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I was reading a
description of the communion service held when the first settlers from
England arrived. Three ships had come in. The settlers met in the second
storey of a warehouse on Norwich Quay
in Lyttleton. The passengers, who had climbed
upstairs on a ladder, sat on planks on packing cases.
The Psalm for the day, the 22nd, was
wonderfully applicable to us. These are the verses I refer to, "And
there he setteth the hungry that they may find them a city to dwell in;
that they may plant their fruits and increase. He blesseth them so that
they multiply exceedingly and suffereth not their cattle to
decrease." It seemed as if the Almighty had given us His blessing
on our new life and may we not say on looking back through the long
vista of years, that He has blessed many of us abundantly, and made us a
prosperous and happy people? (Canterbury Sketches: Life from Early Days,
p 7).
I looked at Psalm 22 and found verse 26, which is
similar to the quote. I then looked at the next two verses.
All the ends of the earth
will remember and turn to the Lord,
all the families of the nations
will bow down before him,
for dominion belongs to the Lord
and he rules the nations.
Psalm 22:27,28
These verses refer to the "ends of the
earth". Christchurch is about as close to the ends of the earth as we
can get. There is a promise that dominion belongs to the Lord and that He
rules the nations. This is a promise that Kingdom
of God will be established in the ends of the earth. Once this
has happened all the families of nations will acknowledge the Lord.
My heart leapt when I saw these verses. I then
discovered that the 22nd referred to the date in December not
the chapter of the Psalms. The Psalm of day was Psalm 107. And quote was
from verse 7,8. However, I noticed in NASB that the references link Psalm
107:9 and Psalm 22:26. These are both key verses
for Christchurch.
The Kingdom of God will be established in the
outermost parts of the earth. It will then flow to the families of nations
until the Lords rule and dominion over the nations becomes a reality. This
was the calling elt by Godley and his colleagues. This
is a wonderful calling and it is God’s calling for Christchurch.
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