For a two-week period, Tides is exploring a number of God’s promises from the Bible, with a variety of daily contributors sharing their reflections on them.
This is a good time to sign up for Tides if you haven’t already.
Sign up at this link https://bit.ly/2WBs3ZU
It’s free and a devotional guide will arrive in your email inbox each week day morning.
Today Rick Hill draws our thoughts to
Weakness Not Strength
“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”
2 Corinthians 12:9
We’re not called to be strong, but instead rely on the One who is strong. We’re not meant to have all the answers, but rather walk with the One who is the answer. You are weak. He is strong.
... take time to thank God for your weaknesses. Ask him to flood those weaknesses with his strength and enable Christ’s glory to be displayed through them.
My heart is filled with thankfulness
To Him who walks beside;
Who floods my weaknesses with strength
And causes fears to fly;
Whose every promise is enough
For every step I take,
Sustaining me with arms of love
And crowning me with grace. My heart is filled with thankfulness
To Him who walks beside;
Who floods my weaknesses with strength
And causes fears to fly;
Whose every promise is enough
For every step I take,
Sustaining me with arms of love
And crowning me with grace.
I love it when others contribute to Burnside At Home and to the blog. So please do share.
Today thank you to Eric Leslie who remembered back a couple of weeks and has shared “I’ve Lost & Gained”, It is a little feature where you share what you Lost and what you have gained during Lockdown. If anyone else would like to contribute please email in.
What I have GAINED and LOST from lockdown - Eric Leslie
GAINED
1. A son who now bugs ME about any jobs needing done!
2. A whole new perspective of Portstewart through the eyes of Richard’s camera (truly beautiful).
3. The Getty family (what a joy!).
4. A weekend that lasts all week.
5. A scruffier bible.
6. Not one but TWO hedgehogs (isn’t life wonderful).
7. A beard!
8. Burnside @ Home (Brilliant)
9. Sore hands from clapping on a Thursday evening (I now use saucepan lids).
LOST
1. ½ a stone (only joking Julie).
2. A son who never sees the jobs that need done.
3. The company of you folks from Burnside. (I haven’t lost it but I sure miss it).
Irish Blessing I sent out an email yesterday evening to tell most people about The Irish Blessing. Some of you may have missed this. It is a plan to include members of churches all across Ireland to sing Be Thou My Vision and release it for Pentecost Sunday. If you enjoy singing all the details can be found on the Web-Site below. All you need to do is follow the instructions, download the backing track and record yourself singing, the team will then mix everything together in a similar style to the UK Blessing. This is a unique opportunity to be involved in something momentous, so act quickly and get your video recorded sent in before they are inundated. If you are not of the singing kind then do pray that God would use this ministry to impact this country. https://theirishblessing.com | |
(What you may have missed)
Louise Glenn Just in case you missed Burnside At Home this week, Louise Glenn sang a lovely version of In Christ Alone | |
Edith Birrell If you did miss Burnside At Home this week then you will also have missed Edith Birrell playing piano again. | |
Terry McMullan And you will also have missed Terry McMullan informing us about PCI Global Mission Workers | |
Something New Each week I am trying to add something new or do something differently. This week there are two things. 1) Lost & Found Have you tried to find something on the website and simply given up because you can’t remember which church service, blog article or prayer point you last saw it. I have now introduced a search feature on the Home page. Enter what you are looking for and you should get a list of all the places that it is mentioned. | |
2) Burnside At Home Podcast We have all been learning new words during Lockdown and many of you have been introduced to Podcasts. I am pleased to announce today that we now have a Burnside Audio Podcast. It is basically an edited version of the Sunday service, (This is what you hear if you Phone Burnside) so if you have watched the service and now want to listen to something again you can using your Podcast Software. It is also a convenient way to listen to the service while out walking. I used to listen to Podcasts when driving, but who drives anymore? It is only available on Spotify & Google Podcasts initially but hopefully should appear on iTunes and lots of other platforms over the next few weeks. This is all a learning curve and apparently it can take a new podcast a few weeks to be approved. https://anchor.fm/burnside |
Live Stream tonight (Monday Evening) organised by Evangelical Bookshop, Belfast.
Do you believe that learning doctrine can fill you with delight? That being grounded in unchanging truth can encourage you when life gets hard? Do you hunger to know God better and love him more deeply? The Good Portion series is written by women for women, and seeks to spur women on to relish the truths of the Christian faith as they do what they were created for – to enjoy knowing God.
Evangelical Bookshop, Westminster Bookstore, and Christian Focus Publications have combined to bring this event to as many Christian women as possible. Make sure you don’t miss the live stream conversation with Good Portion authors Keri Folmar, Rebecca Stark, Natalie Brand and Jenny Reeves Manley on Monday 18th May at 7pm. These ladies will be sharing their wisdom, chatting about faith in lockdown, and digging into how solid doctrine helps us when our plans are turned upside–down.
Tune in to the live stream Tonight Monday 18th May at 7pm on the EBS Facebook page or here if you prefer to watch on YouTube
During the current Coronavirus emergency, many congregations from all denominations, including the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, have been working quietly behind the scenes in different ways, to support their church families and their local communities. At the same time, many are also rising to the challenge of supporting those on the frontline. With the need for Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) in the headlines, members of Enniskillen Presbyterian Church found a creative way to help.
Read more here https://bit.ly/2Z9n3Pd
Rev. Stafford Carson (Principle of Union Theological College, Belfast) writes about singing the Psalms during and after the Covid19 pandemic.
He writes -
Part of the ministry of the Church in the days to come will be to bring comfort and consolation to our community through corporate worship. That is why it might now be a good time for us to dust off our psalters and consider again the words which God’s people used in their worship in past ages when facing times of crisis and loss.
Read the article, which was written at the beginning of April here.
https://bit.ly/2X8EInF
Colin Jenkins, port missionary in Cork shares the following -
"The map below shows the current position of oil tankers, mostly filled with oil. They are “stranded” around the world because there is no way to unload, since onshore warehouses are full, pipelines are full, and without flow, due to the low demand for oil. Although oil is now worth zero, keeping it in this condition costs about $ 30,000 a day per vessel. There is no one who buys oil if airplanes do not fly, if vehicles do not travel in cities.
Never in contemporary history has there been such a drastic reduction in the consumption of fossil fuels. The oil is standing on the surface of the oceans (in the tanks of the ships), in the deposits that are on land and in the pipelines. There is no clearer index to understand the magnitude of the paralysis and the problems that modern capitalism faces, since the ballast of the dollar is this, stopped, floating in the oceans." reposted from Emre Murat Varlık.
There is no comment made except to realise that these crews will be under tremendous pressure at this time and we should pray that port missionaries like Colin will be able to make contact with them and provide them with Hope.
On Friday I posted a picture of the Wheaten Bread that I had carefully crafted. Little did I expect to be interrogated on the beach on Saturday as I walked to the Barmouth. I’ll not name any names, but I was gently asked what packet I had used to make the wheaten, and when I insisted that I had made it myself from various ingredients, I was then asked what the ingredients were. I had to stand on the beach and recite all the ingredients that went into the bread. It almost seemed as though the person didn’t believe that I had baked the bread myself. 😀
I’ve inspired at least one blog reader to consider giving up the Jigsaws and to start baking instead. If you are interested, below is the video from YouTube that I followed. It would seem that you can learn to do almost anything from YouTube. A couple of weeks ago our dishwasher stopped working and of course we couldn’t get anyone in to fix it, so I followed a YouTube video, managed to dismantle it, identify and order a replacement for the faulty part and then a few days later, remarkably I was able to fit it and put the dishwasher back together again.
Here is a video showing you how to bake wheaten bread.
(This is not how I saw my ministry developing in May 2020!)
Times for Friday
Jean 9:25
Derek 13:22
Although there may only be two times submitted, you are not on your own, some days the puzzle has been completed over 40 times.
Friday night should have been the Firework display for the NW200 so here is an old Portstewart Firework display for the puzzle today. Where do you even begin a jigsaw with colours like this?
https://www.jigsawplanet.com/?rc=play&pid=2f8487acfd62
Well done, many of you guessed correctly on Friday,
Liz nailed it, “I think it's in a little alcove on the Convent walk.”
Edgar also guessed correctly - “Bansky drawing is in recess in wall on cliff walk below the convent”
I finish with the familiar question - Where Is It?
Another NW200 themed question today, where would you find this sign and this gate.