Bahamas

Our granddaughter Beatriz (Bia), who is on a teenagers' excursion to the USA, is at the moment on a cruise from Miami to the Bahamas islands which are about a 4 hours' trip away from the USA mainland.

The beginnings of a new church plant at the Vila Rajada is going well. Pastor Robério reports that the first service there was good and they have been invited to return. 

Rafael Barbosa, Gerlândia and family have moved to Belém to take on the leadership of the church there. Please pray for them.

Sadly one of the twins born prematurely to Jozilene and Toinho, of our São Mamede church, has died at just 2 months old. Please pray for the parents. I conducted the funeral service yesterday morning at 7 am at a little farmstead, before going to the São Mamede cemetery. The tiny little baby in a tiny coffin was heart breaking. 

On Tuesday night I led the inductive Bible study with the Men's Fellowship and good discussions ensued. It was a good meeting led by chief of the police Esau. 

In the FIFA World Cup of Football Clubs there are 2 Brazilian teams through to the quarter finals, 2 German teams, 1 English team (Chelsea), 1 Saudi Arabian team, 1 Spanish team and 1 French team. The tournament is being very good and I criticize the BBC for deliberately downplaying the event.

Yesterday afternoon I handed over the Christmas play, 'Promised Son' to our drama director Dilma Prata. I wrote the play in 3 days (morning, afternoon and night) which wasn't bad. God really helped me. 🙌The play is teaching, gospel and encouragement in Christ.

2 decisions for Christ were made during evangelism at the men's prison yesterday afternoon. Praise God!

Today is our son Philip's birthday there in England. Have a great day Philip! Happy birthday!

2 Samuel 11 (résumé): David & Bathsheba

Joab was away besieging Rabbah with the Israelite army, but David remained in Jerusalem. He already had 7 wives, but one day he saw Bathsheba bathing, desired her, sent for her and had sex with her whilst her husband Uriah the Hittite was away with the army. When Bathsheba was confirmed pregnant she sent word to David. 

David tried to cover his tracks by sending to bring Uriah back from war and tried to get him to sleep with his wife, but he refused in the name of solidarity with the troops he had left behind. When David sent Uriah back to the siege he told Joab to put Uriah on the front line of battle where he was most likely to die and this was what happened. So when Bathsheba's period of mourning was over David took her as his 8th wife and she bore him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord.

2 Samuel 10 (résumé): David defeats the Ammonites

David sent a delegation to express sympathies for the death of King Nahash of the Ammonites, but the lovely gesture backfired and was seen as an exploit of spying. So the late king's son Hanun seized David's men, shaved half of their beards off, cut off their clothes in the middle of their buttocks and sent them away in this humiliating state! There then evolved a battle between the Ammonites supported by the Arameans against Israel, but Joab used clever tactics and soon the Arameans fled leading to the Ammonites fleeing too. Later the Arameans re-grouped but Israel successfully counter-attacked killing 700 charioteers and 40,000 soldiers. The Arameans learnt their lesson and became afraid to help the Ammonites.

2 Samuel 9 (résumé): David & Mephibosheth

David made enquiries as to whether there were any descendants left of Saul's family so that he could show them kindness for his great late friend Jonathan's sake with whom he had made a covenant. He learnt that Jonathan's crippled son Mephibosheth was alive and well, so he had him brought to the palace, and restored to him all his grandfather Saul's land. Mephibosheth was overwhelmed and asked what a dead dog like him had done to deserve it? David instructed Saul's servants to farm the land for Mephibosheth and said that he would aways eat at the palace like one of his sons.

2 Samuel 8 (résumé): David's victories

This chapter relates the victories of David over the Philistines, Moabites, Edomites, Ammonites and Arameans. The method of killing the Moabites was strange as they were made to lie down and were measured by a cord and were killed, or not, according to their height! David fought King Hadadezer of Zobah to restore his control of the River Euphrates and he captured 1,000 chariots, 7,000 charioteers and 20,000 soldiers. He also hamstrung all the horses except 100! When the Arameans came in support of Hadadezer David killed 22,000 of them and took lots of gold and bronze from them. David also killed 18,000 Edomites in the Valley of Salt. 

The chapter concludes by showing what a well organized, just and efficient ruler David was. Joab was his army commander, Zadok and Ahimelech were priests, Seraiah was secretary, Benaiah was a regional ruler and David's sons were royal advisers. 

Christmas Play

I am in the process of writing a Christmas play once again for our drama group to perform on Christmas Eve. It is a mammoth challenging job. This year's title is "The Promised Son" (which is not simply what you think it is! But I can only tell you the story after Christmas!).

Our granddaughter Beatriz (Bia) has flown down from New York to Miami and there she went to watch the football match between Brazilian team Flamengo and Bayern Munich which Flamengo lost 4 x 2, with 2 goals from Harry Kane. Flamengo is Philip's team.

On Sunday night I led the main service of the week and co-pastor Rafael preached on Psalm 81. It was a good service.

Our eldest grandchild, 27-year-old Felipe John, is the architect of the Patos Shopping Centre taking care of all the beautiful shop fronts as the centre expands. His work is extraordinary.

Liz went to the prayer meeting last night which she says was very good. 

This blog received 13,725 visits in the month of June which is quite extraordinary! Our thanks and greetings to one and all. May God bless you abundantly. 

2 Samuel 7 (résumé): God's promise to David

 After King David had settled in his beautiful palace, and things were peaceful on the battle front, David started toying with the idea of building a temple to match his palace. However God spoke to David through the prophet Nathan that this wasn't what God desired. To the contrary God's concern was with David's "house" or dynasty and not with physical constructions. God wanted to establish David's "house" so that there will be Davidic kings long after his own death, promising to establish his lineage and throne forever. This covenant is a foundational promise for the lineage of the Messiah, Jesus Christ.

David replied to God in prayer questioning who he was to be so blessed? He exalts the greatness of God asking who is like the Lord and who can be compared with the nation of Israel? David yet praises the sovereignty of God and the trustworthiness of his word which assures him that the house of David will be blessed forever.