Ginowan777's Weblog

ginowan777 — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 02:03:40 +0000

Drunk In The Spirit is it really pleasing to the Father

Jerry Sorrow’s Podcast

ginowan777 — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 02:42:48 +0000

ginowan777 — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 09:53:24 +0000

Matthew 11:12; “Taking the Kingdom by Force! Really?

Jerry Sorrow’s Podcast

ginowan777 — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 22:22:46 +0000

Breaking the Stronghold of Generational Curse Teaching

Jerry Sorrow’s Podcast

Worship What is our focus?

ginowan777 — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 01:22:27 +0000

Worship

What is our focus?

“So here’s what I want you to do. When you gather for worship, each one of you be prepared with something that will be useful for all: Sing a hymn, teach a lesson, tell a story, lead a prayer, provide an insight.”

“The Message” 1 Cor. 14:26

“Don’t live carelessly, unthinkingly. Make sure you understand what the Master wants. Don’t drink too much wine. That cheapens your life. Drink the Spirit of God, huge draughts of him. Sing hymns instead of drinking songs! Sing songs from your heart to Christ. Sing praises over everything, any excuse for a song to God the Father in the name of our Master, Jesus Christ.”

“The Message” Eph. 5:17-20

“Let the peace of Christ keep you in tune with each other, in step with each other. None of this going off and doing your own thing. And cultivate thankfulness. Let the Word of Christ—the Message—have the run of the house. Give it plenty of room in your lives. Instruct and direct one another using good common sense. And sing, sing your hearts out to God! Let every detail in your lives—words, actions, whatever—be done in the name of the Master, Jesus, thanking God the Father every step of the way.”

“The Message” Col. 3:15-17

In the Old Covenant Congregation of Moses you had a prescribed Priesthood doing the entire ministry and then you had the laity the common folks who were the ones being ministered to. God designed for all His people to be priest unto Him (Ex. 19:5-6). There was a catch they had to “indeed obey His voice and keep His covenant” then according to His word “They would become to Him a kingdom of priest and a holy nation.” Truth is they did not obey His voice or keep His covenant and due to their fall He choose the tribe of Levi to be His priesthood for the nation (Num. 3:1-9; 25:10). God’s plan for His New Covenant Congregation is that all believers are to be priests unto God but somewhere down the line we strayed back into an Old Covenant way of doing business. Somewhere during the 2nd Century we had Christian leaders who begin to reorganize Church according to Old Covenant way of doing business. Thus today we find ourselves in almost every area of Christian worship plagued by this clergy laity split that Christ never designed nor desired for His Body. We’ll not go into this in detail but will say probably Ignatius of Antioch was the first to lead the church down this slippery slope to where we are today.

Part of the clergy laity split is the formation of what we call praise and worship teams with a whole new ministry of what we call praise and worship leaders. So on a typical Sunday morning we come to hear a professional preacher and listen to spit and polished praise and worship from praise and worship leaders trained in Bible Colleges along with his or her praise and worship team. Unfortunately far too often there is far too much emphasis in some churches as to what draws the most people; the highly refined message from the pulpit orator or the spit and polished performance from the worship team. You can hear it in many churches after the service wasn’t the worship wonderful or it could be didn’t the pastor bring us a lovely word, but far to often that’s their spiritual food for the week and next week they have to come back to the refueling station to get recharged. In the Old Covenant Congregation this was the way it was designed you had a men or group of men who stood between God and the people and today sadly enough we fallen back into that Old covenant pattern. We tell people not to get caught up in the Old Covenant legalism but how about Old Covenant worship styles?

In the verses I placed at the top of this little essay I believe we have the pattern set for worship in the First Century Church and what should be the standard for us today as well. When we come together pretty much everything is done for us by the professional staff or clergy. When they came together for worship in Paul’s day he told them; “When you gather for worship, each one of you be prepared with something that will be useful for all: Sing a hymn, teach a lesson, tell a story, lead a prayer, provide an insight.” They all had something to contribute to the worship; a true picture of Christ’s Body functioning as it should. There wasn’t just one mouth talking and an audience of ears listening; everyone had a part. I believe Paul’s teaching in 1 Cor. 12-14; Ephesians 5; and Colossians 3 point us in that same direction.

Yes, it is true that Jesus gave as ascension or five fold ministry gifts but they were given to equip all the saints so they could fulfill their Kingdom mandates as “a royal priesthood, a holy nation” (1 Pet. 2:9). Today five fold ministry is much more about equipping leaders than it is about equipping ALL the saints.

Sorry folks but personally I am tired of canned messages and well rehearsed worship. You can sound anointed but true anointing come from the Spirit not out of all of our well thought out rehearsed preparation. We say we must give our very best to God but that can become very legalistic; God doesn’t want our sacrifice He wants’ our hearts. I may not sound like a well polished preacher but do I have something to say from God or on the other hand people may want to leave, and usually do, when I begin to sing but is my song from the heart or did I learn it and polish it up just for the Sunday service? Coming back to the heart of worship and it’s ALL about Him.

Blessings

Come To Me

ginowan777 — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 10:03:32 +0000

Come to Me

Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
(Matt. 11:28-30)

Interesting that Jesus said “Come to Me” yet today even in Christian circles we find people running to all kinds of religion and religious activity and unfortunately not many running to Jesus. Jesus said so very simply “Come to Me.” He did not say to a church or a denomination not to some new or recycled religious movement He simply said “Come to Me.” The truth is man can never find rest in all his religious activities; true rest can be found only IN Christ.

If we are bringing men to religion; to some man made denomination then we can no longer quote “For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” Simply because when it becomes man made it then becomes very heavy and burdensome.

If you continue the thought of Christ on into chapter 12 you’ll find the religious leaders, the Pharisees, condemning the disciples of Jesus for grabbing a little snack off some grain stalks in a field they were passing through which according to their law and tradition they were not supposed to do on the Sabbath. However Jesus Who not only knew the letter of the law but also the Divine intent of the law corrected those legalist by going to the very root of what God desired and not legalistic compliance to a rigid set of rules. Jesus quoted to them from Hosea 6:6 to correct those who knew the rules but did not know the Ruler; “For I delight in loyalty rather than sacrifice, and in the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.” (See also Ps. 52:16-17)

The law was not given to reveal God; the law was not the heart of God. The law very simply to reveal to fallen man; “That through the works of the Law (religious activity) no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law come the Knowledge of sin” (Rom. 3:20)

Two Iranian Christian Women Still Held in Evin Prison

ginowan777 — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 06:30:12 +0000

Two Iranian Christian Women Still Held in
Evin Prison

Maryam Rustampoor, 27, and Marzieh Amirizadeh, 30, were arrested and sent to Evin Prison in Tehran, Iran. The two women did not rob a bank, kill a man or beat up someone.

Their crime? Loving Jesus. And it is for this reason alone they are still imprisoned.

In August during a court hearing, the two were questioned repeatedly about their faith. They were told to return to Islam.

“We love Jesus,” was their reply. Prosecutors asked the women, who had already spent five months in prison, if they regretted being Christians.

“We have no regrets,” they said. “We will not deny our faith.”

The judge sent them back to Evin Prison – notorious for its brutality – to “think about” their decision.

“We have already done our thinking,” they told him.

Maryam and Marzieh are among dozens of Iranian Christians arrested, detained or interrogated in Iran in recent months. The harassment is the radical Islamic government’s response to an Iranian revival that has thousands of Iranians coming to Christ each month.

The Voice of the Martyrs helps the Iranian church in many ways, including supporting gospel television broadcasts transmitted into Iran and printing Christian literature for distribution inside the country.

Putting God’s Move on our new carts

ginowan777 — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 00:32:47 +0000

Been reading some of the new stuff coming out; new movement etc., etc. And personally I am troubled; it seems with every new movement we also have new Christian gurus who write books and articles and tell us how it should be done. Almost every time these so-cal…led God moves end up being side-tracked by men and become man putting the “Ark” on their new carts and doing with it what they purpose not what God desires. Let’s get our focus off men and movements and come back to the message of Paul; “Him we preach!”

The Sermon on the Mount or the Beatitudes

ginowan777 — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 07:41:14 +0000

The Sermon on the Mount or the Beatitudes

In reflecting on Jesus’ teaching in what we call the Sermon on the Mount or The Beatitudes I think how utterly impossible it would seem for an unregenerate man, one who has never been born again, to understand much less live up to the teachings of Christ in Matthew 5-7. Yet, even those of us who are born again new creation Christians struggle with the words of Christ not only in this passage but in many other things He taught.

To many the teaching of Christ in the Sermon on the Mount becomes very legalistic and they become much like the Scribes and Pharisees in their efforts to keep them. To others who may have bought into greasy grace and simply never try, their rational Jesus accomplished this for us, we’re exempt it’s already been done accomplished for us. Their understanding of grace is far different than the grace the New Testament proclaims to us. They seem to feel because of his grace we can pretty much do and live the way we want to His grace covers us and we’re OK. Yet, there are also many who know and understand God’s Word and even have a valid understanding of New Testament grace yet we stumble over the words of Christ in these passages. We just never seem to be able to live up to the standard of life in the Kingdom or Kingdom culture that Christ’s sets forth for us in the Scriptures as well as in the life He lived for our supreme example.

Fortunately there is hope for us if we’ll grasp it. In Matt. 5:20 Jesus told His listeners “Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of heaven.” We simply need to understand that their righteousness was a self righteousness based on their own efforts and achievements and not on the finished work of Christ. Then when we read the words of Paul the apostle to those who were believers; “We are the righteousness of God IN Christ Jesus” it should give us great hope to know our righteousness is not based on our efforts but only His finished work, it is done we are the righteousness of God IN Christ and that righteousness is worked out daily in our lives as we learn to yield to the life of the Spirit within us.

Jesus was not asking or telling His listeners to do the humanly impossible He was speaking of the standard of life in the Kingdom that is granted to all who are IN Christ. A standard of Kingdom life only accomplished by those who learn to overcome the flesh and all it’s cravings by learning to live their lives in the power of the Holy Spirit. Paul taught us in Romans 8 that it’s by the Spirit we overcome the works of the flesh, and it’s those who are lead by the Spirit who are the sons of God. Jesus in His Sermon on the Mount was looking ahead to the potential all who are IN Christ have received by His act of obedience to the Father’s will not yielding to His own.

Is Obama really the problem????

ginowan777 — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 22:13:33 +0000

Obama isn’t the problem we are

“The Lord the Most High God rules and He governs the affairs of me”

As believers we find it is God who sets in place all governing authority, therefore it would be wise for believers to stop complaining and being so critical of the man God set in office and start following Paul’s word to Timothy to pray for our elected official (Obama included) instead (Rom. 13:1-3; 1 Tim. 2:1-3). God even set pagan kings and rulers to first conquer His backslidden nation Israel and then to rule over her.

Check out Dan. 2:21; 4:17 to see how Daniel address this issue in his writings: “It is he who changes the times and the epochs; He removes kings and establishes kings (presidents); He gives wisdom to wise men and knowledge to men of understanding.” That the Most High is Ruler over the realm of mankind, and bestows it on whom He wishes and sets over it the lowliest of men.”

As one brother put it during the Clinton years God doesn’t always give us the leaders we want but He always gives us the leaders we deserve!

Another brother in reference to the ‘gates of hell” Jesus spoke of in Matt. 16:18 as being between our ears; and from what I’ve being seeing and hearing recently I for one believe he was right!

Jerry Sorrow <

Okinawa, Japan