Exploding

Penny of Gold - Value of a True Christian

What value would you place on a Christian versus any one from any other group in the world today. This was a thought which came to me while driving home from a church service the other morning and continued to plague me for the rest of the day.

As I contemplated the question, an image came to me of a British penny coin which currently is very small only weighting a minute, 3.56g overall.

I thought the image appearing as the British penny rather apt as the old pre-decimal coinage was (£ s d) written as Pounds shillings and pence's and the 'd' which was called a dwt was originally based on the denarius, an ancient Roman coin, referred to in the New Testament, that equates loosely to a penny.

The coin in my thoughts however was the new penny called locally a 'p-ee' wrote as 1p and as previously mentioned weighted 3.56g, but it was not the normal copper colour I would have associated it with, but rather it had the bright glisten of pure gold.

I decided to check the value of gold on the internet and was surprised to learn that while the price fluctuates, the value when I was looking in October 2010, was £27.62 per gram. This would place the value of a solid gold new 1p at a staggering £98.33 approximately.

If this coin really existed it would undoubtedly be worth a lot more that it's face value and would have been quickly taken out of circulation. In fact that is what happened to the original silver coins produced in Britain pre 1920, the silver content of all British coins was reduced from 92.5% to 50% in that year with the older coins being recalled, thus making them instantly become more precious that their face value indicated. Silver subsequently was eliminated altogether from British coinage in 1947.

It is worth noting that people are also denoted by their value within the world. A persons worth is often determined by their heritage, their wealth and in today's age their educational achievement or their social standing.

God however determines value on a different scale. He is not interested in the riches, education or personality of an individual, he is more interested in how much they resemble His Son Jesus Christ. The true value of a person is therefore how much of Jesus Christ is recognised within them.

With that thought it is easy to imagine that the value of a true Christian is greater than all of the other groups in the world today, but we need to remember God is not valuing by the name of Jesus Christ but by his qualities or fruits and as such many of the other groups in the world can resemble Jesus Christ's fruit. When that is the case their intrinsic value increases to God.

So what is God looking for? The scripture states that the fruits of the Spirit are, love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. When these are evident within society the value of that society increases; even if they are not professing Jesus Christ as Lord of their lives. This may come as a surprise to many Christians but at the present time in the western 'christian' countries the Eternal God is evaluating the populations and the outcome is not good. Many 3^rd world nations are starting to reflect more of the values God is seeking from his people than the majority of the western countries, and many of these countries are not professing Christianity as their majority faith.

I hate to be the harbinger for bad news but God's protection, which we have so long experienced, is conditional on the value of the society and as the current western societies are only offering a nominal acceptance of Christianity, and are greatly lacking in the commodities of righteousness as demonstrated by Jesus Christ, it is inevitable that the protection previously afforded to them will be rescinded and the full wrath of judgement will fall on the unsuspecting 'christian' countries because God doesn't recognise them as being followers of Christ.

It is important to understand why they will be unsuspecting, it is because they are unwilling to hear the warning messages from God. They have shut up their ears and closed their eyes to the truth at their own peril. Why you may ask, the answer is that they worship a christ who is not of the bible, a christ who is weak and whose love has been diluted from forgiving repented of sins to overlooking all sins because he is a loving saviour.

We need to remember that Jesus is a just King and one of His names is righteous justice.

It is therefore necessary to realign ourselves with the values demonstrated in Jesus Christ and become the pennies of pure gold whose value is much more that their face value, which to this world is little to nothing but in reality are of extravagant worth.

When you only value a penny by its face value then you are not concerned about the value of what it is made from. It becomes a token of something of value but not valuable in and by itself. God never intended the token of his love to become of so little value and therefore He will only work with those who demonstrate by their fruits the full measure of the one they represent in this world.

The 'fruit' of this world is sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies. If any of theses are diluting the purity of your 'penny' then it's glean will reduced and the world will see you as a part of it's own currency and not the special currency of witness that God gives to the earth as the promise of the return of His soon coming Son Jesus Christ. As we had an earnest (small token) of the Spirit of God given to us to confirm that we belong to God, so we subsequently are the earnest (small token) of His promise to this world that Jesus would return as King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and that every knee should bow towards him.

Brother and sister of God's Church, fellow pennies of the Kingdom, my call to you therefore is to become the penny of pure gold refined by God unto righteousness which is the true currency of His soon coming Kingdom and not the worthless metal alloy of the world's currency.

Welcome Church - Speakers

• William Huston
• Gus Roycroft
• Morris McCabe
• Connie Maxwell
• Contact Us

• William Huston

  
  
  William Huston, is an ordained preaching elder / minister for a congregation in Ballymoney and lived with his wife Elsa in Co Antrim.
  
  William recently addressed the Welcome Church in Lurgan with a message entitled 'An Invitation to a King's Wedding' in which he explores the parable which is recorded in Matthew Chapter 22, of a King who is arranging the Wedding of his Son, and how the first invited guests refused to accept the invitation so he sends his servants out into the highways and byways to opened it up to everyone in the Kingdom, rich and poor alike.

• Gus Roycroft

  
  
  Gus has been the main minster to the Craigavon Church since it started in 1990.
  
  Originally from County Cork which is situated in the west of Ireland he moved to Northern Ireland as a younger man and lives with his wife Norah in Belfast. Gus is gifted with a pastors heart towards the church congregation and regularly engages within the caring ministries of the church, such as visiting the sick and maintain contact with many who have been imprisoned for Christ across the world.
  
  In his latest sermon Gus explores how we as Christians continue to benefit from the Days of Unleavened Bread.

• Morris McCabe

  
  
  Morris has been a Christian speaker for over 40 years within churches across the widest and breadth of Ireland North and South. As a gifted evangelist Morris teaches as inspired by the Holy Spirit and is uniquely able to ingratiate himself into any group setting, quickly finding opportunity to proclaiming the wonderful message of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
  
  Morris has been known to deliver a full sermon with little to no notes as he allows himself to be lead by the spirit of truth.
  
  Morris frequently speaks of the gift of eternal life, which our Heavenly Father has made available to all humanity and he is renown for being able to successfully mix laugher with serious instruction in a unique delivery of the true Gospel.
  
  In this his most recent message, Morris presents a message close to his heart as he explores the importance of us all becoming better listeners both to each other and in what God wishes to say to us in our personal walk with Him.

• Connie Maxwell

  
  Connie has been a founding member of the pastoral counsel since it was first introduced to support the active ministry in the Church a number of years ago and quickly moved into a public speaking ministry following her ordination.
  
  Connie in her latest sermon, entitled 'A Pearl of Great Price' discusses the examples Jesus used within the four gospels to demonstrate what the Kingdom of Heaven was like, and how we as citizens of that kingdom are to live.

• Contact Us?

  Contact us by email at wandrews@explodingword.co.uk
  • Mobile Telephone - 075 4102 9869
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  • William Andrews
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