“LIKE COLD WATER TO A THIRSTY SOUL” (PR 25:25)

26^th October 2023

 

With what is mightier than the sword, I am writing into our collective global climate of conflict, as the wildfires of ‘wars and rumors of wars…nation rising against nation’ (Mt 24:6), strip more than the bark from our human family tree! And whilst ‘the nations rage’ (Ps 2:1), and the family “tree does not blossom” (Ha 3:17), Calvary’s buried Seed remains the root out of dry ground (Is 53:2), that continues to mercifully nourish the hewn stump of humanity (Ro 11:17)

Job’s metaphor is poignant: “… there is hope for a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that its shoots will not cease. ⁸ Though its root grow old in the earth, and its stump die in the soil, ⁹ yet at the scent of water it will bud and put out branches like a young plant” (Job 14:7-9)

As ‘water-bearers’ with Timothy Two Project international, we bring “the scent of water” - “living water” (Jn 4:10), to “old roots” and “stumps” that, many times, are ‘dying in the soil’, so that these indigenous pastors, who are, in truth, ‘oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord’ (Is 61:3), can ‘drink freely of the Water of Life’ (Re 22:17), and begin to, “bud and put out branches like a young plant”, again.

So, don’t let the noise of the ‘birth pangs’ of this world (Mt 24:8) take your eyes off the prize of what is unseen and eternal (2 Co 4:18), because we, the saints, “walk by faith, and not by sight” (2 Co 5:7), and we, “endure as seeing Him who is invisible”! (He 11:27) This ‘underground stream’, away from the naked eye, is the water of the Word (Ep 5:26) that quietly flows, unabated, thru the Timothy Two Projects, as we train the ‘midwives’ to be ready for when the ‘waters break’!

 

 

MY NEXT TTPI WORKSHOP

 

My next, ‘scent of water’, TTPI Workshop, from November 6 thru November 18, 2023, is with some new friends that I have been reaching out to - Congolese pastors who serve in the Cape of Southern Africa amongst the displaced. I will introduce more of them to you as we go along, but here are photos of some of these amazing men who, “…thirst after righteousness.” (Mt 5:6) Please PRAY into the fruitfulness of that for all of us!

 

A STRATEGIC PLAN

Also, would you please continue to help us take ‘water’ to them, and others, since it is YOUR reward? (Mt 10:42) I am working rigorously on a Strategic Business Plan that can conflate my Podcast, my YouTube, my Blog, and my GODbrand, into a sustainable stream of income that will fund my TTPI missions, whilst, at the same time, effectively taking the gospel into all the world thru these channels. Please PRAY into the flourishing of that. You can also click the DONATE button, if the Holy Spirit puts that on your heart. Thank you.

 

IN-PERSON MISSION FEEDBACK 

Vanya, Evangeline, Guinevere and I will be making a trip back to the USA for two weeks, arriving in NC for Thanksgiving this year, and then on thru to Seattle, so that we can give face-to-face feedback on how the mission is going. We are so excited about seeing everyone! I would like to use that time to connect with individuals and businesses, who may be interested in partnering with us in the TTPI mission, and, in particular, partnering with us in our Strategic Plan to fund the TTPI Mission by going global with the gospel thru our various platforms! If you know of someone who has a heart for keeping the ‘main thing’ (Mt 28:19-20) the main thing, then would you please connect me with them, or vice-versa?

Supported by the Root (R0 11:18)

All our love

Martin, Vanya, Evangeline and Guinevere

www.timothytwo.org/data/martin-mccrory

 

 

A LEAP OF FAITH

Mother Of All Kindness

THE MOTHER OF ALL KINDNESS

 www.godbrand.com

As beautiful as this world is around us, and it is truly beautiful, a lot of us can see, and hear, the cries of pain, can’t we? Some of us are even in that very pain right now. But there have been A FEW noble soldiers, past and present, who have seen and heard the cries of humanity more as “labour pains”, and have taken up a kind of “midwife” role over all the trauma, interpreting the need as an opportunity to give birth to some of the greatest relief initiatives on our planet, Someone said, “Necessity is the MOTHER of invention”, perhaps more accurately here as the “MOTHER of Intervention”! and they have let compassion reign! And the world is a better place because of them.

My birthing-picture here is really close to home for me, because I’ve taken the role of midwife in delivering my own children, and I’ve helped Vanya, my wife, birth, what I consider to be 3 of the most beautiful humans on the planet! And they’re all very different: Evangeline, for instance, is deeply compassionate, missionary-hearted, sacrificially generous, and loves children and orphans; Aquilla is creative, musical and academically brilliant, warm and friendly; Guinevere is a bright button, filled with reason, logic, advocacy, justice, and is deeply merciful. It is clear that they will answer different needs with their respective lives, and the world will be better place because of them.

I’m giving you this picture to show that beautiful things can be born out of pain, and for all the pain that is in our travailing world, “midwife-types” have assisted in birthing some really significant answers to the humanitarian crisis.

But let me take you back to Guinevere for a moment – we nearly lost her at birth because of some health complications – and we nearly lost mom too, my bride, but they were both rescued by intervention! And somewhere in the course of human history, we have lost the “mother” of these “children”, these beautiful relief initiatives that we support and celebrate. Organizations that care for the poor, care for the environment, care for the frail, the sick and the aging, care for the blind, care for the hungry, famine and disaster relief, medical care, hospitals, education, human trafficking intervention – you name it. And the world is a better place because of them! So, at GODbrand NPC we have asked the question: Who is the mother of these children? If we are enjoying the fruit, then where is the tree and the root? Because if we look after the tree, there is going to be more fruit. Yes?

And that is our passionate goal at GODbrand, to nourish the root of all of these significant initiatives. It only takes a cursory glance through history to discover that the Church, in fact, is the mother of these children! And yet, we have found that, as time goes on, the children are celebrated, and the mother is forgotten, sometimes left dying on the delivery table. Therefore, GODbrand’s focused mission is to rescue the mother, God’s bride, the church, by intervention. It was Cyprian, one of the early Christian fathers and martyrs, who said, “If we will not have the church as our mother, we cannot have God as our Father!”

Therefore, we are passionately committed to the mission of sacrificial generosity, in bringing financial relief thru all of our proceeds, whether by sales or donations, to help fund Church planting entrepreneurs, pioneering missionaries, specifically. We do not support those who safely hold onto their jobs, while dabbling in the pastorate. We support those who lay down their lives for God’s flock, as the first requirement of a true shepherd. In fact, the Bible says, “Pastors who do their work well should be paid well, and should be highjly appreciated, especially those who work hard at both preaching and teaching. For the Scripture say, “Don’t muzzle the ox while it is treading out your grain,” and, “The worker deserves his wages.”

And so, we know that by directing our resources in this way, we are caring for the apple of God’s eye, His bride, an apple tree, no doubt, that will continue to produce fruitful, compassionate initiatives throughout the world!

Would you help us with this? Will you become a GODbrand Philanthropist? There are hidden figures in our midst, forgotten people, true pastors, who have sacrificed everything to pioneer churches that will become what they always have been throughout history: the resource centres for humanitarian initiative, the mothers of all kindness, the root of the fruit of philanthropy! Let’s intervene!

You are able to act right now, and in the days ahead, thru our YouCaring Crowdfunding platform, and you can visit our website (www.godbrand.com), where you can sign up as a GODbrand Philanthropist, source my blog, purchase our high quality products, and become the owner the most beautiful logo on the people’s planet!

Please follow us on our SM platforms:

• Twitter.com/GODbrandGlobal
• Facebook.com/GODbrandGlobal
• Pinterest.com/GODbrandGlobal
• Instagram.com/GODbrandglobal
• www.godbrand.com

Thanks for reading. Let’s change the world with the love of God. 

My Rest - My Rescue!

Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath

Why is it a “Blue Monday” for most people?

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Man has an inbuilt proclivity to work hard and long.

Intrinsically tied to that proclivity is his identity, derived from what is called a “good work ethic”, a moral propensity that builds significance and worth in humans. But relentlessly putting our hand to the plough with the sweat of our brow inevitably means something gets neglected (which, ironically, is not ethical!) Remember, that because of the fall of man, we eat from the ground with “pain”, with some of our work producing “thorns and thistles” (Gen 3:17-19); perhaps a “prickly” marriage, or “painful” children, or “thorny” issues, or “scratchy” relationships, or damaged health - something gets weakened. And let’s not forget the incentivising “carrot” of making more money - which weakens, not only our immunities, but our character, where we “pierce” ourselves through with many griefs! (1 Tim 6:10) 

God looks down on all of this, and says, “They’re getting pretty tired! If they don't have a break, they will break!” So, He breaks His own Son on a cruel cross for you and I, by piercing him through with the grief-load of mankind, crowning Him with the curse of thorns in His blood-sweat brow! He let Jesus carry the weight of the world on His shoulders so that you and I don't have to! All of which is intended, amongst other things, to help us rediscover a rhythm of recovery for mankind called the Sabbath, a day of rest, historically patterned to point us to the one who is the Sabbath, Jesus Christ, who dawns in on the blur of our busyness with these words: "Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. 29  Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. 30  Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly." [Matthew 11:28-30 (MSG)] Hence, Jesus’ definitive statement in Luke 6:5 “The Son of man is Lord of the Sabbath”.

Life, then, is like a dance - it has steps and sequences - and the Author of life has placed His rhythm into every facet of it:

1. Our hearts beat in and out (not just “in”, or just “out”, but rhythmically, to keep us alive)
2. Rotational (and unstoppable) cycles of day and night unfold
3. Rotational (and unstoppable) seasons of Summer, Winter, Autumn, and Spring, visit, and re-visit
4. We are awake in the day to work and love, and then we have the gift of sleep at night
5. There is a time to sow and a time to reap
6. There are 6 days to work, and a seventh day to rest (to keep us truly alive!)

When we move in sync with God’s rhythms on His great dance floor, we live well and healthy; when we get distracted, or try to find our own “groove”, we end up stepping on His toes, and things get quite “prickly” quite quickly!

Historians say that when generations look back on this (our) period, it will be called the “Age of Anxiety”. And there are all manner of associated maladies that come with this “prickly” condition, like:

• stress
• fear
• poor performance
• failure
• depression
• perpetual weariness
• tardiness
• headaches
• upset stomach and ulcers
• high blood pressure
• chest pains
• insomnia or disrupted sleep, etc…

Generally, a real loss of well-being for the human being! Research tells us that 75 to 90% of all doctor’s office visits are for stress-related ailments.

Whenever we lose the original (or the Origin), it is important to rummage thru the rubble of our historical ruins to see if we can find the point of deviation, and regain our centre, in order to get back on track. With that said, please allow me to ‘take you back’ a little bit on how the Rabbis view the gift of the Sabbath:

According to Gen 2:2, God finished His work and rested on the 7th day. Was He exhausted? Well, no - the Scripture says he can't get exhausted - but we can! And that is why God brings the Sabbath to mankind, so that He can be kind to man!

Rabbinical teaching is that, when God ended His work, he rested His soul (life) into all that He had created, thus bringing permanence to everything. Creation was without inner life before the Sabbath; the Sabbath animates creation!

When we read in Ex 20:11 “For in six days God made the heavens and the earth”, the correct Hebrew here is, “For six days God made the heavens and the earth” - the difference being that God only put power into creation for 6 days, never fashioning it into permanence or perpetuity! But with the Sabbath, God refreshes and revives creation for another six days (Can you see the rhythm?!) Therefore, in the Jewish mind, each Sabbath, God renews creation!

Consider the practical application of observing a personal Sabbath rest in our fast-paced, out of rhythm world: We’re saying that, in that day, God presses the refresh button, we get rebooted, He rejuvenates us, revives us, refreshes us, restores us, makes us kinder, more patient, and Oh! what a difference we could make to this world in that condition! And with all of that, He brings permanence to the work of our hands. Our fruit remains.

My prayer is that you wouldn't debate about whether the Sabbath is Old or New, or Saturday or Sunday or every day, but rather that you would see it as a day of rest where you can recoup, reflect and recommit to God. We have to stop in order to start. Or, to put it another way, where we stop, God starts! We cannot simply keep going hammer-and-tongs, expecting to make an impact on this world when our potency is being systematically depleted by our neglect! We need to move in rhythmic cycles of rejuvenation, or else we will grind to an inevitable halt! Which most people do - prematurely!

It is important for me to give you this understanding of the Sabbath, especially as we look at Luke and watch the Son of Man break into the scene to announce that He is Lord of the Sabbath. (I suppose a good question would be: “If Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath, then do you have a Sabbath that He can be Lord of?”)

Let’s have a look at how Jesus contextualises the Sabbath:

Luke 6:1 On a Sabbath, while he was going through the grainfields, his disciples plucked and ate some heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands. 

2  But some of the Pharisees said, “Why are you doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath?” 

3  And Jesus answered them, “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him: 

4  how he entered the house of God [Mark: in the time of Abiathar the high priest] and took and ate the bread of the Presence, which is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those with him?” [Mark 2:27  And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.]

5  And he said to them, “The Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.” 

[Matt 12:5  Or have you not read in the Law how on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are guiltless? 6  I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. 7  And if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless. 8  For the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”]

Here is Jesus’ setting for the Sabbath story from 1 Sam 22:20, from which we derive 6 Sabbath benefits (coincidentally, one for each day, perhaps):

1. David takes the Bread of Presence out of the temple for his men, together with the sword of Goliath. The Bread of Presence is Holy to the Lord, and by Law, reserved only for the priests

• What this foreshadows is that Jesus is the Bread of Presence from Heaven (John 6), accessible for the entire priesthood of all believers, and we carry His Presence thru Sabbath rest.
• Sabbath rest rejuvenates us to fight other “giants” - the Word is our sword!
• Also, it is a picture that mercy is higher than ceremonial law (Ps 51)

2. The drama of this story is that Doeg kills all 85 priests, and exterminates their entire town, leaving Abiathar alone to serve David as priest!

• This signifies the end of the Levitical priesthood, and points to one High Priest and Mediator, who is to come, bringing PERMANENCE to Christ alone as High Priest and Lord of the Sabbath
• It also foreshadows the fact that in order to usher in the Sabbath rhythm, it is going to cost Jesus His life!

3. Now Jesus mentions that it was in the time of Abiathar the High Priest, but actually, it was Ahimilech, Abiathar’s father who was the High Priest. Clearly, though, Abiathar was the only one remaining after the massacre. I believe that Jesus mentions Abiathar as the last priest because his name means:

• “Father of Abundance”, and/or
• “Father is Pre-eminent”
• Which implies that as Lord of the Sabbath, Jesus brings the ABUNDANCE of Father to us through the Sabbath
• And He makes Father pre-eminent in our lives, locking down our significance and worth as children of God!

4. Jesus also says, “Something greater than the Temple is here” in reference to Himself

• What that means is that the Sabbath allows Christ to be ever-increasingly magnified in our lives!
• Traditional observances, religious relics, ceremonial practices all get eclipsed by the GREATER Christ!

5. When Jesus is Lord of our Sabbath, we do not condemn the guiltless!

• Consider how many judgements we make on “law-breakers”
• James tells us that “mercy triumphs over judgement!
• Sabbath rest takes the prickly-pear irritability out of our soul, the splintering beam out of our eye, where we look with kindness and mercy and compassion on law-breakers!

6. Because the Sabbath ushers in new life, as the Lord of the Sabbath, Jesus is Lord of the re-creation, Lord of the brand new creation (2 Cor 5:17-21)

• Jesus is Lord of the re-birth!

In conclusion, Jesus says, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath”. Legalism always makes man a slave to what was designed for his good! We are not slaves! (1 Corinthians 7:23  You were bought with a price; do not become slaves of men) We are the FREE! And if we are the free, then we should have a FREE DAY! The problem is (and it’s always going to be a problem), is that we feel GUILTY about anything that is for free, including forgiveness and love and grace! We always feel like we need to do something because we feel guilty about being on the receiving end of forgiveness! By sitting doing nothing in a day, for instance, the buzzing busyness of the worker-bees within our souls, haunt us with the question, “Shouldn’t you be making honey?” But nothing is something in the hands of the Lord of the Sabbath!

Because the Sabbath was made for man, it is designed to give life and permanence to all our preceding labours, and it strengthens us for our forthcoming labours. For six days we work, and nothing of life is beyond those six days until we stop, and bless the work of our hands with the Sabbath:

Psalm 90:17  Let the favour of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us; yes, establish the work of our hands! 

God gives permanence to our fruitfulness thru the Sabbath. We have fruit that remains!

The Fruits of Repentance


I live in South Africa. We drive on the left-hand-side of the road. Things get complicated if you drive on the other side! Some years ago I travelled to the United Sates. They drive on the right-hand-side of the road. They’re allowed to, because they are American! But it was a serious head-spin for me! I remember pulling out of a campus drive in Texas one day, noticing the road to be clear of traffic. My hard-wired, ingrained, rutted South African-driving-brain (which note, had saved my life many times in South Africa), instinctively turned left at the STOP, only to find, to my horror, some 200 meters down the road, a fleet of American vehicles rumbling towards me in the “wrong” direction! (Of course, it would never enter my mind that I was wrong!) I was in the “crumple-zone”! Realising that I was out-gunned about 30:1, I executed a U-turn that a talent scout for “Fast and Furious” would have drooled over! It was life-saving!

The point of my story is that there are so many instinct-based decisions that we make in life that seem "right up our alley", but they lead us "up a blind alley"! We think we’re on the right track, but we’re heading in the wrong direction! “The way we’ve always done it” simply cannot cut it for running headlong like a crazy into the crash-zone! That’s why I want to speak to you about “REPENTANCE” today… It can be life-saving!

Luke 3:8 says, “… who warned you to flee from the wrath to come (the oncoming traffic)? Therefore bear fruits in keeping with repentance (do a U-turn!)…”

Good fruit in our lives is rooted in the nourishing soil of REPENTANCE. Jesus said that we would know a tree by its FRUIT (Luke 6:44). So, Biblically speaking, true repentance is beyond simply saying “Sorry”. That’s a great start, but our sincere remorse for transgression is evidenced by a U-turn in behaviour! (It’s both, Show AND Tell)

I know that the word “repentance” may read a little archaic in our culture, like old-school, but this beautiful lifestyle is such a saving grace! In the Greek Scriptures, the word means to “change your mind” - to have such an intense compunction (regret) for guilt that we not only change the way we think, but we turn around and head in the opposite direction! (Rom 12:1-2) And, as if that were not enough, repentance also reverses the decision of another! Meaning that, the “wrath to come” is appeased and averted, because our changed lives are waving a “white-flag” to God!

Since life can hard-wire our plastic grey-matter, and rut our decision-making, God throws us a grace-life-line through repentance that saves us from the crash and burn! (Acts 5:31). Here’s a question, though: “How do we know that we are repentant enough?” Should we be dragging our knuckles on the floor in a perpetual state of remorse and regret? It’s a good question, because many people get “spiritual” identity out of protracted guilt as a kind of humility-look-alike, saying in effect, that, if they live this way, then God will be good to them. But God is GOOD. Period. Not only does Goodness from God precede repentance - it leads us to repentance! - Romans 2:4 says, “Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? 5  But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.”

So, again, we go wide-eyed and white-knuckled into the CRASH-zones of life because we get a different kind of “brain-freeze” - we are just crazy stubborn! "I did it my way!"

It seems pretty clear from Scripture that repentance is given to us as a gift from God to avert disaster. Does the Scripture have a type of Repent-ometer - a fruit-reader? If the “Fruit Inspector” comes into the garden of my soul, will He find export quality? I would like to offer you a crystal clear answer to that question from 2 Corinthians 7. It's awesome! I promise:

That passage begins with these words: "Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God…"
Fear is a very good change-agent, not that we panic, but that we are made more alert for action. Those who have a deep reverence for God, carry the aroma of the freshly tilled soil of repentance, and exhibit the most holy fruit! The great song-writer, King David, wrote that, "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise." As this compunction for guilt intensifies, the Corinthians passage delineates the most beautiful fruit that accompanies this kind of sorrow:
Paul writes in verse 9,  "Now I'm glad—not that you were upset, but that you were jarred into turning things around. You let the distress bring you to God, not drive you from him. The result was all gain, no loss. 10  Distress that drives us to God does that. It turns us around. ("Produces repentance" - ESV) It gets us back in the way of salvation. We never regret that kind of pain. But those who let distress drive them away from God are full of regrets, end up on a deathbed of regrets. 11  And now, isn't it wonderful all the ways in which this distress has goaded you closer to God? You're more alive, more concerned, more sensitive, more reverent, more human, more passionate, more responsible. Looked at from any angle, you've come out of this with purity of heart." Good that!

8 WONDERFUL FRUITS OF REPENTANCE:
We are MORE:

1. Alive
2. Concerned
3. Sensitive
4. Reverent
5. Human
6. Passionate/enthusiastic/excited/animated
7. Responsible
8. Pure

Let's juggle these words a little bit, and see what they spell out for us:

We are MORE:

1. Pure in heart
2. Reverent
3. Enthusiastic (BTW, the etymology on this word is, "divinely inspired, possessed by God")
4. Concerned/Caring
5. Responsible
6. Alive
7. Sensitive, and
8. Human/e

These are the PRE-CRASH fruits of repentance from the Holy Spirit that safeguard us from hitting the wall over-and-over again! Let's cultivate these fruits by developing a lifestyle of renewal shaped by the fear of the Lord. It can be life-saving.

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