Wise Words To Live By

Mar 6, 2026

At our Bible study last night, we also looked at the words of Jesus in Matt 7:1-12, which look at a range of subjects about how best to live as people in God’s kingdom. His words on prayer remind us of the need to persevere: we must ask, seek and knock, but again, He balances what we must do with a secure knowledge of what God does for His children, reminding us of His generosity and provision. We may struggle at times with prayer, for God sometimes seems to test us by making us wait for answers, but Jesus shows us the generous nature of God to assure us that He is not mean.

Jesus also wanrs of the dangers of judging others, speaking humorously about the ‘plank’ in our own eyes while we are keen to remove the ‘speck’ from someone else’s. We can’t always see others clearly and need God to reveal to us our own sin before we speak about other people’s (see John 8:1-7).

Jesus also reminds us that we need wisdom; it’s not always the right time to speak of spiritual matters to those who are deliberately ignoring God’s ways.

In these verses, Jesus gives us examples of good behaviour (befitting of the kingdom of God) and poor choices which are not going to help in the long run.

1. Worry is a poor choice which will lead to anxiety and keep us in a place where we are depressed and unable to serve God effectively. (Matt 6:25-31) It is pointless, fruitless and a total waste of time and energy. To say that ‘I’m a worrier’, implying that we have no choice in the matter, is a lie. We worry by choice. Jesus urges us to choose an alternative to worry.

2. We are to choose to put God first in everything and are assured that God’s provision will meet all our needs. (Matt 6:32-34) Nature itself demonstrates to us God’s perfect care and attention to detail. This should encourage us to have faith and to trust.

3. God’s nature means we should treat others as we would like God (and others) to treat us. (Matt 7:12) This will mean refusing to live in a self-righteous, judgmental, over-critical way. It will mean giving people the benefit of the doubt and refusing to treat sacred things in a profane way.

The words of Jesus are wise pointers we do well to heed if we want to live well.

Don’t Worry!

Mar 6, 2026

‘Don’t worry‘ is the unequivocal command of Jesus in Matthew 6:25-34. We might find this hard to obey, since we are so prone to worry, anxiety and fear, but Jesus reminds us in these verses of the reason we do not need to worry: we have a heavenly Father who loves us, knows us and is able to provide for us.

He calls on nature as witness to God’s provision and care, reminding us that the God who provides for the birds of the air and clothes the wildflowers with beauty is well able to care for our material needs (what we need to eat and wear.) Corrie Ten Boom said, ‘Worry is carrying tomorrow’s load with today’s strength, carrying two days at once. It is moving into tomorrow ahead of time. Worry doesn’t empty tomorrow of its sorrow, it empties today of its strength.’ Jesus reminds us of the dangers of worrying about the future and gives us the answer to worry: ‘Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.’

The commands of Jesus do not come without resources to carry out these commands!

Pray For The World

Mar 2, 2026

We enjoy eating cuisine from around the world at our fellowship meals each month, so we have decided to learn more about each country and to spend that month praying for whichever country whose cuisine we have sampled!

In March, we enjoyed a range of Mexican food and learned about Mexico, including its beautiful beaches, rich Aztec history and location in Latin America. Mexico has featured much in the news recently because of the ongoing problems with drug trafficking and we pray that God will bring many people from addiction to freedom in Him and will thwart the evil of the illegal drug trade. We prayed for young people to find hope and freedom in Jesus Christ.

Be Holy

Mar 2, 2026

In our first service in March, we looked at the country of Mexico, which we will be praying for throughout this month, and enjoyed Mexican food after the service.
We also looked at our calling as God’s people to be holy (1 Peter 1:13-16). ‘Holy’ is a word often associated with God (see Is 1:4, Isaiah 6:3), but in Paul’s letters we see him often calling God’s people ‘holy people’ (Rom 1:7, 1 Cor 1:2, Eph 1:1,4, Phil 1:1, Col 1:2). Place may be a factor in each letter, but more important is this calling to holiness, another way we are to reflect God’s character where we are.
Being holy is mentioned in the Bible hundreds of times, but most of us struggle to understand what this means. God’s holiness means He is set apart from His creation; He is utterly separate from sin and is pure, righteous and loving. It seems impossible for us to be holy, but repeatedly we see that God is the One who makes us holy (see Heb 10:10). The sacrifice of Christ for us on the cross declares us holy, and then this is outworked in our daily lives: ‘For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.’ (Heb 10:14)
This ongoing process is called sanctification, and involves God’s working and our commitment to Him (see Phil 2:13). It means putting off the old self and putting on the new (Eph 4:22-24). We learn to put off ‘’malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind.’ (1 Pet 2:1) We learn to live differently (Eph 4:17) and as God wishes (avoiding sexual immorality, 1 Thess 4:3-4; no longer stealing and so on.) Our lives are re-oriented towards God.
Holiness does not mean living in isolation, never engaging with the world because of our fear of contamination. Instead, as John 17:15-19 indicates, we remain in the world but we are not of the world. To be holy is our calling, for God Himself is holy.

The Words of Jesus (Matthew 6)

Feb 20, 2026

At our Bible study we looked at the words of Jesus in Matthew 6:1-24, part of the Sermon on the Mount. Here, Jesus deals with a wide range of topics, ranging from giving and money, our atittudes to wealth and treasure, to prayer and fasting and religious observance. In every instance, He reminds us that our primary allegiance should be to God, and that anonymity and humility are pre-requistes for living well. We should be willing to live unobtrusively; our financial giving, our public prayer and our religious observance are not to be done to win people’s favour or to impress them (the modern term is ‘virtue signalling’) but should be done quietly. Ostentatious living may bring earthly rewards, but if we live to please God, our rewards will be eternal. God may be invisible, but He sees what is done in secret and rewards accordingly.
In the midst of these words we find the Lord’s Prayer, a framework for prayer which keeps us from babbling mere words and which grounds us in worship. Prayer should begin with worship and an acknowledgment of who God is and our relationship to Him (‘our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name‘), and continues through the surrender of our wills to God (‘Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven‘) before ever petition is reached. Daily dependence is the key to living in God’s kingdom (as the Israelites’ dependence on manna in the wilderness demonstrated), something we often find hard to do in our modern society with its reliance on preservatives, refrigerators and freezers.
Jesus also emphasised our need for God’s forgiveness (and the subsequent necessity to forgive others freely) and for His help in overcoming temptation and in being delivered from the evil one. Prayer is both private and public, but always a sign of our relationship with God. We are called to live out God’s kingdom values and not be hypocrites, actors with masks that change according to circumstances. God is looking for authenticity and integrity in our lives.

February Fun Day (2)

Feb 19, 2026

We are very grateful to the Dearne North Ward Alliance for giving us funding towards the February family fun day. We are also grateful to Nikki from JJ’s Chippy and her team who fed us with jacket potatoes and a variety of fillings and to Gregg’s who supplied us with desserts (and a little bit of wisdom too… ‘Doughnut worry, be happy‘”)

Our thanks also to Heather and Claire who work at Thurnscoe Allotments who came to the fun day.

We are also grateful to the many volunteers who helped set up, tidy away, serve drinks, clean the building and run crafts. We simply couldn’t run fun days without the help of all these people!