Matthew 28:19-20

MANDATE MINISTRIES UPDATE

(January 30, 2025) Editorial notation:

It’s been a delight to regularly feature the missionary ministry of Ross and Donna Winchester, Mandate Ministries— their Chiang Mai, northern Thailand and Myanmar ministry— and to advise updates regarding Ross’ health challenges.

Despite not being unwell he and Donna had returned to Thailand last month to encourage those who shared in the ministry, as well as church leaders. Unfortunately they had return to Australia December 28.

His natural family— and broader denomation family— have shared the following sad news… reminding us of the good news that Ross is with the Lord, the one he loved, served and shared.

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THE POWER OF PENTECOST

(May 17, 2024) Dr Jim McClure shares …

Pentecost has often been described as the ‘Birthday of the Church.’  Why? Because Pentecost was the day when the mission of the church was born.

The first Christian Pentecost was a hugely dramatic occasion. ‘Suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance’ (Acts 2:2-4).

Pentecost was not just a random, revival-type experience for those first Christians – it was a fulfilling of Christ’s promise to His disciples, ‘When the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of me’ (John 15:26 NJKV). The Greek word translated here as ‘Helper’ literally means ‘one called alongside.’  The Holy Spirit walks alongside us in our journey through life.

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SOWING AND REAPING FOR GOD – SEVEN LAWS OF HARVESTING

 

(February 15, 2024) Richard Winter challenges…

Many times you will hear preachers begin some point with ‘Jesus said…’

The truth is that Jesus said a lot of things!

  • Some were direct commandments, such as ‘Leave your boats and follow me’ (Matthew 4:18–22).
  • Some were instructions, such as ‘Worship God only and serve people’ (Matthew 22:37-39).
  • Some were easy to understand… and some were hard.

To help His hearers understand things, Jesus often took an event from life that everyone should be able to comprehend and see the spiritual application. These have been recorded as short teaching parables… earthly lessons with a heavenly application.

But… did listeners always comprehend?  
Take Matthew 13:3 for example – ‘… He told them many things in parables, saying: “A farmer went out to sow his seed.”’ Then He tells the parable of seed sowing concluding with this challenge, ‘Are you listening to this? Really listening?’ (Matthew 13:9Mge).

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LET’S NOT TWIST AGAIN!

(January 14, 2024) Dr Richard Winter shares about Jesus’ second temptation…

Music changed when I was a young person –

  • Country became R & B.
  • R & B became Rock and Roll.
  • New music and new names came quickly to us.

New dances were invented – you may remember The Mashed Potato, The Watusi, The Freddie. Come on… I know you remember these dances. And nobody will ever forget The Twist.

Remember Chubby Checker and how we were all invited to ‘Twist again… Round and round and up and down we go…’

That may not be a dance today but twisting actually happens with many people when they misuse God’s word –

  • Twisting it!
  • Turning it around!
  • Moving it in many directions!

When I lived in Missouri we knew we lived in the Tornado Alley – tornadoes would tear through the Midwest. TV and radio would quickly inform you of coming danger, to get under cover quickly!

So today while others may be twisting merrily to music, some Christians are living in some ‘spiritual Tornado Alley’ and I would like to give some warnings about God’s word being tornadoed.

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THE ‘OTHERS CAN BUT YOU CAN’T’ CHALLENGE!

(May 6, 2021) Robert and Maureen McQuillan reflect…

Sunday May 23 this year is regarded by many churches as Pentecost Sunday, especially Holy Spirit-filled ones, celebrating the outpouring of God’s Spirit on those humble first disciples.

Since that Acts 2 experience the church has grown – about 2.6 billion adherents globally in early 2020. Testimonies, Christian books, even secular encyclopedic history, record demonstrations of Holy Spirit assistance, miracles, emboldened men and women anointed by him to move in the Spirit and speak forth genuine prophecy, words of knowledge and wisdom, cast out demons… and more!

Praise God for churches that have been open to the Holy Spirit… and for individuals who have been bold in allowing the Spirt to use them to brighten darkened lives. But… sadly, many churches, many bold Christians have not been regarded or respected for their service (See Erica Grace’s heart-touching April article True Fruit – From Unsung Heroes).

The reality is that it isn’t always been easy to be bold for Jesus and allow the Spirit to take one down a different road to others… yet remaining humble and down-to-earth!  Indeed, for all of us, there is the constant challenge to allow the Holy Spirit to keep us under control so that we don’t get bigheaded and move beyond our station – unless of course it’s God directed, and he gets the glory in all that’s achieved for the kingdom.

The challenge
Such recollecting reminds us that some 40 years we came across the following challenge by the late Bill Britton, entitled Others May, You Cannot)… still fresh, challenging, and meaningful, especially if you’re sold out to the ministry call of Christ on your life.

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PREMA – A MEANINGFUL ENCOUNTER   

(February 07, 2021) Erica Grace, ex-missionary to South America, recalls a memorable Holy Spirit-blessed occasion and encourages us to sensitive to others…

Prema (not real name) first caught my attention when, through an interpreter, I was speaking to students in India about creation and marriage, and how God had made everything perfect.

Meaningful news
When I began teaching about Eve and why God made her and how special her creation was, I noticed a spotlight over Prema’s face; she was beaming, and the rest of the class was a blur.

In a culture where girls are second class citizens, she was hearing good news and was furiously taking notes as fast as I was speaking.

When my class finished, we began pairing off with someone and praying for each other, and I went looking for Prema. On finding her, we just stood facing each other and just smiled; then I took her hands and began to pray for her.

Meaningful prayer
Suddenly, she pulled me to herself and began to pray and weep – so here we were, neither one knowing what the other was saying, but feeling remarkably close as the Holy Spirit was ministering to both of us. We were both a blubbering mess, crying and praying on each other’s shoulders! (more…)

GOD’S INDISPENSABLE GIFT TO HIS CHURCH

(May 20, 2020) Dr Jim McClure, straight shooting theologian, shares some great Pentecostal insights …

Let me share with you a few recent experiences.

Something missing…

  1. As I was typing this article on my computer today, it suddenly shut down in mid-sentence. That was a little frustrating but after I plugged in the charger, the computer reopened and enabled me to complete the article.
  2. A friend’s mobile phone, which she had had for a number of years, decided that it had worked long enough. It was out of energy! I helped her to buy a new phone and restored the information from her old one. Now she can confidently phone her friends – and play ‘Words with Friends’ – without the fear of a black screen suddenly appearing.
  3. A few weeks ago I got into my car, turned the ignition key – and nothing happened! No noise from the starter motor. No ignition lights on the dashboard. Nothing but silence! I had accidentally left my car door open a little for a couple of days and the battery had drained.  Fortunately a friend came to my rescue with a battery charger and soon the car was on the road again.

Dynamite power source!
The similar factor in the above accounts is obvious – that my computer, my friend’s mobile phone and my car failed to work because their power source was missing! (more…)

JUST HANGING AROUND?

(March 04, 2020) Robert and Maureen McQuillan challenge encouragingly…

Chatting to friends recently about churches growing in 2020 once again raised the issue of everyone being involved; that we all need to get back to grass-roots discipleship of sharing our faith/ testimony every opportunity that comes our way.

That neither pastor nor pastoral team alone can fully build the local church!

But… the challenge in this ever-so-busy-lifestyle-packed age is: ‘Are we open to the Holy Spirit’s leading to take those opportunities?’

A memory flooded back to me (Robert)… I was in a church office awaiting someone coming for counselling and time was getting on. I had turned to gaze through the tall, wide windows onto the pleasant garden outside when the youth pastor happened by. Stopping, he commented, ‘For some strange reason, Robert, I had the impression you were casually hanging round, waiting for a train!’

Hanging around…
I had smiled. Unexpectedly a line from David Meece’s Gospel Train hit me… ‘All aboard for the gospel train, my seat’s reserved, and my ticket’s paid.’

Then a picture – one of many Christians from different churches waiting at a station called The Church, all confident that they were all okay and would definitely be on board when that ‘good old gospel train to heaven’ eventually came along.

But… they were just standing there… hanging around ‘that’ station – doing nothing, going nowhere. (more…)

THE LABOURERS ARE STILL TOO FEW

(February 4, 2020) Dr George Forbes, missionary statesman, reminds us of Jesus’ ongoing challenge …

As I keep myself abreast of world of missions, missionaries and their activities – and follow world news reports, I’m reminded that the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20) must be uppermost in our minds. That the theme of missions – sharing the gospel to the whole world – must never be forgotten or downgraded in our minds, nor in any church program.

In fact this vital charge given by the Lord Jesus to the early disciples was by extension to everyone who converts to Christ ie… to the church.

This means that every church member, every follower of Christ, has a responsibility to assist with this great task.

‘Missions’ is not only for…

  • Those called to life service as missionaries (international workers are they now called)
  • Church planting missionaries
  • Bible teaching missionaries
  • Linguists and –
  • What’s been termed ‘Specialised Missionaries’.

Although much has been achieved by mission organisations and missions over the centuries, the reality is that there is still much to do! Yet the labourers – missionaries – are still too few and money for missions is too limited!

Advancing the kingdom in 2020
As a major task given to the church, missions – the Great Commission – must be fulfilled by the church. (more…)

‘AMEN’ (AND OTHER MEANINGFUL WORDS)…

(December 14, 2019) Robert and Maureen McQuillan share Christmas and beyond-centred thoughts…

Had interesting phone calls last week from Israel – very early in the morning(!) being evening up there – from a Bible college in Jerusalem inviting me (Robert) to be involved in one of its language programs.

That’s timely, I thought, especially as a Middle-Eastern church had recently suggested I take on the deanship of a proposed Bible college and I was aware that language knowledge/interpretation would be involved there too. In both cases understanding and explaining certain words would be important; especially as some countries’ grammar is limited whereas English is so expansive!

That affirmative ‘Amen’
Now Hebrew is the language most commonly used in everyday life in Israel and this Israeli lady (let’s just call her Sarah) asked me if I knew what certain biblical words really meant in modern everyday Hebrew language. I didn’t have a chance to say anything for she promptly reeled off ‘Do you know what “Amen” really means, Dr Robert?’ And before I could say that I did, ‘Sarah’ went into an in-depth explanation… to which I quickly got in an ‘Amen’ indicating my agreement.

Some people have wrongly considered the word to indicate a soft, quiet ‘Selah-type pause’ or merely the right thing to say after prayers… but it’s actually quite a strong word, meaning ‘to agree.’

It’s a declaration of affirmation, used colloquially to express strong agreement, thus affirming that we firmly believe in what has just been said.

For example the ’Amen’ of the great commission of Matthew 28:19-20 indicates vigorously agreeing with Jesus to get the gospel ‘out there.

That popular ‘Noel’
Of course one thing leads to another!  Later we were tinkering with our new versatile Google Home musical unit and heard the most beautiful rendition of that well-loved The First Noel Christmas carol. (more…)