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| Food and Fellowship! |
Our open home started tonight with wonderful worship. We have three new people join today Tom, Erin and Chris. We prayed that God's presence would quieten our hearts to allow us to hear his voice.
We dived into Acts 18 versus 1 to 17. Immediately we focused on the fact that Paul together with Aquila and Priscilla made up a good team: He connected people together. God provides Christian companionship when he sends us on apostolic trips. He also uses our skills (tent-making in Paul's case) to open up doors allowing us to make a living whilst providing a way to plant churches. I mentioned the "Tentmaker Missionaries", where the concept of bi-vocation and using creative means gives us access to countries hungry for the gospel, and Chris mentioned he started to read a book on tent-making (hope to read that one day!). We found it amusing that when the Jews did not want to listen (hard of heart) to Paul he simply went to the neighbour, next door to the synagogue, to preach the gospel. He didn't give up but instead turned his attention (after having a go at the Jews) to those who have "ears" to listen.
Jesus says to Paul do not be afraid but go on speaking do not be silent I am with you. As Paul continues teaching the word of God and even when he is attacked God still provides a way for him to get out of trouble to carry preaching the gospel. This is very reassuring for those called by God to go to the nations. In Matthew 28:20 Jesus reassures us that he is with us till the end of the age. He will never leave you or forsake you.
No doubt that we need to sow seeds before a harvest can be reaped and as with Paul, we too much spend ample time nurturing, empowering, encouraging and equipping others so that when the time is right a fruitful harvest can be gathered!
We ended the evening praying for each other and praying for the Impact Conference. We prayed that people who are travelling would be protected and that all those who would be attending the impact conference would have open hearts, hungry to receive God's word. As usual we then proceeded to pig out and eat loads of amazing food.
