Jesus is Still Astounding Healing Conference

Go to http://churchoftheword.net/healing_j_sheffield.html  for up to the minute details

Friday, February 24th: 7:30-9:30 p.m. (No Friday registration required)
Saturday, February 25th: 9:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m. (see below for Saturday registration)
Location: Church of the Word, 7500 Logos Way, Gainesville, VA 20155 

Leader: The Rev. Dr. Jack Sheffield

Co-sponsored by the Order of St. Luke http://orderofstluke.org/

CONFERENCE LEADER

The Rev. Dr. Jack and Anna Marie Sheffield both experienced a life-changing rebirth into Christ Jesus and His kingdom, and the in-filling of the Holy Spirit in 1973. Together, they have served in ministry for over 30 years, and continue to witness many healings and miracles of God’s grace and power in a variety of forms and manifestations.

Deep River Ministries flows!
In 2001, Jack and Anna Marie felt the call from God to begin an evangelistic ministry with the purpose of spreading the Good News that Jesus is still in the business of healing His people: spirit, soul, and body. They minister in all denominational and non-denominational churches both nationally and internationally. They are available for conferences, weekends of renewal, revivals, healing missions, retreats; wherever God calls.

Christ Healing Center established 2004
In 2004, seeing the need for a safe place that would provide more in depth prayer ministry, Jack and Anna Marie helped to establish two healing centers. One is in their hometown of San Antonio, Texas, and is called Christ Healing Center. The other is known as Bethsaida House and is located in Columbus, Georgia. Wonderful volunteer staff have prayed for hundreds and seen awesome miracles and precious inner healings and deliverance from demonic oppression.

Christ Healing Center from William Michael on Vimeo.

Read more about Jack and Anna Marie Sheffield and Deep River Ministries at http://www.deepriverministries.com/.
SATURDAY  REGISTRATION

Please send an email message to Admin@ChurchOfTheWord.net to give us a head count and to hold your place at the Saturday teaching conference. Please include names, address, and phone number. Then mail a check to confirm your registration. Make the check out to “Church of the Word” and annotate that it is for the Jesus is Still Astounding Healing Conference or simply designate “Astounding”.

Cost: $25 per person or $45 per couple
Address:     Church of the Word, 7500 Logos Way, Gainesville, VA 20155

Please call the church office for more information 703-754-9673
You will be blessed!!

Due to the ongoing VDOT construction in the Gainesville area,
access to our facility has recently changed.
Click HERE for directions on how to find us.

Come join us next Sunday!

Sharing Jesus Christ is the mission indeed the passion of our community. We believe that Jesus is the word of God, ‘in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the Word was God. All things were made through Him’

We also know that Jesus is the hope of the world for ‘God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself’. Jesus said of himself, ‘I am the bread of life’.

Advent is the season of hope as we think about the ‘advent’ or arrival of Jesus in the three biblical senses of the incarnation 2000 years ago, the receiving of Jesus into a persons life today at conversion and the imminent return of Jesus Christ to be the judge of the living and the dead. Advent is not just about getting ready for Christmas but ready for Christ in each of these three senses.

Therefore Church of the Word in Gainesville, is establishing an extension campus in nearby Manassas to help further our mission. read on…

AFiM is an extension campus of Church of the Word, Gainesville. It is another worship site for that congregation and most ministry is available through our programs there. We are not currently a part on the Anglican Church in North America, though as soon as this option becomes available to us we will be delighted to return home. Meanwhile we are anglican in style and substance, but more importantly simply Christian, as N.T. Wright might say.

We meet at 4pm at the Crossway Fellowship Church location on Plantation Lane near Prince William Hospital, in their side chapel which has easy access from the front parking lot.

For directions and a map

Music: So far we have decided to use ‘Renew’ hymnal, described like this, ‘Born in the worship renewal, this songbook brings together the best from traditional and contemporary worship. Following the biblical and historic fourfold pattern of worship Gathering, The Word, Offering Thanksgiving (Eucharist) and Dismissal.’

Liturgy: Our liturgical worship booklet is drawn from the 2004 Irish Book of Common Prayer because it is the most modern of Anglican Liturgies but yet keeps the integrity of the classical principles of our tradition. We have the service printed on a booklet for easy use. Even if you are not experienced in liturgy you will find this approach helpful in bringing you closer to God in worship.

Participation: Your participation and ideas are welcome. This fellowship is being shaped by those who are becoming involved. Later we will have a more formal launch of the service. We will become more visible in Manassas with local mission projects and fellowship opportunities. look within this website for upcoming events, or suggest one yourself!

We appreciate the invitation from our brothers and sisters in Christ at Crossway fellowship to meet at their excellent facility.

Please feel free to e-mail me Pastor Robin with your questions

To see how ancient christian songs can be given new life check out Glory to God on you-tube a modern setting of the ‘Gloria’ written by our Gainesville team ‘Braeded Chord‘!

To start you thinking an Anglican Archbishop once gave this definition.

Worship is..

the submission of all our nature to God.

It is the quickening of the conscience by His holiness;
the nourishment of mind with His truth;
the purifying of the imagination by His beauty;
the opening of the heart to His love;
the surrender of will to His purpose -

and all of this gathered up in adoration,
the most selfless emotion of which our nature is capable,
and therefore the chief remedy
of that self-centeredness
which is our original sin
and the source of all actual sin.

William Temple, 1881 – 1944

i us Sunday April 18th for our next service!

Saul Talks with Samuel’s Ghost – I Samuel 28

Samuel had died some time earlier and people from all over Israel had attended his funeral in his hometown of Ramah. Meanwhile, Saul had been trying to get rid of everyone who spoke with the spirits of the dead.

One day the Philistines brought their soldiers together to attack Israel. The Philistines went to Shunem and set up camp. Saul called the army of Israel together and they set up their camp in Gilboa. Saul took one look at the Philistine army and started shaking with fear. So he asked the LORD what to do. But the LORD would not answer, either in a dream or by a priest or a prophet. Then Saul told his officers to “Find me a woman who can talk to the spirits of the dead. I’ll go to her and find out what’s going to happen.” His servants told him, “There’s a woman at Endor who can talk to spirits of the dead.”

That night Saul put on different clothing so nobody would recognize him. Then he and two of his men went to the woman and asked, “Will you bring up the ghost of someone for us?” The woman said, “Why are you trying to trick me and get me killed? You know King Saul has gotten rid of everyone who talks to the spirits of the dead!” Saul replied, “I swear by the living LORD that nothing will happen to you because of this.” “Who do you want me to bring up?” she asked. “Bring up the ghost of Samuel,” he answered. When the woman saw Samuel, she screamed. Then she turned to Saul and said, “You’ve tricked me! You’re the king!” “Don’t be afraid,” Saul replied. “Just tell me what you see.” She answered, “I see a spirit rising up out of the ground.” “What does it look like?” “It looks like an old man wearing a robe.” Saul knew it was Samuel, so he bowed down low.

“Why are you bothering me by bringing me up like this?” Samuel asked. “I’m terribly worried,” Saul answered. “The Philistines are about to attack me. God has turned his back on me and won’t answer any more by prophets or by dreams. What should I do?” Samuel said: “If the LORD has turned away from you and is now your enemy, don’t ask me what to do. I’ve already told you: The LORD has sworn to take the kingdom from you and give it to David. And that’s just what he’s doing! When the LORD was angry with the Amalekites, he told you to destroy them, but you didn’t do it. That’s why the LORD is doing this to you. Tomorrow the LORD will let the Philistines defeat Israel’s army, then you and your sons will join me down here in the world of the dead.”

At once Saul collapsed and lay stretched out on the floor, terrified at what Samuel had said. He was weak because he had not eaten anything since the day before. The woman came over to Saul and when she saw that he was completely terrified, she said, “Your Majesty, I listened to you and risked my life to do what you asked. Now please listen to me. Let me get you a little something to eat. It will give you strength for your walk back to camp.” “No, I won’t eat!” But his officers and the woman kept on urging Saul until he finally agreed. He got up off the floor and sat on the bed. Right away the woman killed a calf that she had been fattening up. She cooked part of the meat and baked some thin bread. Then she served the food to Saul and his officers who ate and left before daylight.

This is an amazing story from the Bible. It talks about real ghosts and mediums and events which were predicted and which soon came true. What are we to make of this?

First there is a spiritual reality to our existence. This is not simply a material universe we find ourselves in, one which through random happenings has somehow spontaneously generated an astounding diversity of physical life! There is a spiritual reality behind the material world we can see. The spiritual breaks into the material more frequently than we think. A friend from church has this bumper sticker, ‘We are spiritual beings who are having a physical experience.’ No one in King Saul’s day doubted the power of the spiritual world over everyday life. In the 21st century we tend to overlook this principle until we are shocked back into a full awareness of spiritual realities.
Second, there is such a thing as good and evil in the spiritual realm. The spiritual world is divided into the forces aligned behind Almighty God the creator and judge of all things and with Satan a fallen angel who, though inferior to God, is still very powerful and clever and bent upon wrecking havoc in the world. Satan is conducting what our anti terrorist forces call an asymmetric campaign against the rule of the good in the world. We are targets of his activities or, at a minimum, we are caught up in the collateral damage. Sometimes we are willing participants in his schemes and sometimes we are manipulated into taking part. We need to ask ourselves if we have opened our minds to the spiritual forces of darkness and allowed them a foothold into our lives. How have our family, our health, our moral choices been affected by the forces of evil all around us. Have we appealed to the Lord Almighty for deliverance and protection? In this bible story Saul did not think to throw himself on God’s mercy. Why was he numbed into inaction? It was because of the influence of evil spirits which he himself had called up. They were still working on him through depression and doubt to frustrate any ability to reach out to God for forgiveness and healing.
Third, you can’t run with the devil and expect to win. Saul thought that he could leverage this force of evil channeled by the witch of Endor, to his own desires. Saul’s ultimate motive may have been good. He was blocked from getting guidance from the Lord in the usual channels: ‘But the LORD would not answer, either in a dream or by a priest or a prophet.’ But the devil does not keep bargains. Saul may have literally got what he asked for, that is access to his now deceased spiritual advisor Samuel. But the results were a stunning and stifling presence in the room and even greater judgment upon his soul. Note the collateral damage to the poor soldiers in his army.

Notes on the origin of Halloween

Halloween has its roots in Samhain, an ancient Celtic festival. Despite claims by modern Wiccans and Druids to have recreated lost rites, no one really knows what happened during Samhain. It’s likely that Celts repelled the foreboding caused by lengthening nights, falling temperatures, and withering plants, plus serious belief in supernatural evil, with bonfires, human and/or vegetable sacrifices, and scary costumes.

The grisly aspects of Celtic fall festivities were tempered somewhat by the arrival of the Romans, whose harvest-time celebrations of the goddess Pomona emphasized fertility and love. The early church, however, was hardly impressed with this “improvement.” Taking the “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” position that had worked reasonably well with formerly pagan Christmas, eighth-century Pope Gregory III decided to baptize Samhain, retaining some customs but radically redefining their focus. Gregory moved All Saints’ or Hallows’ Day from May 13 to November 1 (which made October 31 All Hallows’ Eve, i.e. Hallowe’en) and instructed revelers to dress as saints instead of evil spirits. Goodies that once had been offered to propitiate wandering devils were instead offered to poor people who, in turn, vowed to pray for the souls of departed relatives.

Protestants, wary of both saints and praying for the dead, have never been too sanguine about Halloween. New England Puritans banned the celebration, along with Easter and Christmas. Though the Catholic Maryland and Anglican Virginia colonies retained some Halloween customs, most of the holiday’s traditional Celtic elements (including nighttime pranks and asking for food handouts) didn’t come to this side of the Atlantic until massive Irish immigration in the nineteenth century.

Mainstream Halloween celebrations in the Victorian era were generally tame and devoid of occult overtones. Instead of pulling pranks or haunting neighborhoods, young people chatted and flirted in festooned parlors. By the beginning of the twentieth century, some towns had gone so far as to make Halloween primarily a civic affair, complete with parades and block parties. When trick-or-treating became widely popular in the 1950s, most participants knew of neither the Celtic nor the Catholic rationales behind the practice.

Yes check out the stories and opportunity for dialogue on some of the developing issues at AFiM

AFiM aims to build a network of worship, fellowship, outreach and evangelism opportunities in the City. We invite you to partner with us.