Arthur and Denise,
I've just come out of a hernia op after tossing
pianos for 30 years. Interestingly I was born in Ghana to British
science teacher parents with a pyloric stenosis, a
block in my stomach. I now have a scar from my birth running into
another scar where they did the hernia. I am a
human zip.
Why is this all relevant? Well a subtle change has
to occur concerning the Cross and the Church.
Watch this. In Revelation it says how the Word is
sweet to the taste, but in the stomach it is exceedingly bitter.
As a broad generalisation the Church for 2000 years
has taken the "sweet pill" of the cross, the forgiveness, the amazing free
grace
of Christ ....but as it was ingested, this Word was
never carried through all the digestion system. There has been a
blockage.
The church has had a pyloric stenosis....and who
knows...even a hernia.
Our perception of the Cross has been the blood of
Christ. But ask anyone during a communion what on earth
the bread is about, and you'll find everyone's
eyebrows become furrowed? Or at best some well instructed Bible
lover
will return a reply which is straight off the top
of his head. Straight out of his thinking, but absolutely no revelation at
all.
As a general rule, nobody "gets" Galations 2:20.
The I have been crucified with Christ bit.
Even on TBN you should be fine talking about the
forgiveness through the Blood of Christ, but go any further and you'll get
problems.
I have confidence in you guys, that you have taken
the Cross further. That it is not merely a forgiveness emblem to
you.
Jesus took every single one of us, every last trace
of the whole Adamic order into death in His Body. We were all
there.
We talk of God's love, but actually Jesus set His
face. He was ruthless. He so hated Arthur Denise and Chris that, without
asking
us beforehand, before we ever knew anything about
it, He pulled all of us into His Body death with Him and took us all to the
Eternal municipal
waste dump, and incase there were any signs of life
and struggle, kept us in His death for 3 whole days. He finished us
completely.
Then the Father made a sign to the Holy Spirit to
come and give life to His mortal Body. Only, Jesus caught us up in Him as
well.
And the Greek for "hidden with Christ in God" is
"interleaved" like the Viennetta ice creams Denise will know. We are so
interleaved with Christ
nobody has a clue where He starts and we finish.
And this is the meaning behind John 17. This is the Body death of the
Communion.
This is the anchor we have in Hebrews which means
we're gonna make it as Christians.
Except nobody knows.Somehow Arthur you knew. Cant
understand how on earth you picked that up in the States?
They know about the forgiveness bit and like a
sweet morsel of food they ingest that bit, but virtually the whole church leaves it at that. That is all they know.
Somehow Arthur, you picked up it was more than that. You see unless the Word
passes
right through us,and is fully ingested, the world
never sees Christ in Arthur and Denise form walking around. All they see is
sinner Arthur and Denise continuallyasking forgiveness from one Sunday to the next. And
this is why it is so hard to get more evangelists. Because, as marvellous as it
is to be forgiven, you are still the same sinners,
even though born again, and you feel fraudulent going around telling people
about a salvation that only half works. So this is why
Rheinhard Bonnke, Morris Cerullo and yourselves waste so much energy trying to
raise
up evangelists. it's exhausting.
Jesus has a better plan. Kill them all and raise
them on the 3rd day! How ruthless!
Yes, but how effective!. And 3000 were added the
first day.
But Arthur wasnt working up a sweat trying to raise
more evangelists! Nope. On the day of Acts Arthur was nowhere to be
seen
but somehow God still managed it!
Understand I have the highest respect for you guys,
but I'm just trying to sharpen you as you go round with the most
lethal
of all weapons....the Cross.
Chris Welch
