In the days of Nero, the Emperor of Rome, there was a ban of Elite Soldiers known as the "The Emperor's Wrestlers." These men were the best athletes in the Roman Amphitheater, and the bravest soldiers in all of the Roman army. The wrestled for the Emperor against all who challenged them. Before each contest they would stand before the Emperor's throne and cry out "We the wrestlers, wrestling for thee, O Emperor, to win for thee the victory and from thee the victor's crown."
One year, in mid-winter, there was a rebellion waged in Gaul (France), the Emperor sent for his wrestlers and told them to go to Gaul to end the war that was raging on. This brave group of wrestlers left Rome under the command of Vespasian the Centurion.
While in Gaul rumors spread to Rome that many of the Emperor's Wrestlers had become Christians. When news of this reached Nero, the Emperor, he sent a message to Vespasian, and made this decree; "If there be any among your soldiers who cling to the faith of the Christian, they must die!"
It was in the dead of winter that Vespasian received the message while his soldiers were camped beside a frozen lake in Gaul. Vespasian assembled his troops and asked, "Are there any among you who cling to the faith of the Christians? If so, let him step forward."
Forty soldiers instantly stepped forward two paces, saluted and stood at attention. Vespasian was stunned! He had not expected so many soldiers and such select ones. They were his finest and his best. Vespasian said, "Until sundown I shall give you time to recant and to deny your faith."
At sundown the soldiers were again assembled together and Vespasian asked: "Who still clings to the Christian faith, even if it means death?"
Again 40 soldiers stepped forward and stood at attention. Vespasian pleaded with them long and earnestly to deny their faith, but not one soldier would deny Christ.
Vespasian did not want these men he loved, respected, who fought side to side together, die at the hands of their fellow wrestlers, so he had them strip naked. Vespasian reluctantly said, "The decree of the Emperor must be obeyed, so you shall stand out on the frozen lake, exposed to the elements until you freeze to death. Should you recant and deny Christ, the fire will remain burning on shore, and by returning to the shelter of the fire, you will be denouncing Christ and you shall live."
The forty soldiers stripped out of their clothing, fell into four columns of ten each, and marched towards the center of the frozen lake, and to their death. But they cried out what they once chanted in the arena as they marched; "Forty wrestlers, wrestling for thee O Christ, to win for thee the victory and from thee the victor's crown."
All night long Vespasian stood by his campfire and watched those forty brave wrestlers out on the ice as they slowly succumbed to the elements. As they grew weaker and weaker, their cry grew fainter and fainter; "Forty wrestlers, wrestling for thee O Christ, to win of thee the victory and from thee the victor's crown."
As morning drew near, one figure overcome by exposure left the frozen lake, and came to the edge of the fire and renounced his Lord. Vespasian could hear faintly from the frozen lake; "Thirty-nine wrestlers, wrestling for thee O Christ, to win for thee the victory and from thee the victor's crown."
Vespasian was moved, and God touched his heart. Vespasian ripped off his cloak, helmet and armor and ran down upon the frozen lake and huddled with his men, and again they chanted; "Forty wrestlers, wrestling for thee O Christ, to win for thee the victory and from thee the victor's crown."
Theses were young, strong, powerful, vibrant men. They did not choose to please themselves or even others. The were committed to please the Lord! Are you?
"...your hearts must be fully committed to the Lord our God, to live by his decrees and obey his commands..." (1 Kings 8:61)
"So then, those who suffer according to God's will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good." (1 Peter 4:19)
Copyright (c) 2000, 2001, TTNL Reprinted with permission
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Wilberforce
Although the apathy of some Christians and the wickedness of society are discouraging, we should pray and remain confident. William Wilberforce was a great Christian philanthropist and vigorous opponent of the slave trade in England during the early 1800s. As he surveyed the terrible moral and spiritual climate of his day, he did not lose hope. He wrote, “My own solid hopes for the well-being of my country depend, not so much on her navies or armies, nor on the wisdom of her rulers, nor on the spirit of her people, as on the persuasion that she still contains many who love and obey the gospel of Christ. I believe that their prayers may yet prevail.” Within a few years after he made this statement, the country he loved experienced one of the greatest revivals in modern times, bringing salvation to thousands and producing widespread social changes.
Answered Prayer
In 1934, Mordecai Ham preached in Charlotte, NC, and a great awakening took place. A farmer was deeply concerned about the meetings, so he invited a group of his Christian friends to come spend a day in prayer at his farm. As they prayed, they felt compelled to ask God to raise up a man from their city to carry the gospel to the ends of the earth. Although they didn't see an immediate answer to their prayer, the great awakening had begun. The farmer's teenage son was converted during the crusade, and that boy--whose name is Billy Graham!--has indeed carried the gospel to the ends of the earth.
Saturday, June 21, 2008
A NEW CREATION By: T. Austin-Sparks
Becoming a Christian is something far more than adopting a set of doctrines and teachings and theories and ideas, practices and forms. It is coming into a new world, a strange, to us faraway, world, for which we have naturally no capacities at all. They all have to be given to us, and we have to start all over again, learning new ideas.
Well, that may sound simple, but it is not simple in practice. We stumble scores of times every day over that. Christ offends us and He alone knows how we offend Him. It is like that every day. That is the Christian life being transformed. It begins with this new creation, this union, this coming into, not the second Adam, but the last Adam. Everything is finished in Him, there will not be a third, there will not be any more. This is final.
We pass from Adam as type to Christ the Antitype, and then to ourselves in Christ. Adam was constituted pre-eminently with capacity for Divine relationship. Union with God in Christ is spiritual. The medium of union with God in Christ is the human spirit. Man was constituted with a spirit because God is Spirit, and the human spirit was that which made it possible for man to have union and communion with God. The link between the human spirit and God the Father, in the Son, is the Holy Spirit. Union with Christ is all a spiritual matter. That is why we have become a new spiritual being. In the last Adam, in Christ, the union with the Father and the communion with the Father were perfect, but this was by reason of His human spirit I am speaking of Him now in incarnation-by reason of His human spirit and the link of the Holy Spirit: so that His union with the Father was a perfect union. He lived, walked, spoke, acted and laid down His life, in perfect oneness with the Father. Everything was received by Him from the Father: He even had to obtain from His Father authority to lay down His own life. The oneness was complete, but it was wholly spiritual.
Now, in our coming into Christ, into the new creation-our human spirit being quickened and renewed and restored to its place, and we receiving the Holy Spirit to be the link between our renewed spirit and Christ relationship with God is immediately established. All that sense of God's remoteness has gone. One of the blessings of conversion or regeneration, of coming into Christ and receiving the Holy Spirit, is that the sense of God being far off, remote, inaccessible, has all gone. He is near, very near, very real. Union has been established.
And then by an established spiritual union-that is, a renewed spirit linked with the Lord by the Holy Spirit-becomes the basis of an entirely new world, that world being Christ: a new world, a new creation, a spiritual world, a spiritual cosmos, where we begin again to learn, to Yearn, to learn from infancy everything as new. Much harm is done to the spiritual life by not recognizing that. Christianity has become such a system, such a way. "Get saved; get busy!" and that is Christianity, and much of our phraseology has taken the meaning of an earthly system. For instance, "Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven" has become a bit of liturgy, and its meaning as heaven's way of doing God's will has been lost to view. The Holy Spirit, if He had His way, would be causing us to act as we would not act naturally, and speak as we would never speak naturally, and think as we would never think naturally, as though in another world altogether-often to our own amazement that we should ever talk or think like that. That is not the way we are made. Yes, but we are being made all over again; it is another world, this creation which is in Christ Jesus. Everything is now spiritual.
From: Union with Christ.
Well, that may sound simple, but it is not simple in practice. We stumble scores of times every day over that. Christ offends us and He alone knows how we offend Him. It is like that every day. That is the Christian life being transformed. It begins with this new creation, this union, this coming into, not the second Adam, but the last Adam. Everything is finished in Him, there will not be a third, there will not be any more. This is final.
We pass from Adam as type to Christ the Antitype, and then to ourselves in Christ. Adam was constituted pre-eminently with capacity for Divine relationship. Union with God in Christ is spiritual. The medium of union with God in Christ is the human spirit. Man was constituted with a spirit because God is Spirit, and the human spirit was that which made it possible for man to have union and communion with God. The link between the human spirit and God the Father, in the Son, is the Holy Spirit. Union with Christ is all a spiritual matter. That is why we have become a new spiritual being. In the last Adam, in Christ, the union with the Father and the communion with the Father were perfect, but this was by reason of His human spirit I am speaking of Him now in incarnation-by reason of His human spirit and the link of the Holy Spirit: so that His union with the Father was a perfect union. He lived, walked, spoke, acted and laid down His life, in perfect oneness with the Father. Everything was received by Him from the Father: He even had to obtain from His Father authority to lay down His own life. The oneness was complete, but it was wholly spiritual.
Now, in our coming into Christ, into the new creation-our human spirit being quickened and renewed and restored to its place, and we receiving the Holy Spirit to be the link between our renewed spirit and Christ relationship with God is immediately established. All that sense of God's remoteness has gone. One of the blessings of conversion or regeneration, of coming into Christ and receiving the Holy Spirit, is that the sense of God being far off, remote, inaccessible, has all gone. He is near, very near, very real. Union has been established.
And then by an established spiritual union-that is, a renewed spirit linked with the Lord by the Holy Spirit-becomes the basis of an entirely new world, that world being Christ: a new world, a new creation, a spiritual world, a spiritual cosmos, where we begin again to learn, to Yearn, to learn from infancy everything as new. Much harm is done to the spiritual life by not recognizing that. Christianity has become such a system, such a way. "Get saved; get busy!" and that is Christianity, and much of our phraseology has taken the meaning of an earthly system. For instance, "Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven" has become a bit of liturgy, and its meaning as heaven's way of doing God's will has been lost to view. The Holy Spirit, if He had His way, would be causing us to act as we would not act naturally, and speak as we would never speak naturally, and think as we would never think naturally, as though in another world altogether-often to our own amazement that we should ever talk or think like that. That is not the way we are made. Yes, but we are being made all over again; it is another world, this creation which is in Christ Jesus. Everything is now spiritual.
From: Union with Christ.
Dudley Hall On The Kingdom
"The responisbility to permeate and influence every aspect of society with kingdom truth and power is ours. And with obedience comes fulfillment. The cure for lackadaisical, passionless, and purposeless Christians lies here. As long as our concept of being a Christian is limited to attending church, serving on a board or committee, giving a little money, and following a few rules, we are doomed to boredom at best."
- Dudley Hall
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Count Ludvig Nicklaus von Zinzendorf
Some people look at you like you're mad when you talk about praying non-stop for a week, a month or a year. But a crazy bunch of people called Moravians, living hundreds of years ago near Dresden in Germany, did something that makes 24-7 look tame. In fact it was a visit to their village 'Herrnhutt' in August 99 that really began the whole 24-7 prayer chain.
It all began on 13th August 1727. An amazing young leader (with the catchy name; Count Ludvig Nicklaus von Zinzendorf and a very dodgy haircut) had allowed a bunch of refugees to build a village on his land. But they began to argue and back-bight and after 5 years of this, Zinzendorf got fed up. He gathered them all together in the church building to apologise to one another, to break bread and to pray. You might expect this to be an amazing meeting, but it was a lot more than that...
As they confessed their sins to one another, the Spirit of God fell with incredible power upon them. So great was this outpouring that the prayer meeting continued for a hundred years without stopping. 24 men and 24 women determined that the flame of intercession should burn at the heart of their community continually, and so they divided themselves to pray in succession around the clock. The number of intercessors actually increased as the years rolled on, especially amongst the children, generating a power centre that radiated to the ends of the earth for more than a century.
More than 3000 evangelists were sent out from that small village in the 200 years following that momentous night, taking the gospel to most countries in Europe as well as the Americas, Asia and Africa. It seems likely that some of the Moravians even sold themselves into slavery in order to reach the West Indian slaves with the gospel. John Wesley was one of their many converts and 'Mad Moravians' aflame with the gospel, keep popping up in obscure contexts and far-flung countries like a delightful motif running through 18th Century missions.
It all goes to show what can happen when we pray... Some of you might just have started a prayer meeting that will never end!
It all began on 13th August 1727. An amazing young leader (with the catchy name; Count Ludvig Nicklaus von Zinzendorf and a very dodgy haircut) had allowed a bunch of refugees to build a village on his land. But they began to argue and back-bight and after 5 years of this, Zinzendorf got fed up. He gathered them all together in the church building to apologise to one another, to break bread and to pray. You might expect this to be an amazing meeting, but it was a lot more than that...
As they confessed their sins to one another, the Spirit of God fell with incredible power upon them. So great was this outpouring that the prayer meeting continued for a hundred years without stopping. 24 men and 24 women determined that the flame of intercession should burn at the heart of their community continually, and so they divided themselves to pray in succession around the clock. The number of intercessors actually increased as the years rolled on, especially amongst the children, generating a power centre that radiated to the ends of the earth for more than a century.
More than 3000 evangelists were sent out from that small village in the 200 years following that momentous night, taking the gospel to most countries in Europe as well as the Americas, Asia and Africa. It seems likely that some of the Moravians even sold themselves into slavery in order to reach the West Indian slaves with the gospel. John Wesley was one of their many converts and 'Mad Moravians' aflame with the gospel, keep popping up in obscure contexts and far-flung countries like a delightful motif running through 18th Century missions.
It all goes to show what can happen when we pray... Some of you might just have started a prayer meeting that will never end!
-copied from www.24-7prayer.com
Sunday, April 13, 2008
MLK Quotes
Martin Luther King, Jr. Quotes
"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."
"The hope of a secure and livable world lies with disciplined nonconformists who are dedicated to justice, peace and brotherhood."
"Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable... Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals."
"Negro's great stumbling block in the drive toward freedom is not the White Citizens Council or or the Ku Klux Klanner but the white moderate who is more devoted to order than to justice."
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