Hi,
This week the magazine is the usual mixed bag (or 'from the sublime to the ridiculous' you might say) and that's not a bad thing.
Perhaps we could sum most of the content up as 'Things are happening and I had no idea'. Now, for some of the men in the congregation we could just be referring to the weekly housework. But nevertheless things are happening and that includes what God is doing in our lives as 'He accomplishes His perfect will' (see Scott's letter below) as well as the other good work that people are doing as they serve in various ways...for instance, those from Maxwell volunteering with East Ren Good Causes are delivering more help across the community this weekend. What an amazing work Russell heads up.
This weekend/week the Home Groups are meeting again - have you done your homework? And if you wanted further prep this weekend then you would do well to read John ch2 as on Sunday morning, we are looking at the account of the Wedding at Cana. No masks, and no restricted numbers - just upset, surprise, joy and wine. Lots and lots of wine. That's the Bible story I'm referring to, not the church service...although...
Enjoy the Mag.
MB
From the Manse
Dear Congregation,
I am completing this letter on the morning of Friday 14th May. I believe we shall be told later if Glasgow will move to level 2 on Monday or, because of the rising spread of COVID-19 in some locations, be held at level 3.
I confess I want to be done with COVID and done with it now! I am tempted to view this uncertainty as an unwanted frustration and I am wondering how I will feel if other parts of Scotland go to a lower level and Glasgow does not accompany them?
Covid restrictions may be near the top of life’s current frustrations. However, let’s not kid ourselves, life sets many more trip-wires over which we stumble into frustration.
Have you noticed the growing traffic and intensity of our fellow travellers, the traffic jams on the M8 and pressure on the M77 now early in the morning? Why are our children sitting school exams when we thought there were not to be any? Has any red mist descended upon the arranging of a dental appointment, an in-person GP consultation or the completion of a procedure at hospital? Have you reached the point of distraction during the day and sleeplessness at night?
Perhaps each individual frustration that we allow permission to surface, grumbles as it grows like a nagging appendicitis developing into full-blown toxic discontentment!
Discontentment tends to colour our view of life generally but especially our view of God, His ways and our walk with Him.
But.
What if we lived and worked with a day-to-day modus operandi that rested on the truth that God accomplishes His perfect will even in the things we consider frustrating? In this truth, what might the Holy Spirit be growing in us. Contentment? We have often noticed in Romans 8.28 the wee awkward word “all”.
“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him.”
If we know this, that God is at work in all things, then let’s make it our modus operandi to trust him even in the frustrations of life and seek the contentment the Spirit wants to grow in us.
It is helpful to ask from Romans 8 what “good” God is working out in believers. That “good” is most especially the conforming of believers day-to-day to the likeness of Jesus (vs 29).
When we study Jesus in the Scriptures, we see Jesus, discontent with the sin around Him, the ungodliness it spawns and the death it brings. But in regard to the day-to-day trip-wire frustrations of life? Jesus seems not only free from discontentment, but actually filled with contentment. How can that be as he was human like us? I think we see in Jesus a modus operandi that knows all things are in His Father’s hands and that God’s will is being worked out there. I think He knows He is securing through His life, death and resurrection a “…city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God" (Hebrews 11.10). And in this sure and certain hope, we rest content.
Have a read of Psalm 73. Pray it through line by line and ask the Lord to make its conclusion in vs 28 your own.
Ask the Holy Spirit to help you be content not just for your joy in life but for God’s glory!
And…with a new sense of trust in God, let’s hear what level of Covid restriction we will be at on Monday!
With warmest regards as ever,
Scott
Planters Have Been Planted
We are familiar with saying that the Christian message has much mystery attached to it.
The mysteries of the Gospel are wonderful and lead to eternal life.
There is currently a mystery at church, of a more temporal nature.
Who planted in the planters?
Whoever our mystery planter is, we are extremely grateful to you for taking the initiative, using your gifts and making the approach to worship so much brighter than before.
(The black tubs served their purpose but will disappear soon also!)
Many thanks,
Scott
New Fire Escape At Rear Of Church
Our last Fire Inspection required that we erect a fence and also lay a path on the route from the fire door in the stairwell of the church building.
Our Property Convener Brian Waugh has done a super job arranging this.
Let's pray we never have to use it!
PULSE is on Wednesday at 7.15pm - 8.30pm Look out for the Zoom link in your email inbox for this meeting.
Blacker than Black
As the Home Groups continue to look at how we, as Christians, engage and impact in our society and communities this article from Tim Challies seemed particularly relevant:
Vantablack
A team of scientists at Surrey NanoSystems has the distinction of having created the blackest black known to man. It is darker than soot, darker than coal, darker than night. Once an object has been coated in their patented Vantablack, it stops reflecting light so that all visible depth and texture are lost, and the object takes on the appearance of a void. Vantablack sets a world record by absorbing 99.96 percent of visible light.
I’ve met Christians who are kind of like that, who seem unable or unwilling to reflect the least divine light. They weep Jeremiah’s tears but never dance David’s dance, they recite Job’s lament but never join in Miriam’s praise. They prefer to cast shadows than to spread light. Yet this world is already plenty dark and has little need of even more gloom. Sorrow and despair it already has in abundance. So too bitterness, wrath, anger, and clamour. There is lots of sadness, but little cheer; plenty to weaken people’s knees, but little to strengthen them again; plenty to cause their hands to droop, but little to lift them up once more. The great need of our fellow Christians is not darkness, but light—light to cut through the gloom, light to brighten their eyes, light to illumine the way we all must go.
There are few who receive as much encouragement as discouragement, as much to raise them up as to beat them down. They need light! To them we can speak words of comfort, words of strength, words of assurance. We can remind them of the most important truths—that while they were still sinners, Christ died for them. We can assure them that God is at work in them by telling them of where his evidences of grace have been made manifest in their lives. We can comfort them with the rock-solid assurance that Christ will return and call us all to himself. In these ways and so many others we can brighten their hearts.
There are few who are more aware of the sin they’ve put to death than of the sin that remains, of how far they’ve come than of how far they still have to go. They need light! These can be reminded that God’s love for them does not waver by their degree of sanctification, but is fixed and constant because they have been fully redeemed by the work of Christ. They can be told once again that the work of putting sin to death and coming alive to righteousness is one that will reach its completion only at the grave. They can be reassured that it is their growth in grace that prompts them to greater grief even over lesser sins. We can brighten their path as they continue on the journey to heaven.
There are few who go through life without experiencing some terrible pains and some deep sorrows. They need light! They need to be reminded that they are following in the footsteps of a Saviour who was himself severely afflicted, a man of sorrows well acquainted with grief, yet one who did it all for the joy that was set before him. They need to hear again that God has promised to work all things for good, so that there are not two classes of providence—some good and some bad—but only those that are working toward some great and beautiful end. They need to be told that our afflictions, though so heavy here and now, will soon be proven light when they give way to an eternal weight of glory. We can bring divine brightness to their darkest days.
Jesus is the light of the world and the light that was in him has been given to us so that we are now the very sons of light. We have the light so we might be the light. We are the light to the sons of darkness who cannot see the way to salvation, but also to our fellow sons of light who know the way but whose hearts have grown heavy, whose feet have become weary, who have been waylaid on their journey.
And so each of us ought to ask: Who needs me to reflect God’s light today? Who needs me to speak courage to their fear, gladness to their sorrow, encouragement to their despondency? Who needs me to bring a glimmer of divine light to their deep darkness? At the final accounting we will all marvel at how much good was done by a simple visit, a simple card, a simple word of encouragement. Each of us will be surprised and delighted to hear, “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.”
Ladybird Book of Maxwell
Registering for Worship
Please continue to book for Sunday Services. (If services are oversubscribed, places will be allocated as fairly as possible on a rota basis, and you do not need to worry that you are taking a place away from someone else.)
The cut-off for registering for places on Eventbrite for Sunday worship each week is 11pm on the Thursday before
If there is space for you to attend in person, you will receive an email from Eventbrite on the Friday morning immediately prior to the Sunday (this is in addition to the original Eventbrite confirmation email that you have registered for places).
Please do not attend if you have not received this second email.
The services will continue to be live-streamed - click here for the church page on YouTube.
If you have any difficulties with the booking process or have any questions, please contact Lorna Hamilton on 07736 420564 or the Church office.