Last night I had the privilege of hearing Bertie Brits preach, about an hour and a half away from my home. I was accompanied by Chetana, the lovely woman I had run into earlier in the week. We had awesome fellowship and conversations the whole way there. I am so glad she could come with me.
When we got to the church we quickly realized that the hosting church was mostly Indian, and Chetana was thrilled as she is also Indian. Just another kindness of God, 'eh. We enjoyed some time singing and then the pastor of the church briefly spoke before he introduced Bertie. This man was in love with Jesus and thrilled to share about Jesus with us. I enjoyed hearing his passion to share that the whole Bible speaks of the one man Jesus!
Then Bertie came up to preach. I had a smile on my face the entire time I think. He spoke the truth and preached the Gospel in all it's purity and with such vigor. It was funny cause he confirmed a lot of what Chetana and I had discussed on our ride up. It just reminded me, we really cannot help but speak of what we have seen and heard. This message truly is GOOD NEWS. It's not too good to be true, it's so good because it is SO TRUE!!! I really truly never tire of hearing of it!!
I jotted down a few things Bertie said that to me were power packed quotes (perfect facebook statuses, hee hee). He talked about how we were so valuable to God. He said; 'The value of something is what you are willing to pay for it. You have such value to God because of what He was willing to pay for you!' I just think that is so powerful and so comforting. He also said, and I have heard Joseph Prince share this too, and I really need to keep being reminded of this; 'If change is not effortless it will never last.' How true is that?!! It's not our efforts EVER, folks. It is always Him iniating through us. I love that - freeing indeed! He also described the flesh, or being in the flesh as the same thing as being under that law. That was important for me to see it that way.
After he spoke he invited people up for prayer. Both Chetana and I went up. When Bertie prayed for me, first he asked me my name. I said, 'Lydia'. He said, 'Oh you're Julie's friend!" Julie had just spoken with Bertie earlier in the day, and told him to look out for me! Bertie had stayed with Aaron and Julie just this past March when he came to minister at their church. He also has contributed to Julie's blog as well. Anyway, I asked him to pray for some health issues I have had for some time. He did, and then he told me to put my hand on my stomach and he prayed for the issues in my stomach, of which I had not told him about. That really meant a lot to me. I have had such troubles with my gut in the past year and half or more. It has been one of my most frustrating issues, but I had forgotten to ask for prayer, since it wasn't currently bothering me. So that really blessed me, it showed me God was looking out for me!!
All in all it was a fabulous evening. So wonderful to be in a fellowship of like minded believers knit together by this glorious Gospel! I hope to get out to hear him again on Sunday, when he will be in Philadelphia! I highly recommend checking out Bertie's teaching!
(sorry about the quality of the photo, we took it from Chetana's cell phone)
5 comments:
:) What you said about effortless change and JP reminded me of this
Ah that's a good one Phileo! I linked it on my facebook page, thanks!!!
One thing in that video, I wonder what you think about. He said that when Paul said he was "the chief of sinners" it was a mature discovery of himself. Not quite sure what he meant there. I've seen that part in 1Tim1v15 as Paul saying that holds "the world record" for sin, and it's a true statement, (not something that every mature person claims), because God wanted to show the nature of his grace with the example of Paul.
What do you think?
Lydia, thanks for sharing how it went. I'm so glad you got to go, hopefully you'll get to go tonight too.
Phil, I think the statement is more of a testimony, like "I used to be the worst sinner but God saved me". In another place (Phil.?) Paul says that by the law's standard he more reason to boast than anyone, he was very righteous (or blameless) according to the law but he counted it all a waste compared to knowing Jesus. Paul's idea of sinfulness was tied up with self righteousness I think...
Jul,thanks. Lydia said something like that,too. I think you're both right. As Lydia said, the phrase isn't a 'woe is me Rom 7 is a healthy believer' phrase. That's just what came to mind a bit when I heard JP saying that the more he discovered himself the stronger that became his assessment. He said it was that he realized it was all Jesus not him. Maybe he meant what you've said..I just favourited five of his videos on my youtube channel. You've prob seen them before anyway, and I can't give the link right now cos I'm restricted to using my phone for internet on Sundays :-( Hope you're well Jul!
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