I want Christmas to change my life. I want it to shape my worldview. I want it to affect my deepest longings and desires. I want it to speak authentically to my hurts and heartaches. I want it to tell me about a God who loves so much that he came for me. I want the perfect government by the Prince of Peace that Isaiah describes. I want to see his government spreading all over the world.
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Please keep praying for the last day of the China Conference and my last conference address. It seems that a lot of people have prayed so far and, praise God, I have felt that the preaching has been powerfully used by the Lord. May the Holy Spirit touch and change lives today through the message, and by God's grace may there be some real impact on China of this morning's work.
The title is Sustained in Mission by Joy in God. We are thinking about rejoicing in the benefits of Christ, standing on God's promises, mostly from Philippians 3.
Pray that God would pour out grace and draw near to help such a weak man. May I tremble at his word, in awe of his wonder and goodness.
How can I repay the Lord for all his goodness to me? I will lift up the cup of my salvation and call on the name of the Lord (Ps116:12-13)
Busyness and Mission
the temptation is to organise our lives to accomplish seeing and experiencing as many things as possible. Or to organise it so as to maximise my potential, self-worth or ambitions. I know that temptation. Its a packed world, so many places to see and things to do. Ross' comment is that people who live like this never commit long term large portions of their life to any one thing for fear of missing out on something else. Therefore the cause of world missions is greatly damaged because there are so many places in the world where it is only possible to have an impact for Jesus by long term (sometimes life long) loving and relating well to people.
Read moreGod Can Change Lives in an Instant
Let's never think that we have our lives all taped and planned out. That is faithless thinking. Its the perfect way to step out of the adventure that God might step in and do something immeasurably wonderful and more than we can ask or imagine. Let's be people who, in prayer, are expectant "more than we can ask or imagine" people.
Read moreChina Alight
But I am also excited because it was at a similar missions conference at this conference centre 23 years ago that God used a sermon by Terry Virgo to call me into preaching. I was 18, I attended because friends of mine were going to Nepal and Pakistan with Interserve, and I had zero expectations of God doing anything with me. I went to the second Bible message with no expectations and was met so powerfully by the Lord that I walked out literally weak at the knees. I knew what God would use me to do for teh rest of my life, I just had no idea what that would look like, how to start, who to talk to, or how to advance it in any way. Talk about a weak vessel.
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