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Prayer and Fasting Weekend 2013

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“Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.”

– Matthew 4:4

Every year we have our Prayer and Fasting weekend, where we pray around the clock from a Friday evening, through a Saturday and breaking the fast that Sunday morning at each respective site’s Sunday morning meeting. This year, our Prayer and Fasting Weekend is taking place from 15 – 17 February.

Here’s how the weekend will work:

  • Praying will start on Friday 15 February at a large corporate worship gathering at the Bedfordview site.
  • Prayer sessions will be take place every hour – led by elders and deacons – after the corporate gathering until the next large corporate gathering on the following day (Saturday) at Bedfordview.
  • That large corporate session will take place at 6pm.
  • Prayer will continue in hourly sessions until the 9am morning meeting’s at each respective site.

Why do we fast?

Fasting can be misunderstood to be a mystical or religious practice. Now while it’s true that in a time of fasting you may find yourself experiencing God in a unique way (or you may not), this does not mean the point of the fast is to have a mystical experience.

  • Because eating is something we, as humans, need to do, by fasting we are demonstrating our need for God and His words and His instruction. This is part of Jesus’ meaning in Matthew 4:4 – “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.”
  • We demonstrate how we rely on God to answer prayer and not any system of our own or this world’s.
  • Fasting is a tool that we use to train ourselves to seek God first and rely on Him above all. This is not a diet – it’s a time to seek God’s face.
  • When you fast, you devote the time you would usually use for eating to prayer. Every time you get hungry, you’re reminded about what it is you’re praying about and how you rely on God more than even bread. You can use those hunger-pains as moments of prayer to God.
  • Our corporate fasting times such as this Prayer and Fasting weekend are typically used to receive direction from God as a church. Use the time to hear what God is saying to us and share any prophetic words you receive with the church and the leaders.

Here are a couple of tips for fasting:

  1. We generally fast from all kinds of food (liquid-only fast) but you don’t have to do this if for any reason you can’t.
  2. If you can’t, you can fast anything else that seems appropriate to you – preferably something that you find you rely on every day or something important to you. Think about fasting TV or music or coffee or chocolate, for example. Yes, the last one is especially difficult!
  3. Liquidised steaks, thick soups, double thick milkshakes and the like are generally not considered ‘liquid-only’. If you have to chew, you’re probably eating! But you’re free to make up your own mind about such things and let God guide you.
  4. If you’re going to do a liquid-only fast, start eating smaller portions than you usually would a few days ahead to help get your body ready.
  5. Whenever you get hungry, use those hunger-pains as a reminder to pray. Offer up some prayer in response. Come through to a session at Bedfordview and join your prayers with the rest of us.
  6. The purpose of the weekend is not to be a hero or to lay guilt on anyone. Use discretion! If you’re feeling very ill, nibble on something light.
  7. After you break the fast, don’t go overboard! Have a light meal and keep it light for a while to get your body back into how it usually functions.
  8. Fast several times in a year so you can grow in this. John Wesley, one of history’s great evangelists, used to fast twice a week. He clearly used fasting very effectively!

Scriptures on fasting

  • In Matthew 4 we see Jesus fasted for forty days and nights in the desert.
  • Acts 14:23 says, “And when they had ordained them elders in every church, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, on whom they believed.” They fasted together, committing the newly appointed elders to the Lord.
  • Acts 13:2 – “As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.” As you can see, it was out of a time of corporate prayer and fasting that God told the church to send Paul and Barnabas out to fulfil their Apostolic ministry.

Want more? Here’s 105 verses on fasting.

Other resources

You might enjoy John Piper’s book, A Hunger for God, which you can download here for free.

Updated Bible School Venues

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Wednesday Night Life Bedfordview

It’s Wednesday Night Life at Bedfordview tonight – 6pm: Prayer, a meal and Bible Study. Here are the venues for the Bible studies:

DNA – The Lounge
Love Joburg: Follow up – Reception
Love Joburg: Training – Reception
Christology – Balcony
2 Timothy – The House – Front Room
Training: AV – Admin Block – Upstairs
Training: Sound – Toddlers Room (only tonight)
Training: Coffee – Fresh Ground Coffee Shop
Leadership – Downstairs Office
Children’s Ministry Training (From 6 Feb) Pebbles Classroom
Finance Course (From 6 Feb) – Toddlers Room
Paradigm Shift (From 13 Feb) – Pebbles – Upstairs

Ukwakha Isizwe December Newsletter

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#YOLO

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UPDATE: We’ll be having a #YOLO WRAP PARTY at UPTOWN on Friday, 1 March at 7pm – just to hang out after the series is finished.

From 3 February to 24 February, #YOLO will be happening every Sunday night at Bedfordview, kicking off at 6pm.

#YOLO is going to be about five things:

#CHILL
Hang out with mates over some coffee at the Fresh Ground Coffee Shop.

#ANTHEM
The first night – 3 Feb – will ask the question, Whose song are you singing?

#HUMAN
We’ll be covering the question, Who do you think you are? on 10 Feb

#QUEST
What story will you tell? That will be the question for 17 Feb.

#RELATIONSHIPS
Who do you love? The last night – 24 Feb.

The series is aimed mainly at 20-somethings. Pull through, it’s going to be fantastic!

““““““

The Exchange: Hidden Treasures

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Hidden Treasures

New series for The Exchange

The Exchange for 2013 kicks off next Friday (1 February) and will begin with a new series calledHidden Treasures.

During this time we will come to understand why God allows for us to be led into difficult times and how we can discover the “hidden treasures” that are only found in the dark.

We will learn how we can discover the meaning behind our difficulty, how to respond in faith, how to adjust our attitudes and how to see that grace is always enough.

Our first focus will be on finding confidence in confusion and will be presented by Casper Versluis.
The Exchange

Friday, 1 February
At Cornerstone Church Bedfordview
6:00am: Coffee
6:30am: Prompt Start
Followed by a delicious breakfast

Cornerstone Church YOLO Series

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Our YOLO series is running for 4 weeks from the beginning of February.

Key Women for 2013

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Key Women is moving to a new time slot – 8:30am on the first Tuesday of every month at Bedfordview. It will now only take place in the morning (no more afternoon slot) to create more space for the ladies to get to know each other.

Key Women is also launching at South Side. It will be taking place on the first Saturday of every second month in a home in the afternoon (3pm). There is also an additional theme of “chocolate” which sounds tempting!

The theme for Key Women 2013 is Exploring the Fruit of the Spirit: Living Beyond Yourself. As Col Meeske explains, the theme is about developing a deeper relationship with the Holy Spirit and then living out his character in our every day lives, impacting the world beyond ourselves.

“Women need to see just how key they are in God’s mission to the world. Every woman has a part to play and has a purpose for their lives. We are key in unlocking the presence of Jesus into the environments we find ourselves in – no matter where we are,” she says.

The Bedfordview meetings will now take place at the Fresh Ground coffee shop.

“All are welcome – regardless of age or culture. As per Titus 2, older women can teach the younger women how to love their husbands and their families, while the younger women can teach the older women how to be less conservative and to risk a bit more,” Col says.

Mums & Munchkins will also be joining Key Women on the first Tuesday for every month, to facilitate the ladies all getting to know each other better.

The last year has seen some great fruit at Key Women and 2013 promises to be even better.

Key Women
When: First Tuesday of each month or first Saturday of every second month
Where: Cornerstone Church Bedfordview (Tuesdays) or Cornerstone Church South Side (Saturdays)
Time: 8:30am at Bedfordview; 3pm at South Side

Taking Bibles to Sudan

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by Ryan Peter

Hennie Keyter is heading off to Sudan in March (11 March – 16 April) – a six week trip that promises to open up a whole new aspect of the Kingdom to those who go along. In short, this is the kind of trip where you’ll see God work in truly miraculous ways. It’s also the kind of trip where you might really die for the Gospel. Here, persecution really means persecution – not just a bad word thrown out in your general direction.

I sat down with Hennie over a cup of Fresh Ground coffee, looking to probe his heart and mind on why, and how, he does what he does. Very soon he gets very serious and, in his rather customary way, begins to relate some of his experiences.

“You don’t come to Sudan to do a bit of ministry and stay afterwards for a holiday,” he says. “You can’t come on this trip with a bunch of romantic ideals in your head. If you think the Dakar Rally is hard, think again.”

Already I feel as if I’m nowhere near tough enough for this sort of thing. In earnest I ask Hennie what someone like me can do about that.

“If you don’t feel tough enough, you’re probably not,” he says. “You’ve got to come if God calls you to this. You don’t come because you feel guilty. If God calls you, then you must come.”

Something about that appeals to me as a man – the roughness of it. The stark reality. The fact that I would be walking in the footsteps of the Apostles from the Scriptures. This is living out what Jesus taught in Luke 9, to “Take nothing for the journey—no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, no extra shirt.” You just go because you must. Because people are dying without God.

Sixteen days of solid travel, coupled with the knowledge that the base from which Hennie is working from is often ransacked, the fact that your life will probably be in danger, and that you’re going to spend every day in scorching heat in a malaria infested zone. Welcome to Sudan.

Hennie has been working into the country for twelve years. When he first arrived in one area in Sudan he had no idea of the difficulties he would encounter. He discovered that the only form of the Gospel the area had received was from a man called Archibald (possibly Archibald Shaw). That was about 100 years ago in the early 1900’s. No one else had come since then.

“They were offering a white bull to make atonement for their sin,” Hennie says, relating how the form of the Gospel they received had become so distorted. “When we brought them the whole Gospel we made a huge impact. So much so that many Church leaders in Sudan heard of it. And they wanted to kill us.”

And this from Church leaders, of all. It really sounds like something straight out of the Bible. Hearing that, I realise just how few of us really go. It took 100 years for someone to go to the same area! Surely this is the kind of work God greatly rewards. Those that go live up to the scripture of not loving their lives even unto death (Rev 12:11).

Sudan

Because of the price on Hennie’s head, the President got involved to protect him and his team. This meant that for several years Hennie would go with the military wherever he went with the Gospel. It’s how NCMI got registered in Sudan (and other churches, who had a price on Hennie’s head, got de-registered).

With the change of government in Sudan, Hennie no longer travels with the military. He now has relationships with various pastors in the area who he works with.

“If the world is not your parish then your parish will become the world,” says Hennie. “David Bosch said ‘there is a Church because there is a mission’. The Great Commission is why we’re here.”

As with most of Hennie’s trips into Sudan, this trip will mainly be about getting Bibles to the communities he works with. Last year, 30,000 Bibles were brought in by Hennie and his team. He will be taking two vehicles into the country, which has come at a cost (the diesel alone is in the hundreds of thousands) – and the printing of the Bibles also has a cost.

“But God has provided for the needs of this trip and will continue to provide,” he says. “When you make the decision to go, that’s when you see Him provide.”

Feel called to go?

I ask Hennie what we must do if we want to go along with him.

“First, make sure God is calling you to it. Then make sure your passport is sorted. The day after they get saved, a Christian should sort out their passport,” he says.

It’s also a malaria zone, of course, and Hennie says he and his team will sort all that out for you. There is also a cost which will be decided upon relative to the cost of the trip.

For more details contact the church office at 011-616-4073 or email info@www.cornerstonechurch.co.za. You can also chat to any of the elders who will put you in contact with Hennie.

Hennie was at EQUIP and was interviewed by Marcus in one of the sessions. Read that interview here or download the mp3.

inVISION 2013

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Every year the elders of Cornerstone invite the deacons to inVISION – a time of worship and fellowship where we look to God’s vision for Cornerstone for the year.

Below is this year’s inVISION booklet, made available online for convenient access. You can also download it here.