Brothers & sisters in Jesus,
We saw two very great answers to our prayers this week. The first is about a man who a few members of our launch team have known for over three years. He would always tell us that he would never enter a church. Yet because of the Lord’s great grace, this man has been coming to our Sunday gatherings for the past few weeks. This is nothing but a mighty work of the Lord! A couple people in our launch team have been able to have him around for dinner, too, and it seems that he is growing in interest in what the Gospel is. And last week this man asked Chris if they could read the Bible together. This has been a great encouragement to our wee launch team, and we would ask for your earnest prayers that this man will repent and believe in Jesus.
Please also keep praying for the woman I have referred to before as the Bicycle Lady (because she gave me her spare bicycle a couple months ago). This lady used to be quite hostile to the church and then, as she grew more comfortable with being around members of the launch team, she was (and sometimes still is) a bit hot & cold. A man who lives in Madras Court has been inviting her and bringing her along to Sundays for the past few weeks, however, and this past week she came to the Sunday worship by herself even though her friend was out of town. She has been opening up more to me and other people in the launch team, as well, and I would ask for your prayers for our continued boldness as well as for opportunities to speak truth & grace in conversations with her. Pray that she would come to know our Lord Jesus!
And lastly, a friend sent me this quote by C. John “Jack” Miller, and it has been a great encouragement to me. May God cause these truths to inform our prayers and our affections for Christ this week: “There is ‘prayer’ and there is God-given prayer. The former is a superficial, the work of [spiritual] orphans who may be religious people but are unwilling to surrender human independence to the leadership of Christ. God-given prayer and praise have as their essence a waiting on God, or willingness to be wrought upon by the hammer and the fire of the Almighty, until the chains of self-centered desires fall away from the personality, and the love of Christ becomes the deepest hunger of the inner life.”
For the love of Christ to be the deepest hunger of our inner lives…amen and amen.
2 Thessalonians 3:1-5,
Claire
Claire in Scotland 