Blogtext: The very stones will cry out

Two books to read

The teachings of the Word of God go far beyond mere words. For one thing they are always words that must become flesh. We have the word very sure: "The word became flesh and took up its abode among us."  If indeed  the words are not translated into action in the real world of living men and women, then it is mere noise. And if there is one thing the world needs less of, then it is words  given in profuse amounts but without meaning.  "Do not believe that you will be  heard on account of your many words."  The most sobering thought that we could have is that the approach to God begins with a command "Be still and know that I am God". (Psa 46:10 KV21) or "Stop your own strivings and understand that I am God, the one God whom  the heathen world will exalt on all the earth."  (My paraphrase) The entire message of God through the years has always been connected to the real world in which we live. There is no point in being so heavenward oriented that we cease to be of earthly use.

 It comes as no surprise that the teachings of the word of God are connected to the world that God created by His word. Neither should we be surprised to find that the entire created order not only agrees with God's word but actively supports that word. In fact the apostle can make the point that what may be known about God is revealed in his creation. In other words: creation speaks of the same things that are revealed in the word that we have in written form, but there they are contained in the natural phenomena of which we all can have first hand experience. "For since the creation of the world, His (God's) invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made (visible), so we are without excuse." (Rom 1:20)  Hear hear! The invisible, eternal and unchanging reality of God is manifest in creation. In the very temporal and not everlasting things of the earth all the qualities, characteristics and unique divine properties are made knowable. Knowable: not known!

So why do people not know? Because there is a blindness in man resulting from the fall of man. This blindness is less a matter "of not seeing at all," but rather "a seeing too little" and therefore making that which is seen greater than the invisible.  So Paul continues by saying this: "For they exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and fourfooted animals and crawling creatures.-- They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator who is blessed forever. Amen"

To note: Satan offers man an assurance that 'his eyes will be opened' if only man wilfully denies what God has clearly said and receives this promised new and far better way of seeing. But then who believes a habitual Liar?  Adam did and continues to do so. This  kind of seeing is in fact a blindness because it prevents us from seeing what the apostle knew could be seen in creation: the reality of the uncreated is hiding in the created, the eternal in the temporal. Why is it hiding? Because the natural never is identical to the spiritual but a shadow and a representative symbol of the greater. When my wife brings me a cup of coffee I receive her love and concern in a cup! But the understanding of what the cup means comes neither from the china ware or the coffee or milk but from the action of love putting the things together. Unless I already have a relationship to my wife, the cup of coffee would not bring the same 'message'. So the reading of creation as to its indication of the eternal presupposes that you submit to the creator, "a priori".(From the outset and before all other considerations.)

The Master's mode of teaching

Read through the gospels in one sitting, set aside a day for just that and take note of how Jesus, the supreme rabbi, teacher, master, taught. The greater the spiritual truth, the more likely that he will call upon all of creation as images in his teaching. Wether he speaks of unshakeable faith in God's provision for life or speaks of the ministry of the most spiritual of all, He will use images known to us from the natural world. Even sparrows falling to their death are noted as being in the providence of the Almighty God. Nothing spiritual is ever passed to us without being linked in one way or other to the natural life. Baptism is a funeral of the old Adam. Did you enjoy your funeral?

Take note how right through the life and times of God's people this double source of information is used by the Master himself and by all who spoke on behalf of God.  Prophet and Apostle alike use the created order of things, the very things all could see and understand, yes the earthly images all and constantly around us, in order to teach that which we did not know, that which was hidden from view, that which belongs to the spiritual realm, that which in that manner of speaking is "from above". Although never ever claiming that God and creation are one and the same, creation is a sublime kind of audio-visual textbook for that which is not merely earthly and physical. 

The word housed in the natural will never pass away, the earthly similitude will."Though heaven and earth pass away, my words will never come to an end." So the message contained in the created things will outlast them. It does not diminsh the content that the medium is of temporal standing. All of our languages and all of means of communication are here dressed in that which is temporal and passing. But just as light will penetrate every crack  so the eternal seeps through even the densest materials. Its those whose eyes are opened to the truth of the word that see it.

Everything written beforehand was written for our instruction.

From the Garden of Eden, an ordered planted and well organised (that is the meaning of the persian word paradise) to the city of the saints in the last chapters of the Bible the same thing is true. It was all written for our instruction. Well now, everyone who has battled with the virtually unpronounceable names of Maher-Shalal-Habash and failed the Shibboleth test has found many things in the scriptures hard to read and hard to pronounce and hard to believe. The long ancestry rolls give a headache rather than an understanding. Hundreds of examples could be given of things that defy our modern day minds. And yet scripture maintains a testimony that all was written for our instruction.  All of it..

The texts are filled with references to places even now known, they refer to events within human history and to places that can be visited even now. The connections between the events that are recorded to have happened there often have a most resounding relationship to the  name of the place. Bethel or as the transliteration would better be: "beit-el" means  'the house of god". Bethlehem or "beit-lechem" means the house of bread. And what happened in those places? Well that is another study. This time I want to take you to a larger and even more incredible message. One that answers to the caption: "The stones will cry out". 

As the Christ came for the final time to Jerusalem he was met by the cheering crowds and they all in unison lauded him with Hosannas, spreading of their garments on the ground and the waving of palmfronds.. this accolade to one detested by the authorities was irksome to those who could not hear the word of the Lord on account of their self justification. They demanded of The Messiah that he silence this rabble. (Mind you they had no qualms about using the sentiments of that same rabble  a few days later when the same crowd shouted crucify!)  The answer of Jesus is epic: "If these be quiet the very stones would cry out!"  How indeed could they remain silent as he through whom God made the world was stepping on them? How could the flowers of the wayside have kept quiet when he who is fairer than the lillies of the valleys walked next to them? Jerusalem is the central place of attention since time imemorial. It remains so to this day and it has a counterpart on high that one day will come down from above dressed ready for the wedding feast to end all other.

Jerusalem  is the center of a land promised by the living God to his people, the people of faith. This land was selected and chosen from before the beginning of time. The land itself is a part of the eternal message written in hills and valleys, in rivers and desserts, in shady glens and fertile cornfields, in the caves in the hills and the salty sea in the valley. To pay attention to the scriptures concerning the land is of utmost importance because this is where the end of all ages will have its focus. And looking closer you will see some astonishing things. I will try to explain what I have found and how I have interpreted what I found. Oh how conscious I am that this is not a result of my skilful studies but rather the application of my mind to the Spirit of God speaking through the word and the land itself.  Peter once was eagerly answering the question posed by Jesus: "Who do you think that I am?"  Our ever ready boyscout Peter knew the answer: "You are the Messiah, the Son of the God Most high!" The response of Jesus is of immense importance: "Blessed are you! Flesh and blood has not revealed that to you, but my Father who is in heaven!" But you listened, that was the point. So I confess I have listened to the word of God. Listen with me:

The spiritual topography of Israel

Central to this little land is a river running straight through the center of it. At least  through most of it. But there was a time when it ran all the way from Mount Hermon in the snowy north down to the Gulf of Aqaba.  It was then like Egypt is now. The northgoing central nerve of Egypt is the Nile. The exact opposite image was on the other side of the Siniai tract of land. For the river Jordan that is now truncated by the deep ravine of the Dead Sea once flowed straight through this land. "So Lot looked and saw that the valley of the Jordan was well watered everywhere-this was before the Lord destroyed and overturned Sodom and Gomorrah; it was all like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, as you go to Zoar at what today is the southern end of the dead Sea."( Genesis 13:7-12) The area was so rich and attractive that Lot, the nephew of Abraham, choose to live there when the pastures and wells that they had been accustomed to for  a while became too small and too few. It was the main caravan route between Egypt and Mesopotamia. (It was the seat of the first full scale demonstration of sexual abberration and social injustice on a city wide level. See: "Behold, this was the sin of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had arrogance, abundant food, and careless ease, buy she did not help the poor and needy. They were haughty and comitted repulsive acts before me: therefore I removed them when I saw it. Hezekiel 16:49)  It was the richest and the worst. Along the river Yarden. But hold it a moment.

Names are important in the scriptures. Each name has significance. The name of the river, that central nerve of the land given to the people of Abraham is frequently presented to us by jewish as well as messianic writers as "Down-water from Dan" Which makes sense in one way because the source at Banyan for the river is within the part of the land given to the tribe of Dan. There are however two catches to that assumptions.

The first is that it is know as Yarden/Jordan at least two generations before Dan was even born. That maybe explained by saying that when Moses wrote the text he referred to the river by the name it had by his time become known by. But that sort of thing does occurs in the scriptures elsewhere and is always designated as such: "this place known as.., formerly called..,"  is the formula then used. Not so in Genesis 13. See for instance: The house of Joseph spied out Bethel (now the name of the city was formerly Luz) Judges 1:23."
Now although there is the tribe called Dan with a given territory, it is equally clear from scripture that the tribe never actually possessed their inheritance! Judges 1:34, 5:17, 18:1 They failed to posses what God had given, and stole other land without divine right. They fell on an unsuspecting city called Laish and renamed it after themselves so as to end credibility to their theft. Father Jacob on his deathbed had blessed his sons with various strongly worded blessings. The one for Dan reads: "Dan shall judge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel. Dan shall be a venomous serpent in the way, a fanged snake in the path, that bites the horse's heels, so that his rider falls backwards. Gen 49:16-17. Waters coming down from Dan? Dan like a serpent going along the path? A serpent moves the way a meandering river moves. The waters going down in judgmental fashion? Sin when judged brings what? Death. Hold the thought. 

In later years Dan became one of the centers of idol worship of the northern kingdom under Jeroboam. The tribe however disappears with that kingdom as the city of Samaria fell. And would you believe me if I said that Dan having failed to inherit what God had given also has no place in the future? Look at Revelation 7:4-8  12 tribes are counted but not Dan! Joseph had two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. In the list given they contribute 12000 to the complete number as Manasseh and Joseph.

I noted that the area was known as "Dan" decades before the tribe of Dan was even in existence. Gen 14:14 says that at "Dan" Abraham had a stop before pursuing his enemies to a place called Hobah north of Damascus. 

Now we know the name Dan is hebrew for "Judge" . "Then Rachel said,"God has judged and vindicated me, he has heard my plea and given me a son through my maid." So she named him  Dan "he judged". Gen 30:6 Does it not seem that the combination of  "Judge and fall" in the name of the river speaks louder than anything else of what happened in the garden of Eden? Adam sinned and fell under the judgment of death, and his course through the land leaves the trail of a serpent. Signified by the river Jordan in its meandering flow down the valley. "Yea though I walk in death's dark vale, yet will I fear none ill."

So back to our consideration of the words of the scriptures and the river of death downstream.

"So Lot looked and saw that the valley of the Jordan was well watered everywhere - this was before the Lord destroyed and overturned Sodom and Gomorrah; it was all like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, as you go to Zoar at what today is the southern end of the dead Sea." 

The rivers of the world have one thing in common. All of them have one aspect  that they share with every other river. They have what is known as 'a fall'. That is so self evident that no-one gives it a thought. Of course they must have a fall or they would have to flow uphill and not down hill. I don't know the meaning of all the river names of the world, but I do know that the river Jordan is one that is called what it is: "The fall". The verb in hebrew is  "yara", meaning 'to fall'. And the river Yarden/Jordan is therefore named just that: "The falling..all the way from Dan" Undoubtedly this name is  easily connected in  your mind to that monumental event called 'The fall from Grace' and experienced by our ancestors "Ish and Isha", i e  the male and female, also known under operative names describing their essential qualities. "Adam" because of the word for soil, earth which is "edom" since he was taken from the soil. Eve or "Chavva" since she was the first that bore a living child, she is the mother of the living, the lifegiver, the first mummy and first female human mammal.

They were what there names indicate, just as the river is named for what it is: a falling. Again 'Satan' is not primarily a name but a description of a fundamental characteristic: this time "The opposing one". The one that stood against both God the Almighty and Adam, the male and female made in the image of God. In the same garden of Eden, that place which is now and forever "paradise lost" Adam and Satan met. And the meeting resulted in something that to this day determines much of all human endeavour and slakes human hope again and again. That thing called death.  "In Adam we all died." "Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, so death spread to all men because all sinned..death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the manner of Adam, who is a type of Him who is to come." Rom 5:12-14

The central feature in the land is the course of water, from mount Hermon in the far north to the gulf of Aqaba in the far south. It includes the Sea of Galilee, otherwise known as the Lake Kinnereth or the lake Genesareth. The middle name Kinnereth comes from the fact that it is similar in shape to the ancient musical instrument of the Lyre. Incidentally it is also a look alike to the placenta in the womb from which all children are created. We will return to that theme in a moment. It includes the winding, twisting, serpentine river Jordan which for the time being is captured and held hostage to the dead Sea. For the time being only! It was not so before the judgment of God on Sodom and Gomorrah, it will not be so after the coming of the Lord to the Mount of olives. "Every mountain and hill will be laid low and the deep places will rise, every valley shall be lifted up."(Isa 40: 1-8) (Zachariah 14:4-8)But notice this: the central and dominating feature of the land is the same as the central and dominating theme in the Bible! The Fall and its consequences. Book and land agree.

The fall of man and the death of all in sin!  And God's restoration of Adam through the second Adam! In other words the map of Israel is a synopsis of the message of the Bible. Because not only is the river Jordan a central feature but also the Mount Zion, the city of David, in the Jerusalem of the north of Judea. For the prophetic promises of God have their natural geographical centre in Jerusalem, and it was from Jerusalem that the life giving and death conquering flow of life came through the death and crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ. No clearer is this foretold than in Hezekiel ch 47. From under the altar in the temple a flow of a river runs out and goes east and flows down to the Sea of the Arabah, The dead Sea, and makes that sea so full and rich of life that it is  described as being one continuous fishing camp from Ein Gedi to Ein Eglaim, from the north of the lake to the south. Only puddles of the now super salty lake will remain for future use of their salt deposits.

The Dead sea is a startling image of  Death. But how come? The Lake Kinnereth in the north is incredibly rich in all the minerals needed for humongous fertility. Some crops are harvested five times a year in the galilean basin. The richness is attributed to the mineral-rich runoffs from the Mount Hermon, the melting of the snow and the rains bring the richness into Galilee and through the lake the same waters flow south to their destination i the Dead Sea. "It is more blessed to give  than to receive".  I said above that the lake Kinnereth has the shape of the Lyre and the shape of the placenta.

Through the placenta all nutrients flow into the body of the child in waiting. The life of the child depends on that organ doing its work of supplying needed stuff and filtering out harmful. The umbilical cord pumps the very lifeblood into the baby in its amniotic sac. One day it has done growing there and will be delivered. Alas many babies die at birth. Then the placenta and the umbilical cord end in the stillborn baby. Now look at the map: use your imagination for a moment: Kinnereth is the placenta, Yarden/Jordan is the umbilical cord, but the baby is stillborn: the Dead Sea!  In Adam all of humanity died! Did the killing poison come from the mother? No. Sin was not introduced by woman but by man. 

Geographically this is illustrated by the amazing statements made in Joshua ch 3:14-17. There was a city called Adam on the eastern side of the Jordan where the river Jabbok enters Jordan. Opposing Adam, literally on the opposite bank of what was and is the river of life, is the city of Zarethan. It simply means: the opposite! Not very remarkable, not known for anything else than being opposed to something on the other side. Was Satan opposed to Adam? Yes and between them the life flow from God was cut short! So the priests that stepped into a river in full flow,risking to be swept away by it to a certain death in the overflow waters had to risk their lives to do the will of God. As they stepped out in faith, the waters stopped at Adam! Stood on high where once they had flowed freely. Death suspended.

Consider that this is the condition of mankind and the silent witness of the Land itself. Do the stones not cry out? When God judged Sodom and Gomorrah, the flowing river  Yarden that once was like the river Nile on the other side of Siniai was forced to run into a basin 400 meters below the level of the Mediterranean Sea.  The end of circulation spelled the beginning of death, as it does in those who only receive the good things of the word of God and never appropriate it by faith nor ever pass it on. The land around Lake Galilee fell 100 meters below the Mediterranean. And the river Jordan connects the fall of the whole region to the Dead Sea. Incidentally this rift in the surface of the  earth continues right through into Africa and penetrates far into East Africa, it is there known as the Rift Valley and is said to be a visible feature on earth from Space. So the testimony of the land is to the judgment of God on sin. But did God leave matters there?

Jerusalem, Jerusalem you killer of prophets!

No! He did not leave it at that at all. He set the scene from the times of Abraham that the solution to the Dead Sea and the humanity dead in sin would both come from Jerusalem. At the time of Abraham it was know only as the city of Salem/Shalom.(Gen 14:17-20) Later it was taken by the jebusites before David made it his city. But it was to be known as the city of Shalom, of peace. And where  would the Prince of Peace reunite God and man, as well as man and man and male and female but in Jerusalem? Jerusalem, the ever constant killer of prophets could not do otherwise but again be the slayer of the bearer of the very Word of God. 

The crucifixion and the sacrifice to end all sacrifices was staged in Jerusalem and from the temple a river of life flowed out that makes the Dead Sea alive. (Hez 47:1ff) In Christ the spiritual event has already given all men access to the saving grace of God. The land is still waiting for its restoration. So the condition of the land speaks of what still is true of all but those who have received the Christ as their Saviour and acknowledged Him as their Lord. Mankind is still in the grip of that Dead Sea. But from Jerusalem flows the life that makes the Sea sound again.

East of Jerusalem and Mount Zion is the Mount of Olives, it is higher than the mount Zion. The prophetic vision of Hezekiel is that a river, steadily deepening and flowing stronger by the foot, will go straight east towards the sea of the Arabah which is another name for the Dead Sea. But the Kidron valley with the garden of Gethsemane and other features lies between the two mountains. Can water flow uphill? Well in a manner of speaking the Fall was reversed by the uplifting of the Man of Sorrows. He said: "When I be lifted up I will draw all men to me." 

But the answer is not that the water of life will run uphill, but that the hill will be crushed and broken by the weight of the glory of the Lord. Jesus was taken up out of our sight and out of the realm of physical presence from Mount Olives.(Acts ch 1:9-12) But left with the promise that as he left so he would return. And when he does, the mountain itself will not be able to withstand His glory but break in two. (Zach 14:1-6) One part receding north and another to the south, a mighty avenue will open straight towards the east towards the Dead Sea and all things will also in the topography of Israel be as it was "before the Lord overturned Sodom and Gomorrah." 

Truly, every mountain and hill that was made low will rise again, just as He who was laid low in the grave rose so the very land smitten by death will rise. It will happen, it may happen in our life time.

The events of our present age are unbelieveable unless you have believed in the prophesies of the Old Testament scriptures. The regathering of Israel to the land of promise. The gathering of God's people from the ends of the earth. The gradual assembling of all the nations against Israel and the threat of extermination by those enemy nations. The rapid decline and falling away from faith in the churches that have forsaken God and His word. The predictions made about the general decline of morals and ethics. All these and many other things fall under the prophetic perspective. But so does the reality of the coming restoration of the very land itself. The stones do cry out.

The land and the book carry the same message! To visit the land is to step into the most down to earth sermon you will ever hear or see, and the message is that with which all of heaven rings. It is all there in the land and the scriptures, a message for all to see.

"Behold the days are coming, declares the Lord God when I will send a famine, not a famine for bread or a thirst for water, but rather for the hearing of the words of the Lord. They will go to and fro to seek the Word of the lord, They will stagger from sea to sea and from the north to the east; but they will not find it."  Amos 8:11-12

"Seek ye the Lord while He may be found."

When the book is forbidden and it will be punishable by death to proclaim Christ, then the land will still preach the message of God: You were lost but may be found.  You were deader than the Dead Sea, but you may be made alive!

Today if you hear His voice don't harden your hearts.

Teddy Donobauer, Doncaster

Share:

Read More

Blogtext: This thing called "fasting".

You did not automatically have a clear idea about what it means? Don't worry, most of us, including myself, know very little about it in terms of real experience. But as it has a not infrequent mention in the scriptures of the new covenant it might pay to take a look at the issue. Particularly since fasting is part of the 'health worship scene' elsewhere in the world. There it is part of the processes called becoming fit. The opposite of remaining fat and unfit, surely. Detox is a word often associated with fasting, a fasting that lightens the body by the gradual washing out of the mass of waste lodged in the intestines. A quick way to lose weight is to fast and drink plenty of water to wash out the debris inside.

But the scriptures are never concerned with just the body. In fact the pre-eminence given by our modern era to the needs of the body is a total reversal of all that the word of God actually proclaims.

Let me draw a scetchy picture of the matter of fasting as it proceeds to develop in the new covenant witness of the Bible.

The run in to the birth of Jesus Immanuel is in the context of a woman who spent her latter years in  serving God in prayers and fastings  within the context of the last trembling moments of the former covenant between God and Israel. The prophetess Anna, married for only 7 years before the demise of her husband, and now a widow aged 80 years is witness to the unique status of the child in waiting in the womb of Mary. "She gave thanks unto the Lord and spoke of him (the child in the womb of Mary) to all who were looking towards the redemption in Jerusalem."

To wit: note the connection between "prophetess, fasting and prayer". The ministry of proclaiming and applying the Word of  God is linked to the conscious activities of prayer and fasting. Prayer always starts out with the recognition that the life on earth is not the only parameter of importance, hence  "Our Father in heaven". No prayer  is possible if it does not transcend the here and now, the physical and natural realm of the world of mice and men. Prayer is the upward flame from the burning bushes to the One who lives in unapproachable light. The lesser flame being a spark from the great incandescence. The prayers are born in the heart of the God-stricken and sometimes overrule the life of the body entirely, that is when the fasting begins. We spend a lot of our time either preparing food, eating food, or digesting food.  The concerns for our next meal are part of the push behind our working hours, our academic ambitions, our investments into endless hours of activities to stay alive: physically!

We are well aware that there is very little commensurate concern for the spiritual wellbeing. The time invested in prayer and fasting is a mere fragment by comparison. Announce a prayer meeting and not many rally to it. Anounce a seminar on fasting and everybody who comes expects at least coffee and toffee cake to wash it down. No food? No hallelujah. The unassailable needs of the body take precedence as a matter of course. And the constant noise of our metabolism and the concerns to have a belly full at all times is considered evidence of being well nurtured and divinnely blessed. But is it?

No sooner has the Father spoken and affirmed the very Son of God in the presence of human witnesses, designating Jesus as the one in whom the eternal God is well pleased, but that the Spirit of God leads the saviour to be  into the wilderness where he then fasts for forty days. How this fasting was done we know not. But we do know that it was a means towards a very specific end: "and after the fasting he was hungry, and the Satan came to him and said, how come you can call yourself a Son of God when you have not even food to eat?" The underlaying assumption is that a man is defined by his right to consume and his ability to always be well fed. Setting the physical reality on the piedestal of true humanity.

But the Satan is a liar from the beginning. And nothing could make more sense than the answer given by Jesus to that very loathsome suggestion that man is defined by his access to food: "But it is written, man shall not live by bread alone but by every word out of the mouth of God". Life for the child of God is not merely physical, in fact the physical is and must be subject to the spiritual.

No clearer statement of that can be made as when Jesus  has started his three years of public work and is pushed to meet a certain disreputable woman at a well in Samaria. The twelve disciples trundle off to the village to buy food for the thirteen that makes up their number. Upon their return the woman is just ready to go to the village to rouse her fellow humans to come and  see the one man "Who has told me all that I have ever done, is he not the Messiah?" The entire conversation between the Messiah and the woman was on the topic of thirst and satisfaction, contrasting the ever repeated intake of food and drink, never ultimately satisfying but always only of temporal 'stop-gap' character, with a deeper drinking of a water of life. One that not only would satisfy the thirsty but as well become a wellspring inside of them to be for others also.. "He that  drinks of this water in him/her it  will be a river of life flowing out."  An echo of a promise made by God to his people under the old covenant: "Listen all who are thirsty, come to the waters, and you who are penniless come and buy bread  and eat. Come buy wine and milk, without money and without cost. Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourself in abundance."  

The son of God summarizes the releationship between the bodily needs and the spiritual substance of man in this manner: "I have food to eat of of which you (as yet) know nothing. My food, my nourishment, is to do the will of Him who sent me."  It is totally untrue that man must eat three meals and two snackmeals a day to survive. Unless mankind feeds the spiritual man inside the physical shell no food can give life more than on a basic animal level.  "Do not have such concerns for the outward man that you fall into various temptations." People will kill for food, mothers will eat their offspring and rob even the afterbirth if pressed beyond the limits of endurance, but even under such distastrous circumstances they will not turn to God for the one thing they need most of all: redemption.

Eating and having abundance in a land flowing of milk and honey is the very basis of physical existence, but this abundance is totally dependant on the relationship between the people of the given promised land and the Giver and Promis-maker. Step out of that dependance, worship the earth and ignore heaven, and the bread trough will be empty, the larders scraped bare, and the fields will bring meagre harvest and starvation will run rampant in the very house of bread. Over and over again through the history of redemption this  story is told. And the spiritual poverty of today in the midst of abundance of consumerism is a leaneness of the soul which stands in a direct opposition to the fulfilling of every physical need. The alarming growth of physical obesity is the exact obverse side of the spiritual starvation. People eat and drink and rise up to play, just as in the days of Noah, with not an inkling of the impending doom. Having made their belly the only God they worship they have broken the first commandment and hence are guilty of breaking the whole law. And the blesssings promised by the Creator have been removed from the very gifts of  God.

The apostles were well aware of the problem with food. A major matter of unruly behaviour in the church in Corinth involved 'agapae-feasts' going horribly over from eating to gorging, from communion to segregation between believers on account of unfair distribution of means of the good things of life. Not knowing the difference between ordinary food and spiritual food even led to drunkenness and illness, some even to death. And the Love feast turned to its opposite and the discernment of what belongs to the Lord and what is commonplace was lost. The apostle's admonition is noteworthy. "Therefore when you meet together, it is not to eat the Lord's supper, for in your eating each one eats his own supper first; and one is hungry and another is drunk. What? do you not have houses in which to eat and to drink? Or do you despise the church of God, and shame those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you?" " But let a man examine himself and so let him eat of the bread and drink the cup. For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not discern the body rightly. For this reason any among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep."

The apostle knew how to be satisfied in surplus and lack. To receive abundance without greed and receive austere lack without complaint. Learning in all things to give thanks and esteem godliness with contentment as an uncommon grace. "I have learned to have much and have little, I have not lacked what I needed, when I needed it."

But starvation on account of lack of food or external deprivation is not fasting. Fasting is not simply a matter of having no food, but rather having food and for some higher reason abstaining from it. The indication is then that there are things of a rightful and legitimate nature that at times must give way to that which is better. Food is not bad, not sinful. "What you receive with thanksgiving is sanctified by the grace and the thankfulness and allows it to be consumed."

 But making your stomach your God is sinful. "For many walk, of whom I have often told you, and now tell you even with weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ, their end is destruction, their only God is their appetite and they glory in what is shameful and set their minds only on earthly things." Avoid such men..

I began by pointing to Anna who was anticipating the Lord in prayer and fasting. I touched briefly on the preparation of the son of God before meeting the tempter by a forty day fast. I should go on to speak of fasting as a way of so tuning in to the voice of God that various challenges in the christian life can be met with adequate spiritual strength. "These things (demons) can not be thrown out except by prayer and fasting."   The church in turmoil and unsolved difficulties finds itself fasting in order to the more clearly hear the word of God within. See how the church in Antioch sought the Word of the Lord for its next leadership development. "As the church was ministering to the Lord,  praying and fasting the Holy Spirit said to the church: Separate unto me Paul and Barnabas for the work to which I have called them." And when they had prayed and fasted things had settled in their collective mind to full agreement: they could say now truly and unanimously: The holy Spirit and we have decided! As in another context the assembled apostles coukd summarize theeir deliberations: "It seemed good to us and the Holy Spirit, to lay no greater burden on you than these necessary things."

Fasting is a deliberate breaking of the normal stranglehold of the body over the spirit. It is not a matter of 'abstaining from food' but rather the 'obtaining of added spiritual strength' , the shutting out the normal noise of metabolism and earthly concerns for the next meal, in favour of hearing better and clearer that wich is in the spiritual realm. There are things that the ear cannot hear over the rumbling of the digesting stomach. The breakthrough of the spirit through the manifold veils of the flesh is accompanied and indeed prepared by the deliberate sacrifice of the good things for the better. A case in point would be the event at the house of Martha and Mary, sisters of Lazarus. Martha prepares food for the body, busies herself mostly and maybe a tad too much with the physical needs of her celebrated guest. Mary does her bit until she feels that she has done her part and then sits at the feet of Jesus. The words of the Saviour do not belittle the physical but elevates the spiritual: "Martha, Martha, you have taken upon yourself much work, but not all of that is necessary Mary has chosen the better part."

Fasting is a lost portion of the life of the individual and of the church. The return of a need for it will again be able to equip the church with insight and direction, purpose and strength.  The squeeze felt by the church more and more in these latter days will cause us to rediscover the old weapons given us by God in ages past. Fasting is in no way to be done to impress men, but to allow the spirit of God to make dents in the working of our physical being. To allow the spirit in us to accord with the Spirit of God about the life that is in the flesh and in the world but neither of the world or of the flesh.  Fasting does not impress God, nor should it be used to impress men. It will however, if used rightly and circumspectly make deep impressions on the inner man. And when the individual is straightened up the church will again be an army strong enough to withstand the enemy and able to hold fast what God has given to the little flock.

Teddy Donobauer, Doncaster 21 November

PS In all ages of persecution food deprivation is one of the enemy's first methods to bring the saint to the demanded denial of his Lord. Those who have trained themselves by fasting and feeding on the word of God cannot be frightened to betrayal by being deprived of food. They will be happy to turn deprivation into the strength of the armor of God to be reached by deliberate fasting. Wresting the weapon of deprivation out of the hand of the tyrant by fasting may not save the physical life. But it will safeguard the spiritual.

Share:

Read More

Blogtext: Moving towards maturity

"Therefore, leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go onto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection from the dead and of eternal judgment. This we will do, if God permit." Heb 6:1-3

The writer of the very important letter "Hebrews" holds the view that there is an expected development in the normal christian life. He has previous to the qoute above made the same point that Paul makes in 1 Corinthians 3:1-3 "I could not speak to you my brethren as I would to mature people, I can not do so even now. You are still in the fleshly mode, evidenced by the envying, the constant strife and arguments all resulting in division after division. I can only speak to you as to the carnal babes that you are in Christ. I have fed you with milk, and not with meat; meat is so far too much for you. You are in every way just like those who are still outside of Christ.(my paraphrase) 

The Writer to the Hebrews put it this way: "I still have many things to say, but your hearing is so impaired and dulled that it is hard to speak of these things.  For by now you should rightly have been able to teach others, but you cannot do so because rather than being able to teach you show the need for once again being taught the first principles of the oracles of God, you have remained in the status of milkbabes and cannot take strong meat. Everyone that is accustomed to milk is not yet skilled in the word of righteousness, for that person is a mere babe. But strong meat belongs and pertains to them that have reached maturity, to those who have used their senses to discover the differenece between good and evil by regular practice." (my paraphrase) Heb 5:11-14

Paul has added another insight to this i Romans 15:14 "I myself am persuaded concerning you, that you are all full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish and keep one another on the right track. So I write boldly to you by way of reminder on the prompting of the grace of God."

The two writers (if indeed they are two different ones) share a common view:
the normal christian life is one that moves from the milk stage of the first principles onto a maturity that allows each to be in possession of enough understanding to be able to teach others also. ("When you come together each one of you has something edifying to bring to the assembly." 1 Cor 14:26) An absolute understanding of those things that belong to the fundamental oracles of God is expected from those who have received the gift of salvation within a relatively short time after salvation. We might be forgiven for setting a time aspect to it.. How many years did Christ train disciples? How long did Paul minister to various churches in order to make them aware "of the whole counsel of God" (Acts 20:27)?  

At least after three years every indvidual believer ought to know the 'principles, the first things, the fundamentals of the faith'.  Given that we have different learning ability and different amounts of time available that is a thumb rule only, but it seems that there must be a deliberate aim to accomplish that for every church fellowship. Or putting it the hard way: it is a failure of the ministry if people who are member for many years never get past the principles but rather having the need to have them reiterated and repeated ad nauseam but never fully learned.

It never fails to amaze me that we do not seem either interested in or  capable of complying with the inseparable command following on the matter of baptism. Baptism and all teaching concerning it belong to the initial stage of christan initiation. Agreed? But what is the absolute corollary to that? 

"Go therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and lo I am with you always, even to the end of the world. Amen."

Proclaiming the gospel is not quite the same as teaching all nations. Preaching and teaching are different aspects of communication. The former to call sinners to repentance, the latter to make the saved refrain from all further sin.

If the saying of the Amen is being in agreement with what has just been said I am afraid that very few today say the "amen" to the very words of Jesus. How can I say that? Because they do not do what Christ said they should! People are brought to baptism but left to drown in the batismal water. If they are to be living the life that is supposed to be that of those who not only have died with Christ but also have risen in Christ, then they are to be taught until they can teach! 

Which brings us back to the beginning. "By now you ought to be able to teach.." but that is not so. The un-weaned baby cannot eat the strong meat needed to be able to teach others. It is well said that we become what we eat. That goes for the physical realm and also for the spiritual. Feed people baby food and they remain babes. Saved but not "Onesimus" (a name meaning 'Useful" see the letter to Philemon), i e useless. Taught the same over and over, but never getting out of the diapers.

How is it possible that teaching, often good and sound teaching, does not turn babes into warriors? Well, behold the ordinary manner of education: learning by hearing and by doing, by repetition and by accountability. How shall we grow spiritually unless what is taught is not only applied practically but also accounted for by the disciple to the master?  How did Jesus teach? He taught, they acted, they gave feed back, he interviewed them to see what they had learned by their experience,  and that formed the basis of the next lesson.

After a long while with them He asked them: Who do people say that I am?  And then: Who do you say that I am? And then: "this understanding that you have is given by the Father in Heaven, not by the wisdom of the flesh."  Have a close look at Mt 16:13-20, Lk 9:18-21  His teaching taught them as a primary root Who He was. All other doctrines are to be subject to that knowledge. We tend to teach doctrines about him, not first ascertaining in them that "they know the Son and the Father who has sent Him". (John 17) Giving meat to a babe without teeth has predictable results.


The Hebrews writer puts it this way: "The word of the gospel was preached to them as well as to us. But the words that were of such profit to us had no effect on them, because they did not receive it by mixing what they heard with an active faith." Heb 4:1-2

Faith is not simply agreeing with a theory, but rather a whole-hearted and spirit, soul and body commitment to that which is believed. We truly believe only what we do. If what we say we believe has no visible effect on our lives then we know not as we ought.

There is  much amiss in our churches if they only preserve a baby status quo.
It means that although we baptize, we refuse to teach.

Starving people have nothing to give to the others who are hungry. The ones unskilled in righteousness cannot avoid being fooled by every new wind of doctrine. When the day comes when we can no longer have official church employed pastors, teachers and shepherds, who can and will teach then? 

Those who do not know the rudiments of the "doctrine once and for all given to the saints" are helpless in the face of all the human need around them. In the miasma of hopelessness of the godless world they cannot account for the hope that is in them. They don't know what they believe and neither do they know why they still adhere to the traditions of the fathers. "We have always been like this, maybe."

Teaching all nations, every word of Christ.. beginning at the church. It is not allowed to claim the presence of Christ with us always in one moment whilst biting back on what that presence was promised for: the teaching! 

"Therefore we preach not ourselves, but Christ, and Him crucified!"

Teddy Donobauer, Doncaster Nov 2017

Share:

Read More

Blogtext: Oh Ye of uncircumcised hearts..

"This is my covenant with you and your seed after you: every man child among you shall be circumziced."  Gen 17:11

We live in a time when the issue of male irresponsibility and wilful self service has come to the forefront of media awareness in a way that has rarely been so publicised before. One after the other of people in high places have allegedly grossly ill behaved in their relationships with women. Sexual abuse and unwanted sexual attention is shoved into the shoes of one after the other of everything from priests to actors and politicians.

The new awareness of these numerous transgressions is fed by the rampant industry of sex mongering which is harvesting the sous of men and women, boys and girls on a world wide scale. Sex sells, and humans are sold for sex. Every international sporting event has scantily clad girls as attributes on the winners circle and stage. A million products are sold with a back drop of drop dead gorgeous female bodies. Nary a tv show can be expected not to have steamy sex scenes, preferably of a homosexual nature, nowadays.

In the last 50 odd years a billion babies have been aborted. Discussions about euthanasia of malfunctioning children even after birth are making headlines. The mass of evidence for male misconduct is too large to even be accounted for.

And yet the astonishing fact remains: few put the blame where it belongs. The blame is placed on 'patriarchal systems', on ' sexist structures', on 'male prerogatives' and so on. On the whole everything is responsible for the actual mis-manner except that which God says is the real root and cause. Which is: the fall of Adam. And his personal sin in which all males share.

In the matter of the abortion issue it is  astonishing to find not one word about the real reason for every abortion under the heavens: a male impregnator of a women, with or against her wish. It appears as if women by and large get impregnated on their own or by some miracle out of their control. It is remarkable that it is against modern thinking to believe in a virgin birth for the most unique man on earth, but accept women pregnancies as having nothing to do with men in general.

Every one, even the virgin Mary, knew how babies were usually made. No-one believed in parthenogenesis as a norm even then. The woman is the field into which a man sows and what is invariably reaped all things being normal is a man or womanchild. You do not hold the field accountable for what results from the sowing. That sowing is totally the responsibility of the sower! Where men will not reap what they sow they should not be allowed to sow. That is the bottom line of it. But the myth of man's inevitable sexual drive is so deeply entrenched that it seems beyond decency to even expect men to behave responsibly.

The distance between male and female is growing by the hour to the ultimate  detriment of the entire humanity. Mansplaining and male-hating, misogynism and militant feminism, child sex trafficking and abortion are all part of the same slew of more or less unwanted harvests. All because of that singular event: Man thinking himself to be better at being god than the God who made him. That fatal flaw dehumanised man from the beginning, and the repercussion vibrates through the females as well.

The 17th chapter of Genesis declares the absolute will of God for those who want to be part of a better covenant than those preferred by the self-willed man. The story is familiar enough. God made a promise to Abram: you will have a son according to my promise. Time passed, no success in the expected way. Tired of waiting, maybe due to the insightful recognition of infertility in his wife and his own advancing age, he listened to his wife. 'If I can't bring forth your promised son the some other woman can. Take this one: she belongs to me, is mine and I can decide her future,I can force her to be the mother you need. The child will be yours!'

Abram needed little persuasion. So with his uncircumcised male member he entered a woman not his own and nine months later he rejoiced to see how God had answered his prayer, or now, had he? Not so says God! Ishmael will be blessed but what you Abraham have produced on your own is not what I promised you. My covenant will be with Isaac, not with Ishmael.

It is no secret that the entire muslim world reckons its decent from Ishmael. It is no secret that the majority of the muslim world seeks the destruction of Israel.
It is no secret that God's covenant is with the true child of the promise, not with the son born of the flesh and flesh alone. It is no secret that the circumcision is introduced as a result of the birth of Ishmael! Every man child, on the eighth day of its life is to be circumcised, his prime tool of male domination is to be marked by the covenant mark of the living God. The signal is: this belongs to God! 

Henceforth every male intent on using his male member is called upon to recognize that he is now either using that member according to the will of the Creator and Sustainer of Life or he is using it by his own arbitrary decisions and does whatever he likes with it.. The covenant God makes with Abraham (note the change of name) has conditions. One of them is: do not use your sexual ability outside of the will of God. 

The scriptures tell the story of male refusal to  live wisely and covenant oriented. From Isaac to Judah, from the sons of Eli to king David, from Hosea to the lamenting Malachi the story unfolds.. Men cause mayhem by their uncontrolled and undisciplined use of their sexual prowess. Laws are made to limit their appetite, cities are ruined in judgment because they let it run wild. The senseless pursuit of sexual satisfaction corrupts religion, ruins kingdoms and corrupts all of mankind.

The second covenant, that which we call the New Covenant, never repeats the conditions of the old. Nowhere is it demanded that males should now be circumcised in the flesh. (An incident took place and involved Paul and Timothy but is never enjoined or enforced again) No in deed not. Because the second covenant goes much further. It demands the circumcision of the heart, the total commitment to the Lord and Saviour of all mankind. 

"You are no longer your own, you have been bought with a price and if you now live you live for Him."

Teddy Donobauer, 10 January 2021

Share:

Read More

Video: Looking at pagan worship from the revelation of God in biblical history

Midsummer celebrations in Scandinavia, sunworshipping at Stonehenge, homage paid to the seasons, worship of all that is earthly and pleasant for the moment and an abandonned and reckless carnival all go together this week, that of the longest day and shortest night. Looking at it from the revelation of God in biblical history might throw some light of the power it has over so many. Join me in a short and compact journey in the first book of Kings.

Download this teaching as mp3: Looking at pagan worship

All teachings on mp3 at: All mp3-files

This video was live streamed on Facebook June 23rd 2017. This video was made before the start of www.donobauer.com.

Share:

Read More

Video: There is no new thing under the sun

There is no new thing under the sun. The common fallacy of separating OT from NT debunked.

This video was live streamed on Facebook June 15th 2017. This video was made before the start of www.donobauer.com.

Share:

Read More

Video: The Bible. Written by people or by God?

How often are we told even by the teachers of today that "the bible was written by people, not by God"? And starting there they explain away everything that is distinctly said to be Gods sayings?

This video was live streamed on Facebook June 12th 2017. This video was made before the start of www.donobauer.com.

Share:

Read More

Blogtext: ”Christian”? What is that?

During my days of being a pastor and bible teacher in Sweden I was sent on a mission to the Muslim and Arabic republic of Yemen in order to support and encourage our Swedish missionaries working in a land that allowed none such. They ran trade-schools, worked in hospitals, worked where they were needed and shared the gospel as best they could. They were Christians in a world that wanted nothing to do with the West. They lived among people who had only a few decades before left the middle ages and entered into the bewildering world of motor cars, plastic carrier bags and cigarettes.

I mention cigarettes because they pinpointed the problem with the term ”christian”. Anything Western was identified as being ”christian”. The consumption of alcohol, nicotine and all other forms of indulgence in the Western life style were firmly identified by the yemeni as being typically ”christian”. I saw gigantic adds for a brand of cigarettes, Peter Stuyvesandt and Marlboro and was astonished to hear the reasoning behind the campaign: many many yemeni men spent a sizeable proportion of each afternoon chewing ’kat’, a mild narcotic found in the leves of the bush by that name. The higher up in the mountains it grew the better the quality, read: the amount of drug in the leaves. With a bulging cheek, green spittle running down the beards and glazed over  eyes they would sit for best part of three hours each day and just ”chew the cud”. While doing that they were of course useless as a labour force.

A sad corollary to this habit was the almost monthly repainting of hospital walls. The chewing of kat increased the rate of cancer of the aesophagus astronomically. The sufferers spat their mucus on the walls. The walls needed repainting ever so often.  The cigarette companies cynically concluded that the sum of man’s needed stimulants is constant, but if they could switch the yemenis over from ”kat to fags” they would not be blotto half a day nor would they get cancer of the throat and stomach. Of the cancer in the lungs not one word was spoken by the campaigners. 

And the yemenis thought that cigarettes and whisky was typical of being a ’christian’, and of course they were entirely correct in thinking that it would hardly improve anything but the bank accounts of the tobacco companies and the Inland Revenue. The gospel of Jesus Christ had nothing to do with the term ”christian”. In fact, the Western culture vaccinated the yemenis against anything truly christian. Which is begging the issue.

What and who has any right to call themselves christian? Is the term up for grabs for anyone who needs a name defining their worldview?

There has always been a very common understanding that if you want to hide something good out of sight then you hide it among lookalikes that are nothing like the real thing, but look deceptively like it. In Nature we have the mimicry of certain insects looking like dangerous wasps but being harmless flies. Or the likes of banded snakes looking venomous when they are not. The amount of counterfeit notes or passports that are afloat are made possible, if but for a time, because they look like the real thing. It is almost as if someone of great power has invested an enormous amount of ingenuity and energy in creating as many look-alike wannabees as possible all claiming to be christian in order  to hide the one and only thing that rightly is identified by that term.

What on earth is a christian nation? What is a christian church? What is a christian world view? And pray tell me: has the term ”Christmas” any meaning at all? It is as true to call that event ’christian’ as it is likely to find a bacon stall in Mecka during the Ramadan.

What has a protestant chaplain on a battle field blessing his troops, about to meet another army with a catholic christian chaplain blessing those troups, to do with Christ? What has the pageantry of the Church, its golden altars, well filled treasure troves and pyramidal power-structure to do with the Saviour from Nazareth? What has the sanctimonious thing called preaching to do with the living word of God?’

Anything that is called ”christian” ought reasonably have its origins in that which is ”chrio”, that is: something that has been anointed.  That is the root of the word Christ, christian and christianity, and unless the root is understood there is no way to understand what the branches could be expected to bear in the way of fruit. It is by their fruits you know the trees. Not by the rustling in their leaves. Or by the incisions on the bark of the tree.

The anointing was that specific act of designating a man to service which was carried out by the action of putting a consecrated oil on his head and proclaiming this person to be a king, a priest or a prophet. It generally signified that this person was also in some way gifted with a portion of God’s spirit and special blessing for the carrying out of the task given. The three offices thus manifested were throughout the times of the Old Testament prophetic in the sense that they were all significantly limited in themselves, but pointed forward to the coming of One who would truly be all Three in One. This One came and the summary of His ministry is that he is the ’Anointed One’.
He is not only the preacher but also the Word. He is not only the Priest but also the final Sacrifice. He is not just a King but the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

So anything that is going to carry on calling itself ”christian” had better be able to show how it is derived from that anointing which in the Son of Man and the Son of God was summarized and completed. It is the legacy of the Christ that gives any credence to the claim that anything is truly christian. Cigarettes and whisky are not. And it is highly doubtful wether a whole list of other such terms have any right to the title. No, I recant: they have absolutely no right to call themselves that.

The fact is that many many people of a christian persuasion no longer feel at ease when they have to explain what they are. Any conversation that starts with the statement ”I am a christian” begs to start by explaining what that means, because the misconceptions, the poisonous weeds among which the real thing is hidden, are so deeply imbedded in the normal thinking of the ordinary people.  You would be forgiven if perplexed  when people draw themselves back from you if they have learnt to equal ”christian” with any number of evil things such as pedofilia, embezzlement, internecine wars over theological issues and a whole lot of other things that the media are quick to grab and expose. Media exposure nearly always exaggerates the sins of the purportedly ”sinless”. Christians are thought to consider themselves a better sort of people, a do-goodish, self rightous bundle of semi hypocrites etc.

In the beginning, which is a good place to which we ought to retrace our steps, the word ’christian’ was not one the believing made up for themselves. It was used by their opposition as a’ cat call’. It was derogatory in meaning and referred to the fact that they singled themselves out from the rest of the roman empire by not doing the one act per year that was required by all: to go to an altar dedicated to the ”genius” of the emperor and there bow the knee and swear obeisance to the political deity invested in the  emperor.

Christians bowed no knee to any man. They bowed their knee to Christ only. They reflected on the ’Anointed’ and his Lordship and never ever genuflected to any other authority.  They were ’Christfollowers’ or ’Christ-in-man’ers. Hooray! But they did not designate themselves that way to begin with. It started to take on a this new meaning in the church in the city of Antioch.

As the apostle Paul is hauled before the authorities he is forcefully defining and defending his faith in Christ so that  Agrippa the ruler shouts out: ”You almost manage to make me a christian!” Yes box alright! But of course it was a derogatory and negative thing for Agrippa as yet. After all the major spokesman for that way of faith-living was  standing before him bound in chains for an offense so great that the man was about to be sent to the court of the emperor in Rome for his defense. 

What was it then about christians that fitted so ill with the romans? It is the same thing which makes the world jitterish still at the thought of it's implications. Christ did not come just to die for the sins of many. He came to redeem the whole world. Because by the account of God, the entire creation, yes the whole world was lost and needed saving if it was not to go to its utter ruin.  The deeds of men are evil in the sight of God. They have all forfeited their lives because of their self-deification.  The soul that sins must die. Sin means that you forfeit your right to life.  Unless a sinless life is given instead of that which we have lost to sin, there is no remedy for our condition. 

Christ, the Anointed One came that the life which we have lost to sin would be restored to righteousness. That the life lived on earth would taste of heaven already here. He did totally blot out that which separates us from God, and lives after his resuurection in and through every man, woman, boy or girl, who bows their knee to Him and welcomes him to be their lifelong Saviour and lord. They will rather be killed by Caesar than deny their Saviour. 

That is the meaning of "christian".

They are born again, their life is no longer of the world but still in it. They have an inkling in their soul that they are destined for another world, so they have little interest in being loved by the world, it is enough for them to live in order to show the love of God for the world, in actions, in the world.

They have passed over from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light. The World hates them because that light shows up the evil deeds of man. And mankind does not want go be shown up as the sinner it is. ”If they have hated me, he said, they will hate you for my name’s sake.”

So it is easy to see how eagerly the world snaps up every morsel of a scandalous nature and majors on where the christians fail. Rather than report what the true christians are. They know themselves to be sinners, saved and on their way home, alas, not without stumbling. You see clearly how important it is to use the term christian as a kind of fertilizer allowing all kinds of things to grow up round the real thing so as to prevent anyone from finding it.

If  I were accused of being a christian, would there be conclusive evidence against me?

The good is the enemy of the best. No, it is not the obvious bad thing that is the enemy of the best. It is the mimicry of ”almost christian” which calls Christ  and christians into doubt. No organisation, no machinery, no marketing trick can ever be a christian, nor can a nation. Christian is a term to be reserved for those who know Christ and Him Who sent Him. And who have traded in their sinful nature for the gift of the new life in the Holy Spirit.

You do not become a car for being born in a garage. Neither do you become a christian by being born in a stable, going to church all your life, or doing your best to please God by being as good as you can. 

You must be born again. That is it. It is by a spritual rebrith that you become a christian, someone in whom Christ lives today.

Teddy Donobauer, Doncaster, 2nd November 2017

Share:

Read More

Video: Pentecost. A most imortant day in church history

The day of Pentecost, the fiftieth day after the death and ressurrection of Christ. A truly most important day in the history of the church.

This video was live streamed on Facebook June 3rd 2017. This video was made before the start of www.donobauer.com.

Share:

Read More

Video: A topic most of us would rather not think about

It is time for a topic that to most of us is one we would rather not think about. But the word of the Lord comes to us about it in many scriptures so it must not be avoided unless we want to have an imbalance in our understanding of life. Our own death is intimately tied up with a full and glorious life!

This video was live streamed on Facebook May 28th 2017. This video was made before the start of www.donobauer.com.

Share:

Read More