Mike Oliver's Messages

 Where I came from I was well known as a fishing guide and all sorts of people from kids to minister’s wives have asked me to take them fishing. Tourists would pay $360 a day to go fishing with me but these novices were cashing in on friendship to get it all for free. Some I did take out and some I left on the things to do list. I well remember a local farmer who had worked on a local community project with me and was already a fisherman being at his wits end with stress and I could hear in his voice “I really need this!” I also remember the vicar’s wife saying, “It’s something I’ve always wanted to try,” sounding like part of hundreds of other whispery dreams. A friend is a marvellous asset in life who can help and especially one who can help you with the things you want out of life. A friend is grows from an acquaintance and turns into a mate who fills that void in your life. With friends it’s not always blissful but the good ones remain forever. There was Gary in my ...

In this message I have put the case for the Holy Spirit as I ask the question: Is there a valid reason why you should not be so filled with the Holy Spirit?  Do you recall in the beginning the Spirit of God hovered over the waters. And do you recall Noah after the flood sending out a dove to see if the waters had abated from the face of the ground and it returned because it found no resting place. Seven days later Noah sent again the dove and this time it returned with a freshly plucked olive branch revealing that the waters had abated from the earth. The Gospel reading from Mark 1 we see the promised Messiah Jesus showing up before John to be baptised and we see the Holy Spirit as a dove from heaven finding somewhere to rest, finding the source of that olive branch; the branch God the Father’s offering of peace. We are a Bible believing people; I ask you members of the jury, is that not right? Most Christians are trying their best to live up to the precepts the Bible sets out b...

I have been reading Bear Grylls autobiography. Its powerful stuff about what it is to be a man able to go beyond his limitations; about a man who God helped reach where eagles dare.  Some of you don’t have a clue who I’m talking about but he has climbed Everest, he is seen on Television each week surviving some of the world’s harshest places, he’s been made the Chief Scout as role model for hundreds of thousands of children, he eats marrow from old bones, crunches live grubs and drinks from camels stomachs. Bear Grylls is SAS trained tough on Prime TV’s Man vs Wild and comes from a line of commandos; his granddad and dad.  Bear, as his much older sister called him, had to find his own individual place in the grueling world of the British SAS and at the young age of 20 years old. He’s a man who has done the impossible and he attributes his success to a simple faith in Jesus Christ and fronts the Alpha advertisements nowadays. Bear Grylls says that in the endura...

Today I am looking out not on the poor but on the rich who are the ones meant to have inherited the gift of the Holy Spirit.  I am looking as God looks on servants who have been invested with heavenly wealth and the expectation is that more will be won by the endowment of God upon them. Some have been given much while others have received quite a bit and others something. It is like the parable of the sower where some bear fruit 100 fold, some 60 fold, and some 30 fold. (Matt 13) The kingdom of heaven is once again the focus of this week’s reading.  Jesus will be leaving his disciples and the gift of the Holy Spirit will be left behind to further His mission on Earth. The disciples called will become the apostles sent to further the mission of God among the called out ones; the growing ecclesia. Jesus is not only preparing them but also warning his disciples that with the investment there are expectations and consequences. The Lord is not leaving God’s investment of the dea...

As I look out on this congregation I see only lamps rather than people this morning.  I am looking at us as God might look upon us in the Gospel parable.  We are to be children of light, of which the Gospel is that light.  We are to be as attendants of Christ Jesus  professing not only to believe and look for but  to love and long for the appearing of Christ,  not only enlightened by it ourselves but must shine as lights. I am looking this morning through the eyes of Jesus’ parable of the Ten Virgins.  I am seeing two different characters, with proof and evidence of it.  I see lamps with oil for that is what God has told me He has done. B ut do I see lamps with fire; that is the question today.  Do I see extra virgin oil in reserve for the late coming Bridegroom.  There is no doubt the Bridegroom is our Lord Jesus Christ.  There is no doubt we live in a darkened world awaiting His return.  We need to figure out exactly what ...

I had the great pleasure this week of sitting beside Murray Robertson, formerly senior pastor of Spreydon Baptist of forty years and soaking in his seven observations of the Church in New Zealand today. He brought to this group of Canterbury Presbyterian ministers also many gems of wisdom about how to get the Church back to “get go.” But one comment intrigued me concerning as he said, “seeing the beginning of the end of the long night of theological liberalism.” Then a friend posted a link to the following by Tim Tennant: In his 1937 landmark book, The Kingdom of God in America, Richard Niebuhr memorably described the message of Protestant liberalism as “A God without wrath brought men without sin into a kingdom without judgement through the ministrations of a Christ without a cross.”  In the ensuing years Niebuhr’s statement has become one of the more well-known summaries of the failure of Protestant liberalism to properly reflect the apostolic message.  Tragically, Ni...

Part I Did your mother ever ban you from the kitchen with “those dirty shoes on?”  Rightly so and similarly sin is not so much an offense we get punished for but rather a privilege of entry we lose by walking in mud.  A very interesting situation arose at my cousin’s compound in India between him and one of his girls.  The young lady is the sweetest little darling you would ever come across.  She never crossed anyone but humbly epitomised what it is to be a good Christian.  With the other girls she entered daily into heavenly visions, sometimes twice a day.  Church life for her was literally out of this world, heavenly, joyful.  This young woman was enjoying life abundantly until one day it all abruptly stopped.  My cousin told me that he said something jokingly from which the young woman took offense and that day her visions of heaven ceased. A week passed and she was beginning to get agitated and by ten days she came to him asking why all her ...