BH Bulletin - Monday 29 June 2020

Thought for the Day by Alex Forrest ​(Voluntary Staff Worker)

PSALM 60 
1 You have rejected us, God, and burst upon us;
    you have been angry—now restore us!
2 You have shaken the land and torn it open;
    mend its fractures, for it is quaking.
3 You have shown your people desperate times;
    you have given us wine that makes us stagger.
4 But for those who fear you, you have raised a banner
    to be unfurled against the bow. 
5 Save us and help us with your right hand,
    that those you love may be delivered.
6 God has spoken from his sanctuary:
    “In triumph I will parcel out Shechem
    and measure off the Valley of Sukkoth.
7 Gilead is mine, and Manasseh is mine;
    Ephraim is my helmet,
    Judah is my scepter.
8 Moab is my washbasin,
    on Edom I toss my sandal;
    over Philistia I shout in triumph.

Our sin is serious. Our sin is evil. Our sin has broken God’s world. Our sin deserves God’s anger. Our sin deserves God’s rejection. Our sin deserves God’s punishment.
These are truths that we are very quick to skate over, but truths that scripture does not shy away from. Although this Psalm was written after a military defeat, lots of what it says rings true in our world today, particularly verse 2. Our land has felt pretty fractured over the last few months, even years. Political division, institutional injustice, terrifying pandemics. Desperate times.
 
“But for those who fear you, you have raised a banner”. God can and will restore us. God can and will mend our quaking world. God can and will fight for his people. God can and will deliver those he loves. God can and will save us. God can and will triumph. The world is still God’s and God is still in control. As some parts of lockdown are ending, I’m finding it very easy to rely on my own strength to restore myself, and restore my life back to how it was pre-lockdown, to start putting all those important things I get bogged down in back into place. But it’s God who is doing the restoring. God is healing our land. God has righteously shaken our land and torn it open, but now he is restoring us and delivering us. The world is his. Gilead is his, Manasseh is his, Brighton and Hove is his, and over this world he is shouting in triumph as he uses this time of darkness for good. As he reminds people through all the pain of 2020, that he is there, waiting for you to ask for restoration, both for yourself and for the world. God will restore our lives to how they used to be, it will be amazing, and one day he will restore the world to how it should have been, and it will be glorious.

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Lockdown Praise Up

Lockdown, praise up! are short videos aimed at young people but suitable for everyone to get our hearts and minds looking up higher.
​Everyday there will be a brand new video up on our YouTube Channel.
Lockdown Praise Up! 10 minutes a day from the book of Philippians.
Please click on the link below. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNcPsmzw4qg

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