Combine Churches Merdeka Prayer Gathering 2007

Dear GROW Family members

Please take note that there will be no prayer meeting this Wednesday at GROW as we will be attending the Combine Churches prayer meeting at Kulim. Details as follows:

Re: Combine Churches Merdeka Prayer Gathering 2007

Greetings in the matchless Name of Jesus!

On behalf of the Kulim Pastors' Fellowship, we would like to invite you and your church family for a gathering of Christians in conjunction with our 50^th Merdeka Day 2007 (see attached for details).

Date: Wednesday, 29^th August 2007

Time: 8.00 pm

Venue: FGA Centre Kulim

This will purely be a night of prayer, thanksgiving and celebration . As we all know, our nation stands at a very pivotal point in history and how we as Christians respond is going to determine not just our destiny but the destiny of the generations to come. How will they see us and what will they say about us? Were we a people who were so busy building our own kingdom or were we a people who humbled ourselves and prayed and sought the face of our dear Father?

We urge you and encourage you to stand with the whole Body of Christ at this juncture. Let us pray, let us join hands, let us celebrate and see the heavens open and God pour a mighty rain of the Holy Spirit upon our beloved Malaysia!

God bless you and see you there.

Blessed 50^th Merdeka Day!

For His Kingdom,

Ps. Abel Phillips

On behalf of the Kulim Pastors' Fellowship

Re-Cap Sunday (August 26th, 2007)

"How do I get a passion for Jesus?"
Ps. Abel Phillips

Answer: Found in Deuteronomy 6:4-5...to love our God with all of our being. Here is some guidance in how to bring that about from Scripture:

1) Get to know God and what He has done for you. Before the command to love God is given in Deuteronomy 6:5, the statement is made, “Hear O Israel, The LORD our God is one LORD.” One aspect of this statement is that He is unique, and the better we get to know what He is like, the easier it will be for us to love Him with our whole being. This also involves getting to know what He has done for us; again, before the first command is given in Exodus 20:3, God states what He had done for Israel in bringing them out of slavery in Egypt. Likewise, in Romans 12:1-2, the command to offer our lives as living sacrifices is prefaced with the word, “therefore”...a word meant to remind us of all of the mercies of God toward us recorded in the previous chapters.

To grow in love with God, one needs to get to know Him. He has revealed himself in nature (Romans 1) but so much more so through His Word. You need to make daily Bible study a perpetual habit.... Read the Bible as a letter from Him, asking His Holy Spirit to speak to your heart about what He wants you to glean from it that day. Memorize important verses and passages. Think of ways to apply what you learn (Joshua 1:8).

2) Follow Jesus’ example of praying constantly and consistently. When you examine the life of Jesus as well as Daniel and others who had a passion for God, you find that prayer was a vital ingredient in their relationships with God (even a quick reading of the gospels and the Book of Daniel reveals this). As with Bible study, prayer (sincere and open communication with God) is also essential. Prayer is part of the armor against our greatest enemies (Ephesians 6:18). We may have a desire to love God, but we will fail in our walk without this ingredient (Matthew 26:41).

3) Walk closely with Him NOW. Daniel and his three friends chose to obey God and refused to compromise in even the food they ate (Daniel 1). In order to ensure that we will be passionate for God later, we need to walk with Him now and begin to obey Him in the smaller tests! Peter learned this the hard way by following God “at a distance” rather than identifying himself more closely with Christ before his temptation to deny Him (Luke 22:54.). God says that where a man’s treasure is, there his heart will be also. As we invest our life in God through serving Him and being on the receiving end of persecution for Him, our treasure will increasingly lie with Him...and so will our heart (2 Timothy 3:12; Matthew 6:21, 1 Jn 1:5-10, Ps 24:4-6).

4) Eliminate the competition. Jesus said it is impossible to have two masters (Matthew 6:24). We are tempted to love the world (those things which please our eyes, make us feel good about ourselves, and gratify our fleshly desires) (1 John 2:15-17). James says that to seek to embrace the world and its friendship is enmity (hatred) toward God and spiritual adultery (James 4:4). We need to get rid of those things in our lives (friends who would lead us the wrong way, things that take up our time and energy and keep us from the serving God more fully, pursuit of popularity, pursuit of possessions, and the pursuit of physical and emotional wants). God promises that if we pursue after Him, He will not only provide for our needs (Matthew 6:33) but will give us our desires as well (Psalm 37:4-5).

5) If straying, begin to do what helped you grow in love with God in the first place. It is not uncommon to have dips in a relationship. Peter dipped in his (Luke 22:54.). David dipped in his (2 Samuel 11), but they got up and pursued after God once again. John, in Revelation 2:4, states it is not a case of “losing” one’s love but “leaving” one’s love. The cure is to do the “first works,” those things that caused one to grow in love with God in the first place.

May God bless you in your pursuit of a passion for Him and may He glorify His name through you.

Sunday Re-cap 12th August 2007

The True Worshipper
Ps. Abednego / Indonesia

Solomon was a great worshipper and had abundance of the anointing of God. God was pleased with him because he did not ask for riches or wealth but for wisdom to rule the people. (1 Kings 3:7 -30). God made him great and he enjoyed many blessings. But Solomon didn’t continue in the anointing because he put his wives before him instead of God.

2 Chronicles 7:14-18- Solomon was special in God’s eyes and God established his throne upon the generations of Solomon to reign as kings. Solomon begun by walking upright but his walk was not consistent.

1 King 11:1-6 He took many wives. He chose to love his wives more and his heart was not full of God and he disobeyed God.

God wants to raise a new generation who is different from other generations but Solomon failed. God’s plan never failed and no one can stop the plans and visions of God.

Joel 2:1-2 – The present day generation that God wants to raise. This generation will be strong and the last generation that comes out of the present day of darkness.
We cannot be Christians who are only bench warmers but we have to be like a “live fish”- going against the currents (being on guard and walking according the will of God).

Ps. 100:3 – A strong army who love the word of God

Solomon had this opportunity but he failed. Now God wants to pour out His vision upon our lives – the last generation who will be victorious. Not like the Israelites in the wilderness but our journey is from the wilderness to the Promised land, Canaan. Prepare yourself to enter with God’s power and wisdom. The church will show the blessings of God to the world.

Rev 6:5-6 & Ps.37:17-19 – Days of great famine but those covered with the blood of Jesus will not be affected but they shall be satisfied.

We have to understand these are the end times and not miss out on God’s outpouring for there will never be a generation like ours.
So let’s open up our hearts to the will and vision of God and be a true worshipper.

The gospel for everybody

The gospel for everybody
by John Fischer

Heaven is going to be full of little brown birds.

That's according to Bill who wrote me after last week's Catches about sparrows: "I am avid about backyard birds and have spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to feed the cardinals and blue jays, without attracting all the house finches and sparrows. One day I realized that I am one of the little brown birds in God’s human flock and that changed my attitude. I now thoroughly enjoy feeding all of the birds that show up in my yard."

This is a great metaphor for what we so often get wrong about the gospel. We say the gospel is for everybody, but we don't necessarily mean it. We like to associate with pretty people, upwardly mobile people -- attractive types who give a good face on what we believe. We also like to associate with people who are like us -- people of the same race, same economic status, same political beliefs, who send their kids to the same schools. We gravitate towards sameness and find comfort in the familiar.

But the gospel of Jesus Christ is big and wide and messy. It is for everyone, even people we don't like. It is for those on both sides of the tracks -- those we admire and those we would rather not associate with.

Most of all it is for sinners like us, and that's what we all have in common.

Remember the parable Jesus told about the kingdom of heaven being like a rich man who threw a wedding banquet, but the invited guests all had excuses why they couldn't come? So the master said to his servants, "The wedding feast is ready, and the guests I invited aren’t worthy of the honor. Now go out to the street corners and invite everyone you see." (Matthew 22:8-9)

Everyone you see? There is no discrimination here. That's a pretty daring and dangerous proposition. No telling what kind of vermin such an open-ended invitation might turn up! And I'm sure it has done so, because, lo and behold, it turned up me.

The spreading of the gospel and the growing of the church is very much like Bill's experience with his backyard birds. Put the message out and welcome all who come to feed.

Let's Worship HIM!

Sunday Re Cap (5th August 2007)

Breaking the Power of The Past IV
by Ps Samuel Hari

Key Scriptures:
Exo 20:3-6 ; Mar 3:33-35

Jesus gave us a pattern of breaking away from our old genealogy and connecting ourselves to the new!

Mar 12:30-31 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this [is] the first commandment. (31) And the second [is] like, [namely] this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.

1Jn 3:18 Little children, let us not love [merely] in theory or in speech but in deed and in truth (in practice and in sincerity). Amp

1Jn 3:18 Dear children, let us stop just saying we love each other; let us really show it by our actions. 19 It is by our actions that we know we are living in the truth, so we will be confident when we stand before the Lord,NLT

Now that we understand that one of the key ways we break the power of the past is to identify with our new family, what do we do to maintain and strengthen these covenant bonds? Obviously, we are a new family and it doesn’t happen automatically.

What are the key elements?

1. Fellowship 1 John 1:7

2. Endeavoring

• Eph 4:3 (Make every effort, always keep yourselves). Bearing with one another in love. Love covers a multitude of sins.
• 1Pe 4:8 Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins.
• 1 Pet 4:8 Most important of all, continue to show deep love for each other, for love covers a multitude of sins. 9 Cheerfully share your home with those who need a meal or a place to stay. 10 God has given gifts to each of you from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Manage them well so that God's generosity can flow through you.
  

3. Stir up the gifts, provoke the love.

• Heb 10:24 Think of ways to encourage one another to outbursts of love and good deeds.
  

4. Do forsake the gathering together.

• Heb 10:25 And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage and warn each other, especially now that the day of his coming back again is drawing near.
  

5. Esteeming one another. Phil 2:3