It was really great to gather together today to sing praises to our great and gracious God, and celebrate his unchanging faithfulness towards us in and through the gospel of Jesus Christ!

It was also wonderful to join with the Maybury family and give thanks to God for the precious gift of Elizabeth, and pray for them as they dedicate themselves to raising her in the training and instruction of the Lord.

Hope you like the “retro” pictures!

We continued the sub-series of our “Christ in the Old Testament” preaching series, called “Redeeming Ruth”

Today’s sermon entitled, “Refuge Under the Wings of God” from Ruth 2:1-23 is available to listen to or download from here, or via our iTunes podcast feed.

Today’s quotes are here:

Sinclair Ferguson:
“We trust the Lord because he is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the great patriarchs, and the God of the apostles, and the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.  But we also know we can trust him because he is the God who has done marvellous things in the lives of very ordinary people.  Thus, in Scripture God writes in block capitals letters the principles of his providence so that when he rewrites them in our lives in small, sometimes microscopic, writing, we see that he is the same God.  He uses the same handwriting, and displays the same providential care for our lives as in the lives recorded in Scripture…  In the midst of our confusion and the happenstances and surprises of life there is a sovereign God in heaven whose hand is upon us every moment of the day, a God who reigns over every inch of the universe in which we live.  Se we know nothing ‘just happens.’  All things come to pass under the sovereign wisdom and purpose of our heavenly Father.  That is why we can be quietly confident — not because we know exactly what God is doing in this unpredictable world, but because we know that what is unpredictable to us is already predicted by him.  He has written his purposes for us in his own book, and numbered our days before one of them was given birth or saw the light of day.”

John Piper:
“God is gracious and sovereign even when silent.”

John Piper:
“The gospel is not an employment ad.  God is not an employer looking for employees.  He is an eagle loking for people who will take refuge under his wings.  He is looking for people who will leave father and mother and homeland or anything else that may hold them back from a life of love under the wings of Jesus.”