HOUSECHURCH

  Someone asked what is the most miraculous thing. The answer was “You.” Your first part of the journey began in your mother’s womb as a single cell. God wrote on that single cell all your body parts - your heart, lungs, brain, eyes, ears, mouth, liver, spleen, gastrointestinal tract, kidneys, limbs, reproductive organs and covered you with skin. You drew your sustenance, including oxygen, from your mother without your blood ever mixing with her blood, making you a unique creation. This journey was totally under God’s control. In due course, you came out, and God breathed into you the breath of life, and you began your second part of the journey. While God gave you growth, you were under the authority and influence of your parents, the community, and the culture. They nurtured you to be a professional and ready to start your family. Now, in the third part of the journey, you can choose the broad way to live for yourself, seeking name, fame and wealth, which can lead to destruct...

Recently, a few Hindu temples have been ransacked by Muslims in Bangladesh and by Sikhs in Canada, and the Government in India has very actively condemned the attacks and advised the respective governments to provide security.  However, back here in India, literally hundreds of churches have been demolished by goons, aided and abetted by the police, and their pastors and believers are either in jail or on bail, some have been maimed and killed. Conversion to Christianity is being criminalized on a daily basis, with anti-conversion laws leading to jail sentences for as many as 10 years. Globally, in the year 2023, over 5000 believers have been killed, 14,000 properties destroyed, 4000 jailed, and over 3000 million believers live under severe persecution. In India alone, according to the  United Christian Forum  based in New Delhi reported 525 violent incidents against Indian Christians within the first eight months of 2023 — up from 505 incidents over the entirety of 2...

The Babylonian Empire was rising to power, and Judah was facing internal corruption and external threats. Habakkuk, a farmer and a Prophet, cried and sighed to God for his people plagued by injustice, violence, and idolatry. Then God told him, a Jew, to look at the Gentiles and, “ Behold and wonder marvelously; for I will work a work in your days which you will not believe, not even if it is declared to you.” (Hab 1:5). Habakkuk became curious and earnestly wanted to know what God was going to do so he climbed up the rampart of the city and waited. God told him, “ Write the vision, and make it plain on the tablets, that he who reads it may run. For the vision is for an appointed time ...” (Hab. 2:1-3) The vision that God gave him was “ For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of Lord, as the waters cover the sea.” (Hab. 2:14). Then Habakkuk committed: “ Though the fig tree shall not blossom, and fruit is not on the vines; the labor of the olive fails, and the fie...

THE POPES Popularly, Pope is taken to mean Papa or Holy Father, but in reality, it means Pontifex Maximus, the ‘big bridge builder’ or ‘the bridge between God and man’. The Latin Cardinal means a ‘door hinge’ that opens the door to heaven. Being a vicar of Christ also means that he represents Christ on earth. When he speaks ex-cathedra, which means from the Throne as God and can even overrule the Scriptures, but the Sovereign God does not share his glory with anyone (Isaiah 42:8). The Pope is considered infallible, but history shows otherwise. They also falsely trace their succession to Apostle Peter, who, being an apostle to the Jews, never went to Gentile Rome. The last he was heard of was in Babylon, where he wrote his epistles (1 Peter 5:13). Peter was married, and Jesus healed his mother-in-law, so why celibacy? (Matthew 8:14 and Mark 1:30). The enormous marble statue of St Peter in the Vatican is the Greek god Jupiter, whose toes the pilgrims have been kissing for centuries. The ...

 By Wolfgang Simson, author of “The House Church Book” – www.refornation.eu Based on biblical, archaeological and historical evidence, house churches – and flat‐structured regional networks of  house churches ‐ have been the primal, original expression of the ekklesia that Jesus Christ promised to built in the New Testament. During the emergence of sanctuary‐based, hierarchical and denominational church systems from AD 100‐400, house churches have often become sidelined, suppressed and even persecuted by what called itself the mainline church (see the history chapter in: The House Church Book). House churches have, in various forms and under various labels like pietistic groups, cells or base communities, always existed under the radar of both secular and religious observers. A major and historic comeback of house churches has happened in China – curiously after the expulsion of Western missionaries and their religious influence after Mao Zedong in the early 20th century. Som...

  WORSHIP IN SPIRIT AND IN TRUTH   Worship is a much-abused word in the church. High octane singing, deafening music, dancing, thrashing on the floor, babbling, and screaming are considered spirit filled worship . Since we cannot find Yeshua or Peter or Paul indulging in this kind of acrobatics, we must draw traction from David who danced (but did not sing) before the Ark of the Covenant. However, David offered an ox and a calf as sacrifice every six paces, before dancing, seven miles from Obededom’s house to Jerusalem (2 Sam. 6:12-15). In the OT we find worship is nearly always associated with offering blood sacrifices. The first time ‘ worship’ is mentioned in the Scriptures is when Abraham took Isaac to be sacrificed (Gen. 22:5-13). From Cain and Abel, to Noah, to the Tabernacle of Moses and the Temple of Solomon, God was always worshipped by offering sacrifices. (Exo. 29:42) There are four types of sacrifices mentioned in the Scriptures – 1. Animal sacrifice for ...