Saturday Post -- 09/10/10

Many thanks for your prayers this week for my time leading the meditations in the mornings at FT. Our focus for the week was the final few verses of chapter 7 or 2 Corinthians, a somewhat complex passage exploring the ins-and-outs of the various politics between Paul and the church in Corinth. However, with the Lord's help I was able to draw out some basic points, such as today when we focused on Paul's joy in being proven correct to Titus with regard to the church, not a joy that came from some sense of personal vindication so much as the joy of being seen to be a man of integrity and the glory that it consequently brought to God. Being someone of integrity is something I've been thinking a lot about recently. Never in my life have I been placed on such a pedestal as I am here, delivering sermons and meditations on a pretty regular basis. With broken homes everywhere we turn, men of integrity are lacking and, therefore, when someone can teach from the Bible, people take notice. But I'm so aware of my shortcomings too -- if the folk who come to our church every week, mostly young people, had a sneak peek into my thought life, for example, I'd be run out of town!

I would hate to stand before the Lord on that Day, telling him about all the ways I pointed my brothers and sisters in the direction of holiness, only to be interrupted as he queries, "Holiness, eh? That's all well and good. But what about that rubbish you allowed yourself to binge on every night on the telly?" or something to that effect. At times this world turns my head in all directions but, if I'm honest with myself, the last thing I wish is to join the Pharisees in the Society of Hypocrites.

One thing integrity means is consistency of character in our relationships, be they with believers or not, and Amanda and I have certainly been encouraged in this regard with a couple called Omar & Lucy, who live just around the corner from us. We got to know Omar & Lucy -- who have two daughters -- through Diego & Jo, with Omar a regular now at fronton every Saturday morning. When we got a call last month out of the blue on Amanda's birthday, asking us if we'd come round for lunch at their place to celebrate, we knew the Lord was establishing a close bond between us. We've been able to use the relationship to witness to them as a couple and, at the same time, they've started coming as a family to the church's Bible studies on a Thursday night. KC came to me today to let me know that she was looking to start a one-on-one Bible study in the book of John with Lucy and she was wondering if I'd be interested in doing something with Omar, given our friendship. So we're hoping to have something up and running, possibly as early as next week. Please be praying for this great opportunity.

As mentioned last week, administration has dominated recent days, however, the English classes have not gone by the wayside and they reached a landmark this week with the first exam for the Wednesday group (the Friday group are a week behind due to local holidays). It appears that all students passed, so some encouragement there to keep pressing on. At the same time, as we're currently planning for 2011, I'm looking to make a few changes to the classes, specifically shorter, more bite-sized modules throughout the year that will, Lord-willing, encourage a higher uptake. Believe it or not, certificates still have great power here -- people love nothing more than to display a fancy bit of paper on their wall. The classes continue until the end of this year, but our cross-cultural lessons show no sign of abating.

Prayer
• For our time with Farid, our language teacher, as he comes to visit us this evening. The other week he was asking Amanda about the Reformation and it’s led to some encouraging conversations.
• For the study with Omar, that the Lord will use it to deepen our friendship and, ultimately, bring Omar to a saving faith.

Praise
• For a real sense this week of friendships being strengthened – it’s been a great encouragement.
• For the Lord’s guidance this past week as I preached on Sunday and shared in the mornings.

¡Que Dios les bendiga!

Craig & Amanda