the lesson of God's sovereignty and the lesson of the cross (1 picture + 1 experience with the Lord today)

And... I'm back to blogging at midnight ;) I mean, I finally found some time to do some blogging on the personal blog :) We had a school year 7-13 conference last weekend in Bower House, and praise the Lord - so many young ones attended, enjoyed the Word of God, enjoyed the activities, the food, the group time, the morning revival, the fellowship.... At the end of the conference we had the whole church in London meeting at Bower House, ending with some baptisms! Praise the Lord, Christ is Victor! He has won the victory - He defeated Satan, and He gained some young ones for His purpose! So many crossed the Red Sea to be one with the Lord!

1 Picture today - The British Library, the Entrance at Night

By now you already know that I don't post the most amazing pictures of London but the ones I take from time to time while walking about or visiting or going to some meetings with the saints... Here's a picture of the highlighted entrance of the British Library, located right between King's Cross and Euston Station. There's much to say about this place - the best way to know it is to pay a visit yourself! I went in once and there are some special exhibitions sometimes, there are collections, lots of manuscripts and other old books inside, including the old texts of the Bible, etc. Pretty cool stuff, especially if you're interested in books, reading, old manuscripts, the history, etc.

1 Experience with the Lord - the lesson of God's sovereignty and the lesson of the cross

This is just an addition and a continuation of the article I labored on in the morning - the details of Christ’s sufferings for us before He died: He was hated, reproached, mocked, betrayed. In the message for this week there's a short speaking concerning the lessons that David learned before and even after he became king. There were two specific lessons - the lesson of God's sovereignty and the lesson of the cross. First of all, when David was a young boy of 13 years old, Samuel the prophet came and anointed him as king over Israel - that was something amazing and dangerous at the same time. Amazing: wow, David, the youngest of his dad's sons, will be the king over the whole of Israel! Dangerous: there was a king over Israel already, and so when David was anointed as king, Saul (the current king) wanted to kill him!

David's story fascinated and puzzled me when I read it as a young man - if I were David and God told me + anointed me through His prophet to be king, I would "go and claim my throne!" But David waited for the Lord's time. Saul, the current king, ruled for a long time before David became king. Even more: Saul persecuted and chased David, seeking to take his life! Even though for a while Saul had David around him, made him a captain over some troops, and David was very successful for Saul, eventually Saul hunted for David all over Israel to kill him. Wow, if I would be David and the king would chase me around, I would have probably doubted God's word OR worse: I would have probably acted based on God's word and claim the throne + do what's necessary to get it!

But not David: he learned the lesson of God's sovereignty. He knew God is sovereign over everything, and He does things in His time. God's time is not our time necessarily, and He may not fulfill His promise and vision right now, when we want it. BUT He is Sovereign! If we settle this in our being, we will be at peace. All things in our environment, all the ones in our family, all the saints in the church life, the large or small number of saints around us, the people we study with or work with, the people we meet, etc - everything is sovereignly arranged by God for our good, for our perfecting, for our transformation, for God's purpose!

If we don't see and acknowledge God's sovereignty in our lives and in everything, we will struggle, we will fight to obtain what we want to / we think we should have, we will even doubt God's word and His promise... Sufferings especially and the not-so-pleasant-things that happen to us or come our way - in all these things we need to see that God is sovereign. If we see God's sovereignty, we will say AMEN to Him, and we will have hope, peace, and rest in Him

The second lesson we need to learn is the lesson of the cross. God allots us our own cross - and this is NOT the sufferings which results from our stupidity, our mistakes, or our exposure to unnecessary risk. No, there's a portion of sufferings, there's our own cross, which is allotted to us - and we need to take up our own cross with the power of resurrection. Whenever things happen, whenever suffering is here, we can exercise our spirit to bear the cross - the real application of the cross is in our spirit. It's not something outward, and it's not something "inflicted on us by others" - it's in our spirit, applied by The Spirit.

I am not there yet - as someone said, if you are fully perfected, God would rapture you... - but we are all learning these two lessons. We are learning the lesson of God's sovereignty and the lesson of the cross. 

What about you - Do you have an experience of the sovereignty of God in your life or your situation? Did God show You that even in your messy and intermixed / complicated situation, He is sovereign? Would you like to share something of YOUR experience? [please do, as a comment to this article]

ITERO in Holland, here we come! (1 picture + 1 experience with the Lord) 30-days challenge

Wow, it is such a privilege that it is in Europe that the ITERO is hosted this time! The International Training for Elders and Responsible Ones is now on the continental Europe! The last time this feast in the Lord's recovery came to Europe was in 2003, and it was in Heckfield Place, close to Reading. But now it's in Baarloo, Holland! And somehow it looks like I'll be attending it, together with many hundreds of brothers in the UK and from Europe! I don't think I'm "an elder or a responsible one", but I want to be part of the generation who is learning by practicing...

1 Picture for Today - Glimpse of the Holloway Road Shopping Centre

Sorry to speak a lot about Holloway Rd, but that's where I kind of live and walk about... Anyways, after I went to get some shopping done for the trip to Holland I thought I should take a picture of the exit of the shopping centre... No matter how many people are flooding the place during the day, there's a time at night when NO ONE is there, and the place looks desolate. It's impossible to go shopping 24/7 - because man was not made for shopping, but man was made for God! Anyways... :) here's how the exit of the shopping centre, at the entrance of the Morrisons, looks like at night... [in case you didn't notice, the picture is a pretext or an excuse to promote and talk about the real thing, the following experience with the Lord!]

1 Experience with the Lord today - ITERO in Holland, here we come!

First of all, I thought that ITERO starts on Thursday evening, so I was mentally prepared that we would travel to Holland on Thursday morning - and I told everyone in our home meeting and at work - that I will still be working and be in town on Wednesday.... when I found out that we are actually travelling to Holland on Wednesday morning, so I can't go to work or meet with the saints for dinner on Wednesday! Boy, oh, boy.... we had to rush things, explain things, apologise to the right persons, make sure people know where things are and what needs to be done, etc... - somehow, after hours of work and sweat and coordination, it worked out! :) I need to be more "responsible" and more informed next time...

Second of all, I consider it such a privilege that the Lord allows us, the young adult brothers, to attend the ITERO and learn, together with the more experienced brothers, to serve together and coordinate together. We don't have much experience, and we are definitely not mature in our human life or spiritual life, but we want to learn just as Joshua learned by being around Moses and observing. There's so much to learn, so much to pray over, so much to experience and to fail, and so much to allow the Lord to do the work He wants to do in us! We are not qualified, and the more we are involved in practical things in the church life or in speaking for the Lord, the more we realise that "we're not the man for the job". We really need to be replaced by Christ practically, and we need to learn to coordinate together and fellowship more together...

Third of all, why am I still up at midnight writing something on the blog when I have packing to do, shirts and trousers to iron, some rest to get, and all kinds of other little things to take care of? Well, this is the question I ask myself again and again - why do I have to write here on the blog? I want to find out YOUR feeling / opinion concerning this blog, whether it is HELPFUL or whether it is TOO MUCH... - or, what do you think? Now that I'm on my way to ITERO in Holland, there may very well be 4-5 days until I find time and internet access to write on the blog - so I would really like to find out your opinion about it. Take a look at the previous articles, the previous pictures, etc - and drop me a comment here....

I don't want it to sound like this is very important - but YOUR COMMENTS may be decisive when it comes to whether I should continue doing this, writing this, in this format and on this blog. I receive a lot of likes and comments via Facebook or twitter, but I would encourage you to drop me a line below....

[I'll come back with more AFTER the ITERO, most likely, but until then I want to have YOUR comments, opinions, feelings, and suggestions. Thank you - I appreciate your feedback]