Glory to God!
The Lord is continuing to prepare us for Revival and in these past weeks He has been speaking to us about foundational truth concerning our identity in Christ, our dependence on the Word of God and our need to love as He loves us.
In her message entitled, "The Pandemic Of The Lost Identity," Gayle spoke to us about how the present pandemic is challenging what people depend on for their identity and how we as believers need to depend on Christ for our true identity. As believers, we are to focus on God's vision for our lives and His revival purposes. To help us examine ourselves, Gayle asked us: what or who is the source of our vision; how is our vision strengthened; how are we supporting our vision; what strategy are we using to walk in the vision and what is the scope of our vision? Speaking from Ephesians 3:20, Gayle encouraged us to depend on God, who is able to do immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine so that we find our identity, vision and destiny in Christ as He fulfils His revival purposes in our lives, the Church and our nation.
A few Sundays ago, Alexander shared a message entitled, "It's Time To Settle It!" Alex encouraged us to have great confidence in God as we depend on God's truth to set us free. Every revelation of God's name in the Word of God is an invitation to experience God in His unchanging nature. As believers have faith in who God says He is, so we can have faith in who God says we are! Similarly, believers can have faith in what God says He is able to do and what He says we can do! Looking at a few key scriptures that reveal who we are Christ, we saw that we are significant (Mt 5:13,14); branches of the Vine (Jn 15:1,5); the temple of God (1 Cor 3:16); ministers of reconciliation (2 Cor 5:17-21); seated with Christ in heavenly places (Eph 2:6); God's workmanship (Eph 2:10); secure (Rom 8:1,2); assured that all things will work for good (Rom 8:28); citizens of heaven (Phil 3:20); hidden with Christ in God (Col 3:3); children of God (1 Jn 5:18); accepted (Jn1:12); holy (Eph 1:1) and complete in Christ (Col 2:10). We praise God that we can have confidence in who God is and who He says we are in Christ!
Two Sundays ago, Richard spoke to us about our need to persevere in unconditional love as we hold onto our faith in these Last Days. Looking at Matthew 24, Jesus describes these Last Days as birth pains and that as creation, society and mankind increasingly deteriorate there is the danger that many will turn away from the faith and that the love of many will grow cold (Mt 24:10-12). Richard showed us the significance of love as it reveals the believer's faith in God (Gal 5:6); it reveals we are followers of Christ (Jn 13:34,35); it reveals that Jesus was sent and that we belong to God (Jn 17:23) and it assures us of our salvation (1 Jn 4:16,17). Understanding that in these Last Days we are tempted to focus on the trouble and increasing wickedness on earth rather than on Christ, the Church and the Lost, Richard challenged us to love as God loves us and to choose love in every situation and circumstance. Looking at John 21, we noted how Jesus wants us to demonstrate our love for Him by fulfilling His calling on our lives, counting the cost of following Him and choosing to follow Love regardless of the calling upon other believer's lives or how other believers live their Christian lives.
On Sunday we had the joy of performing and celebrating the marriage of Gina and Genaro. It was a very special afternoon as our KLF family worked hard to welcome the wedding party and serve our special guests. Richard shared a message entitled, "Three Crowns" in which he explained how just as Corona, which means crown, is affecting everyone, everywhere so there are three crowns that affect all of mankind: the crown of sin, the crown of Christ and the crown of love. Using the image of a black crown, a red crown and a white crown, Richard shared the Gospel and pointed out the significance of marriage in demonstrating God's longing to be joined to His bride through the covenant of Christ's blood. After inviting people to respond to the message, Richard then performed the wedding ceremony for Gina and Genaro, followed by cake and coffee outside in the courtyard. It was a very special afternoon indeed.
After our Summer break we have resumed our weekly pep-talks with Richard's encouragement to sharpen our gifts so that everyone in the church can focus on the gifts and calling upon their lives and be an effective agent of influence in the Church and in the world we live in.
As we face the challenge of social distancing and corona regulations, we recognise the pressing need to enable the church to continue to grow relationally and as a community of love. Consequently, we are encouraging our people to meet in weekly CONNECT GROUPS until the end of the year to make sure we stay connected to one another and that together we continue to respond to what the Lord is saying to us and encouraging us to put into practice.
We praise God that He is preparing us as His people to be ready for His revival purposes in our city and nation and that we are already experiencing His quickening work among us! Hallelujah!
Photo by Mirko Blicke on Unsplash
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