Mike Oliver's Messages

A man said to me recently that he thought most people believed in God but just don't think he's doing anything for them. They do believe in God enough to pray but don't believe perhaps because of low self-esteem that he will bother himself to move on their behalf. Consequently this doubting is not met positively and therefore the cycle of low expectation persists. Jesus however taught us that our prayer should be embedded in trust and thanks for the response of a faithful God. He said profound things like ask and you shall receive (Mat 7:7) and I will do whatever you asked in my name! (Jn 14:14) Why then are some prayers answered immediately and others seem to go unanswered?   The Old Testament gives us a good understanding when elders came to Ezekiel (Ch 14) the prophet to seek the Lord when the Lord spoke to him saying, "These men had set up idols in their hearts and put before them that which causes them to stumble into iniquity." He is saying that these me

At first Isaiah 15-16 seems like a mishmash of strange names and places but just like Facebook it has actually a colourful set of connections. Moab is the nation mentioned which developed from the first son of Lot after his city and his wife were destroyed by two angels; the wife escaped but turned into a pillar of salt when she looked back. (Gen 19) However the circumstances surrounding Moab's births are a bit shocking by our set of boundaries and yet the Book of Ruth is that of a Moabitess. Righteous Lot's two virgin daughters also escaped the angels destruction against corrupt Sodom and Gomorrah were concerned that they wouldn't find suitable husbands to father their children in such a rampant homosexual world as they has witnessed in their destroyed home town. The young women, we imagine, are thinking there is no unmarried non-homosexual males available saying, "there is no man on the earth to come to us as is the custom of all the earth." Wow, does that h