A Weekly World Wide Word of Encouragement to those in the Ministry
PRAISE GOD IT’S MONDAY!
A WEEKLY ‘WWW (world-wide word) OF ENCOURAGEMENT’
TO THOSE IN MINISTRY
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Issue No: 1042 Published: 04 Oct 2021
A WALK THROUGH THE TABERNACLE OF MOSES
ENTERING THE HOLY PLACE - THE REALM OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
THE STORY SO FAR
A farmer who has sinned has come to the Tabernacle of Moses, to seek forgiveness of his sin by bringing the best lamb of his flock. He has entered the gate (of SALVATION THROUGH JESUS) of the Tabernacle. He has made his SIN SACRIFICE upon the Brazan Altar and is now ready to learn about the front part of the TENT OF THE PRESENCE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. Now the High Priest describes the Holy of Holies where the PRESENCE OF GOD THE FATHER DWELLS.
A DAY IN THE LIFE OF…… Continued
But I had better start at the beginning. For God has set up a system that must be followed when entering into His presence. Remember my uncles, Nadab and Abihu? They broke the rules and paid for it with their lives. You will no doubt recall that day. It doubled the workload on my dad Eleazar, and Uncle Ithimar, as for a long time they were the only priests left. But it is a bit easier now as my generation comes of age and is able to shoulder the workload. Making sacrifices is heavy, hard work, you know. But again I digress!
The main thing I have to be sure of is to follow the Lord’s instructions precisely, so I don’t meet my uncles’ fate! I need to be personally pure, as do the people I am representing, for purity is essential to live in His presence. So firstly, He requires me to take off all my clothes – a bit embarrassing really – and wash myself in the basin before going into the Tent. There I put on the sparkling white linen clothes, to be worn only on this special day. For they speak of purity and holiness. Then I come back out into the courtyard to make a Sin Offering for myself, just as you did earlier. Yes, I need to be 100% right with God too. Taking some of the blood from my sacrifice, I fill my censer (bowl with a handle) with hot coals and select two handfuls of the special fragrant incense I talked of earlier. Now I am prepared to enter the Holy of Holies.
The sense of anticipation builds inside me as I pass through the Holy Place towards the Holy of Holies. I particularly notice that the curtain separating the areas has 2 giant cherubim woven into it, again in God’s colours, purple, red and blue. Your mother’s handiwork as well, I recollect. My mind ponders upon what I am going to experience inside. For God’s presence lives between the 2 cherubim on the Ark of the Covenant. Opening the curtain, I quickly throw incense onto the burning coals, forming a cloud in the room, particularly over the Atonement Cover, so protecting me from the full glory of God. That heavenly fragrance fills the room and permeates every pore in my body. Even Moses, great as he was, couldn’t look God in the face and live. So I need to be doubly careful!
I had better describe the Ark before I go on. It is an oblong box, (2½x1½x1½ cubits) made of Acacia wood, plated inside and out with gold. Around the top it has a pure gold moulding. The lid, the Atonement Cover, with its accompanying cherubim’s, forms the boundaries within which God dwells. Of course I know He is everywhere, but this is the specific place He meets with us. The Atonement Cover has to be perfect, for it to be God’s dwelling place amongst us, and it is. Bezalel, the master craftsman, made it himself. It was fashioned out of a single piece of gold, shaped into a smooth, flat lid. Two large, delicately sculptured, solid gold Cherubim with outstretched wings face each other, gracefully rising up, one from each end of the cover. I only get a glimpse of it of course, because it is quickly enveloped in the dense cloud of smoke resulting from burning the incense.
The Ark contains 3 different items. The two stone tablets with the 10 commandments written on them, my grandfather Aaron’s budded, almond tree staff, and a jar of the manna we lived on during those 40 long years in the desert. I haven’t seen them of course, as they were placed in there well before my time. You remember the desert too of course, when you were a lad. The manna tasted great, but sometimes we can have too much of a good thing! Never grateful for what we have, are we! But getting back to the Holy of Holies. Walls of solid gold surround the room, while the roof is a continuation of the pure white, linen cover, embroidered with Cherubim’s, that covers the Holy Place too. The glow of gold - the glow of God. Unbelievable!
(To be continued)
FROM THE WORD
THE WORDS OF JESUS
May we hear what the Lord is saying to us.....
SERMON ON THE MOUNT CONTINUES
Prayer (Matthew 6:5-15)
“When you pray, don’t be like the hypocrites, for they love to stand up and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that people can see them. I promise you, they have already got their reward. But you, when you pray, go indoors and close the door, and pray to your Father in private, and your Father who sees what happens in private will reward you. When you pray, don’t babble on meaninglessly like the foreigners do, who think they will be heard because of all the words they repeat. Don’t be like them, for your Father knows what you need even before you ask him. So pray like this:
“Our heavenly Father, may your name be honored. May your kingdom come! May your will be carried out in earth as it is in heaven. Please give to us today the food we need. Forgive our sins, just as we have forgiven those who have sinned against us. Don’t let us be tempted to do wrong, and save us from the Evil One.
“For if you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you don’t forgive those who sin against you, then your heavenly Father won’t forgive your sins.
Fasting (Matthew 6:16-18)
“When you fast, don’t be like the hypocrites who put on sad faces and make themselves look terrible so that everyone can see they’re fasting. Instead, when you fast, wash your face and look smart, so that people won’t see you’re fasting, and your unseen Father who sees what happens in private will reward you.
Seek Treasures in Heaven (Matthew 6:19-24)
“Don’t pile up wealth here on earth where moths and rust ruin it, and where thieves break in and steal it. Instead, you should pile up your wealth in heaven, where moths and rust don’t ruin it, and where thieves don’t break in and steal it. For wherever you pile up your wealth, that’s where your heart will be too.
“The eye is like a lamp that lights the body. So if your eye is healthy, then your whole body will have light. But if your eye is evil, then your whole body will be in the dark. If the light in you is darkness, how dark is that! No one can serve two masters. Either you’ll hate one and love the other, or you’ll be devoted to one and despise the other. You can’t serve both God and Money.
(Continues next week)
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OUR AFRICAN EXPERIENCE
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REINTRODUCTION OF THE LINDA MAMA SCHEME FOR HOSPITAL BIRTHING
Several years ago, Kenya introduced a scheme to pay for expectant mothers to give birth in a hospital, rather than in the village. The idea was to reduce the mortality rate at birth and in the time afterwards, through regular health checks of both mothers and babies.
This was a great scheme, but it unfortunately died for several months, through lack of funding. However it has now been reinstated and 1 to 2 mothers are giving birth in the hospital daily. Our initial objective is 3, so we are halfway there in a couple of weeks.
It is great for the mothers and good for the hospital also.
The birth rate is declining, as parents now face the challenge of paying for education etc, is increasing.
One happy mother with her beautiful baby.
WARDS FULL!
As more people are coming to the hospital for inpatients treatment, our wards are filling up.
On cataract operation days, we are now struggling to find bed space for all, as most of them stay for 1 night so they can have their eye patch removed and the eye inspected the next day.
We really need to get our new ward completed. Construction has been delayed due to funding challenges.
But we will get there, in God's timing.
Part of the Ladies Ward.
AND THE MEN'S.....
Part pictured.
BOOK OF THE WEEK
TRANSFORMATION OF THE CHURCH
INTRODUCTION
One day, while in the shower, (that is, from a bucket) in Nairobi, Kenya, the Lord gave me a revelation. I had just seen the amazing new TBN broadcasting auditorium on TV, filled with beautiful people (it seems compulsory for preachers to have glamorous wives, generally much younger than themselves!), fantastic choirs, singers and setting, all broadcast over 47 satellites. In the shower the Lord showed me a picture of the Pentecostal church.
How it started in storefronts and homes, of how rejected these first weird ‘pentes’ were. But these early pentecostals remained fully committed to the cause, staying close to God, for they were then at the forefront of God’s revelation and indeed, presence. Gradually however, Pentecostalism (now with a capital ‘P’,) has become mainstream. Pastors (and now Bishops) have become elevated beyond a job description or a calling, to positions above the people – a new priesthood.
In the west, new pastors must be seminary trained, and are likely receive a reasonable salary from the beginning of their ministry. No longer is their real sacrifice in being ‘called’ to ministry. In our services, the emphasis has changed from listening to the Holy Spirit and following His desires, to a concentration on excellence and good order, to the near exclusion of the Holy Spirit leading us.
Worship times, unlike the days of the storefront believers, are based on a proven formula of thanksgiving, praise, then worship, followed by (maybe) a prophecy, then the Word and finally ministry – until we all go home after exactly 2 hours. 4 Next comes an emphasis on building buildings ‘for the glory of God’, as so grandiosely epitomized by TBN.
I have been involved in three different pentecostal churches over the years and have seen this process in practice. All churches that started meeting in homes, then storefronts or halls, before being ‘called’ to build or buy a church. The church then has to be rebuilt to be bigger, or ancillary buildings added, so that a ‘church complex’ is created. Often too, we hear the statement, ‘God is in the house’. Wow! Fantastic! But is it true? Is God really in these beautiful structures man has created? Or rather, is He in the hearts of the people who inhabit the house? Or again, has He departed altogether, to allow us to ‘play church’ in the beautiful temples we have built.
The process of ‘monument building’ that started in the fourth century AD with the Roman Catholic Church, and which continued after the Reformation once those churches became mainstream, continues today as Pentecostalism enters the mainstream also. This seems to be the process of a ‘maturing church’.
The Lord showed me that the people He calls on to impart the next revelation are those with the kingdom within, those dissatisfied with the established status quo, those hungering for more of Him. Those whose emphasis remains on the spiritual, who have not been seduced by the inevitable physical emphasis of the ‘maturing’ church.
Today God is calling out another new generation, as He has in times past. It is a new generation desiring to move forward into the new (but old!) truths of submission and obedience to the Father’s will, of servanthood and 5 sacrifice, a simple people with hearts sold our to God, those who will finally fulfil the Great Commission. A Church not of Pastors, Programmes and Property, but of ‘kingdom people’, who, through their sacrifice, will usher in the return of Jesus.
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'THE WORDS OF JESUS' REMAIN AVAILABLE FOR PDF DOWNLOAD
Join the many who have downloaded the 'The Words of Jesus'. I am sure you will be blessed by it, as I have been.
One key element here is the setting out in chronological order (as far as it is possible to do so) our Lord's words drawn from all the Gospels, and the elimination of repetition between Gospels.
You may be surprised by the different perspective this presentation gives you both in understanding of His life and ministry, and in achieving a closer relationship with Him.
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DAVID'S DOODLINGS
607. To think is good, to feel fantastic, but it is what we do that is most important in God's sight.
608. Thoughts and feelings lead one astray, but God's word is an anchor to the soul.
609. We may think, we may feel, but all is wasted unless we act.
610. Men think, women feel, God acts.
611. Result of the game of life. God's Word 100 v Thoughts and Feelings 0.
612. Satan corrupts thoughts and feelings, but never God's Word.
613. To 'be' is what it is all about.
614. People's feelings ebb and flow with the breeze, but God's Word is rock solid.
CARTOONS FROM TOON FEVER
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TUESDAY TEACHINGS
NEXT WEEK: LIVING THE KINGDOM LIFESTYLE continues
.....as we look at further kingdom parables of Jesus.
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LAUGHING AT OURSELVES
***Blessed are those who can laugh at themselves for they shall never cease to be amused***
*** Those who can't laugh at themselves leave the job to others. ***
QWIK QWIP: “We were called to be witnesses, not lawyers.”
109. Your Point of View
An old farmer went to the city one weekend and attended the big city church. He came home and his wife asked him how it was.
"Well," said the farmer, "it was good. They did something different, however. They sang praise choruses instead of hymns."
"Praise choruses?" said his wife. "What are those?"
"Oh, they're OK. They are sort of like hymns, only different," said the farmer.
"Well, what's the difference?" asked his wife.
The farmer said, "Well, it's like this - If I were to say to you: "Martha, the cows are in the corn"' - well, that would be a hymn. If on the other hand, I were to say to you:
'Martha, Martha, Martha,
Oh Martha, MARTHA, MARTHA,
the cows, the big cows, the brown cows,
the black cows the white cows,
the black and white cows,
the COWS, COWS, COWS
are in the corn,
are in the corn, are in the corn, are in the corn,
the CORN, CORN, CORN.'
Then, if I were to repeat the whole thing two or three times, well, that would be a praise chorus."
The next weekend, his nephew, a young, new Christian from the city came to visit and attended the local church of the small town. He went home and his mother asked him how it was.
"Well," said the young man, "it was good. They did something different however. They sang hymns instead of regular songs."
"Hymns?" asked his mother. "What are those?"
"Oh, they're OK. They are sort of like regular songs, only different," said the young man.
"Well, what's the difference?" asked his mother.
The young man said, "Well, it's like this - If I were to say to you: 'Martha, the cows are in the corn' - well, that would be a regular song. If on the other hand, I were to say to you:
'Oh Martha, dear Martha, hear thou my cry
Inclinest thine ear to the words of my mouth
Turn thou thy whole wondrous ear by and by
To the righteous, inimitable, glorious truth.
For the way of the animals who can explain
There in their heads is no shadow of sense
Hearkenest they in God's sun or His rain
Unless from the mild, tempting corn they are fenced.
Yea those cows in glad bovine, rebellious delight
Have broke free their shackles, their warm pens eschewed
Then goaded by minions of darkness and night
They all my mild Chilliwack sweet corn have chewed.
So look to the bright shining day by and by
Where all foul corruption’s of earth are reborn
Where no vicious animals make my soul cry
And I no longer see those foul cows in the corn.'
Then if I were to do only verses one, three and four and do a key change on the last verse, well that would be a hymn.
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A DAVID MUSING
COVID IN KENYA
In the year and three quarters Covid has been around, Kenya has clocked up 250,000 cases with 5,000 deaths in a population of 50,000,000. While these figures are likely to be understated, Covid has not been a huge issue here. Additionally, only 3% of the population has been immunized!
Compared to the US, with 700,000 deaths, and adjusted for population size, Kenya has had only 5% of the deaths America has! Fortunately our population is very young, which must have some affect on the numbers. Also 80% of the population live in smaller towns or the countryside, which slows infection, one to another.
While Covid has been rampant in the cooler climes of South Africa, in the tropical areas, Covid has not been a huge issue relative to Malaria, where there are 3,500,000 cases in a year and 10,700 deaths! And there are many other tropical diseases also.
The large majority of Malaria cases are in Western Kenya, where we live. In our Kingdom Faith Based Hospital, Malaria is by far the largest condition we treat.
Yet relatively, very little money is spent on eradication of Malaria compared to the expenditure on Covid. Why? Because it doesn't effect richer countries!
Yet Africa continues to not only survive but grow, despite the multitude of challenges it faces.
Thank you Lord.
His servant and yours
David Tait
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ABOUT US
WALKING WITH JESUS MINISTRIES is a non-profit, non-denominational, Bible based ministry located in Hastings, New Zealand. A ministry dedicated to developing discipleship, fostering unity amongst God's people to achieve the Great Commission, and in doing so, preparing for Christ's return. It is securely based upon the foundational principles of the Apostles Creed while recognising the wide and rich diversity of beliefs amongst Christians in other areas. In accordance with the Lord's direction, materials produced by the ministry are available, free of charge, to genuine enquirers upon request. The ministry is solely funded by donations, as the Lord provides. A list of materials available (plus some fun!) is obtainable and freely downloadable from our website
wwj.org.nz or by contacting us as follows.
Walking With Jesus Ministries
P O Box 2
Webuye 50205
Kenya
Email: enquiries@wwj.org.nz
Web: wwj.org.nz
Our role is to bless and encourage those in ministry while promoting co-operation and unity of direction amongst the body of Christ, as emphasised 3 times by Jesus in His longest prayer, immediately prior to His arrest and crucifixion. "... so that they may be one as we are one." (John 17:12, 21, 23-4) Our website is currently being developed to encourage your participation one with another, to share resources, and to enable you to promote events and items of interest to the body as a whole - and have a smile while doing it!
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