Sunday evening Prayer Meeting

In response to the Gift Day, David D_ brought the following reading to the Sunday evening prayer meeting:
Ezra Chap 2 v 68 and 3 v 7 v11 to 13
Ezra 2:68
When they arrived at the house of the LORD in Jerusalem, some of the heads of the families gave freewill offerings toward the rebuilding of the house of God on its site.

Ezra 3:7
Rebuilding the Temple
Then they gave money to the masons and carpenters, and gave food and drink and oil to the people of Sidon and Tyre, so that they would bring cedar logs by sea from Lebanon to Joppa, as authorized by Cyrus king of Persia.

Ezra 3:11 – 13
With praise and thanksgiving they sang to the LORD : "He is good; his love to Israel endures forever." And all the people gave a great shout of praise to the LORD, because the foundation of the house of the LORD was laid. But many of the older priests and Levites and family heads, who had seen the former temple, wept aloud when they saw the foundation of this temple being laid, while many others shouted for joy. No one could distinguish the sound of the shouts of joy from the sound of weeping, because the people made so much noise. And the sound was heard far away.

John F_ picked up on the theme of foundations:

John spoke about the church being built on the solid rock foundation of the Word of God and of the Holy Spirit – about all our individual lives being built on that sure foundation, upon Jesus Christ. John spoke about how if a house’s foundation is on sand, when the streams of water come, they wash away the sands – the church needs to be built on the solid foundation of Word and Spirit so that it doesn’t move – doesn’t get swept along with any shifting doctrine or give way to any fashionable ideas, not going by modern thinking or our own ideas but standing firm with the Word of God as the final authority.

Notes from Morning Service

Words during Worship:

Laurence: God is here! God is beside you!

Denise: His grace is enough. We need to be yielded in our hearts, surrendered to God.

David D_: Christina sang in tongues - he had been reading a prophecy in Daniel and felt it related to that, about the 'Ancient of Days' - a name for God - about God seated on the throne - about God seeking to fight for us. David spoke about moving out in the authority of the living God.

Adrian: God is my all sufficiency for all eternity.

Sermon from Peter W_: What sort of God is He? What sort of things does He ask us to do? Can we trust Him? There was an ancient Chinese curse: "May you live in uncertainty" - These are uncertain times.
1 million people now living in negative equity -v- article in the press that the house market is showing signs of recovery, has turned the corner.
New economist appointed to the board of the Bank of England - he believes the worst of the recession is over -v- International Think Tank that has predicted UK will not be out of recession until 2012.
GE - huge corporation - announced profits down by one third -v- another huge corporation which has just reported the best results for 2 years.

Peter's conclusion in the face of all these contradictory stories: the world hasn't got a clue! The world doesn't know what is going on. He goes back to God - if he's experiencing uncertain times, he looks in his favourite passages in the Bible - goes to the book of Psalms.

Psalm 1:
Psalm 37 - Peter says that as we go on with God, surrendering to Him, he changes the desires of your heart - our heart's desire becomes centred in Kingdom building.
Trust in God even in difficult times - that is the SAFE thing to do - shelter in the shadow of His wings. Come before Him, choose to align ourselves with God's will - that is the SAFE thing to do (even if it seems foolish). God promises safety, security, prosperity to those who live in this way.
Ps 17: 8 - 9
Ps 36
Ps 57:1-3
Ps 61: 2-5
Ps 63: 7 - 8
2 Cor 8:1-5
Ps 91: 1-4