Have you ever had a very interesting day where you scratch your head and wonder what is in the water? It was one of those days and not a bad day. It began with finding out that a single gal was ill, the driver (husband) for a family was ill, and another young lady was ill. We then had 4 adults that were unexpected attend church. On of those is coming somewhat frequently. Another we had not seen in a few months. Another is the mother of one of our teens and has never come to a Sunday School or morning service. The next was a first time visitor. So -praise the Lord!

The other point of interest was a band practicing in the hall next to our hall. :) Oh, didn't I mention the pregnant woman who had to leave at the beginning of the service (with a significant interuption to our service) because she was having contractions. I forgot to say that my wife had a child other than our own next to her at the piano pushing keys.... :) You probably have somewhat of an idea of our morning service caous! It was a great day despite and because of some of those things. Thank you for praying. God's hand has been very evident lately and WE GIVE HIM GLORY FOR WHAT HE IS DOING. 

I preached this morning on, "Engaging the Enemy" from Acts 5. Other belivers have fought for the Lord - have we? God gave us a good service.

Thank you for praying for the youth activity. We enjoyed having the teens over to our home to play games. We've got a very small pool table, shuffleboard table, bagatelle table (which I made) and a small foosball table. We had 7 teens present and had a great time. One teen was a first time visitor. She actually attended our HBC about 7 years ago with her brother.

Thank you as well for praying for the newspaper article. It came out this week. I'll attach a photo below as well as insert the text into the body of this update. It's an incredible privilige to be able to write anything God puts on my heart and get it into the paper. They changed my title (I don't mind) from "Popular Christianity?" to what you'll see below. The more I think about it - the more I'm glad that they changed it. Their title (which is actually a bit of a mis-quote) ought to grab people's attention in a way the other one would not have.

Don and I were able to get out with flyers on Wednesday and got a good bit done. We didn't have any divine appointments but as always we enjoyed the fellowship as we worked for the Lord. Thanks for praying for our outreach.

Our generation seems to have the idea that Christianity should be politically correct and acceptable within our society. It seems the common thought is that "popular Christianity" should be unoffensive, tolerant, and supportive of the thinking of mankind (humanism).

However, is that Biblical Christianity? Was Jesus accepted by His society? If not, should a Bible believer today expect anything better than what Jesus received? Or, should the world try to impose on the Christian church a standard of seeking to please men instead of seeking to please God?

The Word of God says about Jesus, "He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not." (Isaiah 53:3) "He came unto his own, and his own received him not." (John 1:11)

Jesus said to his own half brothers, "The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil." (John 7:7)

Jesus said to His disciples, "And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved." (Matthew 10:25)

By the Lord's own words the "popular Christianity" proposed by the world is easily seen to be a false Christianity. Is it any wonder that this "popular Christianity" has had so little impact on our society which is becoming increasingly more godless?

Jesus didn't come to earth to tell mankind that they were fine continuing in their sin while ignoring the reality of their punishment in an eternal Hell. He came to die for their sin and to give them an opportunity to repent (turn) from their sin by faith in Him. To quote Him, "Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." (Luke 13:5) One does not have to wonder what Jesus cared about. He cared about men's souls and about pleasing God the Father. He was NOT concerned about men's approval. 

Could the same be said about your Christianity? If you want to experience Biblical Christianity, be ready to let your heart be "offended" by the truth of God's Word. Find out what the Bible says, believe it, and expect the world to treat you as they treated Jesus. For further reading please read 1 Peter 4 in your Bible.

It was a lovely day today and a perfect day to get into Edinburgh. The Lord gave me three very good opportunities to share the Gospel and I handed out many leaflets. The first opportunity was at the Apple Store as I was waiting to get an iphone repair. The skateboarder accross from me was very open as we spoke about God and the Gospel for about 15 minutes. Just after we had finished and I had handed him a flyer and a Gospel of John and Romans it was my turn to be helped. God's timing was perfect.

The next opportunity was with Angus who grew up in the JW's. He has since left but has not found truth. I sat on a bench with him for about an hour and shared the Gospel with him. Please pray for God to open His heart. Despite the baggage of false teaching, he has a significant Bible knowledge. 

The final opportunity was with Angus. He is a middle aged Catholic from Northern England. He was very kind and thanked me for our conversation. Please pray that God will guard the Gospel seed that was sown in his heart.

I forgot to mention a neat divine appointment God gave me on Friday. Our family was in Edinburgh doing some shopping. As I went to pay for parking I passed a young lady sitting on a door stoop. I told the Lord that if she was there on the way back I would give her an invite to our church. I was on the phone doing parking while walking back and the Lord reminded me. So, I stopped just passed her, finished my parking payment and turned to invite her to church. As it turned out, she was at work. She lives in Loanhead about one block from our church location. Please pray that Shannon will see that as a significant sign that God does exist and that He cares for her. She is an atheist.

God also gave one very good opportunity while knocking on doors on Saturday. Please pray for Iian. I'd love to see him get saved and come to our church. God is able! Thanks for praying for divine appointments.

PS. A little girl who has attended our church for a couple of years told Katie, "Before I went in my flat this afternoon I asked Jesus to save my soul." (Praise the Lord! Thanks for praying for these little ones to get saved.) 

Thank you for praying for the baptismal service today. God blessed us with great weather to set up the baptistry (portable hot tub) and to have the service after church this morning. 

We also had a first time adult visitor and great attendance in our morning service. I preached this morning on Mark 16:15-20, "Getting Into Evangelism." Jesus gave a simple command to go out and herald his death and resurrection for the forgiveness of sins. Sadly, it is command that is often unheeded. God gave us a great morning - thank you for praying.

As I taught in school last week I would have liked to have gotten a picture. I assumed that it was not allowed. However, the school put a picture on their twitter feed and a nice note. I'll put a pic below. Thank you again for praying for that opportunity to minister at their school. God's help was evident.

I was able to get flyers out yesterday morning and it was cold! It was actually snowing (as it is now). I didn't have any lengthy conversations. I had one short opportunity to remind a woman who was smoking on her doorstep that Jesus died for her. (She said religion is private and that she didn't want to talk about it.) Please pray that God will awaken her heart to His love.

It was a blessing to have an adult visitor with us this morning. He is from a village about 5 miles from us but had found our website. There was another visitor we were expecting but who was apparently unable to attend. Please pray that she will come. We had bad weather over night and it was very icy this morning.

The Lord gave us a good morning. I preached on Mark 10:32, "Who They Were." It's not a verse many people would spend time meditating on - HOWEVER, we should. It has some wonderful truths about disciples of Jesus. I enjoyed sharing it with our church.

Now, we are off to the Trust service (assisted living facility.) Thanks for your prayers for our day.

I had a great time with the 2 P4 classes (3rd grade) at Lasswade Primary. The kids were so well behaved and listened intently as I shared the story of Zaccheaus and a bit about myself. Thank you very much for your prayers. This was my first opportunity to get into the schools over here and participate in their RE (religious education) class. 

I put flyers out this morning and it was cold. We are going into a cold snap this week with some snow overnight tonight. I didn't speak to anyone but was able to get out around 150 flyers. I enjoyed listening to Evangelist John Goetsch.

I forgot to mention in my update this weekend that Katie is able to join me for door to door now. We have children old enough to watch the younger ones and Mac (our youngest) is old enough to leave with them. So, this past Saturday she and two kids joined me and we had two groups knocking on doors. God gave us a few very good opportunities to share the Gospel or confront unbelief with truth about God. Please pray for all of our evangelism to produce fruit.

Thank you for praying for our attendance. We've seen several children, teens and two adults back in the past two weeks. Our visitor from the end of last year is back in attendance with her young daughter. Please pray that God will help her to keep coming. She made a profession of faith in Jesus last Thursday as Katie and Rebekah visited her in her home.

I preached from another Old Testament passage as I preached, "God's Burden is Mine" from Malachi 1. Malachi expressed the burden that God's servants carrry as they have a desire for God's people to get right with God. Interestingly we are either burdened for God's desire to be accomplished or we are part of the burden carried by God's servants. 

Prayer requests for this week. Katie has a ladies' meeting at our home tomorrow evening. I get to speak with two P4 classes (3rd grade) on Wednesday at a local public primary school. Next Sunday is our ministry at the Trust (assisted living facility.)

Thanks for praying!

Yesterday Benson and I helped Missionary Don Dillman put down vinyl plank flooring at their home in New Bridge. We were able to get a good bit accomplished and some of the more tricky things completed. Please pray for the Dillman's as they complete a big project in their home. They are getting closer to the finish line. They still need to fit a kitchen.

They now have a couple ladies attending their church services at their home. Please pray for others to be added soon.

This afternoon Katie and Rebekah are doing door to door together. Please pray for divine appointments. 

Thanks for your prayers!