We are often quick to complain when the church goes wrong - but sometimes slow to give thanks when it goes right. Yesterday was a great reminder to me of how the Lord is faithfully building his church in the midst of a hostile environment. Its kind of hard to describe but Ill give it a go - this is what happened yesterday morning in St Petes. We walked in, on a beautiful sunny day, into a building that was warm and people that were warm. There was a real buzz before the service - the band warming up, the coffee being made, creche and Sunday school being set out, prayer meeting in the library, Kirk Session in the office. Downstairs was full for the actual service...the praise was tremendous with the congregational singing being the predominant instrument (ably aided by the instrumental accompaniment); Hughs pastoral prayer for the congregation and Sheenaghs for Mission brought us collectively to the throne of grace; the confession of sin and promise of pardon reminded us of how we can enter the presence of a holy and loving God; the readings from Luke and 1 Samuel emphasised that God speaks to us through his Word; the crowd of children at the front for the childrens talk was another gracious reminder of the Lords goodness to us (even more so when we added Sonia and Jills names to the list of pregnant women!); saying goodbye to Lee one of our Chinese students who is going back to China as a believer was a reminder of the international aspect of the Church; the preaching from Ps 59 enabled us to see the Lord as our Fortress in the midst of trouble; the singing of Ps 22 to the beautiful melancholy tune Soldau, was an emotional reminder of what Jesus did for us on the cross, and then in the communion we remembered his death and celebrated our union with him and one another. Even the notices - with so many opportunities for service in response to what we had shared - were encouraging to me! Coffee and mince pies afterwards was an opportunity for us to share together and to greet several new people and visitors. In the midst of our troubles, and in spite of our sin, it was an oasis of peace and joy - as someone said to me on the way out - Sunday is so much my favourite day of the week because I get to share in this. And then we got the opportunity to worship together with other churches in Central Baptist at night. I love the church!
Posted on: Mon, 01 Dec 2014 08:48:12 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015