Seville – In search of evangelicals.
On Sunday morning in Seville I went down to the reception desk of my hotel to ask for directions to the church
I intended to attend that morning. After searching extensively, the young woman et reception finally told me she could not find it, the address apparently was not on the map. She then offered to do another web search and asked what I had ‘googled’ initially, I said ‘evangelical churches Seville’. Shortly afterwards, the girl I spoke to came back to me, with another girl in tow who assured me that I need not go to any trouble since there was a church down the road, whose name she did not remember. I insisted they search for the one I had initially picked out, whereupon ensued a most interesting conversation. Read more
When I was thirsty you gave me to drink ?
Perhaps one of the great challenges believers have always faced is in reconciling faith and works. The tension is there, even in the Scriptures. We in the 21st century use words like social justice, equity, charity, whatever the words, the concerns are the same. Can we, in the name of Jesus, provide assistance to those who have less than we do? Can we truly call ourselves friends of Jesus and live in affluence while not sparing a thought for those less fortunate?
It is estimated that 5000 children die daily from water borne diseases, this is absolutely scandalous. Yet the solution is simple, clean water and proper sanitation. But who will provide it? Do we wait for third world governments to get their act together, and let the children keep dying or do we choose to lend a hand, and offer a cup of water, in Jesus’s name.
Click on the link below to watch a photoessay produced by Unicef and then come back to this page to see what we can do because very little goes a long way.
Photoessay Children and Water (click to watch) Read more
Resistance, prayer, and good running shoes!
Last year, I decided I would run the Paris marathon. Well, perhaps, considered running would be more apposite. Here’s what happened. On a normal day when all seemed to be well with the world I got on a train to Brussels and happened upon someone I knew and liked travelling in the same compartment as I. We got into conversation, in the course of which she told me she had started running in the Paris marathon.
She really got my attention when she told me she had been somewhat like me, a zero exercise person, great lover of the couch, for whom physical activity was rushing to catch the bus. Then one normal day, when all seemed to be well with the world, she decided to get in shape, and, train for the marathon, which she did. She made some mistakes of course and sustained a foot injury, but all in all, she had done very well.
Well, that set me thinking that perchance Read more
Truly He does all things well.
Allow me a few minutes to just marvel at the Master, at the miracle of salvation. To think I was such an irreligious creature, and today I am a Christian. A narrow escape if ever there was one! As I meditate on the word of God I marvel at the miracle that I am here, talking to God, hearing God, walking in relationship with God, enjoying the word of God, and even, even preaching the word of God. Is there any greater miracle than that? Some people seem genetically programmed to be Christians, I was a rank heathen and exceedingly proud of it.
To be sure I was no slave trader like Newton, yet can I sing Amazing Grace with any less gusto, any less awe, any less gratitude for the miracle of life in Christ offered to one so disdainful of the cross as I was; so intent on living by human standards of truth and right rather than by what I dismissed as the antiquated norms of an alien deity? Is that grace any less amazing? Read more
Those Gutsy Girls
Have you ever heard of Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah and Tirzah? Possibly not. Yet they were world changers. They are the five daughters of Zelophehad who stood up for their rights in a patriarchal society. They decided that they would not allow their lineage to be wiped out just because their father had no sons. They boldly stood before Moses and all the leaders and asked for an inheritance among their father’s brothers. God sided with them, and the law was amended in their favour so daughters could inherit their father’s property. (This was no mean achievement for even in the England of Jane Austen women could not inherit and the nearest living male relative got the goods).
Even today too many women are missing out on their inheritance in God because there are no males for them to connect their destiny to. They do not dare step out and say ‘here we are’. To all my sisters out there who are standing on the sidelines hoping some man will take notice of them so they can get their inheritance through him, forgive me for being blunt, but you are wasting your time. Don’t waste your life, you are not an appendage, you are a person. Shake yourself up, get on your knees before God, stand up before men, stake your claim and take your place.
After attending a church planting conference with zero women represented a Christianity Today writer asks Read more
A holy trio – prayer, repentance and forgiveness; (Corrie Ten Boom testifies)
When people begin to get excited about a message on repentance, watch out, revival draweth nigh. What an awesome service today. We’re still dealing with prayer. And today, we covered impediments to prayer; two in particular, lack of repentance and unforgiveness, and they loved it.
It’s a beautiful day for a church when people love preaching on repentance. The Bible makes it clear that if we harbour sin in our hearts God will not hear our prayers. That was David’s cry in Psalm 66 and Isaiah echoed the same when he said that God is not short handed or deaf, but that it is our sins that have hidden his face from us, that prevent Him from hearing us. But need we harbor sin, no. For repentance is a lovely thing.
Recently, I lay on my couch enjoying sweet fellowship with the Holy Spirit and suddenly had this thought ‘repentance is such a lovely thing’. Indeed I had just finished repenting. The Lord had drawn my attention to some things that were off in my conduct and I had been cut to the heart and cried out for forgiveness. Duly forgiven I lay there overwhelmed with and enjoying God, and thankful that I had been brought to repentance so I could savour Jesus.
Martin Luther said our lives must be lives of repentance. It’s not Read more
AUTHOR
pastor bola olivia ogedengbe,
The Theophilus Company,
ABBA HOUSE, Paris,
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