In our joint August services with Faversham Gospel Mission, the over-arching theme will be based on Isaiah 43: 18-19:

18 “Forget the former things;
do not dwell on the past.
19 See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness
and streams in the wasteland.

Partly in preparation for these services (but also just because I felt it was appropriate), I expressed the following thoughts at the beginning of the July Deacons meeting and thought I would share it with you here:

Forget the past? Surely it’s not all bad? But maybe God would want to say “don’t dwell on the bad things that have happened, on past hurts.”

But I think that there is probably more to it than that. To quote the high poetry of Bachman–Turner Overdrive (a Canadian ‘hard rock’ band from the 1970s) ‘You ain’t seen nothing yet’!

In other words, I think He might be saying, ‘however good things were in the past, you are going to be blown away by what I’m going to do next!’. Part of God’s ‘new thing’ was sending Jesus – people all over the world are still experiencing the newness, freshness and realisation of who Jesus is and what He has done for us in dying and rising again. God is constantly at work around us – renewing, refreshing and doing new things.

But what is God going to do specifically in our lives, in our church, in our town, in our nation and in our world? Verse 19 states “Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?”

Well, yes and no Lord! We sense that you might be doing something in our church, but what? In this verse, I really sense God’s excitement about what He is going to do. It reminds me of the time-lapse technique used in some wildlife programmes – rain falls on a desert, water flows and life springs up. What is our ‘desert’, or that of our friends, family, church or nation? Where do we need life to spring up?

I thank God for His constant presence and renewal, but also ask for forgiveness for my spiritual blindness and deafness. I pray that He will give me/us ‘eyes to see and ears to hear’ in order to know where He is at work and the willingness to join Him in His activity. I also pray for healing, revival and renewal for ourselves, our friends, our family, our church, our nation and the world. May we catch something of God’s excitement for what He has done, is doing and will do!