Outreach Update- Thanks be to God!
"But thanks be to God, who always leads us as captives in Christ’s triumphal procession and uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere." 2Cor 2:14 (NIV)
What an amazing week the past week has been, with several expressions of God's grace and goodness to us throughout. From Monday through Sunday, we were privileged to engage our community with our offers of free drinks at Costa Coffee Westhill. We would like to thank everyone who took us up on our offer and we hope you enjoyed your drink, whichever one you chose to have. We would also like to express our appreciation to the barristers and Management at Costa Coffee for the allowing us to use their services in this outreach. May God bless you all.
We believe that everyone at some point in life deserves a break. Our offers were a way of meeting that need in the simplest way possible for people in our community. As a Christian group, it was also for us, a deliberate response to those words of Jesus in John 7:37- "Let anyone who is thirsty come". The grand question now becomes, "who is thirsty? and for what?".
In a way we all are thirsty. We thirst daily. We thirst for fulfilment. We thirst for satisfaction, for health, for security, for hope, for assurance, for strength, for food and shelter, for love, for knowledge, companionship, fellowship and belonging, forgiveness, freedom, mercy, wealth, or glory. And so forth... Whatever the hue or shade or intensity of this thirst, it is perfectly understood by God our maker. And he sent One person to quench our thirsts God's way -Jesus Christ.
It may come as a surprise to many, but God knows our frame. He knows what we think and how we think. He knows our cares, fears and worries and why we care, fear or worry. He does, because He is our maker. And as any manufacturer holds the details of a products warranty and repair/replacement, he made the same available through the Word of God- the scriptures. That Word became flesh, Jesus Christ, and he said, " Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest" Matthew 11:28. The prophet Isaiah puts it this way:
"Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost"- Isaiah 55:1
Such was the case of one woman, a Samaritan, who Jesus met at the well. She too was thirsty. But the water He gave her satisfied her deepest needs (John 4:1-26). It became a source of eternal life within her:
"...but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” John 4:14
That was his promise to her. That is his promise to us. That remains His promise to EVERYONE, and it is for this reason that we share this good news with everyone. We hope that all who took up our offer, get to taste of this water of life. It is for this reason that He spreads the aroma of His goodness through us. And for this, we thank God.