Everything...

Solomon had a dream and in the dream God said to him, "Ask what you wish me to give you."
Wow!
Great dream!
Solomon's answer was that God would give him an understanding heart to judge the people justly.
God was happy because Solomon asked for discernment to understand justice rather than long life, or riches, or the life of his enemies. God was happy and gave him his wish, plus he gave him riches and honour, 'so that there will not be any among the kings like you all your days.'
So if God asked you the same question what would you say?
The thing is that He IS asking you that question!

I'm excited!

Yesterday I had a 'moment'.
Everyday I love to sit in the presence of God and usually I share what I receive by writing a Facebook post. I hope that's okay. To be frank, I need, for myself, to write my meditations down and so I write those posts for myself, but I do hope and pray that maybe in some way you are also blessed. God says His word never returns without achieving that thing for which it was sent, so that is an encouragement to me.

There is song we sing sometimes and it has a line in it which says, "...He gives and takes away...and we sing it with such reverent solemnity, but I can't...I don't sing that line because, I'm sorry, that isn't my God.
Now here is a verse you will likely know very well.

'But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.' [Matthew 6: 34]

This is Jesus speaking and He is talking about clothing, and what we eat or drink, our physical needs. He says that our heavenly Father knows we need this stuff and He encourages us to seek Him first and all these things will be added. Added. I like added...He gives! Now this verse is one of the plainest and simplest but also one of the most savagely misinterpreted verses in the Bible. Many a pastor's sermon has counselled people to work very hard on their seeking and their righteousness when all the time it is talking about Jesus. Seek Him. That's all the verse is saying, seek Him. He is our righteousness. It isn't ours, it's His.

Now the 'moment. I was reading and 'BANG' a verse I have 'seen' many times hit me.
Listen to this.

'Grace and peace be multiplied to you...' [2 Peter 1: 2]

Oh, there is more but let's consider grace and peace for a moment.
Grace - the unmerited, undeserved favour of God.
Peace - completeness, wholeness, health, peace, welfare, safety, soundness, tranquility, prosperity, perfectness, fullness, rest, harmony, the absence of agitation or discord.
(Remember Jesus said, 'Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.' [John 14: 27])

Do you like the sound of that?
And God says they are multiplied to you!
Not just an adding God but a multiplying God!
He gives...He gives...He gives...we should be singing.
Are you excited?

Now...big, BIG question.
How are they multiplied to me?
Listen carefully.
It is plain on the page but shrouded in Law in our churches.
(Please don't get the idea I am against 'church'. I am all for church it is just that I struggle with the concept of church that church has become, but that's another post.)

How are grace and peace multiplied to me?
Listen.

'...IN THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD AND OF JESUS OUR LORD.' [2 Peter 1: 2]

 Whoa! What no strategy, nothing to do, no work, no mission work, nothing to do?
Just in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord?
My God! This is too wonderful!
But it gets better.

Some time ago a person of authority came to me and said they didn't agree with my definition of the abundant life that Jesus spoke of in John 10: 10. They said it referred to spiritual life but could not include the physical needs of our lives. I'm sorry, what a load of baloney!
Listen to this one. The same writer, John, writes to his mate, Gaius, and says,

'Beloved, (Gauis is obviously a good mate!) I pray that in (listen to it!) in ALL RESPECTS you may prosper and be in good health, (listen!) just as your soul prospers.' [3 John 1: 2]

John, the apostle, the disciple who knew Jesus loved him, prays for prosperity and health which is Gauis's in addition to prosperity of soul! Abundant life! Yes, soul prosperity but more than that, life prosperity and health prosperity!

Back to Peter. It gets better. Read on.

'...seeing that His divine power has granted to us EVERYTHING pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.' [2 Peter 1: 3] 

Oh my God!
Who has called us? Jesus!
We are called us by His own glory and excellence and by His divine power, His Godly power, He has granted to us...please note it says granted to us, it does not say will grant to us one day in the sweet by and by, it says GRANTED TO US...EVERYTHING PERTAINING TO LIFE AND GODLINESS!

Let me ask you a question. Do you desire godliness? I am sure all Christians would give a resounding yes to that. Many are struggling and striving constantly to achieve it, sadly!
Another question. Do you desire everything pertaining to your life? Oh, yes please!
Then, how do we get it?

THROUGH THE TRUE KNOWLEDGE OF HIM!

So glorious!
How do we get a true knowledge of Him?
Listen to this.
In John 16 Jesus does a momentous thing, He promises someone. Not only does He promise someone He defines that someone's role. It is magnificent!
Listen. I can't quote it all but you can read it yourself, John 16: 5 - 15, ten verses of wonder and truth!

'He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you.' [John 16: 14]

Wow!
How do we get true knowledge of Jesus. We ask the Holy Spirit.
Pray with me now, "Holy Spirit, we thank you for your role to disclose Jesus to us. We ask for a revelation of Jesus, new and powerful and everyday. Oh! We want more and more and more of Him! Thank you, thank you, thank you."

Receive Him, Beloved, and you will receive grace and peace multiplied.
Receive Him and you will receive everything pertaining to life and godliness.
EVERYTHING. I say it all the time. JESUS IS EVERYTHING!
How can He not be? He is God's everything, how can He not be our everything also.
Any other teaching is lies!
JESUS + NOTHING = EVERYTHING.

So, I contemplated the wonder of this and I was astounded.
Then God took me back. You know it is very important to read your Bible as a whole. It is the most complete and wonderful narrative and has to be read as a whole. You cannot do as so many do and pluck verses and make your doctrine out of them. You MUST view everything through grace glasses, with eyes of grace, through the cross, seeking Jesus everywhere. You must!

God stepped me back two verses and bingo. It was wonderful and clear.
Peter, the apostle, dear, wonderful, impetuous Peter. Peter the preacher, Peter who had the faith to go all the way to the cross just as His Saviour and Lord had done. He opens His letter with the words...

'Simon Peter, a bond-servant and apostle of Jesus, to those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours...' [2 Peter 1: 1]

Hang on a minute, I thought. My faith of the same kind as Peter's...man I haven't stood and preached, I haven't sung in the prison, I haven't endured like Peter, I haven't been crucified upside down...my faith the same? No way!
In that moment it would have been easy to start inspecting and analysing the quality of my faith...but God had other ideas. Praise God.
We read on.

'...by the righteousness of our God and Saviour, Jesus Christ.' [2 Peter 1: 1]

Do you see it? I bang on and on in my blog and in my Facebook posts about the fact that our own righteousness is not the issue, for we have none but, hallelujah, we are the righteousness of God in Christ. That is 2 Corinthians 5: 21.
Beloved, we have the same faith as Peter, and Paul, and John, and...any other luminary of the faith...Stephen, we have the same faith because it is based in Jesus.
We have received a faith BY THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF OUR GOD AND SAVIOUR, JESUS CHRIST.
This is the same faith as Peter, based in Jesus, He is our shield of faith.
Are you excited?
Are you relieved?
Beloved, everything is yours if you have Christ.
He is your faith.
He is your righteousness.
Knowledge of Him grants us everything pertaining to life and to godliness.
These two things are the very essence of the life of a Christian and we have them in Christ.
He is centrality.
Don't give me your academic knowledge, I don't want your wise words of strategy and program. I don't want your view of life, I want Jesus. Nothing more or less.

Can we meet and when we do can we centre Him? Please?
Just Him.

JESUS IS EVERYTHING.
I want only Him.

What do you think?

My mate...

I have a mate I would like to tell you of.
My desire to share about my mate comes from something that happened to me very recently.
Another mate of mine has felt the call of God to start a home church. No, that's wrong, it's not a home church because we are the church so it isn't a church but a gathering which my mate refers to as 'Open Circle' but it is a call to restore 'church' as God saw it rather than what it has become...but that's another story...if you would like to know more you can contact me via the comment opportunity below and I will put you in touch with my mate.
Anyway I was at 'Open Circle' and as an ice-breaker all gathered were asked to share about any book we had read recently. I chose 'Somme Mud' by E.P.F. Lynch, mainly as it was the only book, other than the Bible, that I had read recently.

This book made me think of my mate, who I want to share with you here.

Now, I cannot really do the book, Somme Mud, justice. I do not have the words, or experience, to adequately describe all these men experienced and endured as they fought and died in a war they didn't choose, in a place far from home and family. It touched me incredibly, especially as my own uncle, Clifton, who I never knew, died far from home at Messine Ridge.

Cpl. Clifton Shephard

Professor Bill Gamage who wrote the forward for the book writes this:

'Somme Mud puts you in the trenches, enduring the mud and the cold, smelling the stink of whale oil, following the dogfight overhead, suffering death's randomness. You watch Snow snipe a German half a mile away, then the next day risk his life to save another German and be reprimanded for it. You are brought close up into the war's world, wondering how such men could ever be civilians again, if they got the chance."

 Now I was impacted immensely by this book and I would thoroughly recommend it.
But none of it impacted me more than the final chapter.
Edward Lynch, 'Nulla', survived and  is on the ship returning home to Australia and the conversation turns to 'why?' Why did they volunteer to go? Why did they go to see their friends and comrades cut down in battle? Why did they expose themselves to the incredible deprivation that was 'the war to end all wars'? Why?

Edward Lynch writes:

"The argument turns to why we enlisted. We hear the old one about enlisting while drunk, but know that is all lies and rot, just so much camoflage to hide the real reason.

No one ever seems to admit that he enlisted out of love of country, or because he thought his loved ones were in danger. Somehow its seems that most of us enlisted because our mates did. That men were driven to enlist by that urging spirit of pulling together that is really mateship undefined. A man enlists because his mates do, not because he wants to bayonet and bomb other men."

He goes on...

"Of course we vow we'll never enlist again, yet we know that if ever the boys are on the job again, many vows will be swept aside by the thunder of marching feet, the marching feet of old mates. Mateship transcends reason. That has been proved on the battlefield time after time. Mateship is born or renewed when the country calls and that is how it should be and how it ever must be. Mateship."

As he closes his book he writes...

"The war is over. The trial was long and severe. The prize was worth it, though, when measured in the mateship of men. My mates! Memories of men! Memories of mates! Men who were mates and mates who were men. C'est la guerre!"

Now it is interesting and sad that within a few short years the world was plunged into another war. Edward Lynch, who became a teacher when he returned home and wrote this book, enlisted again for a second 'stunt'. Mates.

Now I read this with tears in my eyes. Tears of pride, and regret. Tears. And then I thought of my mate.

You know the Bible says this, and it is true.

"For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. [Romans 5: 7 - 8]

Jesus is viewed by the world as something of a wimp. If you choose to believe in Jesus then you lack in some way. But I want you to think of this. I can't begin to describe what Jesus endured. I have no idea, just as I can't describe what Edward Lynch endured. But one thing I know Edward Lynch, and Jesus Christ, are MEN!
Jesus was a man of the highest calibre, a man that men admire. And He is my mate!
I could write much but words fail me.
The point is this, there is hardly anyone who will die for a righteous man, some might for a good man, but Jesus, even when we were alien to Him by our own choice He died for me.
He died the most savage and vicious of deaths in the world's view but more than that He endured the wrath of the fire of a holy God against sin, my sin, so He could make me His mate.
Jesus died not because we were mates, but to make me His mate.
Edward Lynch said that mateship transcends reason.
The mateship of Jesus transcends EVERYTHING!
I am a mate of Jesus.

Listen here...

Jesus said..."...I have called you friends..." [John 15: 15]

My mate.
Jesus Christ. Son of God. Holy One. Wonderful Counselor. Mighty God. Eternal Father. Prince of Peace. Friend of sinners. Healer. Restorer. Provider. Everything.
JESUS.
My mate.
Is He your mate?

I have a dream...

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me to preach good news to the poor...
I have no idea who reads this but I have to share my dreams with you.
God wants me to share my dreams.
I could write a plan or a strategy, I could focus on organisation or communication or tax deductibility status but God continually says "No, that is not My way."
God just wants me to share my dreams.

I dream of standing in the stadium in Phnom Penh, Cambodia preaching to thousands upon thousands of Cambodians. I dream of watching as the Holy Spirit of God rises up on one side of the stadium and rolls torrentially down into the stadium and up the other side as thousands upon thousands receive THE KING.

I dream of standing with my brothers and sisters and raising the flagpole of the Lordship of Christ Jesus over the country of Cambodia and claiming the country for Christ.

I dream of standing as Jesus is proclaimed Lord of Cambodia.

I dream of walking in my call and sharing the gospel of the Grace of God to the world. I dream of walking with my team and with my brother Samnang into the glory of the future that God has declared for us.

I dream of raising up the generation of Benjamin's in Cambodia and throughout the world. Benjamins, totally sold-out to Christ, reliant on no-one but Jesus, declaring no-one but Jesus, exalting no-one but Jesus. Benjamins, son's of God's right hand, son's of favour, son's of blessing.

I dream of preaching, preaching, preaching. I would declare the love of Christ everyday if I could.
My call is not to be a bus driver, or a carpenter, or a brain surgeon or a success, my call is to share Jesus Christ.

I dream of street children. Street children who live on the street for whatever reason. I don't really care why they live there but I dream of them receiving Jesus. Along with Him they receive an education at the WTL School for Disadvantaged Children and they become people who care and have a dream of their own.

I dream of a school. A school in a prison. I dream of prisoners being prepared by the WTL Prison School ministry, prepared to leave prison and join society. I dream of them coming through the gates of their prison with their Bible, their qualification and their dignity ready to be people of love.
I dream of a rate of recidivism in Cambodia of 0%.

I dream of water. I dream of children sick with cholera. I dream of adults sick with dysentry and seeing holes being dug in their villages tapping into clean water for the first time. I dream of people drinking clean water and being taught clean practices by the WTL Hygiene for a Village team.

I dream of sitting with ordinary people in ordinary places in Cambodia and throughout the world and sharing in their food and their hospitality and blessing them with all that is Christ.

I dream of putting my hand on people and seeing sickness flee.

I dream of sweeping my hand over families and villages and watching lack and want bow down.

I dream of people who are givers, who understand that even though the money may leave their hands it will never leave their lives.

I dream of a book, written by me, inspired by God, sharing grace, the keys of grace.

I dream of resting at my home overlooking the green, red hills of Dorrigo before foraying out on another mission in the delivery of the great message of Grace, the sharing of the Way, the Truth and the Life. Jesus is everything.

I dream of abundance, abundance that means my life requires of no man, my life rested completely in the finished work of Jesus, my life dedicated to His gospel and His call.

I dream of lives touched with the love of Christ.

I dream of Christ exalted in my life.

I dream of less of me and more of Him.

I dream of a day when I will stand in glory with all those who caught my dream surrounded by millions upon millions of faces rejoicing. I dream of a voice speaking and declaring, "Well done!" I dream of asking who all these people are and hearing my Lord answer, "They are your inheritance."

I dream of standing with Paul, and Peter and as I dream of this I hear that famous quote of Theoden from Lord of the Rings, "I go to my fathers, in whose mighty company I shall not now feel ashamed..."

I dream all the dreams of God and I hear His voice which says, "I am able to do far more abundantly beyond all that you can ask or think, according to My power that works within us."

I dream...

Now I need to ask you.
Do you want to dream with me?
For a long time God has been prompting me to ask but I have resisted Him because I find it hard to ask.
We need partners.
Partners who share our dreams.
Partners who can see that day when we stand together in glory.
Partners who want to see those millions won.
Partners who will invest.
Partners who will be regular financial supporters of WTL.
Partners who will under-gird us with prayer and care.

Asking is always hard but it's not me asking.
God calls, we answer.

Will you answer and bring Christ to a nation?

If you feel His prompt please contact me, I would be delighted to receive your email.
graemeshephard@cambodiawtl.org.au

God bless you.