Our Plans vs. God's Purpose

This verse in Proverbs (in the Bible) has come to my attention a couple of times recently:

You can make many plans but the Lord's purpose will prevail.

It can be viewed in two different ways. One is that whatever we plan to do, God will frustrate it and ensure his purpose happens, which will in turn make us frustrated.

The other way to view it is that even when we make plans that are outside of His purpose, he doesn't just wave us goodbye and let us get on with it. Instead he turns it around somehow. This, then, is encouraging and reassuring!

Which way do you look at that verse? I suppose it depends whether you're a "cup half empty" or a "cup half full" person.

What's even better is to only make plans when you are sure they are in God's purpose. Then you'll be a "cup running over" person!

The Reason Why ...

I said a few blogs back that I'd explain why the blogs were coming less frequently. The reason is we have been a bit preoccupied as I will be leaving my post as Associate Pastor at the end of August. This is basically because the church cannot afford to pay me. In other words the finances of the church have come to a point where at least one member of the staff team had to go.

So, where does that leave me? Well, I will be doing two things. One will be actively seeking a new post and the other will be taking the opportunity to do some study. Not for any diploma or certificate, just some Christian based study in some areas that I particularly want to look at.

In all this, there are two things that I'm sure of. One is that we didn't make a mistake coming to Brentwood almost a year ago. It was God's calling, which we obeyed. The other is that God has a plan for our lives and that will be revealed in the days to come.

In all this I have to say that my wife and I are at peace about it. This is most definitely God's peace that "surpasses human understanding" and not just us!

A happy birthday

Last week was my birthday. My wife agreed to buy me some clothes so we went shopping at Lakeside. Then we had a meal there at Cafe Rouge. It was later that I suddenly asked myself, "What's happening to me? I've spent my birthday evening by choice at Lakeside of all places!!" When we were in Suffolk they talked about getting Suffolkated if you get the pun. I don't know what the equivalent word is for Essex (and I don't think I want to know!), but it may be happening to me!

By the way, have you heard this joke (it loses a little in it being written rather than said). Name a favourite Essex wine. Answer, I wanna go to Lakeside!

On the news again

Once again, I must apologise for my lack of blogging, but I'll tell you the reasons for that soon. In the meantime I was watching the BBC evening news last week - the night it was reported that the proposed 2p increase on petrol duty was not going to happen.

You know they have this fixation on sending reporters to stand outside a place that has some relevance to the news item, even though it would make much more sense (especially in the winter or when it's tipping down with rain) to have them sitting in the studio. Well, true to form Nick Robinson was in a petrol station to report on the aforementioned item. And, what was he doing? Putting petrol into a white van! Nick Robinson, BBC's own white van man! Now we have a clue to his day job! Is it plumbing, plastering or just odd jobs around the house?