I am preaching again tomorrow at our church. I am not sure how many times I have preached this year, maybe once every 4-6 weeks.
At our church we do our roster up for three months at a time. In that period I am usually on twice. Every now and someone asks me to fill in for them as they will be away.
Tomorrow I will be looking at two passages. The main one is James 1:3-12. I have three verses I want to highlight and talk about. They are verses 3, 5 and 12.
The other passage comes from 2 Corinthians 4:8-11, 16-18. This passage is to just give us some final encouragement before closing.
If you are interested I will put the full text and audio up here tomorrow afternoon.
Queen Elizabeth II inspects the jewel-encrusted Imperial State Crown.(BBC)
With the passing of Queen Elizabeth II, I have heard a lot of stories of her faith and service of God. One story I heard was a my favourite. It talks more about her sense of humour.
Around 2005, the Queen and her Personal Protection Officer, Dick Griffin, were walking alone one afternoon in the hills near the Scottish royal castle, Balmoral. Two tourists approached them, and engaged in conversation. Griffin recalls:
“There were two hikers coming towards us, and the Queen would always stop and say hello. “They were two Americans on a walking holiday. “It was clear from the moment we stopped that they hadn’t recognised the Queen, which was fine. “The American gentleman was telling the Queen where they came from, where they were going next, and where they’d been in Britain. “I could see it coming, and sure enough, he said to Her Majesty: ‘And where do you live?’ “She replied: ‘Well I live in London, but I’ve got a holiday home just the other side of the hills.’ “He said: ‘How long have you been coming up here?’ “She replied: ‘I’ve been coming up here ever since I was a little girl, so over 80 years.’ “You could see the cogs whirring, so he said: ‘Well, if you’ve been coming up here for over 80 years, you must have met the Queen.’ “Quick as a flash, she said: ‘I haven’t, but Dick here meets her regularly.’ The hiker then asked Griffin what the monarch was like in person. “Because I was with her a long time, and I knew I could pull her leg, I said: ‘Oh, she can be very cantankerous at times, but she’s got a lovely sense of humour.’ “The next thing I knew, this guy comes round, puts his arm around my shoulder, and before I could see what was happening, he gets his camera, GIVES IT TO THE QUEEN, and says: ‘Can you take a picture of the two of us?’ “Then we swapped places, and I TOOK A PICTURE OF THEM WITH THE QUEEN. “And we never let on, and we waved goodbye. “Afterwards, Her Majesty said to me: ‘I’d love to be a fly on the wall when he shows those photographs to his friends in America, and hopefully someone tells him who I am’.”
Last week we held our church service in another town. It is about 50km from where we live and regularly have church. We loaded everyone in to a bus or in cars and headed out.
We started doing this as an outreach and because we have some people who live in Westonia who come to our church each week. It makes it easier for them to invite their friends to church.
After a nice service we had a Fathers Day picnic at the local undercover area. We sat, talked, ate and had a quiz. It was a really nice way to do church.
So far this year we have done it twice that I have been to. Both times it was really fun. It is something I hope we continue to do as a church.
If you are interested you can watch the service above.
Here is a devotion from a great free resource I have used a lot over the years – Our Daily Bread. I found it encouraging today. I especially liked the statement about self control that I bolded…
A hole in the wall
Like a city whose walls are broken through is a person who lacks self-control. Proverbs 25:28
Something was eating my flowers. The day before, blooms proudly lifted their heads. Now they were headless stems. I prowled the perimeter of my yard and discovered a rabbit-sized hole in my wooden fence. Bunnies are cute, but the pesky animals can mow down a garden of flowers in minutes.
I wonder, might there be “intruders” shearing off the blooms of God’s character in my life? Proverbs 25:28 says, “Like a city whose walls are broken through is a person who lacks self-control.” In ancient days, the wall of the city protected it against invasion from enemies. Even a small opening in a wall meant that the entire city lay open to attack.
So many of the proverbs are about self-control. “If you find honey, eat just enough,” wrote the wise man (25:16). Self-control is a fruit of the Spirit that guards us, protecting us from losing ground to impatience, bitterness, greed, and other pests that can intrude and destroy God’s harvest in our lives (see Galatians 5:22–23). Self-control is a healthy-mindedness that watches for the holes in the walls of our lives and keeps them patched.
When I inspect the perimeter of my life, I can at times see vulnerable holes. A spot where I give in to temptation over and over. An area of impatience. Oh, how I need the healthy-minded self-control of God in my life to guard me from such intruders!
Dear God, please grow the fruit of self-control in my life that I might be protected from intruders. Amen.
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