a blog for the summer missions training team from Bethel Baptist Church

Thursday, March 29, 2007

Coffeehouse Agenda

Below is the working outline for the coffeehouse agenda for Saturday, March 31.

Friday evening
5:00 - move all furniture to set up the four rooms
7:30 - order pizza, youth and Transit joint praise singing
- Transit to split off for Bible study -
9:00 - reconvene to decorate (for those who are independently mobile)
11:30 - exit

Saturday afternoon
3:00 - Bethel guys rehearse (V.A.M.)
5:00 - last minute preparations, Red Lion guys rehearse
6:00 - team members arrive, pray
6:30 - performers arrive, start coffee
7:00 - guests arrive, start buying coffee
7:15 - welcome by M.C. Dan
7:20 - praise singing (R.L. guys)
7:35 - Congo team sharing
7:45 - praise singing (R.L. guys)
7:55 - Russia team sharing
8:05 - special music (R.L. guys)
8:15 - transition by M.C. Dan
8:20 - musical performance by Bethel guys (V.A.M.)
8:45 - transition by M.C. Dan
8:50 - musical performance by Orion Moses
9:15 - transition by M.C. Dan
9:20 - musical peformance by Michael Hiskey
9:30 - transition by M.C. Dan
9:35 - musical performance by Mike Casteel
10:00 - end, cleanup

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Bridget's Bunia Blog 40

Friends of the Kitchen

Ostensibly, I’m cooking supper. But in reality, I’m extracting little black creatures from the food. While weevils conveniently disappear in a pot of beans, they retain a high profile in a dish of white pasta served to guests.

'A weevil', I am told by Grolier’s encyclopaedia (the MCMXCI edition I presume to still be a valid source of information) 'is a specialized beetle with an elongated head and a protruding, often curved snout that bears the mouthparts and antennae. Most weevils are less than 7mm long. More than 40,000 species of weevils constitute the family Curculionidae of the beetle order Coleoptera. Almost 2,000 species of long, slender, primitive weevils, found mostly in the tropics, make up the family Bretidae.'

I think our kitchen must be host to Calendra granaria and Calendra oryzae because those are the granary and rice specialists. But how do they come to be in the hermetically sealed pasta pack or the jar of beans or the sack of flour? Maybe it’s because 'the legless, often blind larvae frequently burrow into seeds, buds, fruits or underground roots' and stay there. The encyclopaedia entry, alas, doesn’t list the protein and vitamin content of the creatures. But given the fact that they have ingested the wheat (and the container plastic) and they disappear from view in a generous shake of black pepper, it’s probably OK to leave the weevils in the dish of pasta. Sorry, guests.

However, I’m not so well disposed to live and let live when it comes to cockroaches in spite of reading that 'roaches are actually very clean insects, even though they eat garbage. They are called the custodians of nature. They only live in houses where there are crumbs to eat or the garbage can is uncovered. They lay eggs inside the house's hollow walls.'

I wonder who had the wit and wisdom, time and patience, to discover the following information about this strange creature: 'The roach is also one of the hardiest insects on the planet, capable of living for a month without food and remaining alive headless for up to a week. It can also hold its breath for 45 minutes and has the ability to slow down its heart rate. Cockroaches also have a very high resistance to radiation. The cockroach has super regeneration powers that allow it to regrow lost limbs. They also will never die if they get proper amounts of food and plenty of sunlight and water. This is the only species on planet Earth that is known to have these powers.' !!! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cockroach)

So now we know. Crunch! No regenerated limbs allowed here!

What I do find enchanting are the geckos. Whether a few centimetres of translucence straight from the hatcheries or the bolder, knobbly ones, they are friendly little fellows who pop up when you open a drawer or scuttle away when you put on a light, scurrying up, down or across the wall. Watchers from another world hurrying away to share their observations with a vast colony of creatures in some invisible location.

Blessings,
Bridget

[I’m at a loss to find a verse of Scripture to fit this commentary on life here!]

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Sunday, March 18, 2007

Djadri



In CECA’s Christian Education department. After the war he started taking in street kids and ended up with so many he had to start a little ministry out of it. He’s been teaching at the Christian Education school which wasn’t able to start this year because the building being used for it was appropriated illegally by the Bunia court.

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Saturday, March 17, 2007

Bridget's Bunia Blog 39

There was Jesus saving a wedding celebration from falling flat - in full accord with the Jewish belief that God enabled them to grow crops and produce wine to make them happy (Psalm 104:14-15) - and a Congolese colleague can only comment, "Jesus made it very difficult for us when his first miracle was to change water to wine." So what is one to think about this issue of Jesus, his disciples and alcohol? But given the proof of the local home-brewed alcohol here, it's probably wise to steer clear of the
principle of 'moderation in all things' and push for teetotalism. Sadoki ought to know......

"Where did you get all those things - meat, fish, clothes and everything? Did you steal them? Have they given you a pay rise?" Sadoki's wife had never seen so much brought home at the end of a month. This was the first time ever that Sadoki had completed a month of work without spending all his salary on booze. No wonder his wife was so incredulous. This fact spoke volumes as to the changes that had taken place in the life of her husband.

Tears came to Sadoki's eyes as he recalled his past life and thought of wasted time, wasted opportunity, wasted money. But a smile lit up his face as he explained his 'siku ya uhuru' - his day of liberation - and how God had touched his life.

Raised by an alcoholic father and drinking mother, Sadoki really hadn't had much of a chance and he was drinking by the age of 12. A hardened drinker by the age of 23, he was able to down 12 bottles of commercially-produced beer or the whole pot of kaikbo - the vicious local concoction distilled from manioc and maize.

Cigarettes and drugs were added to the destructive habits. His friends were fellow boozers. His wife was his 'rafiki ya pombe' - a drinking friend - although not to the same extent. Drinking - during drunken moments that is - was fun. But little by little there was a nagging question: What will I do to leave drink?

Then in 1993, Sadoki was attracted by the music coming from the football stadium. Some people from South Africa were preaching about a 'Jesus Alive'; that there was life and peace in him. Curious, Sadoki went along to listen. What was this life that they were talking about? What did it all mean? The second, third and fourth evenings found Sadoki at the meetings. And when people 'with needs' were invited to be prayed for, Sadoki was right there; he knew keenly his need of help in his life. To his amazement, all desire to drink left him when he was prayed for.

Friends came to tempt him "Come, share a glass with us." "No, I've left off drinking. I'm going to follow Jesus." His wife was watching him. Was this a genuine change? Would it last? She'd had to bear the shame of going to her parents for handouts when her husband had drunk the money. But she wasn't disappointed in what had happened to him. This was Sadoki's 'Siku ya Uhuru' - his Day of Freedom.

So it’s hard for Sadoki to understand why his testimony has no effect on a drinking colleague. Why won’t he heed Sadoki’s warning or follow his example?

While we rejoice that Sadoki, wife and family walk happily into the sunset blessed with liberation from alcohol, unhappily that’s not the total picture. For many people, including Christians, alcohol is a real curse. It turns educated, useful people into unreliable members of a community who can’t be depended upon to arrive for work, handle public money responsibly or be able to care for their families. How does this happen? For some Christians, it begins with entry into the world of politics and the need to socialise. Others find the comfort of the bottle when a wife is sick or dies. How do people find a thirst to be free from the grip of alcohol? That I don't know. I feel as bewildered as the disciples: "Who, then, can be saved?" they asked. Jesus looked straight at them and answered, "This is impossible for human beings, but for God everything is possible." Mat 19:25-26

Blessings,
Bridget

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Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Memory Verses (Brokenness)

Here is the second set of verses that we should have been working on for the meeting on Saturday, 17 March:
  • Psalm 51:17
    “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.”
  • John 12:41-43
    “These things Isaiah said because he saw His glory, and he spoke of Him. Nevertheless many even of the rulers believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they were not confessing Him, for fear that they would be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the approval of men rather than the approval of God.”
  • 1 Peter 5:5-7
    “…All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, for GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE. Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time.”

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Continuous Revival (Brokenness)

The next point is BROKENNESS. A picturesque word, a key word, indeed THE key word, in continuous revival. It is not a word that comes a great deal in Scripture, though more than we think, if we examine a concordance; but it comes enough to show that it is a picturesque, as well as true, way of describing the sinner’s only and constant relationship to his Savior.

  • We first learn that salvation is only possible for lost men through a BROKEN Savior:
    • “This is my body which is BROKEN for you;”
    • “Reproach hath BROKEN my heart.” In Gethsemane He had a broken will, and on Calvary a broken fellowship even with His Father; for the One who is our Substitute and who was made sin for us had to take upon Himself the nature of man, and had to be broken at Calvary in his place.
  • But man also has to be “broken.”
    • He sees his sinful condition before God, as he realizes the coming judgment and wrath, and as he is pointed to the slain Lamb, he has to “break” at the foot of the Cross.
    • The proud, self-justifying, self-reliant, self-seeking self has to come just as a lost, undone sinner, whose only hope is a justifying Savior.
    • David said it, when at the supreme moment of his own total brokenness, in Psalm 51, the Spirit caused him to comment, “The sacrifices of God are a BROKEN spirit, a BROKEN and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.”

Here we come to a crucial point concerning the way of brokenness, as indeed concerning all relationships of the Christian life. It is the most crucial point in this whole way of continuous revival; the point, as we shall see later, that has to be re-learned by modern Christians surrounded by all their respectability. It is this. All Christian relationships are two-way, not one-way. They are horizontal as well as vertical. That is to say, we are a two-way people. We are not just isolated units living in a vertical relationship with an isolated God; we are members of a human family also with whom we live in horizontal relationships, and our obligations are two-way all the time.

  • We cannot, for instance, say that we have become righteous before God through faith in Christ, yet continue unrighteous among men. The Bible says that would be living a lie.
  • Equally we cannot say we love God and hate our brother, for the Bible says, “He that loves not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?” This comes out particularly in 1 John, where the two-way fellowship is mentioned in 1:3, two-way righteousness in the 3:7, and a two-way love in 4:20.
    • 1:3 “…what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.”
    • 3:7 “Little children, make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous.”
    • 4:20 “If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.”

But now this is true of the way of brokenness—that is, of repentance and faith. “The word of faith,” we read in Romans 10:8-10, is a two-way, with the heart towards God and with the mouth before man. Indeed it takes it further and says that to experience in our hearts and lives the full benefit of our faith, we MUST express it both ways, for “with the heart man believes unto righteousness,” that is to say, the heart-believer is accounted righteous before God; but it is “with the mouth” that “confession is made unto salvation,” that is to say, we realize in our experience the joyful fact that we are saved. Confession before man does something in our hearts that heart-faith alone never does.

There are many sincere believers, in churches where they are not taught to witness before men or to expect assurance of salvation, who truly trust in the mercies of God through Christ, yet do not even know for sure in their hearts that they are saved, and have none of the joy of the Lord, because there is no mouth confession. But when we do the much more costly thing of telling men that Christ has become our Savior, something happens in our own hearts. We are saved and know we are saved! Any soul-winner also knows that if a seeker were to say, “Yes, I’ll accept Christ in secret, but don’t let anybody know,” we would say to him, “Brother, that’s not a genuine faith or brokenness. If you really mean business and are really committed as a lost sinner to the mercies of your Savior, the proof is that you are committed before men as well as God. If you don’t confess before men, we may well doubt the genuineness of your faith and the reality of your salvation.”

So saving faith, the attitude of brokenness, is a two-way activity, towards God and man, as are righteousness and love and indeed all the relationships of Christian living. Indeed, we can put it this way. We can liken a man to a house. It has a roof and walls. So also man in his fallen state has a roof on top of his sins between him and God; and he also has walls up, between him and his neighbor. But at salvation, when broken at the Cross, not only does the roof come off through faith in Christ, but the walls fall down flat, and the man’s true condition as a sinner saved by grace is confessed before all men.

But the trouble soon begins again after conversion, and here lies the basic hindrance to continued revival. Continued revival is continued brokenness, but brokenness is two-way, and that means walls kept down as well as roof off. But man’s most deep rooted and subtle sin is the subtle sin of pride: self-esteem and self-respect. Though hardly realizing it, while we are careful to keep the roof off between ourselves and God through repentance and faith, we soon let those walls of respectability creep up again between ourselves and our brethren. We don’t mind our brethren knowing about successes in our Christian living; they can know if we win a soul, if we lead a class, if we get a prayer answered, if we get good things from the Scriptures, because we too get a little reflected credit out of those things. But where we fail, in those many, many areas of our daily lives—that is a different question! If God has to deal with us over our impatience or temper in the home, over dishonesty in our business, over coldness or other sins, by no means do we easily bear testimony to our brethren of God’s faithful and gracious dealings in such areas of failure. Why not? Just because of pride, self-esteem, although we might often more conveniently call it being shy or reserved!

Biblical Examples:
The fact is we love the praise of men as well as of God, and that is exactly what the Scriptures say stops the flow of confession before men (John 12:42-43). But let us note that the key to the reality of the whole of the Scriptures is the openness of the men of the Bible. We know of God’s most intimate dealings with them, their sins and failures every bit as much as their successes. How do we know the details of Abraham’s false step with Hagar, of Jacob’s tricks with Isaac and Esau, of Moses’ private act of disobedience concerning speaking to the rock? Of Elijah’s flight and God’s secret rebuke, of the inner history of Jonah? How did the disciples know the inside story of Jesus’ temptations to record for us? Only because they were all open before their contemporaries. They lived in the light with each other as with God. All through history men have turned in their fears and sorrows and doubts to the Psalms. Why? Because they are the heart experiences of men in fear, and doubt, and guilt, and soul-hunger, describing how they had felt and how God had met them. Why was David’s repentance acceptable to God, and yet Saul’s, for a much less apparently carnal sin of failing to slaughter all the Amalekites, unacceptable? The reason is plain. Both kings, when faced respectively by the accusing finger of the prophets Nathan and Samuel, admitted their guilt before God, and said, “I have sinned”
(1 Samuel 15:24 and 2 Samuel 12:13); but Saul’s repentance was demonstrated to be insincere because he desired that his sin be hidden from the people (1 Samuel 15:30), whereas the proof of David’s utter brokenness was that he told the whole world in Psalm 51 what a sinner he was and that his only hope was in God’s mercy.

Openness before man is the genuine proof of sincerity before God, even as righteousness before man, and love to man are the genuine proofs of righteousness before God, and love to God. Note also that hiding the truth about ourselves before men, pretending to be better than we really are, is the supreme sin which Jesus drove home to the Pharisees, the sin of hypocrisy, and was the direct cause of their crucifying Him. It was not the open harlot or publican, but the religious men who pretended to be holy, and covered their inner condition, who drove Jesus to the cross rather than have the truth about themselves exposed any more. Note also that the first sin judged in the early church was the sin of hiddenness before men, Ananias and Sapphira pretending before their brethren that they were making a bigger surrender than they really were.

And finally note that in every dealing of the believer with God recorded in the Scriptures, every step taken in the walk of faith, the Scripture shows that that transaction of inner faith had to be expressed in the spoken word, the faith had to be confessed before men; it was the clinching act which sealed the faith and committed the believers. See it in the lives of all men of faith from Abraham right through to the apostles; what they had believed in their heart, they declared with the mouth as something God had said to them and which would assuredly come to pass.

So far then we have learned these two lessons: that continuous revival is the simple daily walking with Jesus, and also walking in a brokenness two-way which is expressed in the heart to God and by the mouth before men. We will see later, in practical detail, how this works out more fully in the daily life.

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Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Memory Verses (The Walk)

Here are the first three verses that we were to have been working on before the last meeting. Let's make an effort to get caught up this week!
  • Psalm 86:11
    “Teach me Your way, O LORD; I will walk in Your truth; Unite my heart to fear Your name.”
  • 1 John 1:7
    “But if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.”
  • Galatians 5:16, 22-23
    “…walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh… the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.”

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Sunday, March 11, 2007

Continuous Revival (The Walk)

Now to go into the matter point by point… First of all, we need to have a wholly new emphasis on the WALK of the Christian.

In our evangelical and rightful zeal to bring sinners to the point of the new birth, and to lead the saints on to baptism, to growing in holiness, etc., we have often made too much of the ‘big’ moments of decision and too little of the day-to-day WALK. But the Scriptures leave us in no doubt of their emphasis. In almost every Epistle the Holy Spirit leads us on past the ‘big decisions’ and into the way of being with Christ, that is our WALK with Him.

Scripture proofs of THE WALK:
  1. In Romans we are taught the way of justification and sanctification from Chapter 1 through 7, then in 8 it says, “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who WALK not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”
  2. In Galatians there is the battle of justification by faith as against works, and the Paul says, “This I say then, WALK in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh.” And later, “If we live (have come alive) in the Spirit, let us also WALK in the Spirit.”
  3. In Ephesians he introduces us into our glorious union with the ascended Christ, and then says, “I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye WALK worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called;” and later, “WALK not as other Gentiles walk,” “WALK in love ... WALK as children of light ...WALK circumspectly.”
  4. In Colossians he says, “As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so WALK in Him,”
  5. In Thessalonians he rejoices in the saving power of the gospel in the lives of the young converts, and then says, “As ye have received of us how you ought to WALK and to please God, so ye would abound more and more.”
  6. Finally, to mention only one more, John in his epistle takes us to the very heights when he says we are to “WALK as He walked,” for “as He is, so are we in the world;” indeed John does not even discuss how to be born again or how to abide in Christ, but, taking these for granted, now talks about the walk and life which is the outcome. (See also 2 John and 3 John).

Now to walk is a step-by-step activity. Given the main destination, all that matters is the next step. Christian living is concerned, therefore, just with the implications of the present moment, not with past or future. But we tend to live in the past and thus to avoid the keen edge of the challenge of the immediate moment. Thus, as things arise in our hearts and lives which are not consistent with our Christian testimony, we say, or imply, “Well, I know these things are not right, but anyhow I have been born again, I have been cleansed in His blood, I have received eternal life, Christ lives in me.” Thus I circle around the raw facts of my immediate condition by leaning back on my past decisions. We make too much of the past decisions, but too little of the present walk.

Yes, thank God we are born again, and have received other impartations of grace, but now let us forget those, as it were; let us remember that all we are asked to do is to “WALK WITH JESUS,” and that means simple concentration on things as they are with me just this moment, then the next, then the next, and so on.

There is something else also that much affects our Christian experience when we get confused between looking back to decisions and just living moment by moment. One of Satan’s favorite weapons is false condemnation. He loves to make us look back at our past failures, or into the future at our probably equal failures (so he says), and then puts us into a tail-spin of despair or depression. “Look at your pride, coldness, sensuality, worldliness, fruitlessness. You say you were born again or sanctified, but look at yourself! And if you have been that in the past, believe me, you will be exactly the same in the future!” In other words, Satan likes to talk in long-term generalities, based indeed on an element of truth, but built up into a huge lie; for God does not look on His children in a general sense as proud, cold, fruitless, and so on. He sees them in Christ, being conformed to the image of His Son. The difference between Satan’s condemnations and God’s convictions is that where Satan uses generalities pointing back to the past or forward to the future, God sees past and future in Christ and just deals with the present, and deals specifically. We WALK moment by moment, step by step with Him, the past under the blood, the future in His keeping.

We are in Jesus and He in us. Now then, if our walk it this moment is clouded with the rising up of some motion of sin in us, then God just points to that. “There,” He says, “look at that, just that. Just get that right under the blood and then walk again with Me” So simple, so free from these condemnations from the past (or excuses through leaning back on the past decisions), and from those fears for the future.

So now we have the first point in continuous revival. We “walk with Jesus.” We are concerned only with the step by step life. We live in the present; “Today, today, today,” as it says five times in Hebrews 3. We do not excuse the present by leaning back on
past spiritual decisions, nor do we get under false condemnation or fear through looking back at the past or forward into the future.

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Monday, March 05, 2007

Have you applied?

Passports can take up to eight weeks between application and receipt. Expedited deliveries (about two weeks) may be requested at additional cost. Some post offices (including the new one on at the WSFS Financial Center on Delaware Avenue in Wilmington) are opening up on Sunday, March 11 ONLY for passport services. If you have not applied for your passport yet, you might consider this opportunity to check that off your list. Also, I have received this question in an email and thought I would answer it here for others as well... the countries you are planning to visit include Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, and England.


These are the items needed for a passport application:
  • Provide a completed application for a passport - Postal officials note that offices accepting passport do stock the necessary forms. Passport applications are also found online at the Postal Service site, or the State Department’s web site.

  • Present Proof of U.S. Citizenship - In many cases, applicants fill this requirement by supplying a certified birth certificate with a registrar's raised, embossed, impressed or multicolored seal. Others may need to obtain a consular report of birth abroad or a naturalization certificate. A previous US passport in altered or damaged condition may not be accepted.

  • Present Proof of Identity - You may prove your identity with a photo ID, including a previous U.S. passport, a Naturalization Certificate, a valid Driver's license, a city, state or federal Government ID or Military ID issued to military personnel and their dependents.

  • Supply Two Passport Photos, in compliance with state department requirements. Passport photos will be available on site for $12 on Sunday, February 11.

  • Pay the Applicable Fee. Applicants pay the application processing fee to the "U.S. Department of State" with a check or money order only. For applicants age 16 and over, the application processing fee is $67 and applicants under 16 pay $52. The execution fee is a separate payment of $30 per application to the facility where you apply. The execution fee can be paid with cash, check, money order, debit or credit card.
  • Labels:

    Sunday, March 04, 2007

    Continuous Revival (Introduction)

    At some point, every Christian needs to discover the way of continuous revival—the subject of our Bible lessons for the English Bible Camp we are planning for July 3-7 in Bunia. The idea of continuous revival is based on a statement made by Jesus Himself in John 4:14… “whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”

    Continuous revival is a message from God that simply and thoroughly reaches down to where ordinary folks live, and is found to be the secret of victorious living. What follows is an adaptation of a booklet by Norman P. Grubb, describing his experiences in Central Africa in the middle of the last century, influenced by additional teaching from a sermon delivered at last year's Together for the Gospel conference entitled "Watch Your Life" by C.J. Mahaney.

    First, we need to understand what we mean by “revival.” When we come down to it in simplest form, it means the re-viving of dead areas in our lives—bringing to the light areas in our lives where we have come face to face with sin unobserved before and bringing them to the cleansing blood.

    The transforming truth of that definition of revival shakes us out of the misconception that revival can only come in great soul-shaking outpourings of the Spirit. Thank God for such when they do come; they have been the great and precious hurricanes of the Spirit in the history of the Church. However, as Christians we can fall into defeatism and almost hopelessness by thinking that we can do nothing about revival except pray, often rather unbelievingly, and wait until the heavens tear open and God comes down. It is critical to see that “revival” in its truest sense is an everyday affair right down within the reach of everyday folk to be experienced in our hearts, homes and churches, and in our fields of service.

    When revival does burst forth in greater and more public ways, thank God; but meanwhile we can see to it that we are being ourselves constantly revived persons, which of course also means that others are getting revived in our own circles. By this means God can have channels of revival by the thousands in all the churches of the world!

    What we are attempting to describe this week is not just the passing on of a mere theory, but what has come by seeing continuous revival in action among communities; by experiencing the same working of the Spirit in our own lives; by examining and grasping in some measure the Scriptural basis of this continuous revival, and finally by seeing God move in revival in many others through the presentation of this message and testimony. Our belief in continuous revival should be a matter of seeing it, learning it, experiencing it and transmitting it.

    The truth is that revival is really the Reviver in action, and He came two thousand years ago at Pentecost. Revival, therefore, is not so much a vertical outpouring from heaven, for the Reviver is already here in His temple. The Holy Spirit truly dwells in the bodies of the redeemed. Therefore, revival is more a horizontal out-moving of the Reviver through these temples into the world. It is a horizontal, rather than a vertical movement, and the importance of this fact will be seen later.

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    Thursday, March 01, 2007

    Congo/Russia Coffee House

    We are so excited about the coffee house we’re planning for March 31 as a fundraiser for this summer’s Congo and Russia missions teams, but in order to pull this thing off, we’re definitely going to need all of your involvement.

    So, what can you do to help? First of all, pray. We want to give this night totally over to God and we want it to be all for God’s glory, and we know that He will use it. Pray that His will will be done, that He will bring the people He wants to be there, that all the details will be worked out well, and that all throughout the process our focus will be on Him. Second, talk it up. We’ll be working on different forms of publicity, but ultimately what will bring people is relationships. So tell your friends and anyone else you think would enjoy some sweet music and a cup of coffee (that’s pretty much everyone. . .) and be excited about it! Third, be there yourself. We really want you all to be there. . .and we don’t accept excuses so set aside the date now:). . .and then Lastly, help out with any areas that you’d like to be involved in. . .there’s going to be some decorating, set-up, clean-up, baking, coffee-making, grocery shopping, and display making involved and we need your help! But more to come on this later. . .

    Alright so below is some general info about our ideas for the night—it is all subject to change, and we would love to hear your ideas and suggestions as well.


    Where’s it going to be?
    The Youth Room
    • Set-up: ok, so we’re thinking we’ll really have to clear the room out and then there will be a chill area with all the random rugs and floor cushions, and then an area with tables, and coffee/food tables in the choir room. Two back rooms will be open as well.

    What’s the entertainment going to look like?
    • Music: Some guys from the Red Lion worship team along with some others will be playing a variety of music from hymns to praise music to Christian cover songs . . .and possibly some music from our yg guys?
    • Dan says he’s cool with being mc
    • Team summaries: We would like to have one person from each missions team give a quick three minute-ish summary of what the team plans to do on their trip, so if you would like to be this person, let us know

    Most importantly, what’s the deal for food?
    • COFFEE of course
    • Hopefully Paneras and Einsteins left-overs. Also there will be a sign-up sheet in the foyer this Sunday for ppl in the church to bake stuff
    • We were thinking it would be cool to have some African or Russian food that people can try too
    • Soda, so we can have the cans :)

    How is it a fundraiser?
    • The plan is to charge a $2 admission fee
    • Also, coffee and snacks will be sold

    What about decorations?
    • We would like to make it as African and Russian as we can. . .and we realize these are not very similar looks so we don’t know exactly what it will look like yet. . .
    • Team displays:
      Now, along the wall we’re thinking we’ll do displays about the teams. So, one wall will be Congo team and one will be Russia. . .some ideas we had were a “meet the team” section, trip info, support cards, giant posters of the continents and where exactly we’re going w/ fun facts. . .

    Who’s going to be there?
    • Well, we’re “gearing” the event towards 13-23ish year olds. . . .so that’s who we’re trying to bring in. But, everybody is welcome, and we hope that the whole church body will try to be there.

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