The Gifts of the Spirit
Monday, December 20th, 2010In 2 Chronicles 20:1-30, the prophet Jehaziel is moved by the Spirit to prophesy (v.14-17). In this incisive event in the history of Judah, we catch a glimpse of the utter, life-saving consequences of the gifts of the Spirit.
A Famine for the Hearing of the Word
Monday, December 20th, 2010The thought strikes me that the famine is not so much for the lack of speaking as the lack of hearing. I have had the increasing impression that God’s people do not know how to hear the word of God. Or, unlike the Thessalonian converts from paganism, they do not believe that the word they are hearing is indeed God’s word. Therefore, the word is received casually if not indifferently as the word of man, that is to say, without effect.
The Consequences of Failing to Know God
Monday, December 20th, 2010I am, as I am sure you are, heavy-hearted over the recent assassination of Israel’s head of state, Prime Minister Yitzkak Rabin. As tragic enough as it is itself, it seems to foreshadow something of a most solemn kind for Israel’s troubled future. That is, in the justification found for it, “in God,” by an […]
Prophetic Anticipations for the Last Days
Saturday, December 18th, 2010Concern about decaying environmental, economic and political conditions is moving the world toward global unification. Safety and self-interest will likely take precedence over ideological distinctions between nations, just as doctrinal differences between major church bodies will be eclipsed by the overriding interests of peace and unity.
Apostolic and Prophetic Foundations
Saturday, December 18th, 2010As we enter a decade of enormous challenge, uncertainty and shaking, I am assured that the church stands in great need of prophetic and apostolic foundations with men of that calling giving directive voices. How many of us have recognized that we have come to the end of our charismatic, pentecostal and evangelical tethers? Do we have a sense that there is a further dimension which eclipses all that we have known and had hoped in, but we do not know how to identify, or even find it?
True and False Prophets
Friday, December 17th, 2010I trust that you share with me the increasing sense of importance that this subject bears. Up until now, I have borne with some patience and even amusement the number of those who currently label themselves “prophetic” and the popularity that this calling now enjoys, which has been contrary to my own experience. It seemed another one of those “fads” that sooner or later would fade away.
Cautionary Thoughts on the Revival Phenomena
Friday, December 17th, 2010I venture out with some trepidation to raise some questions about a “revival” phenomenon that is already perplexing many. Unlike such previous moves of God as the Welsh Revival, noted from its inception for its unmistakably holy character, the present revival generates mixed reports from unequivocal enthusiasm to those that are dubious, critical and utterly rejecting. Some suggest there is more than one stream with a fleshly counterfeit paralleling the God-given and authentic. Via video tape of the principal and evidently original stream, I have been able to observe things that I find entirely repugnant. Ministers of the word were ostensibly so drunk in the spirit that they were unable to be coherent, railing finally into a collapse from their stupor. I found this entirely unbecoming to the dignity of their professed call, and felt the preached word to he denigrated by joking references to the feeble results obtained by it in comparison to the results procured now by the experiences of the “power” to which they were testifying. In watching some helplessly convulsing in laughter, I sensed that they had been gripped by something beyond their control and was actually causing them a physical pain? Can those manifestations be described as “holy”? On the contrary, they appeared to be irreverent if not indeed demonic and hellish.
God’s Preliminary Judgments?
Friday, December 17th, 2010As I write this (January 1994), some 20,000 victims of the recent California earthquake suffer in improvised and inadequate tent shelters, in abysmal conditions, totally unfamiliar to their accustomed and normally privileged lifestyles. A soldier-enforced curfew seeks to prevent widespread looting, but no legal restraint impedes the greedy from charging exorbitant prices for the simplest amenities, even water.
Understanding Israel’s Dilemma (2000)
Wednesday, December 15th, 2010The violence and fury unleashed by Ariel Sharon’s escorted tour of the Temple Mount has astonished Israel and the world. At this writing, nearly a month after, it has not abated. For the first time in Israel’s history the violence spilled out into the streets between civilian Arabs and Jews within Israel’s own borders in the cities of Jaffa, Haifa, Nazareth and Tel Aviv.
Some Sober Prophetic Reflections (1993)
Wednesday, December 15th, 2010It seems as if God’s restraint is being increasingly lifted and removed from the world. There is a horrendous breaking-down and erosion of the most elementary values and decency. My soul is oppressed by the mounting hellishness, violence, mindless and conscienceless blood lust, terror and hatred. It is as if the whole moral order is unraveling, even the minimal legal restraints of society, to reveal the naked evil that is in the world.
What ought we to be about in God in the Last Days?
Wednesday, December 15th, 2010There must be a cleaving to the prophetic word appropriate to the Last Days’ purposes of God. At its heart is Israel’s final redemption as obtained through a Church, alerted and prepared through such a word, for its own self-transfiguring and essential part in that restoration.
The Cross in Communion
Tuesday, December 14th, 2010Speaking from Mark 9, Art gives a prophetic setting for the Last Days whereby the believer is encouraged to a place of true and continuing devotion for God’s sake in order to be that final witness to Israel in their extremity.
The Cross in Gethsemane
Tuesday, December 14th, 2010Art probes the meaning of Gethsemane for the Church, noting that the first drops of blood were voluntarily given by Jesus at Gethsemane before they were extracted from Him by man at the Cross.
The Cross in Isaiah 53
Tuesday, December 14th, 2010The task of rightly interpreting this key text is crucial for the Church in its witness to Israel – especially in the Last Days.
The Cross in Psalm 51
Tuesday, December 14th, 2010King David leaves for us a statement of the most profound repentance ever expressed in Scripture
Sent from God
Tuesday, December 14th, 2010From Isaiah 6, Art shows that the prophetic word of judgment upon Israel still holds, and can only be alleviated by another prophetic word out of the mouths of those who have passed through Isaiah’s own seeing.
Righteousness exalts a Nation
Tuesday, December 14th, 2010Art shows that the church has a moral obligation to teach their nations what righteousness is, and how dear it is in God’s sight.
Resurrection of the Dry Bones
Tuesday, December 14th, 2010Another examination of the classic text from Ezekiel 37 whereby the nation Israel is raised from its yet future “death” by a word spoken from another entity (the church) present with them at that time.
Ascending the Holy Hill
Tuesday, December 14th, 2010Drawing on theologian Karl Barth’s exegesis of Psalm 24, Art examines the characteristics of the person God distinguishes as being the one who will ascend His holy hill.
A Call to Apostolicity
Tuesday, December 14th, 2010Point by point, Art examines the distinctives of apostolic reality, so painfully absent from the Church’s consideration, but needs once again to be restored, namely, an apprehension of spiritual reality as God sees it and knows it.
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