BACK TO THE ALTAR

Thursday morning I attended the Mens breakfast in Larnaca and was asked to talk on the 8th Chapter of Joshua where the Israelites finally defeat the City of Ai and then Joshua builds an Altar to offer a sacrifice to the Lord. The verses tell us that the Altar was to be built along the same design as the one Moses had contructed previously. I noticed that the Stones were not to be cut by hand and that there had to be 12 of them.

This type of Altar was also used by Elijah on Mount Carmel to show up the Baal practising Priests of his day and to show who the TRUE God really is.

The rough stones reminded me of the condition of fallen mankind who needs the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ poured over them.

Revelation 21 talks about the Temple being laid on 12 stones and Peter mentions Living Stones as well.

This shows how we all need to get back to the Altar and the blood of Jesus Christ who cleanses us from all Sin.

So it was amazing to open my email box and recieve the following email from Revival School


THE LOST MESSAGE of CONSECRATION
-by Lee Grady.

From reading some old books I've discovered a missing spiritual
dimension. The Lord is inviting us to reclaim it.

A few months ago I went on a special diet. I put aside all newly
published books and limited my reading to a small collection of
Christian classics, mostly devotional works by Andrew Murray,
Watchman Nee, E.M. Bounds, Charles Spurgeon, A.B. Simpson
and Corrie Ten Boom. I knew God had a message for me in those
musty pages.

I had noticed a similar theme in all these books, but it took me a
while to crack the code. These writers from the 19th and 20th
centuries wrote from a spiritual depth that I rarely see in the
church today, and I wanted to know their secret. I slowly began
to figure things out while reading A.B. Simpson's book, A Larger
Christian Life, which he wrote in 1890 when the Holiness
Movement was at its zenith in the United States.

Simpson often preached about Abraham's offering of his son Isaac
on the altar at Mount Moriah, and he called Christians to the place
of self-sacrifice. Mount Moriah, Simpson wrote, "signifies the deeper
spiritual experience into which the fully consecrated person must
come. In this act of obedience, the sanctified self is laid on the
altar just as Isaac was."

I read similar comments about consecration, or full surrender, in
Watchman Nee's The Release of the Spirit, which was first
published in China in 1955. Nee taught us that the path to
spiritual fruitfulness—and to true, intimate knowledge of the
Lord —is the brokenness of the outward man. He explained that
God uses tests and trials in our lives to break our selfish nature
so that Christ's nature can flow through us.

Nee wrote: "No life manifests more beauty than the one who is
broken! Stubbornness and self-love have given way to beauty in
the one who is broken by God."

Perhaps the reason I find so much nourishment in these old words
is that I don't hear much today about the crucified life, suffering,
brokenness or surrender. We rarely talk of altars and we avoid
altar calls. We don't invite people to a deeper spiritual realm
because few even know about such a place; often even our leaders
are too busy using God to boost their egos or to amass personal
wealth.

Today's shallow, "evangelical lite" culture focuses on self, self and
more self. Christian books today are mostly about self-improvement,
not self- sacrifice. We teach people to claim their "best life now"—
and to claim it on their terms. Our message is one of self-
empowerment: God wants to make you happy, so just add a
little bit of God to your life (on your terms of course) and He will
bless you, prosper you and make all your dreams come true.

How strange that message seems when contrasted with the old
hymns Christians used to sing back in the days of holiness
revivals. This song written by Adelaide Pollard in 1907 seems
eerily foreign today:

Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!
Thou art the potter, I am the clay;
Mold me and make me after Thy will,
While I am waiting yielded and still.
Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!
Hold o'er my being absolute sway!
Fill with Thy Spirit till all shall see
Christ only, always, living in me.

The woman who penned those words was an itinerant Bible teacher
who was discouraged because she didn't have the funds to make
a missionary journey to Africa. She found great comfort when she
put all her plans and desires on the altar and freshly surrendered
to God's will for her life. The song that sprung from her anguish
blessed millions, but today it has lost its popularity because we
simply don't relate.

I believe we must reclaim the forgotten message of consecration.
It is not enough to know Christian doctrines or to paint a nice
Christian veneer on the surface of our lives. God wants our hearts.
We must embrace the cross daily. It is not enough to simply avoid
the sins that our Christian culture says are the "worst"; we must
also allow God's knife to slay the pride, the self-will, the self-
confidence and the self-glorification that our backslidden Christian
culture encourages.

I invite you to reclaim this lost message by praying a "dangerous
prayer" of consecration. Let God assume the throne of your life
while you abdicate. You can pray something like this:

"Lord, You are the potter and I am the clay. Forgive me for my
selfishness. I consecrate my life to You afresh today. I give You
permission to break me, mold me, bend me and make me
according to Your perfect will. This is all the work of Your grace.
I choose to embrace whatever circumstances You must send into
my life in order to rid me of pride and self-will. I choose to live
on Your altar. As I empty myself, I ask You to fill me with Your
Holy Spirit. Amen"


May you all have peace and be blessed


Pastor Dave & Chris

MORE ON SALT COVENANTS

I always thought the account of Jael and Sisera was a ‘double cross’ and it always seemed like she tricked him to his death so that she could deliver Sisera into the hands of Barak. However when we look into the ‘Covenant of Salt’ yet again we see quite a different picture.

Here is an alternative way of looking at the account:

The verses read in Judges 4:17-22

17 However, Sisera had fled away on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite; for there was peace between Jabin king of Hazor and the house of Heber the Kenite. 18 And Jael went out to meet Sisera, and said to him, “Turn aside, my lord, turn aside to me; do not fear.” And when he had turned aside with her into the tent, she covered him with a blanket. 19 Then he said to her, “Please give me a little water to drink, for I am thirsty.” So she opened a jug of milk, gave him a drink, and covered him. 20 And he said to her, “Stand at the door of the tent, and if any man comes and inquires of you, and says, ‘Is there any man here?’ you shall say, ‘No.’” 21 Then Jael, Heber’s wife, took a tent peg and took a hammer in her hand, and went softly to him and drove the peg into his temple, and it went down into the ground; for he was fast asleep and weary. So he died. 22 And then, as Barak pursued Sisera, Jael came out to meet him, and said to him, “Come, I will show you the man whom you seek.” And when he went into her tent, there lay Sisera, dead with the peg in his temple.

Jael and her people were not Israelites, so they did not have any allegiance to that Nation, so why did she kill Sisera as she did not have to?

The answer is to do with ‘The Salt Covenant’ yet again. Sisera asked Jael to protect him, which she agreed to do. So when he asked Jael for water, she gave him MILK instead, so what is odd about that?

Milk was not what we know as milk in the Modern world, but it would be like a curd or buttermilk that would have been SALTED. So by offering him the MILK he agreed to a covenant of Salt that she would protect him. So she entered into a covenant with him and would have even lied to protect him.

So what happened to make her pierce him through the temples?

He obviously did not trust her, as he slipped into HER tent where he definitely should not have been. No one would be allowed in a Married woman’s tent without her permission and definitely NOT another man.

So he thought he would sort out his own salvation and totally ignored the salt covenant of her protection and tried to do it himself and that is what cost him his life. She could not allow him to live after he invaded her private quarters and broke the salt covenant.

The lesson for us is; how often do we try to sort things out ourselves, without totally relying on our Lord?

Every Blessing in Yeshua’s Holy Name

Pastor Dave

GATEWAYS BEYOND - GENEVA

It was not long after we came to Cyprus that we heard about a Messianic group that had a training and worship centre up in the Mountains in a village called Moniatis.

The Centre was set up by an American Jewish family called the Rudolphs and were also joined by Brother Norman and his family.

The name Gateways beyond was chosen because Cyprus is the gateway to 3 continents and is very strategic for Israel and the Middle East in general.

We got to know Bedros Nassanian when he visited a Church in Larnaca with a lovely Jewish Brother from Israel. Bedros is married to Rebekah, who is the daughter of the Rudolph's and they have 3 young daughters.

They have had a heart for Europe and especially the French speaking Nations. So on Tuesday evening we were again in Limassol to give Bedros, Rebekah and their team a send off for their move to Geneva this coming Monday.

They have aquired a large house in the outskirts of the City and intend training young people to be missionaries for our Lord Yeshua. Both Bedros & Rebekah are very accomplished worship people and are very gifted in that area.

My boyhood friend David Morice who I have known since we were both 9 years old and was also raised a JW, lives in Basel Switzerland and is now a Born Again believer as well. So I am praying that somehow these lovely people will meet up. My friend and Brother is also a very good singer and guitarist and has been earning his living for a number of years in that area.

These people live by total faith in the provisions of the Lord Yeshua by means of Ha Kadesh. If you want to read more about them, please go to www.gatewaysbeyond.ch

Their Geneva address will be Route de l'Etraz 138, 1290 Versoix, Switzerland

I still have not forgotten about the Salt Covenant that I will post later.


Love & Blessings

Pastor Dave & Chris

BLESSINGS INSTEAD OF CURSINGS

Most people are totally unaware of the negative and damaging effects that cursing can cause.

James 3: 9-10 recorded that with the mouth we bless God and yet out of the same mouth we curse men, he then went on to say that salt water and fresh water cannot come out of the same spring. The Bible tells us that if we confess with our MOUTHS that Jesus is Lord and Saviour, then we will be saved. So if we curse with our Mouths, it will also be powerful in the damage it will cause.

The Jewish people bless their children every Friday and at special times of their lives they also have very important blessings bestowed upon them. Blessings have positive effects on a child and can help with the progress of that child through life.

In the beginning God created Adam and Eve and he then bestowed a blessing upon them. Much later Abraham was also given a blessing that involves everyone who has ever lived since that time. The blessing included Abrahams Sons and the offspring that would eventually proceed from them. The Lord commanded a blessing upon Abraham and made a covenant with him which included the powerful blessing over him and his decendants.

As most of us know, Abraham had Ishmael as his first Son by the Egyptian Woman Hagar and later his rightful heir Isaac by his beloved wife Sarah. However when the Lord God made the covenant with Abraham, he said that he would bless those who blessed his offspring, but would curse those who cursed them.

I got to thinking about this and the Bible is teaching that we should bless Israel and also Ishmael or the Arab peoples. Sometimes we tend to forget that the Arabs are also children of Abraham.

This subject of blessing and cursing is so powerful that it is weaved right throughout the written word of God.

Passing down judgments or cursings on people is so negative and I realise that I have been so guilty of this myself. However the Lord in his mercy refines us all the time. I am learning that it is so refreshing to bless rather than curse people.

So here goes:

I bless everyone who visits this site and may the Lord be with you. May peace reside over Gods Holy City even as the enemy plots against her.

David 

BLESSINGS OR CURSINGS?

I was asked to give the WORD to a Church in Limassol...so I set about praying to the Lord asking him to guide me on what Word to give.

I have been doing a lot of research on Blessings and Curses in the Bible. I felt the Lord telling me to speak on that very subject. I argued in my head whether I should preach on that subject and I said to the Lord, should I take the easier route and talk about Peter or Abraham?

I woke up in the middle of Saturday night and the Lord said 'I am not interested in the Sin, just the REPENTANCE' and that hit me like a bolt. I then realised that I needed to give that Word, so I printed off some of the pages and used them as my notes on Sunday.

The whole time, I knew in my Spirit that the Word was for someone in particular. We got to the Church and was listening to the Worship and then a very Elderly brother came in, way over 90 years old and with him was a middle aged sister.

When I was talking about repenting of sins of the Fathers and not holding onto bitterness etc, I asked if this was making sense with anyone? The sister who came in with elderly Philipo started nodding her head and turned around to Christine and said this is exactly what I needed to hear.

At the end of the Word I could see it had moved quite a number, so I asked George if we could Minister to the ones who wanted Minsitry and he willingly said yes. It turned out that the sister was from Australia and had never been to that Church before and in fact had a high leadership position in her own Church back in Australia. She said that everything I spoke about applied to her and that God told her to come to that Church that morning. She had come to the Lord because Philipo had giveen her a tract over 20 years ago, when he visited Australia. She had been trying to find him for years.

We felt so humbled by this experience and it has made us realise what an awasome God we have, that he even sorts out seemingly small things like this.

Later we went to Pastor George & Loula's house and had a nice lunch and later in the afternoon, the Lord told me that George was now going to be my Spiritual Father. He is younger than me, but he is the calm waters that I need, plus he is an expert in the Biblical Greek language and helps me with a number of Greek meanings of words.


May the Lord bless you and may we all keep praying for Israel.


David

JESUS CHRIST IS THE WAY, THE TRUTH AND THE LIFE

MANY CLAIM THEY HAVE THE ONLY TRUTH

Many religions claim that they alone have the truth and are the only way to God. Unfortunately for 50 years we were involved in a religion that claimed these very things. The Watchtower movement are a group of people who have claimed to be the only true religion on the face of this earth since 1919.

They teach that they alone are the only appointed faithful and discreet slave class who can dispense the truth from the Holy written word of God. Because of this teaching the Society have totally broken away from any other Christian denomination.

All of its members are brainwashed into believing that the only way to salvation is through their organisation. They teach that if any one questions their teachings, they are apostates against the truth.

Any one who dares to leave the organisation is doomed to destruction and are likened to vermin. That is why many who belong to this group and others like them, are terrified of leaving them, because they will be cut off from family and friends for good.

However we managed to escape in June 2001 and 18 months later were drawn by the Holy Spirit to accept the ONLY TRUTH JESUS CHRIST our ONLY LORD and SAVIOUR.

Since that time we have studied and studied Gods word and are still studying, so that we can get closer to the Lord. We are in the process of setting up the 'Word & Spirit Bible College' with courses supplied by an Australian Bible College. We want to teach as many people Gods word as possible before the return of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We moved from England to Cyprus in August 2007, so that we can serve the Lord over here. We have set up Living Waters Ministries Cyprus, because that is the name we felt the Lord gave us through our good friend Keith Sinclair, based in Wolverhampton, England.

God Bless Pastor David & Christine Hall