Marching Forth!

When it comes to confession, there is no shortage of opinions.  Because of individual experiences, backgrounds, and church practices, there is a wide range about the importance and practice of confession.  Some think it is only necessary between the sinner and God, and others have times in their meetings set aside for "open confession."  In Edwin Orr's book "All Your Need," the evangelist spoke of the importance of public confession to make way for revival.  He was careful to point out that he moderated the gathering with specific instructions:  he strongly objected to detailed confessions and warned he would silence any offender; he always exhorted born-again Christians - not the unsaved - to confess the hindrance to revival; and after explaining the blood of Jesus cleanses from all sins, he spoke of " confession as a means to forgiveness and blessing ." ( Orr, J. Edwin , "All Your Need 10,000 Miles of Miracle through Austraila and New Zealand....

I went through a season during a time of spiritual growth where I was concerned with the lame condition of "the church."  Looking back I can say I was preoccupied with negative views of the church at large, and I am truly glad to say it was relatively brief.  The truth is, I was the lame one and because of the log in my own eye I was keenly aware of imagined weakness and failure in others.  Whilst Christians are not perfect, Jesus is perfectly capable to maintain the health and growth of His Body.  He doesn't have the body dysmorphia humans are prone to.  No matter how much we slim down we can see ourselves in a negative light.  Because of God's grace and righteousness the Body of Christ is clean and sanctified. Even as I have experienced the pitfall of being judgmental of others, I have experienced the smug self-righteousness of a Pharisee.  This is a common condition when spiritual knowledge is combined with a measure of pride.  From this lof...

Spring is in the air in Sydney and that means pulling out the lawn mower, line trimmer, and edger.  Shrubs and grass shot up with our recent rain, and birds have been feasting on the seed pods on the liquid amber which grows out front.  Since my baseball game was washed out Saturday due to rain, I decided to seize the opportunity to begin yard maintenance sooner than later. Now I hadn't paid much attention to the state of the lawn recently because the LORD supplies adequate rain, the grass stays mostly green year round, and the turf grows extremely slow during winter months.  Before mowing I decided to pull a couple of weeds I could see.  As I leaned over for a better grip, I noticed some clover growing in plain sight.  Before long I was crawling around on the lawn pulling out weeds I hadn't noticed before!  And it's not like the front yard is particularly big.  I had walked along the path to the front door only metres away multiple times a day and ...

" The prophet who has a dream, let him tell a dream; and he who has My word, let him speak My word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat?" says the LORD ." Jeremiah 23:28 Chaff is the thin papery material without nutritional value which covers grain.  Farmers would harvest grain and thresh grain, separating the grain from the wheathead.  The threshed grain was then "winnowed," by tossing it into the air with a slight breeze.  In this manner the chaff was blown away easily and only the edible grain remained.  The worthless chaff in no way made the wholesome grain less nutritious or rendered useless for planting.  Chaff and wheat come from the same stalk, but even a child can tell the difference between them.  A child of God, through the Holy Spirit, is given spiritual discernment to tell error from truth. God encouraged prophets to share their dreams, and those who had His word to speak it faithfully.   He concluded the verse with, " What i...