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
A FREE service, currently connecting with Christian leaders from 3,000 denominations and ministries, in 70 countries.
Issue No: 739 Published: 28 Dec 2015
OOPS!!!
Sorry for the day's delay. My fault for an incorrect computer setting. Enjoy! David.
CHRISTIANITY - A CULTURE, ORGANISATION, OR A RELATIONSHIP?
While last week, I gave some scriptural ways in which the current pastor led church could become more effective. I requested that you also think about the biblical structure of the church.We will now see that the ultimate problem today is that the church is based on the wrong foundation. For the New Testament is quite clear that the guidance of the church is to be through 'apostles and prophets', not evangelists, pastors or teachers.
Let's see what the scriptures say.
Jesus shared how the correct pattern was ignored in the Old Testament, where the prophets were killed by the religious people. The Old is a shadow of the New. But here He also adds in apostles.....
47 ‘Woe to you, because you build tombs for the prophets, and it was your ancestors who killed them. 48 So you testify that you approve of what your ancestors did; they killed the prophets, and you build their tombs. 49 Because of this, God in his wisdom said, “I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and others they will persecute.†50 Therefore this generation will be held responsible for the blood of all the prophets that has been shed since the beginning of the world, 51 from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who was killed between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, this generation will be held responsible for it all. (Luke 11:47-51)
Paul also picks up this pattern in the following scriptures.....
27 Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. 28 And God has placed in the church first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, of helping, of guidance, and of different kinds of tongues. 29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles?(1 Corinthians 12:27-9)
and.....
19 Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. 21 In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. (Ephesians 2:19-21)
and again.....
10 He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.) 11 So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, 12 to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up (Ephesians 4:10-12)
Peter also confirmed the words of Jesus.....
2 I want you to recall the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets and the command given by our Lord and Saviour through your apostles. 3 Above all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. (2 Peter 3:2-3)
Finally, Jesus speaking about victory over Babylon (the world) through the apostle John on Patmos.....
‘Rejoice over her, you heavens!
Rejoice, you people of God!
Rejoice, apostles and prophets!
For God has judged her with the judgment she imposed on you.’ (Revelation 18:20)
Next time we will look at some history, to understand how we have got far away from biblical principles.
(Continued next week)
FROM THE WORD
THE WORDS OF JESUSMay we hear what the Lord is saying to us.
Parable of the Sheep (Luke 15:1-7)
Three parables addressed to the Pharisees who were criticizing Jesus for mixing with tax collectors and ‘sinners’.
“Imagine a man who had a hundred sheep lost one of them. Wouldn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open pasture, and search for the one that’s lost until he finds it? When he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders. Once he gets home, he calls his friends and neighbors together, saying, ‘Come and celebrate with me! I’ve found my lost sheep!’ I tell you that there’s more joy in heaven over a sinner that repents than over ninety-nine good people who don’t need to repent.
Parable of the Coin (Luke 15:1-7)
“Imagine a woman who has ten silver coins, and loses one of them. Wouldn’t she light a lamp and sweep the house, carefully searching until she finds it? When she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together, saying, ‘Come and celebrate with me! I’ve found the silver coin that I lost.’ I tell you there is joy in the presence of God’s angels over one sinner that repents.
(Continued next week.)
You can download the complete 'Words of Jesus' here.
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'THE WORDS OF JESUS' NOW 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.
Download the free PDF here.....
DAVID'S DOODLINGS
HOPE486. The one thing history teaches is the futility of placing our hope in the goodness of man. Could the world rely upon me - or you?
487. Hope in mankind is hopeless, but hope in God springs eternal.
488. Without hope we perish. Without God we perish. So our hope is to be found in God.
489. In mankind there is only futility, but in God we have hope.
490. Faith turns the hope of our salvation into the experience of God’s love.
491. God’s hopefulness gives the hopeless, hope.
492. Godly hope transforms human hopelessness – if we will allow it!
493. Life without hope is short, but with God’s hope, eternal.
494. God’s hope can help transform tragedy into triumph.
495. It is often said that ‘without hope we perish.’ This is as true literally as it is figuratively.
496. Out of God’s hope springs eternal youth – eventually!
Please feel free to quote these quotes. Acknowledgement of David Tait as the author would be appreciated. There are now over 1300 David sayings for you to view at ...
CARTOONS FROM TOON FEVER
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TUESDAY TEACHINGS
THIS WEEK:SERMON ON THE MOUNT continues.......... looking at 'giving to the needy'.
Check out all the available teachings at...
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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. ***
264. THE LESSON OF LOT'S WIFE
In a Sunday school classroom, a teacher was telling the story of Sodom and Gomorrah to her children. She explained that Lot was told to take his wife and flee, but then Lot's wife looked back and was turned to a pillar of salt.
A boy in the class asked, "What happened to the flea?"
263. SERMONS
The congregation liked their new clergyman, but were somewhat puzzled by his speaking style. His first sermon ran only 8 minutes; the second Sunday he spoke for 45 minutes; the third week he rattled on for an hour-and-a-half. That was enough for the Board to summon him for a little chat.
To their relief, Wilkerson had a ready explanation. "The Saturday before the first sermon, I had my teeth pulled and my mouth was still terribly sore. But, by the time a week had gone by, I'd gotten used to my new dentures." Here the minister paused, and blushed deeply. "And as for last Sunday . . . well, I'm afraid that I picked up my wife's set of teeth by mistake!"
262. WATER TO WINE
A Lutheran minister is driving down to New York and gets stopped for speeding in Connecticut.
The state trooper smells alcohol on the minister's breath and then sees an empty wine bottle on the floor of the car. He says, "Sir, have you been drinking?"
"Just water," says the minister.
The trooper says, "Then why do I smell wine?"
The minister looks at the bottle and says, "Good Lord! He's done it again!"
"FREE DOWNLOAD: You can now download the book 'Laughing At Ourselves' in PDF format at LAUGHING AT OURSELVES One of the most comprehensive sources of Christian Humour on the Net with 800 sermon fillers for your entertainment and use at ...
FACTS FOR FUN
LAST WEEKS QUESTION: What is the connection of May Day to Robin Hood?ANSWER: The legendary Robin Hood is said to have died on May Day. (So he ‘may’ be well remembered!)
THIS WEEK'S QUESTION: Where did the expression ‘red herring’ originate?
Answer Next Week.
SOME FUN FACTS 464. ALPHABETIC KEYBOARD
There are three sets of letters on standard typewriter and computer keyboards which are in alphabetical order, reading left to right. They are f-g-h, j-k-l, and o-p. (Wouldn’t it be nice if they all were!)
465. STIFF PAPER?
Starch is used as a binder in the production of paper. It is the use of a starch coating that controls ink penetration when printing. Cheaper papers do not use as much starch, and that is why your fingers get black when you rub your morning paper. (Rub-bish!)
466. LUCKY TO SPEAK ENGLISH
There are over 40,000 characters in Chinese script. (Memorising 1 per day, it would take 110 years to learn them all!)
A WORD PUZZLE FOR YOU
Make another word from this word using all the letters.
LIMPED
Answer at the end of A David Musing
FREE DOWNLOAD: You can download the full version of our Trivia Book at TRULY TRIFFLING TRIVIA Or view all 1232 online at...
WHICH BOOK?
In which Gospel is this account found?15: The Repentance of Judas?
a. Matthew
b. Mark
c. Luke
d. John
Source: http://biblequizzes.org.uk
Heaps more fun and serious 'God Facts' are found at...
IF ONLY I'D THOUGHT OF IT!
"""OTHER'S SAYINGS TO ENLIGHTEN, AMUSE, OR BEMUSE"""!!!!!!! Never remember what you can afford to forget.
!!!!!! Never say never, and always avoid always.
!!!!! The right thing to say comes to mind after you've said the wrong thing.
!!!! If it's good they will stop making it.
Most people don't make the same mistake twice, they make it three or four times.
!!! If it is ironic, it's possibly true.
!! Any bad habit is easier than the corresponding good habit.
! A pessimist mourns the future.
100'S MORE TO BE FOUND AT...
GREAT GROANERS
168. LEGALIf you're mad at someone, first let him sit in your car, and then you can belt him.
169. NEW DRUG REJECTED
Have you heard about the pharmaceutical company that developed a new drug which, when administered to women, compels them to go join a convent?
The FDA refused to license it. Seems it was habit forming.
170. WHAT WAS THAT?
Three retirees, each with age related hearing loss, were playing golf one fine March day.
One remarked to the other, "Windy, isn't it?"
"No," the second man replied, "it's Thursday."
And the third man chimed in, "So am I. Let's go have a beer.
171. THE DISASTER
A husband and wife had a human cannonball act in the circus. One day the wife ran off with the lion tamer. The husband was extremely dejected. The strong man asked him what he was going to do.
"This is a disaster," the husband answered, I don't know where I'm going to find another woman of her caliber."
172. THE HOUSE SPECIAL
A very thirsty man goes into a bar. As he's sitting down, he hears the man next to him tell the bartender, "I'll have another waterloo."
The bartender gives the fellow a tall, well-iced drink, then asks the newcomer what he would like to drink. Thinking the other man's drink may be a specialty of the house, he says, "I'll have a waterloo, too."
The bartender gives him the tall, well-iced drink, and the customer takes a big drink.
"Hey," he says, "this isn't any good. It tastes just like water!" The man next to him looks at the bartender and says, "Well, it is water.! Right, Lou?"
Have fun here.....
TAIT TALK 2015
Feel free to read our family Christmas newsletter for the year's happenings here.....
Theologians Address: Do Christians and Muslims Worship the Same God?
THIS WEEK HERE IS THE CASE WE DO (MIGHT DO). NEXT WEEK WILL BE THE CASE AGAINST. WE NEED TO CONSIDER BOTH SIDES BEFORE COMING TO A CONCLUSION FOR OURSELVES.After a media firestorm erupted last week when a Wheaton College professor was suspended for asserting that Muslims and Christians worship the same God, a handful of Christian theologians have written about whether or not the professor was right.
Soon after The Christian Post reported that Wheaton professor Larycia Hawkins posted to Facebook that she was going to wear a hijab during Advent to show solidarity with Muslims and stated "we worship the same God," the school placed the tenured professor on paid administrative leave because her "theological implications" appear to be "in conflict with the College's Statement of Faith."
While students at Wheaton have protested in support of Hawkins and claimed she has not violated the school's statement of faith, prominent Evangelicals such as Franklin Graham have chastised Hawkins' "same God" as shameful and "absolutely wrong."
But coming to Hawkins' defense is Yale theology professor Miroslav Volf, a croatian Protestant theologian whom Hawkins cited when defending her "same God" claim in a follow up post on Facebook.
Volf, who wrote the recent book Allah: A Christian Response and wrote a Washington Post op-ed condemning the school for suspending Hawkins, has maintained that Arab Christians have worshipped a God named Allah for centuries and that many Christians have long believed that "Muslims worship the same God that they do."
In furthering his viewpoint that the gods are the same if they are "sufficiently similar," Volf also argued that two commandments of the Bible — love God and love thy neighbor — are also commandments that are central to Islamic worship.
Volf's claim, however, was contested in an op-ed by Gerald McDermott, professor of religion at Roanoke College and senior fellow at the Baylor Institute for Studies of Religion, who argues that the claims the Quran specifically calls believers to love God and neighbors are unfounded.
McDermott writes that there are specific parts of the Quran that instruct Muslims not to love non-believers and states that loving non-believers "is equivalent to lining up on the side of the enemies of God."
"[W]e cannot infer that what Volf calls 'the character' of the God of the Quran is the same as that of the God of the Bible," McDermott writes. "In fact, we would have to conclude, using Volf's own reasoning, that these are two different gods, for the difference in the two love commands suggests by his own logic two different characters."
Although Volf argues that Christians and Muslims worship the same God and difference only comes in the way in which the religions worship, Scot McKnight, a theologian at Northern Baptist Theological Seminary in Illinois, argues that while both religions are monotheistic, only Christians believe in a God that has taken on human form and is also revealed in the Holy Trinity.
Wheaton College Prof. to Wear Hijab During Advent to Show Solidarity With Muslims (Pictured)
"I have said this before and will say it again: we can agree to some degree at a generic level, but we don't worship God in the generic," McKnight wrote. "We worship either the God of Abraham and Moses, the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, or the God of Muhammed. The God in each of the faiths is understood differently enough to conclude that saying we worship the 'same' God muddies the water."
While McKnight and others argue that Christians and Muslims can't be worshipping the same God because Muslims don't believe in the Trinity, Francis Beckwith, a professor at Baylor University, wrote that just because Muslims don't believe in the Holy Trinity doesn't mean that they aren't worshipping the same God.
Beckwith provided an analogy as an example.
"Imagine that Fred believes that the evidence is convincing that Thomas Jefferson (TJ) sired several children with his slave Sally Hemings (SH), and thus Fred believes that TJ has the property of 'being a father to several of SH's children.' On the other hand, suppose Bob does not find the evidence convincing and thus believes that TJ does not have the property of 'being a father to several of SH's children,'" Beckwith wrote. "Would it follow from this that Fred and Bob do not believe that the third president of the United States was the same man?"
"Of course not. In the same way, Abraham and Moses did not believe that God is a Trinity, but St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, and Billy Graham do," Beckwith continued. "Does that mean that Augustine, Aquinas, and Graham do not worship the same God as Abraham and Moses? Again, of course not. The fact that one may have incomplete knowledge or hold a false belief about another person — whether human or divine — does not mean that someone who has better or truer knowledge about that person is not thinking about the same person."
In his Washington Post op-ed, Volf argued that it is hypocritical for Christians to believe that they worship the same god as the Jews do but for them to detest the notion that Christians worship the same God as Muslims.
"Why is the Christian response to Muslim denial of the Trinity and the incarnation not the same as the response to similar Jewish denial?" Volf asked. "Many Christians today see themselves at war with the Islamic State and, by a deeply problematic extension, with the Islam itself. War, like enmity in general, requires clear and hard boundaries. We define our enemies as what we are not; we take any blurring of those boundaries as a threat to the legitimacy of our enmity."
(Opposite viewpoint next week.)
DAVID'S DOWNLOADS
TWENTY-FIVE COMMANDMENTS OF JESUSNot clearly numbered and listed, as in the Old Testament outward Law of the 10 Commandments, they are found among the teachings of Jesus in the 4 Gospels, and are available for all who have a heart to seek them.
We all too easily think, with the emphasis that Jesus places on love and forgiveness, that he didn't teach any absolutes. But, as can be seen here, Jesus did place boundaries on believer's behaviour, along with instructions for Godly living.
I have grouped these into 3 categories for easier comprehension.
Don't take my word for it! Study the Scriptures!
David Tait
Walking With Jesus Ministries
www.wwj.org.nz
Download your free PDF Files here.....
WAXING LYRICAL
Life goes on, even when you don't!The tyranny of deadlines!
WHAT 2 WRITE?
What 2 write?
I don't know.
A 'word byte'?
Only 'so so'.
Had the flu,
Perhaps U2?
Not much fun,
Work 2b done!
But we survive,
Am still alive!
Better next week,
With U2 speak!
More of David's poetry here.....
A DAVID MUSING
I am writing this just before Christmas, as I wish to have a couple of weeks off writing over our holiday period. For, unlike many of our readers who are experiencing winter, we are truly entering summer, down here in New Zealand at the bottom of the earth!I enjoy the sunshine more than the cold! I know many are the reverse.
Just as the weather is different everywhere, so are we, as people, unique in the way our God made us. I rejoice in that.
If there was more than one me, the world would not be such a good place! LOL! But is it good anyway, that is the question?
Enough musing for one day - or a couple of weeks for me! Please enjoy whatever season you are in, physically and spiritually. I will!
So until next week.....
MAY GOD BLESS YOU AND YOU BLESS GOD
His servant and yours
David Tait
Today's 'Word Puzzle' Answer: DIMPLE
TODAY'S 'BIBLE QUESTION' a. Matthew 27:3-10
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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 websitewwj.org.nz or by contacting us as follows.
Walking With Jesus Ministries
7 Bull Street
Ahuriri
Napier
New Zealand
Phone: (06) 835 0567 International (+64) 6 835 0567
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!
For comments upon and contributions to this service, please contact
david@wwj.org.nz