August 2010 Newsletter

Welcome to COGIC UK’s  first online newsletter!  It is hoped that this medium will bring news of what is happening in COGIC both locally and nationally.  Please let us know what you think by adding your comments below.

GENERAL CONVOCATION

COGIC will be hosting their annual General Convocation from the 27 th- 30th August 2010. The topic of the convention will be;  ’A Fruitful Life or the Pruning Knife’.  The convention will kick off on the Friday evening with a youth night, which promises to be an opportunity for young people to meet and worship together. There will be dynamic speakers, anointed praise and worship and uplifting music from the convention choir. Dinner will be served on Sunday and Monday at a small cost.  This is the annual gathering of COGIC UK and is not to be missed!

EXTRAVAGANT PRAISE

On the evening of Sunday 20th June, COGIC Headquarters in Luton came alive to the first of three unique evenings of ‘Extravagant Praise’ led by Esther Blake and the Luton assembly praise team. The congregation were encouraged to join in the singing of an eclectic mix of old and new worship songs as well as some well loved hymns. As the evening progressed there was a real spirit of free worship and many members of the congregation were dancing in the aisles!

The second evening took place on Sunday 8th August and once again the praise team and congregation lifted their voices in true praise.  During the evening, invited guest vocalist, Hildia Campbell gave a powerful rendition of “Endow Me”.  Her stirring vocals and passionate delivery were perfectly suited to this prayer for the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. There was also an opportunity given for members of the congregation to “replace” the praise team during the singing of Andre Crouch’s “I Will Bless the Lord”. This offer was enthusiastically taken up by several eager participants!

I asked Esther how the idea for these events came about. She said;

‘I love worshipping with other believers and wanted to create an atmosphere to do so without the necessary time constraints imposed by a formal service. God deserves so much more than we can offer within a 30-45 minute time frame’.

The final evening will be on 26 September begining at 6.00pm. Admission is free so you don’t want to miss this opportunity to come along and be free to worship in spirit and in truth. For further details, please contact the COGIC centre on 01582 877070 or email office@cogic.co.uk.

AS IRON SHARPENS IRON, SO ONE MAN SHARPENS ANOTHER - PROVERBS 27:17

The purpose of the Men’s Fellowship is to empower men through the Word of God and the leading of the Holy Spirit, to understand their roles in the church, family and society.

Men from varying backgrounds and ethnic origin, 14 years upwards, gather to discuss matters pertaining to family life, church life and society with the Word of God as our guide. It is our hope that we will be better followers of Christ working to build His Kingdom; better husbands and fathers and be an influence in our societies.

Why not come and join us at our next meeting for an inspiring evening! We meet every second and fourth Friday of each month at the COGIC centre.

COME AND BE BLESSED! Bro Ed King

SERMON NOTES

What Is Jesus Doing Now? Hebrews 2:16-18

Jesus shared the same creative power and the same divinity as God and the Holy Spirit, before He was born. Micah 5:2shows us that God foretold the coming of Jesus through the prophets. In John 1:1, John confirms that in the beginning, Jesus was the word.  He was God and was with God. Darwin’s theory of evolution can only begin after the creation.  John talks about Jesus before the beginning.

Jews at the time of Jesus believed that disability or tribulation was caused by sin.  But Jesus dispelled this notion. The work Jesus is engaged in now is dealing with what happened then and what is happening now.

What Happened Then

Jesus paid the full price.  He laid down His life as the only acceptable sacrifice.  He opened up the way to heaven.  We owed a dept we couldn’t pay, but Jesus paid the dept He didn’t owe.  He had never sinned, but He was made sin for the world.

1st Timothy 2:5 tells us that Jesus is the only mediator between us and God.  Those who should know better in society often behave in a way that provokes God. The work of the mediator is to go between to find a settlement for the quarrel.  There is a quarrel between man and God because of our attitude and our disobedience since the sin of Adam.

In order for God to deal with man, we first had Aaron’s line for the priesthood.  Men could not go to God themselves;they had to go through the priest.  The priest would go out on a daily basis and make a sacrifice for the people in the outer-court. The inner-court was where the presence of God was all the time.  The high priest could enter it only once a year, after first making a sacrifice for his own sin.  No one else could enter the inner-court. Hebrews 9:6-8 reminds us that the way into the holiest place was not yet given unto the people. This was not open until Jesus died on the cross.

What is Happening Now?

Jesus is at the right hand of God talking to God about us.  We are sometimes conscious that yesterday we may have behaved in a way that was not pleasing to God.  But Jesus, the mediator, has entered into the most holiest place and is working as the most holiest high priest.  He is our go-between, so matter what we did yesterday, Jesus will plead with God to forgive us.

The enemy will bring past deeds to our mind. But today, because of Jesus, we can approach God with boldness.  We must just have faith.  We can come before the presence of God.  Jesus is at work now, working for our salvation. If we accept Him and believe Him, our life will never be the same.

Right now, Jesus is talking to God about you!

(Excerpt from a sermon by Bishop A. Blake DD)