Mark spoke on the topic of ‘Shining Like Stars’ at the September family service.

Gen 1:16-17 makes it clear that God made all the stars and we know that He made a vast number of stars, each one different, but each one known by God (Ps 147:4 reminds us that He counts them and knows them by name.) The vastness of the universe and the splendour of all these stars reminds us of our true position in life (Ps 8:3-4), but just as stars are named individually by God, so He too has named us. (Eph 3:14-15) He chose to dwell with us, however, and His presence abides with us. God has placed us in time and space, just like the stars, so that we can shine for Him (Phil 2:15) and can reflect His light and glory in a dark world. We are called to be love  and hope and peace in this world and can hold out the word of  life to all around us. God’s glory shines through us. (2 Cor 3:18)

Last night’s family service looked at the topic of stars.

First of all, we had a quiz about the stars in the sky…

Our scientific knowledge was indeed tested!

Then we had a quiz about celebrities.

(If you’re interested, the answer to the first of those was Steve Jobs and the second Madonna!)

There were prizes to be won:

Then we had a belated birthday to celebrate:

We also had birthdays for the actual day and week to come:

All in all, a very busy evening!

Stephen spoke this morning from Romans 5:1-2, reminding us that God’s Word is food to our souls and needs to be digested:

Just as condensed milk has all the goodness of milk for us, so too God’s Word feeds us with all the goodness we need to grow in God:

We stand in God’s grace and are privileged people, for we stand in Christ’s righteousness, no longer having to approach the throne of God through ceremony and ritual but can approach with confidence and boldness. We are able to stand in God’s presence at all times. In the Old Testament, God’s presence was associated with the Tabernacle and later with the Temple and now is often associated with a church building, but God’s presence dwells within us. We are His house. 1 John 4:15 reminds us that if anyone acknowledges Jesus as the Son of God, God lives in them and they in Him. God’s presence with with us constantly, wherever we are.

We also stand in the blessing of peace, knowing that we can claim God’s peace which transcends all understanding.

Fredrick and Reeba, missionaries that we support in India, have sent us a recent update on their work. Reeba is involved in a ‘sewing empowerment programme’ which helps women to learn tailoring skills. 35 of these completed their training in July and 10 were given sewing machines on their completion of the programme. Their aim is to give every woman who complete the programme a sewing machine as an investment into their future work. One lady (Zakira) was a Muslim who had had to be the sole breadwinner for her family, working in the paddy fields. She has since come to faith in Christ and is able to earn money through tailoring.

A new facility was opened in July in a slum area called Vanarpet. 30 candidates were enrolled on this programme and altogether there are 65 women now being trained in different areas. Reeba writes ‘Our greatest challenge is to keep both the training centres functioning and bring the women to the knowledge of God and equip them to spread the gospel and love of Christ to the unreached and also give them a hope for the future.’

Consider how we can best help this ministry through prayer and giving and let’s be grateful for all God is doing in India!

No, not the sci-fi movie or any strange theology, just odd-looking happenings in the children’s room…!

Fear not: this was only Ray and Garry working on the plumbing for the new sink unit which is going in this room!

The saga of the sink unit will be continued when the joiner comes later in September to fit the sink, unit surface and complete this job. Here are Garry and Stephen making the base unit up (the joys of flat pack furniture):

And now, complete with alien…!

Following on from my musings inspired by the new gym at Dearneside, I have also been meditating on Jeremiah’s calling. God called Jeremiah to be a prophet and confirmed His calling through two visions which, on first sight, do not appear particularly inspiring. The first vision is of an almond tree; the second, a tilting boiling pot. (Jer 1:11-13) I am quite sure such visions would not have meant very much to me!

The almond tree vision speaks of the coming of spring, for it is one of the earliest trees to bloom in Palestine, putting forth blossom before it produces fruit, almost as a ‘guarantee’ of what is to come. The word for almond tree (shaqed) is also very similar to the Hebrew word for ‘watching’ (shoqed), so the vision is supplemented by aural word play (God watching to see that His word is fulfilled). Eugene Peterson says ‘every spring for the rest of his life, the sight of the almond blessing, shaqed, would trigger the sound shoqed in his memory’ (‘Run With The Horses’, P 53-54), reminding him of the life-enhancing, energy-releasing associations of spring and of the faithfulness of God to fulfil all His promises.

The boiling pot is identified as enemy armies poised for an invasion (Jer 1:14-16), reminding Jeremiah of the cleansing power of judgment and also reminding him that evil has an origin and a finish: ‘not a wild, uncontrollable evil… a carefully commanded judgment, with God as the commander.’ (ibid. P 55) Such visions, therefore, created in Jeremiah both a keen sense of hope in God and an awareness that he need not be overpowered or intimidated by evil. He was given a vision of God’s authority and strength and character which could shape his whole life.

We need such visions of God if we are to remain strong and faithful to the end. Dave spoke on Sunday evening about Isaiah’s vision of the holiness of God which shook him and acted as the motivating call in his life. (Is 6:1-8) The Bible lists many other such revelations of God which help us to see life through God’s eyes, changing the way we look at things and thereby allowing us, and the situations in which we find ourselves, to be changed.