WORSHIPING IDOLS

WORSHIPING IDOLS

There is a very interesting passage in Paul's first letter to the church in Corinth from chapter 10 we read in (1 Cor 10:14) "So, my dear friends, flee from the worship of idols." I can hear you thinking, well that doesn't apply to us followers of Jesus living in Canada! Maybe it might apply to pagans over in Africa, or East Asia somewhere, but surely not here in our civilized Western culture. I suggest you read this chapter over again slowly and really hear Paul's heart, he covers a lot of important issues. First he reminds us about what we should learn from Israel's experiences recorded in the OT. Then he talks about eating meat offered to idols, that was offered at a discounted price in the markets. He also includes a discussion about how they celebrated the "Lord's Supper", and how behind every idol is a demon, and he warned them about the danger of worshiping demons.

I recently read somewhere "An idol is anything that takes the place of God". Think about that statement for a few minutes, and consider carefully if we haven't been guilty of doing that. That word "anything" could include some "stuff", like material possessions you have accumulated, or perhaps people like parents, children or best friends, special food you like, or an endless number of other things. You probably haven't considered the possibility of there being a demon behind some of these! If Paul is correct in this statement, we should give this matter our prayerful consideration. We know from scripture that Satan hates God because he got cast out of the third heaven where God dwells, when he rebelled against God's divine will. (Isa 14:12-17). Since he is powerless to do anything directly against God, he takes out his wrath against God's children. His kingdom of darkness includes millions of demons and fallen angels, which he employs against the members of God's family. The demons are earth bound creatures, while the fallen angels still have access to the heavenlies, or the second heaven, but not to the third heaven where God dwells. Paul gives us direction in (2 Cor 10:3-6), and also in (Eph 6:10-18) how to do battle against these forces of darkness. Let us take encouragement from God's Word!
Sincerely submitted.
Dave Jamer

A WORD ON GUIDANCE

A WORD ON GUIDANCE

We talk a lot about "guidance" and our need of guidance from God in our daily walk of faith. You might be surprised if you look for this word in Strong's Concordance. You will find guide, guides, guiding, and guided, but no mention of guidance! This made me aware of how often we miss-quote the Bible in our daily expressions that we are sure is based on scripture.
It is very true that we need guidance, but this guidance comes from having a faithful guide, who will lead us in the right pathway. In the Gospels we see Jesus portrayed as the "Good Shepherd" who cares for His sheep (John 10 1-18) When these scriptures were written, shepherds were commonly seen leading their flock of sheep to and from their feeding ground, to the safety of a fold at nighttime. They never "drove" the sheep, but gently "guided" them From this we can see that although we need "guidance" in our lives, it only comes as we carefully follow the "Guide" provided by our loving Heavenly Father. This guide of course is none other than Jesus Christ!

Someone has pointed out that a "guide dog" that has been trained to lead a blind person on busy city sidewalks, is much preferable to someone shouting instructions to them from the other side of the street! They could tell the blind person to watch out for certain obstacles, but the guide dog would gently lead them around the obstacles. This is how Jesus guides us if we allow Him to. He knows all the obstacles that lie in our pathway, and how to avoid them! In other words, we need a Guide—not guidance, just as we need a Healer---not healing. We often seek after the experience that Jesus can provide, instead of seeking Him who is the source of that which we need! The Bible tells us that Jesus is seated at the right hand of God in heaven right now, but before He left this planet some 2000 years ago, to return to His Father's side, He promised to send the Holy Spirit to take His place. You can read all about this in the (John 14, 15, and 16) The first chapter of Acts continues His instructions to the disciples, and the second chapter covers the event of the promised Holy Spirit coming. So if you desire "guidance" in your life, I recommend you seek it from the only reliable "Guide" Jesus Christ. First ask Him to become your Lord and Savior, then your Baptizer in the Holy Spirit! This is certainly our Creator God's method of giving us the guidance we both desire and need as followers of Jesus today!!
Sincerely submitted
Dave Jamer                                                                        20/09/11

WORSHIPING IDOLS

CORE VALUES

By core values we mean Biblical values that form our belief system.

1/ God's written word, the Holy Bible, is infallible as written in the original languages used by the many authors involved. All our core values are based on scripture and must line up with the proper interpretation of this "Word".

2/ Jesus is the "Living Word" sent by the Father to show us Himself, and demonstrate how to interpret the Words that He spoke. Jesus came to call out from the world a group of people He referred to as the "Church". This word comes from the Greek [ecklesia] meaning "called out ones". This Church was to be His body on earth to carry out His will and instructions given from His present location in heaven at His Father's side.

3/ A proper understanding of the Kingdom of God is absolutely essential for this Church that Jesus is in the process of building from regenerated humans. This Church must have a proper understanding of the "church in a locality", and also of the "Church Universal" which is the world wide expression of the Kingdom of God. The church in a locality concept helps to foster unity in the body of Christ, and prevents competition between local churches.

4/ Every local expression of this Church must be based on the following list of Biblical qualifications 1/ salvation by grace alone. 2/ believer's baptism by immersion. 3/ the baptism with the Holy Spirit. 4/ the priesthood of all believers where everyone has access to Christ as head of His Church. 5/ servant leadership who have been set in place by the Lord as per (Eph 4:11-16, and 2 Cor 1:24). 6/ freedom of worship based on definite scriptural activities, such as singing in the Spirit, dancing in the Spirit, allowing the gifts of the Spirit to operate etc. 7/ have a definite form of discipleship training to raise up future leaders. 8/ have small home groups available to all believers to help develop proper relationships and encourage the use of the gifts of the Spirit. 9/ a priority should be given to oureach and missions, both local and worldwide. This should include teaching on returning the thithe to the Lord, and giving generous offerings as directed by Him.

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer

(this is only a rough draft copy, subject to changes and additions)

A COMMUNITY CHURCH

WORSHIPING IDOLS

There is a very interesting passage in Paul's first letter to the church in Corinth from chapter 10 we read in (1 Cor 10:14) "So, my dear friends, flee from the worship of idols." I can hear you thinking, well that doesn't apply to us followers of Jesus living in Canada! Maybe it might apply to pagans over in Africa, or East Asia somewhere, but surely not here in our civilized Western culture. I suggest you read this chapter over again slowly and really hear Paul's heart, he covers a lot of important issues. First he reminds us about what we should learn from Israel's experiences recorded in the OT. Then he talks about eating meat offered to idols, that was offered at a discounted price in the markets. He also includes a discussion about how they celebrated the "Lord's Supper", and how behind every idol is a demon, and he warned them about the danger of worshiping demons.

I recently read somewhere "An idol is anything that takes the place of God". Think about that statement for a few minutes, and consider carefully if we haven't been guilty of doing that. That word "anything" could include some "stuff", like material possessions you have accumulated, or perhaps people like parents, children or best friends, special food you like, or an endless number of other things. You probably haven't considered the possibility of there being a demon behind some of these! If Paul is correct in this statement, we should give this matter our prayerful consideration. We know from scripture that Satan hates God because he got cast out of the third heaven where God dwells, when he rebelled against God's divine will. (Isa 14:12-17). Since he is powerless to do anything directly against God, he takes out his wrath against God's children. His kingdom of darkness includes millions of demons and fallen angels, which he employs against the members of God's family. The demons are earth bound creatures, while the fallen angels still have access to the heavenlies, or the second heaven, but not to the third heaven where God dwells. Paul gives us direction in (2 Cor 10:3-6), and also in (Eph 6:10-18) how to do battle against these forces of darkness. Let us take encouragement from God's Word!

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer

A WORLD OF OPPOSITES

A WORLD OF OPPOSITES

In (Gen 1:3) we find that from the very beginning of creation God separated the darkness by sending the light. "Then God said 'let there be light' and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. Then He separated the light from the darkness. God called the light day and the darkness night". NLT. So we see that from the very start of creation we have had complete opposites, and God is able to separate between them. (Heb 4:12) This is an important principle to remember, when we consider things like we are presently seeing in the "church" today in this 21st century. One of the most important things, in my opinion, is the tremendous increase of "deception", in church circles. Those who have been around for quite a few years are perhaps more apt to detect this, because although deception has been part of the church since the fourth century, it has never been as bad as we have seen since the start of this century. Of course the reason for that was foretold by Jesus in the twenty fourth chapter of Matthew's account of the gospel.

The closer we come to the return of Christ, the more "false prophets" will appear with new exciting teachings, accompanied with false signs and wonders that will deceive many! (not just a few). In (2 Cor 11:3-4, 12-15) we see clearly from Paul, who was trusted by God with many special revelations about the church, how our enemy Satan will come with his false prophets to teach things that are opposite to what Paul had taught them. So this should not surprise us, if we read and heed what God tells us in His Word. After all that is why He had it recorded, by choosing men to record what He wanted us to know, for such times as this. (2 Tim 3:16-17). If you check the records, you can trace this increase in "false" prophets back to the appearance of certain "prophets" in the early '90's. From their influence there was created a "prophetic movement" that has spread its influence around the world by way of modern technology! Its not hard to realize that it has been centered around Kansas City, and certain of the men who have become well known have started their ministry from there. It is not my intention to point out certain individuals as false prophets or apostles, but I know from experience that whenever there is a "real genuine" anything there is certain to be "counterfeits" of it raised up. Counterfeit $100.00 bills is an example, as well as "knock offs" of expensive watches, or other popular objects. Why should we be surprised that Satan would try to bring forth counterfeits of something that God has established, like His Kingdom!!
Sincerely submitted.
Dave Jamer

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

FITTING TOGETHER PERFECTLY

FITTING TOGETHER PERFECTLY

In Paul's letter to the church he had planted in the city of Ephesus, in chapter 2 we see the secret to the proper structure of a local church. I have been looking for a local church for years, in which I felt I "fit". I was even part of a small "church" for 10 years in which I didn't fit, even though I was supposed to be the quote "pastor" at the time! But because, at that time I didn't have a proper concept of God's plan for church structure, it was not a good experience either. Thank God for His patience with us followers of Jesus, in showing us that becoming a spiritually mature person is a "process" and not an "event". Because I have been a "slow learner", it has taken me over 20 years to even start to understand the process. Now I'm too old, and because of the physical effects of this process, can only pass on to younger generations what I have learned in this process. And because we all were created with a free will, with which to make choices, what I write will only be understood by those who will read and heed what I offer.

As I now see this problem of not fitting into a local church structure, is not only the fact that the structure is not scripturally correct, but that we haven't been taught what we should have been. This falls back to the spiritual leaders we were under when we were "saved", who should have "disciplined" us as Paul did his converts! We naturally understand discipline as something we receive when we disobey some certain command given us by our parents, or anyone in a place of authority over us. But what about a situation where those people who are placed in this place of authority over us fail to carry out their God given task?, and when you add to that the fact that in some cases those who should be giving the instructions don't know what their task consists of?  Then we have a "real problem", and I suggest that this is the basis of our problem with local churches!

The answer to this problem is a simple one really, we all need to get "back" to the Bible. And this goes for our spiritual leaders, as well as their church members, who should both be followers of Jesus! His directions for living a life here on earth, that not only is meant to prepare us for Eternal Life in heaven, but also a life that will please Father God now! After all is said and done, is that not what this life on earth is all about?
Sincerely submitted.
Dave Jamer'