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Inspirational speakers Drs Robert and Maureen McQuillan are regular warmly welcomed guest speakers at churches as well as at business gatherings and leadership sessions. Many ministers, especially those younger, inexperienced or struggling,appreciate their ‘pastor’s heart’ to mentor. Willing to travel extensively, blessing, challenging and inspiring churches, pastors and potential leaders, they have a reputation of (if available of course) 'being willing to come along at the drop of a hat.' Their special retreats are 'Moving in the Spirit' and 'Marriage - The Real CSI!'

Monday, September 30, 2013

The Power of Words

A good friend who delights in finding funnies emailed this:

A guy bought a new fridge and to get rid of his old one put it in his front yard with a sign saying: 'Free to good home. Want it? Take it.'


For three days the fridge sat there without anyone looking twice. He eventually decided that people were too mistrustful of this deal. So he changed the sign to read: 'Fridge for sale, $50.' The next day someone stole it! 
Words have power
You could say it was all in the way the words were framed. Words do indeed have power.

Language is a great gift - for communicating, expressing, describing, explaining, directing, worshipping, preaching, teaching, admiring, adoring, inspiring and more, not only in speech but also in printed form. But sadly language can be abused and instead of people being built up with encouraging words it can be wrongly used to hurt, discourage and pull down.

There's an old Bible teaching about words - they have the power of life or death. Sadly some Christians use the power of words to hurt
others or force their viewpoint and will on others.

James obviously came across this and wisely gave Christians some strong warnings in James 3: 'A word out of your mouth may seem of no account, but it can accomplish nearly anything - or destroy it! It only takes a spark, remember, to set off a forest fire. A careless or wrongly placed word out of your mouth can do that. By our speech we can ruin the world, turn harmony to chaos, throw mud on a reputation, send the whole world up in smoke and go up in smoke with it, smoke right from the pit of hell' (v5-6 emphasis ours).

He added, 'The tongue runs wild, a wanton killer. With our tongues we bless God our Father; with the same tongues we curse the very men and women he made in his image. Curses and blessings out of the same mouth! My friends, this can't go on' (v8-10).

Tunnel vision
Sadly we come across people living double standards - they're supposed to be loving their brethren but their words come across in such a way that they're putting them down, belittling, condemning and falsely accusing them of not seeing 'the truth.'

And, repeatedly, 'the truth' is but their own version, their way of thinking and with hidden and personal agendas, not biblical or Christ-centred. A twisted mindset at work in people with undealt- with problems. They have a myopic spirit, a tunnel vision on what they believe is right, how they perceive things should be. And they wrongly delight to force their views on others. They display and enforce a domineering spirit.

An additional problem is that we live in the day of cyberspace. Not only do these hurtful, demeaning people use God's gift of language verbally but they type it up! The email age means that beyond speaking face-to-face (or behind backs as the case may be), or
demeaning phoning, hurtful emails hit the airways. With Cc and Bcc copies- who knows the reach of a loose computerised tongue!

Church members get criticised, pastors get verbally slammed, and seeds of doubt regarding leadership and church systems or seeds of doubt regarding leadership and church systems or programs are planted in minds at cyberspace speed!



Church wolves in sheep's clothing
There are times when such church people seem to have a prophetic edge, they appear to know what they're saying - especially if they themselves hold a form of leadership. Their words can be very easily taken in by the unwary who then begin to feel demoralised, put down with wrongly accepted feelings of 'Maybe he (or she) is right. Maybe I've got it wrong. After all, they know more of the Bible than I do and they're leaders.'

Jesus was also into warnings such as Matthew 7:15:'Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognise them.' He went on to instruct that we should stay away from such people.

We like how the Message Bible puts it: 'Be wary of false preachers who smile a lot, dripping with practised sincerity. Chances are they are out to rip you off some way or other. Don't be impressed with charisma; look for character. Who preachers are is the main thing, not what they say. A genuine leader will never exploit your emotions or your pocketbook. These diseased trees with their bad apples are going to be chopped down and burned.'

Condemnation - an evil thing
This is something such church wolves lay on the most innocent and precious of people. Condemnation can plough deep into the heart if we allow it to take root. Such people speak or email sneeringly and make us feel that we're in the wrong, that we're at fault. It's a subtle work of the enemy and in truth the wolf in sheep's clothing often has problems of his or her own and need some straightforward challenging and godly counsel!

'Condemnation' - the word means 'the act of condemning or pronouncing to be wrong; censure; blame; disapprobation.' Recently we came across a church that had lost a lot of good people because every Sunday the preacher - 'the wolf' - had always been condemning 'the sheep' in various ways. No wonder people moved on!

We all need exhortation, not condemnation! Satan condemns, people condemn and we can end up condemning ourselves as we start believing that we're not good enough.

Paul writes in Romans 8:1, 'There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.' A Bible college principal once explained "no condemnation" so clearly decades ago - 'If we were to go straight from the Greek into English, it would sound like bad English "No, not, nothing condemnation!"'

Now we know that this predominantly relates to our being covered by Christ's blood. But because we also know that we're totally free in him (John 8:36), we personally take this on board for every area of our Christian walk as we follow Jesus. Therefore we refuse to allow anyone to dominate us, control us and make us feel inferior. If we cannot see the character of Jesus in them or their actions, we refuse to listen to them, never mind even think that they could be right. In other words, we look for the fruit as Jesus suggested.

Our advice for anyone who is feeling condemned because of subtle words? Carefully assess the speaker's (or emailer's) character and ask the Holy Spirit what he's saying. No doubt you'll see things in a different light. Don't take rubbish on board.

As for ourselves, let our own words be life-bringing, not destructive. Let's be good gatekeepers.(c) 2013.09

Saturday, September 28, 2013

The Power of Prayer



A good friend called asking us to pray for her sick husband and also regarding their need for a new rental accommodation.

The first matter was of top priority as the future was looking bleak, the second would be a great homecoming blessing from hospital.

We prayed, knowing that this couple value prayer; that they know their God is interested in everything to do with his spiritual children’s daily life journey.

Prayer immediately brought God’s miraculous touch into action and he continues to bless them one step at a time, one day at a time, one miracle at a time.

Believing and trusting
A great key is that we knew that here are Christians who believe in the power of prayer, that God really cares and that they especially know how to trust him.

As pastoral mentors and counsellors we have contact with many ministers and people from all over. Email, Skype and phone systems have their advantages!

Naturally we do our best to encourage everyone to believe that God cares and will move to assist in meeting our needs – as we seek his help and are willing to operating in simple trust.

And there are often times we require to give advice and make suggestions asking that people do a certain something themselves. For example, instead of seeking a prophetic word from God through us, they need to seek God direct and listen to him.

In other words, instead of ‘What’s God telling you, Robert and Maureen?’ it must be ‘Have you sought God? What’s he told you and what have you done?’

Prayer is free and brings results
Some time back we were invited to two dinner engagements. One was with a famous senator, a fundraising drive that would cost us $500 each! That fee put the night out of the question!

The other was a dinner with a Christian college. A special time just for pastors so that the principal and his board could inform us of the college’s outstanding advances, progress, vision and plans.

We responded to this invite…and not just because the night was free and not a fundraiser per se, the restaurant surroundings relaxing with excellent a la carte food, and company amiable. But mainly because we wanted to hear the presentation and learn of practical ways in which we could help.

Sadly only a few city ministers turned up! It almost seemed that not many had a real heart for Christian education...perhaps others were unaware of the great gains and advances over the past 20 years in Christian colleges, and the need for such institutions in these days of scholastic compromise, mixed values or lack of high standards in teaching circles.

From what we learned city churches – and Christians – can be proud of Christian colleges. Progress has been tremendous, current programs are based on strong Christian values, Jesus Christ is at the core of all that is done, taught and envisaged, and the vision and future plans are exceptional. 

First priority
Then the principal mentioned one major thing – simple but powerful – that not only ministers can do for Christian colleges, but also every Christian, especially those that know the power of prayer…PRAY!

Pray! This is the first priority - beyond needed finance - in this principal’s agenda for pastoral and church input into assisting the college and pupils that he is proud of.

We liked that …for we know that without prayer (never mind a vision) ‘the people perish.’ And this goes for any Christian personally, family, Bible college, ministry or church as well as local Christian colleges!

So many times we’re able to bring great comfort to people by explaining that the Bible word for ‘prayer’ - in Aussie dictum - simply means ‘to yak.’ Such as a bereaved lady a while ago.

Her eyes light up and peace entered immediately. Gone went the harsh wrong Sunday school upbringing that ‘You had to pray’ with no given explanation of how or why. Realisation came that it is possible to have meaningful relationship with a caring, loving God simply by talking prayerfully with him and trusting!

Prayer, when properly understood, is a power key to touching God’s heart and changing/shaping future events. It’s also the means of bringing about blessings into situations, organisations, ministries, churches and people’s lives! Many times we’ve seen God heal people, change situations and enrich lives through the power of prayer!

In these days of ongoing uncertainty - including health and financial future, our advice is:
·         Know God personally. Pray, believe and trust
·         Invest tithes and offerings into one’s local church
·         Donations? Don’t forget worthy Christian colleges.

Most churches have some great prayerers. We encourage such to be active.

As James once wrote: ‘The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and wonderful results’ (5:16NLT). (c) 2013.08