Good Monday morning New Lifers and friends of New Life. I hope that like me you can look back on Sunday knowing it was another good day at church and that you were able to take something positive from each service.
Sunday morning: I spoke on "Walking with the Spirit". This was a follow on to previous messages, but was more a look at who the Holy Spirit. We looked at His "who-ness" rather than His "what-ness". We saw that the Holy Spirit is the Third Person of the Trinity in the order of Redemption/Salvation, but that he is the Second Person of the Trinity in the Order of the Creation Story. In Gen.1 the Father is mentioned in the first verse as God the Creator; that is the Father of Creation; The Holy Spirit is mentioned in verse 2 as the Spirit of of moving upon the face of the deep; The Son is mentioned (covertly) in verse 3 as the logos - the spoken and declared creative Word of God.
It is this Holy Spirit who moved upon the face of the deep who lives with us and is in us (John 14:17). It is this same Holy Spirit who walked with the Old Testament saints; the New Testament saints and with every believer today. If we truly walk with the Holy Spirit his presence will be reflected in our lives, our worship and in our witness. One of my main comments was, "God does not want you to do what you because you're good at what you do, but he wants you to do what you do because what you do comes out of your relationship and your walk with the Holy Spirit".
Sunday night: I brought a message entitled, "Against all the Odds". We all sometimes face situations where the odds are stacked against us. Who would have thought that DJ Benga against the odds would escape prison in the Congo and would finally make it to America where he would become one on the greatest players in the NBA for the LA Lakers.
We looked at how Paul against the odds established a church in Thessalonica within a window of opportunity that remained open to him for only three weeks. His revival meetings led to a major riot and resulted in Paul having to leave sharply after three weeks.
Some think the evidence of God's blessing is to be found in calm waters under a cloudless sky, but that often the reverse is true when in the midst of raging storms you know that if God does not come through for you, you are not going to make it! etc etc... We often find ourselves battling against the odds, but when we finally come through we know it just had to be God!
Quite a number of people indicated their need for prayer as they face situations where they feel the odds are stacked against them. We continue to look to God for each and pray for testimonies of miraculous breakthrough.
ADVANCE
Have a great week. Hope to see you soon.
Stay focused; stay strong; and keep being a God-influence.
Pastor Jack
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