in Christ: Andrew Fountain's blog

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Tension Myositis Syndrome—the approach to treating pain in the back (and other areas) pioneered by Dr. John Sarno.

Introduction

• Back Pain and Tension Myositis Syndrome (TMS) One of the best introductions, from the largest network of hospitals in southern Michigan.

Websites

• The TMS Wiki
• TMS Recovery Program contributed by Alan Gordon, LCSW, Director of the Pain Psychology Center
• MindBody Solutions to Pain Dr David Schechter’s TMS information site

Youtube: Full Videos

• Dr.

The first example of Gospel preaching after the cross was that of Peter. We have five examples of his preaching recorded in Acts.

• Two to the crowds in Jerusalem, explaining miracles that had just happened
• Two in front of councils after he was arrested
• Finally, one to Cornelius’s household

What is remarkable about these five sermons is that they all have the same outline! In Gospel preaching in Acts: The preaching of Peter I have put all five in parallel and examined the similarities and differences.

I took a somewhat different approach when I preached this, focussing on the second of the five addresses, and thinking about how we can follow Peter’s example in a day when such dramatic miracles are not as common.

Brief notes and audio are here: The Gospel Pt2--The Preaching of Peter

• I grew up in a home with an atheist dad and agnostic mum—no faith in the house at all
  • No legacy of any Christianity whatever
  • As a little 5 yr old boy I felt his presence. It was the same up in my room earlier today
  • I never felt the presence of God again for 18 years
    • My only rule was “Thou shall not deny thyself”
  • Switched to becoming a Hare Krishna
    • Once again felt his presence and his holiness was terrifying, in a Hindu temple
  • Surrendered to him and stopped running
    • Immediately I felt the same presence as a little boy.
    • From then on the pursuit of my life has been the presence of God [read more...]

• I have a problem with the teaching that God does nothing except in response to men’s prayers. How did he great the universe
• Nevertheless he does respond to faith initiatives
• Jesus seems to be totally controlled by his father’s initiative
• Other times it looks like he is being directed by the faith impulses of mortal men (e.g. Jairus)
  • Then the woman touched his garment and he focused on her

1. Be honest with God that you don’t have the faith to heal those in wheelchairs

• The doesn’t mean it is not the will of God.
• Jesus says, “all things are possible to them that believe”
• Often we need to learn how weak and needy we are before God will help us. It is not that we are strong and just need a little help, but we have no strength

2. By exercising the Spirit of Faith

• Story of a blind woman he prayed for. Not healed, but he did try!
  • Peter sank, but at least he got out of the boat!
  • He started exercising his faith, and later on his shadow was healing people
• Story of a blind baby who was healed a short time afterwards [read more...]

• The Joy of the Lord is our strength. Why will the trees of the field clap their hands? The whole of creation is waiting for the sons of God to come into their joy, and that is when they clap their hands—they are waiting for us to “get it”!
• Joy always brings noise!
• But all of us have had faith failures. We measure ourselves by some unfair standard when we read the history books about the great men of faith.
• Religious traditions are blockages that hinder our faith.
  • He is the one who anoints us to lift the yokes and burdens from our shoulders.
    • Our people must know that we love pastoring them!
  • Every day we need to get into the anointing. To get our first love back every morning.
  • We need to deal with these issues of the heart, cynicism and skepticism, which is a barrier to the anointing.
  • He is the one who has the burden of the nations, not us!
  • One of the great supernatural signs will be ministers who are not under a burden because his burden is light!
  • Let’s take a moment to all stand and spend a moment asking God to free us from all strongholds of cynicism. [read more...]

This evening I preached on The Kingdom and Healing. This wasn't a polemic against cessationists, but an attempt to get a better understanding of how healing worked in the ministry of Jesus and his disciples. It came out of my own desperate study to improve in this area. As I grappled with chapters 9-11 of Luke I found a flow of ideas which was helpful to me. In the (rather short) sermon I simply went through these chapters and pulled out this theme.

My rathier brief notes on the Kingdom and healing as well as the audio are uploaded here.

Newfrontiers Leadership Conference 2006 - Training Track 2-3

How do we obtain a corporate anointing? The manifest presence and power of God in the midst of his people? According to Rob Rufus, exalting Jesus leads to a corporate anointing. The final session from Rob Rufus is on this subject of corporate anointing. It is a shorter session than the others in which he focuses on the person of Jesus Christ and the implication of this theology for us, drawn largely from the book of Hebrews. Once again this is a message not to miss.

Click here for the free download page at Newfrontiers

Newfrontiers Leadership Conference 2006 - Training Track 2-2

There are two topics covered in this address: The importance of teaching in order to build faith for healing, and the biblical teaching on the value of the laying on of hands. There are some fascinating accounts of supernatural healing and I found this an interesting and worthwhile listen.

Click here for the free download page at Newfrontiers

Newfrontiers Leadership Conference 2006 - Main Session 04

This session is definitely worth listening to. Rob Rufus is coming from a different stream to Newfrontiers—New Covenant Ministries International, a South African based worldwide apostolic group of churches. They share many similarities with Newfrontiers, but he sounds more like a speaker from TACF.

The strength of this message is that it is fresh and challenging in an area we all desperately need to grow—the power of God manifested in our midst. He is an interesting and engaging speaker and his challenge to increased intimacy with God is particularly important. On the negative side I am wary of speakers who tell us that God is about to do something amazing. Bill Jackson in his "must read" history of the Vineyard The Quest for the Radical Middle calls this "prophetic poison" because this kind of message from the Kanasas City Prophets had the effect of paralysing evangelism and church planting by the Vineyard. Why work hard now when there is an amazing harvest just around the corner? That said, this is a session worth hearing.