No.15 - Eternal rest

A wonderful start to 2025 with lots of God's word and God's people.

Verse of the Week

'And God said to him, “I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply. A nation and a company of nations shall come from you, and kings shall come from your own body.'

Genesis 35:11

I thought this promise from God to Jacob was amazing, particularly as we know that God sent Jesus, a descendant of Jacob, who is now ruling the whole world. God really is Almighty!

Encouragements

I had such a wonderful time prepping a talk in Mark's gospel on listening to Jesus (Even if I did spend 3h preparing the wrong passage).

I got the chance to meet up with a few members of our church. It was a real privilege to chat through some of the psalms and think about Christ's uniqueness.

One of my highlights of the week was hearing a section of Hebrews 4 preached. What a joy it was to fix our eyes on the eternal and perfect rest we will enjoy with God in the new creation!

A Little Update

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

The Past Week

The Next Few Weeks

Prayer Requests

We would love prayer that:

• God would keep our eyes fixed on the glorious rest we will have in the new creation.

• God would give us the wisdom to know how best to love our friends and family.

• God would increase my joy for God’s word as I prepare to teach and preach it.

As you may have spotted in the little update above, I am going to be doing my first sermon in less than 4 weeks! I would love your prayers. I am very excited but also a bit nervous. I'll make sure to keep you updated over the next few weeks.

Thank you so much for praying for us. It is such a joy to be partnering together in sharing the good news of the gospel.

Love and prayers to you all,

Joshua & Luci :)

P.S. - Bonus present - I have created a video sharing some of the ways I have been delighted by Christ over the last week or two. I'm still fairly new to creating videos / speaking on camera so you may not find it that helpful. However, I found it very encouraging to make. So I thought I'd share it here with you :)

TEAM Notes - Click arrow to view

Bible Overview

Session 10: Judges and the beginning of monarchy

The repeated cycle in Judges

• Israel do evil

• God punishes them

• Israel cried out to God

• God raises us a Judge who saves them

• Israel has peace while the judge lives

Other points

• In Judges things get worse and worse

• The book ends with Isreal being a mess

• They had no king

• We see the evil nature of the human heart

God is the king they need but they want a human king

Saul starts great but fails tragically

As he disobeys God and won’t repent

The Doctrine of the Trinity

The Trinity sets Christianity apart from other religions

God’s actions on earth can show what He is like

The Trinity is good news

• Communication is part of God’s nature

• God created everything out of generosity

• We are saved into the glorious relationship of the Trinity

  
  

The Trinity combines 3 biblical truths

• There is only one God

• God is three persons

• Each person is fully God

  
  

Other points

• Lots of New Testament shows the Trinity interacting

• The Son comes from the Father, but wasn’t created/has always existed

• The Spirit comes from the Father and Son

Biblical Counselling

Biblical counselling - bringing God’s wisdom from the bible to a particular person’s life

Helpful questions to understand better

• How are they feeling about the situation?

• What have they done already?

• What actions are they thinking of taking?

There has been a shift lately to

• Relying on our own strength

• Prioritising help from ‘Experts’

We want to remember

• The power to change comes from Christ

• We need to change at a heart level

• As Christians, we can counsel each other

There is no bit of life that the gospel doesn’t apply to

Even the most complex problems

Suffering in the bible is often said to

• Strengthen our faith and

• Transform us to be more like Christ

The Bible seems to encourage us to mourn and rejoice through our suffering, rather than seek to remove it from our lives now

Love and prayers,

Joshua