Everyday Encounter

This weekend (having just returned from the Leaders Training and Vision Weekend), I am just so aware of God at work – He is moving, and living, and powerful, and prayer answering. Mostly I have been reminded of how God is a God of fresh starts, of second and third and fourth chances. What’s more, it’s hard to express the freedom that you feel when you are reminded of this, and when God stirs your heart to thankfulness for it. There is so much freedom, and burden lifting from your shoulders when you are given a fresh start and another chance to get it right, over and over again.

It is amazing how, though we get things wrong at Encounter (and in our lives) God is faithful through it all, He is still at work, He is redeeming our short-comings and using it all – every part, for His glory, which is what it’s all about anyway. Praise God that He works despite our faults, and in many ways uses our faults to grow us, to be used for His purposes and to draw us into closer and more intimate dependence on Him.

It is also a powerful thing to witness ‘church life and community’ being done as God intended – with openness, honesty, integrity, a lot of laughter and sometimes tears – united in purpose and held together in love. There is an amazing sense of God in your midst when you come to realise that when all is said and done, it is His will that matters, His purpose to be achieved, and His glory to be the desire of our hearts. It is difficult to express the sense of God at work and the freedom that comes when this is realised, and happening before you.

I really feel we are just beginning to see parts of the bigger picture of what God is doing in and through Encounter, and that the difficult times and the good times are all part of God’s plan, which He is using to create the shade and light that are bringing depth and reality to the picture He is painting.

And the picture is SO much bigger than we can begin to imagine.

Okay guys, from Monday through to Thursday of this week we have been/will be going out to various nursing homes around the area of the church (building) to do a bit of carol singing, give out some shortbread and just generally chat to the residents and staff in each of the locations. So pray that God would use it to spread something of a reflection of His love to each of the people in those homes and that they might get to know something of Him this Christmas time.

 If you can’t make it out to help with the singing, chatting and hanging out then do definitely get behind it in prayer, as Andy mentioned on Friday night, as it’s such an important part of it. 

I’ve been meaning to put this up for some time now, but it’s only now I’ve have finally found a minute between essay work and the hundreds of other things that seem to have been going on recently, so forgive me for that… 

Recently I’ve been thinking about the balance between justice and mercy. Justice meaning that people are treated as they deserve – that they are provided with their rights and are treated fairly. But, at the same time, justice can also be a case of those having done wrong not being allowed to get away with it – that they are shown justice and treated appropriately – relative to the deeds or acts they have committed.

Act justly, love mercy, walk humbly with your God (Micah 6v8)

We are called to act justly, and to love mercy.

The bible also makes it clear that God is a just God – and so in light of that we really had better love mercy, because if God treated us only with justice, in the way that we deserve (relative to our actions and how we have lived) we wouldn’t stand a chance! Praise God for His mercy!

This got me thinking – that as Christians we are called to act justly and to not just stand back and let things happen and see people oppressed and downtrodden. We are to speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves and demonstrate the love of God by ensuring that people are treated as we would like to be treated ourselves. 

At the same time we are to love mercy. To show mercy to others and to not be judgmental in our attitudes towards others. The bit of the Hope2008 video that stuck out to me was about how the church should not be seen as ‘a million wagging fingers, but rather 2 million outstretched arms.’ This reminded me of the story in the gospels of the woman caught in adultery, who was humiliated and condemned (to be stoned to death) by the religious people around her – yet Jesus says simply: ‘Let him without any sin throw the first stone.’

Powerful words. 

To me it seems that living out life as a Christian is something of a balancing act between acting justly (acting for justice) and knowing that only those without any sin have the right to throw the first stone. So we need to stand up for what is right, and for those who can’t, as well as not being judgmental and critical of others – and we should be wholeheartedly loving and praising God for His mercy that treats us in a way that we haven’t earned!

Hey guys – just a quick note to say that you did an awesome job over the past two weeks collecting money for the Hope Foundation. We managed to take a quick count of the collection on Friday night and it was currently standing at around £220 which is great! And there could still be some more money to come as some people had said they forgot to bring it. So if you haven’t given any money towards it yet and you still want to – then just speak to one of the leaders and they can point you in the right direction!

>>>UPDATE – The total is now £250!

This year at Encounter I’m sure your all aware that we are trying to be more ‘outward focussed’ – meaning that we want to be a part of something bigger, and that has an effect outside the four walls of SBC. That’s why we have started ‘Making Our Money Count’, the first of hopefully many events and ideas throughout the year that will help us make a difference to the lives of people across the globe.

How does it work?

Basically the concept is that over the next two weeks (finishing on Friday 12th Oct) we all try and set some money aside, perhaps everyday, as an offering to God. We are suggesting that you could do this by perhaps deciding that you are going to give up sweets, crisps, fizzy drinks, bottled water or whatever it is that you buy regularly for the two week period and put the money you would usually spend on that aside for a good cause. If you don’t buy anything regularly then maybe you could find another way to set aside money, or perhaps you could spend a little less on lunch everyday or bring a packed lunch occasionally instead of buying stuff all the time.
It doesn’t have be a huge amount – even if you set aside 30p a day for the next two weeks because you decided not to buy a particular chocolate bar everyday then that mounts up to £4.20, and if everyone at Encounter did that it would come to approx £252!

Then What?!…
Then bring the money you’ve collected or set aside from the two weeks along on Friday the 12th October to Encounter and we will put it all together and total it all up. The money that we have raised will then be given to the Hope Foundation, an organisation that Ken McCaw (from the office, but not the programme ‘The Office’) is involved with. This organisation works towards providing clean and safe drinking water for people in Nigeria, and is a very worthy cause.

Your money could literally be saving lives.