faith

OVERCOMING TEMPTATIONS — THE JESUS WAY

(October 27, 2024) Dr Richard Winter shares great encouragements …

My other article this month (Can Satan Read our-Minds) highlights Satan’s awareness of three human traits that he can trouble us with— tendencies, temperaments and temptations.

Below we will consider overing temptations the Jesus way… and to start I ask a question: Have you ever been tempted by the devil? Naturally I’m expecting you to retort ‘Yes! Haven’t you?’ Of course I have, we all have! But have you ever seriously reflected on the incident of our Saviour being strongly tempted by Satan for 40 days… and how He overcame him?

Let’s look at three of those many temptations aimed at Jesus, surreptitiously disputing God’s word of provision, promise and protection!

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PRECIOUS ARE THE GIFTS OF THE SPIRIT

(September 28, 2024) Dr Robert McQuillan shares…

Dear Robert

So sorry to hear that you went  through such agonies with your toe (Trusting the Holy Spirit in Painful Times). What a lovely testimony to the gift of tongues. We’re sure that like ourselves you have encountered many people for whom a prayer in tongues was actually a known language. We rate that precious gift very highly! Thank you, Lord. Bless you for all your work and ministry. Norman and Margaret. 

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HONOUR THE LORD – RECEIVE HIS BLESSINGS

(April 20, 2024) Norman and Margaret Moss reflect on receiving blessings from God…

Young authors who submitted their stories to the BBC’s 500 words competition were honoured recently at the Grand Final in Buckingham Palace. One of the winners in the age 5-7 group said that the Queen had touched him twice on the shoulder while talking to him.

His brother had said, ‘That means you’re a knight!’ Well not yet! Maybe later… who can tell!

But here’s something we can tell… God’s blessings overflow when we honour Him!

Honouring God
We were meditating on Exodus 20:24, ‘Wherever I cause my name to be honoured I will come to you and bless you’ and we felt the Lord was saying –

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YEARNING FOR THE LORD

(March 06, 2024) Norman and Margaret Moss reflect on some good news…

Margaret enjoyed her school days. I did not. So I truly know what it is to yearn for the holidays.

‘Yearn’… a feeling of intense longing for something.

Someone commenting on Job 19 wrote that Job had a gut-wrenching longing to see God, and we were led to meditate on verses 25-27 –

‘I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see Him with my own eyes – I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!’

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RECOGNISE YOUR BATTLEFIELD!

(November 19, 2023) Angeline Selvakumari shares important points…

Going to visit a friend recently I was relying on Google Maps for directions but ended up getting lost! Admittedly GM was trying to guide me on the best route, but it was not ideal and I found myself going in circles and beginning to lose patience.

While waiting unsure at a traffic light, I asked a cyclist in front of me for directions. To my relief, he offered to lead the way. I decided to completely ignore my navigation system because I had confidence in the person I was following. He knew the way very well having been there before.

It was such a relief to have someone to rely on for guidance!

  • Have you ever wished that you had someone like this to navigate your life?
  • Someone who could make tough, complex decisions on your behalf, and all you had to do was follow?
  • Christians have someone like that— Jesus. He knows our past, present, and even our future.

Jesus has been to our tomorrows already. He knows everything even before it happens to us. This is because He chose us before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4) and has a beautiful plan for each of us.

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DESPERATE? DON’T PANIC!

(May 13, 2023) Mama Lava caringly shares a great truth…

Desperation will cause us to do crazy things! I have an embarrassing, but poignant, case in point.

Remember when Covid first hit? I saw an opportunity to do something I’d been wanting to do for a long time. I would begin baking my own bread. Not only would it be healthier than the alternative, but it would also save money and trips to the grocer. If you remember, the lines outside stores were long and cold, as they allowed only a few people in at a time.

I already had the ingredients I needed. Well, all except one. I needed yeast.

But… my grocery store didn’t have any. I realised many people were thinking like I was, spurred by the fact that bread had become difficult to find. The shelf was completely bare, and there was no assurance it would be restocked any time soon.

I went to Amazon for yeast. Also sold out? Interesting! I looked at my Sam’s Club (warehouse club for wholesale prices on top brands) app. They didn’t have any either. I started to panic a bit.

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DARE TO SAY, ‘YES, LORD!’

(April 28, 2023) Robert and Maureen McQuillan share…

Over the years you’ve probably heard how certain Christians heard the Holy Spirit’s whisper and responded to some calling from God. How the Lord has used their response for His kingdom, let alone a local church.

Like C.T. Studd the great British cricketer who gave up everything to become a pioneering missionary to China, Africa and India… because he’d heard from God he responded, ‘If Jesus Christ be God and died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for Him.’

Maybe you also heard about someone who didn’t respond and missed out.

We would dare you to believe that the Holy Spirit is ‘for real’ and wants to use you in different ways to share God’s goodness with needy folk.

Now we won’t hear God thundering from heaven these days (well… probably not until we meet our Lord in glory – Revelation 12:10, 14:2). Rather we can learn to discern the Holy Spirit’s gentle leading, like a whisper in our ear, in our inner being.

Dare be listening
Heard experienced servants of Jesus speak about ‘that quiet voice’, directing about something current or soon to be? Prompting some decision-making?

Our own experience has been that it is always wise to respond to that ‘still small voice’ heard by Elijah (1Kings 19:12), that ‘gentle whisper’(NIV), ‘quiet, subdued voice’(CJB).

Yes, there are times when that sacred voice seems a mere whisper from heaven, but you can know that you know that you know it’s God. But note: This ‘knowing’ comes about through having developed a close relationship with the blessed Holy Spirit – that great friend whom Jesus promised in John 14:16NRiV.

As we discover more about the Spirit in scripture, how He spoke to and guided the early church, and we commit to kingdom service, we will know in our heart that He’s there for us! Jesus promised this when He talked about this great friend: ‘He will guide you into all the truth… and He will tell you what is yet to come’ (John 16:14), that ‘the Spirit will receive from me what He will make known to you’(v15). 

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PENTECOSTAL CHURCHES QUERIES

 

(March 28, 2023) Dr Robert McQuillan shares thoughts on this query…

Dr Robert
It’s been quite some years since we attended a pentecostal church having moved interstate and not finding one in the new city we moved to. Having recently moved again, we found a few in our new home town. But we’ve been surprised to find no one speaking in tongues during the service in any church we visited. I mean, we were always used to free flowing worship and towards the end someone (even up to three) would speak in tongues and someone would bring the interpretation. It was always an encouraging time, even if some challenge came through.

Also, at some point, usually after the announcements, the pastor would ask if anyone had a testimony to share, and usually two or three people would indicate that they had. And it was a time of joy and clapping of hands unto the Lord as people willingly came to the front and testified how God had blessed them in answering prayer.

But we haven’t come across this happening in any of the pentecostal churches we’ve visited. Doesn’t this happen anymore in pentecostal churches? Sarah.

Hi Sarah

I’m sorry to say that I too have noticed this for many, many years in pentecostal churches visited. Nor have I observed pentie pastors sharing prophetic messages or words of knowledge! Altar calls for prayer healing, yes. Sad really as I know the blessing speaking in tongues, followed by interpretation (as in 1 Corinthians 12:10) brought to hearts, as did prophetic words! I can well recall when Maureen and I would be ministering in certain pentecostal churches and would speak words of knowledge over certain people, the congregations rejoiced. But afterwards some pastors would ask in wonder, ‘How did you know (such and such) about “So and So”?’

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NEHEMIAH – GOD’S CALL TO BUILD THE WALL (Part 6)

(August 30, 2022) Hope Flinchbaugh shares some more insights about Nehemiah’s wall- building journey, bringing a challenge to leadership!

The heart of this month’s part six is A Leader’s Faith for Finances.

My friend, whatever God calls us to do will require faith in some realm or another because without faith it is impossible to please him. God looks for faith in action and leaders should be setting examples!

Let’s give God what is due Him and offer your faith, not your friends’ or your congregation’s wallets, in respect of the project in front of you.

God is the supplier of needs
Let me pause here and talk to all of us with platforms and microphones in churches! God called Nehemiah to lead to rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem. As a leader, if we’re feeling a twinge of guilt about asking for another offering, we need to talk to God. God never ever said that the church would pay our way, He said that He would supply all of our needs.

If you’re feeling a twinge of guilt, stop right there. Don’t take one more offering until God’s leading you to do it. Talk about a leap of faith.

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SO WHAT ARE YOU DOING?

(July 12, 2022) Richard Winter brings a timely challenge…

History records both good and bad times that humanity lives through! And we don’t need anyone to tell us that were living in difficult days today… we know! Indeed, bad times these days offer us a perspective of worse times to come!

This was true in the times of Jesus too! And one day He gave His disciples ‘a scripture memory test’ about Noah’s times, linking it to the end of time and His return from heaven.

Most people know the story of Noah and the ark Jesus referred to. Indeed everyone should take note of His Matthew 24:37-38 warning, ‘As it was in the days of Noah, so will it be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying, and giving in marriage, up to the day that Noah entered into the ark, and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood took them all away.’

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