When you attend Goldthorpe Pentecostal Community Church from 2nd August, what can you expect?! We hope you will find the usual warm welcome and feel the presence of God and His love in our building as usual, but by law we have to inform you of the changes that will be in place because of Government guidelines during the coronvirus pandemic. Please do not attend services if you are ill.

1. Hand sanitisers are available at key entry points and in the toilets.

2. You are advised to wash your hands regularly and there are hand-washing facilities in the toilets, with paper towels to be used.

3. Social distancing measures are in place throughout the building. Because of this, only 1 person per toilet area is allowed at a time.

4. We will not be serving refreshments after the evening service.

5. Members are asked to bring their own bread/ juice for Holy Communion to avoid cross-contamination.

6. Congregational singing is not allowed at present, though we hope the recent changes regarding face coverings (which will be mandatory from 8th August) may mean changes to this rule are soon allowed.

7. We must keep a record of attendance for 21 days and you are advised to contact NHS Track and Trace if you develop symptoms of coronavirus at any point.

Our risk assessment is given below:

We have spent this afternoon cleaning and getting the building ready for our first services since 19th March with people present! Online services have been held each week from the building, but we can’t wait to see people there tomorrow worshipping God together.

We have been getting balloons and flags ready for our wave offering tomorrow:

You will see many differences in the building, chiefly that we have moved a lot of the chairs so that social distancing can be observed. Everyone has a designated seat (in family groups or individually, depending on circumstances.)

Hand sanitisers have been installed at the entrances and we have paper towel dispensers in the toilets now. We ask people not to attend if they have any signs of illness and remind everyone of the need to wash hands regularly and use hand sanitiser. We have placed anti-bacterial wipes under chairs so that chairs can be wiped down after the service and would remind people to bring their own bread/ juice for Holy Communion when attending the morning service.

The Government announced yesterday that face coverings will be mandatory inside places of worship from 8th August, and we do have face coverings for use if people want these. We also have a box to put tithes and offerings in so that there is no cross-contamination and will still be collecting change for the children we support in Haiti, India and Uganda. Please put your offerings in these (on the table in the foyer) when you enter or leave the building.

We are very thankful that despite all the many changes, God does not change! Ps 122:1 says, ‘I rejoiced with those who said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”’ After so many weeks apart, it will be good to be together again – and if you can’t be there, we will still be livestreaming the services on GPCC Facebook Live at 10:30 a.m. and 6:00 p.m.

There is much debate going on about the efficacy of wearing face coverings or masks, now mandatory in shops and on public transport in England. Many people believe these are helpful in reducing the spread of the coronavirus, whilst others feel the fabric or disposable face masks available do little to prevent aerosol transmission and can even be harmful in some ways.

Few of us like wearing these kinds of masks, but the truth is all of us, from being children, have got used to wearing invisible masks of a different kind. In Greek theatre, actors used masks to represent different characters, and it’s from this practice that the idea of hypocrisy (pretending to be something that you aren’t) and ‘play-acting’ arose.

We all tend to put up ‘fronts’ or ‘masks’ to protect ourselves from hurt. When we see governments doing this, we call it ‘spin.’ When we do it ourselves, we call it ‘image’. It’s often a defence mechanism, to present to other people an ‘acceptable’ image, to hide our faults and flaws behind the mask because we fear rejection and pain. Often, we don’t really like who we are inside, so we pretend to be somebody different. Social media is a particularly insidious kind of mask, for we can very easily cultivate the perfect image on there – the best partner, parent, cook, worker, gardener, builder, crafter etc. – which is in reality nothing but a snapshot of the real us.

God wants us to be real with Him and with each other, and this means taking off the masks. When I come out of a shop, I thankfully remove my mask and feel relief at being able to breathe freely again. So too there is great freedom in being open, honest and real with God and with other people. NIcky Gumbel says, ‘instead of trying to impress people with our masks, we connect through our vulnerabilities.’ This may seem scary, daunting and difficult, but it’s the path to truly deep relationships and to freedom. Living without a mask is risky – but in the spiritual realm, it’s definitely worth it!

I’m back pondering the mysteries of nature and the amazing gifts God has given us in the great variety of flowers we can find all around. There is so much that this single sunflower is teaching me! (Thanks to David Trelawny-Ross for sharing the photos with us.)

Before it blossoms, the petals are curled up on itself and the dominant colour is the green supporting the flower. Gradually, the petals begin to unfurl, and this flower reaches out towards the sun; its French name (‘le tournesol’) literally means to turn towards the sun. When I was a child, Greek singer Nana Mouskouri sang a song called ‘Le Tournesol’ with the lyrics,

‘Le tournesol, le tournesol

N’a pas besoin d’une boussole,

Ni d’arc-en-ciel, ni d’arc-en-ciel,

Pour se tourner vers le soleil.’

At the time, I was too young to understand the song’s lyrics, but now I know that she was singing that the sunflower has no need of a compass or a rainbow to turn itself towards the sun; this is something built into the flower. God’s amazing creation has its own built-in homing device; as the petals unfold, they do so with the flower turning, stretching, reaching out towards the sunshine. In the same way, we can be like that flower: initially curled up tightly, marred by sin, crippled by life’s misfortunes, hiding ourselves away. It’s only as the light of the gospel touches our lives that we begin to uncurl, opening up in exactly the same way that the sunflower does.  ^‘For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.’ (2 Cor 4:6)

Turning towards the sun (and towards the Son) enables us to blossom, to flourish, to become like the fully-opened sunflower, whose yellow petals (ray florets) and inner part (disk florets) now dominate, hiding the green that was previously the dominant colour. When God’s light shines in our hearts, the past is dealt with; we become new creations (2 Cor 5:17). We are set free from condemnation, sin, shame and guilt. (Rom 8:1) We can now live our lives unfurled, faces reflecting God’s glory: ‘whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.’ (2 Cor 3:16-18)

From the example of Joseph we can see how God keeps His word.

First, He does this by not throwing up our past. We all have things of which we are ashamed, times when we did things we shouldn’t have, or we didn’t do things we should have. When Jesus died upon the Cross, He took our sin and His promise is that “He is able to save completely those who come to God through Him, because He always lives to intercede for them.” (Hebrews 7:25) He will wash our sins away by the blood of His Son, “as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.” (Psalm 103:12) Pharaoh never knew about the awful past of the brothers because the love of Joseph buried their past and kept it from him. God does not keep reminding us of our past; we can have a fresh start in Him.

Secondly, Joseph demonstrates how God keeps His promises in the way that he continued to care for his brothers after their arrival in Egypt. Pharaoh said, “the land of Egypt is before you; settle your father and your brothers in the best part of the land. Let them live in Goshen.” (Genesis 47:6) Goshen was a fertile section of Egypt, a much favoured place, excellent for grazing and certain types of agriculture. As a result of Joseph’s care, they would have the very best. They would live in the midst of plenty while the world around was in famine. They also had the ear of the king. They could go to Pharaoh any time they wanted, because they could do it through Joseph their brother.

We too have this promise as God’s children. We can go to God any time we want, because we can do it through Jesus, our brother: “And my God will meet all your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus.” (Phil 4:19) We have tremendous privileges because we are God’s children. Just as God had sent Joseph to Egypt where he could gain the ear of Pharaoh and be in a position to speak for his family, so God has provided Jesus to speak for us to God, to intercede for us and allow us access to the riches of God.

During the recent pandemic, many people have asked, ‘Where is God in this situation?’ – a question that has been asked throughout history when people face suffering. Dave spoke tonight about Jacob’s family, a godly family that suffered over 20 years of guilt and despair as they came to terms with the absence of their brother. The disappearance of this young man created a vacuum in the family from which they never really recovered.

Usually when we think of this family, our attention is focussed on Joseph, but tonight we looked at the eleven brothers – ‘trophies of God’s grace – examples of what God can do, even with those who have greatly sinned.’ These brothers were angered by Joseph and his dreams and therefore felt justified in selling him into slavery and pretending to their father that he had been killed, but they lived with the guilt of what they had done. Yet when famine came upon their land, they went to Egypt and found out that Joseph was still alive and ultimately agreed to return to live there. They didn’t rebel against Jacob even though they knew that Jacob still felt the same way about Joseph, his favourite son, as he had always done. Neither did they divide, with some staying and the others going. They all went to Egypt, the whole family, because they realised God’s hand was in this. (Gen 45:5)

Joseph freely forgave his brothers, but they had to learn to accept that they had been forgiven by the one that they had tried to harm and that meant they had to swallow their pride. They also showed that they had changed, that their lives and their attitudes were different. Instead of being resentful of Joseph’s success, they were willing to go and to live under his authority and protection.

In this whole episode we have a picture of how the Lord Jesus Christ feels about His brothers. “Both the one who makes men holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers.” (Hebrews 2:11) Just as Joseph was not ashamed to let everyone know about his brothers and show his true feelings, so Jesus was not ashamed to weep over the death of his friend or over the city of Jerusalem. Just as Joseph was not afraid to present his brothers to Pharaoh, so Jesus is not ashamed to present us to the Father, faultless and without blame. We have been accepted into God’s family and are welcomed before God; Jesus lives to intercede for us (Heb 7:25) even as Joseph asked Pharaoh for good land for his family to live on. The privileges we have as God’s children are so great!