John 14:16

ALL OF A SUDDEN— WITHOUT WARNING!

(June 06, 2023) Robert McQuillan shares… and challenges!

‘Without warning’ sounds like some disaster has happened suddenly! No… I’m not going to tell you about something terrible about to occur, but remind you of something wonderful that came out-of-the-blue and is still changing the lives of so many. Something that happened suddenly— and in the most unusual way!

It’s Penetostal Sunday tomorrow, a day that is traditionally recognised and celebrated with joy by many churches worldwide, particularly Pentecostal and charismatic ones. Indeed pastors of these churches and their congregations use to expect ‘fresh moves of the Holy Spirit.’ Sermons would highlight the gift and blessings of the Holy Spirit… prophetic words would flow, people would be prayed for, healings would occur, reassurances would come to trouble hearts… and more! Sadly such prominence and expectation for Pentecostal Sunday has dwindled.

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GIFT OF THE PRINCE OF PEACE!

(December 08, 2023) Angeline Selvakumari shares good points…

Ever since I was a child, Christmas has always held a special place in my heart. It brings indescribable joy. When I was young, we didn’t have enough money to buy new clothes or gifts, or to decorate the house with fancy colored paper or lights. We lived in a small one-bedroom house with limited food, but… my parents always found ways to make our childhood beautiful and meaningful.

My brother and I are forever grateful for their efforts. It was an amazing time! Visiting grandparents, meeting cousins, going to church early in the morning with sleepy eyes, eagerly waiting to eat a delicious lunch with the whole family gathered around, playing games, and even the occasional sibling squabble – all these things made those days truly beautiful.

Even now, every year, the scent of candles, aroma of cookies, twinkling decorative lights, and the chilly wind, along with heartwarming carols, bring back great memories.

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DEADEND, DETOUR, DRYHOLE DILEMMAS

(June 9, 2022) Richard Winter reminds us that God has purposes for such dilemmas…

Do you identify with the following? You believe God is in charge of everything and that He’s leading you to heaven. But… just when you think life is going to be easy, it seems as though you’ve hit a dead end, or you seem to be taking a detour when you wanted to go right from your problem to your blessing!

You hit a dryhole, a dilemma.

Ring a bell? If so, remember that the Israelites had this problem too and they came through.

Israel was captive in Egypt and God was going to deliver them to the promised land. Oh they had the promise… but God’s deliverance was not the way they expected things to happen (Exodus 14:8-12)! They hit a dead end, encountered a detour! The reality is that God’s dead ends, detours and dryholes are not mistakes but –

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GOD SHOWED UP!

(November 13, 2019) Robert and Maureen McQuillan encourage expectation of the unexpected…

Remember the ‘The Spirit showed up!’ catchcry of a few decades ago when the Holy Spirit had freedom to move in any meeting he chose… and did?

A catchcry, yes, but an acknowledgement that God had moved in the church service and blessed his people through supernatural actions by his Holy Spirit! And Jesus was glorified.

At times it seemed that if the blessed Holy Spirit hadn’t ‘showed up’ the pastor, Bible teacher, evangelist, guest speaker or whoever would have floundered over whatever he or she was presenting!

And also at times, it all seemed a big surprise when the Spirit ‘did show up’ and a miracle or a healing happened, or prophetic words and words of knowledge were uttered (spoken genuinely and meaningfully!) and a wonderful dimension of heavenly bliss descended.

Others sayings come to mind… for example, ‘God shows up when you least expect it’ and ‘Everything was lost but out of the blue God showed up and saved the day.’

Yes we confess that we too have used the ‘God showed up’ expression… but only in the sense of acknowledging and confirming that God the Holy Spirit had done something wonderful, not us or any church leader or preacher alone.

Actually the reality of church life is that we should always be expecting the all-powerful third person of the Godhead to ‘show up’ with power at every meeting, not just Sunday morning, and bless us as we worship our Saviour Jesus and exalt our heavenly Father. (more…)