Lifted Veil

“The power of prayer has never been tried to its full capacity in any church.  If we want to see mighty wonders of divine grace and power wrought in the place of weakness, failure and disappointment, let the whole Church answer God’s standing challenged; “Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knows not.” - James Hudson Taylor

“The Protestant Churches owe an immeasurable debt to the Evangelical Revival… it added an intense sense of civic responsibility, and this naturally found its expression both in such movements of reform as the campaign for the abolition of slavery and in zeal for missionary endeavour…  At a time when all these movements were showing signs of dying down, the Second Evangelical Awakening crossed the Atlantic from America to Britain in 1858.  This was undenominational in character, and produced that new phenomenon of the nineteenth century, the interdenominational or undenominational missionary society.” – Stephen Neill

“In regard to our foreign mission, we are at present in need of almost everything. We are greatly in need of money, and we are sorely in need of missionaries; but what we want most is life and an increase of spiritual power… Money will flow in streams to God’s treasury, and men will offer themselves in companies, and our missionary enterprise will expand into missions worthy of the name, when the enthusiasm of Christ, the fire of the Holy Ghost, possesses the Church - never till then.” – Rev. Archd Scott, The Church of Scotland Home & Foreign Missionary Record

“Following the 1858 Prayer Revival, a world-wide interdenominational student missionary movement began to flourish.  In 1886, the Student Volunteer Movement was founded. This movement heightened missions awareness and over the next several decades helped recruit some 20,000 students who went forth to serve on the mission field.” - Timothy K. Beougher, Evangelical Dictionary of World Missions

Restore us again, O God of our salvation,and put away your indignation toward us!
Will you be angry with us forever? Will you prolong your anger to all generations?
Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?
Show us your steadfast love, O Lord, and grant us your salvation.
Let me hear what God the Lord will speak, for he will speak peace to his people,
to his saints; but let them not turn back to folly.
Surely his salvation is near to those who fear him, that glory may dwell in our land.
Psalm 85: 4-9

http://liftedveil.org/

5 Reasons why community is so important in the Christian life.

(I’m currently working through Ephesians and also am helping lead the community teams ministry of our church this year. These points come out of some considerations in working through those subjects. )

1. Individual growth is a community project. Our growth comes through speaking the truth in love, supporting each other, and building each other up in dependence upon Christ.

“15Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. 16From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.” Eph 4:15-16

2. Loving life-on-life interaction within community is the way Christian’s learn together and comprehend the love of Christ.

“And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,” Eph 4:17b-18

3. We are called to receive the filling of the Spirit as a community through displaying a Christ-like pleasantness to our fellow believers, speaking true words of encouragement, with a praising heart, and thankful attitude.

“Instead, be filled with the Spirit. 19Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord,” Eph 5:18b-19

“21In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. 22And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.” Eph 2:21-22.

“15Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. 16Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.” Col 3:15-16

4. God’s mission is achieved through the witness of community love, fellowship and prayer.

34″A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” John 13:24-25

“19Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel,” Ephesians 6:19

5. In our life-on-life relationships within the church we are called to “be patient, bearing with one another in love” and “make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.” Ephesians 4: 2-3.

Some other bigger picture points:

The church is being built together as a holy temple for the dwelling of God by His Spirit.

21In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. 22And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit. Ephesians 2:21-22
The church is God’s chosen means of displaying His glory through Christ (our head) and His body (the church).

The church is God’s chosen means of displaying His glory through Christ (our head) and His body (the church).

“22And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, 23which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.” Eph 1:22-23

“10For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Eph 2:10
“10His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms,” Ephesians 3:10

The church exists and grows through life-on-life relationships in community.

15Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. 16From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work. Eph 4:15-16

To Australian and New Zealand Lovers of Great Theology and Christian Books,

I’m kicking off New Covenant Media (Australia) and am offering a special discounted rate for November.  (Prices are also low at the moment owing to the favorable exchange rate)

Please refer to the book list and prices .

For information on the books see http://www.newcovenantmedia.com (remember that is a US site with US$ prices - but a good source of info on the books). Please email me your request - my email is on the book list.

Also, I still have ESV Study Bibles (Hardcover) left from my bulk order from Crossway - AU$50 each.

And the Mick Porter and Steve Wilson DVD, ‘A Question of Mercy’, is discounted to $10 each at present.

Price assumes pickup in Brisbane - happy to post it to you but you’ll have to add the cost of postage from Brisbane.

Preferred payment via direct deposit.  3% surcharge for credit card payments.

Grace,

Shane.

Sanctification by Grace
or . . . How to Sweat for Jesus with Gospel Power
(Series: Doctrines that make a difference)
Overhead (pdf) (ppt)

What Does Sin Do? (Series: Whiter than Snow)
Overhead (pdf) (ppt)

New Covenant Privileges. (Series: Christ’s Glorious Covenant)

New Covenant Power. (Series: Christ’s Glorious Covenant)

Notes / Overheads for Christ’s Glorious Covenant Series

The Assembled Church

I. Introduction and Background

Andrew Chester – “The Pauline Communities” – A Vision for the Church: Studies in Early Christian Ecclesiology (ed. Markus Bockmuehl and Michael B. Thompson; Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1997):

Paul’s vision for the communities that he wrote to can be summed up quite succinctly. He sees them as being a new creation in Christ, filled with the Spirit, possessing gifts of the Spirit and overflowing with the fruit of the Spirit, controlled above all by love; they are communities that should be pure and holy, mutually supportive and interdependent, completely united, transcending the oppositions and tensions between different groups within the community, and with every kind of barrier that would divide them in normal society broken down.

This brief summary may seem over-idealized; it may indeed seem somewhat grandiose and abstract, especially in the light of the occasional letter that Paul wrote to quite different communities, often on very specific and mundane issues… It is also to be said that theory and practice in any case often fail to coincide, and the way that a particular community lives can be very far removed from Paul’s vision of what it should be. Paul himself is made painfully aware of this. Indeed, it is probably true to say that we have a semblance of Paul’s vision for his communities, to a large extent, because of the problems that have arisen in a number of those communities and that Paul feels the need to counter. That is, Paul finds himself faced with what he considers false practice, or even a complete negation of his ideal of the Christian community, and hence has to urge those in these communities that he has founded to become what they know they should be, and not remain as they are. (105)

As Chester points out, we have Paul’s vision for the church because the churches that Paul wrote to were not living according to that vision.

The church in Corinth is a good example of a church that failed to live according to that vision.

Margaret Mitchell (Paul and the Rhetoric of Reconciliation) suggests that Paul’s purpose in writing to the church in Corinth was to reconcile the many factions that had formed. Why? Because division and factions were contrary to what he taught in all the churches.

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12 Oct 2009 Shane Becker 2 comments