7 April 2007
Did you feel the mountains tremble?
Posted by Rob under: Uncategorized .
Another week’s gone by and I’ve finally found time to post a few words. My main excuse is that I’ve been busy, busy, busy…..with work! The large job that I was given the day we got back from the UK is so big that it has meant working flat out all work, and this will be the case for most of this week too. Not that I’m complaining! My deadline for this job is is first thing Friday morning, so I’ll finish it on Thursday evening and plan to have Friday off.
Joyanne and I have earmarked Friday for the exciting, thrilling task of…..wait for it…..going to the dentist’s! This may seem like a fairly routine and unimportant thing, but I’m somewhat ashamed to say that this will be the first time any of us have been since we moved here over 16 months ago. The main reason for this is that financially, paying for dental checkups has not been anywhere near the top of the priority list. To be honest, it still isn’t, but we at least have some health insurance cover now, and wisdom means not waiting any longer. So the plan is for Joyanne and I to go on Friday, and then once we know how things work and we know the dentist we’ve chosen is decent, we’ll make another appointment for the kids.
I mentioned in my last post that I was going to an inter-church youth meeting at a church in Le Havre last Saturday evening. Well, I went - and it was quite an evening.
This was the third in what has now become an ongoing series of twice-yearly events at which young people (and some not so young - which I suppose includes me) come together from evangelical churches in and around Le Havre (mainly Assemblies of God, apostolic and baptist churches). The name of the events is “Coram Deo” - Latin for “before the face of God” - what a great name for an event that is mainly about worship and intercession. And that really is all that it’s about. The evening was divided into two main worship times - the first just pure worship, and the second what you might call “intercessory worship” - worship on a theme of praying for the nation. These two main times were interspersed with two brief messages of ten or fifteen minutes each, one or two songs that were performed, and a drama set to music.
Now I’m the first to admit that I can be somewhat skeptical about large-scale events where people can be “hyped up” - especially in France, where it’s often easy to create a superficial emotional reaction which has no real depth. But as the evening went on, I had an increasing feeling of excitement in my spirit, and a sense of what I can only describe as real significance - a sense that business with eternal consequences was being done in the spiritual realm, and that principalities and powers who have held the city and region under their sway for centuries were deeply disturbed and beginning to tremble.
What sets this event apart for me is three things. Firstly, it’s about unity: this can be a rare and powerful thing in any place, but is especially so here. This is almost certainly the most significant inter-church event to have happened in Le Havre for decades. (Let’s not forget that Psalm 133 tells us that where there is unity, God commands blessing.) Secondly, it’s not a one-off, flash-in-the-pan event - it’s the ongoing expression and outworking of an increasing desire in young people to see God break out and send His rain on a dry and thirsty land. And that’s the third key: young people. I don’t have scripture to quote on this, but I believe God’s spirit is excited beyond measure when young people begin to get a glimpse of something bigger and start to pursue it with passion. And this whole thing was dreamed up and put together by young people - it was no-one else’s idea.
The other thing that’s growing in me, and that I was very conscious of last Saturday, is that there is a spiritual heritage in our city that I believe both God and His spiritual enemies are still aware of. In the 1930’s, Le Havre is where the pentecostal movement began in France (to a large extent through ministries coming here from the UK). I believe there is something significant about this that I can’t quite put my finger on - but of course the more people are determined to see that heritage reborn, the more strongly the spiritual strongholds over the city and the area will resist. But we know that the one who has the ultimate victory is on our side!
That’s all for now - time to watch a bit of golf! (We’ve made a bit of a tradition of watching at least some of the US Masters each year). It merely remains to say - Happy Easter!
One Comment so far...
gg Says:
10 April 2007 at 10:02 am.
JOYEUSE PAQUE
