My friend Mark

I'm just so thankful to God for the opportunity to meet with someone like Mark and read the bible together. When I was a staff worker I got loads of opportunities to meet with various non-Xns and read with them. I remeber, in my first year on staff, the only student I met with 1-1 at Nottingham uni was a a non-Xn. We would meet regularly and read the Old Testament together. Since moving to a Xn office it's been a lot harder to do this.

Anyway, back to Mark. We looked at the passage together. Chatted about Mel Gibson's film the Passion for a while. We then spent a large amount of time looking at (in Rico's terms) the cloud, the cry and the curtain and discussed the significance of each event. For those who are not familiar with CE...

The Cloud (or darkness) in the middle of the day represents God's Judgement.
The Cry (my God, my God, why have you foresaken me?) represents Jesus' abandonment on the cross. God Should have been angry with those that were crucifying His Son - yet it was Jesus who was abandoned.
The Temple Curtain - The way to God, access to God is now open.

We chatted about the stuff we had looked at in previous studies and my heart was greatly warmed when I asked, 'what response is God looking for' and Mark answered, 'for us to come to him and say sorry.'

I don't know if he's a Xn or not (maybe he is? He was certainly making the right noises tonight) but I do know that he has a hunger to know God more. I was thrilled when at the end of the night, as he was leaving, he asked if we could visit Mike's (Partridge) church again (we had visited some while back when I was preaching there one time). I desperately want to get Mark plugged into a local church so he can grow and really put down some solid roots in the faith.

What an immense privilage to be involved in God's work this way. I'm so excited for Mark as he embarks on this journey - to know God more...

Please join with me in praying for him.

I'm meeting with my cousin Gurpal tomorrow night. We were going to have a jam but that fell through. Instead we're moving a sofa from his mum's house to my mum's house. We had a brief chat about Xnity on the phone tonight and said we'd exchange books. He's reading one about Sihkism and I'm reading Tim Chester on prayer. I won't give him that one but do pray for opportunities to talk further about the Lord. He's very open. What would be ace wouls be to start meeting with him on a regular basis too and look at the bible together. I'm going to pray every day that God would do it. I know that that's the kind of peayer he just loves to answer.