Broken Vessels

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Episkopos

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I've just recently learned of an evangelist named Erlo Stegan...a South African who went to the Zulus to bring them to Christ. I find his story very poignant, and reveals what is missing so often in our own ministries.

At one point Erlo Stegan didn't know why God was not working among the Zulus and he thought Satan was resisting him. Eventually he realized it was God resisting him and that he was the problem. He humbled himself and God began to do the kinds of miracles like blind from birth growing eyeballs and seeing, but he said it was not the miracles but the people God was changing.

Check out this comic-style publication that skips over the middle part of the story...but you'll get the gist of it. :)

http://calvarycomics.com/publications/zulu_revival.html
 

Pathfinder7

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I've just recently learned of an evangelist named Erlo Stegan...a South African who went to the Zulus to bring them to Christ. I find his story very poignant, and reveals what is missing so often in our own ministries.

At one point Erlo Stegan didn't know why God was not working among the Zulus and he thought Satan was resisting him. Eventually he realized it was God resisting him and that he was the problem. He humbled himself and God began to do the kinds of miracles like blind from birth growing eyeballs and seeing, but he said it was not the miracles but the people God was changing.

Check out this comic-style publication that skips over the middle part of the story...but you'll get the gist of it. :)

http://calvarycomics.com/publications/zulu_revival.html
Good post/title..
---
Revivals often started..with those who are 'broken'..
- in Christian history.
---
I was in South Africa..many years ago.
- Shor trip.
 

Degas

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Thank you for sharing. Too bad I can't read, my eyes are too sensitive to handle the blurry text. I wouldn't trust a man with that kind of smile to be a true servant of God, though, but maybe the pictures don't do him justice?

Love your avatar <3
 
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Episkopos

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Why do we need to be broken in order to serve the living God? The inner man is contained within a corrupted covering called the outer man that acts like a husk that covers (and protects) a seed. Unless the outer man husk is broken, the inner man (the part of us that has been regenerated by the Spirit) remains BURIED within the confines of the carnal part of us. We can liken this to the kind of fruit that is able to be produced in the parable of the TALENTS compared with the one who was never broken, but rather whose talent remained buried in his outer man.

To be broken is to be crucified...and vice versa.

"Truly I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be told in memory of her.” Matt. 26:13

Jesus said that wherever the gospel of the Kingdom is preached what Mary did for Him would be told. What did she do? She broke an alabaster jar in order to pour its precious contents on Jesus' head. The breaking is significant. We have an immense value to the Lord in the inner man. God's New Covenant is with the inner man, But the outer man is in the way. Only as we are broken in the outer man can the perfume...or scent of Christ...can be brought out into the world.

The gospel needs to be preached with the scent of Christ being present ..preaching FROM the inner man...TO the inner man in others. :)
 

Episkopos

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The Bible isn’t the living word?

Jesus Christ is the living Word. The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. :)

Calling a Bible "the living Bible" is just a way to differentiate one publication from another. For copyright purposes. No Bible has yet to produce a pulse. The Bible is on paper. Paper has no life in it...and letters have no life.

It is what the Bible is POINTING to that has life.

A sign that points to a city is NOT the city.
 

Michiah-Imla

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The Bible Is a weapon:

“And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (Ephesians 6:17)

The Bible is food for the Spirit:

“Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” (Matthew 4:4)

The Bible cleanses:

“Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.” (John 15:3)

And I can go on and on…

I’m not liking your attitude toward the Holy Bible.

The letter kills those not in the Spirit!
 

Episkopos

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The Bible Is a weapon:

“And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (Ephesians 6:17)

The Bible is food for the Spirit:

“Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” (Matthew 4:4)

The Bible cleanses:

“Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.” (John 15:3)

And I can go on and on…

I’m not liking your attitude toward the Holy Bible.

The letter kills those not in the Spirit!

LOL. Someone once said that Fundamentalism is to Christianity what paint-by-numbers is to art.

Weaponizing the Bible? Judging and pontificating? Interpreting good things for ourselves and bad things for others? No life in that.

You need to learn the difference between a logos (word) and a rhema (living word). Can we create the world by reciting words? No. But God can. God's logos is alive. We need to speak rhema to one another...not just logos.

It all depends on who is doing the speaking.

The Bible should be seen as words FROM God...not the word OF God. The word of God IS Jesus Christ.

I don't think I like the religious nature of your argument..or as they say...the cut of your jib. If you take the words of God at face value they condemn us. It is only as we are contacted by God directly that the promises of God become our own.

It is not the hearers (or readers) of the words of God that are justified...but the doers.
 

Azim

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Why do we need to be broken in order to serve the living God? The inner man is contained within a corrupted covering called the outer man that acts like a husk that covers (and protects) a seed. Unless the outer man husk is broken, the inner man (the part of us that has been regenerated by the Spirit) remains BURIED within the confines of the carnal part of us. We can liken this to the kind of fruit that is able to be produced in the parable of the TALENTS compared with the one who was never broken, but rather whose talent remained buried in his outer man.

To be broken is to be crucified...and vice versa.

"Truly I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be told in memory of her.” Matt. 26:13

Jesus said that wherever the gospel of the Kingdom is preached what Mary did for Him would be told. What did she do? She broke an alabaster jar in order to pour its precious contents on Jesus' head. The breaking is significant. We have an immense value to the Lord in the inner man. God's New Covenant is with the inner man, But the outer man is in the way. Only as we are broken in the outer man can the perfume...or scent of Christ...can be brought out into the world.

The gospel needs to be preached with the scent of Christ being present ..preaching FROM the inner man...TO the inner man in others. :)

I find this true with my own experience, when I was finally born again just three years ago. Its also interesting, in the following Psalm, God is more interested in our brokenness than any other offerings.

Psalm 51:16-17
16 For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering.
17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.
 

LearningToLetGo

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The inner man is contained within a corrupted covering called the outer man that acts like a husk that covers (and protects) a seed. Unless the outer man husk is broken, the inner man (the part of us that has been regenerated by the Spirit) remains BURIED within the confines of the carnal part of us.

I very much appreciate what you wrote above. :)