyond the box and knows what the best course of action should be! (more…)

WHAT ON EARTH IS HAPPENING IN THE WORLD? (June 2, 2016)

Dr Jim McClure, noted theologian, calls for a Christian counterculture in today’s crazy world…

What a wonderful world this could be! There are many things for which we can be grateful, so many benefits that we can enjoy as we live in the 21st century. But …there is also a darker side!

How things have changed in recent decades! In today’s topsy-turvy world solid moral values, which have stood the test of time, have been turned upside-down. In the name of political correctness decency, sound ethics, common sense and free speech have been sacrificed.

Consequently a spirit of depravity, deceit, confusion and misrepresentation has been sweeping through the world. (more…)

THE BUZZ (June 2, 2016)