Sunday 2nd August
O God,
you love us endlessly
and you bless us with mercy.
But still we fail
to grasp the truth about your love.
Forgive us
when our desires lead us to deceive ourselves.
Forgive us
when our selfishness recycles
injustice, inequality and oppression.
Forgive us
when we are distant from you
and separated from one another.
Help us to find our way back.
Restore to us joy.
Renew us and your world.
Giving
Thank you for all your support of Wrington Chapel and its work in the past.
We realise that many people are hard-pressed at the moment, and church may be the last thing on your mind. However, we are looking to the future when we can reopen and support each other in our usual way. Unfortunately, being closed does not mean our expenses are substantially less. If you already have a standing order set up, then thank you. But if you haven't, please consider getting in touch with Steve Osman and setting one up. If that is impossible, please continue to save up your collection money, and we will collect it all together when we reopen. Please note that the rules do not allow us to claim any Gift Aid on collections that are not taken up in church. So do NOT drop collection money off at Steve's house. Simply take out a standing order, or save it up for that great and glorious reopening day.
Kids Zone
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'God is our refuge and strength, an ever present help in trouble.'
Psalm 46
AS coronavirus cases rise again in some places we can easily feel discouraged and confused. The advice seems to change daily, sometimes hourly and people's lives are in many cases turned upside down.
Father God help us to remember that you are in charge and to know we can continue to turn to you and give you all our uncertainties, all our fears, all our confusion, all our discouragement. You tell us to give you our cares and concerns and so we bring to you all those on our chapel and personal prayer lists.
Our prayer focus this week is MAF.
It was interesting to read how they have been working with pupils at a remote school in Papua New Guinea. The following gives a real insight into the work of
MAF. Please pray for their on-going work.
Maro and Jackson's assignment
Maro: 'I hear an aeroplane overhead!'
Jackson: 'Oh yes! That sounds like a MAF Caravan! I wonder why it's coming this time?'
Maro: 'Perhaps they're bringing textbooks, stationery, encyclopaedias, Bibles, dictionaries,
furniture, desks, rice, flour, noodles, tinned fish, soap, cooking oil, kettles or tools?'
Jackson: 'Or perhaps they're dropping off or picking up people. Who do you think might be
coming or going?'
Maro: 'Maybe they're carrying teachers. Rumour has it that three secondary school
teachers from Wewak are arriving on Monday. Or perhaps it's an emergency. Do you
remember when MAF has helped in an emergency?'
Jackson: 'Yes, my mother had an accident. She cut her left foot with an axe when she was
breaking firewood. She lost a lot of blood, but the health workers from Tekin's clinic were
unable to help and didn't have enough anaesthetics.
MAF flew her to Telefomin Hospital.
Everyone calls us "las ples" because we are so remote. It's risky for them too because it's
often cloudy and windy here.'
'MAF helps us to make our long distances shorter'
David and Jonathan
We are continuing with our look at David.
And today, as promised, we look further at the relationship between David and Jonathan. What can it tell us about our friendships, and the stereotypes we work with?
Can we see God's perspective?
Click the microphone above to go to this weeks recording.
1st Samuel 20 : 16 to 32
16 So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, "May the Lord call David's enemies to account." 17 And Jonathan had David reaffirm his oath out of love for him, because he loved him as he loved himself.
18 Then Jonathan said to David, "Tomorrow is the New Moon feast. You will be missed, because your seat will be empty. 19 The day after tomorrow, toward evening, go to the place where you hid when this trouble began, and wait by the stone Ezel. 20 I will shoot three arrows to the side of it, as though I were shooting at a target. 21 Then I will send a boy and say, 'Go, find the arrows.' If I say to him, 'Look, the arrows are on this side of you; bring them here,' then come, because, as surely as the Lord lives, you are safe; there is no danger. 22 But if I say to the boy, 'Look, the arrows are beyond you,' then you must go, because the Lord has sent you away. 23 And about the matter you and I discussed-remember, the Lord is witness between you and me forever."
24 So David hid in the field, and when the New Moon feast came, the king sat down to eat. 25 He sat in his customary place by the wall, opposite Jonathan,[a] and Abner sat next to Saul, but David's place was empty. 26 Saul said nothing that day, for he thought, "Something must have happened to David to make him ceremonially unclean-surely he is unclean." 27 But the next day, the second day of the month, David's place was empty again. Then Saul said to his son Jonathan, "Why hasn't the son of Jesse come to the meal, either yesterday or today?"
28 Jonathan answered, "David earnestly asked me for permission to go to Bethlehem. 29 He said, 'Let me go, because our family is observing a sacrifice in the town and my brother has ordered me to be there. If I have found favor in your eyes, let me get away to see my brothers.' That is why he has not come to the king's table."
30 Saul's anger flared up at Jonathan and he said to him, "You son of a perverse and rebellious woman! Don't I know that you have sided with the son of Jesse to your own shame and to the shame of the mother who bore you? 31 As long as the son of Jesse lives on this earth, neither you nor your kingdom will be established. Now send someone to bring him to me, for he must die!"
32 "Why should he be put to death? What has he done?" Jonathan asked his father. 33 But Saul hurled his spear at him to kill him. Then Jonathan knew that his father intended to kill David.
We finish with this prayer:
Heavenly Father,
God of the unexpected,
we ask you to defy our traditions today -
Our cultural prejudices.
Break open those places where we feel comfortable,
and blow away our stale conformity.
Turn us from timid to free.
Fill us with joy that overflows.
Turn us away from ourselves
and face us out to the world
that we may walk with you,
and reveal the love you have for us all.
Amen
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