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March 30, 2015
Dear fellow Christ-followers,
Hosanna to the Son of David!
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!
Hosanna in the highest heaven! (Matthew 21:9 NIV)
Holy week begins with a scene of fellowship, a shared encounter with the Messiah as folks laid their cloaks together on the road before Him. The throngs who cried out, "Hosanna!" must have received courage and faith one from another as they were drawn together by this mysterious incarnate treasure, riding on a donkey. We are members of this same, essential relationality - we need the fellowship of believers to truly enter the mystery and glory of our crucified King. It nourishes us to look with the eyes of our hearts and see "all them that love His appearing" (2 Tim 4:8). Following Christ is an embodied journey, and we need to know that there is an "us," an "all!" Through our MPC community, hidden and weak by the world's standards, we have 3000 brothers and sisters around the globe today who deeply love our Lord's appearing. When we enter the kingdom of God, we are no longer alone - praise be unto Him! May God grant us real glimpses of the glorious communion of the saints. We join with them this week as we remember each moment of Christ's journey to the Cross, through the grave, and into eternal resurrection life.
See how in all closets, and in all temples;
in all cities and in all fields;
in all nations and in all generations,
they are lifting up their hands and eyes unto His cross;
and delight in all their adorations.
(Thomas Traherne, Centuries of Meditations, p. 21-22)
Yours in Christ,
Sarah
We pray you'll be blessed by this testimony of how the Lord works when we gather to receive from Him:
Wow. I knew this week would provide a model for doing ministry in a more incarnational way, but of course it's been so much more. Thanks to all of you for the hours and hours put into teaching us, leading us in worship (thank you sound people!) and praying with us. It was a blessing to receive prayer in the same way we often offer it to others. The ministry times were an incredible blessing, and I could feel the presence of God. I'm leaving with a resolve to let God quiet my soul and speak to me, rather than frenetically rush into the day. I also gained some needed insight for ministering to the gay community, learning to love them. I trust I'm leaving more healed than when I came. Thank you for investing yourselves with abandon!
From a 2011 Wheaton MPCS attendee
We encourage you to visit our blog to receive encouragement from the love offerings your brothers and sisters have shared about God's work in their lives through Leanne.
We also encourage you to pray about attending one of our U.S. schools this year, and to share invitations with others:
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| | Edman Chapel, Wheaton College |
Wheaton, July 5-10
Standard registration rates through May 14
Late registration closes June 15
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Canby Grove Christian Center
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Portland, September 13-18
Early registration rates through April 14
Standard registration rates April 15 - May 31
Late registration closes July 1
From Leanne's Archives:
Holy Week, 2006
DEAR FRIENDS,
To have the privilege of greeting you once again is precious indeed. As I write, it is Holy Week, and my heart is full to bursting with the message of our crucified and risen Lord and with thanksgiving for our great, unspeakable inheritance in Him. The Paschal message proclaims the victory of the holy over the unholy, the noble over the ignoble, and of a Kingdom whose King reigns in righteousness and enables us to do the same.
For our sake he (God the Father) made him (God the Son) to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Working together with him, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. (2 Cor. 5:21-6:1 ESV)
"You shall be holy, for I am holy." (1 Pet. 1:16 ESV)
Since I attended the Palm Sunday Eucharist, tears of joy, when not falling, are close to the surface. That is because in the Eucharistic liturgy, as we celebrated Jesus's triumphal entry into Jerusalem, I had such a heightened sense of the throng's cries of "Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord," and personal memories came flooding in of the myriad ways our King comes to us, never ceasing to purify, hallow, and strengthen us for the battles we face. Today, for all of us who dearly love the real and the splendor of the truth that streams from it, these battles are increasing and loom ever larger. But in them we find that most faithfully, our King always causes us, in Him, not only to overcome but to be fruitful as through us he invites multitudes of lost and wandering souls to enter His Kingdom and find His healing.
It is no small thing to be wed to Him, to be a church in anticipation of the wedding feast of the Lamb! You may want to ponder Zechariah 14:1-9 and Revelation 19:6-16, and then go back to verses 8 and 14 of Revelation 19 for what it means, as individual members of the bride of Christ, to wear white raiment at that feast and then, in that glistening raiment, to accompany the King of Kings as He returns at the end of time. It is no small thing to be fruit-bearers in the Kingdom. Who of us blood-bought ones can, in the midst of a Palm Sunday Eucharist, meditate on such Scriptures and not be overcome with tears of joy?
In the King of Kings,
Leanne Payne
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