Rejoicing in the Grace of God – Our New Mandarin Celebration
God has always been gracious to all people. In the Old Testament, God demonstrated grace by choosing one nation through which He would “shine” His glory to the world. In the New Testament, God displayed grace for all by sending the Promised One, Jesus, who would die for the sins of the whole world. Anyone who trusts in Jesus can become a son or daughter of God! Since the day of Pentecost when the “grace” of the indwelling Holy Spirit arrived (Acts 2), Jesus has been building His Church with people from every tribe, language, and culture.
In Acts chapter 11, we see God affirming the obedience of disciples who proclaimed the gospel of Jesus across cultural lines. As these Jewish believers witnessed to Greeks, “The Lord’s hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord” (Acts 11:21). When leaders of the culturally – Jewish Jerusalem church came to see what was happening, they did not try to control or stifle the new faith of the Grecian believers. Instead, they embraced and supported God’s beautiful work of grace. “When he arrived and saw what the grace of God had done, he was glad and encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts” (Acts 11: 23). From this beginning came the church of Antioch, the first multi-ethnic, missionary- sending local church written about in the Bible.
In the Bridgeport neighborhood of Chicago, in 2015, we are privileged to take part in a similar move of the grace of God. Over the past 7 years, God has steadily brought a committed group of Mandarin speaking believers into our fellowship. Now, with the same heart of cooperation and support as see in Acts, we are excited to pray for and serve with our Mandarin speaking brothers and sisters to reach more and more souls for Jesus Christ.
Praise God for His grace in the January 25th launch of our NL Bridgeport Mandarin Celebration. Please pray for Shaolong Jiang, his wife Melody, and the team of co-workers who will serve this growing community of faith. If you’d like to know how to serve with the Mandarin Celebration, please contact the church office at bridgeport@newlifechicago.org or (312) 842-1470.