1 Philip James (circa May 2009)

While enjoying the cell meeting yesterday, we opened up the epistle from our beloved friend who recently visited his family in UK, Pastor Philip James, and read aloud his letter. There's simply no better way to summarize what Ps. Philip had to say by just sharing it with you:

What a delight it is to have the privilege of calling you all our Family. We rejoice in the one Father Figure, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the apostle Paul, I can truly say:
"I do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers:"
"That the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of Glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him,"
[EPHESIANS 1:16 - 17]

I do sincerely rejoice in the memory of our time together in March of this year, and how very encouraged we were to see you all so bouyant and blessed in your love for Jesus and for each other. We cannot be more thrilled that God has planted you all in a Church Community that is so intentional in their Pastoral Care and Development for all who have been placed among them. I applaud with great joy the lovely spirit that is so evident in your elders, and among those who lead you. The spirit of humility and reality in God is always a blessing among God's people, and is able to function in genuine Godly authority.
We are looking forward very much to being with you in 2010, having been invited to do so by your elders, and we most certainly will remain prayerful for each one of you, while we are absent from you.

Our time in UK was a mixture of blessing and of grief. There were opportunities to minister among God's people and also to meet with some of their leaders; and God was just so gracious in giving to us favor among them. But nevertheless, UK is a very difficult country spiritually, because on a national level, they have turned their heart away from God. There is a blindness and a deafness among people in that nation, which harbours much anger and rebellion toward authority. There is very little respect for Government, and Royal leadership in that nation, and the schools are breeding ground for hostility and retaliation toward anything that challenges their right to independence. Do pray for the Church in UK, that God will have mercy and once again bring revival to that Land. The Scripture God has given to me as I pray for this nation are: [PSALM 36:1 - 2] [ISAIAH 6:9 - 10]
[JOHN 12:37 - 43] These Scriptures accurately describe the nation that has known several national revivals and visitations of God in the past century. Do please join me in praying for this nation!!

It was lovely to see our family members, and in particular to see our two sons and their wives, who celebrated my 70th birthday, by treatin Jill and I to a 3 Day All Expenses Paid time with them in a 5 star Hotel in the Cotswold Hills Village of Boughton on the Water. They spared absolutely no expense in making sure that we really enjoyed this time, and we drove through many villages, some dating as far back as 12th Century, and we were able to walk through their cobbled streets, go into quaint little shops, inspect their cathedral like churches. Our boys did this for us, because The Cotswold Hills area was where I grew up as a boy before migrating to Australia at the age of 10.

I have posted a consignment of copies of my book "DESIGNED FOR DIVINE DESTINY" to Brother Peter Huang, so that you can each have a copy, and hopefully they will arrive in the next week or so. It is an overview of the way in which God has dealt with me, to produce what I am able to be among you as His servant. The Call of God is not measured simply by our giftedness, there must be evidence of one who bears in their body the marks of the Lord Jesus. I encourage you all to embrace the right God has to shape you for Himself, and to use adversity, persecution, failure and distress as building blocks for our development in Him.

Well, this is the 1st of our epistles to you all, and we will try to write from time to time during the rest of this year. It is always lovely to hear from any one of you, but even better when we see you face to face. Much Love in our Lord Jesus. Ps Philip & Jill