Friday 3rd July

Well, there are just today's and tomorrow's blogs from me before our techno wizard and kids worker extraordinaire takes over the 'Blogger of the week' role. It's been fun doing this and I confess to logging on fairly frequently to see if anyone has left any comments! For those of you who have - thank you for being gentle with me!

So far this week, I have stayed quiet about Naomi. She's the one who lost her husband and two sons and then wanted to change her name to 'Mara' (meaning Bitter) because so much had gone wrong in her life. She is very honest about her feelings towards God and his actions in Chapter 1 and appears to blame him for the bad stuff happening. But she doesn't turn her back on him, or lose the fact that he is Sovereign, the Almighty; she doesn't stop trusting him.
I love the way she turns to God as soon as something good happens - she wants God to bless the one who has provided so much - Boaz.

When things don't turn out well for me, I can easily find myself blaming God (I tend not to do that publicly in case I lose my job!) but when things go well, I get amnesia and forget that God not only 'takes away' but that he 'gives', too. (I bet some of you are hummin' that worship song already?)

There seems to be real integrity in Naomi's life. I am not sure I can never be as bold as Naomi in pointing the finger at God for sending the tough things in life, even though I know he uses those times to grow my faith but I do want to capture the speed at which she calls on God to bless those who do good; to recognise that God loves to bless, smile upon, reward those who are kind, generous, loving, who go above and beyond the call of duty.

The Forge is full of kind, generous people who go above and beyond the call of duty - from those who serve abroad, lead small groups of Christ followers and give practical and spiritual support to those who are struggling, to those who arrive early on Sunday mornings to set up, rehearse, prepare breakfast and refreshments. I am grateful to every one of you but I want to go a step further - I want to ask for God to bless you today - Friday 3rd July 2009.
"I pray that the LORD will bless and protect you, and that he will show you mercy and kindness. May the LORD be good to you and give you peace." Numbers 6:24-26