Mike Oliver's Messages

A few days ago I wrote a new song as I played a new sound on my guitar. It was as if there were words specially suited to the sound I was hearing. A new song is a theme of those who come close to heaven and stringed instruments are a key to worshiping with God. David writes I will sing a new song to You O God, On a harp of ten strings I will sing praises to You (Ps 144:9). David is a player of the stringed instrument which was able to pacify the troubled and murderous spirit of King Saul and the sounds of the strings. The shepherd boy King discovered he held the key to intimacy with Christ millennia before Jesus came pay for our sins and release the Holy Spirit to fill that void the door of forgiveness had opened. The first new song came one Sunday afternoon when I wanted to give the Father some special time and went like this; I thank you Father for making me unique from creation in my mothers womb through youth and teenage years Father  Your signature marks every step...

It's a new year and there are new hopes and new challenges for each of us. As for me I'm looking to return to pastoring a church once again and there are "battles in the mind" being play out as I revamp the CV and write cover letters and gather references. Our enemy would have us believe we're not good enough, we're too old to be wanted anymore or simply trying to convince us it's not worth the trouble. It's like M. Scott Peck's subtitle on his book  The Road Less Traveled and Beyond which says its about  Spiritual Growth in an age of Anxiety Peck talks about getting our "masculine" and "feminine" sides together when he says, "In learning wholeness we must be open to androgyny, to encompassing both the feminine and masculine components." I would much prefer to leave the feminine relational side to my wife because she's so good at it and be free myself to the researching and dispensing of information (preachin...

I've been thinking about Christ in us and us in Christ Jesus seated in heavenly places as I have apparently been seen in heaven when at the time I was very aware of being firmly on the earth. But that's not a claim I make of myself only that Jesus claimed we who are born of the Spirit are seated with Him in heavenly places. So with this thought I see we are blessed in our relationship with our first and biggest brother Jesus as sons in the family of God the Father. We who have fellowship with Christ and our fellow brothers and sisters in God the Father have to see ourselves more like Adam and Eve walking in the Garden of Eden with Him in the cool of the evening, with all the privileges and with out fig leaves! What I am saying is that we have been given all the rights of divine son-ship at the point of receiving light, forgiveness and rebirth. It's not that we can't do all the signs wonders and miracles but that we've been sucked into a lie that we can't, don...

This book is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Laws, no part may be reproduced by any process without written permission. Inquiries should be addressed to the publisher. Oliver, Michael H. 2002, The Eternal Story ISBN-13: 978-0473089498 ‘You have seen all that God did before your eyes in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all the land, the great trials which your eyes have seen, the signs, and those great wonders. Yet the Lord has not given you the heart to perceive and eyes to see and ears to hear, to this very day.’ Deuteronomy 29:2-4 PART ONE Adventure of Blood Chapter One A Stranger Arrives The day the stranger walked into the village marked the beginning of the end, and the end of the beginning. Nothing would be the same again; as though a great flood had taken our past and all had to be rebuilt.   Be...

Recently I have made some of my writing available on Amazon Kindle, this a novel written in 2002. The Eternal Story began in prayer, not for a book to write but to deal with frustration over Church leadership. I loved the body of people and felt the call for those lost to the saving message of Christ. It seemed my overseers did not want me to rock the boat they were sailing. It was in this time of prayerful seeking that I gained some understanding from scripture and in praying what to do about it was instructed to write a book. This was my alpha of faith and in this belief I asked for a title and characters. These I was also given as quickly as I asked though they were somewhat odd to see written down. Still, carried along on the faith of this word, I set myself to see if there was indeed anything in it and wrote a first page or two, then three and so on. When I floundered and lost my thread I simply reminded my benefactor of my immense love for Him and faithfully the thread return...

It's a dreary grey and wet day where I live. Too many of these and you start thinking life is dull and if dull goes on too long, you wonder if the sun will ever shine again. Winter can depress the spirit. Belshazzar's Feast - by Rembrandt   Over the centuries worship has become dreary grey and less hopeful's find ways to be at peace with God within the gloom of lacklustre spirituality. Faith can become a pilgrimage of suffering-in-silence, theologians finding ways to accept this season with grace rather than fighting for promises of the kingdom at hand. Jesus gave us the right to the kingdom in all its glory by his blood. Adam and Eve abandoned God's perfection for Satan's distortion and so too those in the church who wait without expectation. But God plants a seed in us just like Jesus was planted in Mary. The seed is the potential of the manifestation of Christ in the form of...

In the last twenty years or so communication has leapt from snail mail to instant messaging, from home phone to cell phone, from print newspaper and magazines to news and weather apps.  Why a woman the other day went downstairs during an internet outage and talked to her family.  A boy had to be txt from the kitchen to get him to the dinner table and commonly the guys don't chat much over smoko because they're on Facebook or playing with apps.  Kids are plugged-in to their sounds just walking to school and just the other day I laughed to see a granddad connected with earphones.  The radio used to beam music laced with talk and adverts but now the cell phone plays chat free add free songs of our own selected genre via the internet in the top pocket of the overalls.  There's freedom to chose but no freedom from interruption. I feel like a minority to be content with the still small voice, the thoughts of my hea...