“We may feel that He doesn’t care or that He’s not listening, but He is. The fact that Jesus, the compassionate God-Man, came to earth, is proof that not only is He listening, but He cares. He cares deeply…
His heart aches almost until bursting point…
There is a reason He chose to come into the messy, chaotic pain of our lives. There is a reason that He weeps bitter tears at the hardness of people’s hearts.
We are more lost than we realise. But we’re not alone. There is one who sees, and He has compassion on us.”
– Mez McConnell, The Creaking on the Stairs, 93-94
With the beginning of Lent last week, I have been spending pointed time meditating on the shock and glory of the cross. And I’ve been thinking on what that means in regards to God’s love for us. And what that means for the schemes…
The vast majority of people in the schemes have broken or nonexistent families and have suffered abuse in some form or another. I’m sure that if many people in the schemes were honest in describing their feelings, “abandoned” and “unloved” would make the top of the tickets.
But we know that the abuse or neglect of our human family or society does not reflect the heart of God towards us. In that well-known and often over-looked passage in John 3, the Word of God says that “God [the Father] so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”
The Father loves us! What an astounding truth. May that humble us and fill us with joy. And may this good news of great joy propel us to the nations.
“How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns.’” Isaiah 52:7
Ways you can pray:
- Please pray for the people living in the schemes…pray that the Holy Spirit would reveal to them what in our own strength is inconceivable: that God loves us and has made a way [the cross] for repentant sinners to be adopted as sons in His family. In Christ we are never unloved. Oh that the people in the schemes would know this love and live!
- We should probably pray the above for ourselves, too. How often we lose sight of Christ and the love of the Father!
- Please join me in praying for the Robertson family and for the community of Charleston; see below for more information!
Picture for this week:
This is the Robertson family. Andy Robertson is the church planter of Charleston Community Church in Charleston, Dundee.
“Charleston is a scheme in the west end of Dundee with a population of just over 4,500 people. Like most housing schemes in Scotland, it has high unemployment, a high crime rate, and high instances of drug and alcohol abuse. Around 35% of the residents in Charleston are unemployed and 60% of them live in the bracket of the 15% most socially deprived people in Scotland. This is an area of great social need but the greatest need is spiritual. The 4500+ people in this area need the truth and hope of the gospel more than anything else.” -20schemes
Here also is a picture of the church. It meets in a building that used to be the old Charleston post office.
“We want it to be a church made up of people from Charleston that will do four key things: REACH the lost with the gospel, TEACH people how to live obediently to Jesus, TRAIN future gospel leaders and SEND them out to other parts of Dundee and Scotland.” – Andy Robertson
“My song is love unknown/My Savior’s love to me/Love to the loveless shown/That they might lovely be//”,
Claire
Claire in Scotland 