8th March 2022<\/p>\n\n\n\n
New wineskins <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n (This series of articles was written at the beginning of the first lockdown in March\/April 2020)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Previous articles are still available on the Premier Christian radio website – https:\/\/www.premierchristianradio.com\/Blogs2\/Yeshua-Explored \u00a0– (until they finally pull the plug!)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Here\u2019s a familiar Scripture; Hear, O Israel: The <\/em>Lord<\/em> our God, the <\/em>Lord<\/em> is one. Love the <\/em>Lord<\/em> your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.<\/em> <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s the holiest prayer in Judaism, the Shema, taken from Deuteronomy 6:4-5.<\/strong> It\u2019s the ultimate acknowledgement of God, reminding us of our expected attitude towards Him and response to Him. It\u2019s at the heart of all the Commandments He gave to us, reminding us that God is Everything, He owns our hearts, soul and strength and all must be given back to Him. This prayer and indeed all of the commandments are not just an internal affair. The next verses give us the wider context:<\/p>\n\n\n\n These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts.<\/em> Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.<\/em> (verses 6-9)<\/p>\n\n\n\n The context is family and home. And when Jesus came along to emphasise and build upon these commandments, the context remained the same, family and home. This was also the context in the early church, when the actual word \u201cchurch\u201d referred to those gathering as God\u2019s people, but when the word was redefined to denote the building<\/em> in which they met, the context was wrenched out of God\u2019s Hands and into man\u2019s programmes and desires. This is our inheritance and little happened to change the status-quo, until March 29th<\/sup> 2020 (in the UK \u2013 a different date elsewhere).<\/p>\n\n\n\n This was the first Sunday in current memory when the UK Government banned all Church assemblies. Not out of a manic desire for totalitarian control, but for safety measures against a nasty virus. For twelve years I have been writing about the transition of the Church from a family-centred, faith-driven, life-enhancing path to salvation, to a multinational enterprise controlled by the few on behalf of the many<\/em>. It\u2019s one thing for a lone voice to express concerns (and offer solutions), but an entirely different (and extremely unlikely) thing for anyone to take notice, let alone make changes. It seemed that, if the Church was going to wake up and return to its Biblical roots, it is unlikely to be by evolution<\/em> \u2026 it could only come through revolution<\/em>!<\/p>\n\n\n\n The revolution came from the far east and, in a matter of weeks, turned every aspect of our existence on earth upside down. Our debate should be less about origins and more about the effects. Two Scriptures come to mind as being very relevant to our situation today:<\/p>\n\n\n\n You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.<\/em> (Genesis 50:20)<\/p>\n\n\n\n And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, whohave been called according to his purpose.<\/em> (Romans 8:28)<\/p>\n\n\n\n The principle is the same, God is always<\/em> in complete control, even if it doesn\u2019t seem so at first sight, as in the case of Joseph and his trials. Through the Covid-19 crisis, God has offered the Church a lifeline, if only it has ears to hear! <\/em>It is a true revolution, something beyond the wildest imagination of the most hardened of Marxists. It is a revolution precipitated not by an idea of man, but through an accidental product of man\u2019s meddling. And it has managed to shut down most of our civilisation, culture, economy and social life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Which brings us to a true hinge of history, a portal to possibilities. The revolution has arrived within droplets of virus and the church is mostly flummoxed. The key question to ask those who are the current gatekeepers of the Church is this; discounting your lockdown plans, are you actively planning for change in the long term or are you expecting things to return to normal once the pandemic has died out? <\/em>Is Flockdown<\/em> a temporary inconvenience, or can you hear God\u2019s voice in it? Perhaps God isn\u2019t in the still small voice or gentle whisper, but is rather more insistent. It wouldn\u2019t be the first time that God shouted at His people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/sup><\/em><\/strong>The Lord said, \u201cEarth and sky, listen to what I am saying! The children I brought up have rebelled against me. Cattle know who owns them, and donkeys know where their master feeds them. But that is more than my people Israel know. They don’t understand at all.\u201d You are doomed, you sinful nation, you corrupt and evil people! Your sins drag you down! You have rejected the Lord, the holy God of Israel, and have turned your backs on him.Why do you keep on rebelling? Do you want to be punished even more?<\/em> (Isaiah 1:2-5)<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is a fed-up Deity, willing to reprimand His people. Yet hope is always offered, there\u2019s always a way back, as we read later in that chapter (vs 16-20):<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wash yourselves clean. Stop all this evil that I see you doing. Yes, stop doing evil and learn to do right. See that justice is done\u2014help those who are oppressed, give orphans their rights, and defend widows.\u201d<\/em> The Lord says, \u201cNow, let’s settle the matter. You are stained red with sin, but I will wash you as clean as snow. Although your stains are deep red, you will be as white as wool.If you will only obey me, you will eat the good things the land produces. But if you defy me, you are doomed to die. I, the Lord, have spoken.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n This is our God. He is always speaking to us. Of course, it is not up to me to say what God is saying to us through the pandemic, that is one for our \u201cprophets\u201d to discern. What does interest me is that fact that God occasionally has to use a loud-hailer to wake us up, or at least nudge us into new possibilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Well, it\u2019s been some nudge, with an awful lot of casualties and it certainly wakes us up to life\u2019s realities, with a thin line drawn between life and death at the hands of the virus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Repeating my question to the Church; discounting your lockdown plans, are you actively planning for change in the long term or are you expecting things to return to normal once the pandemic has died out?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Sadly, evidence seems to indicate a \u2018riding out\u2019 exercise until it\u2019s over<\/em> and then it\u2019s back to the norm, church services, activities, programmes etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The two approaches<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The \u201cold wineskins\u201d are content with the way things are and many saw Flockdown producing opportunities for evangelism and personal growth. There is a wonderful testimony here from my own local church. They used the lockdown period to build themselves up in Scripture, prayer and genuine fellowship, mainly over WhatsApp. I was more of an observer here, though Monica was very much a part of this. It turned out that God had His plans here, when a spiritual emergency suddenly exploded into the life of the Church and they were able to deal with it simply because they were an army prepared in advance!<\/p>\n\n\n\n But, unfortunately, many failed to grasp the implication that God may have been speaking through Flockdown and demanding a new thing from His Church. For them there will be no lasting change because, in the words of Haggai;<\/p>\n\n\n\n You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why?” declares the LORD Almighty. “Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with your own house.\u201d<\/em> (Haggai 1:9)<\/p>\n\n\n\n The \u201cnew wineskins\u201d feel the call and, although it may not yet be totally clear what the call is, they are prepared to be agents for positive change, again because of the promise in Haggai;<\/p>\n\n\n\n