No.12 - Sharing the good news

Sharing the wonders of God's grace and delighting in His glory.

Verse of the Week

'And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.'

Genesis 17:7

I have been so amazed this week at God's staggeringly wonderful grace. God seemingly out of nowhere makes such incredible promises to Abraham. In the verse above God promises to be God to Abraham and His children for the rest of eternity. What an incredible commitment God makes. I was absolutely amazed at God's devotion to Abraham and his future children. What a comfort if would have been to know that God is your God and will be forever.

What an incredibly gracious God we have!

Encouragements

It has been a real week of encouragements!

It was so encouraging to see the desire the men in my Christian book study had to love others in our church family.

It was wonderful to see how our church family persevered through the cold to sing to and invite people to hear about Jesus as we walked round Upton, carol singing and talking to people.

I got to experience just how amazing an opportunity our weekly Evangelistic Tots group is this week! There are so many families that the team are doing a great job of loving and I had the privilege of inviting 2 people along to Church.

I found myself visiting a friend from church this week in a retirement village who has been very unwell. And God was so good to us in opening our eyes to the wonders of his glory as we read together the first two chapters of John Piper's book 'Seeing and Savouring Jesus Christ'.

The next day we had the lovely surprise of singing, praying and sharing the good news of the gospel with over 40 people at a carol service. It was a surprise as we only expected around 10 and so only had 15 song booklets :)

There have been many other encouragements but I'll say just one more. It was so wonderful to see a few families at church this Sunday who we had met, some from our Tots group and some from the Nativity. Praise the Lord that they were able to come, see what church is like, and hear the message of the gospel!

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

• Sunday mornings - Helping with JTD Kids

• Lead a group of men in studying a Christian book

• 11th Dec - I spent some time helping an our evangelistic Tots Group

• Spent an evening studying a christian book together

• 9th Dec - Carol Singing round Upton

• 12th Dec - Church leaders partnership meeting

• 12th Dec - Helped with an evangelistic carol service in a retirement village

• 12th Dec - 6th Christianity Explored Evening

• 14th Dec - Walkthrough Nativity

• 15th Dec - Serving with the youth ministries team

The Next Few Weeks

• Meeting up to encourage members of our church family

• Leading a group of men in studying a Christian book

• Sunday mornings - Helping with JTD Kids

• 18th Dec - Youth Ministries planning meeting

• 19th Dec - Last Christianity Explored Evening

• 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 we are loved by God through his delightful grace and not our own efforts.

• God would cause us to be loving and serving each other well as we are busier with Christmas events and seeing church family.

• God would use us to share the good news of his gospel and the wonders of his glory as we meet up with church family during the week and seek to share Christ with people who don't know him on Saturday at our Carol Service.

What a joy it is that Christ came into this world to save us and give us a certain hope of eternity with Him in a perfect new creation. We pray that you would know God's peace in the run up to Christmas. We are so grateful for all your prayer and support!

God bless,

Joshua & Luci :)

P.S - Bonus present - 'Find rest my soul in Christ alone' We hope you find this song a comfort through whatever you are going through.