April
So anyway, back to April.
As i said a couple of posts ago, we spent 2 weeks in Kotor, Montenegro. For me it was one of the highlight ports so far. I had some great times of ministry, seeing the Lord use me - encouraging me that i AM here for a purpose! I especially enjoyed 2 things - one was spending time with some 11 year old kids who i met in the streets of the old town when i was out one day. It was great to form a relationship with them and be able to learn some Serbian and in turn give a tour of the ship and share a little bit about why we were there, and mostly to show them love. One day I was also able to visit a gypsy/refugee camp with some others. This was a group of shacks about 10 minutes walk from the ship, backing onto some sports fields. There were lots of children there, mostly Kosovar-Albanians, and some other nationalities. They are very poor and obviously marginalised. Many of them wore old grubby clothes, but they are such beautiful people. We were able to spend some time sharing with them about Christ (with the help of translators) and to play with the children and give food and drinks. Some came to the ship a few days later to share a meal with us. I found it personally very touching to be able to show these children the love of Christ practically through our playtime with them and smiles and hugs, despite the language barrier.
Now we are in Rijeka, Croatia, having Sabbath Week - this is a week when we are closed to the public, and of minimal work - we all work just one shift in the week. I did mine on the first morning so i have been able to sit back and enjoy the teaching and the rest and relaxation!
The Holiness of God
‘Holy holy holy is the Lord God Almighty
His glory fills the whole earth.’ (Revelation 6:3)
Our God is a Holy God. But what does that mean? My study group has been reading the book ‘The Holiness of God’ by RC Sproul and trying to get to grips with a concept that we sing about every week. So far we conclude that as hard as it is to define ‘Holy’ so also the greatness of God cannot be pinned down to a simple description. ‘Holy’ as applied to God speaks of His set-apart-ness, His supremacy, purity, justice, the sacred, perfection, grace, mercy, forgiveness… There is no word in the English language to describe God in all His fullness.
And what of our response to a Holy God? When something is deemed ‘holy’ (or consecrated to God) it demands a certain respect and fear – we are to treat them in a proper manner. Moses was told (Exodus 3:5), ‘Take off your shoes for you stand on holy ground.’ There was a response that he had to make to the fact that the ground was declared holy; it was consecrated to God; in fact God Himself was there. God goes on to announce who He is and Moses is afraid. He is afraid to look at God. Why? Because of God’s glory, which is His revealed holiness. God’s holiness and His glory therefore go hand in hand. What is your response to God’s holiness? I think our right response has to be an awe, a fear of God, a response that brings us down on our knees in worship. To many other faiths the Holiness of God is what keeps Him separate and distant and unreachable but as Christians we know that in all His Holiness God came to live amongst us and died so that despite our sinfulness we can come before a Holy God. Grace is what most Catholics, for example in Malta, do not understand.
So this is to give glory to God – not to give it to Him as if it’s some gift from us thus making Him glorious, but acknowledging His glory and proclaiming what is already there. We cannot make Him more glorious (or give Him more glory in the sense that He needs topping up!). There is a song that goes, ‘I lift you high and bow down low…’ I’d like to disagree slightly with the words of this song. It is not about what we can do, it’s about God, and He reveals Himself through our lowly state.
‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ 2 Corinthians 12:9
‘Offer yourselves as a living sacrifice to Him.’ Romans 12:1
‘If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sins and will heal their land.’ 2 Chronicles 7:14
If we realise our position before a Holy God and are brought down to our knees and bow down before Him, He can and will glorify Himself.
Summary
Guess what everybody? I turned 24 this month!! YES 24, not 19!! I celebrated my birthday in Cetinje, Montenegro, on break from the ship for 4 days. It was wonderful.
In February we spent the month with Logos II in Split, Croatia, where we spent a lot of time working on Logos Hope, our new ship, getting her ready for service. Continue to pray that she'll be ready by the end of the summer so that the crew of Logos II can swap over onto the Logos Hope.
In March, we were in Malta. This port was for us a long one at 32 days. During this time we had many ministry opportunities, as well as completing internal audits and receiving 6 containers, so it was also a busy port in many ways. I enjoyed the physical work of container day – 6.5 hours of passing boxes – and also of scrubbing the galley spotless for inspection!
Some of the ministry activities I was involved in included busking and flyering in town, a church team, and schools visits.
