A Letter from our Chairman

Dear Friends

We wait expectantly for the Lord.    At any moment, and at this moment, we wait for Him to reveal Himself for our moment.   As we wait we remember the fact that He has always revealed Himself, and we know of a great history of revelation.   Day by day we handle the gifts of all past revelation.   We live in them as we wait.   A good friend, commenting on the experience of an outpouring of God’s Spirit, said, ”Keep up the disciplines”.   They comprise, reading the written Word, meeting the Living Word through feeding on that Word, intimacy in prayer, and service in which we learn to become a living sacrifice.    And while we wait for Him, they are enough. 

The earliest Christians prayed, “Come, Lord Jesus”, and we pray it still.   I want to illustrate what we may mean - though this is by no means the only treatment of it, nor an exhaustive one - by using the way we receive prophetic truth.    Setting aside the prophetic of the moment, let’s consider the very many prophetic passages in the Bible - and to illustrate further what I mean perhaps you could read the familiar passage we’ve heard over Christmas, in Isaiah Chapter 9 verses 2-7.

You’ll see that when a prophet speaks from God, he or she also speaks to different eras in the future.   The prophet speaks far more than can be humanly known and understood as the word comes as a passion and burden from the Holy Spirit.    We can usually discern at least three applications, sometimes more.   The  first and immediate one, the one which meets the prophet’s intense longing, is the answer God gives to the current situation.   The longing of the prayers of His People is answered in a deliverance, a change - salvation.    This can often be both political and miraculous.     We might say that historically God has heard the prayers of the people of Britain from time to time, when we have been in desperate need.   The prophetic voice says in the dark day, “ Trust God , repent and come back to Him”.

Secondly there is the application which looks for the moment in history when Jesus the Messiah arrives on this human scene and fulfils all righteousness.   At the heart of the prophetic is the Person and Work of the Lord Jesus Christ in it’s fullness.   It must become the centre of the world in every age for all those who would know God and His true relationship with us.

Thirdly, when we say, ”Come Lord Jesus” we look to the Second Coming.   I recently heard a noted Bible teacher  say that he rarely hears from Christian teaching and preaching an emphasis on righteousness.   I would add that we seem infrequently to hear the expectant call from the Church  for the second coming of our Lord.   I have argued, as you may have, in the light of Jesus’ own words,  that there is much to do first before He comes, but Christians have always from the earliest days looked for his Appearance.

As we wait  we also say, ”Come Lord Jesus “.   We mean all that prophecy can reveal of the dealing of our God and Father with men and women.   We mean, come and finally establish your reign on that great day.   We mean, come to me, personally, today Lord; meet with me and give me the grace I need to live.   One is in  the future somewhere while the other is “today”.

But we also wait for a revealing of Jesus, in much greater measure in the society and world and Church in which we are living for 2001- and the next few years.  We may call this outpouring, refreshing or revival, or transformation, - may it be all, and more - but we wait expectantly.   We know He will hear and come .    Will I be able to bear His coming?    Will I  be ready?   Will you?

Phil