Dear Friends

I have finally managed to setup my mailing list manager.  You should have received an unnusual sounding email from [EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED] which will have advised you that you are now on the mailing list.  It also contains unsubscribing information if you wish to remove yourself.  I'm quite glad to finally have it sorted out because I'm not a very technical kind of person and it seems to take me forever to work it all out.  Anyway - I'm glad that headache is over. I will continue to write and share thoughts and scriptures every week, and I hope that this is a blessing and an encouragment to you.  As you can tell from the name of this mailing list, it is called "encouragment" and I hope that you will find that this mailing list helps you in your walk with Jesus and also in growing in His service. There's just 2 things I'd like to share with you at the moment, one of them really grabbed me as a neat idea.  We had a visiting preacher from Pakistan recently in our congregation and He noticed we have a large map of India on the wall of our church building.  Our congregation supports a native missionary in the state of Bihar there, and this visitor said He would send us a map of Pakistan and also a Pakistani flag for us to hang on the wall.  (by the way, we have both Pakistani and Indian christian friends and they all get on very well as Christian brothers and sisters.)  The whole idea of flags quite excited me and now another friend is sending us an Indian flag.  I got to thinking that we should have flags from all over the world to help us in our prayers for all of you and your nations.  Could I be so bold as to ask if you might consider mailing us your national flag for us to put inside our church building and maybe also some details about your country to help us in our prayers.  If you feel you can do this for us, please email me back at [EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED] and I'll share with you my postal address.  It is our hope to be a real blessing to all nations.  The other thing that I was feeling important to share with you was actually a reminder of the truth of what the Bible says in 1 John 1:8-9.  In these verses it says that if we confess our sins, they WILL be forgiven.  I find it a great source of emotional strength to be able to trust God on this point.  Sometimes I get emails telling me about a various sin someone struggles with over and over again.  But the word of God is still true, and Jesus even says to forgive someone 70 X 7 times.  I get the tremendous feeling that sin doesn't have much power at all when it is placed under the blood of Jesus.........none in fact. No matter how dirty, guilty, horrible or rotten you feel, the promise of God still stands..........if you confess you sins then you will be forgiven.  Even if you do it again tomorrow, and the day after, and the day after again............the promise still stands.  God only places 2 requirements on it, one, that you confess your sins in a genuine way and two, that you are also willing to forgive others who sin against you. "Dear Jesus, I ask a blessing now to rest, guide and keep the readers of this email. 

May they grow in their walk with you, and, above all, to be free of all guilt, condemnation and sin."

God Bless you

Cheers - David