Utumishi Blog

This is what it’s all about – Bibles open, reading, reading, reading again. “Noses in the text, knees on the floor” (Dick Lucas). Today was a reminder and challenge to me that gospel ministry is prayer and word ministry (Acts 6:4) – and that both are mainly unseen and hard work.  No-one knows if you’ve been crying out to the Lord for yourself and the church (but as Sammy quoted, ‘If you’re not praying you’re playing’) and no one knows if you’ve been really wrestling with the text, looking for the narrative structure, reading the context, working out who on earth is Evil-merodach king of Babylon or why 1 Samuel 1-2 keeps on mentioning Elkanah.  Personal highlight of the day – the wonderful grace of Exodus 14:13-14: ‘You just stand there and watch the salvation of the Lord – He will work, he will fight.’

• Praise God for one or two more people today and good time digging into God’s Word.
• Tomorrow we’ll be looking at 1 Samuel 12, characterisation, the process of preparation, working in groups towards the big idea of 1 Kings 17:17-24, and considering ‘the leader and humility’. Pray particularly that we’d be avoiding the temptation to jump straight into the text and be captivated more and more by the great Bible narrative of salvation in Christ.