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January 2005
Dear Friends,
By the time you receive this newsletter I will be traveling through 5 nations for Leadership Seminars and cooperative church outreaches. I believe God has asked me to spend extended time ministering to the church in the midst of Islam and prepare them for visitation and harvest.
I am excited about what God is doing to touch this vast people group, most of whom have never had a clear presentation of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
There has never been a day of such hunger and thirst in the Islamic world. This is God's time to meet with these people with a sovereign encounter with the living God.
In addition God has sovereignly opened doors for me to have special appointments with various Arab leaders.
This is time consuming as one must work through their patterns of hospitality. It is a great opportunity to help these men with the many complications and challenges they face in their nations. Some are open to the gospel, but this is difficult in their positions. Wisdom is needed as they respond to the Lord.
It is with great appreciation that I embark on this trip to the Middle East. I am so grateful for all of you, my partners that stand with me financially. I could not go without you.
I feel compelled in spirit to go and spend time to teach and minister while the doors are open. But I need your help.
If you have not committed to support World Outreach for this year please prayerfully consider being a partner in giving.
I have made a covenant with God for special blessing for all the partners of World Outreach this year. Thank you.
To make a donation online, click here.
ORPHANS
I am happy to report some wonderful achievements that have taken place with one of our partner orphanage ministries, Salem Orphanage in Kisumu, Kenya.
Sister Phoebe tells me that God has raised up one of the children with a great anointing to evangelize. The outreaches described below are with the ministry team made up from the orphanage.
Sister Phoebe writes,
"In April the outreach team went to Muhorini for a crusade and leaders seminar where 200 people gave their lives to Christ. Their Church is now full and needs to be expanded.
In May God spoke to us to evangelize our community. Over 1500 people gave their lives to Christ. Out of that 500 people are attending our new church, Salem Church. (This church is now part of the Salem Orphanage ministry).
In June we managed to train 50 new believers who are now standing with us in the church. The majority are young people and women.
In August we had an evangelistic outreach in Homabay and conference. Over 450 people gave their lives to Christ. In all these meetings our young evangelist Rodah from the Orphanage was ministering.
Presently there are 127 children in the Orphanage."
Management of Salem Orphanage
In June Daniel Dondo who is one of the first children to be admitted in Salem took the management of Salem Orphanage. It is really encouraging seeing him handling the home.
Salem Christian School
In July Salem Christian School the 24th highest in test scores out of 196 schools in the Kisumu Municipality. This was after the mid year examination for all Schools in Kisumu. (Note that this school is made up of orphans and street children, not from normal families).
AIDS OUTREACH
In October we were able to train 35 community health workers who are now helping reduce the death rate in our community. Through the program we have 20 HIV/AIDS patients that we are taking care of. This has also helped us in following up the cases of 260 children that we are helping who live in the slums.
NEW RESIDENTIAL BIBLE COLLEGE
Recently we have developed a new residential branch of the Institut Biblique du Congo. It is located in the province of Equateur and the city of Boende. This province was one of the most impacted during the war in this country that saw as many as 5 million people die in 5 years. We are grateful for a school in this region to develop Christian Leadership for rebuilding this part of the country.
The dispensation from the ascension of our Lord to His return is known as Pentecost. Many people have thought of Pentecost only as the advent of the Holy Spirit and empowerment for witness and service. That is the effect of Pentecost more than the meaning. The scripture says that Jesus was glorified and therefore the Holy Spirit was sent. The very nature of God is involved. God's nature itself must be satisfied.
The governing thought of God in creation was that His glory might be expressed and manifested - that what He is in Himself might be displayed in everything that He touches, everything that emanates from Him. 'Satisfied' is a word that you can put at the beginning of all the Beatitudes. "Jesus is glorified because God is satisfied.
The Cross is basic to it all
Matthew 3:13-15
13 Then cometh Jesus... to the Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him.
14 But John would have hindered him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?
15 But Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness.
"To fulfil (to make full) all righteousness." How?
On two sides; the death side in Jordan, and the life side beyond Jordan.
Everything that cannot be glorified must be buried: it has to be put out of God's sight once and for all. But it can only be buried after it has been judged, having been proven worthy of death.
Romans 5:18, 12
18 Therefore, judgment having come unto all men to condemnation….
12 and death having passed unto all men, for that all sinned
The Lord Jesus in His own person in a typical way at the Jordan took the place of the entire sinful race. In a representative way, the judgment was borne by Him and was concluded.
2 Corinthians 5:21
21 Him who knew no sin he made sin on our behalf (in our stead, in our place): that we might become the righteousness of God in him
Satan assaults the faith of the children of God, very often encamping upon some physical or circumstantial trouble, or in other ways assailing to break down absolute assurance of our standing with God. And immediately when the enemy has a foothold he destroys the testimony, paralyzes service and puts the glory out.
One of the major problems was that their hearts were not set upon God's satisfaction, but upon their own. This was the focal point of everything in the wilderness. They were constantly bargaining with God and saying in effect, 'If You will satisfy our desire and give us what we want, we will go on with You. If not, we will not go on.'
In the end God said, 'Enough of this; I brought you out for My satisfaction, for My pleasure, for My glory.' So, because they were bargaining with God, because it was always a matter of their satisfaction rather than His, the glory departed and shame stands written over that generation.
Therefore the Jordan has to be faced, and Jordan says once for all 'It is the Lord; henceforth unto Him.'
2 Corinthians 5:14-15
14 We thus judge, that one died for all,
15 therefore all died; and he died for all, that they that live should no longer live unto themselves, but unto him.
God's Satisfaction to be Appropriated by Faith
Until that issue is settled, there is no possibility of glory. Glory demands that we recognize that in Christ our unrighteous selves were buried, and any possibility of ourselves ever being righteous.
Whatever may be the need of training and discipline and chastening by way of developing what is of God in us and making actual the setting aside of what is of ourselves, we are not atoning for our sins or sinfulness. That was done when one Man gathered us all into Himself and went down under the overwhelming flood of God's wrath. That is the gospel for believers. It is the gospel of the glory of the satisfied God.
God's Satisfaction Expressed at Pentecost
That is one side - Jordan on its death side. It is only on the other side, when Jordan has been passed through, that the heavens are opened and the glory is proclaimed - that is, God's absolute satisfaction is realized, righteousness is made full, and there is glory.
Pentecost- is just the glory of the satisfied God Who has found in Christ Jesus, His own nature satisfied and His own purpose in creating man satisfied. God can say, 'I have secured what I want, and having that, I can reproduce from it.'
The Holy Spirit has come as the Spirit of promise and as an earnest of our inheritance. Many sons are to be brought to glory, and God's inheritance is found in those sons.
Glory is God in full expression. When the Holy Spirit comes as an earnest of our inheritance. The Holy Spirit brings God's satisfaction out of heaven into our hearts. That is the one thing in this universe which Satan cannot tolerate.
Glory in the church
As the result of Pentecost, the Church immediately became the corporate vessel of the glory.
Ephesians 3:21
21 Unto him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus unto all generations for ever and ever.
The glory filled the tabernacle, the glory filled the temple: now it has filled the church. The glory is the satisfaction of God concerning the matter of righteousness.
The nature of this dispensation, then, is a Church which embodies this testimony of Jesus.
Effective Testimony Measured by Glory Apprehended
There has to be an impact upon the enemy that is more than a doctrinal impact. The doctrine may be absolutely sound and true, but Satan is never overpowered in that way. There has to be an embodiment of the doctrine.
A Church that clings to this earth and becomes an earthly thing is a powerless Church. It is only a Church which spiritually occupies its place in the heavenlies that can register any spiritual impact upon this earth.
The measure in which you are emancipated from this earth and this world and are knowing a life in the heavenlies is the measure of your impact, your testimony. A worldly Christian is a powerless Christian; a worldly Church is a Church stripped of power and of glory.
As we go on, the things which are above ought to become more and more our very being, without which we cannot live here on this earth; and in so far as that is true shall we have power against the enemy and in testimony.
One of the greatest needs of our time is the recovery of the greatness of the gospel from its littleness and from its cheapness.
What I mean by cheapness is always offering something for the pleasure and satisfaction of those concerned in order to make them happy. That may be very good, but it is very cheap.
There is something infinitely bigger than that! It reaches right back, before times eternal, in the counsels of God. It is an immense thing - that the universe shall be filled with the glory of God, and that the vessel in which that glory is deposited and through which it is revealed and administered is the Church, "the holy city Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God."
It is to this that we are called. It is "the mystery of the gospel" and yet it is still "the gospel of your salvation."
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