One of the privileges of working in the Dearne area is the relationships we form with other groups. It was great to have staff from the local Family Centres with us today at our fun day, promoting the Rose Vouchers scheme which enables local families to have access to fruit and vegetables:

We were also pleased to have Lindsey from TADS with us, talking to parents about how to help children and young people manage their emotions and mental health.

We also had students from Sheffield University who are working with the Dearne Playhouse on developments to the building and to the Welfare Park talking to us to find out what local people want in these areas.

We are very grateful for our links in the community and thank the Co-op in Bolton-on-Dearne and Darfield for contributing food to this fun day and to members of local churches (GPCC, St Helen’s, Salvation Army, Furlong Road Methodist Church) who helped us today.

Tonight we looked at the question God asked Jacob (‘What is your name?’) in probably the most famous wrestling match in the Bible. (Gen 32:22-32) This was a ‘pivotal point incident’ (as Mark Burgin once described it) in Jacob’s life, an encounter with the ‘angel of the Lord’ (probably the Lord Jesus in His pre-incarnate form) which changed the scheming, devious manipulator into ‘Israel’, one who struggled with God and overcame.

Names are incredibly important, especially in the Bible, and Jacob’s name (‘the grabber’, figuratively ‘he who deceives‘) had defined his life up to this point. Now, however, he is given a new name by God. We have all been given new identities in Christ, and it’s important that we understand we are now new creations in Him. (2 Cor 5:17) It’s easy for us to feel defined by other people’s expectations and to feel useless and inadequate because of other people’s assessments of us, but we need to understand that how God defines us is what matters.

God says we are:

• made in His image (Gen 1:27)

• His beloved children (John 1:12, 1 John 3:1)

• chosen by Him to bear fruit (John 15:16)

• redeemed, cleansed and forgiven by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ (Eph 1:6-7)

• heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ (Rom 8:17)

• new creations (2 Cor 5:17)

• reconciled to God (2 Cor 5:19)

• His friends (John 15:15)

• more than conquerors through Christ who loved us (Rom 8:37)

• fearfully and wonderfully made (Ps 139:14)

We don’t have to be defined by our old names, by the person others told us we were. We don’t even have to be the person we thought we were! We can be new creations in Christ; we can live in a different way, for ‘the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.’ (Rom 8:3)

Andrew from Open Doors spoke to us today about the work of the charity (begun by Brother Andrew in 1955 to help distribute Bibles to the persecuted church in Poland and Russia) and how our prayers and support can help Christians persecuted for their faith throughout the world.

He brought a map of Korea (North Korea is the country where the most persecution of Christians takes place) and a map of Afghanistan as well as artefacts from those two countries (which are no. 1 and 2 on the ‘Watch List’ of countries where persecution of Christians is rife.)

Other countries which particularly need our prayers are Somalia, Libya, Pakistan, Eristrea, Yemen, Iran, Nigeria and India. In North Korea, it is illegal to witness to Christ and many Christians are put in labour camps which are effectively extermination camps, as most people die there. Christians in these camps are forced to meet in cess pits because these are the only places to which the guards will not go.

Afghanistan has been in the news recently, and the natives are suffering terribly at present, yet despite this, many are coming to faith in Christ and there is revival going on in that country as people attest to the power of the resurrection of Jesus. In China, the Communist regime still insists that churches do not have crosses in them but put up portraits of Communist leaders instead. Video cameras are used to record services and the movement of Christians.

Despite appalling persecution, however, Christians in these countries prove the truth of Matt 5:10-12. They may be forced to live in degrading and humiliating circumstances, but they hold on to eternal truths and testify to the presence and power of Christ with them in all circumstances.

The prophets were not popular because they brought God’s word of challenge and judgment to His people. In Amos 2:6-16, we see this clearly. People who knew God’s grace and goodness, who had experienced His deliverance and provision through the wilderness and subsequently, should have known better than to abandon His word and truth, but sadly, as Hosea commented, there was no faithfulness, no love, no acknowledgment of God in the land. (Hos 4:1)

People may feel that because of their historical relevance, the prophets have little to say to us today, but the truth is that very little has changed in terms of people’s behaviour. Western civilisation has pushed God away and must inevitably reap the consequences of this; as George Orwell said (in ‘Notes On The Way’ in 1940), “For two hundred years we had sawed and sawed at the branch we were sitting on. And in the end, much more suddenly than anyone had foreseen, our efforts were rewarded, and down we came. But unfortunately there had been a little mistake. The thing at the bottom was not a bed of roses after all; it was a cesspool full of barbed wire… It appears that amputation of the soul isn’t just a simple surgical job, like having your appendix out. The wound has a tendency to go septic.”

People are not fundamentally good or nice. When God is pushed aside and His laws disregarded, sin abounds. We see this in civil wars in recent years; more recently, we see how pervasive is the need to control through fear, rather than through doing what is right. God had given His people clear instructions about justice and caring for the needy (Ex 23:6-7, Deut 10:18, Deut 24:17). These same principles should be at the heart of our laws and justice. Just as Israel could not assume they would not be judged (and judgment would surely come, Amos warns), we cannot hide from the truth that we are accountable before God for what we have done with His word and how we live before others.

Dave spoke from 1 Pet 2:9-10 about being God’s chosen people. People, for all their flaws and imperfections, have wonderful capacities for love, beauty, joy and kindness, being made in God’s image. To be alive is a wondrous thing, but humans constantly ask ‘Who am I?’ What God says about us is the most important factor in answering this question, and in these verses, Peter highlights key truths about our identity as God’s people.

1. We are a chosen people, having a corporate identity, not simply an individual one.

2. We have received mercy – God has acted on our behalf.

3. We belong to God and are His possessions.

4. We are holy – something that may seem very odd to those around us, but we are called to be like God.

5. We are a royal priesthood, having direct access to God through Christ.

Our identity, meaning and calling are all from God. We are then called to declare His praises. What we are is defined by God; our purpose is God-centred, to make Him known.