The famous Renaissance artist and sculptor, Michelangelo, said,“The sculpture is already complete within the marble block, before I start my work. It is already there, I just have to chisel away the superfluous material.”

Art involves seeing the invisible and making it visible, which is why art is very much like faith. The ordinary person sees a block of stone, of marble, a piece of wood, something shapeless, but the artist sees beyond the shapeless form to the sculpture within. Michelangelo said, “I saw the angel in the marble and I carved until I set him free.” The artist, with patience and determination, chisels away at the block until the statue emerges. We are amazed at what the mundane marble can reveal.

Yet the process of uncovering this art is often unglamorous and painstaking. Is there any less glamorous tool than a chisel? Or any more laborious work than using it to chip away at the stone? Most of us would be tempted to get out the sledgehammer, seeking the quick fix, but the sculptor, the carpenter, does not have that option. Theirs is a work of infinite patience and loving care.

Art takes time. And patience. And a belief that the work is worth it.

We are like that marble block. There’s a sculpture within each one of us which God is chiselling to reveal. We grumpily submit to His chisel most of our lives, wanting the work to be finished, resenting the time He is spending on forming our character and shaping the inner man. We want favourable circumstances and happy relationships, but He is busy working to chisel away every imperfection in us, refining us, re-shaping us, re-forming us. It’s a process that He will not rush. It’s a process that we cannot rush. It’s perhaps the reason Jesus was a carpenter on earth.

Touch that finished sculpture in the art gallery and be amazed. Explore its surface. Feel its contours. Marvel at the shape that has been revealed.

God is making everything beautiful in its time. (Eccl 3:11) Even us.

Other attributes of God which we considered tonight were:

God is eternal, without beginning or end, a concept we have difficult grasping. ‘Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the whole world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.’ (Ps 90:2) We often read about God being eternal or everlasting (e.g. ‘the Lord is the everlasting God’, Is 40:28), but we find it hard to grasp the ideas of eternity since we are so rooted in time. One other attribute connected to this is also the idea that God is infinite: ‘the heavens, even the highest heavens, cannot contain You.’ (1 Kings 8:27) In this sense, we talk about God being immense or without limits. We are limited in terms of both time and space, but God is not.

God is good. (Ps 119:68) This is one of the ‘overarching attributes‘ of God, and whilst we may not feel that life is good all the time, the fact of God’s goodness remains a core belief which shapes our understanding of the world, reminding us that evil will not have the last word (see Rom 8:28). God’s goodness could be said to encompass other attributes which make God who He is, such as His kindness, forgiveness, grace and mercy (see Ex 34:6-7, Ps 86:15, Neh 9:17).

God is righteous and just and holy. This means He will always do what is right and fair; He is not going to be swayed by partiality or overlook sin. He is holy; He is utterly different to us. He is light; in Him, there is no darkness at all. (1 John 1:5) Nahum tells us, ‘The Lord is a jealous and avenging God; the Lord takes vengeance and is filled with wrath. The Lord takes vengeance on his foe and vents his wrath against his enemies. The Lord is slow to anger but great in power; the Lord will not leave the guilty unpunished.’ (Nahum 1:2-3) We can find it hard to reconcile different aspects of God’s nature such as the fact that He is loving but is also just or the fact that He is forgiving but will not leave the guilty unpunished. We tend to believe that these things are mutually exclusive, but in God, we see that they are not. God is holy and cannot look on sin, but He sent His Son to be a sin-offering for us so that we can be reconciled to God. (2 Cor 5:19-21) God is just; He will never do anything which is unfair or wrong; as Abraham said, ‘will not the Judge of all the earth do right?’ (Gen 18:25)

God does not change. (Mal 3:6) This is known as the ‘immutability of God.’ James tells us that God ‘does not change like shifting shadows’. (James 1:17) He may well change a course of action as the result of people’s response to Him (as Jonah found out with the people of Nineveh!), but He himself does not change. He is the constant. Heb 13:8 says, ‘Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.’  This truth gives us great hope and encouragement, because it provides us with something which will not and cannot change in a world that is ever-changing.

We did not have time to talk of God’s truthfulness, His faithfulness, His sovereignty, His transcendence, His mystery… but our meditation tonight helps us to have a big view of God, defined by God Himself (rather than our own imagination or other people’s ideas), and this knowledge of God has the power to transform us o we can shine forth like stars in the universe as we hold firmly to the word of life. (Phil 2:15-16)

We continued our series on exploring the big questions of life tonight, looking at the question ‘What Is God Like?’ This meant exploring the attributes of God (the things that make Him God.) We started with the ‘Three Os’ – His omnipresence, omnipotence and omniscience.

Omnipresence

This simply means that God is everywhere at the same time. Ps 139:7-10 demonstrates this, and Prov 15:3 says, ‘The eyes of the Lord are everywhere, keeping watch on the wicked and the good. It is difficult for our finite minds to comprehend the idea that God can be everywhere at the same time because we are so used to thinking in terms of time and space, but of course, God is eternal (He is not bound by time) and He can fill all things in every way. (Eph 1:23) The fact that God is omnipresent means that we cannot hide from Him at all, but it also means we are never alone. (Matt 28:20, Heb 13:5)

Omnipotence

This means that God is all-powerful. There are so many examples of His miraculous power in the Bible, from His creative power (Gen 1) to His power to part the Red Sea (Ex 14) to His power to heal, demonstrated so many times in both Old and New Testaments. Every miracle in the Bible is evidence of God’s power, but of course the greatest miracle we see is the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. (Acts 2:24)

The Bible reminds us repeatedly that Satan is a defeated foe and that God is the ultimate victor. John reminds us that ‘the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.’ (1 John 4:4) Paul tells us that ‘having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.’ (Col 2:15) We don’t have to fear any human foe and we don’t have to fear Satan, because we serve an all-powerful God. What is even more amazing is that He gives us access to this power (Eph 1:19, John 14:12) God’s omnipotence is not just of academic interest; it has a direct impact on how we live, since we can have access to that power in our own daily lives. Jesus said, “if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” (Matt 17:20) That’s the kind of life we can have, because that’s the kind of God we have.

Omniscience

This means that God knows everything (see Ps 139:1-6). Unlike our knowledge, God’s knowledge has no limitations (Ps 119:96) and His understanding has no limit. (Ps 147:5) God’s knowledge of us, other people, the world and the future mean that we can live ‘care free in the care of God’ (1 Pet 5:7). It means we don’t have to know everything, because God does, and this enables us to relax and live in trust, rather than in anxiety or fear.

Stephen spoke this morning about keeping our vision clear. Ps 16:1,5, 8 all speak of the refuge, security and peace which God can bring us, and in these uncertain times, when we may feel unsettled and afraid, it’s more important than ever that we fix our eyes on the Lord and trust in Him.

Stephen recently purchased new glasses which were single-vision, and although these were useful when driving, when it came to reading, his vision was blurred; he needed varifocal lenses in order to be able to see clearly in all situations. Our vision of God can easily become clouded or blurred and our thoughts can stray from Him when we are faced by difficult circumstances. Like Peter out on the waves (Matt 14:25-31), when we take our eyes off Jesus, we easily sink. That moment for Peter of realising the power of Jesus to walk on the water and then doing the same must have been a real ‘buzz moment’, but it’s easy to lose our footing when we focus on the size of the waves rather than on God’s presence with us.

God is there to save us, to catch us, to bring us to a place of refuge and security; His arm is always outstretched towards us, but we need to reach out to Him as well. When we do that, we will find Him there, ready and waiting; as Casting Crowns sing, ‘I’m not holding on to You, but You’re holding on to me.’ (‘East To West’) God is able to be our portion, our cup, our refuge, our strength, our security: when we  fix our gaze on Him, we will find we have all we need for every situation.

Throughout December there will be the opportunity to join us in person for services and also to watch online for a number of special Advent features.

Each weekday between 1st and 24th December, Julie will be reading excerpts from the Christmas story online to help us to prepare our hearts for the King’s arrival. The first session will be on Tuesday 1st December at 9.30 a.m. on the GPCC Facebook page.

On Wednesday 2nd December, we will be taking part in the ‘Dearne Churches Together’ Prayer Meeting at 10.45 a.m. on the DCT Facebook page. Join us as we consider the angels’ messages of hope and pray for our churches, communities and country.

On Fridays at 10.45 a.m. on 4th, 11th and 18th December on Facebook Live we will continue to look at making decorations for our Jesse Tree and how this can help us all to see the Christmas story in the bigger context of God’s Story, told throughout the whole Bible. It’s a lovely way of teaching children why Jesus had to come to save us and giving them the opportunity to make craft items at the same time as learning about Jesus.

Midweek meetings will be on Thursday 3rd, 10th and 17th December at 7.30 p.m. in the Market Street building, but there will be no midweek meetings on 24th and 31st December.

Sunday services will be held at our usual times of 10.30 a.m. and 6.00 p.m. in person throughout December and we will have our ‘Good News Nativity’ at the carol service on 20th December at 6.00 p.m.

We hope you will join us in person or online for these activities and will set aside time this December to worship Christ the King.

This morning, we started looking at how to make a Jesse Tree, through which we explore the reasons Jesus had to come to earth at Christmas. The name comes from Isaiah’s prophecy: ‘A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.’ (Is 11:1) Isaiah used the image of a tree to talk about Jesus, saying that Jesus would be like a shoot or a branch growing from the stump of Jesse, and the tree is a useful teaching aid, for it looks not only at the Christmas story but at God’s bigger story as it is found in the whole Bible.

The idea is to make tree decorations which illustrate specific Bible stories, and this week we looked at the following:

• an apple (representing the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil from which Adam and Eve ate and thus brought sin and death into the world, which is why we need a Saviour!)

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• an ark & rainbow, representing the story of Noah and the flood, reminding us also of God’s promise never to flood the earth again and again reminding us that we need rescue from sin and evil.

• a dove, representing the hope brought back to Noah in the ark after the flood that the earth was inhabitable again (represented by the olive leaf) and also representing the Holy Spirit

• a scene from the story of Abraham’s life, reflecting God’s promise to him that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars in the sky, Abraham being the ‘father of faith’ to all who believe:

• a dagger, representing Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice the son of promise as an act of obedience to God, a reminder also that Jesus is God’s Son, willingly given to be the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

Join us again next Friday (4th December) on Facebook live to see how the story is developed!