Some plant, others water, but only God gives the growth!
I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow.1 Corinthians 3:6
Last month we were reminded by the Psalmist never to cease singing God's praises for his faithfulness to us. There is indeed much to be grateful for! Over the past few weeks we've been witnessing growth in many areas of our congregational life: attendance at worship services and Bible study, those who contribute to singing and playing music, the work and witness of the "Drop Inn", even contributions to this Bulletin — all this despite the fact that some of us were away for the summer break! The impetus we have received seems to be propelling us to newer and more frequent activities like the "Praise and Worship" service, the breakfast fellowship this month and the weekly "hour of contemplation". God be praised indeed!
Yet this growth in our corporate life can also spill over into our individual and familial lives and vice versa. Whether this means welcoming a partner into our lives, a new child in the family, building a house to live in, starting or changing a job, acquiring a new asset, or making new friends, it counts as growth and reason enough to sing God's praises for giving us such increase! At a deeper level of cognizance, despair turns to hope, grieving gives way to understanding, perhaps even joy, and illness gets tempered with a stabilizing condition and possible healing, because God responds to our need, fortified by our demand, of his grace and love through Christ. We are thus allowed to grow in spirit and in truth.
My prayer for each one of you this month is that you will experience and recognize God's Spirit working within you for change and growth and that you will give God the glory for such increase. I will be away in the latter half of September hoping to enable growth in the wider context of our church as I share in the fellowship of some of our senior citizens at a week-long retreat near Leipzig, followed by a five-day get-together of all the pastors of our district at Schwarzenshof, and ending with a combined weekend retreat with the Hamburg English-speaking congregation at Oeverdieck. Some plant, others water, but only God gives the growth! (1 Corinthians 3:7)