Thank you for bearing with me last weekend. I am glad to say that the problems with my laptop now appear to have been corrected. I might have lost a few files but at least the tool is working now. I am grateful to a Christian contact who pointed me in the right direction. I guess that sits well with the thoughts I shared last week regarding encouraging people to make a response to the gospel message. I received many encouraging comments and one thoughtful reflection to which I have yet to respond.
Tomorrow (Sunday 29th) I will be taking the service at HMP Gartree at 9.00 and will then pick up Doreen and make our way to join our friends at Yelvertoft where John Harris will be taking the meeting. We are thankful for friends such as John who share in the ministry in the village.
On Tuesday morning I will be meeting with others on our Holiday at Home team to review the past year's event and plan for the future. Please pray for wisdom. In the afternoon I will be back into HMP Gartree. It is then a relatively quiet week with only a Friday evening activity to attend.
We are not sure at the moment how much communications will be interrupted during this week. We have a new telephone and internet provider due to take over from Monday and the changeover for the internet might be affected. If all else fails we have a mobile phone on 07720 322 213.
The relative quietness of the coming week contrasts with the activity of the past week. On Sunday we had a great Harvest Thanksgiving at Yelvertoft with Charles Smith from the Farming Community Network as our speaker. Our harvest offerings included quite a quantity of tinned and packeted food that then went off for our local foodbank and homeless drop in ministry. Monday's Rural Round Table (Fresh Expressions) was productive. On Tuesday we were pleased to meet with some church leaders from Ireland. On Thursday we had a fantastic Bible discussion meeting looking at Isaiah 40. Friday evening and today have been spent in Nottingham in meetings to encourage and promote mission.
What an interesting week it has been in the news. Developments regarding Syria and Iran need soaking in prayer. One odd headline that caught my attention relates to work being carried out by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on a gene that overwrites old memories with new ones. It was suggested that this could be very helpful for people suffering from post traumatic stress or possibly people who experienced abuse in the past. Although I have not experienced a deep trauma I have had my share of some pretty horrendous experiences that are now bad memories. Yet I know that God has used these as part of what has been needed to mould me into the minister I am today. In many ways bad memories can be helpful especially when these are offered up to God to redeem. Personally, I would rather see people going down that road rather than wanting the memories wiped as in the Total Recall film. I know that some reading this will have suffered some pretty dreadful stuff. I wonder how the idea of overwriting those memories sits with you?
My closing thoughts are on how particular we are in the ministry of God's word. On a scale of such particularity I think I would score myself fairly highly. I do not like to sit under ministry that takes scripture out of context or that uses it inappropriately. When preparing to speak I try to ensure that my ministry is 'sound'. But isn't that the way we should be when working with God's precious word. We should take care to understand the truth correctly and minister it faithfully. But against that fact I found myself intrigued at Paul's comments from his imprisonment in Rome regarding what was happening around him See Philippians 1: 12-18.
Paul refers to people who were preaching the gospel. Some were motivated by God at work in their lives. Others were motivated by a desire to stir up trouble for Paul. But Paul rejoiced over both situations because the gospel was being proclaimed. I well remember the first time that I was asked to speak in a major conference. I was still very young. Other speakers were older, experienced and very competent. I sat up well into the small hours of the morning working on my message and how I would deliver it. Then, as exhaustion took over, I felt the Lord saying that it didn't matter about the quality of the pen; it was what it wrote that had power to change lives.
It would be presumptuous to think that I had managed to grasp the truth perfectly. At my best I guess I am an imperfect Bible teacher and evangelist. I am just glad that God blesses his word to the hearts of the readers and hearers despite human frailty. The power is in the gospel not our intellectual ability to articulate it. I would rather have people sharing the truths of Gods word according to their understanding and ability, even if that is poor, than I would have the multitude of dumb Christians with which our land is occupied.
I will continue to be as faithful as I can be in seeking to understand truth from scripture, and in communicating it as often as I can, but like Moses I wish that all the Lord's people were prophets (Numbers 11:29). I wonder if Paul had that in mind when he write what he did to the Philippians!
Go! Share God's word wherever and whenever you can. Do so carefully, gently, and as best you can. But share it please. It has power once proclaimed.
Barry
Tomorrow (Sunday 29th) I will be taking the service at HMP Gartree at 9.00 and will then pick up Doreen and make our way to join our friends at Yelvertoft where John Harris will be taking the meeting. We are thankful for friends such as John who share in the ministry in the village.
On Tuesday morning I will be meeting with others on our Holiday at Home team to review the past year's event and plan for the future. Please pray for wisdom. In the afternoon I will be back into HMP Gartree. It is then a relatively quiet week with only a Friday evening activity to attend.
We are not sure at the moment how much communications will be interrupted during this week. We have a new telephone and internet provider due to take over from Monday and the changeover for the internet might be affected. If all else fails we have a mobile phone on 07720 322 213.
The relative quietness of the coming week contrasts with the activity of the past week. On Sunday we had a great Harvest Thanksgiving at Yelvertoft with Charles Smith from the Farming Community Network as our speaker. Our harvest offerings included quite a quantity of tinned and packeted food that then went off for our local foodbank and homeless drop in ministry. Monday's Rural Round Table (Fresh Expressions) was productive. On Tuesday we were pleased to meet with some church leaders from Ireland. On Thursday we had a fantastic Bible discussion meeting looking at Isaiah 40. Friday evening and today have been spent in Nottingham in meetings to encourage and promote mission.
What an interesting week it has been in the news. Developments regarding Syria and Iran need soaking in prayer. One odd headline that caught my attention relates to work being carried out by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on a gene that overwrites old memories with new ones. It was suggested that this could be very helpful for people suffering from post traumatic stress or possibly people who experienced abuse in the past. Although I have not experienced a deep trauma I have had my share of some pretty horrendous experiences that are now bad memories. Yet I know that God has used these as part of what has been needed to mould me into the minister I am today. In many ways bad memories can be helpful especially when these are offered up to God to redeem. Personally, I would rather see people going down that road rather than wanting the memories wiped as in the Total Recall film. I know that some reading this will have suffered some pretty dreadful stuff. I wonder how the idea of overwriting those memories sits with you?
My closing thoughts are on how particular we are in the ministry of God's word. On a scale of such particularity I think I would score myself fairly highly. I do not like to sit under ministry that takes scripture out of context or that uses it inappropriately. When preparing to speak I try to ensure that my ministry is 'sound'. But isn't that the way we should be when working with God's precious word. We should take care to understand the truth correctly and minister it faithfully. But against that fact I found myself intrigued at Paul's comments from his imprisonment in Rome regarding what was happening around him See Philippians 1: 12-18.
Paul refers to people who were preaching the gospel. Some were motivated by God at work in their lives. Others were motivated by a desire to stir up trouble for Paul. But Paul rejoiced over both situations because the gospel was being proclaimed. I well remember the first time that I was asked to speak in a major conference. I was still very young. Other speakers were older, experienced and very competent. I sat up well into the small hours of the morning working on my message and how I would deliver it. Then, as exhaustion took over, I felt the Lord saying that it didn't matter about the quality of the pen; it was what it wrote that had power to change lives.
It would be presumptuous to think that I had managed to grasp the truth perfectly. At my best I guess I am an imperfect Bible teacher and evangelist. I am just glad that God blesses his word to the hearts of the readers and hearers despite human frailty. The power is in the gospel not our intellectual ability to articulate it. I would rather have people sharing the truths of Gods word according to their understanding and ability, even if that is poor, than I would have the multitude of dumb Christians with which our land is occupied.
I will continue to be as faithful as I can be in seeking to understand truth from scripture, and in communicating it as often as I can, but like Moses I wish that all the Lord's people were prophets (Numbers 11:29). I wonder if Paul had that in mind when he write what he did to the Philippians!
Go! Share God's word wherever and whenever you can. Do so carefully, gently, and as best you can. But share it please. It has power once proclaimed.
Barry
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