Mike Oliver's Messages

If God were a businessman He'd be the wealthiest in the world no doubt because he sees into the future and into history in the same glance as He lives outside of time in eternity.  He'd be the wealthiest also because He is the wisest and most understanding and most compassionate and people would flock to that like moths to a light bulb. However this is not the picture we see in His Church - in His business.  The invitation to abundant life spoken about in the Bible (Is 55) seems to allude the Church that would preach that Gospel and pray that "on Earth as in Heaven" prayer as a body. WYSIWYG is a term used in website construction meaning what you see is what you get.  Applied to church life it can be an example of a poor construct - I mean why would you make it look like that and expect people to come to it.  To be honest - I mean really - the Church does not really look like God but more like man.  If you are being honest a lot of Church li...

I remember standing on a bridge one day looking down into a tranquil stream.  In the water which flowed beneath I could see both the bed of the stream and if I refocused my eyes I saw myself looking into it.  Occasionally something would touch the surface and ripple the mirror view.  The ripple is evidence of an intrusion.  Such is the way with unwelcome intrusions in the spiritual world.  Our worldview is determined by how we focus our attention and he image in a mirror can be very real. The Bible is such a mirror in which we see similarly reflected ourselves, our society, and our world.  By this I mean that we can see aspects of ourselves and the other influences in the actions of other real people although centuries apart.  We are privileged to witness their errors happen and how to go about restoring things.  The mirror is a warning and a lesson, a revelation and c...