Will you be giving eggs as presents this easter, or entertaining your children with tales of the easter bunny and maybe stuffing your face with a few hot cross buns?

Or what about you church goers? Have you given something up for Lent? And/or will you will be celebrating easter Sunday by going to an early morning ’sunrise service’?

OK, we know that Christians celebrate easter as the time when Jesus was crucified and rose from the dead but did you know that Christians weren’t the only ones who celebrated a festival called ‘easter’.

If you really want to know about the pagan origin of easter and what those ‘harmless’ rituals with the eggs, bunnies, hot cross buns and ’sunrise services’ mean then click on the following link

http://www.lasttrumpetministries.org/tracts/tract1.html

DO NOT BE  DECEIVED INTO PAYING HOMAGE TO OR UNWITTINGLY WORSHIPPING ANYONE OR ANYTHING OTHER THAN THE LORD JESUS CHRIST OF NAZARETH!

The nights are getting brighter up here in Scotland and the first signs of spring are in the air. The snowdrops and daffodils are in bloom, new born lambs are appearing in the fields and the grass needs cutting – Oh well!

I love this time of the year. After a long cold, dark winter, all things become new. I never cease to be amazed at the seasons and I thank God that I am able to appreciate and enjoy this spring time in a most beautiful part of Scotland.

I had a good look at my bees last week and they look in fine fettle. On warm days they have been taking pollen into the hive and this is encouraging because it means the Queen has started laying eggs again as the pollen is used to feed the new brood.

I’m cutting down on my veggy growing this year and have decided just to grow enough for me and Pat and maybe a friend or two. I’ve been digging over my plot and unlike last year I seem to be running according to timetable. The new potatoes are chitting in the greenhouse and I have sown tomatoes, lettuce, cabbage, broccoli, sprouts and peas inside. Outside I still have leeks in the ground and the spring cabbage and cauliflowers will be ready next month.

We’ve increased our chicken stock to 14 and I have just finished building a compound in which we aim to house 6 ducks.

But the best news of all is that I am now a grandad – Aghh!

My daughter Vicki gave birth to little Lily on 15th March and she weighed in at 6lb 9 oz. Mum and daughter are both fine and are now home with dad, Gary. I am planning a visit in the near future.

 

So life goes on here as it does everywhere else. I am really looking forward to the next couple of months as the birds start nesting, the fields turn greener and the dolphins will be swimming around at Spey Bay, which is just 5 minutes away.

I’ve also joined a local Angling Club so I will be trying to catch a salmon or two on the River Spey this summer.

Spiritually, we are both fine. We are sticking close to Jesus and each other, living one day at a time with thankful hearts.

We are not able to be in close fellowship with anyone else but that’s cool – cos that’s where the Lord has led us.

Jesus is coming back soon! Hallelujah!! 

Since my last blog the Lord has revealed certain things to me that have shocked and saddened me. Some of it is concerning ‘deception in the church’ and the eternal fate of millions of believers. 

Because of what we have learnt we have had to make some difficult decisions and cut ourselves off from fellowship with people we have come to be very fond of.

Jesus tells us many times not to be deceived. (Mat 24:4-5, 11. Eph 5:6-11. 2 Thess 2:13) 

He said, ‘Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name saying, ‘I am Christ’, and shall deceive many’.  Mat 24:4-5 

Who do you think are the ‘deceived’? Jesus tells us that ‘many will be deceived’. Who are the ‘many’?  

NOTE also in the above verse that the deceivers are not denying Jesus, they are saying that Jesus is Christ. 

Jesus also said, ‘Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord,Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven………Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophecied in thy name? and in thy name cast out devils? And in thy name done many wonderful works? And then I will profess unto them, I never knew you, depart from me, ye that work iniquity.’  Mat 7:21-23 

THIS IS A MOST STARTLING STATEMENT.

 

 

Who do you think Jesus is talking about here?

Think about it!

He is not talking about unbelievers He is talking about church folk, Christians who practise prophecy, cast out demons and do miracles in Jesus name. 

What group of Christians do these things and teach these things? It can’t be ‘high’ church or denominations that believe the gifts of the Spirit have ceased because they don’t prophecy or cast out demons etc. 

I believe the Lord has shown me it is those individuals who are involved/engaged in what is called the Charasmatic Renewal Movement, eg Toronto, Brownsville, Vineyard, Alpha course, New Wine, Clan etc and I speak from experience because I was involved in this stuff myself till the Lord told me to ‘come out of her’. 

Why does Jesus say to these well intentioned people, ‘I never knew you, depart from me, ye that work iniquity’?

I believe it is because they have allowed themselves to be deceived, to follow deceiving spirits, to unwittingly follow Satan who don’t forget appears as an angel of light. 

The APOSTATE church is here NOW! Just take a look at the Christian TV channels. The vast majority are riddled with compromise, false teaching and ‘doctrines of demons’ and millions have fallen for it. ‘

REVIVAL

Let no man deceive you by any means; for that day shall not come except there come a falling away.’ 2 Thess 2:3 

‘And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.’ Mat 24:11 

Contrary to popular belief, the Bible does NOT teach that there will be a massive END TIMES REVIVAL! 

Rather Jesus said, ‘When the Son of Man cometh , shall he find faith on the earth?’ Luke 18:8 

He also said, ‘wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat, and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.’ Mat 7:13-14 

There has been a ‘falling away’, the ‘love of many has waxed cold’, millions have been and are being deceived. 

DON’T YOU FALL FOR IT! 

Jesus is coming back soon!

Be watchful (Mat 24:42-44), read the signs of the times (Mat 24:32-33, Luke 21:29-31). 

‘Beware of false prophets which come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly they are ravening wolves.’ Mat 7:15 

And if you are involved in the Charismatic ’Movement and attend New Wine Conferences in England, Clan Gathering in Scotland (both an offspring of the Vineyard church and now embracing Todd Bentleys false lakeland revival), promote Alpha courses, or attend Ellel (also an off spring of Vineyard teaching), or attend a church that teaches ’signs and wonders, etc

 

GET OUT OF HER!

 

And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.’ Eph 5:11

There are times in life, especially Christian life, when the penny drops, and we receive a revelation from the Lord. Well, it’s happened to me and I am really excited.

As I’ve written before, I have never felt at home in institutionalised churches and now I know why. The traditional institutionalised church we have today is based on the Old Testament and has no basis at all on the church as practised by the early Christians under the New Covenant of Jesus.

The present church set up is not how it is supposed to be! Somehow, we have managed to get it wrong – so wrong!

Church was never meant or intended to be an audience style of gathering where the selected few ran proceedings and everyone else sat down and watched or listened to them! 

In New Covenant church.

1. Decisions were made by the collective body of believers (Acts 6:1-6), there never was one person such as the Pastor in charge.

2. Churches met in houses (Acts 2:46, Acts 20:17-20)

3. All were involved – it was participatory, open, not an audience style, (1 Cor. 14:26) and

4. The early church ate meals together when they met (Acts 2:46)

OLD TESTAMENT CHURCH V NEW COVENANT CHURCH

In the Old Testament (O.T.), the people gathered in buildings inhabited by God but the New Testament (N.T.) tells us that God no longer dwells in buildings (Acts 17:24) and His people are the temple (1 Cor. 3:16)

In the O.T. ordained priests, the Levites had to carry out certain priestly duties, but in the N.T. every believer is a priest (1 Peter: 2:9), and every beliver is ordained (John 15:16)

In the O.T. people were commanded to pay tithes under threat of a curse from God (Malachi 3:8-9) but in the N.T. we are set free from the Mosaic law (Galatians 3;13, 5:1)and called to give cheerfully (2 Cor. 9:7) as prompted in our hearts.

NEW COVENANT HOUSE CHURCH IS NOT THE INSTITUTIONALISED CHURCH INSTALLED IN A HOUSE!

In the real Biblical New Covenant church we wait on the Lord. There are no programmes or Order of Service – we let the Holy Spirit lead.

Jesus is the absolute head of the church – if He is not, there is no power!

We worship Him! We listen to what the Holy Spirit is telling us! We love, edify, encourage and build each other up as we strengthen and develop relationships with God and each other!

House church is simple but very real! We can have more of the Spirit filled life and church as it was at the birth of Christianity, i.e. Spirit led, relational, in houses, and all involved, rather than the audience style of church that has evolved today.

If like me you have yearned for a church based on Acts 2:42-47 then please get in touch with me.

IF YOU WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT NEW COVENANT HOUSE CHURCH THEN YOU CAN READ THE PAGE ON THE RIGHT OF THIS PAGE ENTITLED, ‘IT’S CHURCH BUT NOT AS WE KNOW IT.’

Had a really great time of fellowship last night with two Christian brothers at our place. We shared, prayed, sang some praise songs, and had a meal together. Pat is away and I was pretty low – it was just what I needed. Finished the night with a prayer asking for a good nights sleep as I have not been sleeping well at all for a couple of weeks. And, I had a really peaceful night. I woke up a few times, but guess what, I had a smile on my face each time as I felt the presence of Jesus with me. Thank you Lord, for answering prayers.

I was reminded how much we take for granted in the western world this week when I received an e-mail from Africa. Our charity, the Lily Foundation, support widows and orphans in the Congo and every month we send funds to the Western Union Office in Lubumbashi. The funds are collected by our Overseas Development Officer, Isaac Umba, who is also Pastor of a local church, and he is responsible for operations on the ground.

Isaac with 2 orphan boys

Anyway, after  sending the funds learlier this week I received an e-mail, in French, from Isaac’s wife, Assy, telling me that Isaac was very ill in hospital. The doctor’s were wanting to carry out tests but you don’t get hospital treatment in the Congo unless you pay for it. Assy was understandably upset, but praying for the situation to be resolved. We also prayed about the situation and were able to help Isaac and Assy. I was moved to tears when she sent the following e-mail (this is the English translation – the original was in French). What a privilege and joy it is to be able to help others less fortunate than ourselves, especially other Christian brothers and sisters.

“Dear brother Tony, I am absolutely enraptured with joy and gratitude for everything that you have done for my family, thank you very much. Our Lord Jesus Christ will bless you and all your family. I have been pleased to receive the money this morning and yesterday the pastor was released from hospital but is still under the control of medicines for 2 weeks before it will begin to work. He is left with a pressure of 14/9 and there is good improvement according to the doctor. I thank you once again and the Eternal God will bless you.

Your Sister in Christ, Assy Umba. “

‘I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness.’

Isaiah 61:10

This verse really blessed me this morning as I spent some time alone reading my Bible and talking to God. There are some wonderful promises in the Old Testament part of the Bible that can speak to us today. This verse reminds me that salvation and the gift of eternal life is all of the Lord’s doing. It is a free gift from Him and is available to anyone who accepts Jesus as Lord, turns from their sin and simply trusts in Him.

None of us can be saved by our own will or effort, neither can we be saved by someone else praying for us. Obeying the commandments, joining a church, being baptised and confirmed or doing good will not save us. The Bible is very clear that salvation is a work of God.

‘For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no-one can boast’

(Ephesians 2:8)

And having believed and been clothed with the garments of salvation, the Lord then covers us with the robe of righteousness. Our sins, past, present and future, are forgiven because Jesus paid the price by dying in our place. The robe of righteousness makes us righteous before God, it covers us and He doesn’t see our sins anymore.

He ‘has clothed me with garments of salvation and covered me with the robe of righteousness’, and that is why I too ‘will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God.’  

HALLELUJAH!!

I can’t believe that three weeks have passed since we came back from our hols – how time flies! I’ve started catching up on all the inside DIY jobs that I’ve neglected for a long while and going by the long list I have, I think I will be at it until spring. As well as that, it’s a never ending battle to try and keep the grounds tidy so it is a relief when the grass and weeds finally stops growing about now.

There’s not been much honey around at all but I managed to do better than most in harvesting about 220lb of blossom honey and  30lb of heather honey.  We’ve made up about 2 dozen honey hampers which we intend to sell at the local Christmas markets along with our home made jams.

It can be quite lonely up here in the winter! We are just above sea level so the winters haven’t been bad at all for us -YET  but when it goes dark at 3.30pm it can be pretty grim – time to throw another log on the fire!

We’re still waiting for the Lord to reveal His will for us and we are both having to be patient. His timing is just perfect and there is no need to second guess Him or to go off on a particular course of action, UNLESS it is clearly what He has told us to do. All I know is that the Lord has given us the farmhouse and told me to make it into a home. Maybe when I’ve done that He will move?

We are simply trusting in Jesus to look after us and living one day at a time. It’s pretty cool really and He takes the stress and worry out of life. Hallelujah!

Well, we are back from our hols, batteries charged, refreshed and ready for a long cold winter in the highlands of Scotland – aghh! We had a great time in Cyprus, just chilling out with each other and Jesus. Everything went as planned, we visited my dad, Pat’s sisters, my sister and we had a really good time with my ‘kids’, Tony and Vicki. So we got a lot done in just one day and we are sorry we couldn’t visit our other friends in and around Liverpool – perhaps we can rectify that if we visit around Christmas time.

Anyway, we arrived at Manchester airport on Wednesday morning somewhat bleary eyed and as we approached the check in desk, Pat said to me, ‘ ask him for an aisle seat’. She had a DVT in her leg a couple of years ago and has to be careful on plane journeys. Somewhat flippantly, I replied, ‘ You dont ask him’ (pointing at the desk), ‘you ask HIM’, pointing to the heavens. ‘Alright I will’ replied Pat. She continued to pray a short but direct prayer, ‘Father, will you please provide us with an aisle seat, and can you also make sure we arn’t delayed’. Well, we continued through check in, rushed past Passport Control and almost straight on to the plane. We were looking for seats 13D and 13E. The stewardess directed us along the aisles and then said , ‘here’s your seat’. We couldn’t believe it as we took our seats. We’d only been allocated two seats with extra leg room and our own television, you know, the ones you usually have to book in advance and pay for. I was gob smacked and we both thanked the Lord for a really comfy flight, on time too.

We had planned the homebound flight so that we would be able to get into Manchester airport, collect our baggage, get picked up  by the mini bus to take us to our car, and then drive to a Travelodge Hotel about 20 miles away. It was important that we weren’t delayed, so before we set out from Cyprus we prayed a different prayer. ‘Lord, we aren’t bothered about really comfy seats this time but can you please ensure we aren’t delayed and that all goes smoothly’. Well, we were 50 minutes late taking off and by the time we landed at Manchester we were over an hour late. I was sulking a bit as it usually takes about 30 minutes (at least) to get your luggage and it would mean we would be getting to our hotel in the early hours of the morning. We entered the Baggage collection point and Pat nipped off to the loo. I looked at the time and said, ‘Lord, please can we have our luggage really quickly?’ Imagine my surprise when, two minutes later my case appeared, and before Pat came back from the loo, I had our two cases and we were able to leave the airport straight away. We’ve never got our luggage backafter just 5 minutes. It just goes to show that when I was doubting, because we were running late, the Lord answered our prayers, got our luggage back to us in record time so that we were able to make up the time and everything went smoothly after that.

I know those of you who don’t know Jesus will say that these were just two co-incidences, but those of you who do know Jesus will understand. You see, these ‘co-incidences’ happen too regularly, when we pray, for them to be co-incidences. Anyway, we have seen the Lord do mighty miracles since we have been Christians, but the last 10 days have reminded us that He cares for His children and looks after us in the ‘little’ things as well – if we only ask Him in faith and believe that he will do it – HALLELUJAH!

We got home on Thursday evening after the 400 mile trip from Liverpool, picked the dogs up (they went ballistic) and had a good nights kip. It’s back to normal with a bang today as I have a long list of jobs to do before I go back to work next week.

Our neighbours, Sharon and Willie, looked after the ‘chucks’ for us so a big thank you to them for a job well done.

 

 

I am really looking forward to going on holiday next week. We’ve both been working long hours over the summer and we are rewarding ourselves with a weeks holiday in our favourite hotel, the Marina, just outside Aiya Napa in Cyprus.  It will be a week of lazing on the beach, the occasional swim, good food, and a chance for me and Pat to spend time together without the distractions of everday life here at Cowiemuir.

The dogs will be going into kennels and then on Monday we are driving down to Liverpool. We will be spending Monday evening and Tuesday visiting family and I am particularly looking forward to seeing my children, Tony, now aged 25 (I haven’t seen him since we moved to Scotland) and Vicki, 23 years. Then, early on Wednesday morning it’s off to Manchester airport for the flight to Larnaca – YIPPEE!

It seems to be one of life’s mysteries that we can get so much work done in the week before we go on holiday. Someone cleverer than me should realise this and try an experiment giving workers more time off to see if production actually increases.  Despite being on 12 hour days this week I have managed to bring my hives home from the heather. The experiment of locating 3 hives on the heather moors above Tomintoul was a failure as there wasn’t a drop of heather honey in the super (box above the nest where the bees store excess honey). The hives at Benrinnes and Orton however have produced a super of heather honey each so we should be thankful for small mercies. I have also got 3 supers of blossom honey from the 2 hives left at home so although not a good honey year, it could have been a lot worse. I’ll be taking the honey from the bees tomorrow and placing a gallon feeder of sugar syrup on each hive so that they will have plenty of food for the winter. We also have to treat the bees with apistan, which will kill about 90% of the varroa mites, ( a mite which live on the bees and in the brood nest and if unchecked will destroy a colony of bees within 2 or 3 years).

So, we’ve got the suncream, the floppy sun hat, travellers cheques, Cyprus pounds, and Pat has had the cases packed on and off for about 3 months. God willing, in a few days time we will be enjoying a bottle of Keo and a Greek salad in our favourite beach restaurant, The Mistrali – ‘Yamos’!.