God is love!

Glory to God!

Yesterday our Kingdom Life leadership team gave a report about the leadership conference hosted by Kingdom Faith in Horsham, England which our team attended last week. Being in partnership with Kingdom Faith, we are part of God's work not only locally but nation-wide. The connection we have with KF is important as we have apostolic covering, are accountable to the greater Body, benefit from the anointing upon KF, and share in God's purpose for the Church to bring transformation to society and renewal to the Church. As partners we carry the same spiritual DNA that seeks to build communities of faith and love and pursues what is on God's heart for His people, Israel and the nations. You can listen to the interview we had with the KLF leadership team here: http://kingdomlife-frankfurt.com/index3.php?id=1239c.

Elizabeth Nehring, who is part of our leadership team, then shared the experience she had when she stayed with the Evangelical Sisterhood of Mary in Darmstadt (http://www.kanaan.org/). As part of what God is showing us concerning essence and form, we are learning to distinguish between the two so that we live from essence rather than from form. God calls us to be uncompromising in essence and flexible in form as we live the Kingdom Life wherever we are. You can listen to Elizabeth's powerful testimony here: http://kingdomlife-frankfurt.com/index3.php?id=1239b.

The Lord then spoke to us about how He wants us to be governed by His love as we return to our First Love. Those who are led by the Spirit of God are led by the God who is love. To remain in God is to remain in love (1 John 4:16). Looking at the account of the rich ruler who came to Jesus (Mark 10:17-23), we saw how Jesus addressed the core issue or the essence - the man's heart. Although the rich ruler appeared to be righteous, his heart was divided - he loved what he owned more than he loved God. The Law and the Prophets are summed up in our responsibility to love (Matthew 22:34-40; Rom.13:8-10). Our lives reveal what is our greatest love. When believers are filled with God, they are filled with love which is evidenced by their lives (see Acts 2:42-47).

We are looking forward to our first ever church retreat this weekend at Rot am See from Friday to Sunday. It will be an awesome time to encounter God and one another and to put love into action. There will therefore be no church service on Sunday afternoon at CZF.

Quote of the week

"God is love. Whoever lives in love, lives in God, and God in him." 1 John 4:16

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True Worshippers

Glory to God!

Yesterday the Lord spoke to us about worship and this is what He showed us:

• God saves us to set us apart to be a holy people - a people who belong to God and worship only Him. Exodus 7:16; John 4:23,24; 1 Peter 2:9; Eph. 1:11,12 
• Salvation restores man to true fellowship and communion with God and turns "rebels into worshippers" (A.W. Tozer)
• To worship God is to honour and value Him above anything else.
• The believer is called to worship God with his life. Rom. 12:1
• Looking at the response of Martha and Mary to the presence of Jesus we see two forms of worship. Martha worshipped Jesus by serving Him whilst Mary worshipped Jesus by desiring to be with Him and being satisfied by Jesus alone. Both forms of worship honour Jesus but Jesus commends Mary for her actions and tells her that "one thing is needed." Luke 10:38-41
• True worship honours God when He is the believer's greatest desire and the One who satisfies him most.
• We honour those whom we spend time with because time is the only resource that can never be replenished!
• Spending time with God in the secret place because He is our greatest desire and only He can satisfy, honours God and glorifies Him most.
• God has created a God-shaped hole in each person that can only be filled with God (Blaise Pascal).
• Idolatry is desiring created things and being temporarily satisfied with them instead of desiring the Creator and being satisfied in Him. Isaiah 57:9,10; 1 Peter 4:2; Hosea 13:6
• The devil seeks to tempt man to desire and be satisfied by created things rather than the Creator.
  
• The Psalmists worshipped and honoured God when their desire was for Him alone. Psalm 73:25; 42:1,2; 27:4; 63:1
• Being satisfied, filled and content in God is great gain! 1 Tim. 6.6; Phil. 4:11; Eph. 5:18
• The Psalmists worshipped God when they were most satisfied in God. Psalm 17:15; 63:5; 90:14; 23:1

God is looking for worshippers who value and honour Him above everything else because they desire Him more than anything created and find satisfaction in Him more than in anything else.

We praise God for teaching us to be true worshippers!

Quote of the week

"When I awake, I will be satisfied, for I will see you face to face." Psalm 17:15

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