Two Rules to Live by

TWO RULES TO LIVE BY

 

God gave 10 commandments to Moses on the mountain (Exod 20:1-17), which were multiplied to 613 rules that religious Jews were expected to keep. These were enforced by the Pharisees during the time that Jesus lived on the earth. These were reduced to only 2 by Jesus, which He repeated several times in His teaching, as recorded in the 4 gospel accounts. They were simply, 1/ “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength”, and 2/ “Love your neighbor as yourself”. These are simple rules, but there is a lot more involved in keeping them than most people realize! I am slowly coming to understand what is involved since watching the “Agape Road” teaching by Bob Mumford on his DVD’s. I first read his book by that title, and then listened to the audio CD’s series given at a large seminar about 10 years ago, and am now enjoying the teaching much more by seeing Bob deliver the teaching in the original setting. I enjoy reading about the way Jesus replied to the Pharisees, who were the most religious crowd of Jews who were always trying to point out how Jesus didn’t keep some of their religious traditions. One example of this is recorded by Matthew in his gospel (Matt 22:34-40), and then in the next chapter he records what Jesus thought of these “religious” leaders. He uses some very uncomplimentary names for these guys, like “hypocrites”, “blind fools”, and “whitewashed tombs”! Not the type of descriptive words you would expect to hear from the “gentle Jesus”, that some people consider Him to be

 

I often wonder how He would describe the “religious leaders” of the church today that most people believe to be the Church that Jesus said He would build. When you compare the church we see in the book of Acts with what we call the “church” today, you are hard pressed to see any resemblance. This has caused me to use the terms “Biblical Church” and “unbiblical church” to describe the two very different organizations! Actually the Biblical Church that Jesus has been building for the past 2000 years is an “organism” because it is a living thing. An organization is not a living thing, but simply a group of people who are joined together to accomplish certain worthy goals, similar to the Kiwanis Club, or some other service club. We must always remember that the True Church is composed only of people who have been “born again” by the Holy Spirit, and are “New Creatures in Christ” as described by Paul in (2 Cor 5:17)!!

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer                                               20/04/12                                                                                                   

KOINONIA

KOINONIA

 

True Christian fellowship, what the Greek New Testament calls [koinonia] is the Spirit's gift to the church. Today whenever we think of "fellowship", we associate it with coffee and sweets after a church service! This is definitely not the New Testament understanding of the word. We see this type of real fellowship in the Spirit displayed in (Acts 2:42), and referred to by Paul in several places such as (2 Cor 13:14), or (Phil 2:1). The church today is suffering a "koinonia crisis"!! Part of this crisis is due to the typical church structure, which is designed to facilitate "pulpit to pew" one way communication. There can be little or no real fellowship in this type of structure. Someone has remarked "the only fellowship we have is with the back of the head of the person sitting in the pew in front of us". In the NT church they didn't have this problem because they met in homes, in a very informal setting. Church buildings, as such, were unheard of until Constantine married the church to the Roman Empire in the fourth century. The other factor in this crisis is the fact that until people experience real koinonia, they don't know what they are missing. Some churches have "cell groups", or some type of small groups that meet in homes to facilitate this koinonia, while some people are finding it in a new move of God known as "The House Church Movement".

 

There are two dimensions involved in true koinonia, a vertical dimension of the believer's fellowship with God, and the horizontal dimension of his kononia with other believers in the Spirit. A believer can have fellowship with God by themselves alone, but not koinonia! This is only possible in the company of fellow believers who are gathered in unity. In (Matt 18:20) Jesus said "where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them". This is certainly the basis of koinonia! We could list a few things that describe real koinonia. 1/ the fellowship among believers which the Holy Spirit gives. 2/ the fellowship Christ had with His disciples. 3/ the fellowship of the early church. 4/ the earthly counterpart and foretaste of the eternal fellowship we can look forward to. 5/ it is analogous to the unity, fellowship, and communion between Christ and the Father. A quote from George Webber sums it up "No relationship of love can develop unless there are structures in which it can grow". The koinonia we have been discussing can only grow when there are structures to nourish it! So let us strive to promote those structures!

 Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer                               Revised 20/01/14                                                                                                                                    Revised 20/01/14

TWO RULES to LIVE BY

TWO RULES TO LIVE BY

 

God gave 10 commandments to Moses on the mountain (Exod 20:1-17), which were multiplied to 613 rules that religious Jews were expected to keep. These were enforced by the Pharisees during the time that Jesus lived on the earth. These were reduced to only 2 by Jesus, which He repeated several times in His teaching, as recorded in the 4 gospel accounts. They were simply, 1/ "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength", and 2/ "Love your neighbor as yourself". These are simple rules, but there is a lot more involved in keeping them than most people realize! I am slowly coming to understand what is involved since watching the "Agape Road" teaching by Bob Mumford on his DVD's. I first read his book by that title, and then listened to the audio CD's series given at a large seminar about 10 years ago, and am now enjoying the teaching much more by seeing Bob deliver the teaching in the original setting. I enjoy reading about the way Jesus replied to the Pharisees, who were the most religious crowd of Jews who were always trying to point out how Jesus didn't keep some of their religious traditions. One example of this is recorded by Matthew in his gospel (Matt 22:34-40), and then in the next chapter he records what Jesus thought of these "religious" leaders. He uses some very uncomplimentary names for these guys, like "hypocrites", "blind fools", and "whitewashed tombs"! Not the type of descriptive words you would expect to hear from the "gentle Jesus", that some people consider Him to be

 

I often wonder how He would describe the "religious leaders" of the church today that most people believe to be the Church that Jesus said He would build. When you compare the church we see in the book of Acts with what we call the "church" today, you are hard pressed to see any resemblance. This has caused me to use the terms "Biblical Church" and "unbiblical church" to describe the two very different organizations! Actually the Biblical Church that Jesus has been building for the past 2000 years is an "organism" because it is a living thing. An organization is not a living thing, but simply a group of people who are joined together to accomplish certain worthy goals, similar to the Kiwanis Club, or some other service club. We must always remember that the True Church is composed only of people who have been "born again" by the Holy Spirit, and are "New Creatures in Christ" as described by Paul in (2 Cor 5:17)!!

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer                                       20/04/12                                                                                    

THE LOCAL CHURCH

THE LOCAL CHURCH

 

I recently read a copy of "New Wine", a charismatic magazine that used to come into our home every month throughout the 70's and 80's. This copy dated July/Aug 1975 contained articles by Bob Mumford, Jack Hayford, Derek Prince, Bruce Longstreth, Michael Ford and John Poole.  All these men wrote on the common theme of "The Local Church", and I was impressed by the truth they presented from a wide variety of perspectives.

There is much the church can learn from these men some 30+ years later.

Bob Mumford---Wrote on the vision of the local church with words like,

"When we begin to see the magnitude of God's plan, we see the church as the answer to the world's problems", "Thus the body of Christ can thrive anywhere, in any society, and under any circumstances". He discusses the basic plan of God for the church under the headings of 1/ pattern, 2/ principles, 3/ power. Then he points out the seven aspects of the nature of the local church, which are, 1/ A dwelling place for God, 2/ The body of Christ, 3/ An assembly for corporate worship, 4/ A spiritual school, 5/ A hospital for wounded soldiers, 6/ A spiritual deliverance center for POW's, 7/ A spiritual home to teach people about the earth's salvation. He closes with this conclusion of a local church "There will be someone over us---someone under us---and someone beside us. And God will cement us together by His Holy Spirit. This completes the structure in any given geographical location---the Church which is His Body!" Jack Hayford---Jack calls his article "Charismatic Explosion in the Local Church". He mentions "Outward and  Inward Growth", "A Resurgence of Teaching", "A View Toward Balance", "A New Experience in Worship", and "Development of Body Ministry". He speaks much about the need for teaching and instruction to both new believers as well as older saints, with a special emphasis on discipline. He ends with this "Individuals in the body need to learn to expect loving correction, and the leaders need to learn to give it in the power of the Spirit. It will finally prove to be, I believe, the factor that keeps this explosion we have discussed as an instrument of construction rather than one of high-rise dust clouds and just so much noise!", A good word, and remember it was given over 30 years ago!!

The other articles were equally impressive and each one added to the other to give a well balanced description of what God expects from local churches that are structured and functioning according to the pattern laid out in the NT by Paul and the other NT writers!

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer                                         20/10/11                                                                           

THE CHURCH

THE CHURCH

Much has been written about the church over the years, but some of it has been confusing because of a lack of the true understanding of this term, in my opinion. When Jesus first used this term in (Matt 16:18) He was referring to "The Church" which He said He would build. There is only one "Church" (singular) in the world that has been in the process of being built since the book of Acts was written, nearly 2000 years ago. Paul, the apostle called by God to write nearly half of the NT, in his letter to the church in Ephesus, gives us the best description of this Church. Although addressed to this local church in the city of Ephesus, what he has to say about the church being "carefully joined together in Him, becoming a holy temple for the Lord. Through Him you gentiles are also being made part of this dwelling where God lives by His Spirit" (Eph 2:22), is describing something that is invisible, spiritual, and heavenly in nature. This must be kept clearly distinguished from the many local churches (plural) that have been established in various cities or localities over the years. The one true Church, that Jesus has been in the process of building, is therefore spiritual, invisible, heavenly, and eternal. The other use of this term church refers to an object which is natural, earthly, and temporal. The only thing these two diverse objects have in common is that they are both composed of "redeemed people of God". The local earthly church is one thing, often referred to in the NT as "churches" because they are many. On the other hand the "Church" is never referred to in the plural as churches, because there is only one, and can never be more than one!

 

One major problem is that often "unredeemed" individuals are allowed to "join" a local church, when they are not "born again" into the one true "Church" that Jesus is building. This should never be, but unfortunately is often the case. This is due in part to the leadership of the local churches not properly explaining the requirements of being part of the true Church. Also the fact that certain denominational churches consider anyone who has gone through their traditional requirements of "infant baptism" and "confirmation" are considered church members, even though they have not experienced salvation. Salvation, or the act of receiving Jesus Christ as your own personal Savior, is the only way anyone can be added to the Church that Jesus is building. That is the truth according to scripture, and should be followed by all the groups of people who call themselves a church!!

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer                                             20/10/11              

 

LUKE NINE TWENTY-THREE

LUKE NINE TWENTY THREE

 

This scripture is a very clear word from the lips of Jesus to the crowd that was following after Him, just after telling His disciples about the death He was soon to suffer, to die, and be raised again three days later. Check it out by reading from verse twenty one to twenty seven. What do you think He meant by telling these people that "you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross daily, and follower me"? This sounds very much like a command that He meant to be followed, in order to qualify as being a "committed follower of Jesus"! But when did you ever hear that stressed at the close of an evangelistic meeting? I have been to many such meetings but have never heard that sort of an "invitation" given. It is usually something like "come forward and repeat this prayer after me, and if you really mean it, you will be saved and spend eternity in heaven with Jesus". A prayer similar to that is called "the sinners prayer", and many people have repeated such a prayer at the close of a meeting when their emotions have perhaps been stirred by something they were told by the preacher, and they followed his instructions. But my question is—is that the same thing as Jesus is telling this crowd that were following Him that day? Just a question, that I have been caused to ask myself a few weeks or months or even years after such a "decision" was made by such a person, when they are still involved in the same old sinful lifestyle they lived before they made their decision. Something is definitely wrong with that picture in my opinion.

 

I don't consider myself as being critical, but merely being an observer of seeing many people in church circles that I have been part of over the years. My common sense would tell me that if there is no "changed life" visible after their "conversion", then they are not really a true believer in Jesus. And I would hazard a guess that a high percentage of the members in a typical "church" are in this position, but only God knows for sure because He alone knows the heart of everyone. There is so much deception that has entered the church scene lately, through "false teachers" spreading their "unbiblical doctrines", that many people are being deceived. Part of this problem is caused by even true "born again" believers who don't read their Bibles regularly, and many are not filled with the Spirit as Paul commands us to be in (Eph 5:18-20), we can only know these things by studying the scriptures. Even scriptures like the portion we are looking at today from the Gospel of Luke can easily be skimmed over without realizing the importance of the meaning of the words of Jesus, who clearly declared in (John 14:6) "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me". This is a very important scripture to know, that I would suggest should be memorized along with many others like (John 3:16-17). Once you memorize a scripture it is always there in your mind when you need it to quote to our common enemy Satan when he comes to tempt us, as he did our first parents in the Garden of Eden!!

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer                                                       18/11/13