REVIVAL!!  Not a highly spiritual one but a revival of Blogging!  I don't know what happened, but it seems my blog has been dormant for about two years!   What's been happening.  My last trip trip to Congo was in 2010.  Did a road trip from Lubumbashi to Kipushya accompanied by Debbie Howard. The video 'Life with Love' came out of that trip.  Since then Heather and I have been trusting the Lord through 'various trials' (1 Peter. 1:6)  However, we have also been praising him in various periods of joy.   Heather went through a 6 month course of Chemotherapy for Lymphoma.  That was a very difficult time. We committed each day to the Lord. At the end of it all the tests showed no further sign of the condition.  

We are active in the church. New Life Family Church, Margate, and enjoy the sweetly flowing blessing of the Lord. 

Here we have our eldest grandson Jordan and his fiancée, Louise. They are getting married on Oct 5th.  

Now that I have resuscitated our Blog, look out for more stuff.  Particularly the Fellowship Weekly Bulletin Back Page I write from time to time.

KNOWING WHO WE ARE, WHAT WE HAVE, AND WHAT WE CAN DO

 IN CHRIST

Is this important? Yes it is! Paul’s letters to the churches, particularly to the Ephesian and Colossian churches, are packed with teaching about our new spiritual status, and how that status effects our practical living. The revelation of who and what we are ‘in Christ’ has a dramatic effect on our ability to overcome life’s challenges and even disappointments. 

Take, for example, the challenge to ‘forgive’. How many times has the challenge come to us, either through the ministry of the Word, or by that inner knowledge we have that we should and must forgive.  Ephesians 4:31,32 says: ‘Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving one another, even as God, in Christ, forgave you.’  I take that to mean that the same measure of forgiveness I received when I became a Christian, now becomes part of my nature.  My old ‘unforgiving’ nature has been changed for a new ‘’forgiving’ nature.  As Paul said in Galations 2:20 …. ‘It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me…’   

This takes us to the prayer that Jesus prayed, recorded for us in John 17. You need to read from verse 20 to the end. (Do it now!)  Notice v. 23. “..I in them and you in me, that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them as you have loved me.”  Read that slowly, prayerfully and thoughtfully.

 In Christ I am personally loved and accepted by God the Father.  I am not living in ‘rejection’ but in ‘acceptance’.

 In Christ I possess untold spiritual wealth.  That includes the peace of God that is beyond human understanding; and, by the way more than money can buy! I have access to the Father’s resources, though Christ, at any time and anywhere. 

In Christ I share Christ’s victories. Because ‘he lives, I also live’. 

These truths are not way out beyond our reach. They are real. They are effective. They are ours IN CHRIST. Please do read Chapters,1,2,3. 0f Ephesians and mark every reference that tells you who you are, what you have, and what you can do.

Be blessed.  Eddie.