This is the back of the shop - a peek inside the machine. With sermons to listen to, rotas with your name on, prayer requests and update news…
This week Hector spoke from Jeremiah 33 about the fact that God is our restorer.
He spoke about how God as our restorer, healer and peace wants to bring restoration, health and peace in place of our rebellion, brokenness and conflict.
Here are some prayer points for Sams Kids Club, The Lighthouse, International Bible Study and Open Door – four local missions which we have particular involvement with here at The Mission.
Here is the schedule for Feb – I’ve also included the cleaning and sorting days on 2nd and 3rd March so we can get them in our diaries – please let Dave or Alasdair know if you can come.
Gordon spoke to us about God’s greatness, beginning with a reflection on the vastness of the universe, and how amazing it is that, despite our seeming insignificance, God, who is far greater than the universe itself, still cares about us. We then looked at Philippians 2:2-11, and how God’s greatness is also shown in his humility, coming to earth in the person of Jesus and dying for us. Here are the discussion questions from this sermon:
God is Great: Creator
Read Psalm 33, paying particular attention to veses 6, 13-15 and 18-19.
1. What is your response/reaction to God’s oversight of his creation and of yourself in particular?
God is Great: Saviour
Read Philippians 2:2-11
2. What do these verses reveal about the nature of God as seen in Jesus?
3. How do you respond to the place of authority that God has given Jesus?
4. Reflect on this question: ‘To what extent have I allowed Jesus to be Lord of my life’?
The renovations at The Mission are nearing an end, and in order for the church and other users to get back into the building there’s going to be a lot of cleaning, sorting and shifting needing to be done!
We’re planning to get as many people as possible down on Fri 2nd March (from 6.30pm) and Sat 3rd March (from 9.30am). No special skills are required, just a willingness to help out. The more people we get down, the quicker we’ll be able to get everything sorted and the building back ready for use.
Info and prayer points on our missions for Feb, March and April: Tearfund, Latin Link and the Scottish Bible Society
Plus more prayer points and information about our regulars: Sams Kids Club, International Bible Study and Lighthouse/TNT
Today, Dave was speaking from Psalm 27 about how God is our rock, and how because of this we can have confidence in God and rest in his presence. As David says in the Psalm, our desire, even in the midst of trouble can be to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord.
However, we also looked at the fact that God is our rock even when we are not aware of it – when we, like David in verses 7-9 start to ask God: Are you listening? Are you there? and Do you love me? In those times of uncertainty, we can move into deeper faith in God and wait upon him trusting that he is our rock.
Here are some questions to think about following the sermon:
1. Confidence & Rest
Share about a time when you felt very close to God and enjoyed resting in his presence and worshipping him.
What do you find to be the biggest challenge to resting in God’s presence? (To-do-lists? Worries & stresses? or something else?)
2. Uncertainty & Doubt
Share about a time when you identified with one of David’s cries of despair. (Are you listening? Are you there? Do you love me?)
David gives us two bits of advice in these tough times: “Seek God’s face” and “Wait on God”. Can you see ways in which these might help you?
Can you think of ways in which choosing to trust in God despite not feeling that he’s there or despite the difficult situations in life have deepened your faith or the faith of others you know?
Here’s all the rotas – have a look to see who’s doing what and to check when you’re down
Hector spoke today about the truth that God is our provider. He was focussing on the story of Ruth, especially Ruth 2:12 “May the Lord repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge”.
Here are some questions from Hector following on from the sermon which will enable you to engage more deeply with what we were learning. It would also be a great idea to read through the whole of Ruth (it’s not very long), and see her amazing faithfulness to Naomi, and God’s provision for them both.
1. I mentioned that there were over 100 examples of God’s provision referred to in the bible, do you have a favourite one?
2. Have there been experiences in your life when you were aware that God had provided for you in a very special way?
3. Have you had occasions when you had believed and hoped that God would provide and that didn’t seem to happen? How did you react to the disappointment of this?
4. Have you anything to say about the unfair and unjust distribution of the earth’s natural resources that would help to improve the situation?
5. If you support a local, national or international charity or voluntary agency working to provide for the poor in times of austerity, can you tell us about it and what it means to you to support it.
The building development work is currently scheduled to finish mid-February. There are then a few tasks which we need to do (e.g. painting and moving everything back into place) before we can move back into the building. This will happen on evenings and Saturdays during the last week of Feb and first week of March. Please set aside some time and mark it down in your diary to come along if you can.
We then aim to be back meeting in The Mission from Sun 4th March (and back to our normal time of 11am). We will have a dedication service, including a church lunch on Sun 25th March, to which everyone is invited, including friends, members of the community and building users as we rededicate our building, and more importantly ourselves to the service of God.
Please keep praying that God will lead us and guide us this new year and that he would show us how he wants us to serve him as a church community.