We praise God for His faithfulness this past year and for continually blessing our meetings and our lives with His presence and anointing. The last few weeks before the end of the year were very special and the Lord spoke to us about our being light in the darkness; responding to His manifest presence; and the significance of Christ's birth.
In her message, entitled "A light in the darkness," Frances reminded us that Jesus makes His followers light and that every disciple is called, not to avoid the darkness but to be light in the darkness in order to affect the darkness with God's presence and power (see Mt 5:14-16)! Just as Jesus entered the darkness with grace and truth, the Church is called to enter the darkness not with a judgmental attitude or isolated from the world but with the grace and truth of God. Christ does not take His disciples out of the world but places them in the world to be ambassadors of the light of God's Kingdom (see John 17:14-19). Hallelujah!
In Alexander's message, entitled "How do you respond when God shows up?", he showed us how people in the NT responded to God when He made His presence known. Looking at the lives of Joseph, Mary, John the Baptist, the chief priests and Herod and how each of them responded to God's manifest presence, Alexander challenged us to identify how each one of us will respond when God reveals His glory: whether discreetly, with joy, with indifference or unmoved.
The church gathered for a special Christmas Eve celebration in Bockenheim and spent time reflecting on the significance of Christ's birth and responding in worship. We reflected on how Jesus enjoyed such intimacy and glory as He dwellt with the Father in heaven prior to His entrance into the world. We considered what it must have meant for the Saviour to leave such a place of glory to dwell amongst those He created and yet be rejected by many of them (John 1:1-18). We reflected on Christ's humanity and how He subjected himself to be fully human so as to be able to identify with us completely (see Hebrews 2:14-18). Finally we reflected on Christ's humility and how He chose to be completely obedient to the Father and rather serve than be served so that mankind could be saved (see Philippians 2:5-11). We therefore meditated on the truth that Jesus came to take us out of darkness and to take darkness out of us so that we would be placed in His light and have His light placed in us. Hallelujah! After our Christmas Eve service we enjoyed some food and fellowship.
2017 began on Sunday; a brilliant day to begin the year with, to make a fresh commitment to God and to seek His face anew! In his message entitled, "Blow the cover!", Richard spoke to us from 1 John 1:5-2:6 and challenged us to examine our lives to see whether our outward life truly reflects our inner or private life. Using the analogy of a book with its cover, we saw that all of us present ourselves to the outside world like the cover of a book but must ask ourselves whether what we show or claim to be to others is truly a reflection of what is inside the book of our lives. John challenges his readers to examine whether their lives are aligned with what they claim. Similarly, we looked at what it is we claim about our own lives. Richard then encouraged us to realise that our claim is C.L.A.I.M. = Christ's Life Abides In Me and that our lives must reflect the reality of His presence in our lives. God calls us to live authentic lives of integrity, free of hypocrisy where there is no difference between our inner and outer lives. God is calling us to blow the cover!
As part of our preparation for 2017, we are doing a 21-day spiritual renewal - a time for us individually and as a church to get refocused and refreshed by God's Spirit as we commit the 3 weeks to prayer, studying God's Word, worship and fasting. Day 1 begins on the 9th of January and we will end the 21 days on the 29th of January. These will be 3 exciting weeks of encounter and breakthrough as we seek God together for 2017!
Upcoming meetings and events
Tuesdays from 19:00 - 21:00: Discipleship Group - Leipziger Str.60 (L60).
08.01.: Kay and Holger Lorentz at KLF church meeting
09.01-29.01: 21 Day Spiritual Renewal
21.01: Prophecy Workshop with Alexander Blair
05-07.05.2017: KLF's 10th Anniversary Celebration
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