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Messages from Jerusalem
Rev. Mike Moffitt
June 15–24, 2018

Day One

Dear Light of Christ family,

Greetings in the name of the Lord from Jerusalem! I decided that I will send daily updates of what is happening at Gafcon 2018. Yesterday I attended church at Christ Church Jerusalem, an Anglican church located inside the old city. It was a wonderful worship time and the place was packed with Gafcon delegates. I encourage you to Google Christ Church Jerusalem and look at all the pictures of the beautiful architecture. Today was day one of Gafcon and it was a very powerful beginning to what promises to be a life changing experience for everyone there.

The theme for Gafcon 3 is "Proclaiming Christ Faithfully to the nations". The Lord showed up in our worship this morning and it was almost overwhelming for me. The Nigerian choir brought us to the throne of grace in music and the liturgy and word came alive. The morning session brought an exhortation from The Most Rev. Nicholas D. Okoh, Bishop of Abuja and the chairman of Gafcon. He spoke to us of the need for boldness that only the Holy Spirit can bring. If Christ is to be proclaimed faithfully to all nations, we also need to faithfully contend for the faith within the church, especially in the West where liberalism has so infected the church. Most of today's teaching focused on the need of faithful Christians to focus all of their prayer, energy and resources on the proclamation of the Gospel. He reminded us that the gospel is Jesus Christ crucified, resurrected, ascended and now ruling and reigning in righteousness. Later plenary sessions focused on the need to not water down the gospel but to faithfully preach and teach it. We were exhorted to preach on sin and repentance because for too long people have considered themselves Christians but knew nothing about submitting to the Lordship of Christ. We were reminded that this is serious as it is a matter of eternal life or eternal death. We heard countless testi (sic)

In Christ's Love,

Mike

Day Two

Greetings LOC family,

Day 2 of Gafcon started out with a Eucharist service at 6 am. Then after breakfast we went to the conference center for the morning. We heard from The Rev. Richard Coekin, Diocese of Southwark, Church of England and The Rt. Rev. Dr. Michael Nazir-Ali, also with the Church of England and Wycliffe Hall, Oxford. I found their teaching very encouraging as they have walked away from Canterbury and preached on the centrality of the cross and the need to preach about the judgment of God on those who have not been willing to turn to Christ. I loved one of his quotes, "Jesus came down to become like us and to receive what we deserved so that we could be received by the Father in the way that Jesus deserved." Dr. Nazir-Ali spoke on preaching the true gospel that came from the apostolic witness. If we are to engage the culture for Jesus Christ, we must be prepared to preach the truth of God's word knowing that the teaching of the church must never contradict Scripture. One of the themes that is being taught on is that we must be faithful in lovingly,yet boldly speaking out when people make false claims about issues of human sexuality and the sanctity of life. We are free to reveal the message of Christ in ways that our culture can understand (ie; music and vernacular) but Christ must always be seen in truth that is never compromised. "We can dispense with systems but not biblical principles".

This afternoon I chose to go on a tour of the City of David. We went to the temple and went down where they are excavating the original wall that was torn down by the King of Babylon and the Chaldeans during the reign of King Zedekiah. You can read about this in 2 Kings 25.This was almost 3700 years ago. The wall that surrounds the Old city is not the original but was built around 500 years ago. You may also remember the story from 2 Samuel 5: 6- 9 where King David was able to conquer the city of Jerusalem by entering through the water shaft that provided the water to the city. Later King Hezekiah further developed the water system feeding Jerusalem and when Assyria sought to conquer Jerusalem Hezekiah had a fortress built surrounding the cistern so the same thing that David had done could not be repeated on Israel. You can read about that in 2 Chronicles 32. The system is called Hezekiah's tunnel and we were able to walk through it today. It's goes down very deep and they are still excavating.

Please continue to pray for the conference. I think we are here to further declare to the liberal world and the apostate liberal church that Jesus Christ is the only way to the truth, to life and to the Father (John 14:6) and only through the name of Jesus can salvation be found (Acts 4:12). These are things that we already know and believe but Gafcon is a reminder that if we believe these things then the time has come to pull out all the stops and live for the proclamation of that message. We must be prepared to live and die for the glory of Christ and the transformation of the lost. Nothing is more important. I have met several people this week from Nigeria who experience serious persecution frequently but stay the course because it matters more than anything else. I love and miss you all.

Blessings!

Mike

Day Three

Dear LOC family!

Greetings from Jerusalem!

We have just completed day three of GAFCON. So far this week we have discussed what the Bible teaches us about God's Gospel and God's Church. Today we discussed the how the implications of the gospel and our role as the church informs how we are to live in God's world. Our first speaker was The Rt. Rev. Dr. Hector Zavala, Bishop of the Diocese of Chile, Province of South America. He spoke from our gospel passage Luke 24:50-24:12. He commented on the women going to the grave and hearing from the angel that Jesus had risen. Their response was to run back to the disciples with a new message of hope. The resurrection defeated death, sin and Satan and that is something to get excited about. Our mission challenge is to ask God to change our hearts and our focus so that we live as those who have been impacted by the resurrection. He pointed out that the church can easily become distracted and discouraged but this is how Satan (who has been defeated and knows it) seeks to make us dull and ineffective. We must testify to the power of the resurrection in our own lives. He pointed out that he can tell the heart of a church by looking at it's budget. Mission means sacrifice. Go where God leads, he will provide. He asked the serious question: "Are we men/ women of God or the church?"

The next session was lead by Rev. Canon Dr. Kendal Harmon, Diocese of South Carolina and The Rev.Tico Rice- Diocese of London, (who many of you will remember from our Sunday School DVD, "Christianity Explored. Their topic was "Preaching Hell in Evangelism" He pointed out that we often are afraid to talk to people about the reality of judgment and Hell because they don't usually want to hear it. What that implies is that we care more about what they think of us than what God will think of them on the day of judgment. Love demands that we warn them of the result of rejecting God. Hell will be awful.

Our afternoon session dealt with how liberalism has corrupted our culture and our churches and what we should do about it.

It was a very powerful day with a lot of amazing worship. Keep the persecuted church in your prayers. Northern Nigeria has suffered a great deal of suffering at the hands of Boca Harem. Especially remember Leah, a 15 year old girl who was captured and enslaved. She has steadfastly refused to deny her faith in Jesus and covert to Islam. She is suffering greatly for it. Pray for her rescue and the salvation of her captors. Blessings!

In Christ Love,

Mike

Day Four

Greetings LOC family.

We just completed day 4 of Gafcon and I didn't get back to the hotel until 7:45 pm. on Thursday. I was a very long day, starting at 7:30.

As you know each day we have considered the Bible's teaching how we are to "Proclaim Christ faithfully to the nations." Previously, we have considered teaching on God's gospel, God's church and God's world. Today we discussed God's strategy. We began with The Rev. Michael Raiter, of the Diocese of Melbourne who unpacked for us Luke 24:13-35. Of course this is the story of the "Road to Emmaus". He broke it up into 4 sections and really opened up this section for us in a way that I have never considered. I will share it in it's entirety some time. Then the Rev. David Short of the Anglican Network in Canada spoke to us on "God's Strategy as part of his sovereign glory". He shared the basic formula that God has always used for bringing people to salvation: 1. Through His sovereign plan made before the foundations of the earth 2. Through the gospel of Jesus Christ proclaimed 3. Through His rightly ordered church 4. When done faithfully by God's people, lives are transformed. We must return to this with faithfulness.

We then worked most of the rest of the day on the Declaration from Gafcon Jerusalem- 2018. It is a powerful document that removes all doubt as to where we uncompromisingly stand for the authority of God's Word and for the Historical doctrines of the Anglican Church. I can't share that with you until it is completed and agreed upon. I will say that I have never been more moved and encouraged as I stood with 2000 of my brothers and sisters in Christ as we professed and proclaimed that we will live for the glory of Jesus Christ and His Kingdom. The declaration is a statement to the liberal church and unbelieving world that Jesus Christ is Lord of all and we will both live and die for his glory. I look forward to sharing with you it's contents.

We finished the day by having a group photo on the original steps of the temple in Jerusalem. These were the steps that Jesus walked on and were by the pools where Peter most likely baptized 3000 people on the day of Pentecost. It was a very emotional and powerful moment.

Blessings!

Mike

Day Five

Dear LOC family,

Greetings from Jerusalem! We just completed day 5 of Gafcon and it was as powerful as the rest but more emotional as we were saying goodbye for now. This was the sending out of those who had learned of God's Gospel, God's Church, God's World and God's Strategy. Today it was time to re-commit ourselves to faithfulness to God and to ask for the Holy Spirit's anointing power to send us out as those who now more clearly understood the mission set before us.

We began this morning with a praise and worship team from Sydney, Australia and they were wonderful. We missed the vibrancy of the Nigerian choir but though different in style the Aussie's were anointed. Our speaker was The Rt. Rev. Rennis Ponniah of the Diocese of Singapore as we came to the final passage in Luke's gospel, Luke 24:36-53. The teaching was broken down into three categories:

1. The indisputable truth of Christ's resurrection (vs 36-46)- Jesus came to his disciples in bodily form and even ate a piece of fish with them. It meant the new creation had begun (Jesus is the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep- 1 Corinthians 15:20) and the victory of God for all time had come in the middle if human history instead of the end. It was the fulfillment of Scripture as God announced beforehand through the prophets and the examples of Abraham and Moses. He did it so that when it happened we might know that it was true. The OT and NT speak with one voice as the culmination of God's plan.

2. The Indispensable gift of the Holy Spirit (47-49)- Repentance of sin and forgiveness must be preached to the nations but the disciples were to wait for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit because they would need it to accomplish the task before them.

3. The Irrepressible joy of Christ' Ascension (vs. 50-53- Jesus ascends to glory and takes the journey on our behalf. "I go to prepare a place for you, that you may be where I am. (John 14:3). The physical enters the eternal- the fallen world and new creation are conjoined by the bridge that Jesus built. He reigns as exalted Lord. He pointed out that this doesn't just have implications for the church but for the cosmos.
*This is a very powerful talk! I encourage you to go to www.youtube.com and type in Gafcon-2018. All of this weeks talks are available for viewing.

We then reviewed the Letter to the Churches that we reviewed and discussed yesterday. It is powerful and I encourage you to go to www.gafcon.org and click on "The Letter to the churches" This letter sums up the mission of Gafcon to the world and the response to Canterbury's failure to be faithful to God and his word. I have never been more proud to be a part of something than this.

We closed with a Eucharist Service and the Holy Spirit was so strong there. Thank you for making a way for me to attend. I look forward to sharing with you further when I return. I will be flying back tomorrow and will arrive late tomorrow night. I won't be at church on Sunday because I am already exhausted. When you add in jet lag I think I'll rest and be back in the office on Tuesday. Blessings dear ones.

In Christ love.

Mike