This Sunday

After a number of quiet Sundays it was good to be a little fuller yesterday. It was a great blessing to welcome Erika back from the States. She is working with a mission here in London and needed a new visa to return. An answer to prayer that she was able to return so swiftly. She had with her Christine who will be with the mission for 6 months or so as well.
We are aiming to start homegroups in February. Will likely be just one to start with, but the plan is to try and grow that group until we can split it and make 2. We're also hoping to start a new Christianity Explored group in Feb. Haven't done one for a while so praying we will get a good group up and running.
Was preaching on Mark 11v27-12v12 yesterday - God's great reversal. It is fairly depressing to see how the Jewish leaders would not humble themselves before God's messengers and accept their authority. An unwillingness to admit the guilt in their hearts and have their "righteousness" masks removed and a desire to retain control seem to be at the heart of their rejection. Sadly these traits are not unfamiliar to our own hearts either. Wonderfuly though God does a great reversal in Jesus. He is the last messenger and "The Son he loves", and though these leaders (builders) rejected him and killed him, God raised him from the dead. "The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone; and it is marvelous in our eyes!"
So now Jesus lives forever holding a message of mercy and an opportunity to return to God even for those in a state like these leaders. I wonder if a young Saul the Pharisee was around at this point? Perhaps not. But certainly the light of the resurrection and the glory of the "capstone" transformed him from just this condition. There is hope for all of us who hide behind masks of good Christian behaviour and don't want to lose control. The hope is in God's great reversal.
God's blessing to all of you.

Welcome to 2010!!!

This is just a short one to update on some news. Blogging from my phone which isn't the easiest. We had really good Christmas. My parents came up Christmas Eve, and we had Kate and Hyasmine for Christmas dinner too. Wondefully Kate heard on Christmas Eve that she was being granted leave to remain in this country, so we were very joyful and still are. Boxing Day we went up to my sister and her family in Buckinghamshire. All the kids had a great time together which is a really big blessing. The adults did alright too!

Christmas Day service was very sparce, but we had four visitors from Holland as well as a mum and daughter that we hadn't seen for a while. Small and jolly :) and certainly worthwhile. Sunday 27th was also small, but again we had a 2 new faces. Jan's daughter Shelly is over from Aus so it was great to welcome her. Then a lady called Amy. She brought her husband Kevin this week. She seems to be following the Lord, though he isn't. Both seemed interested in doing some Bible study during the week, which was very encouraging.

The boys are back to school tomorrow - so I need to get to bed. Our text on Sunday was this:

Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your way acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight. (Pardon all the spelling mistakes in this post. Blame it on the tiny keyboard.)