Monday Spot (9 August 2010)
Last week a regular visitor to this website was kind enough to comment that reading Monday Spot always brought him joy.
Yippee!
That’s a really pleasing reaction because joy is such an important emotion in life. We know of a number of people right here in Chatham who rely on finding joy in things around them even though, health wise, they have a lot to put up with right now. Our Sunday morning meeting leader, Ruth Hardy, began with a song (Salvation Army Song Book 387) which expresses a excellent reason for joy in its very first verse. Ruth also chose 31 and 397 from the Salvation Army Song Book together with 208 and 1067 from Songs of Fellowship. Psalm 23 was her scripture portion and she spent time with the children showing a clip from the film ‘The Princess and the Frog’ illustrating, hilariously, the thought that God always has plans for us.
Ruth Hardy
Much depleted by the holiday period the Singing Company and Songsters each brought a musical item, ‘He is Able’ from the Singing Company and ‘Breathe’ from the Songsters. In her message Ruth said:
Two thoughts have come to me in considering what I should say this morning. Firstly, should I share my holiday photos? Living alone I don’t get the chance to share much with anyone. My second thought concerns Psalm 23. How often do we look at what it actually says? What it teaches us? So, I’m going to combine the two! I recently went away with my mum and my dog (Jackson). There are advantages in taking your mum away on holiday. I don’t have all the responsibility and can slow down and relax, sharing my thoughts and feelings with her. On our christian journey we have God with us and can share with him. After a time of retreat we feel renewed and refreshed. We can develop our relationship with Christ, so why do we often find excuses not to go on a retreat? Why are we always too busy? These are the very times we can develop. We need to slow down so that we can appreciate the beauty around us and allow God, as the Psalmist says, to ‘restore my soul’. ‘Green pastures’, ‘quiet waters’. Yes, we need them. The choice is our own. Sometimes we have to let go – and let God….! Then we shall ‘dwell in the house of the Lord for ever’.
In the evening Lt. Cols. Michael and Martha Pressland took the theme of ‘And God saw that it was good’. The Colonel’s last appointment before retirement was as Territorial Commander for The Salvation Army in Germany.
Lt. Cols. Martha & Michael Pressland
Using songs 2, 177, 141, 416 and 34 from the Salvation Army Song Book and 10 from Songs of Fellowship they explored the joyous theme of God’s creation. The very first verses in the bible (Genesis 1:1-13) were used as the scripture reference together with Psalm 93 and both Band (‘Tis so sweet) and Songsters (Under his wings) provided musical ministry.
Lt. Col. Michael preached the sermon in which he said:
When I visited the Royal Horticultural Society Garden at Wisley I felt that God must have been pleased with his creation just as he was at the beginning of time. ‘God saw that it was good’. I enjoy gardening and now, in retirement, I get more opportunity than previously. But I sometimes make mistakes and then I am disappointed. This is how God must feel when we, as humans, get things wrong. We need God’s word for our souls just as we need the nutrients provided by plants for our bodies. We have to relate to God’s word and account to him for our husbandry of his world. We must accept the responsibility he has placed upon us. Have we conformed too much to the modern world with all its compromises? Jesus lived as an example of how to lead a holy life and there are many ways in which we fail to live up to this example. Then God is disappointed. But he sent us Jesus to show us the right way. When God looks at us does he ‘see that it is good’. If not he will help us to become the sort of person he wants us to be.
We are grateful to Ruth and Lt. Cols. Michael and Martha Pressland for their leadership in the absence of Majors Drew and Beverley McCombe who were taking a few days break. They will be back with us next weekend to lead our meetings.
Majors Drew & Beverley McCombe
Helen Pearson together with Daisy, Axl and Luke Tranah are attending the Divisional Summer School at Robertsbridge this week and we look forward to hearing what they have to say about it very soon. Watch this space.
For those who find joy difficult to discover in life we can do no better than to recommend these words of scripture found in the book of Nehemiah.
In fact, I notice they are inscribed on a banner pinned to the desk not more than a couple of metres from where I sit typing this post. Hey Ho! We all need strength, don’t we?