As I read the Old Testament, I see that there were lots of different occasions where the people were encouraged to establish ways of REMEMBERING the good things that God had done for them. They had all kinds of memorials and special celebrations to remind themselves and their children of God's faithfulness. Here in Alhaurin, we've set time aside this weekend to celebrate the third anniversary of the church we planted in the town - to be able to enjoy friendship and celebrate God's goodness together.
Last night, at a special worship service, our invited speaker led us in opening our Bibles and looking at five characteristics of a church that's living in revival. We had to smile when we saw that these five characteristics all began with P - amazingly both in English and Spanish. Considering the early church in the book of Acts, we saw that they had:
- a great (presencia) presence of God
- a great (propósito) purpose from God
- great (predicación) preaching the word of God
- great (poder) power of God at work in their midst
- and great (personas) people of God, who served Him and each other sacrificially.
Those were the characteristics of the gathered church. At our Sunday service, we'll be considering the characteristics of personal revival in the life of an individual.
This afternoon, however, we celebrated in a different way - by having a barbecue together at Villa Rehoboth. It was a beautiful sunny day - almost like summer, with a top temperature of around 26 degrees. Quite a crowd turned up for the barbecue (when I was loading the dishwashers later, I think I counted more than ninety plates! In fact, once everyone had had their main course, salads and deserts, I think we filled both dishwashers three or four times.) Both young and old had a wonderful time: the older folks enjoyed sitting around the pool chatting, and the children enjoyed riding Florentino, the charming six-year old donkey that one of the church families brought with them for the day.
