WHAT A WONDERFUL MORNING!

It’s Sunday, so it’s a Church day, and what a wonderful morning it was!  I was singing today and really enjoyed it and although I had stood for about 45 minutes before the service as we practised, it felt good and I was so blessed.  I was walking better and didn’t have any trouble getting up and down from the area where we sing - it’s not a stage, because it’s not a show, but there are two steps up and I managed those well.  

Walking into Church, I spotted the daffodils - a sign of the Spring that is coming, but seems to be taking a long time - but it will come - it always does!

The preacher was excellent - and his wife, who spoke before him and told us about their Church Plant in Portishead was excellent too, asking us to pray for them as they reach out in faith;  there was such a feeling of joy in the Church this morning that she noticed.  It was evident in the songs we sang and in everything that we did.  

In fact, Mark, our Worship Leader this morning, prayed quite a long prayer after the offering, thanking God for the offering and then praying for two men in our fellowship, both of whom have had major surgery just recently, but who are now on the road to recovery.  It was amazing how quiet the children were during this prayer and believe me, we have some little “fire crackers” in our Church, who like nothing else but to come up in front of the Worship Group and really give their all to the worship, but even they were quiet.  It was, in American terminology, AWESOME! 

The preacher got us all on board at the start of his sermon by telling us he was a lawyer and asked us to imagine an identification line-up, of the sort you would see on the television, and then went on to tell us the story of when Samuel went to Jesse and had all his sons lined up to find out which one had been chosen by God to be king. Of the first seven sons, none were chosen, but eventually David, the youngest,  and by all accounts a handsome lad, who was out tending the sheep, but hadn’t been invited to the feast and the sacrifice, was brought before Samuel and WAS chosen and anointed as king.  We were reminded of the verse in 1 Samuel 16:7 which says, “...The Lord does not look at the things people look at.  People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”  

So the fact that I was wearing a new jumper and scarf didn’t impress God at all - but He was looking at my heart to see if I had a good attitude, was willing to serve Him and go the extra mile when asked - WOW!  

David wrote many of the Psalms - and this verse, from Psalm 51, part of which appears on one of our Church banners, says : “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me...”.

Of course, the cross is central to our faith - and from where I was sitting during the sermon, there was a shadow from the small wooden cross in my collage, which I was hoping would be there at the end of the service.  Sadly it wasn’t but I wanted to have it in the collage anyway.

A lovely lady, named Louise, has been coming to Church for a while now - and travels quite a distance to be with us, but she has come to faith on her own, and has never been to Church, but is now coming regularly and really enjoying the fellowship.  I bought her a book (and one for myself too) “40 Days with Jesus” by Malcolm Duncan, so she offered to be my Blip for today, because she knows I take a daily photograph - so here she is - I am so thrilled we are friends, and of course, on top of the bookmark I made for her is one of my hearts!

After the service, we went out for coffee and chatted with our very tall and handsome 93 year old, Peter.  He is an amazing man who is always full of joy  - so I thought it would be good to have a selfie with him - not a great shot, because Peter and Louise are both quite tall - and I had forgotten my selfie stick - but I’m sure you can tell by our faces that we have had a great morning.

I have blessed several people with hearts this morning and no doubt will be blessing many more during the week and will continue to pray that God will lead me to those who really NEED that confirmation that He loves them.

Sorry this is so long, but I wanted to share the joy of this morning with my dear Blip friends - if you don’t believe - then just appreciate the joy on our faces - but if you do, then you will understand where I am coming from.

Bless you all this week - have a great week and be JOYFUL and KIND - because you never know what someone is going through.  M xx