Rotuma Wesleyan Church New Zealand

25/08/2023

Noaía é mauri se kaunohoga, kainaga ma kaumaneága,
✝️✝️✝️Bible text Romans 2:32 - 41 (NIV)
God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it. Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear. For David did not ascend to heaven, and yet he said,

“‘The Lord said to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.”’

“Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.”

When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.”
With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.

What Bible verse/text from the Old Testament is quoted the most in the New Testament?

The most quoted verse in the New Testament from the Old Testament is Psalm 110:1.
“‘The Lord said to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.”’

And yes, it was hiding right there in plain sight in today's text. Peter chose this text for the day of Pentecost birthday of the church verse of the day.

“‘The Lord said to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.”’

Yep! That was the favorite verse of the early church. And it comes in a whopping twenty-four times across the New Testament. There's not even a close second. It reveals to us the essence and ethos of the whole story of God. It is a reclamation story. God is reclaiming his territory. Reclaiming? How does God lose God's territory? To be sure, God never lost his territory.

The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it; for he founded it on the seas and established it on the waters. (Psalm 24:1–2)

The doctrine of adverse possession (aka squatter's rights) gives us a helpful analogy to understand how the enemies of God have usurped the property of God (all of creation and especially his image bearers—aka us) from Genesis 3 forward. On the day of Pentecost, Peter officially gives public notice that the reign of adverse possession is over. The beginning of the end is begun. Starting in Jerusalem, moving into all Judea, and then Samaria, and onward to the end of the world—the new day has dawned. Jesus, the resurrected, ascended Lord of Heaven and Earth, is now officially reclaiming it all and he will do it through building his church.

In his crucifixion, the enemy of sin has been defeated. In his resurrection, the enemy of death has been defeated. Let's be clear though. It is not over yet. The enemies of the Lord Jesus abound. Though they have been stripped of authority, they are still squatting on his property. Though they have been defeated at the cross they retain every shred of rogue power that we will grant them in our lives. Though they be served notice and are in the grip of defeat, the world, the flesh, and the devil remain formidable opponents and they do not release their hold willingly and without a fight.

When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”

Remember question 1 on the day of Pentecost: What does this mean? Well, this is question 2: What shall we do? Peter was ready.
Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.”

It takes us back to question 1: What does this mean? Repent is a word and concept we have understood badly. Repent. If ever a word has gotten a bad name this is that word. It carries such a yoke of moralism. In fact, the whole "repent and be baptized" idea has been largely reduced to mean, "believe and behave" to so many. It actually means "belong and become."

“‘The Lord said to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.”’

PRAY WITH ME🙏🙏🙏
Come Holy Spirit transform my heart, mind, soul, and strength so that my consecration becomes your demonstration; that our lives become your sanctuary. For the glory of God our Father, amen.

QUESTION TIME:✍️✍️✍️
What might "repent" mean when thought through this lens of adverse possession?

Hanisiof
Fekau George Aptinko

04/08/2023

Noaía é mauri se kaunohoga, kainaga ma kaumaneága,

✝️✝️✝️Bible text Romans 16:19 -21 (NIV)
19 For your obedience is known to all, so that I rejoice over you, but I want you to be wise as to what is good and innocent as to what is evil.20 The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.21 Timothy, my fellow worker, greets you; so do Lucius and Jason and Sosipater, my kinsmen.

The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.

Lest we forget the biggest of the big pictures of the gospel of Jesus Christ, Paul tosses in this closing gr***de:

The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.

There's just something beautiful about making this declaration. It's surprising.

The God of peace . . . We might expect something like . . . will bless you with every blessing in Jesus Christ. Nope.

The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.

This is straight up, "I BELIEVE THAT WE WILL WIN!"

Does Genesis 3:15 ring a bell? It contains the curse of Almighty God against the serpent in the wake of the fall of humankind to his dastardly temptation:

And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” (Gen. 3:15)

This text was clearly echoing in Paul's spirit. Here's the thing about echos, though. They diminish in volume until they can't be heard. This is true with every voice save one: The voice of the Word of God. With God's Word—by the power of the Spirit—the echo gets louder and louder and louder. By the time we get to Romans 16, Jesus has handed Paul the megaphone.

The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.

This is not a war cry. It's a victory lap. It's not a bomb. It's fireworks. ✝️✝️✝️👌

The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.

The God of peace will soon crush Satan underneath our feet because the God of peace already has crushed Satan underneath his feet.

Beauty hymn On a hill far away . . .

PRAY WITH ME 🙏🙏🙏
Abba Father! we bless you for the gospel who is Jesus Christ. We love our Savior. The day of victory has come now, to make him our Lord—not just a little bit more but completely—altogether. We are ready for consecration. We are ready for transformation; complete transformation. We are ready for demonstration; extravagant demonstration. Come Holy Spirit! Light the fire in our hearts, in my heart. Fan the flames. The God of peace will soon crush Satan underneath our feet. Praying in Jesus's name, amen.

Fekau George Aptinko
Hanisiof

13/07/2023

Noaía é mauri se kaunohoga, kainaga ma kaumaneága,

✝️Bible text Romans 12:8 - 13
Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.

Why the Mind Must Lead the Heart in the Matter of Transformation

We so often think of "spiritual" acts of worship as being invisible things like deep, warm, and fuzzy feelings toward God that lead to going to church and singing and stuff like that. To be sure, these are good, but the text doesn't go there. The most spiritual thing in the world is the most physical—the offering up of our very flesh-and-bones bodies. Real worship is an everyday, ground-level phenomenon. If verse 1 is the call to action verses 2–21 show us what it looks like when the view of God's mercy becomes a visionary life. The essential movement happens in v. 2:

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. (v. 2a)

What is the pattern of this world? In short, it is the mind of Adam. Remember our earlier work on this point with the A form: /\? Review it here. The renewed mind is the mind of Christ. When a human being begins to be transformed from the mind of Adam to the mind of Jesus their life becomes a burning fire of glory to God. Look where this goes:

Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

As we let go of the old self corrupted by Adam and take hold of the new self transformed by Jesus Christ, we become less and less self-centered and more and more Christ-centered. And as we become more and more Christ-centered we become more and more others oriented. We become living beacons of the love of God for other people. Put simply—this is the will of God: To love God with all we've got and to love others as we love ourselves. This is a visionary life; a life inspired by the mercy of God. In this miraculous way of life, the more you give the more you have to give.

A final point—note how we are talking about the mind rather than the heart here. Both matter deeply, but in the matter of transformation, the mind is the real battleground. The heart will follow the mind. The focus of our eyes will follow the fixation of our hearts. And all of this is the pathway to the offering of our physical bodies. It's why every single day in our prayer of consecration we lift our hearts to Jesus, and we set our minds on him. Then we fix our eyes on him and the offering of our body follows. All of this is what it means to be spiritual; to worship God in spirit and truth. This is what we were made for. This is who we are becoming. And yes, this is the long game we are playing.

PRAY WITH ME🙏🙏🙏
Abba Father! Thank you for the way you have made us to worship you and in worshipping you to be delivered from self-centeredness and set free to love others. Thank you for the visionary life of mercy who is your Son, Jesus. Open the eyes of our hearts to really see Jesus. Holy Spirit, would you continually orient and reorient us into this life for which we were made, to not conform to the pattern of the world but to be transformed by the renewing of our mind? We want this for ourselves and our families and our churches; for the sake of our neighbors and our cities and the world. Praying in Jesus's name, amen.

Áitu Ma Ís
Hanisiof
Fekau George Aptinko

20/05/2023

Noaía é mauri se kaunohoga, kainaga ma kaumaneága,

Bible text Romans 3:19 -20 (NIV)

✝️✝️✝️Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.

Theme: Jesus Christ Paid it All ( Jisu Karisto tog á ta koa ós ag raksaá)

Near the end of his life, John Newton, author of the hymn, "Amazing Grace," said these words:

"My memory is nearly gone; but I remember two things: that I am a great sinner, and that Christ is a great Saviour.”

The purpose of the law is to make us conscious of our sins. On this point, the Bible is clear.

In other words, the Law was not given in order that people would endlessly strive to fulfill it and consider they were doing a pretty good job. It was given to show us our desperate need of God and our hopelessness to obey it apart from him. More to come watch this space....

In other words, the Law was given to reveal to us the insolvency of our souls. Yes, we are born into bankruptcy. We didn't ask for it. We didn't earn it. It's not fair. You might say we didn't even deserve it. None of this changes the fact of it. This is what the Bible reveals to us about the nature of human beings. We are born debtors because of the sin of our forbears in the Garden of Eden. Though we didn't create the original debt we have added to its immensity.

Here's the problem illustrated. I have debts, but I don't much think of myself as a debtor. And I surely don't think of myself as bankrupt. (Well, maybe a little bit, but that's for another day). But doesn't that tell the story? There's no such thing as a little bit bankrupt. Our capital S Sin has put us into the condition known as bankruptcy. Our little s sins are like the interest adding up on the debt. We can never repay it. It's kind of like the national debt of the United States. As of now, NZ owed trillion of dollars ( and is accumulating). And somehow, all of us are able to walk around and live our lives like it is not even real. And we certainly don't really own that we have had anything to do with it. Nevertheless, the day is coming when that debt will come due ( it is showing now). Though it can be extended and extended it cannot be extinguished unless it is repaid.

It is the same with our sins. We can walk around a long time carrying a debt we can never repay—just wracking up interest—and living our lives like it's not even real. At the same time, it is taking its cruel toll on our souls, bit by bit, day by day. The day is coming when that debt will come due. Whether we want to face it or not, there will be a judgment, an accounting, a calling of the note.

It is a terrible, awful thing (even shameful) to be in so much debt without hope of repaying it. It leads to the searing of the conscience and the hardening of the heart.

It's why the gospel is such a song:

"Jesus paid it all. All to him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow." Again, what can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Again, "My sin, O the bliss of this glorious thought; my sin not in part but the whole is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more. Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! O, my soul."

PRAY WITH ME 🙏🙏🙏
Jesus, I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes. And I believe. Part of me is ashamed of my bankrupt soul and yet you came in and paid it all. It is too good to be true and yet it is true. I receive it, Jesus, as an unworthy, grateful sinner. I receive it. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. O, my soul. Praying in Jesus's name, amen.

Fekau George Aptinko
Hanisiof ma Alalum

03/05/2023

03/05/2023

03/05/2023

⚡️NEWSFLASH ⚡️, our first Pacific language week for 2023 🌺 is kicking off next week🥳, and we couldn't be more excited to launch! 🚀

Noaˈia ˈe mạuri! 👋 Rotuman Language Week starts in A WEEK 😎, with the theme Vetḁkia ‘os fäega ma ag fak hanua - Sustaining our language and culture! 🌱 We hope you’re as excited as us! 👀

We have lots of brand-new content for you to download ⬇️and share 🔗 - like this beautiful poster 😍. Check out mpp.govt.nz/rotuma!

And while you’re at it, snap a pic 📸of your celebrations 🎉 and tag us 🙌- we'd love to see what you've got planned! 🤩

13/04/2023

Noaía é mauri se kaunohoga, kainaga ma kaumaneága,

Bible text John 20:19 - 22 (NIV)

✝️✝️✝️On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.
Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit."

FILO' HE TA: PEACE BE WITH YOU ( a dose of truth)

Yes, it has truly been a big day so far, for the disciples And from what we read in John 20:19–22, it has not been a particularly easy one, either. At least not for the the disciples to whom Jesus has yet to appear. Waves of hope must have been crashing into waves of fear in their hearts all day long because of the aggression and persecutions from both Jews leaders and the Roman rulers

Imagine it. They find it difficult to disbelieve the trusted witnesses, but simultaneously fantastical to entertain the possibility, the sheer absurdity of the notion that Jesus is alive after his brutal crucifixion.

Disciples have no grid for this, no theology that will bear it up. From what we can tell, hyper-vigilant and aware that murmurings of blame for grave-robbery must be stirring among the Jews and the Romans . . . they are afraid.

That's what a locked door usually means.🙂

Someone inside is afraid;👊 they do not want to be easily reached.

We know it well. Fear is an immobilizer. We lock ourselves in rooms of the heart, we hide from phantoms that may or may not be of our own contrivance, and we emotionally distance ourselves from the possibility that what is actually true could be good news, rather than bad.

Worry can chain a heavy heart, and it takes a wild hammering of good news to break the links fear has forged.💪

A wild hammering—or the presence of Jesus.

"Perfect love," the Word of God says, "casts out fear" (1 John 4:18). In other words, the perfect love of Jesus can break chains, immediately and irrevocably, that no one else can.

Into the locked room, the Lord of love, the Lord of hope, walks.

Eyes lift from the floor. Heads turn upward. Mouths drop open. Spines tingle. Hair on the arms stands on end.

Jesus is there, right there in the middle of their fear.

And he speaks.

"Peace, be with you." John and Luke agree; these were his first words.🫢🫵

The word for peace here is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew word, shalom. In this moment, they must have recalled the same message Jesus spoke to them before his death earlier in John 14, when he said, "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid" (John 14:27).

There are fears that bind all of us, and on that first Easter day, fear had played its best hand with the ones Jesus loved, his precious friends (John 15:14–17).

But if you and I receive any truth into our souls this Easter season, let's receive the same truth the disciples did when Jesus came among them that first Easter day.👊

Fear has no place where Love has entered the room. Fear has lost its power over the beloved of Jesus because of the resurrection.

You and I have been welcomed into a "living hope" (1 Pet. 1:3), in which the story of our lives begins and ends in the new creation of God. Loved by our Father in heaven, and given new life by the resurrection of Jesus, we are set free to live, to move, to have our being, as the people of the Prince of Peace in a world that is needing desperately to hear the words, "Peace, be with you." ("furmaria ón Áitu la ma áe")

PRAY WITH ME 🙏🙏🙏
Risen Lord of the Living Hope, I am content no longer to live in fear, as if it is the guiding story of my life. I receive your Holy Spirit, and the power to live in the same faith of the early disciples who saw you face to face—and went on to change the world. Let your awakening begin in me, and faith displace fear from this moment forward. In Jesus's name I come, amen.

Furmaria ón Áitu la ma áus

Hanisiof....... shalom
Fekau George

13/04/2023

Noaía é mauri se kaunohoga, kainaga ma kaumaneága,

Luke 4:9 9 The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down from here.

If you miss the Easter dose of commemoration on how Christ obtained our salvation - I hope not - than I pray that Holy Spirit fill your heart with memories to treasure forever when you are certain that you and your household are saved and received the free gift of salvation. Another dose to remind us of Jesus Christ humility and humbleness from this bible text.

Have you had platforms in your life—opportunities to speak, teach, guide, lead, or influence in a church, a business, or a project—that you had the humility to use for God’s glory and not your own?

The highest point of the temple, in today’s passage, could represent many different tests of the heart—all of them oriented around why high places are different than low places. For one, a high point is more visible than a low place. Leaders lead from on high, from their fortified city, from their elevated throne, from their high popularity and visibility to their people.

Without the "high" supporting one’s leadership, or so history has emphasized, we are too normal, too unremarkable, too uninspiring to be influential. But gain a little height with a city, a throne, or a stage of popularity and influence and you can influence others.

Take the high place, right? Have the influence, in Jesus’s name, correct? The answer in this story gives us to those questions is no.

No. No. No. No. No.

Jesus tells us to take the lowest place at the table (Luke 14:10), to bow lower than everyone else in the room to wash their feet as a servant (John 13:1–17), to become the least of all if you want to become great (Mark 10:43).

And he did it. Instead of taking the high place of visibility, he chose the long, slow, low work of serving, caring, influencing, and loving his way into the hearts of individuals. He had no impressive form, and as Isaiah 53:3, the passage of the Suffering Servant, prophesied: “He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.”

While Jesus could have taken the high place, displaying God’s favor on his life and forcing his will on the Father, he knew that the way of humility and slow, patient grace was the path to changing human hearts.

And one by one, he did it. No big shows, no spiritual fireworks to shut down all questions; just deep, abiding presence, with signs and wonders following. God with us. Immanuel. The man who made himself low to show us the high way of humble love.

Pray with me 🙏🙏🙏

Lord of the Wild, there is a humility to your way, a deep patience to how you change a heart, that has brought the world to remark about your simple life of love. We choose the low places in which to serve, the unseen places of faithfulness, in the path of ministry. If you give a wider platform, so be it. But let our hearts live in the low places with others, with Jesus. In Jesus’s name, amen.

Hanisiof
Fekau George Aptinko

30/01/2023

Noaía é mauri se kaunohoga, kainaga ma kaumaneága,

Áitu la hanis ma mal os maur atakoa e lag raksaá ne tau se Niu Siragi

GOD'S WORD Luke 2:43 - 48 (NIV)
After the festival was over, while his parents were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they were unaware of it. Thinking he was in their company, they traveled on for a day. Then they began looking for him among their relatives and friends. When they did not find him, they went back to Jerusalem to look for him. After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers. When his parents saw him, they were astonished. His mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.”

Jesus Shows Us Another Kingdom Solution to a Wicked Problem

What got into Jesus? I suspect what was already in him—the untainted image of God. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit after all. The Son of God, the one greater than the temple of God, was visiting the temple for what looks to be the second time in his short life (twelve years later). This was the Bar Mitzvah tour. After his last decade of learning the things of God at home and synagogue, it was time to enter into phase two.

Let's call phase one the learning phase. Let's call phase two the liminal phase. The liminal phase is a long lingering in the great threshold of life—not between childhood and adulthood—but between learning and launching, bridging from play to purpose. Unfortunately, our culture has bought into the myth of adolescence—an ever lengthening period of relatively purposeless (and increasingly perilous) time given largely to TikTok, video games, endless streaming entertainment.

Let us behold something really special in this closing scene with Jesus as I believe it holds enormous wisdom for our time; not only for our teenagers but for us all. I believe it is a glimpse of a kingdom solution to a truly wicked problem. The ever-lengthening period between childhood and adulthood is the problem and it is becoming increasingly wicked—evidenced by the highest rate of teen su***de in recorded history in NZ. The solution is spiritual parenting. Lets call it kingdom parenting.

After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions.

Like most twelve year olds, Jesus was looking for people beyond parents; not instead of his parents but in addition to his parents. He was looking for those people who were neither parents nor friends but wore the hat of elder—call them spiritual parents or even kingdom parents.

This scene of Jesus in the temple courts is a powerful picture of this kind of parenting—engaging in adult conversation, listening and asking questions, testing insights, and pondering mysteries. Kingdom parenting is non-biological parents building relationships with young people for the purpose of helping raise them up into their real life; walking with them through the long, liminal phase of being birthed into God's purposes for their life.

Every parent (and grandparent 🙂) needs to be investing in this way in other peoples' children walking through this long, liminal phase of life. And for those married with no children as well as singles, (young and old, widowed or otherwise) you are in a prime place to make such investments. And let's be clear, this is not something that happens primarily at church.

We need to teach, train, and equip on spiritual parenting at church as it is a lost art, but this work largely happens in the warp and woof of everyday life.

Our children are growing up more and more influenced by the social media culture and less and less influenced by the deep wisdom of mature adults surrounding them. They are becoming ensnared in the "influencer" culture which aspires to make them into its image. In other words, the core value of the emerging adults of our time is to become "well-known" (i.e., famous). The core value of Jesus and his kingdom is for our children to be "known-well."

It is a fascinating sight to behold as Jesus responds to his frantic parents “Why were you searching for me?” he asked. “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?” (Luke 2:49).

It's right there hiding in plain sight. Jesus longs to be "known-well." "Didn't you know," he asks, which is another way of saying, "You know me." Now note their response: "But they did not understand what he was saying to them (Luke 2:50).

Any parent knows when their children enter into this liminal phase, they begin to rapidly lose influence. I've heard it described as, "the alien abduction phase," as in, "where did my child go?", "do you know where you children are" It's why it takes a village to raise one. This means a host of our community parents must arise.

It's why we keep saying, "Wake up sleepers, and rise from the dead! And Christ will shine on you!"


PARENTS and GRANDPARENTS PRAY WITH ME: 🙏🙏🙏

Our Father, we keep praying that the eyes of our hearts may be enlightened in order that we may know you better, that I might become truly humble; which is to awaken to the person you imagined when you fashioned my inmost being and that I might rise up into the real life for which you created me. Forgetting what is past, I press on toward this high calling. But for today, let me find myself next to these spiritual parent types in the temple, these rabbis who invested in the boy Jesus (and he them). Show me in this scene an inspiring glimpse of how I might invest my life in a younger person. I want to live a consecrated life of simple obedience and extravagant love. Show me the next small thing. Come Holy Spirit, I am ready to move with you. Praying in Jesus's name, amen.

Hanisiof
Fekau George Aptinko