Newssheet 28 May 2006
The newssheet for 28 May 2006 (PDF) has now been posted online for viewing and/or printing. It is also available on the newssheet page, which contains the past newssheets.
This week’s newssheet contains the following message from Pastor Paul:
Pentecost Sunday is June 4 this year – next week, in other words. Relative to Christmas and Easter, Pentecost is a little known occasion in the Church calendar (by outsiders, that is), yet, for us, it remains the most challenging of our annual celebrations. It is the Church’s birthday. Without it, we wouldn’t be coming to worship Jesus this Sunday, or indeed any other Sunday. Christmas and Holy Week relate solely to the accomplishment of God the Father in Christ Jesus – He came, He died, He rose again. His work, however, was not completed, even then. He had to return to heaven (Ascension Day – May 25 this year, 10 days before Pentecost), and then, with the Father, He had to send the Holy Spirit to empower the waiting disciples. This was ‘the promise of the Father’. Next week, I will speak on the empowering ministry of the Holy Spirit, and we will give Him room to move. Has He moved in your life recently, in mine? Remember the adage of some of the pioneer Pentecostals – one baptism, many fillings. We cannot be filled too often! A book I read a year or two ago on Cell Church said this: ‘The Church of the twenty-first century desperately needs Jesus to develop leaders with first-century power’. This is not just pastors, it’s anyone with a heart to radically follow the Saviour. You qualify! Join me in praying for a move of God the Holy Spirit, not just next Sunday, but every time we meet. This is why I said that Pentecost is the most challenging of our celebrations. Jesus has completed His work. Will we complete ours? It depends on our openness to receive all that God has for us in these exciting days of the latter rains!