No.5 - A faithful God

A faithful God, over 365 days of marriage and an evangelistic party.

Verse of the Week

'Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.'

Hebrews 10:23

God is faithful. He will keep His promises. It is because of the promises God has given us that we can have peace. So much of my lack of peace is due to forgetting God's promises or doubting they are real. Lord God, help us not to doubt your faithfulness, but find peace in your promises. Amen.

Encouragements

Praise the Lord, we had over 100 people at our evangelistic event, The Bright Lights Party, this week! It was such a joy to be a part of so many families from Upton hearing about Jesus. We were able to give copies of the gospel to each family, along with invitations to church and future events. Please do pray for the Upton families; it would be wonderful for them to come to know Jesus as their saviour!

We also want to praise God as He has helped us both remain calm throughout the running of this event. It was a big prayer of mine to try to love and serve all the people who I had asked to help out with the event, and through God's grace, I feel I was able to support and encourage them well.

A Little Update

It has been a wonderful week, starting with celebrating our 1 year wedding anniversary and ending with an evangelistic party. Praise God we're both looking forward to getting more stuck into reading and teaching the bible over the next few weeks. (Click the arrows below to learn more)

The Past Week

• Celebrated our 1 year wedding anniversary <3.

• Prepared music for an upcoming Men's Conference.

• Attended 'TEAM' a bible training course in Cambridge.

• Luci helped at the our evangelistic tots group.

• Ran our Bright Lights Party evangelistic event.

• Helped with Sunday kids work.

The Next Few Weeks

• Sunday mornings - Helping with JTD Kids

• Wednesday mornings - Luci is helping with an evangelistic Tots Group

• Thursday evenings - Dinner and Sermon application at Life group

• 29th Oct - Joshua's birthday :)

• 2nd Nov - Mens Prayer Breakfast

• 4th Nov - Both visiting Cornhill, a bible college in London, to study the book of Judges for a day.

• 6th Nov - Leading a TEAM small group study (On 1 Thessalonians)

• 7th Nov - Starting to help host a Christianity explored course with our life group

• 8th-9th Nov - Joining the St Helen's 10am weekend at home

• 16th Nov - Leading the music at a Mens Conference

• 20th Nov - Leading a TEAM small group study (On Ruth)

• 21st Nov - Helping with my first primary school RE lesson

• 27th Nov - TEAM Teaching Day on Mission

Prayer Requests

We would really love prayer that

• God would grow our understanding of His faithfulness, and so trust more in the promises He has given that bring us peace.

• God would help us to continue to grow in gentleness in all our interactions with each other.

• God would help us to point others to Christ, through God's word, as we start to meet up with more members of our church.

A Final Word

We feel very blessed to have such a wonderful group of people praying and supporting us in our ministry. We are so grateful for you all <3.

'In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.'

Romans 8:37-39

We love you all very much.

God bless,

Joshua & Luci :)

P.S - Bonus present - Here's a beautiful song about our Home in the New creation

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

TEAM Notes - Click arrow to view

Bible overview

Session 3 - The fall and the flood

Key bits - The fall

• Adam and Eve doubted - God’s goodness, word and rule

• God is so much more powerful than satan.

• But because we have joined satan’s side,

• He can’t destroy satan without destroying us.

• So God holds back for our sake

• God shows grace to Adam and Eve and provides hope

Key bits - The fall

• Things get really bad and God destroys all humanity

• But saves Noah who trusted God

• In Noah we see a picture of how salvation will come through one man by faith and save only the family of that one man.

• But a fresh start does not remove sin

New Testement Letters

Expanding - Bringing out the details of a passage

Tools for understanding a text

• Read and re read

• Repeated words and ideas

• Linking words

• Commands

• Translations

• Word definitions

• Highlighting

• Identifying metaphors and similes

• Character

• Odd bits

• Who is speaking

• Questions

Contracting - Summarising a passage

Summaries should be SAD: short, accurate and distinctive

If are summaries are 5 points long - we probably still don’t understand it

Helpful questions

• How does it fit into context

• How is it unique

• What’s the big idea - What

• What’s the purpose then - Why (for them)

Applying the passage

Aim - move from purpose for them to purpose for us

Helpful application categories

• Beliefs - Should / shouldn’t believe

• Emotions - Should / shouldn’t feel

• Behaviours - Should / shouldn’t do

Helpful structure for applying

• Application for the original readers

• How we are similar and different

• How does their application follow through to us

Useful to think about how the passage applies to

• The Church

• Christians

• Non-Christians

Workshops

Helpful reflections

• It can be helpful to start with looking at the big picture message as often we can get caught up in the details

• Being clear is important as people often don’t interpret things in the same way

• A clear structure can make understanding a passage much easier

Passage points

• Be encouraged - God's word produces growth and growth doesn't depend on us

• Jesus shows He is God by calming a storm - Have faith in God to look after you

Thanks so much for reading,

I hope it has helped point you to Christ.

God Bless xx