Lord's Day July 21 2019

THE CURSE OF SELF-CONFIDENCE

I felt it was a very good day yesterday. I seemed to be able to pray well, which is not always the case I confess and the preaching was clear and to the point I hope. The only hiccough was missing the second hymn in the morning but that is not big deal (I had listened to most of the Keswick meeting on Radio 4 that morning and thought there was too much singing and not enough time for the "talk" as they called it, perhaps it was an unconscious protest on my part). Numbers were not great in the morning or evening - it's that time of the year. However, it was nice to have an old Filipina friend with us and another who hope to come regularly in future plus a local Nigerian lady who came for the first time last week. It was also to see a fomer Muslim member back after several weeks missing owing chiefly to a family crisis. In the morning we were saying goodbye to the Saywells who have been with us during their time at Childs Hill. We will miss them. Reuben is going to be working in Maidenbower Baptist. We had communion before the evening service and then I preached on Matthew 26:30-35 to ten people. The sermon was chockful with illustrations which we were all happy about I think. I recently started a sermon illustration blog, which may grow to a decent size. See here.