Dear Jerry,

It has been a hard twenty four hours for us. I have one daughter really suffering from the stress of her final year at University. I am glad, very glad the days of sitting exams are over for me, I don’t think I could cope with it anymore! I have another daughter sitting her "prelims" just now and she is pretty anxious about it all, although she will do well. The traumas of school! On top of all that J’s work with The Royal Bank seems set to dry up after next week, leaving us with only my stipend to live on which is rather difficult. So we are feeling depressed this morning facing, shortages and cutbacks in our life. However we, like Paul, have learned to be content whether we are short or have plenty. It does however take a day or two, or even a night’s sleep to get our heads around such things.

Today it is "dreich". A good Scottish word. Wet, miserable, damp, the sky kissing the pavement. I’m not sure when we last saw the sun!

Anyway sitting here alone in the house in my study, I have been going over the material I have prepared for tonight’s midweek fellowship and also the material for Sunday.

In all of the various parts of scripture I have found myself I have become conscious of a couple of really powerful statements.

In Hosea 4v6 I read "my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge"

Set in context we find that God is saying that he is rejecting his people because they have ignored His law and rejected knowledge of Him. It is something I see all the time in my Ministry and in my time on the Internet. On every side there are people who don’t want to know about God. Even people who call themselves Christian. And yet knowledge of God is an integral part of the Christian experience Paul in writing to the little church at Colosse told them what he prayed about for them:

"that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God."

A little earlier in the passage Paul writes about "the knowledge of His will".

God wants us to be filled with this knowledge. The Greek word that is being used here is EPIGNOSIS. This is word, which means knowledge that comes as a result of practical and personal experience that is not just academic, intellectual, or head knowledge.

It is important to know God in this way as I think I have shared with you before, because as I read in Hosea lack of knowledge leads to destruction and rejection.

There are two ways in which we can acquire this knowledge, we read of the first in James 1v5

"If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given."

It is also found by reading the Bible.

Paul writes, "In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ".

I guess both of these things highlight the two central pillars of being Christian…

Prayer

&

Reading the Bible

When we do both diligently we do learn and grow in knowledge and more importantly we learn more and more about God. We grow in that wonderful knowledge that comes through practical and personal experience.

Maybe right now this is just too much to take in, as I know your life is really very full just now and all your time will be taken up in just nursing your Mum. But never in all of this forget that you can turn in prayer and the Bible to our mighty, strong and loving God.

My prayers, as always, are with you.

Give my love to Zoe.

Every Blessing,

Stuart

ps did I mention our church now tapes Sunday services? If you would like to hear what I get up to on a Sunday morning, remind me of your address and I will see if I can’t get round to posting one to you!