Carol Purves

I always love to read the story in Luke 5 of Jesus calling the disciples. Peter and Andrew had been fishing all night and had caught nothing. They were then approached by a non-fisherman giving them advice. We are not told if He was already known to the brothers, but it seems they obeyed without hesitation. The result was a record haul of fish. When God gives, He doesn’t do it sparingly, He gives abundantly and overflowingly. Their nets which they had been washing and mending began to break.

It is possible that all four fishermen, Simon, Andrew, James and John left their occupation, family and familiar of life on that day. What happened to the fishing company, were they large enough to work with depleted numbers? As always the bible leaves us asking questions. What I need to remember is that I am told all I need to know, the questions can wait for eternity.

Little boy to mother ”You know that beautiful glass vase that has been handed down from generation to generation. Well, this generation has dropped it.’

Our generation has been handed a glass vase; it is known as the knowledge and wonder of the glory and majesty of God. By God’s grace we have learned and accepted His salvation, but it is not for ourselves alone. Our knowledge is to be shared by whatever means we can, to whoever we can, whenever we can. Known as the Great Commission our task is to tell, proclaim and affirm.

It is a life-long work and in some cases, a life-giving work. Christian martyrs are known all throughout the ages. Our personal task may be to reach millions or just one or two. Our prayer must be that our generation is not the one to drop the holy, precious vase of salvation.

One Thursday morning recently there was a stunning sunrise. Our area often has beautiful sunsets, but it was unusual to have this wonderful scene as a sunrise. I revelled in it and once again praised God while also sending pictures to a few friends.

The next Sunday, the young person who was leading the service (she is under 25) was also raving about this beautiful phenomenon. Her enthusiasm was so great that I was able to enjoy the sunrise all over again. I noticed others in the service also responding to her joy and happiness. I saw their smiles (behind their masks of course.)I took comfort in the fact that the next generation can appreciate the beauty that God has given us

We can only pray that the COP26 conference in Glasgow will have good results. It can be scary to think about the disasters that can occur because of climate change. But as Christians we can have peace. It is good that we take care of the wonderful world that God has given us. It is our duty and privilege to take care of it.

But there is one thing we need to remember. The world will not end one second before God decrees that it should. Our God is in control. Our part is to nurture the planet, be considerate of other nations and our own. But the ultimate power lies with God. We are only invited to work and care with Him. Mankind will not decree the end; God will.

‘The earth is the Lord’s and the everything in it’ Psalm 24:1

A few day ago in the area where I live we had large volumes of rain and a few homes were flooded. This distressing situation is happening increasingly a few times each winter. ‘A man’s home is his castle’ but when your castle floods I can’t imagine how awful this must be.

Our railway system was disrupted as rail lines were destroyed. This meant I couldn’t visit my sick friend in Edinburgh, only 100 miles away. But what a small thing this is compared to the widespread devastation. Situations like this do cut us down to size. We have little actual control over the weather and can’t completely solve these problems. In some of your areas floods are endemic, I know. I think we need to put our trust in a higher authority.

Do you remember when you first became a Christian? You were so full of enthusiasm for the Lord that you wanted to tell the whole world.

I wonder if you were like me in your fervour. I took 1 Peter 3:15 to heart and approached everyone with a bible in one hand and a metaphorical brick in the other. I was determined that they were going to follow God. Oh dear! I trust I’ve matured and I no longer bash my listeners with my bible or even a brick.

Our God is a gentle, loving Master. He creeps softly into people’s hearts. There are probably two things we need to remember; souls need to be ready to receive the word. God has lovingly been nurturing these souls for ages. God’s timing is perfect. And secondly, it is not us who do the converting. It is 100% God, we are merely sometimes privileged to be allowed to be part of the process.

It was the kind of sunset which we sometimes have in October and November. We stopped in our tracks and just gazed in wonder. I didn’t know it was possible to have so many shades of red and yellow and other hues. Even as we watched the colours and shades changed slightly. Some of us took photos on our phones but the results were disappointing. The picture completely didn’t do justice to the scene before us.

It was only the previous evening that we had been talking about the wonder of the clouds. Nothing manmade comes anything near the changing beauty and magnificence of the skies. Mankind thinks he is so clever and has no need of a God. May people just sit for ten minutes observing the sky. It makes us gasp ‘What is man that You are mindful of him?’

I went round to my friend’s house the other afternoon to watch an important football match. There were two people supporting my team and seven supporting the opposition. That didn’t matter because we won. But what struck me was the our enthusiasm as we shouted, yelled and punched our fists in the air.

On reflection I wondered if our enthusiasm for our Lord is as great. Do we shout our message from the rooftops. Maybe it’s not quite the done thing and it might cause offence instead of a following for the Lord. But we can metaphorically shout from the rooftops. We can prayer fervently (a lovely word, not much used now) and continuously be in a mindset of communication with God. We can show God’s love and kindness, by gong the extra mile.

We don’t want to be like the Laodicians who were neither hot nor cold or like the Ephesians who abandoned the love they had at first.

I waited two days for a parcel to be delivered. It was something I very much needed and was excited to be receiving it.

For some reason it made me think of the Israelites. They had forty years wandering, waiting to get into the Promised Land. Then they had the wait for the Messiah. False messiahs arrived but not the One they were waiting for. In many cases they are still waiting, even after over two thousand years.

We live in an ‘instant society’. We want everything now or even sooner. The Bible tells us ‘Wait for the Lord.’ Ps 27:14, ‘I wait for the Lord, my soul waits’ Ps 130:5, ‘Blessed are all who wait for Him’ Isaiah 30:18 ‘. ‘While we wait for the blessed hope.’

By the way, my parcel never did arrive; I had to order all over again.

I want to share with you the love of my garden. I know that personal gardens are very much a British institution and maybe in your part of the world they do not feature so much. My garden is not very large but quite large enough for me to cope with. I have been known to say that in the 15 years I have been living here it has grown is size. (What has actually happened is that it has stayed the same dimensions but my strength has diminished.)

I’m not very skilled at gardening; I just dig a little hole and pop the plants in. With the help of the sun, rain and the Lord, things grow. I’m a flower gardener, not a veg gardener. Though I do have two small apple trees and some soft fruit bushes. And of course, plenty of flowers.

My small space gives me great joy, especially during the months when we were locked down. On cold days like today I have to wrap up well but I always feel better from having a stint out there with the birds singing and the wind rustling the leaves.