Gathered Around the Fire

In my growth group tonight we were talking about outreach and I received a fresh revelation of John 3:16. I have never heard it preached, I have never thought of before, but I believe it is an accurate assessment of the truth. We need to begin to see ourselves as sons of God and therefore ambassadors of Christ.   ( II Corinthians 5:18-21) This is the way we all learned and perhaps memorized John 3:16-17 16  For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.     17  For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. Some evangelists have suggested that a person alter it by inserting the their own name in place of the The world to make it a more personal message.  So lets take one more step and insert me and I instead of a first name.  16  For God so loved  (me)  that...

As you may know Bob Jones passed away last Friday, February 14 , 2014.   This is the content of his final prophetic word, a word for this year.  Vision of the Apple Tree While in a time of praise, Bob saw an apple tree in full bloom.  As he prayed for understanding the Lord revealed to him that many people have been in the bud.  They have been waiting on promises that go back many, many years .  Now the Lord is saying that before the apple tree blooms this spring, their buds shall bloom. Although some of them are ancient promises they will bloom in the spring before the apple tree does and they will begin producing the fruit of righteousness.    Peacemakers Bloom In the fruit of the spirit prophecy, the apple represents peace.  Therefore, this means that a lot of peacemakers shall bloom or come into their divine calling by this spring and they will bring forth the fruit that God has called them to bear.   So g...

A radical idea of what could be...     A home for the homeless  in the church. Watch this short film about the work of London Churches Night Shelters Homelessness: Grace, Truth & Transformation Grove Books have recently published  ‘Homelessness: Grace, Truth and Transformation ‘ by John Kuhrt and Chris Ward. The booklet weaves together my reflections on working with homeless people, along with Chris’ own powerful personal story.   He writes about  roots  of homelessness, the  reality  of homelessness and his  recovery  from homelessness. The following excerpt written by Chris is taken from his section ‘The reality of homelessness’: “ I had been asked to leave the rehabilitation house which had been my home for seven months because I had started drinking once again over the Christmas period 2002. Within weeks, the people who had let me sofa-surf ran out of patience with my drinking and beh...

When Grace is not so Amazing Posted on January 30, 2014 by Jon Kuhrt Well Bono’s words about Karma and Grace have proved to be a bit popular.  In almost 3 years R&R has had 100,000 visits.  In just 4 days that more than doubled. But what is it about Bono’s words that so connected with people? What has led 90,000+ people to share it on facebook? The power of grace Some of it relates to the interest in what celebrities say.  Some of it is due the arresting combination of raw language and passionate conviction. But a key part is the subject matter itself: because the grace is at the heart of Christianity and Bono’s words captured something visceral and urgent about its relevance and power. Ethical problems And yet…doesn’t grace present ethical problems?  Isn’t Karma a lot more fair: you get what you deserve. Doesn’t all this talk of grace give people a free licence to do whatever t...

This bloke is spot on... Bono on the difference between Grace and Karma Posted on January 26, 2014 by Jon Kuhrt “It’s a mind-blowing concept that the God who created the Universe might be looking for company, a real relationship with people, but the thing that keeps me on my knees is the difference between Grace and Karma… You see, at the centre of all religions is the idea of Karma.   You know, what you put out comes back to you; an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, or in physics – in physical laws – every action is met by an equal or opposite one.   Its clear to me that Karma is at the very heart of the universe.  I’m absolutely sure of it.  Read More...

Tim Walz responds to my open letter To Congressman Timothy Walz  Message Subject:  The Expulsion Act of 1862  Message Text: On a recent FOX 12 news story your representative stated that you would be interested in reversing the law on the books, expulsion of the portions of the Sioux Nation from Minnesota.  Several of us here in Mankato are very interested in reversing the law as a sign of good faith to a people group that our federal government has treated in the past with contempt. Certain agents of that government were corrupt and treated this indigenous nation as second class Americans. They took their land, hunting grounds, means of livelihood, through treaties that later were broken.  They moved entire populations onto reservations. If the UN was established back in the 1860's and were looking in from the outside, these reservations would look similar to modern day  refugee camps. Hopelessness, extreme poverty, suicide, drug abuse and ...

 How many of the names of God can you remember without looking them up?   Fairest of 10,000, Bright and morning star, Emmanuel,Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God everlasting Fsther, Prince of Peace, Lamb of God, Mighty Warriior, Lion of the tirbe of Judah Well almost all of them could be inserted in to this song. We went through about a dozen of them during a spontaneous song on Thursday, CAPO II fret  Chorus F        G       C   G/B   Am  Oh Lord you are Glor- i-ous,  F           G            Am Majesty beyond compare F        G       C   G/B   Am         Fairest of  ten thou-ou-sand F               G          Am Bright and Morning Star. Verse 1 F              G  ...