Due to it being the start of the school holidays, a number of the corps folks were taking the time away to spend with friends and family, so a decision was made to only have one meeting, but there was still a goodly number who were able to attend worship at Chatham this morning.
Major Ian was in charge of the meeting and his theme was “Faith in the midst of the storm”
At the beginning of the meeting he asked us a question; how do we cope in a storm, whether it be the storms of life, temptations or storms we face in our daily lives? When we are in the midst of the storm, can we hear the voice of God? He is there, but can we always hear him? Whilst in this storm we should have Faith and Major Ian used Hebrews 11:1 to explain what faith is. “Faith means being sure of the things we hope for and knowing that something is real, even if we do not see it”. Sometimes we need to have the confidence to take that leap of faith.
Our opening song was “Dear Lord and Father of Mankind”. The first line of the 4th verse “Drop thy still dews of quietness” gave us time to reflect on how often do we find times of quietness within our busy lives?
“Before the throne of God” was sung, which led into a time of open prayer.
With it being half term, a number of the young people had gone away so we were not able to be blessed by the Singing Company, however the Songsters were able to function with a reduced number.
Their choice of song “Lord, you know that we love you” reminded us that even though we sometimes fail God and do not always show our love to him, we do in-fact love him a great deal.
“My faith looks up to thee” was sung before Major Ian bought us the scripture from Matthew 14: 22-33, which led appropriately into his message
“I was recently reading an article in regards to the building of The Shard in London and it was explained how they built big foundations, sunk deep into the ground, to hold such a tall structure. If we put this in terms of our faith, the deeper our faith is, the stronger we become in our faith.
Jesus made the disciples get into the boat. They were put into that situation by him, a situation that would challenge them.
When we face our storms, God will not put us in a situation where his grace cannot reach us. God’s grace will be shown to us. Sometimes we can find it hard to have faith. It can beat us. We can be ready for one thing, but then circumstances can totally change this. We can be in familiar surroundings, but can feel frustrated, lost and unable to recognise things. We should take courage and not be afraid during the storm.
When Peter got out of the water, he became afraid and began to sink. He doubted himself and was distracted. Jesus reached out his hand and caught Peter. He told him “Your faith is small. Why did you have any doubt?”
We should have faith in our lord when we face the situations that come our way, and if we are more like Jesus, our faith can deepen and grow.”
“I am praying blessed saviour” gave time for reflection.
Rather than a closing song, the songsters were requested to sing once again, “Lord you know that we love you”, as a benediction to once again remind us that we do love our lord, even if we do not always show it.
Thank you for logging on to our website and also a thank you to Gareth for his report. Have a good week.