Repeatedly I am confronted by people who claim to be disciples of Jesus, but all they want to talk about is their right to gather in a building and do their thing. Religion buildings do not come from God. The early Church did not build. The Roman Emperor Constantine (and his wife, and his Mother especially) started that in AD332. Buildings follow the pattern of his throne room, not heaven. The early Church believed what Jesus said, “Go and preach…teaching…” Paul made it clear that our bodies “are the temple of God”, not bricks and mortar. The cross, the centre of Christian living, has been displaced with religious rituals. Jesus died. Where is the life of sacrifice modelled by the Saviour? Jesus said, “Take up your cross every day…”, but in North America Christians take up their protest and placards and selfish interpretations of what is really important. When the early disciples said, “We must obey God rather than human regulations” it was because they were told to stop evangelizing, not gathering for religious worship! How does self-centred demands for personal traditions of worship teach God’s love or preach Good News that we can be forgiven and have eternal life?! Paul preached in the market place, beside the river (in Philippi), in prison (!!). Is it the poor and homeless and patients in ER with infections who are demanding their rights? No, it is those who live a life of privilege instead of the cross!! Do you want to be known as people who have been with Jesus (Acts 4:13), then start witnessing to the love and kindness of God, not whining about government rules that are designed to save lives. People of faith should not need a secular government to tell them to care more about others’ safety than personal dogma.

My calling from God urges me to say this: from the earliest days of the Church believers were convinced that the signs of the times pointed to the return of Jesus in short order.

In these days people are talking about the end of the world because of all the things that are happening. The end, however, has always been near.

Right now we have a virus that is sweeping across the whole world. There are locusts in east Africa and southern Asia. Climate change is turning the weather systems inside out. The civil war in Syria has focussed military/political attention into one area by superpowers and major powers and evil powers. Afghanistan and Iraq continue to demonstrate epic confrontation between major world views concerning freedom and repression.

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Humans spend a lot of effort to extend the length of stay in this life. Read more…

One of the things that strikes home as I have travelled this Lenten journey in the Suffer Ring is what constitutes persecution. Read more…

Christianity is not a spectator sport. Read more…

Jesus called the twelve, “sent them out two by two, and gave them authority over evil spirits. He instructed them to take nothing along on the trip except a walking stick. They were not to take any food, a traveling bag, or money in their pockets. They could wear sandals but could not take along a change of clothes” (Mark 6:7-9 God’s Word). Read more…

Jesus said that angels become happy when even one person repents and chooses to follow Jesus. Read more…

Those who serve Jesus obediently will be persecuted, abused, threatened and attacked. Are you in trouble for spreading the light of Jesus into the shadowy world of sin? Read more…