Monday Spot (18 February 2008)
Majors Drew and Beverley McCombe were our leaders at yesterday’s meetings. It seems ages since they were with us for a Sunday and, in fact, we note it was as long ago as 20 January (Vision Sunday) and even then Major Kathy led our evening worship.
Major Beverley
Major Beverley led our morning meeting taking as her subject ‘Receiving God’s Help’. She used Psalm 121 and 1 Kings 19:1-18 as her scripture and songs 9 and 695 from The Salvation Army Song Book together with 673 and 877 from Songs of Fellowship. Once again the Singing Company sang beautifully, giving us ‘Sing, Children Sing’ and the Songsters brought ‘Without You’ and ‘Vesper’ both as an aid to opening prayer.
An important part of this meeting was a ‘Partners in Mission’ presentation featuring the alleviation of poverty in Bangladesh and, in particular, the Army’s involvement with a knitting factory where, so far, 150 women have been trained. New products are being produced and more profits are being made which are being ploughed into the employment of more people. This presentation was in preparation for The Salvation Army’s annual missionary appeal which culminates in a few weeks time. Over the next few weeks we shall be considering other areas where The Salvation Army is working to bring aid to the community
(Click here to read more about The Salvation Army’s work in Bangladesh)
In her message Major Beverley spoke about the story of Elijah. She said Elijah was a man just like us. He suffered all the problems of life that we do. He certainly knew fear and he had divided loyalties, to the king and to Jezabel. As a result he felt disappointment and he ran for his life because he had taken his eyes off God. We will all have a constant battle with evil so long as we live in this fallen world. Elijah became tired and so will we when we face constant opposition in the world. Our resistance to temptation can be low and being tired is dangerous. Getting to bed on time is a spiritual issue. Elijah was at the end of his tether and wanted to die. We sometimes feel like this but, if we keep our eyes on God, we can face anything. None of the feelings Elijah had are wrong in themselves but, in our lives, we must deal with them properly. Physical problems need physical solutions! God prescribed food and a holiday for Elijah so that he could recover from his depression. Later God dealt with the deep spiritual elements. Who was the centre of Elijah’s world? Elijah! Who is at the centre of your world? You? We are safe in the hands of God and recognising this can get our focus back again. Be in contact with God daily and you will see this for yourself. You will have the resources to deal with all the issues of life. Elijah’s experience can be yours if you allow yourself to learn.
Major Drew
The series on ‘Big Questions of Life’ continued in the evening with the subject being ‘life’ itself. Major Drew chose two songs from The Salvatioin Army Song Book, numbers 479 and 438 together with 1013, 1076 and 895 from Songs of Fellowship. The song ‘Because He Lives‘ was also used and again there were two references to scripture, John 10:10 and Mark 12:18-27.
Testimony on the subject of ‘He holds the Future…what are you hoping for?’ was given by no less than seven volunteers who each focussed on their specific desires for the future and the Partners in Mission presentation was again shown. Musical ministry by the Band was ‘The Suppliant Heart’ and by the Songsters ‘One Life to Live’
Major Drew’s message dealt with the subject of life in Christ and he asked the question what do we believe about life after death?. He said what we believe about the after life shapes more about this life than we care to think. The Sadducees did not believe in resurrection. Many people today are also confused as some of the major events in recent history will demonstrate. Examples are Princess Diana’s death, Glenn Hoddle’s views on reincarnation and the way we handle funerals. Yes, there is certainly confusion. Jesus says that we are in error, and badly so, if we try to escape the concept of life after death. He reminds us that we need to know the power of God. As Christians we will be asked many theoretical questions which we must not evade and, therefore, we must not picture the resurrection life in terms of what we know from this life. God says we will be like angels and see God face to face. What a great hope to have! Only after birth is a baby able to see its mother and feel her arms around it. Only after death will we have this experience of God. What are we doing to prepare for that? Perhaps more importantly, what are we adding to our lives today. We’ll leave you to think about that. Its a challenge, isn’t it?
Yet again we have been very much blessed and challenged by the ministry received and look forward to much more of the same in the future. It helps so much to sustain us in the tougher times of life. If any of our readers is finding life hard at the moment why not just think about the words of one of the songs used this week-end:
Because He lives I can face tomorrow,
Because He lives all fear is gone;
Because I know He holds the future
And life is worth the living just because He lives.
He does and it is! It’s been proved many times.