Teacher scolds girl, 5, for talking about Jesus

A five-year-old girl from Devon was left in tears after her teacher reprimanded her for talking about Jesus in class – and her mummy could be facing the sack.

The girl’s mother, who works part-time at the school, is being investigated by governors because she emailed friends at church asking them to pray about her daughter’s situation.

Mrs Jennie Cain is being supported by The Christian Institute’s legal defence fund.

The head teacher at the school, Mr Gary Read, learnt about the prayer request after he got hold of a private email sent by Mrs Cain from home using her personal email account.

He would not tell the 38-year-old mother of two how he got a copy of her personal email, but he told her she was being investigated for misconduct.

Mrs Cain said: “I felt embarrassed that a private prayer email was read by the school – it felt like someone had gone through my personal prayer diary.

“I feel my beliefs are so central to who I am, are such a part of my children’s life.

“I do feel our beliefs haven’t been respected and I don’t feel I have been treated fairly. I don’t know what I am supposed to have done wrong.”

On 22 January Mrs Cain went to pick up her children from the 275-strong Landscore Primary School in Crediton, Devon.

Earlier that day her daughter, Jasmine, had been overheard by a teacher discussing heaven and God with a friend. The teacher took the five-year-old to one side and told her off.

Mrs Cain said that when she picked her children up from school, “my daughter burst into tears, her face was all red and she was clearly upset.

“She said ‘my teacher told me I couldn’t talk about Jesus’ – I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.

“She said she was taken aside in the classroom and told she couldn’t say that. I was so shocked, I didn’t know what to do.”

The next day Mrs Cain was called into Mr Read’s office over another matter before he started discussing her daughter, Jasmine.

“He started talking about my daughter about how he wasn’t happy about her making statements about her faith.

“At that point I froze, I felt very small and I felt trapped as I was a junior member of staff.”

That weekend, she emailed a prayer request from her personal computer at home to ten trusted friends from her church.

“I asked them to please pray for us, please pray for Jasmine, please pray for the school and pray for the church.”

A few days later she was called back into Mr Read’s office.

“I didn’t think at this point I could be more stunned. He had in his hand a copy of my private, personal email and it was highlighted all the way through.

“He said that he was going to investigate me for professional misconduct because I had been making allegations about the school and staff to members of the public.”

Mrs Cain, who was not suspended, said he refused to tell her where he had got the email but said two independent governors would be taking statements and calling witnesses.

“He said the investigation could be followed by disciplinary action up to and including dismissal because of this private email.”

The Christian Institute’s Mike Judge said: “I thought I had heard it all when I learned a nurse had been suspended for offering to pray for a patient.

“But now a five-year-old girl and her mother have been slammed for nothing more than expressing their Christian faith.

“I am particularly concerned about the way in which Mrs Cain’s private email to her church friends ended up in the hands of the head teacher.

“This is the latest in a series of cases where Christians are being persecuted for their religious beliefs. It is really getting to a point where it has to stop.”

http://www.christian.org.uk/news/20090212/teacher-scolds-girl-5-for-talking-about-jesus/

What the Church Needs (E. M. Bounds)

“What the Church needs to-day is not more machinery or better,
not new organizations or more and novel methods, but men whom
the Holy Ghost can use – men of prayer, men mighty in prayer.
The Holy Ghost does not flow through methods, but through men.
He does not come on machinery, but on men. He does not anoint
plans, but men-men of prayer.” – E.M. Bounds

Strange Fire in the House of the Lord (J. Lee Grady)

We need to be careful. Current fads involving angels, ecstatic worship and necromancy could push us off the edge of spiritual sanity.

No one fully understands what Nadab and Abihu did to prompt God to strike them dead in the sanctuary of Israel. The Bible says they loaded their firepans with incense, ignited the substance and “offered strange fire before the Lord, which He had not commanded them” (Lev. 10:1, NASB). As a result of their careless and irreverent behavior, fire came from God’s presence and consumed them.

Zap. In an instant they were ashes.

 

When Moses had to explain to Aaron what happened to the two men, he said: “It is what the Lord spoke, saying, ‘By those who come near to Me I will be treated as holy, and before all the people I will be honored'” (v. 3). Although we don’t know the details of what Nadab and his brother did with the holy incense, we know they were careless and irreverent about the things of God.

“We want the miracles of God, but we also want the fear and reverence of God. We cannot allow this strange fire to spread unchecked.”

This ancient story has relevant application for us today. We don’t use incense or firepans in our worship, but we are expected to handle God’s Word with care and minister to His people in the fear of the Lord. In other words: No funny business allowed. We aren’t allowed to mix God’s Word with foreign concepts or mix our worship with pagan practices.

Yet as I minister in various churches around this country I am finding that strange fire is spreading in our midst-even in churches that call themselves “Spirit-filled.” Pastors and leaders need to be aware of these trends:

1. Deadly visitations. In some charismatic circles today, people are claiming to have spiritual experiences that involve communication with the dead. One Michigan pastor told me last week that some church leaders he knows promote this bizarre practice and base it on Jesus’ experience on the Mount of Transfiguration. The logic is that since Jesus talked to Moses and Elijah on the day He was glorified, this gives us permission to talk to dead Christians and our dead relatives.

Although little is said about these experiences from the pulpit (since the average believer is not ready to handle this “new revelation”), people in some streams of the prophetic movement are claiming to have visitations from Aimee Semple McPherson, William Branham, John Wimber or various Bible characters. And we are expected to say, “Ooooooo, that’s so deep”-and then go looking for our own mystical, beyond-the-grave epiphany.

That is creepy. Communication with the dead was strictly forbidden in the Old Testament (see Deut. 18:11), and there is nothing in the New that indicates the rules were changed. Those who seek counsel from the dead-whether through mediums and séances or in “prophetic visions”-are taking a dangerous step toward demonization.

2. Ecstatic rapture. Not long after ecstasy became known as a recreational drug, someone in our movement got the bright idea to promote spiritual ecstasy as a form of legitimate worship. The concept evolved from “spiritual drunkenness” to the current fad in which people gather at church altars and pretend to shoot needles in their arms for a “spiritual high.” Some preachers today are encouraging people to “toke the Holy Ghost”-a reference to smoking marijuana.

I hate to be a party pooper, but the Bible warns us to “be of sound judgment and sober spirit” (1 Pet. 4:7). There is plenty of freedom and joy in the Holy Spirit; we don’t have to quench it by introducing people to pagan revelry. Christian worship is not about losing control. Those who worship Jesus do it “in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24), and our love for God is not measured by how violently we shake or how many times we fall on the floor.

Recently I told a friend in Pennsylvania that when people get tired of this drug imagery it won’t be long before we see some Christians having sexual experiences at the altar. “It’s already happening,” my friend said. He described a recent “worship concert” in which one of the musicians simulated sex while stroking a microphone and whispering sensual phrases to Jesus. What is next-orgasmic worship? God help us.

3. Angels among us. Angels have always played a vital role in the life of the church. They are “ministering spirits” sent to protect, guide and strengthen believers (Heb. 1:14). But suddenly angels have become the rage in some segments of our movement. People are claiming to see them everywhere, and often the stories don’t line up with the Word of God.

During the Lakeland Revival last year in Florida, a man from Germany took the stage and claimed that an angel walked into a restaurant while he was eating a hamburger, took his intestines out and replaced them with a gold substance. Others have testified that angels took them to heaven and operated on them. And many are claiming that angels are dropping feathers, gold dust and precious gems on worshippers.

I know God can do anything. He can make an iron axe head float, hide a coin in a fish’s mouth and use a little boy’s lunch to feed a multitude. Those were genuine miracles that He can still do today. But we still have to use caution here. There are counterfeits. If we promote a false miracle or a false angel in the Lord’s house, we are participating in strange fire.

I know of a case where a man was caught planting fake jewels on the floor of a church. He told his friends he was “seeding the room” to lift the people’s faith. I know of others who have been caught putting gold glitter on themselves in a restroom and then running back in a church service, only to claim that God was blessing them with this special favor. Where is the fear of God when Christians would actually fabricate a miracle?

This is a time for all true believers with backbones to draw clear lines between what is godly worship and what is pagan practice. We want the miracles of God, but we also want the fear and reverence of God. We cannot allow this strange fire to spread unchecked.

 

J. Lee Grady is editor of Charisma. He will be ministering from Feb. 17-27 in England. If this article was forwarded to you, we encourage you to sign up to receive “Fire in My Bones” weekly in your own mailbox. Click here.

Church in the 21st Century… (William Booth)

William Booth (Founder of The Salvation Army) when asked to comment about the issues confronting Britain at the turn of the century said:-

* There will be religion without the Holy Spirit

* There will be Christianity without Christ

* There will be Forgiveness without Repentance

* There will be Salvation without Regeneration

* There will be Politics without God

* Heaven without Hell...  Selah.

Blears wants Christians to serve but not speak

Blears wants Christians
to serve but not speak

Christian groups should only be able to access funding for social work if they promise not to evangelise, says communities secretary Hazel

Blears.

Speaking at an Evangelical Alliance (EA) conference on Christian debt-counselling services Mrs Blears spoke of a new charter for faith groups involved in social work.

Under the charter, developed with the help of the Faithworks group, religious organisations will be offered public funding for projects serving the community.

But this money will, Mrs Blears said, only be available to groups “promising not to use public money to proselytise”.

During a Commons debate on the charter last year Mrs Blears said “many people are motivated by faith of all kinds to do great acts of social good”.

“However,” she continued, “I am concerned to ensure that if faith groups become involved, they do so on a proper footing – not by evangelising or proselytising, but by providing services in a non-discriminatory way to the whole community”.

Her speech to the EA has been compared to a church sermon in some press reports, as Mrs Blears ‘preached’ to church leaders about how Jesus would have understood the pressures of the economic crisis.

She spoke of the “hope” which characterises the Christian life, adding that such hope could help society get through the “difficult path ahead”.

But Christian groups are concerned that the Government wants to use the services provided by Christian groups while preventing them from articulating their faith.

The speech comes in the wake of a spate of stories where Christians – often in caring professions – are facing opposition from local authorities over their beliefs.

These include a Christian nurse who was suspended for offering to pray for a patient, a Christian carer struck off after a Muslim girl in her care became a Christian, and a Christian care home which lost council funding over its beliefs about homosexuality.

A spokesman for the Evangelical Alliance, Dr R David Muir, said: “The Government wants the social action and welfare that faith groups provide, but there is a danger that they also want faith groups to leave their beliefs at the door.”

Mrs Blears said: “It’s not about trying to stop the people manning the soup kitchens, or making home visits, talking about their faith if people ask, or being open about what motivates them.”

She told the conference: “I don’t want to get to the place where the very thing that motivates you is stripped away. That’s self defeating.”

But Dr Muir said: “Our faith is what equips us as Christians to provide support and compassion to those who are spiritually and emotionally damaged by debt.”

The Bishop of Rochester recently wrote of the way the Christian foundations of much social care are being forgotten as Christianity is sidelined in many public services.

This is done under cover of concerns about offending people, he said, but was really driven by “secularist agendas which marginalise all faith but seem especially hostile to Christianity”.

Secularists have welcomed Mrs Blears’ plan to stop religious groups from evangelising if they are commissioned to carry out social work for the Government.

The National Secular Society commented that “hidden beneath the flattering and emolient words was a clear message: we need your help to run welfare services on the cheap.

“This message was also tempered by the announcement that public money would come with firm conditions attached”.

The Faithworks charter, which has influenced the Government’s plans, requires Christian groups who sign up to it to provide services to the community without “imposing our Christian faith or belief on others”.

(http://www.christian.org.uk/news/20090210/blears-wants-christians-to-serve-but-not-speak/)

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The Word Will Change Your Circumstances (Kenneth E. Hagin)

The Word Will Change Your Circumstances

by Rev. Kenneth E. Hagin

He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions. Ps 107:20

A pastor friend of mine once said to the Lord, “Lord, You know I believe in divine healing, but no one in my church is receiving. What’s the matter?”

The Lord said to him, “Why don’t you preach on it?”

So he started preaching on divine healing, and his whole church got healed.

Before, nearly all of them were sick. But they all got healed. That’s what happens when the Word of God is preached. The Word of God is what does the work.

We are affected by the words we hear—whether it’s truth or untruth. You could listen to someone talk who is worried and oppressed. And when you left his presence, you’d feel oppressed yourself. Some people are so full of doubt and unbelief that the very atmosphere around them is charged with darkness. That kind of atmosphere is created by words.

Thank God for the Word of God! His Word is His will. Psalm 107:20 says, “He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.” Let’s talk about the Word of God. Let’s talk about healing from the standpoint of God’s Word.

Confession:  I speak the Word of God. I speak faith-filled, life-filled words that change the circumstances around me. I refuse to speak doubt and unbelief.

The Simple Gospel (Curry Blake)

Many times we, who have been Christians for a long time, tend to complicate our presentation of Christianity. When we speak of the life a Christian is expected to lead, we begin to list rule after rule after rule. Because of this, Christianity has become known as the religion of the “Thou Shalt Not’s”. America is known as the “Land of the free”, yet there are many more laws against things in America than there are in the Bible. This is the Simple Gospel:

1. God created man. Man did not create God (as some psychologists would have us believe). God created man in His image and in His likeness.

2. God gave man dominion over the earth and everything on it and in it.

3. Man forfeited that dominion to satan through willful disobedience.

4. God decided to pay the penalty for man’s sin.

5. Man’s sin could only be removed by blood. The sin of all mankind could only be removed by the blood of one who was perfect and without sin.

6. If all mankind was infected by the sin of the “father” of the human race, then a mortal (Sin-infected) man could not be pure enough to remove all sin.

7. Jesus was made flesh and dwelt among men. He, being the express image of God, was pure enough to pay the penalty for man’s sin.

8. Jesus lived an exemplary life on earth to show us how a Spirit-filled person should live.

9. Jesus was crucified, buried, and raised from the dead. Each of which relates to us. Crucify the flesh, be buried (in baptism), be raised in new life to live unto God in righteousness.

10. Jesus’ death undid the effects of man’s sin. His blood bought our salvation and his broken body bought our physical healing.

11. God desires all mankind to live in blessings not curses. Anyone that repents can be saved and/or healed.

12. God will do anything you ask Him to do IF you will do anything He asks you to do .

13. The will of God is to do anything that reveals God to man and draws man to God.

14. The Word of God (the Bible) is the will of God. The Spirit of God CANNOT lead you to do something that the Word of God says not to do and He CANNOT lead you to not do something that the Word tells you to do.

15. God did not call anyone to be a car salesman or a bank teller or a store clerk. He calls people to be witnesses and “missionaries” to the car sales world, to the banking world and to the grocery store world. If you consider yourself as anything other than a missionary into the world that you are a prt of, you are not a Christian. A true Christian ALWAYS has as their primary reason for being – the desire to share what they have found. If you do not desire to share, it is because you have not found something worth sharing. If that is the case, you have not found the Gospel of Jesus Christ. John G. Lake said; “The Gospel of Jesus Christ is enough to make any man the wildest kind of triumphant enthusiast.”

16. God has more faith in you than you do and more faith in you than you do in Him. He treats you like you are already what He wants you to be, not like what you are acting like.

17. Your purpose on earth is to bring God as much glory as possible. He expects you to commune with Him like a husband and wife commune.

18. God expects you to be strong and do exploits for Him, thus bringing Him glory.

19. God expects you to live by the rules of the Spirit, not by the llaws of the flesh or the physical. The only limits are those you impose upon yourself.

20. God desires to reward us according to our works, yet Christians are so afraid of being accused of working for their salvation that they avoid doing Biblical good works.

21. Christians are so afraid of making a mistake that they do nothing. Not realizing that this is the biggest mistake they can make. If you do something wrong, God is big enough to fix it, but if you do nothing at all, God cannot take your inactivity and turn it into activity. (See the Parable of the Talents.)

22. Every Christian has a ministry. Every Christian should be training a younger believer in the ways of God.

23. God never intended The Church to be a place. He intended it to be a people. He intended it to be a body of people that are consistently being changed into the image of Christ. Just as Christ was the image of God.

24. Expect God to be big in you. Dream big. Do great things for God. God has plenty of people that will just do small things for Him, He needs people that will do great things. Do things that lift people, that help people. Do things that bless mankind. Do things that God would do if He were here in the flesh. Forget what men may say about you. They said the same and worse about Jesus. No Prophet is appreciated until he is needed to get someone out of trouble.

25. Get out of and away from dead religion. Get into a relationship with God. How can you tell the difference. You can tell if you are in dead religion by how you think. If you are always thinking that you can’t do this or that (good thing) because God is just waiting for you to do something He didn’t tell you to do so He can bring judgment down on you, you are in dead religion. Dead religion always says: “Don’t do it, you might make God mad at you.” A Christian Relationship always says: “What can I do for God to show Him how much I love and appreciate Him?”

26. Jesus said that God’s will is that we do for others what we would want done to us. If you were sick would you want someone to walk up to you in Wal-Mart and minister healing to you? Then God’s will is for you to go to Wal-Mart and find a sick person to minister to. If you were hungry and penniless and standing on a street corner would you want someone to buy you a meal? Then God’s will for you is that you go find a hungry street person and buy them a meal. You can witness to them while they eat. Tell them how God can help get them out of their situation. This is called “The Golden Rule”. To become a Christian you must:

A. Repent (Admit your sin AND turn away from it).

B. Ask Jesus to be your Lord (Someone you obey without question or hesitation).

C. Believe that He has heard you and granted your request.

D. Confess (say out loud) that Jesus is your Lord and God is your Father.

E. Immediately find a church to attend faithfully. Find a full-gospel, non-denominational, Spirit-filled Church.

F. Ask to be baptized in water This helps solidify a clean break between your old life and your new way of life.

G. Ask a full-gospel, Spirit-filled minister about the Baptism in the Holy Spirit.

H. Read your Bible everyday and always ask God to show you what you need to know.

I. Begin to do whatever He shows you. (i.e. Whatever you read in the Bible.)

Where Is Your Preaching Accepted? (Jay Adams)


Food for thought (quote from Michael Fabarez’s Preaching that Changes Lives)

“If you preach a sermon that would be acceptable to the members of a Jewish synagogue or to the Unitarian congregation, there is something radically wrong with it.  Preaching, when it is truly Christian, is distinctive.  And what makes it distinctive is the all-pervading presense of a saving and sanctifying Christ.  Jesus Christ must be at the heart of every sermon you preach.” – Jay Adams

Holiness Unto the Lord (Tongues Message by John G. Lake)

Holiness Unto the Lord

Tongues and Interpretation, Rev. John G. Lake
Spokane, Washington, March 6, 1916

Holiness is the character of God. The very substance of His being and essence of His nature is purity. The purpose of God in the salvation of mankind is to produce in man a kindred holiness, a radiant purity like unto that of God Himself.

If God were unable to produce in him such a purity, then His purpose in man would be a failure, and the object of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ would be a miscarriage instead of a triumph.

The triumph of Jesus Christ was attained through His willingness to be led by the Spirit of God. The triumph of the Christian can be attained only in a similar manner. Even though God has baptized a soul with the Holy Spirit, there yet remains, as with Jesus, the present necessity of walking in humility, and permitting the Spirit of God to be his absolute guide.

The unveiling of consciousness, of the desire of the flesh, of the sensuality of the nature and the thought of man, the revelation of adverse tendencies, is part of God’s purpose and is necessary for growth in God. How can the nature of man be changed except that the nature first be revealed? So there arises in the heart the desire and prayer for the Spirit of God to eject, crucify, and destroy every tendency of opposition to the Holy Spirit. Think not that thou shalt attain the highest in God, until within thine own soul a heavenly longing to be like Him, Who gave His life for us, possesses thine heart.

Think not to come within the court of God with stain upon thy garments. Think not that heaven can smile upon a nature fouled through evil contact. Think not that Christ can dwell in temples seared by flames of hate. No! The heart of man must first be purged by holy fire and washed from every stain by cleansing blood. Know ye that he whose nature is akin to God’s must ever feel the purging power of Christ within?

He who would understand the ways of God must trust the Spirit’s power to guide and keep. He who would tread the paths where angels tread himself must realize seraphic purity. Such is the nature of God. Such the working of the Spirit’s power. Such the attainment of him who overcomes. In him the joy and power of God shall be. Through him the healing streams of life shall flow. To him heaven’s gates are opened wide. In him the Kingdom is revealed.

Fear not to place thy hand within the nail-pierced palm. Fear not to trust His guidance. The way He trod is marked by bleeding feet and wet with many tears. He leadeth thee aright and heaven’s splendor soon shall open to thy spirit, and thou shalt know that all triumphant souls, those that have overcome indeed, have found their entrance by this path into the realms of light.

The Price is Paid (E. W. Kenyon)

The Price is Paid

by E.W. Kenyon

Did you ever realize that it is not what you do, but what He did for you that counts? We have given the wrong message to the world. Our message to the world has been one of “giving and putting away;” we have told them what they must do, while the truth is that God does not ask the world to give up anything. Someone might ask, “Doesn’t He ask them to give up their sins?” Never.

“Doesn’t He ask them to give up their wickedness and rebelliousness toward Him?” No. It is not subtraction. It is addition. It is not taking from, it is adding to.

God is the giver. We are the receivers. “God so loved that He gave His only begotten Son.” (John 3:16).
    
He never asked humanity for anything.
     He saw our poverty. He saw that the only things we could give would be things for which He had no use.
     God is the Giver.
     He gives only as a Prince, a King, can give.
     He does not ask us to give up anything, or to give away anything.
     He does ask us to receive something.
     The first thing He offers is Redemption from the fear of want, failure, weakness, of sickness or disease.

He gives us a Redemption from all these.
     It does not seem credible or even possible that it could be and yet it is true.
     He offers us a Redemption from the works of the enemy.
     How it thrills the heart to contemplate it!
    
Colossians 1:13-14 gives us the amazing truth, “Who delivered us out of the authority of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of the son of His love.”
    
Let us notice carefully. He does not ask us for anything.

He has come of His own accord, at His own expense, and Redeemed us out of the authority of darkness, weakness, ignorance and failure, and He sends the Revelation to tell us the good news that we are Redeemed; not that we may be delivered, not if we will be good and give up our sins. No. We are already delivered out of the authority of darkness.

     This is not the message that they have taught us to preach.
     This is the reverse of it.
     All we had to do was acknowledge the gift, and thank Him for it.
     “But,” you say, “what about our sins?”
     He put our sin away by the Sacrifice of Himself.
     We had nothing to do with it whatever.

We had been helplessly in bondage for years, and then one day someone came along and said, “Did you know He put your sin away by the Sacrifice of Himself?”

     We said, “Yes, we read it, but we never understood it.”
    
     John the Baptist said, “Behold the Lamb of God that beareth away the sin of the world.”
     God had dealt with the sin problem.
     He does not ask us to deal with it.
     He does not ask us to do a thing with it.
     Now He comes and tells us that He put that sin away, that He remitted all the sins we ever committed.
He is not asking us to do anything.
     He does not ask us to do anything but receive it.
     If we have to pay Him for our Redemption it is no longer of grace but of works.
     Jesus is a gift, the Father’s gift.
     We do not pay for a gift.