You have given me the shield of your salvation,
    and your right hand supported me,
    and your gentleness made me great.
Psalm 18:35

This verse (above) from Psalm 18 captures a bit of God's kindness to us in this past year. Where would we be without the Lord, our shield and support, his gentleness bearing us up? The CSB translates it - "You have given me the shield of your salvation; your right hand upholds me, and your humility exalts me." What grace to have the humility of the Sovereign Lord of the universe over our lives? 

He is teaching us likewise. What does it mean to love like Jesus and walk in that humility? I'm still learning. Painfully. The longer I walk with him, the more I realize I have a lot more to learn about his humble love. But from this year, I've learned that the humble love of Jesus requires me to die to myself. And it requires me to surrender to him. Everything. Even the idols hiding in the crevices of my heart that I didn't even know existed. 

Like me, these things probably aren't a news flash to you - die to self, surrender to Jesus. We hear them from the time we become Christians. Your grandma might have them embroidered on a pillow. But did you know that to actually live them out hurts? A lot? Death means death. It wasn't a metaphor. When Jesus bids us come and die, it means we're going to die. It means parts of us need to die. It means he is going to slay the crusty, proud, self-exalting, vain, conceited parts of us that spit on the beauty of Jesus. Because in that slaying, we are given more freedom and he is glorified.

But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. (2 Cor 4:7-11, emphasis mine)

May we all grow more into the Treasure that is Christ and surrender our lives and selves into his hand. He is worthy.

We love to have this friend (pictured above) over. It's usually to watch Rangers football with Martin, but he always wants to talk about eternal things. He seems to be really thinking about the gospel and counting the cost. But loyalty is a high value in the schemes, and right now, he struggles with the idea of forsaking his friends in order to follow Jesus. But like I shared above in the lessons of my own heart, Jesus calls all of us to total allegiance to him. Would you please pray for our friend with us? We love him so much and so long for him to join us in God's family. Please pray that he would see the worth of Christ, making all else "grow strangely dim / in the light of his glory and grace." Please pray for his salvation!

For the past couple months, I have been able to tag along with a team from the Free North, our mother church, who are presenting the Student Union Bible Alive program to a couple classes in the Merkinch Primary School. It has been such a privilege to see the stories of the Bible shared with these kids - most of them hearing them for the first time.

On my first day, the leader had one of the students read John 3:16 aloud, and the tears came down my face at the love of Christ being proclaimed over these children who come from such hard, chaotic homes. In that one verse and in the weeks after, they heard Jesus loves them and gave up his life for them.

Would you please pray for these students? That the Spirit of God would sow these gospel seeds deep into their hearts so that they would turn to Jesus for life and hope? Would you please pray for us to know how to engage the next generation in our schemes?