A Car Without Gas !

Watchman Nee believes that “willpower is like a car without gas. It has to be pushed or towed. Left to itself it grinds to a halt. To trust to the human willpower for spiritual ends is therefore to encounter defeat. Spiritual power does not come from the human will, but from new life in Christ. This life provides another, deeper power beyond our volition, and by that power we find ourselves gloriously carried along in the Lord’s victory!” Page 83 “Developing a Secret History with God”

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Two of God’s Amazing Miracles

 

We have just spent a few family days with my brother Robert and sister-in-law Iris in Hickory North Carolina to catch up on each others lives. Iris and I shared the goodness and faithfulness of the Lord as we reminisced about our individual miraculous touch from God.

Just a few years ago I suffered a stroke and a seizure leaving my left side paralyzed after heart surgery with a mere hope from the surgeon that I may recover some of my mobility after several months of therapy. With many faithful prayers from friends and family, God in His mercy totally restored my mobility after only a few days to the shock of the medical staff. Since then I have travelled to share the gospel in England, France, Italy, Russia, India and Israel all to His glory!

A few months ago Iris suffered Cardiac arrest and a stroke leaving her in a coma with little hope from the medical staff that Iris would ever wake from the coma. But after many days of faithful prayers of family and friends, Iris awoke and gradually recovered and today was able to entertain and look after us during our visit much to our amazement. I know in His time Iris will also be traveling and sharing her testimony to the glory of God!

Take Us Back to The Foot of The Cross

This coming week between Palm Sunday and Easter morning is known as Holy Week.

The most somber and reflective week on the church calendar. Perhaps the only time, during the year, that as believers we actually reflect on the awesome cost of our redemption.

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Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: 1 Peter 1: 18-19 18

Surely we should all ask God, especially during this holy week, to take us back to the place where we first believed, to the foot of the cross. To the place where we can identify with His sufferings that we might be partakers of His resurrection.

Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. 1Peter 4:12-13

He was betrayed by a kiss, humiliated, spat upon, mocked, abandoned, not believed, wept in the Garden in prayer until he sweat blood, denied, lashed until He was almost dead, nailed to a cross which He had to carry, forsaken by His Father because He became sin for us, yet while hanging in excruciating pain between heaven and earth, He could cry out “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do!”

Are we willing to count and pay the cost to be His disciple? As we are admonished in Luke 14:27 “Whoever doth not bear his cross and come after Me, cannot be My disciple” We must be willing to take up our cross daily and die to self if resurrection power is to flow through our lives.

The level of our meditative reflection during this holy week, will determine and intensify the fullness of our joy come Sunday morning when the stone is rolled away to reveal an empty tomb. Joy unspeakable and full of glory!

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He is risen! He is risen indeed!

 

Cracks on a Beautiful Surface

Today we had our beautiful marble foyer, which we thought was indestructible, torn up due to some visible cracks, but to our shock the foundational wood flooring underneath was rotten and collapsing right at the entrance to our home.

God used this as a window to my soul! How often do our lives look so beautiful and solid like this marble on the surface, until a few cracks right at the entrance of our conscience begin to surface? These cracks are a warning to dig deeper in our souls lest we also might find our foundation collapsing under the surface.

1 Timothy 1:19 Holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck:

Uncovering An Awesome Truth of Prophecy

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Standing on the Mount of Olives today overlooking the Old City wall I am amazed to gaze upon the Eastern gate which is currently blocked according to prophecy. I was determined to dig further for the why and when the gate was blocked.

When Christ returns His feet will touch down on the Mount of Olives, on the very place from which He ascended, and thus fulfill a prophecy made almost 2,000 years by two angels on the Mount of Olives: He will enter Jerusalem through this exact Eastern Gate I am actually looking at! In so doing, He will fulfill not only the prophecy of these two angels, but innumerable prophecies recorded by God’s prophets.

The fact that the Lord Jesus Christ will once again walk through that Eastern Gate is confirmed in

Ezekiel 44:1-2

Then the man brought me back to the east gateway in the outer wall of the Temple area, but it was closed. And the Lord said to me, This gate must remain closed; it will never again be opened. No one will ever open it and pass through, for the Lord, the God of Israel, has entered here. Therefore, it must always remain shut”

Not only does this passage confirm certain details of the Lord’s Glorious Appearing, but it offers substantial evidence to the unbeliever that the Bible is the Word of God.

Why? Because Ezekiel 44 demonstrates the astounding accuracy of Bible prophecy, providing evidence that can be verified firsthand by anyone who doubts.

Over 2,600 years ago, the Lord declared the Eastern Gate would be shut and would remain closed until the Messiah arrived to open it. For hundreds of years, the Eastern Gate had offered convenient, unfettered access to the Temple courtyard. Yet, for almost five hundred years now, it’s been closed. I believe it could be in this generation, the Messiah will open it.

The Eastern Gate is one of eight gates built into the walls which surround the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The Eastern Gate provides the only entrance from the East, and it faces the Mount of Olives.

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The Eastern Gate was destroyed during the Roman conquest of Jerusalem, and the subsequent destruction of the Temple in A.D. 70, thus fulfilling Christ’s prophecy that “not one stone will be left on top of another” Matthew 24:2. Prior to this, the Eastern Gate had never been sealed.

Sometime in the sixth century, the Byzantines rebuilt that Eastern Gate. However, for our purposes, what happened after it was rebuilt is of much greater importance. In the year 1541, the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman I sealed the Eastern Gate learning of the prophecies which predicted the Messiah’s entrance through the Eastern Gate. The Sultan tried his best to make sure that wouldn’t happen during his reign. And just in case a sealed entrance didn’t thwart the Messiah’s coming, the Muslim Sultan built a cemetery directly in front of the gate – conventional wisdom being that a Jewish Holy man would never defile himself by walking through a Muslim cemetery. That cemetery still remains to this very day right in front of the closed Eastern gate.

It’s been over 475 years since Sultan Suleiman sealed the Eastern Gate, and despite numerous well-documented attempts to open it, the gate has remained sealed just as the Lord proclaimed to Ezekiel over 2,600 years ago.

The fact that the Eastern Gate remains closed to this day is God’s testimony to doubters throughout the world. How amazing is that!