Carol’s Blog

February

Carol Purves Carol's Blog

‘Behold, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth, the time for singing has come.’ Song of Solomon. 2:11-12

I don’t like February, yet we have this month each year. It is fortunate for me that it is the shortest one and now this year it is nearly over. But that feeling is wrong because it is the month when the plants and seeds are resting in the ground. The spring flowers are nearly ready to show their heads. Snowdrops are popping up everywhere. In my own small garden I have just four snowdrops in bloom, but when they are ready I’ll divide them and there will be more next year. Their delicate white heads are a real harbinger of spring.

Daffodils are appearing in the garden and parks and wayside verges. Last week I saw my first crocuses for this year. It is a time to be patient. I’ve filled my garden pots with winter pansies and primroses and only cover them with bubble wrap if the temperature gets below freezing.

The days are becoming longer and the hours of darkness are less. Each day there is something fresh to see. This is a time of anticipation and expectation. New hopes, new adventures, and new excitements. I must get to love the month of February. God has all the months in His master plan.

Active not Passive

Carol Purves Carol's Blog

Being a Christian is not a passive activity. It is said that sin flourishes if good people do nothing. We need to resist the devil and deliberately oppose all that is wrong by doing good in the face of this evil. We should not be people who quietly sit in the pews., listening and agreeing. Life is a battle, let us go out and be active.

No longer are we a Christian country. It is in my lifetime that this has come about. When I was a child nearly everyone went to Sunday School; this is no longer the case. I wonder how much guilt we should feel for this state of affairs. The Bible tells us we are in a battle, we need to be properly kitted out and prepared. May we all be challenged to speak to one unbeliever this week about our faith. It is no good saying we are too shy or inarticulate. The Holy Spirit is by our side, He will give us the words. So every time we speak to someone, we can ask ourselves if this is the holy conversation we are meant to be having this week? Is this the person God wants us to share His Good News with?

The Voice of Prayer

Carol Purves Carol's Blog

‘The voice of prayer is never silent, nor dies the strain of praise away.’ John Ellerton

It is so exciting to realise that 42/7 prayer is ascending up to heaven. When I am asleep I am not praying (though it is a time when God continues to care for me). Most of the people in my country will not be praying, only insomniacs and night workers. This doesn’t mean that there is no prayer all round the world.

Prayer will be uttered by the shepherds in Bethlehem, in spite of the country being war-torn. When they sleep prayer will be sent up from the mountains of Nepal and the plains of New Zealand. When we are distracted, others will be praying. There will never be an absence of prayer.

It’s an exciting thought, as some sleep others are taking up the baton. Wave upon wave will be wafted up to heaven, or shot up in the form of arrow prayers. Some will be short prayers, others will be long and elaborate will hear them.

‘The sun that bids us rest, is waking our brethren ‘neath the western skies, and hour by hour fresh lips are making Your wondrous doings heard on high. John Ellerton

Trustable

Carol Purves Carol's Blog

No, you won’t find this word in the dictionary. Trust, trusted, trustworthy, trustfulness trustiest and trusting, they are all there. The word ‘trustable’ was uttered by a youngster on national television, about a trustworthy person in his life, but in the stress of the occasion he couldn’t find the right word. ‘Trustable,’ don’t you jut love it.

Our God is completely ‘trustable’, absolutely and completely. Because we’re using a different word, maybe we will think about it more. ‘God is our refuge and strength, an ever present help in trouble.’ Psalm 46. You can’t get anything more strong and reliable than a rock. ‘God alone is my rock and my salvation. I shall never be shaken’ Psalm 62:2. ‘God is my light and salvation, whom shall I fear. The Lord is the strength of my life, of whom shall I be afraid?’ Psalm 27:1

The Bible is overflowing with words of dependability describing our God. But I think ‘trustable’ is a good way of putting it.

Church Mission Statement

Carol Purves Carol's Blog , ,

I would like to share with you our church mission statement.

A family that strives to be

Whole-hearted for God

Open-hearted for each other

Broken-hearted for the world.

We want to be whole-hearted for God, whatever it may cost and we know it will cost. Jesus told us that. We want to be all for Him when the going gets tough, when we are persecuted and the world doesn’t understand us or hates us because of what we believe and the stand we make. May we not be like the Laodiceans, neither hot or cold. We want to give this Christian life all we’ve got.

We want to be open-hearted for each other, trusting each other, being there for each other. Again it can be costly. Being there when we are needed by others, it will sometimes be inconvenient, time costly, money costly. But the other members of the congregation are our brothers and sisters in Christ.

We want to be broken-hearted for the world. Our world is in a terrible mess; we realise this whatever our situation or country of origin. It would be depressing to even list the world problems. May the Holy Spirit lead us to help where we can.

Our Every Provision

Carol Purves Carol's Blog

What do we trust? In out modern society we often forget that all we have ultimately comes from God. We’ve all heard about the young lad who thought milk came from cartons or bottles and was amazed to see a cow being milked. Even if today we are using milk substitutes, the ingredients will still come from God. Our food is all grown somewhere in the world. Again any substitutes come from God-provided substitutes

What about the air we breathe? It’s all provided by God As we take each breathe we don’t think about it. Only when the air-quality is poor caused by pollution or adverse weather conditions do we give it a thought. Mars and the moon have different atmospheres, but they are still provided by God. When harvest festivals were more popular it was a reminder of where our food came from. ‘We plough the fields and scatter the good seed on the land, But it is fed and watered by God’s almighty hand.’ Matthias Claudius.

Our provisions are not from super-markets, our wealth is not from banks (where thieves break through and steal). We can’t rely on ourselves, we are weak and fallible. ‘Our help comes from the Lord, maker of heaven and earth.’ Ps 121:2

t

Heavenly Instructions.

Carol Purves Carol's Blog

‘Go’, ‘Get up,’ ‘Come, follow me,’ ‘Love.’ ‘Pray.’ Jesus gave many instructions to the crowds and His followers. Those instructions are the same He gives to us today. ‘Go;’ we are instructed to go and tell others about His love and sacrifice. Only a few of us go to other nations and work on what is known as the ‘mission fields.’ But we can all go and tell others, our neighbours, family, office colleagues, and work mates. It is the same instruction today, ‘Go.’

‘Get up.’ As we become older it becomes more difficult. I am not so eager to get up and obey His wishes for my life on any particular day; getting up is less inviting. But we need to get up, there are people who need our help and need to hear the good news.

‘Come follow Me,’ This is costly and out of our comfort zone. Telling others is not easy. Following our Master is not always comfortable or convenient.

‘Do not..’ There are those who think following the Christian life is a series of ‘Do Not’s.’ But every time we hear this instruction it is for our good and to keep us safe. This message could be expanded to ‘Do not because I have something better for you.’

Never Alone

Carol Purves Carol's Blog

As a mature English woman I was travelling alone right across Russia with a party of Australians. Talk about being out of my comfort zone! My knowledge of Russian was about three words, the country I was travelling across was beautiful but strange to my Western eyes. The Australians were delightful and friendly, but their lifestyle was so different from mine. My only constant was God, He was with me all the way.

I was reminded of the words of the Psalmist in Psalm 139:10 ‘if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there Your hand will guide me.’ By reading and meditating on God’s word when I had the opportunity I could appreciate God’s beauty in creation, the majesty of some of Russia’s architecture and the kindness of the Russians. I appreciated the warmth and companionship of my fellow travellers, I recognised God in the eyes of the street children in Vladivostok and the military precision of the Kremlin guards. I was able to prove that God was indeed at the far ends of the earth.

Sometimes it takes being lonely to feel closer to God.

.

Not all the Answers

Carol Purves Carol's Blog

Sallie had questions. She wanted to believe in God but had so many questions. She thought that when she could find the answers, she could then come to love God. But God doesn’t organise things like that. How can our finite minds understand everything about a finite God? Then Sallie caught covid, she was one of the very ill patients, was hositialized and very nearly died. As she slowly recovered she had time to think and to know that she would never know all the answers to her questions. She decided to just accept and give her life to God. As the saying goes ‘Let Go and let God.’ God was able to work through her illness and her acceptance.

Vivienne married and moved to a remote village where she knew no-one except her new family. There was no way the villagers were going to accept her and only referred to her as David’s (her husband) wife or Stewart’s (her father-in-law) daughter-in-law. He was an important man in the village. Then she was diagnosed with breast cancer. ‘Oh Lord,’ she cried, ‘Aren’t I suffering enough? Then her neighbour who had also suffered from this disease invited her in for a cup of tea. The villagers, previously hostile, began to help her with all the things she couldn’t do. Suddenly she was accepted and became part of the village.

Our God is able to turn round bad things and use them for our and His good.