13 Oct Big Week!
Happy Tuesday y’all! (I actually emailed this out to folks on Tuesday…but a few website glitches have delayed its posting until Thursday Night)
I’m enjoying these few beautiful sunny Spring-like days…and praying that when the next bout of rain comes those at risk of greatest harm or loss are spared. I’m hearing the response helicopters overhead & praying for those folks too. I spend a good deal of time with first responders and have an abiding respect for the ones who give so diligently of their lives for our communities.
Now…let’s get some business moved to the forefront…
- Zoom Bible Study Catch-Up
Friday – 14th October – @ 1:00 PM
Join Zoom Meeting (click that link →) – https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88022194499 – Meeting ID: 880 2219 4499
If you haven’t been able to join us on a Friday afternoon yet…we’d love to have you there this week. Grab your lunch or a coffee & your Bible & jump right in!
- Sunday, 16th October is a Morning Tea week! Remember…Jesus works mightily when food is shared abundantly. We talked about that some last Sunday. Grab a friend & bring ‘em along for the bounty!
- We’ll also be going through the final “clean out” phase this Sunday so the floors can be refinished & refurbished. Huge thanks to all those who have already begun that clean-out process! There’s still more to do…so…be ready to grab a few handfuls to carry out & then bring back in a week’s time.
- Sunday, 23rd October is still scheduled to be our AGM (given the completion of the floors) AND we’ve got a baptism scheduled in worship that day (if the floors are done)…so it’s a great morning ahead…pray for the floor project to be completed so we can do what we need to do.
- I think I had something else…but it’s gone…If I remember I’ll pass it along, and if I don’t…well you know how that goes.
I do know I wanted to share something from Isaiah…as it fits in with our theme for the coming Sunday, “Truth in a world of relativity.”
Is 43:10-11 “You are my witnesses, O Israel!” says the Lord. “You are my servant. You have been chosen to know me, believe in me, & understand that I alone am God. There is no other God—there never has been, & there never will be. I, yes I, am the Lord, & there is no other Saviour.”
God lays an exclusive claim to our lives for relationship with him. We are chosen in love by the Father to live in his presence growing deeper & deeper in fellowship with him as he rebuilds our sin-broken likeness to him. But that exclusive claim upon us, fulfilled in Jesus Christ, yields a unique commission to demonstrate in the whole of our lives the one relationship that completely satisfies our deepest longings, the one way to that which sustains us in the weary times, the one truth that abides in every confusion. “You are my witnesses” is undeniably & unavoidably our commission as God’s people.
A couple of chapters later…Is 45:9-11…I hear the prophet speak to what I sometimes hear in my own heart, & certainly in our culture regularly:
“What sorrow awaits those who argue with their Creator. Does a clay pot argue with its maker?
Does the clay dispute with the one who shapes it, saying, ‘Stop, you’re doing it wrong!’
Does the pot exclaim, ‘How clumsy can you be?’
How terrible it would be if a newborn baby said to its father, ‘Why was I born?’
or if it said to its mother, ‘Why did you make me this way?’”
This is what the Lord says—the Holy One of Israel and your Creator:
“Do you question what I do for my children? Do you give me orders about the work of my hands?”
It’s easy to feel dissatisfied, uncertain or uncomfortable with the circumstances of our lives…to challenge God’s wisdom, goodness, or capacity to keep his promise of abundant provision & full satisfaction. But take those 2 verses together…God is God. I am not. My role is to draw as near to him as possible & that is only possible by trusting his ultimate desire to save…which in the Bible involves healing, restoration, feeding, recreating, renewing, strengthening…and yes saving in the sense of forgiveness of sin, the defeat of death & the destruction of evil. If my challenge against God (Is 45) overwhelms my being claimed by God as his very own for relationship with him (Is 43) I choose a path of self-delusion & self-destruction. Don’t let the prevailing cultural worldviews trick you into thinking otherwise. There’s a reason, a reason for our eternal good, that Jesus reveals himself as “the way the truth & the life.” No one can approach the Father any other way than through him. And that’s a good thing.
Be strengthened in his claim upon you this week. Trust without holding back.
John
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