“Open Your Eyes – God is Amazing!”
Podcast Version of the Newsletter
The Feast Is Free
This time last year I was regretting not having done some blackberry picking. The area in which we live is blessed with many blackberry bushes. In order to harvest this free food, all we need to do is walk out of our house turn left, left again and we are confronted with bush after bush bearing beautiful fruit.
This year I decided not to pass up such a good opportunity.
When Ben Dannatt rang me yesterday for our weekly discipling phone call, I grabbed two plastic bags and my airpods. Whilst we talked about many and various deep spiritual issues I picked two bags of blackberries. They are now washed and cooked. Some in the fridge for festooning my breakfast porridge. Some in the freezer for a taste of summer when winter comes. How sad it would have been to miss out on this free food!
There’s a line in song we sometimes sing, “shall they starve and famish while a feast is free?”. I wonder how often I, and many of us, miss out on the richness of God’s offerings for us. Are you making the most of prayer, God’s word and spiritual disciplines? It’s all free! Just open your eyes – God is amazing!
Penny and I took a few days away for our 34th wedding anniversary and spent most of the time in gardens and walking country footpaths.
The glorious riches of God’s creation were all around us. Interesting birds, majestic trees, impressive shrubs, beautiful and, on occasion, rather strange flowers! Not to mention the insects, cloud formations, butterflies and other wildlife. Open your eyes – God is amazing.
Whether you’ve got blackberries to pick, or not, I pray that this week you find plenty of opportunity to make the most of what God has provided by his grace, love and power of the Spirit. Let me know what helps you to be reminded that God is amazing.
The podcast summary contains a reminder of what’s been posted on my site this week. I.e. the usual TTT, SS & QTC. To watch/listen to any posts, just head over the the website.
Prayer request
I have a very interesting meeting coming up this Sunday 1st September. I shall be meeting with a number of people from the Thames Valley churches of Christ to discuss how my role might shift given the changing needs of the church.
The balance of my “doing” things as opposed to training people needs to shift more in the direction of training, in my opinion. Please pray that God gives us wisdom to see in which areas I can be the most helpful to his glory and encouragement of the church.
Thank you for reading this far, and encouraging me in my endeavours to support our times of quiet with God, our corporate worship experiences, and the effectiveness of our preaching and teaching.
If you know anyone who might enjoy these materials, please send them a link to my website and encourage them to sign up for this newsletter.
God bless, Malcolm
