Emmanuel Now

Jesus said
“I will never leave you.”

 

The reason for this web site is to remind us that we have a great God who wants to help us, His children, so we don’t have to beg – just ask. He is more powerful than we can ever imagine so He can do anything no matter how big but because He loves us can, and does, do even the smallest things. As the Holy Spirit He is with us every moment so look to Him for immediate help and guidance.

Table of Contents:

  1. Who am I?
  2. Verse of the week
  3. Devotion
  4. Jokes and Quotes
  5. News and Views
  6. Bible Study
  7. Sundry
1. Who am I?  

Basil Evans has been in Eldership and Pastoral roles and taught adult Bible classes for over 50 years. He has collected reams of material to make the Scriptures easily understood by anyone who wants to know the Lord and listen to His voice. He and his wife have been youth leaders and active in every part of the church ministries.

They helped plant a church in Glenorie in the outer northern districts of Sydney in New South Wales and for over 10 years pastored that church.

Basil worked for many years as a senior executive of one of the largest multinational pharmaceutical companies and has worked in the USA, Hong Kong, Indonesia and New Zealand as well as in Australia before retiring from industry to set up his own consulting business while helping establish the Glenorie church.

He retired to Port Macquarie, a lovely NSW north coast ocean town where he pastored a small fellowship called Emmanuel

After his wife’s recent death he moved to the Sunshine Coast in Queensland to be near family.

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2. Verse for the week

Within the 66 books of the Bible, there are approximately 8,810 promises. As we acknowledge the scriptures were written by men who were inspired by God (2 Timothy 3:16-17), the promises we read in the Bible today all belong to God and will all certainly be fulfilled

 www.ezbible.org/how-many-promises-in-the-bible.

It is hard to select specific ones but one I love is in Isaiah 49:15 NKJV

 “Can a woman forget her nursing child,  and not have compassion on the son of her womb? Surely she may forget, yet I will not forget you.”

 

A mother’s love is said to be the greatest possible yet God loves us more. What would you do for your child? God wants to treat you even better.

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3. Devotion

ASK WHAT YOU NEED.

John 16:23 – 26 Jesus said that whatever we ask in His name He would give us.

That is all very good but not enough.

 Like many things in Scripture we have to read the rest of the Bible to understand the meaning of any particular passage.

John was commissioned by the early church to write a definitive gospel showing Jesus as God.

We must believe Jesus is God to be saved but if we really believe Jesus is God we should be convinced that Jesus can do anything

So why aren’t all our prayers answered with a YES?

Is. 59:2 says God can’t hear us if we sin. Iniquities can come between us and God like a sound proof wall. Sin does not mean just major things. If we let anything come before God, and that includes “good ” things like family, it can block our access to God.

Matt. 21:22 and Mark 11:24 both say ‘Believing you will receive”. James 1: 6 says “ask nothing doubting”

So how do we get our prayers answered?

 ASK in Jesus’ name. We often ask but are not really serious about it.

 BE RIGHT WITH GOD WHEN WE ASK. Make Jesus our first priority with our time, our money – in everything..

 REALLY BELIEVE. It is easy to ask as a routine but James says it must be without doubting.

 ASK WHAT IS HIS WILL. This is perhaps the hardest thing.

As a suggestion see if the Scriptures have anything to say about what we want. Consider whether it is for our satisfaction only.

Then the answer may not be what we expected because He know what is best for us and His kingdom.

Remember always that God is our father who loves us and wants to bless us by giving us what we ask.

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4. Jokes and Quotes – A merry heart does good like a medicine.  Proverbs 17:22.
  • Stop telling God how big the storm is and start telling the storm how big your God is.

  • “Doctor, doctor” cried the patient to the man in white standing beside him. “Is the surgery complete?”
    “I’m sorry ” was the response. “I’m not the doctor. My name is Peter.”

  • The grass may look greener on the other side of the fence but it still has to be watered and mowed.

    “Be content with such things as you have” Hebrews 13:5.

  • “Our pastor is so well educated and experienced he can talk for half an hour on any subject you may choose.” Said parishioner one.
    “That’s nothing” said his friend.” Our pastor can talk for an hour on nothing at all.”

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5. News and Views.
  • The world, especially Victoria is going mad.
    Melbourne schools are urged to stop saying ‘mum or dad’ in a push to be more ‘gender inclusive’
  • Schools and sporting clubs are being urged not to use gender specific pronouns
  • Parents are being encouraged to use words like parent instead of mum or dad
  • It comes #SpeakingUpSpeaksVolumes campaign to raise awareness for LGBTQI+
  • Recommendations included: gender neutral bathrooms and flying rainbow flags

    By Jack Mahony For Daily Mail Australia

    Published: 14:07 BST, 11 April 2021 

  • The Pope speaks on how one gets to heaven.

     On a web site “Rome Reports” dated April 15  “Pope Francis consoles a boy” speaking to a young boy whose father recently died who asked was his father in heaven. The Pope’s reply basically said that because he had his children baptised he was a “good” man even though an atheist.

    “How could God not accept him?” was the Pope’s reply.

    There is only one way to heaven as we all know and that is to be born again according to Jesus who is the ultimate authority – not the Pope but many will be deceived.

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 6. Bible study

 I want to comment on a short passage of Scripture each issue that is often debatable or hard to understand.

There is always a lot of discussion on who gets to heaven.

There are so many church denominations and cults around. Which ones are correct?

Our Bible passage is 1 John 4: 1-3 & 15.

Please read it carefully.

The core of the passage is you judge any church or group by what they believe about Jesus. You can be a priest dressed in highly ornate vestments or a very unkempt surfie.; be a Baptist, AOG, Anglican, Roman catholic, or just a member of a Community church; you can red, yellow, black or white (as the chorus went when I was a child) but none of these things is acceptable or unacceptable to God regarding salvation.

The well known text is in 1 Samuel 16:7 “the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

When looking at a Church see what they think about Jesus first. If they do not believe He is the Son of God who was born of Mary as a real man, died on the cross as a sacrifice for the sins of mankind and rose again ascending to heaven then they are not Christian. They may sing the same hymns and songs as us, read from the same Bible and say prayers that sound similar to ours. BUT – If they are talking to  a different Jesus none of these things can help.

I have met people who were members of groups that I may have thought were unlikely to be Christian and had to change my thinking. For example. Years ago our church was part of a group of churches that joined together to support a full time Scripture teacher in the local High School. It included Anglican, Roman Catholic, Uniting, SDA, AOG, Baptist and Mission churches. We met for prayer on a rotating basis and one day the site was the Benedictine Monastery. I was talking to the Anglican minister who said that if anyone had said that he would be in a prayer meeting in a Catholic monastery he would have laughed him to scorn, yet here he was and found the abbot to be a really born again brother in Christ. He was still very anti Roman Catholic but on a personal basis could recognise that a RC monk could be a Christian.

On the other hand I visited a Mormon Information centre where the first thing one sees is a beautiful statue of Christ. The people greeting visitors talked about Jesus as the Son of God and how you can only come to God through Him They have Bibles which they say they believe to be the word of God (plus the Book of Mormon our course which is more the word of God). The Mormon Tabernacle choir sings all the old hymns beautifully. but when you dig a little you find that the God of whom Jesus was the son is not the God of the Bible. He was once a human who had a mother and father who had a mother and father back through the eons. It is easy to be deceived by appearances and this occurs with many cults who seem good and highly dedicated on the surface but have a false Jesus.

To get to heaven and have eternal life we must be born again into God’s family by letting the Holy Spirit replace our sinful human spirit with the life of Jesus when we become sons and daughters of God for all eternity. There is no other way.

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7. Sundry

For now this is empty, however a short introduction of one of my books will be coming soon!

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