Archive for October, 2013
Posted by appolus on October 31, 2013
Do you know what is wrong with us as a Church today? We are taking ourselves for granted. We are assuming that which may not be true at all; that which is founded upon wishful hoping and not upon sound Biblical experience in many cases. We have not been disturbed enough. We have not allowed God to plough furrows on our backs. We have not dared to go before God and have the examination made. We are afraid of what God will find , and we would rather wait. Therefore we have waited and settled down.
There has always been a small remnant and they have been in the midst of all the rest. A million might wish with their lips and worship with their lips, but only a small fragment truly worship in their hearts in a way that honors and pleases God. We do not need to imagine it as an indication of vast spiritual or high degree of holiness when we see a church door open and multitudes spew out on the sidewalk. Follow them home. Follow them a half a block and see how they live. That is the way to tell. “Wherefore by their fruits you shall know them’( Matt 7:20)
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Posted by appolus on October 31, 2013
“If we are thrown into the blazing furnace,” they said, “the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up” (Daniel 3:17-18).
Above is either side of the one coin of faith. You cannot have one without the other. If your faith relies on a positive outcome then what you have is positive thinking, not faith. If on the other hand you have counted the cost and are willing to praise God no matter what comes your way, you have found true faith. Everything must be unconditional, including our faith.
Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, end times, faith, Jesus, pentecostal, revival, the state of the church, theology | Tagged: positive thinking, true faith | Leave a Comment »
Posted by appolus on October 30, 2013
Many times in my Christian life I have run from God. Let me explain that. In some of my toughest trials, my tendency is to present a ” stiff upper lip,” as they say in Britain. To stand stoically and unmovable in the midst of trial. While some of this is positive, standing firm and all that, the weakness is in the ” shutting down,” emotionally and becoming detached as a way of dealing with problems. Problem is, to do this, one becomes detached from the presence of the living God, the very cure for a heart turned cold. In those times, sometimes weeks or months, my God has never failed to come looking for me. He should not have to come look for me, but He does. This is the synopsis of the poem below.
Why is it, in some of my roughest times
I run from You?
Frank my child, I call to you
Will you come to me?
I come to You, I run to You
I’m coming in from the cold
My hands held high, my heart opened wide
Here in your presence with nowhere left to hide
Sometimes life just beats you down
And comes against your very soul
Wave after wave they keep on coming
Surviving one more day becomes your only goal
I come to You, I run to You
I’m coming in from the cold
My hands held high, my heart opened wide
Here in your presence with nowhere left to hide
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Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, poetry, revival, the state of the church, theology | 2 Comments »
Posted by appolus on October 29, 2013
PROPHETIC WORD FROM 50 YEARS AGO – A. W. TOZER
“Let me go out on a limb a little bit and prophesy. I see the time coming
when all the holy men whose eyes have been opened by the Holy Spirit will
desert worldly Evangelicalism, one by one. The house will be left desolate
and there will not be a man of God, a man in whom the Holy Spirit dwells,
left among them.
I hear Jesus saying…Mat 23:37-38: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one killing
the prophets and stoning those who are sent to her, how often would I have
gathered your children together, even as a hen gathers her chicks under her
wings, and you would not! Behold, your house is left to you desolate”
As the Church now stands, the man who sees this condition of worldly
evangelicalism is written off as somewhat fanatical. But the day is coming
when the house will be left desolate and there will not be a man of God
among them. I would like to live long enough to watch this develop and see
how things turn out. I would like to live to see the time when the men and
woman of God-holy, separated and spiritually enlightened-walk out of the
evangelical church and form a group of their own; when they get off the
sinking ship and let her go down in the brackish and worldliness and form a
new ark to ride out the storm”
Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, prophecy, prophet, revival, the state of the church, theology | Tagged: Evangelicalism, the Holy Spirit | 13 Comments »
Posted by appolus on October 25, 2013
I would like to comment on John McArthur’s recent conference and book ” Strange Fire.” This conference and the book is an all out attack, not just on Charismatics but also on anyone who believes in the continuing work of the Holy Spirit in sign gifts such as Tongues, Prophecy, Words of knowledge and gifts of healings and so on. Much of what McArthur writes is obviously correct. I do believe that most of the Charismatic sect is a Trojan horse, gifted to and greedily accepted by the Pentecostals. The Charismatics do have an obsession with health and wealth and miracles and time and time again it overshadows Jesus.I also agree that the majority worship a golden calf, erected by modern men in the shadow of Jannes and Jambres.
Yet MacArthur exposes himself in his own zeal as the opposite end of the Trojan horse. The combination of men who deny the ongoing work of the Spirit as written in the Word and men who are obsessed with health and wealth and miracles is an almost deadly one-two punch from the devil himself. These are the men who have spied out our liberty and have come down to bring us into bondage, those whom the Lord delivered from the Law. True men and woman of God would cry ” God forbid,” in response to the charge that we have created a license to sin as we walk in the liberty and the freedom of the Spirit.
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Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, end times, False Prophets, False Prophets and Teachers, false teachers, Jesus, pentecostal, revival, the remnant, the state of the church, theology | Tagged: Charismatics, John McArthur, Trojan horse | 5 Comments »
Posted by appolus on October 23, 2013
How many times I have heard people say ” There there, everything will be okay.” Having now lived long enough, I know that not to be true, yet still people somehow cling to that notion and draw comfort from it. Humanism. When Peter , hearing Jesus talk about the things that He must suffer, rebukes Jesus and tells Him these things shall never be, Jesus uses the same rebuke that He used on Satan when Satan tempted Him with all the Kingdoms of the world. And so, those who mind the things of the world will always be offended at the notion that we have been called to suffer. We know that all who live Godly in Christ Jesus will suffer, yet we also know that there are many who would rebuke us for these thoughts. And why? Because they mind the things of this world and do not mind the things of God. Can you imagine our Lord Jesus rebuking us and calling us Satan? The choice before us? The cross and Christ or the ” things of men.”
Luk 4:8 And Jesus answered and said to him, Get behind me, Satan! For it is written, “You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve.”
Mar 8:33 But when He had turned around and looked on His disciples, He rebuked Peter, saying, Get behind Me, Satan! For you do not mind the things of God, but of the things of men.
Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, revival, the remnant, the state of the church, theology | Tagged: Christ Jesus | Leave a Comment »
Posted by appolus on October 22, 2013
One of the hardest things I ever dealt with as a Christian was unforgiveness. In fact, it almost dashed me on its rocks, threatening to undo all the work the Lord had ever done in me. It brought me to a place of great darkness within my soul. I cried out to God that what He was asking me to do, to forgive, was not possible, at least not for me. He was asking me to do something that was simply impossible for me. And of course the truth was, in me, it was impossible, but in Him, all things are possible. I wrote the poem below to speak to this subject of forgiveness and the great danger of un-forgiveness.
How many times should I forgive
Once or twice or seven?
How is it that I should walk
As one whose been forgiven?
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Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, poetry, revival, the state of the church, theology, Uncategorized | Tagged: forgiveness | Leave a Comment »
Posted by appolus on October 22, 2013
The Gospel of Martyrdom vs. the Gospel of Success by Micheal Brown
Stephen stood before the Sanhedrin. The appointed Jewish leadership confronted this anointed Jewish believer. They glared; he glowed. They were enraged; he was enraptured. Their faces were contorted with anger; his was like the countenance of an angel. “Men and brothers,” he said, “listen to me.”
He rehearsed the history of Israel, from Abraham to Moses to David, the faithfulness of God in spite of the unfaithfulness of the people. But Stephen was not there that day merely to recite the lessons of history. He was there to be a witness, and as a faithful witness he spoke. His words turned to piercing rebuke:
You stiff-necked people, with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You are just like your fathers: You always resist the Holy Spirit! Was there ever a prophet your fathers did not persecute? They even killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One. And now you have betrayed and murdered Him — you who have received the law that was put into effect through angels but have not obeyed it (7:51-53).
Soon his body lay battered and bloody, a mangled, motionless mass. He had not backed down. He had not compromised. He had not omitted a word. He was a witness and a prophetic voice. And that day he became the Church’s first martyr — the first, but not the last. Hundreds of thousands have followed in his path. Being a witness for Jesus could cost you your life.
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Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, revival, the remnant, the state of the church, theology | 11 Comments »
Posted by appolus on October 10, 2013
THE WOLVES COME FROM WITHIN – JANNES & JAMBRES
And so brothers and sisters, the first eight verses of 2Tim chapter 3 are speaking not of the world but of Christendom. And the final two names , Jannes and Jambres are noted as men who greatly resisted Moses and since the context of this chapter is perilous last days, then we can assume that men like Jannes and Jambres will greatly resist God’s true people in these latter days. Now who were these men and what do they represent today? Well Jannes and Jambres are reckoned to be two of the occultist magicians in Pharoah’s court who replicated the rod turning into a snake, then were able to replicate some of the plagues. It is reckoned that when Moses and the children of Israel left Egypt that they had become followers of Moses, perhaps for the same reasons as Simon the magician of Acts 8 , who was amazed at the power of the Apostles and who tried to buy this power.
Extra Biblical evidence suggests that Jannes and Jambres were very influential in persuading Aaron to make a golden calf when it seemed that Moses may not return. And we know that the calf was made with the gold and the treasure that was taken from Egypt. And so we see two men who had some kind of power, perhaps even a form of Godliness since they were now following Moses, persuade men to fall down and worship the treasures of the world and act just like the world from which they had been delivered. Do we not see that in Christendom today. There are so many men just like Jannes, just like Jambres, just like Simon, men who are desperate to operate in the power of God so that they can impress others and elevate their own status. It will never happen. Today’s so-called miracles workers and self-proclaimed prophets are merely operating in the soulish realm. And God’s fire will never fall on them. This will be one reason they will hate genuine saints, for as God pours out His Spirit on genuine saints in these latter times and they begin to move in the genuine power of God, it will enrage the false teachers just as it enraged the religious leaders in the days of Jesus. We see a small clue in Matthew 27:18 as to why they wanted Jesus dead… ” For he knew they had delivered Him because of envy. ”
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Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, revival, the remnant, the state of the church, theology | Tagged: Christendom, Jannes and Jambres | 1 Comment »
Posted by appolus on October 9, 2013
As the Lord approaches, as we enter into the times of sorrow, as the birth pangs are beginning that marks the imminent rise of the anti-christ and therefore the return of our Lord and Saviour, we must be on guard and heed the warnings of the Word of God. Jesus plainly told us to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of Herod.( Mar 8:15)
Pharisees and Saducees
Now the leaven here is plainly speaking of false doctrine. And so it is helpful to know who are those who opposed Jesus and why. For the same spirits that opposed Jesus ( we do not wrestle against flesh and blood) are still alive and well and will oppose Jesus, in His followers, and all the more so as that day approaches. So those who opposed Jesus were the Pharisees, the Sadducees and the Herodians. As we describe who they are, you must discern who represents these groups today and see if the motivations which existed in the days of Jerusalem , still exist today. I would argue that they do and that the battle will be the same, just set against a different backdrop.
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Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, revival, the remnant, the state of the church, theology | Tagged: Herodians, Jesus, Pharisees and Sadducees | 1 Comment »
Posted by appolus on October 5, 2013
WE HAVE TO FACE OUR OWN GETHSEMANE
Dispensationalism is also the biggest proponent of the pre trib rapture so they could never accept what we are speaking of here without jettisoning their fundamental doctrines. And so, religious people, united under one god, led by the anti-christ and the false prophet and with the support of the world/state will ruthlessly and with an ancient spirit come against every saint across the planet. In every tribe and every tongue and every nation the saints of God, the remnant saints who refuse to bow down to this god will be persecuted and imprisoned and killed like lambs to the slaughter. Will this be our generation or a generation soon to come? No one knows, but it will, in relative terms, be soon.
The Bridegroom is coming soon for His Bride. It is time to ready ourselves for what is to come. There is much said about preparation in the Scriptures. And so we must prepare ourselves. The essence of preparedness can be seen and is highlighted at Gethsemane. This is where the battle of Calvary was truly won. Jesus fought the battle on His knees and by His obedience and willingness to embrace the will of His Father. This is where we too will prepare and will win the battle before it is even fought. It will be on our knees, and with an overwhelming desire to carry out the Lord’s will for our lives, even if it means actual martyrdom. We must be willing to embrace our God who could call us to martyrdom. We must be willing to embrace the cross and all that it means.
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Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, revival, the remnant, the state of the church, theology | 7 Comments »
Posted by appolus on October 4, 2013
SAINTS ARE WILLING TO GIVE UP EVERYTHING
We see it in the Romans who hated the remnant believers because they would not bow their knee to the gods of this world. And because of this they poured out great fury and destruction against the saints. And then we see the Catholic church take up the same cause for the saints would not bow their knee to popes nor false doctrine. The saints would rather suffer death that live a compromised religious life. Now why would they do this? Because they had some alternative religion or philosophy? No, no, these saints had ” tasted ,” of the heavenly gifts. They had been touched by the glory of God. It burned in their very souls. They, like Paul could say that whatever things were gain to them that they would count it as loss for Christ.
In fact they too, like Paul would count all things loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus. Now this ” knowledge ,’ was not a head knowledge but was an intimate word. Scripture tells us that Joseph did not ” know,’ Mary until after Jesus was born. It is this sense of ” knowing,’ that is related to here, not a physical intimacy but a spiritual one which is actually much deeper than any physical union. We are one in Christ actually, not theologically. The remnant saints knows this ” knowledge.” This is why they were and are willing to give up everything, to count all things as loss and rubbish so that they can be found ” in Christ,” and that they may ” know Him.” The saint is one who is wiling to give up everything. The religious man, whether orthodox or Charismatic is one who is identified by what he has and who he is. He believes , like Job’s friends, that his material blessings are a sign that he walks in the favor of God which is why he despises those who have nothing or who care little for the things of this world.
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Posted by appolus on October 3, 2013
THE REMNANT AND THE GLORY OF GOD
The remnant know that just as the world hated their Lord and crucified Him, they too will be hated and killed all the day long for His name’s sake. And just as He arose, they know that they too will arise. As they draw nearer to “the one who was pierced,” and He pours out His Spirit on them and they become more like Him, then the same forces that came against their Jesus, hell and all its fury, will come against them. They know that “unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it abides alone, but if it dies it brings forth much fruit.”
The Remnant saint knows something of the glory of God. He has been touched by it, ruined for the things of this word by it. He has a fire that burns in his bones that will not and cannot be quenched. He is single-minded in his devotion. He arises in the morning with thoughts of His Lord. He walks through the day thinking about His Lord and communing with Him. He ever lives to serve His God. He knows he falls short but continues on, continues to pursue. He is relentless in his pursuit of God, he is diligent to walk worthily before His Lord. His Lord is not a God that dwells in a lofty ivory tower who may or may not be watching him.His Lord and his God dwells within his very heart and he walks with him daily and his heart burns within him.
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Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, revival, the remnant, the state of the church, theology | Tagged: The remnant | 4 Comments »
Posted by appolus on October 2, 2013
THE CHURCH ON THE NARROW PATH (PART 1)
The Remnant church is, at it’s core and most fundamentally, God’s witness here on earth. Truly we have been called first and foremost to be a witness. Now most saints know that this word in its Greek form translates to martyr. Does that mean that every saint, every witness since the beginning of the church has been called to martyrdom? Certainly not. Yet let us not forget brothers and sisters that in every century God’s people here on earth have been persecuted and martyred for their faith. The danger for us saints in the Western world in the last 100 years has been that we have not been so-called. Other saints around the world cannot say that, whether that is Africa or Asia or China or the Middle East, they have continued to be persecuted and martyred for their faith. For most of Europe and North America, this has not been the case with some noticeable exceptions during periods of war and so on. Now, one would imagine that living in an atmosphere where one is allowed to worship freely without any state or religious interference that Christendom would thrive, yet, if we look at the state of Europe and North America we see something that at best, is a shallow faith.
In the case of Europe we definitely see a post Christian society. In North America what is predominant is a cultural Christianity, a cross-less Christianity and a Christ-less Christianity and some cross-pollination or in many cases a hybrid of the all of these. Cultural Christianity would be a Christianity that is simply shaped to suit our culture. In this kind of Christianity Jesus would rarely be mentioned and God would be seen as some kind of Santa Claus. A cross-less Christianity would cover movements like the prosperity gospel, name it and claim it groups, Word of faith believers and health and wealth believers. Or again, a hybrid of all three. A Christ less Christianity would cover dead denominations for whom the Word of God has ceased to be authoritative even in pretense and where all things are acceptable, this would include things like gay marriage and gay ministers, abortion, divorce and so on.
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Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, revival, the remnant, the state of the church, theology | Tagged: Cultural Christianity | 4 Comments »
A Call To The Remnant 