1. The beach, the barbie and a book speak summer. For those in the other hemisphere, get cosy by the fire with a hot chocolate and a good read! (Sorry, we can’t ship overseas from NZ. Get your copy on Book Depository or Amazon.)
2. Good books grow faith in Jesus. Edify your friends and family. Want a page-turner? Try King Solomon’s Deadly Legacy. Need to inspire your friends? The Seven Seals of the Holy Spirit will challenge their comfort zone. Stuck for a gift for a teenager? Flies in a Window. Need a miracle? Heal the Sick! is filled with testimonies.
3. Give a memorial of Reinhard Bonnke, who died last Christmas. We have discounted stock including Time is Running Out by Bonnke, and Harvest Joy, a glorious coffee-table record. All proceeds go to CfaN.
4. We’re offering crazy prices. Up to 50% off! There’ll never be another time like it.
5. Tough job sorted. Something for everyone in one place. Save shoe leather and mad crowds.
6. Unlike chocolate in our household, a book lasts. It can be re-read, recommended, shared, discussed, and chewed over.
Is your channel-surfing age imposing its culture on your views of eternity? I’m told the attention span of the modern couch potato is four seconds. If it isn’t grabbed by then, down goes the thumb on the remote.
Photo: Piotr Cichosz, Unsplash
(If you are still reading, either this is riveting or you don’t qualify for the couch potato Olympics.)
But is that remote coloring your perceptions of death? Is it, as many believe, no more than a short two-minute commercial between channels? Reality TV today, Superman tomorrow— with a rather unpleasant break called ‘Death’ in between.
Reincarnation declares we come around again as something or someone else. The idea that my chicken dinner may have been Great-Granny leaves me speechless, to say nothing of Granny-less, and probably dinner-less. I simply cannot swallow that one.
And yet we are all too quick to run from what may happen, because of the implications, not for then but for now. For none of us know what death will be like, because none of us have been there and lived to tell the tale. We must guess, or take it on Better Authority.
Better Authority tells us we shall meet our Maker, who will judge us according to what we have done. That makes us uncomfortable, because it implies changing our behaviour now. Uncomfortable perhaps, but at least it makes sense.
Others, desperate to avoid that commercial, thumb the remote to the Self channel, the Science channel, the Religion channel, the Sex & Drugs channel, the Astral channel, the Horoscope channel, even the Magic channel.
The trouble is, life only has one channel, and this is it. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father, except by me.” So don’t keep switching channels. For He’ll be back, right after this.
“I wonder how they’re doing back home?” I caught myself saying the other day. England has suffered badly with Covid, with still no sign of relief. We have friends there who’ve recovered from the virus.
My wife and I moved to New Zealand in 2005. Surely, it’s home by now? How long do we live in a place before it becomes more than a residence? The distant British Isles remain the home-country for generations of Scots and Irish settlers.
Maybe home is not where we live after all
We lived in Buenos Aires for a year. Home was a tenth-floor apartment—a haven from the thirteen million Porteños, until terrorists bombed the nearby Israeli embassy one Sunday, while we ate lunch.
Home in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, was a duplex penthouse commanding dramatic views over the city from its roof-top swimming pool. In Porto Alegre, we stuffed newspaper in the window gaps to keep out the snow. All were home. For a while.
Perhaps home is our birthplace? Visiting family last year, we returned to my village, Ebbesbourne Wake, in Wiltshire. I was born in a thatched cottage across the street from the Horseshoe Inn. “Hello, John,” the publican said, “Nice to see you home.”
It didn’t feel home—we’d drawn a line under it when we sold the farm there thirty years ago. So where is my home?
When we surrender to Jesus as our Lord, we become aliens and strangers here on earth. We’re called to another city; the city of the living God; to thousand upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly; to the church of the firstborn.
For home is not where we live—it’s where we belong.
My home is neither New Zealand nor England. My home is in heaven.
Jesus came to show us the Father. He preached the gospel, cast out demons, raised the dead, and healed the sick.
He also said, “I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you” (John 13:15). Am I a disciple? Then shouldn’t I do what Jesus did, and not what he didn’t?
Ann has her eyes open, is focused, and not praying, just trusting Jesus.
What Jesus didn’t do
* He never asked the Father to heal.
* He never used angels.
* He never set conditions: “If you do this first, I’ll heal you.” He sometimes brought correction AFTER healing (see John 5:14).
* He never said any sickness, person, or situation was too hard.
* He never said healing wasn’t the Father’s will.
He healed all who came or were brought to Him: tax-collectors, sinners, hypocrites, Pharisees, idolaters, unbelievers, doubters, you and me!
What he did
1) He laid hands on people: “When the sun was setting, the people brought to Jesus all who had various kinds of sickness, and laying His hands on each one, He healed them” (Luke 4:40). This is the simplest method, and He used it even when faith levels were low.
2) He commanded: He spoke to the sickness, demons, ears, eyes, sick person—the “mountains.” He didn’t pray about them but used His authority. We should do the same and expect the same results. Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked (John 5:8-9).
3) He spoke a word: Jesus said to the royal official (John 4:49), “You may go. Your son will live.” The fever left at that moment. Peter said to Aeneas, “Jesus Christ heals you” (Acts 9:34).
4) He used faith triggers: He spat, made mud, put His fingers in ears, sent ten lepers to the priests, and told the man born blind to wash in the pool of Siloam. Obedience releases faith. (If the Lord prompts you to do something unusual, ask permission!)
5) He used words of knowledge: A father brought his epileptic son to Jesus. “You deaf and mute spirit,” He said, “I command you, come out of him and never enter him again” (Mark 9:25). Only the Holy Spirit could have shown Jesus the root cause of the problem.
6) He persevered: In Bethsaida, people brought a blind man to Jesus (Mark 8:22-26.) He led him out of the village, spat on his eyes, laid hands on him, and asked if he could see. He could see a little. Jesus laid hands again! We are often guilty of expecting instant results. Healing is a process.
7) He leaked! The people all tried to touch him because power was coming from Him and healing them all (Luke 6:19). People have been healed walking into our meetings. We are filled with the same Holy Spirit as Jesus!
Which method to use?
Use the one prompted by the Holy Spirit or try the order above. You will need faith, but God wants all people well, and he wants you to minister his healing. Go for it!
