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Celebration Summer Update July 2008
This will be the last update before Celebration
Summer!
The banner we are having made to go outside Greenfield Baptist Church says: 'The Kingdom of God is here. Come and experience it!' The first phrase is the proclamation Jesus made at the beginning of his ministry. He added something after that, and we, as his body need to hear it; 'Repent and believe'. If those who do not yet believe are to come and experience the Kingdom of God in our midst so that they too can repent and come to salvation, we need to turn our eyes to God, turn from all that would distract us of this world, and trust him to bring his Kingdom through us to others. We need to repent and believe! Praise the Lord that the arrangements are now coming together, though there is still a lot to happen! Join us in crying out for the Holy Spirit to breakout in and through us. We long to see his glory fill our streets. We have heard that there are over 100 coming from Korea, including 30 from the Revival Korea team. With Koreans coming from London and other places in the UK we anticipate up to 200 Koreans will be with us. Many in Wales have expressed interest, though there are only around 30 booked in to the opening week so far. Please join us in prayer for people to respond to the Lord. The numbers are not important but we do want the ones whom the Lord is calling. When Gareth was praying recently he had a picture of a well covered by concrete. There were cracks in the concrete, and water was bubbling through, but we needed sledge hammers of faith to continue to hit until the waters burst out. We all felt that there had been many things in the past few month distracting us from this job. Gareth's little daughter nearly died at the beginning of the year, and now has been miraculously restored to them. The doctor in the local hospital called her the miracle baby. My father was ill for several weeks, and recently died. (Thank you, all of you who have supported me and my family in prayer at this time.) Other team members have been fighting sickness bugs and various things, yet in all these things we are more than conquerers! Our God has overcome death itself. We will continue to obey the Lord who is drawing us together to pray for a breakout of His Spirit. Celebration London Pastor Hoon Jung Lee is working very hard to arrange the final days of Celebration Summer in London. We are excited as we sense the Lord opening doors and leading him. Last year, some people asked if it was possible to have a Celebration for the Nations in London, maybe this is a forerunner to it? As part of this time, Hoon Jong has a vision for a large evangelistic worship service in the open air at one of London's main sites, plus two evening gatherings. One for all the Korean Churches, to worship and especially to pray for a breakout of the Holy Spirit in North Korea, and the second, to gather as many from the nations as we can, to have a great Celebration for the Nations to give Jesus glory, and hear his heart for our future. Please do pray for Hoon Jong as he looks for venues and accommodation. We now have six placements finalised and another three to be confirmed. These will give us all a chance to express our joy and faith in places around the UK and in Berlin. Next Steps Celebration Summer is not an end in itself. Throughout the time there will be opportunities to talk with people from different ministries, and pray about your next steps. We believe that through this time we will all discover more of God's purpose for our lives, and therefore our own destiny. Faith offering 'Therefore I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – which is your spiritual worship' (Romans 12:1). We are gathering together to worship the Lord with all our hearts, minds, souls and strength. We know that He is worthy of everything we can give him. One of the most common offerings in the Old Testament was the Burnt Offering. It actually means 'gift going up'. The fire on the altar that received the burnt offerings never went out. A burnt offering is irrevocable. It cannot be taken back. It is 'wasted' in this worlds eyes. However it is pleasing to the Lord. It is an offering of faith. Why does the Lord require offerings of us? Surely Christ's offering was once and for all! That is true, yet the apostle Paul discovered, that in order to make known the wonderful offering Christ has made, he had to sacrifice his own life; 'Now I rejoice in what was suffered for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ's afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church' (Colossians 1:24). Paul offered his body as a living sacrifice. He gave himself over to the Lord like a Burnt Offering. His worship to God was to make known the wonder of what Jesus did when he died on the Cross. The fire of God's power fell on his life and on his ministry. As we celebrate Christ's victory on the Cross, we also offer ourselves as living sacrifices, willing to do anything and go anywhere so that His body, the Church may be complete. Our joy is that we know that He is true to His word. He hears our prayers and our songs in the night. He sees our tears and loves our laugh of faith when we are faced with the impossible. He counts the offerings of our time, our love, our lives, not as waste, but as infinitely precious. Jesus will surely come with power through us, because he says; 'I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing' (John 14:12). In this joy we move into Celebration Summer. See you there! Love in Christ Gail and the Celebration Team. |