“…you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.” 1 Peter 1:18-21
WAYS YOU CAN PRAY:
- This week I got my one-way plane ticket to Inverness. Twenty-six days until I leave for Merkinch! Please pray for me as I walk through these remaining days with people I love at home. Please pray for comfort, for hope, for much joy, for a daily entrusting of ourselves to God. I would appreciate your prayers, too, that in the moments I feel fragile I would cling to Jesus.
- As I continue meeting the team members of Merkinch Free Church over Zoom and look ahead to being with them in person very soon, I would ask for prayer for me and the team. Please pray that there would be transparency and honesty right from the beginning, a deep bond as brothers & sisters in Jesus, and an excitement of being fellow laborers in the Gospel.
PICTURE FOR THIS WEEK:
I have been reading these two books this week, and it seems to be God’s kind providence that I am reading them almost side-by-side. The more I read the more I realize how much I have to learn – both about the people I will be living with in Merkinch and about the glory of the One who shed blood to welcome weary sinners.
McGarvey: “I know that sense of being cut off from the world, despite having such a wonderful view of it through a window in the sky; that feeling of isolation, despite being surrounded by hundreds of other people above, below and either side of you. But most of all, I understand the sense that you are invisible, despite the fact that your community can be seen for miles around and is one of the most prominent features of the city skyline. … In communities all over Britain where people experience multiple levels of deprivation in health, housing and education and are effectively politically excluded, anger is felt. And this anger is something we all have to get used to unless something changes.”
Ortlund: “And when Jesus tells us what animates him most deeply, what is most true of him – when he exposes the innermost recesses of his being – what we find there is: gentle and lowly. Who could ever have thought up such a Savior? … It is the most counterintuitive aspect of Christianity, that we are declared right with God not once we begin to get our act together but once we collapse into honest acknowledgement that we never will.”
Stick close to Jesus today,
Claire
Claire in Scotland 