TEXT: ‘Seek the Lord while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near’ (Isaiah 55:6). The Bible records the last two named “people encounters” Jesus had before His trial and crucifixion. They happened at Jericho, shortly before His triumphant entry into Jerusalem. These form the basis for Today’s Teaching. Our text urges us to, ‘Call upon Him while He is near!’ As Jesus passed through Jericho, He spoke to Zacchaeus and as He left the city, He passed by Bartimaeus. What can we learn from their encounters with Jesus, the mighty Son of God? 1. They were excluded from normal life A. Zacchaeus – because he was hated (See Luke 19:1-10) He worked for the enemy, the Romans, and cheated his own people. He could never sleep easy, nor mingle freely with the crowds for fear of being attacked. He would always have been surrounded by personal bodyguards and Roman soldiers to protect him. This form of exclusion was entirely his own making. B. Bartimaeus – because he was blind (See Mark 10:46-52) Zacchaeus had great wealth but Bartimaeus had nothing and begged to survive. Some would throw him a coin every time they passed by, others would ignore his cry for alms, tired of seeing him sat...
Learn MoreMission to Rwanda: October 10th – 21st 2022 On Monday my flight left the UK at 6:00am via Amsterdam, arriving in Kigali at 7:15pm. It was a blessing to discover I did not need to purchase a visa. Eric, my conference coordinator was there to meet and transport me to my accommodation, the Saint Paul Centre in Kigali. Not much talking as I was tired from travelling. Eric came for lunch the next day and we went through the itinerary. Tuesday 5.00pm I spoke at the Source of Deliverance Church in Kigali. The pastor was amazed that God had given me a very similar message to the one he had preached the previous Sunday. There was a good response to God’s Word and in particular to the mission statement of Recovery Ministries, ‘Without fail you will recover all’. It was a blessing to see faith levels rise to the challenge and get back what the devil had taken. 4:00pm on Wednesday I preached at the Calvary Wide Fellowship in Kigali. The church uses a hired building while theirs is being renovated. It was wonderful to see almost every seat taken. The congregation was very responsive and many stood in response to the appeal. Leaders’ Conference, Gisenyi Thursday we travelled...
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TEXT: ‘You say you have faith, for you believe that there is one God. Good for you! Even the demons believe this, and they tremble in terror’ (James 2:19 NLT). In Part 1, we studied three key truths about the devil. Satan knows who Jesus really is Satan knows he cannot go beyond what God has allowed him to do Satan will know when his time of freedom is about to end In Part 2, we will consider four more things Satan knows, and more importantly, Christians need to know that he knows them, for it will help them to stand strong in the times of testing and temptation. 4. Satan knows that when Christians resists him, he has to flee – ‘Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you’ (James 4:7) So often illustrations depict Satan towering over the cowering Christian, but the truth is the complete opposite. By submitting to God, we can resist Satan and he has to flee from us. Christians talk up the devil and talk down their God and themselves as believers, when they should do the reverse. Having had an unpleasant and frightening experience of an evil spirit when showing an interest in spiritualism (just a few...
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