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!

February Fun Day

Feb 19, 2026

Yesterday at our family fun day we looked at the topic of wisdom. We went on an owl hunt to see what the Bible has to say about wisdom, and learned that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Proverbs 9:10) and that if we lack wisdom, we can ask God for it (James 1:5). We also learned that God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom (1 Cor 1:25) and that we can learn wisdom from others, including ants! (Prov 6:6) This last fact is well known to parents of toddlers who listen to the song ‘The Grasshopper and the Ants’ approximately twice every day…
We also asked people to pass on their wisdom, things they have learned in life. Many of their tips were practical (remember to prick a potato before putting it in the microwave, remember to add water to the pan before you try to boil an egg, don’t forget your underwear when you go swimming…) but others were more profound. These tips included:
  • Don’t be too critical of others.
  • Laugh at yourself
  • Don’t worry – God’s in control
  • Treat others like you want to be treated
This last tip is actually called the Golden Rule, and is found in Matthew 7;12 – ‘So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.‘ Sometimes, we make wisdom out to be something beyond us, but it’s actually very simple. Kindness, thoughtfulness, consideration, unselfishness are all wise ways of living. Come, be a wise owl!

Ash Wednesday

Feb 18, 2026

Ash Wednesday marks the start of Lent, the period of preparation leading to Easter.
It marks a period of reflection and repentance, an acknowledgment that we need a Saviour. Our sin – every wrong thought, every evil act, our very propensity to go against what God ordains – separates us from God. We need His help if life is to be restored to His original good. During this period, we focus on God’s ways and God’s wisdom.
This leads us to the startling discovery (symbolised by the ash cross drawn on people’s foreheads in some services) that God’s wisdom and ways are quite unlike ours. (1 Cor 1:18-25) Often we equate knowledge with wisdom, but as the saying goes, knowledge tells us a tomato is a fruit, but wisdom warns us not to include it in a fruit salad! God’s wisdom led to crucifixion as the means of reconciliation, but His ways went further than our power in raising Jesus from the dead on the third day.
Easter cannot be glamourised, no matter how many fluffy chicks or cute bunnies make their way into our Easter cards. Easter is not synonymous with spring, though the daffodils and snowdrops are welcome signs of new life. As we walk through Lent, we fix our eyes, as Jesus did, on Jerusalem and the cross. “My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify Your name!” (John 12;27-28)
Journey with us through Lent as we look at spiritual essentials for life found in John’s Gospel on Fridays, starting on 27 February at 11.45 a.m. at Goldthorpe Pentecostal Community Church. We’ll start with soup and sandwiches and a drink and then go on until about 2 p.m. using Paula Gooder’s book ”Lentwise” to focus on the compass, nourishment, light, shelter and water and how God meets all our needs through Jesus.

Clothed In God’s Garments

Feb 15, 2026

Today we looked at our identity as God’s people and how God has given us clothes to wear that reflect this new identity. (Rom 13:14, Col 3:12-14) Fashion is a very profitable trade these days, and what we wear reflects our identity in many ways, whether that is from national clothing (think of the kilts of Scotland and the Lederhosen and Dirndl dresses of Austria!) or our preferences for posh clothes or pyjamas! The proverb says, ‘clothes make a man’, but in spiritual terms, we need to understand the need to put off our old self and put on the new clothes God provides for us. (Eph 4:22-24)

In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve were naked and unashamed; the need for clothing arose after they sinned, and they made clothes out of fig leaves to cover themselves. (Gen 2:25, Gen 3:7) God realised this was not enough, and so the first animal was slain to provide clothing for humanity, reminding us that we can only approach God now through the sacrifice of Jesus. All our righteous acts are described by Isaiah as ‘filthy rags’ (Is 64:6); without Christ, we are like Cinderella in her rags, unable to attend God’s ball because of our inability to be righteous.

In Christ, however, we are declared righteous (2 Cor 5:21), and God gives us new clothes to wear: a garment of praise, instead of a spirit of despair (Is 61:2) and garments of salvation and a robe of His righteousness to wear. (Is 61:10) We are even given accessories (a crown of beauty instead of ashes and jewels to adorn our head.) In Ezekiel 16, we see a picture of our neediness without God and how His love lavishes all we need on us. (Ezek 16:1-14) We now have clothing to wear that is custom-made with God’s label on it, a new nature that reflects God’s nature. We are to clothe ourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience, bearing with others and forgiving as Christ has forgiven us, wearing love as our ‘all-purpose garment.’ (Col 3:12-14) We are also called to put on the armour of God so that we can stand in the spiritual battle that is a part of life. (Eph 6:10-20) This armour protects our minds and hearts and enables us to hold up the shield of faith and wield the sword of the Spirit. We are soldiers together in God’s army.

God sees us as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. (Rev 21:2) Our future with Him is great. Our part is to get rid of the old clothes and wear the clothes God has provided for us, becoming who we are in Christ, who God wants us to be.