This week we were delighted to welcome as our speaker one of our own members, Jane Leaver.

Jane explained that her talk had been inspired by an old chorus which her Mum used to sing to her when she was a child. Through this song Jane introduced us to various Bible characters, some very familiar and some obscure; for example, few of us had heard of Shamgar, who merits just one verse in the Bible! But all seven characters in the song (listed below), had one thing in common – they used whatever they had, however ordinary or insignificant, to serve God, with amazing results.

Jane also referred to the end of Paul’s letter to the Romans (chapter 16 : 1 – 16), which is a long list of some of the people who had helped him in spreading the gospel. Jane encouraged us all to recognise that God has given each of us unique gifts, and placed us exactly where He wants us to be, so that we can serve Him and His kingdom, and be a blessing to those we meet every day.

To finish our time together, we sang the lovely song, Beautiful Lord, wonderful Saviour as a prayer, asking God to take us, mould us, use us and fill us as we give our lives to the Potter’s hand.

Shamgar had an ox-goad,
David had a sling,
Dorcas had a needle,
Rehab had some string,
Samson had a jaw bone,
Aaron had a rod,
Mary had some ointment,
All were used by God.