GETTING OLD

AUTHOR UNKNOWN:       “I asked an elderly man once what it was like to be old and to know
 the majority of his life was behind him. He told me that he has been the same age his entire life. He said the voice inside of his head had never aged.    He has always just been the same boy.   His mother’s son. He had always wondered when he would grow up and be an old man.   He said he watched his body age and his faculties dull but the person he is inside never got tired. Never aged. Never changed.  Our souls are created eternal at conception. The next time you encounter an elderly person, look at them and know they are still a child, just as you are still a child and children will always need love, attention and purpose.”  Lord willing, 90 next mo.  This is really true.   Ken<><

Jesus Taught that we were born spiritual dead due to Adam’s sin as his kids.  Can not give what you don’t have.  But that Jesus came so that we could decide for ourselves whether to be SPIRITUALLY, born from above as in John 3.  or not.   As for me, seems like that is an excellent Bible  truth.  And if Jesus said it, it must be True, RIGHT…..  Unless you think that the Bible is a book of fiction.?  Actually, God’s loving desire for us is to be Born from above Spiritually and it is the core teaching of the whole Bible.   If we don’t receive a new Spiritual Birth then we don’t get another new body when this one wares out.  Jude writes about this.  A very small letter  next to The Revelation, the last book in our Bible.   If you have never studied the Book of Jude, you are not really knowledgeable about the Bible.   Takes less than 15 minutes, go get your Bible and consider it.   Jude was a Son of Mary and Joseph who grew up with Jesus.   His letter is packed with good spiritual Truth   Notice that in the resurrection of Christ Jesus, HE restored to HIS disciples what was lost of the Spirit in the pride and rebellion of Adam and Eve.  John 20:22, This was when the disciples were born from above and saved, and remember:   “To whom you obey, his servant you are.”   Rom. 6:16.

Ever got a soda, where the fizz was gone?   That is sort of where we are with most of our Church gatherings today.   We mostly know exactly what is going to happen and many go just to feel like that they did God a favor.  I can not now remember a sermon that changed much of anything. The fizz was gone, it was mostly pre-digested Bible with a few funny stories and a joke or two.  Take another read through Acts, that is were we are supposed to be…  Take a good look at Acts 5:16.  So what is the problem.   Jesus taught on it in Mark 7:6-7,   “ He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.”  Paul prophesied about it in 2 Tim.3:4-5, “  Traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;   Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.  We need to compare what we do as church, with our Bible.  Much of what we call Church is nothing but vain tradition.  Comfortable, Safe but mostly boring and powerless.  The Church that Jesus came to build is exciting and messy and does not follow any proper  rules.   If the Holy Spirit is really in charge, you have absolutely no idea of what is going to happen or when it will be over.  That is why the Early Church met on Saturday at sun down.

REVIVAL on A HILLSIDE,  -extracts by J. Ritson
Hugh Bourne, a shy carpenter from Stoke, was the unlikely leader of a movement that brought a new spiritual awakening to the nation.     The Methodists, under the dynamic leadership of men like John and Charles Wesley, had brought new life to the Church in the United Kingdom and greater moral fibre to the nation. The Wesleys had taken the gospel to the people, preaching in fields and market squares, and planting churches. Yet, with time, the flames had dimmed a little. Mass open-air gatherings had stopped and outdoor preaching had largely given way to more traditional meetings in chapels.     This was not enough for Hugh Bourne, a quiet and shy carpenter from Stoke. He had found new life in Jesus and then joined the Methodists in 1799. From the very outset he was filled with a burning desire to see souls saved – not just in ones and twos, but hundreds.     So he just spoke of Jesus to everyone he met. When one of his converts, (a local drunkard and blasphemer), joined Bourne in witnessing to some coal miners, four of them came under such conviction that they cried aloud to be saved.      Together, they poured out their hearts to God and the miners were saved!      This taught Bourne two important things: that Jesus saves prepared hearts without any ‘Minister’ involved; and that loud earnest prayer carries power with God. He began regular prayer and gospel meetings. People flocked to them, and soon no building could house their numbers. So they began meeting on a hill called Mow Cop, near Stoke.       One eye-witness of these meetings recalls: “Theiy were wonderful sessions of spiritual wrestling, with faith and power. With great heart and voice the people laid siege to heaven, and the noise could be heard a mile away!”      When meetings were happening, local residents felt the presence of God in their cottages, and came to new life in Jesus. One violent lunatic, who had to live chained up in his brother’s house, was prayed for one day at the Mow Cop meeting over a mile away. As the people prayed, the man fell to the ground at the sound of the worship, and was delivered from demons and regained his sanity.     Meetings were often so noisy and unconventional that attempts were made by local leaders to restrain the people. They made it clear there should be no loud praying, no shouts, and no cries of “Send the fire!”       Yet the Holy Spirit was not to be muzzled by man. The whole plan broke down at the first meeting when one man fell to his knees and cried out after an oppressive and lifeless time, “Lord, bind the devil!”   he repeated it twenty times. Shouts of “Amen!” and “Glory!” thundered from all over them once more.  Hugh Bourne was a reluctant speaker. He had to be begged to preach his first sermon, and did so with his hand over his face because of his shyness! His vision was mainly personal evangelism which spread the gospel far and wide, predominantly among the working class.     But it was the large meetings that carried the revival power of the Holy Spirit. They were soon common in many locations in northern England, and became known as “Camp Meetings”, since many people camped overnight, ready for the next day’s meetings.     The works of power were very obvious. At Leicester, several thousand people met on a hill. As the preacher spoke on God’s judgment, it is recorded that many ran away, while others fell upon each other in heaps’.     At Mow Cop in 1807, Bourne arrived at 6am to find the meeting had already begun! By noon there were four preachers speaking simultaneously to the vast crowd. Songs of joy, cries of distress, and shouts of victory mingled, and the awesome presence of God was everywhere. The meeting continued for over four days!   It was all too much for the Methodist mother-church. In 1808 they expelled Bourne and his movement so they took the name ‘Primitive Methodists” (meaning, as in the early days of Methodism) and continued what God had begun. Persecuted by mobs, by landowners and by clergymen, they traveled the land for many years, spreading the power of the Holy Spirit far and wide and bringing thousands of souls to Christ. Source: “The Romance of Primitive Methodism” by Joseph Ritson.

Yours, in HIS great Love and wonderful Grace & Mercy, Ken<><   www.OhanaChurch.Life