Ronald's Weblog

Will unity bring revival?

Historians tell us that around the year 100 AD there were about 20,000 Christians. They were a minority group that at its best was tolerated and at its worst severely persecuted. About 210 years later, when Constantine was in power, Christianity was no longer a minority group, but numbered around 20 million.

We see the same scenario in China. In 1950, before Mao introduced communism, there were about 4 million Christians, if you also include Catholics. According to a survey done in 1993, they estimated that today there are over 41 million Protestant Christians in China.

The speed of growth in these two examples is of course extraordinary and I do believe we have a lot to learn from both of them, but I think there is an interesting point to be made here when it comes to Christian unity.

God's promise or God's presence

I was at a good meeting yesterday where Sam Monk was talking. During the meeting he read from Exodus chapter 33 in the context of not wanting God's promises more than you want His presence.

Exodus 33:1-3
Then the LORD said to Moses, “Leave this place, you and the people you brought up out of Egypt, and go up to the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, saying, ‘I will give it to your descendants.’ I will send an angel before you and drive out the Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. Go up to the land flowing with milk and honey. But I will not go with you, because you are a stiff-necked people and I might destroy you on the way.”

God keeps His word, and if He had promised the people of Israel the land that was flowing with milk and honey, He was going to give it to them. God still keeps His word, and the things He has promised He will do. The big question is: “Is God's promises more important to us than His presence?”.

Do we have the heart of Moses?

Exoduce 33:15
Then Moses said to him, “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here.

You can use the principals in God's word and attain God's blessings, but do you love the blessings more than you love the blesser? Is you're heart focusing more on what God has promised to give you, then just spending time with Him?

Also when it comes to ministry I believe it's easy to run with the vision God has given you, and in the process loose the presence of God. Not because you don't love God, but because you so eagerly want to see what God has showed you. In you're eager you equal achieving what God has showed you, with God's presence – just as Moses easily could have equal coming to the promise land with being close to God.

I have decided that I want God's presence more than anything else. I want to have an obedient heart that longs to worship Him... and I hope you do to!

 

Mission 2 France

Now we have finally arrived in Aubergenville, France and started the campaign. We came a few days ago, and had one meeting with the church the day after we arrived. The Sunday we spent socializing with the church, and today we have been doing preparation for campaign that starts tomorrow.

The first meeting we had Saturday evening was very strong, and many people got touched by the message. I preached about having an obedient heart like David and not to be like Saul that did not carefully follow the instructions God gave him.

The team did a great job with both music and drama; and God confirmed His word with sign and wonders. People got prophetic words, there where words of knowledge and some of the team members go so touched by the Holy Spirit, that the rest of the team had problems sleeping :-)

I am very surprised to see that there are many in this town who speak english. The first day we arrived, me and Michael met some young people sitting in a park. We asked if they knew some english, and to our surprise almost all of them spoke good english. They were unfortunately not from this town, so I don't think we will see them at the campaign, but we had a long and good talk with them. They had many questions, and we were able to share the gospel with them.

Tomorrow we will start with the children's meeting, but we have been told by the church not to be surprised if the police comes asking us to leave. In France they have a law that makes it very hard to have evangelism outside. But our God is great and no weapon formed against us shall prosper, so we believe that God will protect us and keep away people who want to cause problems.

The evening meetings will start at Wednesday, so from Wednesday on we will have both children's meetings during the day and evening meetings. This means that some hectic days are coming. But I'll try to write more the following days, to keep you updated on what is happening, but please stand with us in prayer.

 

Something to fall back on

There are a lot of attitudes, inherited from one generation to another, that through the course of time end up seeming so normal to us that we would never consider to evaluate them. They are so obviously true that even daring to question them would make most people doubt your mental health, or think of you as some kind of fanatic. But some of these attitudes are wrong, and history teaches us that we can be thankful for people who have dared to think differently.

Where are the pioneers

In the book of Acts chapter 8 we read about the start of the persecution of the Christians in Jerusalem, and it actually gives us a great image of the first Christians. There is a verse that I particularly like, and that is verse 4 where it says:

“Those who had been scattered, preached the word wherever they went.”

This peak into the daily life of the first Christians shows us a great deal about their attitude towards life. No matter what happened, where they were or what brought them there, they talked about Jesus.

As you read on in chapter 8, the picture becomes clearer as Philip comes on the scene.

“Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Messiah there. When the crowds heard Philip and saw the signs he performed, they all paid close attention to what he said. For with shrieks, impure spirits came out of many, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed. So there was great joy in that city. (Acts 8:5-8)”

Philip is a clear biblical example of a true pioneer. Persecution had forced him to move, and now that he had come to a new town, the first and most natural thing to do was to start proclaiming Jesus as the Messiah.

How did he draw a crowd and make people listen?

The solution was simple and did not require an expensive sound equipment. Neither did he need to hire a popular band, get a celebrity to attend his meetings or use lots of money on a large scale advertisement campaign.

What he did was to start healing the sick and cast out demons; the rumor spread quickly and soon big crowds paid close attention to what he was saying.

August the 8^th this year we are starting up a new pioneer school, simply because there is an urgent need for pioneers. People who talk about Jesus wherever they go. People who don't need a worship band singing hallelujah in the background to perform miracles. People who are able to start a church without having a start-up crowd of 100 people.

Europe needs Jesus, and Jesus needs disciples who know Him. Disciples who have no other agenda in life than to serve Him. Disciples who know how to operate in the supernatural dimension of God, like the first disciples.

The harvest is ready, now let us pray the Lord of the harvest to send out his pioneers!

Back in Denmark and getting ready for France

So, we're back in Denmark again after a long drive, but we where lucky when it comes to both traffic and weather so it was easy driving all the way. The first day we managed to drive though Poland and ended in a hotel close to Berlin.

We came to the hotel quite early, so we decided to go out and find a place to eat. To my big surprise I discovered that Germany is not so modern when it comes to the use of credit cards. I don't know how many places we checked, but in non of the could I pay with my VISA card. Finally we had to find a cash dispenser, take out cash and ended up eating at an indian restaurant.

It's good to be back again, but I can feel that need more rest than I used to after long drives. A few hours after coming home, I when to the church's men's meeting and yesterday I had some graphic work I needed to have done, before Kasia and I should tell about our trip in our church's senior gathering. So today I have decided to try and take the day more or less off.

Next week the church summer camp will start, where we will have Ingebjørg and Sveinung from Euromission Norway visiting. I'm really looking forward to that and believe it will be a great time. Right after that we are going to Franc on a mission trip with Euromission, and on our way back we are planning to visit the church in Nakskov.

Then we will attend another summer camp, have some day's of, and then I will be speaking at another summer camp in Løkken. It will be a quite busy summer, but after the summer camp in Løkken, we are going to have some days of rest in Norway.

When we come back, there will be busy days waiting us, since the Pioner school is scheduled to start the 8^th of August. We already have a poweteam signed up for the tree first months, so I have great expectations for the months to come.

A call for simplicity

There is a lot of talk today about the need for pastors and leaders to get better equipped, and with the danger of maybe being misunderstood I would like to challenge some of our ideas when it comes to a leaders education.

I believe in education and the leaders need to take heed to his own life (1. Tim 4:6), but when you look at Paul's letters Timothy and Titus, they focus much more on lifestyle than on doctrine. In a later blogpost I believe I will write more about the content of Paul's letters to Timothy and Titus, so I will not write so much about that now. Let me just say that I believe that the pastoral letter is actually written to all believers, and that every Christian is a potential leader.

The great commission that Jesus gave us in Matthew 28 is a commission given to every believers and the focus of it is making disciples. To make someone a disciple is leadership and if the great commission then is given to all believers, then all believers have a call to leadership.

You might object and point out that not everyone is qualified to be a leader, and I totally agree with you. That is why God have given us the pastoral letters (1.-2. Timothy and Titus). In the body of Christ there will always be new believers, and for the more mature Christians to be worth following they need to take heed to their way of life.

The goal should be that the new believers will grow and mature to the point where they can lead others. My friend Ania from Poland pointed out to me yesterday that in Hebrews 5:12 the writer of the epistle is saying to the believers that: “In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers”. This is not written only to leaders but to believers.

But what are the leaders supposed to teach us?

According to Matthew 28 we are to teach disciples to obey everything Jesus have commanded, and to be effectively in this I believe people needs to see it in our life. I believe people will learn more from what they see in us, than what they hear through us.

The question then is: “What do they see in us?”. Do they see obedience to Christ or a professional in handling church affairs? These two don't have to be opposites, but I think we have to admit that in leadership training there is a bigger focus on practical church affairs than on obedience to Christ.

Practical church affairs would be a lot easier if more Christians where devoted disciples with a burning passion for Christ. But for the new saved to learn this, they need to see it, and since many leaders often are more busy with church affairs, then with showing people a burning passion for Christ, we create an evil circle; and we'll continue until someone steps out of the circle and start to do something different.

What the first believers saw in the first disciples was a burning passion for Jesus and an obedience to what He had been teaching them. The result was new disciples which followed what they had seen, and this kept multiplying until people started to focus more on formality. In the Darby translation of the Bible Acts 2:46 says that the believers met with simplicity of heart, but as the movement Jesus started turned in to a religion this was lost.

I believe Europe can be brought back to God, but it will not happen through formalized religion, but through a Jesus movement who follows Christ with a simplicity of heart and a burning passion their Lord and Master, Jesus Christ.

 

Your passion is where your heart is

If you ask Christians today if they would prefer to watch at movie, or to spend an hour in prayer and worship, that sad truth is that many would go for the movie. Even more would go for the movie if the alternative was reading the Bible and this is actually very alarming. Why? Because the reason they would go for the movie is most likely because they like watching a movie better than spending time with God.

I know it's a quite uncomfortable truth for many, but it does not change the fact that we do prioritize the things we like best, or the things we feel are important. Most people prioritize work before leisure, because we feel that work is more important than leisure. After all, if we did not work, we would not afford to do what we like to do in our leisure time.

Jesus said in Matthew 6:21 that “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” and it's not so hard to discover where people have their hearts. Just take a look at the things they are willing to spend time and money on.

Art is not one of my passions, and neither do I enjoy horse riding. The result is that I don't use any money on art, and I don't spend any time riding horses. Maybe you like one or both of the things mentioned, and if so I'm pretty sure you spend on it.

 

Being a Christian should equal have Jesus as your passion

Being a Christian should be having Jesus as our passion. If we really understand our own depravity, His love for us and His sacrifice on the cross, how could we not have Him as our passion.

I believe that the reason why so many rather would watch a movie, than reading the Bible is because they have not really met God. They might be saved, but how can anyone meet the creator of the universe and not be totally changed?

When we get born again there should happen a change when it comes to our passions.

Ezekiel 36:26-27
I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.

In Ezekiel 36 God is saying that when we get a new heart He would move us to follow His decrees. Jesus said that where our treasure is, that is where our heart is, and getting a new heart should result in a changes of passions.

This does not mean that all passions that don't fall under the category of prayer and bible reading is wrong, but they should definitely be among our passions. If our choices shows that these things are among our low priorities, then there are good reasons to question where we really have our heart.

I think it's time to listen to Paul:

2. Corinthians 13:5
Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test?