S.O.S ?

This morning as I opened my emails and responded to them I did something that I normally don’t do. I tuned in to a (used to be) local Christian radio station. They now have a “Harp and Bowl” ministry they seem to be promoting. It is supposed to be taken from Revelation Chapter 5. According to the men promoting this they say that It is the blending of worship, the harp, and and prayer, the vial or bowl…I think. According to the two men discussing this ministry they indicated sound and light were instrumental in the connection between God and the believer with this “harp and bowl ministry”. If you do a study of church history you’ll find this is not a new thing being reported. The Greek heathen philosopher Plato was one of the first to proclaim that light and sound, especially colored light and selected “mood” music will get an emotional response that can be used as a tool for manipulation. Thus the infusion of stained glass, dim lighting and music to move the emotion of gathering crowds. In a lot of so called Christian gatherings there is more awe and credence given to the process of what is know as coming into His presences (worship) as His actual presence. I say that because when the lights come up and the music stops or changes so do the participants.There also seems to me to be an unbalanced amount of time spent in prayer as opposed to the amount of time spent being the answer to prayers. These problems have been multiplied since Plato because a lot of Christianity is based on what we “feel” and the setting we have been taught it takes to hear and see the presence of God. This teaching is nothing more than adding just something else to what God is looking for and expecting from us if we are to be good little followers of tradition and living our lives symbolically for Him. He is not looking a harp and a bowl for sound and light or any other symbol, we hve the real thing no more symbols!!! He is simply looking for an open vessel to pour Himself into and lavish His love on so that He can be taken and shown to every creature every where. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Falling Deeper In Love With Him,

Babu Lonnie

Matt 18:20 For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. I actually saw the reality of that scripture today in my yard under the umbrella at our picnic table. But what I saw was this whole passage. We quote this verse so many times and quote it completely out of context.  You have to start in Matt 18:15 ¶ Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. 16 But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. 17 And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican. Nobody likes this part of the passage but this is the subject that brings us brought to this wonderful verse 20 that we do love to quote as one of our “power” verses. Actually it is powerful when two or three people can get together and not put on some kind of show for each other and yes even let their faults be seen so that true biblical healing can occur. (James 5:16 Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.) The last half of this passage in Matt. 18 is the part we like so we don’t use or apply the discipline with love for the brethren. We just want to quote the following verses and cast out demons, tear down territorial strongholds and demolish family curses with the magic of these words. Matt 18:18 Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. 19 Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. 20 For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. The things that are bound and loosed are the forgiveness we apply to the brethren. And my long rambling point is if we, as the body of Christ, would spend more time just in groups of two or three without some religious agenda or a show to put on we wouldn’t be faced with most of the issues of brethren trespassing against brethren…we would stay in harmony and at peace with one another and we could take down our “NO TRESPASS” signs and get on with the work of the Kingdom. Which in my estimation is doing good and relieving the pressure of those who are being oppressed by the devil, starting with the household of faith. Hope this makes as much sense to you as it did to me when I wrote it!!! Weird evening. Great Day!!! By the way the gathering around the picnic table was not out of an issue of trespass it was gathering of love, mercy and grace and if I could encourage every follower of Christ to find you a good picnic table gathering at least once a week. I’ll assure the trespass issues will become fewer and fewer.It doesn’t have to even be a picnic table!!!

Babu Lonnie

Acts 10:38 How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him. This verse is so powerful and we miss the simplicity of  it. It is Luke describing the body of Christ to the body of Christ. The word anointed means  “to furnish what is needed” , so God furnished His own flesh with what it needed to accomplish the mission it was sent for. Let’s see, hum… doing good seems to top the list but if we talk about doing good today we are considered to be steeped in legalisms or either we are not the evangelical Christian we are supposed to be. Doing good is not a sideline of our following Christ, it should be one of our primary reasons for being. We have made “winning the lost” our primary focus when in fact that was not the thrust of the early church. The “lost” were coming in because of what they were seeing and hearing from the followers of Christ. Their lives were primarily given for each other, (the household of faith), and from there they went out and did good. Until we return to the basics of our walk as followers of Christ and that is loving and taking care of each other we will never be able to “do good” and “relieve the pressure” from those who are being pressed by the devil. We first must learn to do good and relieve pressure from “the brethren”  before we can successfully minister to a world that is crying for help. And here we sit as the flesh of God on earth today, furnished with what is needed to accomplish what we were sent for. A journey from here to there is why we were sent and lives should be given to influence as many lives as possible for His Kingdom on the way. Hey here’s a neat idea, start just trying doing good, worked for that other guy!!! Till later.

Babu

I know I mention my friends, Johnny & Kate Brooks,  in Africa a lot but they are friends who are friends in deed and in need. I am going to ask a favor of my readers and supporters. With the economy the way it is and as tight as money seems to be at this time another appeal for funds is something most folks don’t want to hear but if you can at all please help. A regular monthly tax deductible donation of any size is needed and will be greatly appreciated. The ministry to orphans, the sick and dying continues to expand and now the necessary help being provided for teenage pregnancies has been added to the ministry list. For further information you can leave a comment on this blog site or make checks or money orders payable to “Kenya Fund” and send them to 713 West First Street Beaver Dam, Kentucky 42320 or use paypal at heavy50@juno.com Thank you for your consideration of this very worthwhile ministry. It is fertile soil for your Kingdom investments. The dividends are out of this world!!!

Babu

Well I’m back to finish up my thoughts on the following verse. I have either confused a lot of folks or nobody is reading because I have had no comments in a while. Here we go!!! Luke 4:18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,
19 To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. Today we look at the final clause in this passage. “To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.” Most folks seem to see this as a future event as pointing to the day of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will return for His Bride. I don’t think so, I think He was referring to the day He made the supreme sacrifice and placed His precious blood on the mercy seat in heaven and made a way for mankind to be “accepted” into a relationship with God. That is a message of Good News!!! We have been preaching a”Jesus is coming soon” message so fervently for such a long time that we have missed preaching a fervent message of Jesus has already come and paid the price for us to be accepted now and when He does return. I do believe in an imminent return of Jesus Christ for His Bride and I don’t know the year that will happen, but I do know historically the year that the blood of Jesus was accepted as payment for sin in heaven and at that moment in time I was afforded the possibility of being accepted. Preach people preach…That year when God accepted the sacrifice and because of the payment we too can be accepted. Thank God for that “acceptable year of the Lord”. Till He returns preach it!!!

Babu

Luke 4:18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, 19 To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. We are approaching the end of this passage of scripture and my prayer is that the spirit of the Living God has spoken to your heart about “The Gospel”. Today we are going to look at the portion that deals with “to set at liberty them that are bruised”. A very interesting part of the gospel. and is one that is often never incorporated into our practices. We are good at placing bruises but rarely are we concerned about relieving the pressure or pain of bruises. A bruise occurs when there is a crushing or pressing of the flesh to the point of separating the blood from it’s vessels and causing a noticeable a mark. It is our calling as preachers of the gospel to offer freedom and deliverance from such. We have been so guilty of separating the blood from our message to the flesh and made some terrible marks on humanity that must be relieved if we are to be true carrier’s of this gospel message. Dr. Oliver Green used to say, “It’s the blood of Jesus plus or minus nothing that gains you eternal life”. We bruise humanity with an ugly mark of legalism when we preach any other gospel than the old bloody one from Calvary. It is now our responsibility to apply the full gospel to relieve the pressure and pain of these ulgly marks we have left on humanity with our message of the partial gospel of eternal life only and no thought of the life here and now. Till we finish this passage….

Babu

Luke 4:18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, 19 To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. Moving right along with this text today the next portion of “The Gospel” we are to continue to preach as the body that houses God on earth today is: “recovering of sight to the blind”. Most of of has been taught or just assumed that this was the opening of blind eyes. On closer examination we discover that the message preached is not what opens eyes, the message is recovering or bringing forward what the eyes see. Then it is up to the individual as to whether to open their eyes to what they have heard. We have been accustomed to preaching a supernatural opening of eyes when in fact the  message “to” the blind is what is supernatural. All we can offer is the possibility of recovering what is seen. We have disappointed many people with claims we do not fulfill. What needs to be recovered is this, if they choose to open their eyes to the message we must show them a real live Jesus living in and through the ones proclaiming the message. We are the vehicle or vessel God uses today to recover sight of Him to a blind world. It is not enough to merely speak His Word, we must be His Word that has once again become flesh and living among men. Till LATER…….

Babu

Luke 4:18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, 19 To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. We will continue this morning to look at the full gospel message which the gospel of “deliverance” is an important part. We may have mis used this all to often needed good news by placing it as a message for only the non believer when in fact it must first be preached to the house of God. We must first preach pardon, forgiveness and freedom from the bonds of religion or the mess we are seeing people brought into is yet more bondage and the cycle continues. There is also an aspect of this deliverance that is possibly overlooked. When deliverance is offered to those who have received Christ and have the gift of eternal life. Does God take back the offer, or is it still extended even if we believers don’t accept it and continue to be bound by religion, by habits ect. In other words does that have anything to do with the fact that God has given us eternal life? I think not! We have been conditioned to believe that every believer has to follow the same set of rules or standards for their individual lives and that just isn’t true. We have the same standard for eternal life and that is receiving The Lord Jesus Christ, but the working out of our own salvation with fear and trembling is another story altogether. Again I remind you where these statements of Jesus were made, in a gathering of Gods people. Deliverance must be preached to the house of God before we can go chasing demons to cast out. The point of these posts are to proclaim that there is so much more to “the gospel” than we have been led to believe. It is more than a message of eternal life only, what about life today. Till next time.

Babu

Luke 4:18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, 19 To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. I am continuing to look at this “gospel” message that Jesus said He had been supplied to accomplish. What is this message of healing the broken hearted? The thing that is prominent for me is the fact He says “sent to heal” the brokenhearted. That word for heal is to make whole or complete. I believe that we are to heal those whose hearts have been broken or crushed by religion and the world system be made complete by offering them and exposing them to the unconditional love of God. Please remember where Jesus was when He made this statement, He was in a meeting of Gods people. There are untold millions of believers who have had their hearts broken  or crushed and need to be healed. This message is not to the non believer till we get healed, we are trying to dispense something we don’t have ourselves. Every gathering of Gods people should have a healing revival, not this weird non biblical stuff that is being proclaimed but a true biblical healing of our hearts. If no one ever gets up out of a wheelchair or a bed of sickness you can still have an effective healing revival. The church must start with a heart healing revival and God just may bless us with the other healing a well. Matt 12:34b for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. And remember  Prov 23:7a For as he (man) thinketh in his heart, so is he: It seems eternal life and life here and now is a heart issue, if they’re broken…let’s heal em’.

Babu

Luke 4:18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,c19 To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. Before reading any further please read yesterdays post. The message that Jesus mentioned first was “the gospel to the poor”. There is more to Christianity than eternal life, there is life here and now. There will be no “poor” people in heaven so this must be a here and now message. What good news could there possibly be for the poor right now? Glad you asked. What about the good news that there is a new body that houses God called the church and that His body wants to provide for, protect and unconditionally love the poor. Wow that is good news to and for the poor, only one problem, most of what we are calling His body on earth today has skipped straight to the good news of eternal life and are more interested in satisfying our need to be pampered. Preaching (a lifestyle) that ministers to the poor is very costly and most of us would rather lead someone down the old familiar Romans Road bow their heads , pray a little prayer and end our obligation so there will be no “blood on our hands”. Unfortunately our good news as we are preaching it to the poor is not working out very well for them. If you don’t believe me, go to Africa with me on my next trip…come and see. I also have very dear friends who live in Africa, one of our concerns is all the non biblical spew that these evangelical Christians are bringing to Africa. A lot of sermons but very few suppers served or homes provided with love. Until next time.

Babu