Harassment of Christians in Northern Ireland

An organisation that supports people with legal counsel who have got themselves on the wrong side of the law for whatever reason told me that of the six cases they are currently working with, five of them involves Christians.  These Christian people are being set up to be knocked down by others who, in the main, are 'church christians' - whatever they are?  Church people cannot stand true believers; the children of the bondwoman have never liked the children of the free woman, (Gal.4:21-31).

They have always persecuted them; and where this is seen most clearly is within the ranks of the church.  Can you imagine a "Christian" congregation working to evict a Gospel minister and his family from their home?  That happens - it is happening today in 2012, and happened to us in 1993! Can you imagine a Gospel minister's wife being so badly treated that she ends up in psychiatric hospital for four months, and he had to take time off work to look after the family, which includes a handicapped child?  That happened in 2011 in NI!  Can you imagine the use that unscrupulous people have made of a minister's family in a bid to get at the minister?  That happened to us in the 1980s, and again in 1992; and it is happening to ministers in 2012 in NI!  Can you imagine a minister and his wife being afraid to answer the telephone?  Is it possible that their hearts miss a beat when the phone rings or when the door bell goes?

How do you explain the growing number of Gospel ministers who are having to take time off because of being unable to cope with the bullying that they are experiencing within their congregations and denominations?  Why does no one in church leadership recognise that there is a massive problem within the churches caused by the number of ministers who are forced to leave their work? 

This is going on in NI, and all because the children of the bond woman are persecuting the children of the free woman.  the Gospel is not welcome in many churches today because those churches have become used to a very weak presentation of the Gospel, and have been lulled to sleep by it. They have received a small dose of the real thing, and have thereby been inoculated against the real thing.  They hear the Gospel, don't like what they hear, but know enough to know that it is what they do not want under any circumstances. 

When the Gospel of Christ arrives in some churches, the offense of the Cross intensified and made very visible.  Would that the church authorities saw exactly what is going on, and took the right action - and it is not to dismiss the minister!

Where Liberalism Leads!

The wellbeing of the Christ church on earth is largely bound up with the quality if teaching and preaching the church receives, and often tolerates.  In OT times, the pastors have divine condemnation pronounced upon them for destroying and scattering the sheep of God's pasture.  The people primarily, if not altogether, responsible for scattering the sheep are the religious leaders at every level - local church right up to national level.  What have they done?  They have scattered God's flock and driven them away, and have visited them, Jer.23:1. 

When people leave one church to go to another, we give the flimsiest of reasons for such behaviour.  They were opposed to the Gospel - and in many cases this is the truth! They fell out with the minister - and sometime this happens too.  The preaching was too hot for them to handle - sometime the reason but not always.  Seldom do church people say that the reason why Christians have been driven from one branch of the church to another is precisely because the Gospel is no longer preached there in the power of God's Spirit.  There is no visitation of God among the people.  God is not even welcome in His church on earth, and the preachers and elders make jolly sure that He is kept on the outside; after all, it is their church, not God's. 

When Christians leave one church for another, the blame must pint primarily at the minister.  What is he doing, or not doing, that caused such a move?  What is he saying or not saying that caused these believers to move elsewhere?  Why has he scattered believers to the four winds?  Why has he neglected their never-dying souls?  Why did he ensure that God was not visiting the church under his watch?

Do you know what God says about such a situation as this?  He says He will visit them with the evil of their own doings.  They do not care for the sheep, so God will show them that He will care for them and take up their cause.  He will visit upon the church the natural and unsurprising results of what they have taught the people.  Liberalism, even of the evangelical type, will bring down the judgement of God upon the church. 

Sir Malcolm Muggeridge saw from his own liberal background exactly where liberalism has led.  It has eliminated the categories that make the difference between love and non-love, write Dr Francis Schaeffer in his book Death in the City (p.46).  It has actually taken us right in the practice of 'Murder without guilt and love without meaning.'  Just look at what is happening in the world today, and you will see exactly that happening before our very eyes.  Free sex is the order of the day.  So long as people make sex 'safe,' it is OK to fornicate and adulterate.  Violent men can commit murder, and there are plenty of people who will go out of their way to explain away this horrific, because irreparable, act. 

But it has gone even further than that!  It can and has led people into the rare predicament where they can no longer tell the difference between the external world and fantasy.  The sheep are scattered and their minds are blown by pseudo-science/knowledge. 

And who have done this?  The shepherds of the sheep, pastors and ministers.  What a judgement there is that awaits them!  Even the good ministers have lost their credibility because they tolerate those who preach a non-gospel!  And they explain it away by saying that there are different views of what the Gospel is, what a Christian is, and how someone becomes a Christian. They say that maybe God has them in the church's ministry because they could reach people that the evangelical could never reach. 

What a load of poppycock!  What theological and ecclesiastical cowardice!  What acceptance of ecclesiastical apostasy!  How can they still claim to be faithful men of the Gospel when they close their pragmatic eyes to what is going on around them?  Liberalism is theological poison, it is fatal, it is utterly offensive to God, and amounts to trampling under foot the precious blood of Christ.  It makes the Bride of Christ dirty and unacceptable to Him.  That's why He has practically left her! 

Do you agree with this analysis?  Let me hear your response in the 'comments' box below.

The Book of Origins

Genesis is the Book of Origins - the origin of the universe, the origin of life and of man, the origin of sin and rebellion against God.  It places man in his cosmic setting, and shows his particular uniqueness; it also explains his wonder and his flaw.  Also, it begins to trace the flow of human history through space and time.

The sad reality today is that many no longer believe this.  Rather, they see it as a books of myths, unhistorical and unscientific, useful for understanding how the Hebrew mind sees things, but it certainly not a record of what really happened in the beginning." 

Did God create the universe out of nothing, by the word of His power?  Is man the divine image-bearer on earth? Did the Fall of man into sin and rebellion against God really happen?  If Genesis just a myth, like the Babylonian genesis or the Gilgamesh Epic?  Is it really the kind of nonsense that educated and cultured 21st century man does not believe?

What are your thoughts on this?

Every Sin Forgiven

“All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” So says Paul in Rom.3:23.  And that’s so true! We are all sinners, therefore we are no different from each other.  Whether we have done really bad things or not, is not the issue. When it was done is immaterial. Who was with us, or if we were on our own, counts for nothing. The Bible says “there is no difference; for all have sinned...”

Now, the devil knows this as well. He knows we fall short of God’s glory every day we live. That is a standard we cannot attain to in this life. That is also a daily reality for us all.

But he comes to us with all his evil cunning and seeks to bring us down by referring us back to what we have done in the past. He will say to us, “Some Christian you are! Remember the day you said that? Remember the time you did this? You’re no Christian; you’re a sham, a hypocrite, a fake. There’s no forgiveness for that, you know. No point in going to God to ask forgiveness for that!”

And he’ll torment you profoundly because he does not want you to know that “With God there is forgiveness,” (Ps.130:4). Our God, your God forgives sins! Jesus Christ came into the world to forgive sinners! And He did that by saving them! (1 Tim.1:15). He will forgive you, too.

That means that there is no point in your bemoaning what you did because that will change nothing. There’s no point in you condemning yourself for your sin, because that is a useless exercise, too. No, you must think; and you must think about what God has said, and not listen to those other voices that will tear you apart.

Do you remember the children’s hymn that we learned and sang? “There’s a wicked spirit watching o’er you still; and he tries to tempt you to all harm and ill.” That is the truth! Satan hates you! And he wants you to think that God hates you, too. But the hymn goes on: “but you must not hear him, tho’ ‘tis hard for you to resist the evil and the good to do.” It is hard. It is very difficult, especially when you place yourself in a vulnerable position. But the word comes back to you that “you must not hear him,” however hard it is for you to resist him. 

Satan will also come to you and tell you that you are too bad to be forgiven by a holy God, your sin is too great, you’ve sinned for too long; or you are too old to be forgiven; or indeed, you’re too good to need forgiveness. He has no want of ploys to present to you. “But you must not hear him...”

Now, here’s the good news: God gives the grace you need to turn your ear away from the devil’s enticing suggestions.  When he tells you how great a disaster you are, turn on him and rebuke him in the Name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Tell him that what he is suggesting about how sinful you are is true, but that there is another more glorious truth that he is forgetting – you belong to Jesus, not to him! And that is why he is after you. If you still belonged to him, he’d leave you alone. Why? Because he already has you. But the fact is that he no longer has you, and wants you back. He’s a bad loser. So he’ll do whatever it takes to bring you back under his dominion and authority and rule.

Look! In God’s economy, it matters little what a Christian does when he sins; we all sin every day and keep on falling short of His glory. But what we must not do, after coming to Him in repentance and faith, trusting God for Christ’s sake to cleanse us from all sin, is to keep bringing up our sin. That’s a sure-fire way to depress yourself to the very depths. Of course, groan over the weight of your sin, but once you come to the Christ of Calvary and the burden of your heart rolls away, get up, look the devil straight in the eye, and tell him you belong to Jesus now and that you love Him with all your heart.

Rev. Robert Murray McCheyne wrote these wonderful words of encouragement. He said, “I ought to go to Christ for the forgiveness of each sin.  In washing my body, I go

over every spot, and wash it out.  Should I be less careful in washing my soul?"

No, you should not be less careful when it comes to being rid of your sin.  Be thorough in repentance and be thorough in confession; but equally thorough in forsaking all known sin in your life. The best proof that a sinner has been forgiven by God is his forsaking the sin of which he repented and sought forgiveness.

The apostle John wrote, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness,” (1 John.1:9).

Don’t allow the devil to keep you in bondage any longer. Defy him in the strong Name of Jesus, and come afresh every day to Christ, the only Saviour of the world.

If you want to speak to someone about these matters, feel free to speak to a Gospel minister, or contact me.

You can get me on 028 7963 4684, or on 07835 028 057. Alternatively, you can contact me at HazlettLynch@btopenworld.com and I will get back to you.

The Christian life is to be enjoyed, but Satan’s purpose is to destroy your enjoyment of God’s grace.  But Christ came to destroy the works of the devil, (1 John 3:8).

The Plastic Sword!

Imagine a soldier in olden days going to war with what you would nowadays give a child to play with - a plastic sword!  He would be laughed at, and worse, slaughtered. 

Today many preachers go into their pulpits with just such a ridiculous weapon.  They imagine they have the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God; but they have nothing of the sort.  When you listen to many of them - no all, thankfully, but these are in a decided minority - their preaching has no cut or thrust, no power, is ineffective, and does much more harm than good.  Their members leave the service not nothing much more than when they went in.  They fulfilled all righteousness by just being there, and no more.

But they did not feel the cut of God's sword in their hearts.  It is as if God was not there at all.  Had they been wielding God's sword, they would have known it; but alas, it was but a plastic sword that was in their hands. 

Satan has no reason to fear the "plastic sword brigade."  If what they have in their hands does not effect a change in their hearers, then Satan has nothing to fear, were they to have four services every Sunday, and one each week night.  No inroads will be made into his kingdom, the kingdom of darkness.  The devil's people will still be the devil's people, so his ire will not be raised by the wielding of the plastic sword.

Also, if perchance these good men have the sword of the Spirit in their hands, if it has become blunt, again Satan is not concerned.  Why should he be!  A blunt sword will not effect any change in a single sinner's life!  That is precisely what the devil wants - ministers wielding blunt swords.  Quite useless, when you think about it.

Want some advice?  Throw away your plastic sword and take in hand the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God.  Sharpen your weapon by diligent and costly study and meditation in the Word of God, and pray over it.  Further, water the seed of the Word with your prayers.  Let that Word get inside you, into your mind and heart, into your very soul.  Submit yourself to what you know God is saying, for that is what God wants to say to your congregation.  Keep yourself  from interfering with the delivery of the message by projecting the Word forward to your hearers. 

Then stand back and see the salvation of God!

Cowardly Ministers!

It is quite amazing that many 'evangelical' ministers within the Presbyterian Church in Ireland do not seem to have the theological 'bottle' to work for the reform of the church as is required in all reformed churches.  In the 1980s, there were numerous controversies over sacramental discipline, and minsters were condemned and criticised and demonised because they stood for what the church into which they had been ordained to the Christian Ministry required of them. 

It is difficult to ascertain why this should be the case.  Are they being conditioned and adversely influenced by their teachers away from seeking to reform the church and bring her into line more closely with the teaching of the Scriptures; or have they simply come to see the ministry as a 'nice' career in which they will be well looked after provided they keep their noses clean so far as the members are concerned and especially so far as the church authorities are concerned?  Do they really believe that their church is now so reformed and evangelical that she no longer needs to be reformed according to the Scriptures?  Has the lure of the world gotten hold of them to such an extent that there is now nothing worth fighting over?  Has everything become relative? 

If anyone has any answers to these questions, then please enter them in the "comments" box at the bottom of this post.