BH Bulletin - Wednesday 8 September 2021

Thought for the Day by Dave Howarth
​(Associate Vicar Holy Cross)

Are you tired of doing the work of the Lord? Or did you tire of it some time ago?


God has a building project in our world: he is building his people until we reach completion. And each of us are to join in, by bringing people under the saving rule of Christ. But it’s costly, hard work, with many setbacks and seemingly little progress.
Zerubbabel knew about that. He was tasked with leading the rebuilding of the Jerusalem temple, but it was hard going.

So how will God’s work be done in our world, even through us?
So he said to me, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty.
 “What are you, mighty mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become level ground. Then he will bring out the capstone to shouts of ‘God bless it! God bless it!’” (Zechariah 4vv6-7)

Not by conventional ways of might or power. Not by political or military force. But by God’s Spirit, who in his own way is powerfully at work in our world, causing his plans to come good.
Can you think of anything on earth more fixed, more permanent, than a mountain? God’s Spirit is so powerful it can flatten mighty mountains. In the Bible, the word mountain is used as a metaphor for world powers arrayed against God’s people. God will overcome them.

The capstone was a crucial stone in the final stages of temple construction, so to see Zerubbabel bring it out meant that the temple was almost complete. And when he does the people will go ballistic in praise and prayer to God.

Obstacles to the work of the Lord are, to the Lord, like little road bumps, that he can flatten like Play-Doh. Within five years, the temple was indeed rebuilt…road bumps steamrollered by God’s Spirit.
God’s powerful Spirit has never stopped powerfully working in our world, fulfilling God’s promised purposes, right up to the present day.

There was Peter, a poor uneducated fisherman, yet on the Day of Pentecost, as he preached, by the power of the Spirit, 3000 people put their faith in Jesus Christ.

There was Voltaire, a French atheist at the time of the enlightenment. He famously boasted, “in 20 years Christianity will be no more, my single hand shall destroy the edifice it took 12 apostles to rear.” But 50 years later he was dead.  And the Spirit caused the very house from which he had made that boast, to become the home of the Geneva Bible Society!

There was China in the 1950s. All the Christian missionaries were expelled from the country by the Chinese Communist armies and yet the Spirit caused the church there to keep growing from 700,000 to over 44 million followers of Christ today.

Today, many people are opposed to Christ or apathetic about him. Yet do you not think that God is still building his church by his Spirit? And do you not think that God can help you and use you to build his church, as he has said he will? Yes, and yes.

Our response to this must be twofold at least. First, as we give ourselves to the work of the Lord (which we must – 1 Corinthians 15v57), remember that it is primarily through his word that the Spirit works in our world. Second, keep calling upon God to work through your word-filled work. He really will!
Dave

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Monthly Prayer Meeting Tonight

Please note that it is the monthly prayer meeting tonight, 7.30pm to 8.30pm please come in person to the church if you can. It can also be accessed via Zoom. (The link will be available on MyChurchSuite). Please make it a priority to be there.

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Susanna Baldwin September Update and Newsletter

​Dear friends,
Dry season is drawing to a close in the Northern Territory, and the famed ‘build-up’ is on its way. Will my British climate settings survive the long upcoming weeks of oppressive humidity? Before I go completely troppo, it was time to put together a little update of what life and Bible translation has looked like here over the last few months. Thanks for your interest and prayers. I hope this finds you well and cheerful in the Lord, with special thoughts for those of you persevering through lockdown in various parts of Australia at the moment. I would love to hear from you!
Together in Christ’s service,
Susanna

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