I wonder how you started the New Year and how you are doing right now, just one month into it! Some are still holding on to their New Year commitments; some are still talking with excitement about the future of the church; but sadly some have quickly allowed circumstances to overtake them; some have not made it over the first hurdles that the New Year presented; some have chosen to blame others and even blame the church for things they fail to take responsibility for. I often wonder, "Why is it always the church's fault?" As if the church is something other than people. The fact is - you are the church!
One person sent me a text message yesterday. He apologised for not being able to make it to either service due to the shifts he was on. He said, "I know you hate people saying this, but I'm with you in spirit!" Well, he's right, I don't like that being said, but at least I know he was! He then finished his text by saying, "Adam blamed Eve, and Eve blamed the serpent, and the serpent didn't have a leg to stand on!" The humour is much appreciated!
Sunday Morning: I spoke on "Seeking the full impact of the Spirit". In this message I showed that as Christians we often find it easy to say the right things, yet fail to know fully the depth of what's being said. We can say things like "The Spirit gives us power for service", yet we fail to serve; "The Spirit gives us power to witness", yet we fail to witness; "The Spirit give us power to overcome" yet we fail to overcome; and so on.
Peter said to Jesus, "You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God" and in so doing he said the right thing, but he failed at that moment to allow the truth of what he said to impact his life. The evidence of this was that later when challenged he said, "Jesus who?" and then denied he ever knew Jesus!
I talked about the Greek word for power, which is 'Dunamis' from which we get the words dynamic, dynamo, and dynamite, showing that it conveys the idea of an explosive power, generated by the dynamic of the Holy Spirit; but the purpose of this dynamic was not to give the disciples a spiritual buzz, but to strengthen and equip them so they could attain the purposes of God. I finished by making the point that I do not want New Life City Church to simply teach what the Bible says, or to teach Greek and Hebrew words, yet fail to teach how to rise above and overcome the issues of life.
Sunday night: Jonathan brought a word from Ezra 1 entitled "Rebuilding the Temple". In this message he showed how that God had consistently sent prophets to the nation of Israel to challenge their persistent disobedience and to warn of coming judgement upon the nation. However, regardless of the challenges and the warnings, the people rejected the prophets and their message. Finally the Babylonians were raised by God and moved against the nation of Israel, bringing many into exile; among these were Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.
After 70 years in exile, and after Babylon was conquered by the Medes and Persian, God raised up Cyrus, King of Persia, to send the exiles back with the clear instruction to rebuild the temple that the Babylonians had destroyed. The temple was a place of worship and prayer, and was the place where the glory of God dwelt among men. God had ordained that this would be restored.
However, in the New Testament, we are taught that "we" are the temple, with Christ as the Chief Cornerstone, and that the glory of God dwells in us. As the temple was important to God, so also is the church; and as the church is important to Christ, so the church should be important to us. We are called to work together in the building of the church, but specifically as those who "belong" to New Life City Church, we called to work together to build New Life, even if this were to stretch us; in fact it should stretch us!
Last week's Riddle/Question: Once again I did try to make it easy, but some still struggled! The answer was indeed 43.
This week's challenge: Let's do something different. This is a little competition to see who can come up with the funniest caption for the following picture: Write one and send it back to me:
Caption here!
This week's Bible verses: Proverbs 6: 16-19, There are six things the LORD hates, seven that are detestable to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies, and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers.
Note the seventh one - it leads to the first six!
Pastor John Legge: John is heading to the USA on Thursday for a week to minister in a church. Please pray for John that God will strengthen him and use him in an amazing way to bring blessing and encouragement to the church.
Stay focused; stay strong; and keep being a God-influence.
Pastor Jack
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