Good morning on Sunday the 28th June
Hello friends!!
Its Carolynn here, Mark asked if I could share some of my experiences and reflections over the last few months …and I gladly said yes.
Hopefully there are some words of encouragement in some of what I share
of how God has taken care of me over the weeks and months since we were last together.
During this time, I have really had a profound feeling of security and protection from the Holy Spirit.
Stating the very obvious the world has felt a very different place recently for all of us.
It has felt a little frightening and scary.
For me I feel I have had a tiny taste of how our parents and grandparents must have felt
during war time.
Fearing for our lives … but in a very different way.
But I have known God’s love especially through this time.
I have been so blessed especially by the book of psalms
God has been so close reinforcing for me thattrue gifts are a million miles away from worldly things.
I have been wrapped up in the Psalms and the encouragement and love I have felt has been wonderful
It has felt like God has wrapped me up in a warm blanket
Psalm 46 v 1 to 3
God is our refuge and strength
An ever-present help in trouble
Therefore, we will not fear, though the earth give way
And the mountains fall into the heart of the sea
Though its waters roar and foam
And the mountains quake with their surging
Lord we pray to You in these strange times
Thankyou God for your faithfulness.
Thankyou Lord that we know we are loved
Thankyou Lord for helping us and for meeting all our needs
We want to lift your name on high
We want to praise you
Help us to share time together with you and meditate and rest in You, with a desire to know your heart
In the thankful name of your son Jesus Christ
Amen
I can say how thankful I have felt for the gift of memories.
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I remember the joy I have felt when I am in the company of our fellowship
Yes … this is something I have really missed.
Also, the joy and feeling of being uplifted when we praise and worship together, the comfort of praying together and the sharing of the word.
Of course, Mark has been brilliant … and Irene too on a Sunday morning… when I sit down to listen to the sermons and reflectionsit feels like we are together again.
This time of lockdown has heightened my dependence on God.
When things are unpredictable and our security is shaken there really is no better place to go.
I have felt great sadness for the victims of the Covid19 epidemic, for those who have suffered so much and for the families who have lost loved ones to it.
We have heard the word hero so much over these last few months
My own thoughts of heroes of the past have really been challenged too
Especially over these last few weeks
It is probably easier to admire a hero than to define one.
Heroes are often unaware of their moments of heroism.
They just do the right thing at the right time
Perhaps one of the qualities they share is to think of others before they think of themselves.
We have seen in these times how the medical and nursing teams throughout the world have cared for the sick.
Their sensitivity to those in need, not just providing the medical and nursing care but the way they have supported the patients and their families psychologically.
It has been wonderful to witness.
These are in my mind acts of heroism.
The frontline workers have put themselves right there, including our very own Carmen.
They have done what has been asked and I know all of you are as grateful as me God has kept Carmen safe and pray that he continues to do so.
Jesus was absolutely aware of what God, His father was asking Him to do, and in His humanness, we can only imagine the fear in His heart.
What a hero
As Jesus gave His life for us …. So that through the trinity, the Father, Son and Spirit we can come to our hero, who meets our every need, who calms our every fear, every time we bow in prayer.
This time of lockdown has provided me with so much God time
And in my reflections, I have realised I have so many things to be grateful for.
Counting my blessings has been something I rarely do
In the usual busyness of our lives I have taken so many things for granted
I have been so blessed by the Word
The relevance at this time in history is so current, His word is timeless.
Just being with God and seeing His beauty has been so affirming
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God has stopped me doing all the unnecessary stuff and helped me to sit still and just love Him and be blessed by Him
I was so grateful for the prayers of the fellowship when Dusty had a spell in hospital.
It was quite an upsetting time but God’s love got us through.
What helped in my own prayers, was knowing I had an army of believers praying in unity for healing
Thankyou!
I felt secure in the belief that God was right in there too.
Giving me perfect assurance
God provided in His word the comfort I needed
Psalm 46 v 5
God is within her, she will not fall
God will help her at the break of day. Wow I love Him so much!
Right at the beginning of lockdown, when I was asked if I could help out at the renal unit at Blackburn I said yes.
Knowing how they are struggling to staff the unit and knowing that the patients are so vulnerable.
I have been working in quite a safe environment and am certainly no hero but I felt it gave me some purpose.
I have been drawn to the Psalms all the way through and even though I did come across some patients who did test positive I felt no fear because I know God was there right in the middle of the unit.
Psalm 139, for me it was like God had wrapped a blanket around me
Oh Lord you have searched me
And you know me
You know when I sit and when I rise
You perceive my thoughts from afar
You discern my going out and my lying down
You are familiar with all my ways
Before a word is on my tongue
You know it completely Oh Lord
You hem me in behind and before
You have laid your hand upon me
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me
too lofty for me to attain
Where can I go from your Spirit
Where can I flee from your presence
If I go up to the heavens you are there
If I make my bed in the depths you are there
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If I rise on the wings of the dawn
If I settle on the far side of the sea
Even there your hand will guide me
Your right hand will hold me fast
If I say Surely the darkness will hide me
And the light become night around me
Even the darkness will not be dark to you
The night will shine like the day
For darkness is as light to you
For you created my inmost being
You knit me together in my mother’s womb
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made
Your works are wonderful
I know that full well
My frame is not hidden from you
When I was made in the secret place
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth
Your eyes saw my unformed body
All the days ordained for me were written in your book
Before one of them came to be
How precious to me are your thought’s O God
How vast is the sum of them?
Were I to count them
They would outnumber the grains of sand
When I wake I am still with you?
If only you would slay the wicked, O God
Away from me you blood thirsty men
They speak of you with evil intent
Your adversaries misuse your name
Do I not hate those who hate you O Lord?
And abhor those who rise up against you?
I have nothing but hatred for them
I count them my enemies
Search me, O God and know my heart
Test me and know my anxious thoughts
See if there is any offensive ways in me
And lead me in the way of everlasting
We know our God is everywhere and because we know this we can never be lost to His spirit
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No matter what we do, where we go, we are never far from God’s comforting presence
God character goes into the creation of every person.
If ever you feel worthless please remember God’s Spirit is ready to work with you.
I started today with verses from Psalm 46
Here we read that God is always there to help, providing refuge, security and peace
Gods power is complete and His ultimate victory is certain.
He will not fail you
He will not fail to rescue you who love Him
As Mark said last week, who would have predicted what has happened so far this year?
So, for us who are believers in our almighty and everlasting God we should not fear
We should have confidence completely in God’s ability to protect us.
God is our refuge even in times of utter destruction.
He should not be a temporary retreat in times of trouble but our eternal refuge and provider of strength in all circumstances
In Psalm 139 we see how well God knows us and we know how amazing it is that He still loves us
He is with us through every situation and trial
Every joy we have and every tear we shed
Psalm 91
He who dwells in the shelter of the most high
Will rest in the shadow of the Almighty…
God is our shelter and refuge and our protector
Who carries us through all the dangers and fears of life
By resting in Him we trade all our fears for faith in Him
No matter how intense our fears are we must dwell in Him
What I love about this Psalm is the assurance of His protection when He commands His angels to guard us
v 11 For He will command his angels concerning you
To guard you in all your ways
And for our children too
Jesus says in Matthew 18
See that you do not look down on one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my father in heaven.
Certain angels in heaven are assigned to watch over our children having direct access to God
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I found this reflection by David Jeremiah of some of the amazing things to come from sheltering in God
He says:
We cannot tell what God is going to do with this time of sheltering but we know what God has done during and after times of sheltering in the past
And once you review the truth of history, I think you will know what He is going to do this time too.
God sheltered Noah and his family for 1 year in the ark, until Noah emerged to become the father of all the nations of the world
God sheltered Jacob in the home of his Uncle Laban when he needed to escape the wrath of Esau – his brother. 20 years later Jacob emerged with a new family, new wealth and a new identity, he became Israel, the new name of God’s chosen people
God sheltered Joseph from his 17th year to his 30th but his slavery and prison became a school where God prepared him for greatness
God sheltered Moses in a remote desert for 40 years but Moses came forward to liberate the Jewish people from Egypt
God sheltered Naomi in the baron land of Moab, until she nearly became bitter but she and her daughter-in-law, Ruth travelled to Bethlehem to participate in one of the greatest love stories of history
God sheltered David for 15 years after he had been anointed king of Israel and when David finally assumed the throne, he was a man after God’s own heart and he gave us many of the psalms
God sheltered Elijah by the brook Cherith and after sheltering, he stood alone against the prophets of Baalon mount Carmel
God sheltered Jonah for 3 days and 3 nights in the belly of a whale. When the sheltering was over Jonah went to Nineveh and preached his greatest revival
God sheltered Danial for 70 years in Babylon where he wrote this old testament book, bearing his name, outlying the future of God’s dealings with his people
God sheltered Esther while in the palace of the Persian king and she saved her people from destruction
God sheltered his disciples in the upper room for 10 days until the Holy Spirit descended in dramatic fashion to form and fashion the church
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God sheltered Paul in the Arabian desert for 3 years and when he came back he turned the world upside down
God later sheltered Paul in a Roman prison.
By the time the apostle was free he had written the prison EPISTLES, Ephesians’, Philippians and Philemon
God sheltered the apostle John on the island of Patmos and the book of revelations, the greatest document of all time was given to us
And lastly and most incredibly, God sheltered Jesus in the tomb for 3 days and on the 3rd day Jesus came forth in power to bring salvation to the whole world
So, we don’t know all the details about what God is going to do
But what we do know is what God has done. And this is what we can count on
God, who sheltered his people in the biblical days isn’t going to stop now
So, come what may, I’m trusting in the sheltering of God to be my refuge and so can you
Just as the prophets were unaware of the larger purpose of their lives, we don’t know either
We will not know the full purpose and importance of our lives until we are able to look back from the perspective of eternity.
God’s plans involve extraordinary events in ordinary peoples lives.
We need to make our choices, with God’s eternal values in mind.
We need to live in faithfulness to God knowing that the significance of our lives will extend beyond our lifetime.
Why has God protected me?
Among all the suffering I will never know why but I know he has.
We can experience Jesus’ love and guidance as we allow the Holy Spirit to do His work in us
Isiah 25 v4 says
For you have been a refuge for the poor
A refuge for the needy in distress
A shelter from the storm
And a shade from the heat
Dear Lord
Help us in times of uncertainty to keep our eyes on you
Lord give us the courage and strength to help others who are suffering around us
When we rest in your strength we know we are safe from all harm
We pray for all who have sadly been affected by sickness
We pray for physical healing and pray for those who have recovered from covid19 but who are still suffering from its effects
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We pray for the bereaved Lord …there are so many
Lord I pray for our fellowship, for those who are unwell and for those who are feeling isolated and lonely, let them feel your presence
Lord we lift up those who are in fear of their jobs and living in financial insecurity
Lord we pray for our brothers and sisters who suffer prejudice because of the colour of their skin.
We pray against hatred and division
We pray for our government to take this opportunity to make real changes to help future generations live in a fair and just society
Lord we just pray for your heart to be at the centre of all we do and say
We offer these prayers in Jesus name
And to close…. Aarons prayer
The Lord bless you and keep you
The Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you
The Lord turn His face towards you and give you peace
Amen