Dave spoke tonight from John 4:1-38, the account of a meeting between Jesus and a woman from Samaria. Jesus said that He came to seek and save that which was lost, and here is a practical application of that. Jesus was waiting at the well when a woman came to get water. He asked for water; she was suspicious of Him, and yet through His conversation, her curiosity was aroused. Jesus spoke not of natural water but of living water, and this woman, who was an outcast in many ways because of her lifestyle (she was living with a man after being in other relationships previously) was drawn to Him and ultimately came to realise that He was the Messiah.

The woman was ultimately so taken by all she learned from Jesus that she forgot her chores, leaving the water jar at the well to go and tell others about Jesus. She had a new purpose and new hope in her life. Suddenly, her life had new direction and she was prepared to speak to everyone about this man! Jesus is still in the business of seeking out people who have hungry hearts. It doesn’t matter how empty we may feel: He can fill people with new life and hope. Many other people believed in Jesus as a result of His conversation with this woman; they came to hear Him for themselves and found salvation too. Nothing is impossible when God moves. The Holy Spirit can speak through ordinary words and bring people to salvation. Will we believe that He can do this again, that He can use our testimony to bring others to know Him?

WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO DO FOR YOU

In Matt 20:29-34, we see two blind men crying out to Jesus for mercy. His question to them (‘What do you want me to do for you?‘) led to the honest answer, ‘Lord, we want our sight.’ These two men received a miraculous gift of healing and followed Jesus as a result. They have much to teach us about honest, faith-filled, direct asking and about expectation and excitement in their encounter with Jesus.

So often, we find the many positive promises about prayer in the Bible too good to be true (see Matt 7:7-8, John 14:13-14, John 16:23-24, 1 John 5:14-15). Yet James reminds us that ‘you do not have because you do not ask God.’ (James 4:2) Our view of God will determine how we approach Him. Jesus encouraged us to see Him as a heavenly Father who longs to give good gifts to His children (Matt 7:11, Luke 11:13) and taught that it is more blessed to give than receive. When we see God’s delight in answering prayer and understand that He does not reproach us for asking directly and with simple faith for the things we need (as we are taught to do in the Lord’s Prayer), we can approach God with confidence (see Heb 4:15).

The two men recognised Jesus as Lord and as the Son of David, God’s chosen one. Their request for mercy showed they realised their need of Jesus. Cries for mercy are always heard by God (see Ps 116:1-2, Ps 18:6, Ps 28:6, Ps 31:22), no matter where we are (in the belly of a fish as Jonah was, in a fiery furnace as Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were or in the lions’ den as Daniel was). We can have confidence in approaching God and can pour out the desires of our hearts to Him, secure in the knowledge that He loves us and longs to give good gifts to us (see James 1:17) Many of us live with the attitude ‘blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed.’ This is not a Biblical view, for those who hope in the Lord shall lack no good thing and will not be disappointed (Ps 25:3). We need to be like these two men, approaching Jesus with honesty, simplicity, faith and expectancy.

Here are some dates for the diary for March:

1. Lent Bible studies (using the book ‘Sharing The Easter Story’) will start this Friday (4th March) at 11.45 a.m. We will start with a light lunch and aim to finish by 1.15 p.m.

2. The World Day of Prayer is on Friday 4th March at 2.30 p.m. at St Andrew’s Church in Bolton-on-Dearne, looking at the theme of the plans God has for us, based on Jeremiah 29:11.

3. Our ‘Take Back The Streets’ prayer meeting is on Saturday 5th March, meeting at GPCC at 10 a.m. Join us to pray as we walk the streets of Goldthorpe.

4. The ‘Churches Together’ prayer meeting will be on Wednesday 16th March at 1.30 p.m. at Furlong Road Methodist Church.

Earlier in February, on a very cold, wet and windy day, we took our grandchildren to see the snowdrop trail at Darfield church. The church grounds were covered in snowdrops:

Inside, there was a trail about Dropsnow the Dragon and activities for children to do. One of the things that was mentioned was the snowdrop being a messenger of hope, since it is such a beautiful, delicate flower bursting through in winter, when life seems so barren and empty. The snowdrop acts as a reminder of the hope we have in this world of trouble and distress, a hope that exists because of the faithfulness of God to His creation.

Paul, when writing to the Thessalonians, says, ‘since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet.’ (1 Thess 5:8) A helmet protects the head, protects our thoughts. Despite the many difficulties we face on a personal and international level at present, we have to hold on to faith, love and hope. Perhaps the snowdrop can be a symbol to us that all is not doom and gloom, but that there is hope in God for every situation.

In the third of our mini-series looking at the topic of ‘the day of the Lord’, we looked at references to this portentous day in the New Testament, focussing especially on Matthew 24, Mark 13:32-37, 1 Thess 5:1-11, 2 Thess 1:6-10 and 2 Peter 3:1-14.

These passages show us that Jesus frequently took the words of Old Testament prophets to describe this day at the culmination of history when God will personally intervene to right all wrongs and bring about His rule in sovereign power and that the apostles echoed the words of Jesus himself in declaring that the timing of this day is beyond our knowledge but the certainty of this day is not in doubt. Many will scoff at the idea of a day of reckoning, but Peter reminds us that God’s timings are not like ours and His faithfulness not in question. We are, therefore, urged to be ready and alert, for this day will come as a thief in the night (2 Pet 3:10) or as a bridegroom returning (see Matt 25:1-13) or as a master returning home after a long absence. (Mark 13:36-37) Theology always informs behaviour; what we believe about the day of the Lord should lend urgency to our evangelism, purity to our discipleship and peace to our understanding of the world.

The day of the Lord is not something to treat lightly (for it involves punishment and judgment and everlasting destruction for those who do not obey the gospel), but it is not something to be feared by believers who trust in the justice of God’s judgment (see Ps 11:7). Paul tells us that God will be glorified in His holy people and will be marvelled at among all who have believed (2 Thess 1:10) and John reminds us that since God is love, we do not have to fear judgment or punishment (see 1 John 4:16-18). Instead, the truth of this doctrine should motivate us to live pure, holy, godly lives and should motivate us to share the gospel with others.