No.27 - By faith and not by sight

Trusting in God's plan, we need not worry.

Verse of the Week

'You have searched me, Lord, and you know me.

You know when I sit and when I rise;

you perceive my thoughts from afar.

You discern my going out and my lying down;

you are familiar with all my ways.

Before a word is on my tongue

you, Lord, know it completely.'

Psalm 139:1-4

Father God, we praise you that you know us. Nothing we do think or say is outside of your knowledge. When things feel out of control, we praise you that we can hold onto the truth that nothing is a surprise to you. You know all that will happen to us, and we can trust that you are with us through it all.

Father, we rejoice that you love and care for us, even though you know us completely. Give us the strength to trust in your good plans and take comfort in your knowledge of all things.

Encouragements

Praise the Lord, I had a great time enjoying God's creation as I joined in with a friend's Stagg do. I also had the opportunity to have some wonderful conversations about the gospel and ministry work.

I also found thinking over Sunday's sermon particularly helpful. It was wonderful to be reminded that God's grace is bigger than our unfaithfulness. Also, thinking about how, I want to keep trying to live for God in everything, but I don't need to worry that one wrong decision will stop me from enjoying eternity with God in the New Creation.

I spent some time looking through my notes from the bible study conference I attended last week. it was a real encouragement to be reminded of the joys of having our names written in heaven. It was very helpful to be reminded of the shared goal of the church, to build each other up, rather than compete to be the best. And it was inspiring to be reminded of the eternal impacts of sharing the bible with others.

A Little Update

Here are a few of the things we've been up to and some of what we've got coming up. Praise the Lord for he is good!

The Last Week

• Prepared for - Bible study, JTD kids teaching, Christian book

• Monday - Ran a music rehearsal for Sunday

• Thursday - Visited my Grandad in Hospital

• Friday - Visited Church family to pray and share the bible

• Saturday - Attended a Christian book group

• Saturday - Looked through notes from bible study conference

• Sunday - Led the sung worship in Church

• Sunday - Led the prayers in Church

The Next Few Weeks

• Mid-day bible study

• 17th April - Helping with Maundy Thursday Church Meal

• 18th April - Leading Sung worship at our Good Friday meeting

• 19th April - Helping to run our Church Easter event

• 30th April - TEAM Bible Course restarting

• 30th April - Helping with our Church Members Meal

• 2nd May - Leading an evangelistic event - leading the singing and giving a short talk

• 14th May - Attending a Church Trustees meeting

• 18th May - Giving a talk on studying the bible at our teaching session before church (Joining The Dots Adults)

• 29th May-1st June - Attending the St Helen's 10am weekend away

• 10th-12th June - Attending a Presbyterian Christian Conference (Catalyst)

Prayer Requests

We would love your prayers for all of our Church Easter events. We have a few great opportunities to share the gospel and build relationships with people in the community. If it is God's will we would love lots of people to hear the good news of the cross and start coming along to church to learn more.

Thank you so much for all your kind prayers and support.

Thinking of you all,

Much love :)

Joshua & Luci.

P.S. - If you want to hear more about how I've been delighted by Christ over the last week, feel free to listen to the video below. Again there have been some challenges this week, but God is good and so it has also been filled with many reasons to rejoice. (In this video I share my Evangelistic talk and my notes from my bible study Conference). I hope you may find it encouraging too :)