Lion of Judah!
My favourite name of the Lord tends to be whichever one I’m meditating on at the time. At the moment it is the Lion of Judah. It seems very appropriate with Celebration for the Nations fast approaching!

Judah means praise. Jesus is the Lion of Praise. He is our true worship leader;

‘For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is
Lion of Judah!
My favourite name of the Lord tends to be whichever one I’m meditating on at the time. At the moment it is the Lion of Judah. It seems very appropriate with Celebration for the Nations fast approaching!

Judah means praise. Jesus is the Lion of Praise. He is our true worship leader; not ashamed to call them brothers, saying
“I will tell of your name to my brothers;
in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise.”’ (Hebrews 2:11-12).

How beautiful to know that as we gather to worship, Jesus stands in the midst of us, proclaiming the name of His Father and singing His praise.

There are several words for ‘praise’ in Hebrew; Judah comes from ‘yada’ that literally means ‘to hold out the hand’. As we lift our hands in praise to the Lord we are saying ‘we submit to You, we love You, we will not go our own way. Take these hands and use them for your purposes’.

Our beautiful Lion of Judah led the way. He held out His hands in submission to the Father, and allowed them to be nailed to the Cross. He calls us to follow Him. This is true worship.

Persecution and danger was normal for the early church. However they were not daunted. When they faced opposition they prayed;

‘And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus’ (Acts 4:29-30).

They asked the Lord to be true to His name, for the Lion of Judah, to stretch out His hand and bringing healing and other wonders. He is looking for the same boldness in us.

The Lion of Judah is roaring over His church!

“Awake, O sleeper,

and arise from the dead,

and Christ will shine on you” (Ephesians 5:14).

Revival is coming! Let’s make sure we are fully awake and join our praises, our prayers and our actions of obedience to our powerful Lord of Love.

Practical requests
Since we were last in the Selwyn Samuel Centre, in 2012, prices have doubled. We thank the Lord for His provision thus far, but we ask you to consider helping us to get the set up we need with sound equipment, lighting, LED screens etc. We always want people to have free access to join us, and over the years people have walked in as we are worshipping and found the Lord. We have never charged to get in to the Celebration, and will not now. We will put details of how you can give to the Celebration at the end of this letter. Thank you.

Visas
The team from Mizoram, one of the areas the 1904 Welsh Revival touched, are now waiting for their visas. Please pray for them, and all the teams, especially those who are travelling from far away. Pray for their provision in every way. Thank you.

North Dock accommodation available
There are still places in the World Horizons accommodation that has always been the where our worship teams stay, for just £15ppn. We are now offering this accommodation to others who want to join the Celebration but are not in Worship team. Ideally we would like to offer it to people staying the whole week, but you would need to stay for at least three nights. There is dormitory accommodation and some family rooms, but nothing is en suite. Please get in touch if this interests you.

Gift of 500 Jesus films
One of our Egyptian team members have managed to secure a gift from Egypt of 500 SD cards of the Jesus film in Welsh/English/Polish and Tagalog. We plan to give gift bags to our town and county councillors which will include this film, other little gifts from Korea and a letter thanking them for their service and telling about how Wales has been such a blessing to the nations. Please pray that the hearts of the leaders in our community will be open to receive all that the Lord has for them.

Other SD cards will be given out alongside tracts we are ordering during the afternoon Open Airs within the Celebration. Please pray for hearts to be open.

Sunday Joint Service
The Celebration will finish with a joint service on Sunday morning where we can worship together, hear God’s word and join our voices to pray for Wales and the nations. Three local churches have already committed to join us. Join us in prayer for any others who should be joining us for this key time.

CFTN team
Please pray for our team as we work to organise so much, including meals etc. for worship teams, schedules, transport, all the permissions we need for Open Airs, literature, banners, equipment, instruments, children’s work etc. etc. May our hearts be kept in Christ, and our focus ever on Him.

Financial donations to Celebrations (sort code: 55-70-37 no: 81093918). Thank you so much.

In Christ

Gail and the Celebration Team.