Summer 2020

Hello friends, hope this update finds you well.  

CC York & Bible College

CC York

CC York has resumed limited in-person Sunday services and a few prayer meetings during the week but we are still operating online as well.  We’re not sure when we will be able to resume the full gamut of our other ministries such as coffee morning for the older folks and prison ministry but we will walk through those doors when the Lord opens them.

After being surprised by Covid, we were able to finish the spring semester online and had a wonderful graduation ceremony via Zoom.  The students worked very hard and embraced a difficult situation.  They even continued meeting online for devotions several times a week.  Praise God for their diligence.  

We have decided to move full speed ahead for the fall semester of the Bible College.  We have a number of students planning on coming and barring any unforeseen circumstances are looking forward to seeing the Lord’s hand at work in yet another group of students who have drawn apart for a season to study His Word.  I am planning on teaching the book of Joshua and the Gospel of John.  Please pray for the Lord's good hand to be upon us. 

Evangelism

It’s funny- in conversation I quite frequently tell people that I don’t have the gift of evangelism and that I’m an introvert and such and that I dislike walking up to people for the unsolicited purpose of initiating a conversation about Jesus and salvation.  I’m just being honest.  But the Lord has a way of regularly bringing people to me just as I'm out and about and they initiate a conversation and then I steer it toward the things of the Lord.  Not long ago I was walking down by the river in York and a group of young people (3 girls and 2 guys) asked me what my favorite football team was so in jest I said the Philadelphia Eagles (the correct response would have been more along the lines of Liverpool or Manchester United) but it was all in good fun.  My South Jersey accent always gives me away so that was their next question and after chatting for a few minutes I asked them if they had ever heard the gospel before and would they be willing to listen. 

River Ouse in York

They said yes and put down their cigarettes and I shared the message of the gospel with them and then a bit of my own testimony and they were very polite and allowed me to pray for them when I was finished.  It was one of those encounters that had the Lord’s fingerprints all over it and I could feel His Spirit at work.  I didn’t extract a commitment from them but they allowed me to pray for them and they heard the clear message of the Gospel and I encouraged them to search the Scriptures and to seek after the Lord.  

Then again a few weeks ago I was walking by the seashore in Scarborough on the Yorkshire coast and I had a similar experience sharing the gospel with an older man named Patrick.  There’s a beautiful choreography of heaven as we’re led by the Spirit.  The Lord has a way of using the things in our lives that we perceive to be deficiencies for His glory: “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us” (2 Cor. 4:7).  To be a servant of Christ is one of the greatest blessings in all the world.  Jesus said that "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work" (John 4:34).  As we walk by faith, we get to step in and take part in the work that He is doing in the world. 

The Harbor in Scarborough

God knows how to diffuse light

I've recently been reading in Job and chapter 38 provides an awesome account of God answering Job out of the whirlwind.  The answering is really a series of rhetorical questions that the Lord asks Job.  He asks the following question:

 “By what way is light diffused, Or the east wind scattered over the earth?” (Job 38:24) 

I was thinking about this and one thing is clear, that God is able to diffuse light and also to withhold it.  The physical phenomenon of light and the incredibly complex process by which the human eye perceives it are remarkable; even more so is the idea of spiritual illumination that physical light is representative of.  As our Lord Jesus was being crucified, light was withheld over the earth from the sixth hour until the ninth hour (Matt. 27:45) in a divine demonstration of the gravity of what was happening as human sin was being atoned for.  As the Israelites were on the verge of deliverance from bondage, the ninth plague caused a situation where the Egyptians were stymied by the darkness but the Israelites had light in their dwellings (Exod. 10:21-23).  God is able to give light to His people and at the same time withhold it from those who oppose Him.  "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it" (John 1:5).  We are living in some pretty dark times if we look on the externals but from God's perspective there's quite a different thing going on.  Jesus said, "I am the light of the world.  He who follows me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life" (John 8:12).  The world doesn't see it, but we see it.  We have light in our dwellings.  These are truly exciting days as we behold the face of Jesus and walk in His light.  Praise God for the Rock of our salvation!  Maranatha, come Lord Jesus!

Thoughts from York

Hello friends, hope you are well and that you're experiencing the joy of the Lord in the midst of the current situation.  Much has been written from a spiritual perspective concerning the Covid-19 pandemic so in giving an update from York I didn't really feel a pressing need to add to the many articles and social media posts that are already out there.  But there is a word the Lord has spoken to my heart during these days of quarantine:  Don't try to live in any season other than the one you're in at present; the next one will roll around soon enough.  God in His wisdom has caused the whole world to slow down.  All the ministries were in full stride at CC York & Bible College just as they were in many other places around the world and in a matter of a few weeks it all went silent with the exception of ramped up online ministries.

York Minster

York is normally bustling with tourists this time of year; instead the bells of empty churches echo down empty streets.  It's very peaceful.  The Spirit is burning deep and it's a beautiful thing.  It's very quiet at the Bible College.  The students have all returned home to their various respective countries but we are continuing the semester online.  I've been teaching through the Book of Acts and the Gospel of Mark and those classes are now available here on YouTube for anyone.

I've been reflecting on the idea that the church is not the apparatus.  The church is a living spiritual kingdom that cannot die.  We its members are living stones being built up into a spiritual house that cannot be destroyed (1 Pet. 2:5).  It is in this temple that we worship the Father in Spirit and in truth (John 4:24).  It seems quite likely that we will resume meeting in buildings in the near future and that will be a great blessing when it happens, but if for some reason that were not to happen, the church will not have lost her identity because her true identity is in Christ, not in infrastructure.  Over the last 2,000 years the church has been underground and above ground, meeting everywhere from catacombs to cathedrals in different seasons and places.  Her identity has always been the same, regardless of the apparatus particular to any given season.  Jesus said that He would build His church and that the gates of hell would not prevail against it (Matt. 16:18).  He is building His church and I for one will be eternally grateful that He has included me in His doings.  I believe the Lord is doing good things during these days.  Job in the midst of his suffering speaks of a tree that has been cut down and all that remains is the stump in the ground, apparently dead.  Everything above has been lopped off, similar to our present situation.  This is what Job says of that tree:

For there is hope for a tree,
If it is cut down, that it will sprout again,
And that its tender shoots will not cease.
Though its root may grow old in the earth,
And its stump may die in the ground,
Yet at the scent of water it will bud
And bring forth branches like a plant (Job 14:7-9).

This is an exciting season where God is doing something new, and there will be new things on the other side of this.  More than just the scent, we have living water of the Spirit (John 7:38) and our root is the Root of Jesse, Jesus Christ (Isaiah 11:10).  Surely we will see His hand in the coming days and one day soon we shall see Him face to face!  Amen.