The Letter from the January 2006 Edition of "Outlook"

Blandford and Langton's Verse for 2006
"As you come to him, the living Stone ... ...you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ." 1 Peter 2:4-5 "

"Let's Get Building!"

I think God likes making and building things ! At one end of the Bible, at the start of history, a large construction job we call "Creation" took place, and at the other end, we have the promise of a new Heaven and a new Earth, to replace the frail and crumbling one we know.

All through scripture, there are examples of building - from the vain attempts of the Babel builders, through the temple-building of Solomon, the reconstruction of Jerusalem by Nehemiah and the building of a Kingdom in the Gospels.

None of these have survived - except one, the most important one, the Kingdom of God. When Jesus talked of building on the rock in Matthew 7, he was talking about the need to build on solid foundations - ones which would mean the survival of the structure no matter what it might have to face. 2006 is going to be a year in which buildings are going to feature quite a lot in our thinking - at both churches. Whether it is the general maintenance of the BFPC building, the plans for a new church hall for BFPC or the plans for extending Langton, the PCCs are going to have some difficult decisions to take. Both physically and spiritually, the most important thing is that the buildings have solid and true foundations.

Solomon undertook the most spectacular building constructions in the OT wrote in Psalm 127:1 "Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labour in vain."

Building anything requires time, patience and a cost. It is naive to think that our building plans will happen at the drop of a hat and at no cost to ourselves. That is certainly going to be true in the matter of our physical buildings in 2006 - but it will also be true in the ongoing work of building the Kingdom in Blandford and Langton. As our verse for the year suggests, we need to be willing to let God place his stones where he wishes and to be built what he wants - to bring glory to his name.

Tim Storey
Rector

New ... Download the whole of this months Outlook here !

The Letter from the January 2006 Edition of "Outlook"

Blandford and Langton's Verse for 2006 "As you come to him, the living Stone ... ...you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ." 1 Peter 2:4-5 "

"Let's Get Building!"

Blandford and Langton's Verse for 2006
"As you come to him, the living Stone ... ...you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ." 1 Peter 2:4-5 "