Words from the cross is the latest (January 19) series of messages being broadcast. These are comments of words and phases spoken by Jesus as recorded in the four Gospels.
Radio
A great cloud of witnesses
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12:1-2
This is how the writer of the letter to the Hebrews continues after writing about ‘Faith’ and how it was displayed in the lives of several Old Testament characters. BAM is broadcasting the series on these people and the messages can be heard live via shortwave radio (Saturdays) and via our Listen Again page on the website. It is usually available on the website from the Monday morning (UK time) after the broadcast.
Once it is available the full series will be added to the Audio and Text library.
[GCoW = Great Cloud of Witnesses]
Audio Library
We have started to add Audio files from the radio broadcasts. The new Audio Library can be accessed via the drop down LISTEN menu on the top bar. The plan is to add all available files over the coming months to give access to a list of helpful Bible Study material written and narrated by Maurice Paine.
The files contain the message section not the whole programme.
PfJG-Pictures of Jesus form John’s Gospel
New Radio Series
This latest series started broadcasting on the 2 December. It takes one aspect of the person and work of Jesus from each of the 21 chapters of this gospel.
Practical Christian Living:
This is the series title of the latest radio broadcasts which be began 21/22 October. The first – Walk Worthily – is now available on the Listen Again page.
Great Cloud of Witnesses (GCoW)
This last weekend saw the start of the 17 week series based on people of faith mentioned in Hebrews Chapter 11 via the two radio stations we currently use.
The first progamme is an introduction to the topic and is now available on the Listen Again Page. The series was first published in booklet form and the various chapters will be made available shortly via the website or by request in booklet form once the series of broadcasts is completed.
A Place called Calvary
Our Listen Again feature now holds the latest series of radio broadcasts looking at the place called Calvary. Here is an extract from the booklet series….
The place called Calvary, or the place of a skull, is at one and the same time the most awful and most wonderful place we could visit. It brings to memory of the most inspiring and blessed experience the heart can know as well as bringing before us the darkest hour in man’s history. This is so for one reason alone -‘ it is the place where Jesus was crucified. On the one hand He gave His life to save all who will receive Him, and on the other, after three and a half years of doing good, the Son of God was taken by wicked hands and slain.
His ministry on earth had made it abundantly clear that He was the Son of God with power to forgive, heal and restore those who came to Him. His words and His teaching showed and proved, He was nothing less than God manifest in the flesh.
With these four words -“there they crucified him” -. Luke describes a crime that has never been expunged from the pages of history. They also describe the purchase of a redemption that has been the salvation of lost and sinking souls the world over ever since. We draw near with awe, for no words can ever do justice to that sight when Jesus hung on the cross ………..
Radio – one man’s story
Some time ago we heard that Christos Constantiunou had gone to be with the Lord. Christos was one of our first known listeners to trust the Lord in the mid sixties when listening to the 15 minute Greek Hour of the Gospel broadcasts that we sponsored on Trans World Radio from Monte Carlo.
We think that the following reprint of the tract we produced at that time makes interesting reading. Maurice Paine recalls that he last met Christos playing his accordion and singing “When the Trumpet of the Lord shall sound” on a street corner in Thessaloniki:
HOW I FOUND CHRIST
By
CHRISTOS CONSTANTINOU
The way the Lord has led me to a knowledge of salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ is wonderful. It had always been my desire to learn and acquire knowledge, but born a blind Moslem Turk in an isolated village in Northern Greece, what chance did I have? My name was Phaek Sounetsi and with one exception, all the village were Turkish. The one exception was George Othoneos, Chairman of the Village Council, and it was he who decided I should go to a blind school that I might not remain illiterate all my life. (My village was in Thrace near the Turkish border and made no provision for one born blind).
There was considerable opposition to be overcome before my mother would allow her blind boy to leave her care, but eventually the Chairman himself took me to the Blind School in Thessalonica. Here I began to learn both Greek (until then I spoke only Turkish) and Braille. It was a joy to be able to converse freely with the boys at school. As they told me about their religion and about God and His Son, Jesus Christ, a desire I had to find more about God made me very interested. Though a Moslem, I asked the Matron of the School if I might go with the other Boys to the great Orthodox Church. When allowed this privilege, I was very moved with the liturgy and ceremonies and after a time I asked the Director of the School if I could be baptised and become an Orthodox Christian.
I was told “Phaek, you are too young to become a Christian. You must wait until you are 21 years old, then it will be for the Bishop of Thessalonica to decide this.”
“Very well” I replied, “but do not forget me for I really want to be a baptised Christian and to find the truth.”
When 21years of age I was found again asking the Director of the School to arrange for me to be baptised. This they gladly did and I was baptised into the Orthodox Church and was given a new name – Christos Constaninou – in place of my Turkish name. Two things stand out in my mind at this time. First, though a baptised Christian I did not have any real joy in my heart, and secondly, those who were very interested in my becoming baptised into the Orthodox Religion, afterwards did not show any further interest in my spiritual growth.
You should know that my family were very angry when they heard I had left the Mohammedan Faith. Indeed, my brothers who at that time were my closest relatives, my father and mother having died, threatened to kill me. On numerous occasions previously they had tried to remove me from the School. It was not until nine months later that I returned to my village. My brothers were very angry with me and would have nothing to do with me. They treated me badly, making me wander from village to village as a blind beggar. Having tried very hard to change me, but without success, they eventually changed their attitude and took me into the village again and shut me away from any contact with the outside world.
It was at this point that something important happened in God’s plan for my life. It was only a small thing. My brothers bought me a transistor radio. They thought that because I was blind I could hear some songs and enjoy myself, and it was in seeking this enjoyment that I found the “Musical Box” Station Signal of Trans World Radio and immediately the signal stopped heard the Greek Gospel broadcast. With my transistor I began listening to these broadcasts regularly every day. They were a great blessing to me.
One day I heard Pastor Zodhiates speak on Nicodemus. This message really spoke to my heart: the words Jesus spoke to Nicodemus were for me, and like Nicodemus I needed to be born again (John 3:7). When the preacher said, “Let’s pray now” I knelt by my radio and prayed the prayer he prayed. I believe this was the moment I was converted and became a real child of God. I thank God that at that moment the Lord opened my spiritual eyes, and though blind physically, I can now see and know Christ as my Saviour.
Since that time, and in the providence of God, I have been able to leave my village and attend the Macedonian Bible Institute, which was founded by Pastor Zodhiates in Katerini. In this way I can learn how to study the Bible and learn more of the Lord. Do you think the Lord will leave me now? Surely the Lord who has brought me so far and whom I have come to know to the The Way, The Truth and The Life (John 14:6) will now lead me to a place of service. My fellow countrymen, though very hard and hostile to the Christian Faith, need the Message of the Gospel and the Lord can overcome all the difficulties that prevent me from returning to them with this Message. Pray with me about this. Pray too for the daily Gospel broadcasts, that many may find Christ as the listen-in. It was a radio, and I think someone praying for the Message that it carried, that led me to Christ.