The House Of The Lord

THE HOUSE OF THE LORD - God’s Plan To Liberate Your City From Darkness (By Francis Frangipane)

Can God build the Church in OUR CITY into a House of the Lord, fit for Him? Will this save our city? Will we pay the price?

A city divided against itself cannot stand. In this book Francis Frangipane challenges churches, their leaders and Christians to lay aside individual doctrinal differences and come together instead, uniting in worship and warfare - to remind the house of the Lord and bring healing to their cities.

“It will take a citywide church to win the citywide war. Our separate, isolated efforts will not stop the flood of increasing evil in our cities if we as Christ’s Church, remain isolated from each other. You may challenge that thought, but it was Jesus Himself who said, “Any city or house divide against itself shall not stand” (Matt 12:25)

STRATEGY TO REACH OUR CITY
1. Establish in the Church its true purpose, which is Christ-likeness. Doctrines which do not support transformation are given a lesser priority. Focus is riveted upon Christ in the Gospels.
2. Cleanse the Church of its visionless and loveless relationship to its city. Nineveh repented. Jesus said if His miracles were done in Sodom it would have repented. In many instances a righteous judge or king arose and turned all Israel back to God. To pray and see entire cities returned to the Lord is both biblical and possible.
3. Discern the specific satanic strongholds in the region. Through repentance and faith in God’s ability these strongholds must be removed.
4. Once satanic strongholds are pulled down in the Church through repentance, the Church has authority to war effectively against evil.
5. Position the Church in daily prayer and spiritual warfare in a minimum of five different church locations throughout the city. Members of various congregations meet in each location.

COMMITMENT
This call requires the laying down of our lives to see the will of God fulfilled. The reader is encouraged to receive from God the grace necessary to make the following commitments:
1. Only where the pastors and churches have overcome pride and ambition is there grace enough to change the entire city. Therefore with God’s help I commit myself to uniting with other pastors, intercessors and believers for the purpose of prayer and action for our city.
2. Only persevering prayer will prove worthy to launch revival. Therefore I commit myself to faithfulness in prayer, pledging myself to corporate prayer with other pastors and intercessors once a week, ultimately expanding that to once a day.
3. Since the answer for every battle is more of Jesus in the Church, our goal must be to see Jesus glorified in our lives. Therefore I commit myself to a life of surrender, that He might increase through me into the world.

From the Book: “The House of the Lord” by Francis Frangipane (Word Publishing) - Available from major Christian bookshops

The Future Of Melbourne

Crises, Opportunities and Contenders for our City

"Unless the Church is able to find meaningful ways of communicating biblical truth on moral values to a generation that is not listening to "outdated" moralising, western civilisation will not survive." (the Australian Prayer Network)

INTRODUCTION
There are many serious and urgent issues facing the future of our city.They include the rapid decline in personal relationships, private and public morality and values, personal well-being and health, and the rise of intentional opposition to Christianity.

THESE ARE SPIRITUAL ISSUES
They arise as a result of the lack of life-giving Christ-centred witness by the Church and the absence of united, intentional leadership and influence of the Church in society. The Christian Faith is the Foundation and Hope of our Society.

THE RESOURCES OF HEAVEN ARE AVAILABLE TO THE CHURCH
* There are great resources and opportunities available within the whole church.

* Corporate repentance and commitment to seek Jesus and His Kingdom are keys to revival.
* The Spiritual Awakening our grandchildren's city needs must start with the Church -NOW!

Will the Church Claim the Future? Or continue as it is?

Why Should We Unite To Love Melbourne Into Transformation?

Isn’t it enough if we are enjoying the blessing of the Lord?

We can have a personal or congregational outlook that values our own relationship with God as sufficient – especially when God is manifestly present and we are seeing miracles and people ‘who come to us’ getting set free.

Isaiah 56:10-12 Israel's watchmen are blind, they all lack knowledge; they are all mute dogs, they cannot bark; they lie around and dream, they love to sleep. They are dogs with mighty appetites; they never have enough. They are shepherds who lack understanding; they all turn to their own way, each seeks his own gain. "Come," each one cries, "let me get wine! Let us drink our fill of beer. And tomorrow will be like today, or even far better."

As good as it gets in our church, God calls us to be part of His. The Great Commandment asks us to love others as ourselves. The Great Commission sends us to go to other peoples. No single congregation can establish the kingdom of Christ in Melbourne. A city covered by a geographic patch work of divided, competitive, suspicious, hostile congregations is not the will of God for His Church in our city, either.

John 17:23 "I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me."

John 13:35 "By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."

1 John 3:10 "This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother."

1 John 3:14 "We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death."

1 John 3:16 "This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers."

Transforming Melbourne has been given a unique function – to call the Body of Christ into functional, relational unity. When we are truly submissive to the will of Christ we will be one – not politically, economically, denominationally or even theologically (Romans 14) - but one in the name of Christ, one in His love (1Cor 1, 12). When Melbourne sees the love of God we have for each other, they’ll thirst for God’s love themselves. And we’ll be ready, together, to pour God’s love on them.

Christian Faith Is Vital To The Future Of The World

The follow is acknowledged by Chinese atheists and others:

In 2005 a book by American sociologist, Rodney Stark was published, called 'The Victory of Reason: How Christianity Led to Freedom, Capitalism, and Western Success'. The ‘modern world,’ he argues ‘arose only in Christian societies’ thanks to Christianity’s commitment to ‘reason, progress, and moral equality’The capacity which Christianity has to contribute to social, cultural and economic progress has been long observed. In his book Jesus in Beijing, the journalist David Aikman tells of a lecture he attended in China in 2002. A professor from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences had this to say to a group of American visitors about his years of study in the West:One of the things we were asked to look into was what accounted for the success, in fact, the pre-eminence of the West over all the world. We studied everything we could from the historical, political, economic, and cultural perspective. At first, we thought it was because you had more powerful guns than we had. Then we thought it was because you had the best political system. Next we focused on your economic system. But in the past twenty years, we have realized that the heart of your culture is your religion: Christianity. The moral foundation of social and cultural life was what made possible the emergence of capitalism and then the successful transition to democratic politics. We don't have any doubt about this.From a Talk by Professor Stuart Piggin of Macquarrie UniversityAt the Kingston Mayoral Prayer BreakfastNational Day of Thanksgiving, May 2008


Follow this link to see the full paper
http://www.pastornet.net.au/mpn/StuPiggin.doc
We have sadly come to believe the lies of the secularists that the Christian faith does not have a place in modern society. Stuart Piggin and others reveal the opposite: Modern society exists only because of Christian Faith and will collapse without it.Stuart says it is way past time for the Church to know and boldly take up its crucial role in our nation, before the nation collapses!The ALL MELBOURNE MATTERS project is aimed at calling the Church across Melbourne to stand up!The Future of our city depends on the faithfulness of God's people to His call to seek His Kingdom in Unity, Servanthood and Prayer.