No.11 - Worthy of Worship

Darkness to light, the joys of godly church family and trusting God will provide.

Verse of the Week

'God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.'

Genesis 1:3

God spoke and the whole universe went from darkness to light. Praise the Lord the God of all creation, there is no one like him, bringing light to darkness providing light and life to all mankind. He is most worthy of our worship!

Encouragements

I had the wonderful privilege of meeting up with three Christians 121, who are much wiser and more experienced than me, to chat about the bible. It was such a joy to be able to learn from them and I was so encouraged by the way they helped me to see God and his plan for our lives more clearly.

It was also a real encouragement to pray with a group of guys from our church. Such a blessing to see other christian men seeking to live how God wants them to live and bring their desires to God.

Another great encouragement was this week's Christianity explored evening where we saw just how clearly Christ knew he was going to die and rise again. His death was not a surprise and his resurrection brings hope to us all!

A Little Update

Here are a few things we've been up to and some of what we've got coming up.

The Past Week

• Enjoyed meeting up to encourage members of our church family

• Spent an evening studying a christian book together

• Spent two days visiting my grandparents in Cromer

• 3rd Dec - 121 looking at how to apply the OT

• 4th Dec - Attended my last bible training day before Christmas

• 5th Dec - 5th Christianity Explored Evening

• 7th Dec - Men's prayer breakfast

The Next Few Weeks

• Meeting up to encourage members of our church family

• Sunday mornings - Helping with JTD Kids

• Wednesday mornings - Luci helping with an evangelistic Tots Group

• Spending an evening studying a christian book together

• 9th Dec - Carol Singing round Upton

• 12th Dec - Church leaders partnership meeting

• 12th Dec - 6th Christianity Explored Evening

• 14th Dec - Walkthrough Nativity

• 15th Dec - Serving with the youth ministries team

• 21st Dec - (Organising and attending) A Carol Service

• 25th Dec - Christmas Day!

  
  

Prayer Requests

We would really love prayer that:

• God would keep our minds at peace knowing most of the things we worry about won't stop us from having the privilege of getting to glorify our wonderful creator.

• God would help us to be humble and quick to listen to each other when we are tired or stressed

• God would use us to love and build up our church family as we seek to serve and encourage them with God's word.

Additional Prayer Request

I am also starting to look into doing a bit more fundraising so I can carry on using as much time as I can learning and sharing God's word.

We would love your prayers that we would hold onto the amazing truths that God will provide all we need and, God willing, he would raise up people / Christian trusts that would be eager to help support us financially.

We really value your love and prayers. You are a regular encouragement to us both. May your hearts and minds be filled with a peace and Joy in the Lord and may you delight in Him more and more each day.

Love and prayers,

Joshua & Luci :)

P.S - Bonus present - We found this song really helped our hearts to be filled with gratefulness to God.

P.P.S - For those who are interested here are some interesting points from my TEAM bible training course

TEAM Notes - Click arrow to view

Bible Overview - p8

Interesting ideas on the Old Testament Law

There are roughly 3 types of law - Moral, Ceremonial and civil law

• Ceremonial Law points us to Jesus and our need for him

• Civil law show us how the church should function - but we are different to them

• Moral Law points us to Jesus’ perfect character and how we should live as his Holy Spirit filled people

The whole law is summed up in the 10 commandments and by loving God and loving your neighbour

The law was great but the law wasn’t meant to have the power to make - God's people holy

Three suggested uses of the law

• Convict us of sin

• Restrain the wickedness of the world (Good but limited)

• Shows us how we should live (God’s character)

Bible Overview - p9

Key lessons from Isreal’s defeat of the nations

• The reality of God’s holy judgement on evil

• The reality of God providing rest and salvation by driving out evil

• The need for faith in receiving this rest

• The call to fight sin vigorously in our own lives - take it seriously

• The call to wait eagerly for Jesus to come

Applying the bible

Big idea - leads to purpose then - leads to purpose now

It can be helpful to think

• What type of application is it e.g - roughly a call for us to do something, feel something or think something

• What situations the passage may apply to

• What may hinder us from obeying the call of the passage

• What may help us obey the call of the passage

Workshops

If you removed some of your passage would it change your purpose sentence - I found this helpful for trying to make sure I’d figure out what the passage as a whole was saying