This Sunday at King's...

The Greeks could be quite insightful! Remember Narcissus, the handsome Greek youth who rejected the advances of Echo? As punishment, he was doomed to fall in love with his own reflection in a pool of water. Because his love for his own shaddow couldn’t be reciprocated, couldn’t deliver, he pined away. How sad. How reflective of our culture where love of self and the protection of ones rights drives much of what we do!

In our study of 1 Corinthins we have reached chapter 9 where we see Paul free to relinquish his rights for the sake of the Gospel. My title is ‘It’s not about ME!’.

Martyn Lloyd-Jones puts it like this: ‘Self is our last & most constant enemy; & it is the most prolific cause of all our unhappiness.’ So now for the good news…!!
See you Sunday,

Goff

The rain in Spain...

Yes, it rained, and quite heavily! Angie & I were visiting Paul & Suzanna Godfrey who moved out to Valencia with their family last December, along with a small team, to plant a church. It’s not a small thing to make this kind of move, especially with young children, and I really commend Paul & Suzanna – they’re stars!

We really enjoyed being with them & their delightful family as we explored together, with Tony Thompson, the beginnings of the church. There’s the possibility of connecting with an existing church there with whom they have been building relationship – more on that later. Meanwhile, if you have a burden for Spain, or maybe you’re studying Spanish, this is the place for you! Email me and I’ll put you in touch! And pray for Paul & Suzanna and the team there as they get acclimatised to living in Spain and work hard at their Spanish….

Goff

God in three persons...

The other day I was handed a copy of the 'The Shack'. You may know that this book by William Young is way up there on Amazon's Best Selling list, just below Rick Warren's 'The Purpose Driven Life'. And it's getting some rave reviews from some sections of the Christian press, even heralded as a modern day Pilgrim's Progress! OK, enough said, I thought I'd take a read.

It’s the allegedly true story of a guy called Mack who was going through life carrying a Great Sadness, the result of a tragic event years before when his young daughter was abducted from a cabin (the shack), and murdered. Some years later, Mack received an anonymous invitation (from God??) to meet at The Shack, an invitation which resulted in a personal, healing encounter with the 'Trinity'. Here's where the account (and Mack insists that it is an account and not a Frank Peretti style prophetic prophecy) gets challenging. God the Father is, and I quote: 'a big black woman with a questionable sense of humour.', called Elousia, Jesus, a young carpenter, and the Holy Spirit, a flighty Asian woman called Saraya.

Oh dear. A number of Scriptures started springing to mind & I felt distinctly uncomfortable reading on. I guess that many would justify the story from the result - Mack's healing. I'm afraid that doesn't satisfy me. As someone who has recently been reflecting on the wonder of the Trinity, this awesomely wonderful Father, Son, Spirit Unity of three Persons, knowing, loving and helping me, I find this caricature very inappropriate.

Instead of launching into an appeal to Scripture, may I recommend that you take a look at the latest Newfrontiers magazine, the theme of which happens to be ‘The Trinity’. It is excellent – and there’s a great One to One with Mark Driscoll as well!
Last word from John Piper:

'People are starving for the greatness of God. But most of them would not give this diagnosis of their troubled lives. The majesty of God is an unknown cure…. They need someone, at least once a week, to lift up his voice and magnify the supremacy of God. They need to behold the whole panorama of his excellencies.’

Now read that magazine!

Goff

God on the move!

We’ve just finished a weekend retreat with the CBD church family celebrating its 1st year anniversary at a holiday place an hour out of Beijing (think of a mini Chinese version of Centre Parcs, add a good dose of imagination, rice & chopsticks, and you’ll come close!).

What an amazing time! It was an absolute delight to be there with this church family, many of whom have now become very dear friends. We had a lot of fun, great worship, and I got to do the teaching sessions on the theme: ‘God on the Move’, from the Book of Acts.

It was so good to witness the zeal and enthusiasm of this new church, and to play a small part in encouraging them in their very strategic mission in the heart of Beijing.

Our thanks to good friends Byron & Karen, Cecil & Candy, Ngee Khoon & Mei Lin for inviting us, and to the whole church family at CBD for receiving us so warmly!

And Kings – see you in a day or two!

Goff & Angie

It's a New Day...

After a few days in Beijing, we have now moved to a village just south of the city to be with Byron & Karen at ‘Newday’. This is a very exciting venture that they have been running here for several years now, involving an orphanage, an English language school for local Chinese, and a factory employing 200 or so locals. As Byron says, there’s a lot of life change goes on here! Outstanding. Check it out on www.newdaycreations.com

Goff