NEW CREATION

There is no case too hopeless for the Great Physician. The words of II Corinthians 5:17 are still true: “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”

Stand for Righteousness!

As you take a stand for righteousness, here are four weapons for Pulling Down Strongholds

First, is truth, i.e., the revelation of reality, the exposure of things as they are. In Romans 13:12 this is called “the weapon of light.” Turning on the light is a marvelous weapon for helping to dispel the darkness of these areas where entrenched evil is rampant, in our day or any other day. Truth is the first of the weapons.

Second is love is linked with truth. Everywhere in Scripture you find these two great forces linked together, truth and love. Paul writes to the Ephesians and exhorts them to “speak the truth in love” (Ephesians 4:15), and in the second letter of John we read, Grace, mercy and peace will be with us, from God the Father and from Jesus Christ the Father’s Son, in truth and love. (2 John 1:3 RSV)

The third weapon is righteousness, i.e., moral rectitude, right behavior, in line with reality. In Second Corinthians Chapter 6, the Apostle Paul refers to “The weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left,” which means the public life and the private life.

Then fourth of these weapons is faith-prayer, i.e., the life of faith expressed in prayer. In Ephesians 6 the apostle speaks directly of “the shield of faith with which you can quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one,” (Ephesians 6:16). In this passage, faith is linked with prayer, “praying always for all saints” (Ephesians 6:18), in every situation.

Stand for Holiness! Stand For Righteousness

We live in a world where the powers of sin, death and hell revealed in thriving humanistic mindset, corruption everywhere, poverty, witchcraft, immorality and etc.

A follower of Jesus cannot afford to be silent, or reactive to these issues … but is to be proactive and aggressive change agent targeting these stubborn wrongs through the power of prayer and the word of God until gates fall down like the walls of Jericho.

Followers of Jesus know that the gates of hell were not cheap to erect, and demolishing them will require more than prayer. Sacrificial service, people, finances, infrastructure, technology, organization, planning and actions backed by faith in the Lord of Hosts – are all required.

The good-news is that Jesus said, the gates of hell shall not prevail against HIS kingdom. There is a purpose to your gift in the Kingdom. Your purpose must be greater than protecting and growing selfish interests or trying to copy others. There is a Macedonian call. Will you go?

If all the saints do is to sing, dance and gather for some good time, but none are found who can take a stand against corruption, poverty, witchraft and heresy, then all we should expect is peaceful accommodation of the gates of hell, and increased propagation of strange principles inside and outside the church …

Joshua told the children of Israel, choose this day whom you will serve. Do you fear the cost to face the scornful resistance to tearing down the gates or more afraid of not accomplishing what you were created to do?

Followers of Jesus must take a stand and bring down the gates of hell by the power of God – in His time

Those who learn…

Those who learn to give, and give for right reasons, become generous, gracious, godly-minded people.

Hear the Word: 2 Corinthians 8:16-9:15

And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work (2 Corinthians 9:8)

“In that day yo…

“In that day you will ask nothing of me [you will ask me no questions]. Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask anything of the Father, he will give it to you in my name. Hitherto you have asked nothing in my name; ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.” (John 16:23-24 RSV)

Tell the people about Jesus

The hunger for God is universal. We were created by God with a fundamental (but not insuppressible) yearning to be in relationship with God. The longing for the Jesus that transforms lives and culture and ushers in the very reign of God is an expression of this fundamental hunger. To not feed this hunger, to not squarely address this longing, to not passionately tell people about Jesus is the pathway to irrelevance, spiritual atrophy, and decline in missional impact.

Three scriptural imperatives Jesus had for His disciples

1. Cultivate spiritual vitality – Jesus’ Great Commandment (Luke 10:27) to love God and neighbor
2. Reach new people – Jesus’ Great Commission (Matt. 28:19-20) to go and make disciples of all nations tells us to reach new people.
3. Heal a broken world – Jesus’ Great Announcement (Luke 4:18-21) that he came to preach good news to the poor and to liberate the oppressed tells us to heal a broken world.

…Stewardship….

An old hymn, written in 1924 by Katie L. Suffield says, “little is much when God is in it, labor not for wealth or fame. There is a crown and you can win it if you go in Jesus name.” In the gospel we read that Jesus noticed and took delight in a widow who put her last penny in the offering plate. He sings over his people when they passionately give their best to Him.

The passion to reach the next generation is what gives us to keep on believing and working toward realization of a GOD-SIZE vision. The vision at hand can only come to reality if GOD does it for the sake of the lost and the next generation. It has been said, if we are dreaming to complete what we envision, then we are dreaming too small.

God has raised a vision as we commit to sharing the goodnews to all people, especially the lost and the young who are the invisible saints that will form the congregation and community of Victory Fellowship.

Any one with spiritual eyes, can see that there are masses not reached by existing churches and ministries. There are masses looking for places to gather, spending mearger resources on hotels.  Among them are the future generation of leaders, new comers in the city, doctors, nurses, stay-home mums, enterpreneurs and etc.

To this context, GOD is raising a promising and challenging vision. Over the last eight years, we have struggled together with many friends and partners who are all opinionated, and each holding firmly to their beliefs. By the grace of GOD we have worked together and we firmly believe the vision GOD is raising is realistic based on that collaboration to listen to the voice and leading of the GREAT SHEPHERD.

The vision of the future center is build on the foundation of men and women of GOD who met in Dallas some 40 years ago. Desiring to know more about Jesus and make HIS witness visible to the next generation, the incorporated a biblical church believing then that the best hope for Dallas was a bible- believing, gospel-preaching church grounded in the great truths of the Protestant Reformation and commitment to the spreading of the gospel through the lenses of Historic Holiness Movement

Though these visionaries were flawed people they all held evangelical interpretation of Scripture, commitment to live for GOD and turn the city upside down for Jesus. Early 1970, those visionaries purchased about three acres in Pleasant Grove area of East Dallas and began to build a Sanctuary so that they could build strong marriages and  families, and raise their children in the way of the Lord. By 1990s community dynamics had changed and a need to expand their ministry to Hispanic community led to a vision to relocate acreage and thereby provide room for vibrant Spanish and English Ministries.

It was in this context that in 2004 Victory Fellowship was incorporated in the state of Texas with a vision for a simple church where all people would come together to worship God and share the gospel to all nations.

This is a time to vision together, yet it would be foolishness to gather to vision together if we do not hold the common conviction that God is calling us to move beyond our current reality. We will join the vision and imagine what God can do when a great spiritual legacy is passed on to a rapidly-changing world or will join those who would rather find faults with others?

The journey ahead will not happen without significant stewardship development and capital funding. We encourage all friends and prayer partners to appreciate the magnitude of the opportunity and challenge that lies before us in 2013 and beyond if Jesus tarries.