salvation

DIVINE, NOT FAITH, HEALING!

(February 14, 2022) Robert McQuillan shares…

Personally, I strongly believe in God’s power to heal whoever calls on Him when sickness strikes.

It used to be common that Christians testified on Sundays about having asked God for healing and how He had answered them! They wanted to share how trusting God and His word had resulted. But for many years trendy music, overdone announcements and tithing mini-sermons have been more important!

Today, in many churches it’s a rarity to invite slickly people to respond to an altar call for prayer in respect of needed miracles.

Don’t church leaders believe in the power of God’s word regarding healing? Have they forgotten how to pray with confidence? Has the great truth of divine, not faith, healing by God’s power been forgotten, no longer understood?

Positive power words
Maureen and I delight to pray positively for sickly folk, having experienced several divine healings – and miracles – ourselves over a lifetime.

Example: Years ago we were asked to teach a church camp about healing and praying for the sick. But… Friday I suddenly developed a severely sore throat, and couldn’t talk.

Now I could have phoned and hoarsely whispered a negative ‘I can’t come Saturday.’ But I didn’t. Instead we stayed overnight enroute with good friends who made me a cosy bed on a comfortable couch before a roaring log fire. Feeling so ill, I enjoyed a hot drink, sucked honey and relaxed.

Appreciating the comforts, I prayed positively to God, asking in Jesus’ name that He graciously heal me, confirming that I trusted Him to restore me. Even claimed a healing scripture that means so much to me… 1 Peter 2:24b: ‘By His wounds (stripes) you have been healed,’ and endeavoured to fall asleep.

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HARVEST – A TIME FOR REFLECTION

(October 21, 2021) Brian Bell reflects …

As Moses approached the end of his earthly life, he reminded God’s people about the festival of harvest (Deuteronomy 16:10) which was one of the three festivals they were to celebrate each year. These festivals were an opportunity for God’s people to reflect, remember and recognise the Lord’s blessing on them.

Here in Northern Ireland, ‘Harvest Sunday’ is for the most part, still a fairly traditional celebration, usually in the colder, wetter, and darker months of September and October and held especially for folk in our farming/agricultural communities.

God’s handiwork
Last Sunday, October 17, we celebrated harvest in my home church and while we would not be described as being folk who live in a designated farming/agricultural community, some of our folk do come from such backgrounds. The church sanctuary was therefore modestly yet tastefully decorated and as I looked at the various displays they reminded me not only of the harvest of creation – fruit, vegetables, and such, but also of the harvest of salvation.

For me, the harvest of creation can be seen in the words of David J Mansell’s song Jesus is Lord which say, ‘Jesus is Lord, creation’s voice proclaims it, for by his power, each tree and flower was planned and made.’

Creation is God’s handiwork – but he has given us a fairly significant role in managing it and we see this in the rewards as we reap what is sown.

The harvest of salvation is also God’s handiwork. As the good seed of God’s word is sown, the Holy Spirit can lead people into a saving experience and he reaps a harvest of those who respond in faith.

This theme of reflection is also found in Jeremiah chapter 8, from which I will share some brief thoughts…

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SALVATION – WHAT AN INEXHAUSTIBLE MINE OF TREASURE!

(August 28, 2021) Dr Jim McClure, noted theologian, explains an important aspect of the Christian faith…

The Hebrew and Greek words of scripture are like inexhaustible mines and one finds new treasures each time the words are examined. 

I have selected an important one to reveal just some amazing truths – salvation.

Firstly – by way of introduction, salvation as found in the Old Testament is a great salvation – ‘yasha.’

The Hebrew word moshia, which is usually translated as ‘saviour’ in the Old Testament, comes from the Hebrew root yasha, which has been translated as avenge, defend, deliver, help, preserve, rescue, and save, has the meanings of opening wide, being large in capacity, living in abundance, being free, safe, helped, rescued, victorious and being made whole.

It is a word that contains amazing riches and is found around 180 times in the Old Testament.  When we consider that in the New Testament the noun Saviour, sōtēr, is found 24 times and the verb sōzō meaning to save, deliver, heal or make whole is found 110 times, it becomes evident that not only does the Bible say a lot about salvation – it is scripture’s dominant theme.

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WHY MISSIONS IS PERSONAL TO ME

(July 23, 2021) Erica Grace, ex-missionary to South America, shares a personal reflection…

What comes to your mind when you hear the word ‘Missions’?

You’ll probably say: the ‘lost’ and that would be right.

A lost man
There was a young man who was totally lost.

He had lost his career, his home, his future, his dreams. He was so lost people had given up on him. He drank himself to oblivion every day and often had wild fits of violence. Friends would bring him to his desperate wife each night, where she would endure his frustrating beatings. She had resorted to hiding money so she would have enough to feed her son.

One night this wild he met a humble missionary. He was reading the story of the Prodigal Son with a very heavy accent.

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A CRIPPLE IN THE CASTLE

(March 25, 2018) Ben Godwin reminds us of Easter realities as he shares a king’s goodness toward a troubled young man…

The news spread rapidly. Israel had suffered a devastating defeat. King Saul and his son, Jonathan, had been slain in battle by the Philistines.

It was common in ancient regime changes to execute all the royal family to eliminate any heirs to the throne and a nurse acted quickly.

Terrified, she scooped up a five-year-old prince to whisk him to safety. But in her haste she stumbled,  dropping the boy… and unfortunately both his legs were broken. Consequently, Mephibosheth, Jonathan’s son, was lame the rest of his life.

Mephibosheth is a fitting type of the human race – he was of a royal line but crippled by a fall. 

Years later, during his reign as king, David wondered, ‘Is there still anyone who is left of the house of Saul, that I may show him kindness for Jonathan’s sake?’ (2 Samuel 9:1 NKJV). He was told Mephibosheth was living like a pauper in an obscure town called Lodebar.

Lodebar means ‘without pasture or barren place.’ That describes our spiritual condition before we met our heavenly king! Life without God is a barren wilderness. Nothing can satisfy the hole in our soul that only he can fill.

David, a type of Christ, gave this maimed man four things which God has also given to us: (more…)

‘THE PENTECOSTAL BAPTIST’!

(June 1, 2017) Stuart Reynolds shares a revelation…

From the presumed monopoly by denominations to the limits of our clever labelling, the Holy Spirit has been hijacked and sabotaged!

The sharp-sighted evangelist Vance Havner described the result of this misunderstanding, mishandling and misapplication: ‘Satan has scored a point in making us so afraid of extremism about the Holy Spirit…that we may miss the true in our fear of the false. We can be so wary of getting out on a limb that we never go up the tree!’

We need to let the Holy Spirit be himself, and that we may become and do all we were intended to.

May I introduce you to ‘The Pentecostal Baptist’ – someone the Bible records having these Holy Spirit credentials: ‘Though John never performed a miraculous sign, all that John said about this man was true.’  And in that place many believed in Jesus’ (John 10:41-42, NIV).

1) An inviting clarification
We believe in ‘full salvation.’ The reality of God in the gospel of Christ is radical – God’s book teaches it…truly knowing Jesus Christ demands it…the presence of the Holy Spirit enables it. (more…)

WHICH JESUS DO YOU WANT?

(April 8, 2017) Chris Pick, Special to ASSIST News Service shares an Easter reflection…

Let’s go back in our hearts to that Black Friday nearly two thousand years ago. The Roman Governor Pontius Pilate presented before the crowd two men: One man named Barabbas and the other Jesus. Pilate declared: ‘It is your custom that I free one prisoner to you at Passover! Which do you choose?’

‘Give us Barabbas!’ the angry mob cried.

Why did the crowd choose this man over the Messiah? What did they expect?

One was a sinner – one was sinless but chose to become sin
It is quite possible that Pilate presented before the crowd two men named Jesus. Some scholars believed Barabbas’ real name was ‘Jesus Barabbas.’ The Greek scholar and early Christian theologian Origen found many early manuscripts of Matthew 27:16-17 which referred to Barabbas as ‘Jesus Barabbas.’ And the name ‘Jesus’ was a common name in first-century Galilee.

So, if Barabbas’ first name was Jesus, then the question could be rephrased, ‘Which Jesus do you choose?’ It’s a question that can still be asked today as we are presented with so many different ‘Jesus’ figures globally. To some, he is a great teacher. To some, a prophet. To some, he is God’s son. To some, a mere man. And sadly to some, just a myth. (more…)

DARE TO BOLDLY GO WHERE NO ONE HAS GONE BEFORE…

Dr Robert & Maureen (2)(March 6, 2017) Robert and Maureen McQuillan reminisce and share a challenge to dare …

An article in a magazine about movies/TV shows/comic characters grabbed our attention last week –taking us back to the fifties, yet speaking about a real need today!

In a day when some serious-minded Christians, including church leaders, are saying that we need a fresh revival, here was an article by the delighted editor about another revival, that of the renowned 1950s British comic book hero – Dan Dare.

encouragement-03-17a

 

First Eagle, April 14, 1950

Okay… many, especially our younger generation and non-Brits will wonder who’s he? Who was Dan Dare? This editor (not an aged senior, by the  way!) stated it simply – ‘Before there was the science fiction Quartermass, before Doctor Who, before … there was Colonel Dan Dare – Pilot of the Future.

Boldly going places
We can easily add that decades before Star Trek and the Klingons or Star Wars and Dark Vader, there was Dan Dare and his arch-nemesis, the evil reptile-looking Mekon of Mekonta, ruler of the Treens! Decades before James T Kirk ever declared the Enterprise’s mission to ‘boldly go where no man has gone before’ we who were kids in the fifties can reflect and boldly declare that Dan Dare has been there, done that! (more…)

A LIVING HOPE

George Forbes 2010(January 11, 2017) Missionary statesman Dr George Forbes reminds us of a fundamental truth…

Our world is full of people who have no hope!

There are multiplied reasons for this tragedy; however my purpose is not to describe the hopelessness, but to share the reality that there is hope.

Christians have a living hope
The hope of Christians worldwide is based on God’s love and amazing mercy; on the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and on the plan of salvation for all who believe.

If you need hope, if you’re asking questions about life and the unknown future, I invite you to consider what the apostle Peter wrote.  It is found in chapter three of his first letter to the churches. Here are the words he wrote, translated faithfully and clearly in English…

‘Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy has regenerated us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and unfading, reserved in heaven for you by the power of God, having been kept through faith to a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time’ (1Peter 1:3-5). (more…)

ACTIVE FAITH

George Forbes 2010(December 12, 2016) Missionary statesman Dr George Forbes reminds us that wherever we live, we must be active Christians…

‘Faith is daring the soul to go beyond what the eyes can see!’

I came across this powerful saying in a great little booklet titled, God’s Little Instruction Book. It tends to stick in one’s mind as it encapsulates a fundamental truth.

We know that God’s word declares that…

  • ‘Without faith it is impossible to please God!’
  • It is not possible to be a Christian without faith.
  • It is equally impossible to live the life of a believer without believing.

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