The World Day of Prayer service was written by Christians from Slovenia and at the Salvation Army service in Goldthorpe today, we had Slovenian food to celebrate the theme ‘Come – Everything Is Ready’ (based on Luke 14:15-24) It’s wonderful to consider that God invites us to a wedding banquet and offers us a place at His table!

Continuing the food theme, we were also invited to draw pictures of our favourite foods:

We joined in lively children’s songs, including Doug Horley’s ‘God’s Love Is Bigger Than A Burger’!

Slovenia in Eastern Europe declared independence from Yugoslavia in 1991 and has a rich and varied history. During the communist years, Christianity was persecuted and Christians were often imprisoned or had restricted access to jobs. Now, there is freedom of religion, but Islam continues to grow and there are still many difficulties for Christians.

Alison and many of the volunteers dressed in Slovenian clothing:

The theme of the service was celebration of God’s invitation to all to become children of God. It was lovely to see children there singing, dancing and joining in craft activities:

Just a reminder about the things that are happening this week…

Tonight (Thursday 28th February) is our prayer meeting at 7:30 p.m. Let’s join together to seek God’s face and to pray for our church, our communtiy and our world.

Tomorrow (Friday 1st March) we have our Parent & Toddler group in the morning (9.30 a.m. until 11.00 a.m.) and in the afternoon there is the World Day of Prayer (focussing on Slovenia) at the Salvation Army at 4 p.m. Prayer and food served at this service.

On Saturday (2nd March) we have the coffee morning as usual from 10 a.m. until 12 p.m. and then at 4 p.m. we are meeting together for our important ‘Building Blocks’ meeting to discuss plans and vision for our church. All welcome. Please come along to share your heart for the church and to seek God for the way forward.

Services on Sunday 3rd March will be at 10.30 a.m. (Holy Communion) and 6 p.m. (Little Big Church, focussing on building the church).

Last May, Meghan Markle married Prince Harry (grandson of the Queen), and as usual, there was great excitement in many quarters about the wedding dress. Meghan’s dress was designed by the British fashion designer Clare Waight Keller (from the fashion house of Givenchy). It was custom-made of silk with three-quarter length sleeves, an open boat neckline and a train with built-in silk organza underskirt. The dress featured only six seams and had no lace or other embellishments, though a piece of the blue dress worn by Meghan on her first date with Prince Harry was stitched into the gown. The veil worn by Meghan was 5 metres long and was hand-embroidered with a variety of flowers on its hem.

This kind of attention to detail turns clothing into an art form, and the same kind of attention to detail and skill are found in the Biblical account of the priestly garments made for Aaron (Exodus 39).

Here, an army of craftspeople – metalworkers, weavers, embroiderers and gemmologists, led by Bezalel and Oholiab – work to produce garments worn by Aaron and items for the tabernacle. We are told about the colour of the yarn used, the intricate gold filigree, the precious jewels and the fine linen. The metalwork is described as being ‘the work of skilled hands.’ (Ex 39:2-3) The ephod had ‘a skilfully woven waistband.’ (Ex 39:5) The breastplate made was ‘the work of a skilled craftsman.’ (Ex 39:8) the robe of the ephod, made entirely of blue cloth, showed off a weaver’s skill (Ex 39:22). Everything made was lavish, down to the golden bells and pomegranates attached to the hem of the robe. (Ex 39:24-25)

Such magnificence is appropriate for a special garment like a wedding dress or a priest’s robe. We are in awe of the skill of designers and artists who capture the splendour of such occasions.

Bezalel and Oholiab – names that are not familiar to most people – and their team of skilled craftsmen are heroes to me. They symbolise Paul’s principle that whatever we do, we do for the Lord and should do with all our hearts and might. (Col 3:17) That may well be something utterly practical (weaving, sewing, knitting, metalwork or whatever), but the practical skills can be given to God and can result in something functional which is also beautiful. God deserves the very best (as the attention to detail in these narratives prove), but that best is achieved through training and skill offered freely to Him. The Bible narrative makes it very plain that the work of Bezalel and Oholiab was God-inspired (Ex 31:1-6). May we realise that when we offer our talents to God, the result can have lasting significance and an eternal impact.

Paul is a great example to us of a person with a passion for God. Phil 3:3-14 shows us a man passionately in love with Jesus, totally committed to Him and not ashamed of the gospel. His consuming desire was to know Christ – despite his dramatic conversion on the road to Damascus and his many experiences with God, he was not content with this but wanted to press on further. He sought to know the power of the resurrection,  but this can only come as we ‘chase’ the person. Knowing Christ must come before knowing HIs power.

If we are to cultivate the same passion for Christ which Paul experienced and know the same spiritual fervour he possessed, we must take three steps and overcome three obstacles.

1. Have a dependence on Christ and put no confidence in the flesh. We have to have Christ at the centre of our lives and must not rely on our own abiities, talents and intelligence. Paul had much to commend him, being of good family stock, knowing the law inside out and being a man of moral integrity, but he chose instead to rely on Christ, not on these things. We can easily find out where our dependence is by how we manage the problems of life (is our initial reaction to try to solve the problems ourselves or to cast our burdens on Christ?) and how we make time for God. Discipleship involves discipline, with battles revealing to us the depth of our intimacy with God.
2. Have a determination to press on and do not allow complacency to take root. Paul was determined to press on. This required an act of the will and discipline of the mind; there is no room for half-heartedness if we want to know Christ as Paul did. In the last days, the love of many will grow cold (Matt 24:12). We need to refuse to let apathy affect us and must strive against complacency, for this so easily leads to criticism and complaint. If anyone had reason to be discouraged, disappointed or disillusioned, it was Paul, but he did not allow the trials of life to affect him. Someone has said that ‘spiritual fulfilment comes in the exact proportion to the intensity of our desire.’ The opposite of complacency is passion. We must have a zeal and passion for God and for His glory and honour.
3. Know deliverance from the past and be freed from the stumbling-block of condemnation. So many of us try to press on towards God while carrying burdens and guilt from the past like a ball and chain around our ankles. Past events, past hurts, disappontments and failures haunt us, affecting the present and the way we live. Our lives can be dominated by the words ‘if only…’ and we are filled with regret. The truth is that there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Rom 8:1). Paul could well have lived under a cloud of condemnation, for he was one who had persecuted Christians and sought their deaths. He knew what it was to be forgiven by Jesus and in Phil 3:13 talks of forgetting all that lies behind in order to be focussed on Jesus and pressing on. We need to bring our pasts to Jesus, conffess our sins and then move on. (1 Jn 1:9) Only then can we run with perseverance the race marked out for us. (Heb 12:1)

Yan Hadley, our guest speaker, spoke on ‘the priority of a godly passion’ tonight, basing his sermon on Ps 37:4 which tells us to delight ourselves in the Lord and then He will give us the desires of our hearts. This verse reminds us of 3 key things:

1. Relationship is at the heart of everything; we are called to delight in God. Our relationship is not based on duty, obligation or a sense of responsibility; it is based on a thirst for God (Ps 42:1) and gladness (Ps 122:1). Joy and fellowship are key aspects of this relationship with God.
2. Responsibiity is involved, for we are told to ‘delight yourself.‘ No one else can do this for us; there is a DIY element to this! We may not always feel like attending church meetings or taking time to pray and read the Bible, but feelings are not the determiners here. We are required to take responsibility for our spiritual walk (Ps 16:8-9), doing what we know to be right, whatever our feelings say (Ps 34:1). We can’t rely on others, but must cultivate a wholehearted desire to please God if we are to grow spiritually.
3. Reassurance is the response God gives us. Ps 37:4 reminds us that He will give you the desires of your heart. God’s desire is to bless us and He is immensely generous. God cannot lie (Num 23:19), so we need to grasp something of the generosity and benevolence of God towards us and believe His promises. When we call, He answers! (Jer 33:3). There is so much more of God to experience (1 Cor 2:9-10).

God has good plans for us as individuals and as a church, but we need to hunger and thirst for righteousness and to seek God’s kingdom first if we are to see the breakthrough for which we long.

As part of the Dearne Community Arts’ Festival’s mission to champion creativity and celebrate community, we will be hosting a ‘mosaic workshop’ on Saturday 1st June between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. (The picture below is illustrative only – the mosaic will be personalised and designed by the community.)

The idea is for the community to be involved in creating a tile mosaic which can be exhibited at the arts’ festival on Saturday 28th September at Astrea Academy Dearne (the new name for the secondary school in Goldthorpe!) This mosaic, which will be started at GPCC, will tour other community groups until it’s completed.

As I’ve been thinking about mosaics, I see more and more how mosaics are rather illustrative of our lives. A mosaic is usually made from broken tile pieces which are fitted together through the skill of the designers to form a beautiful picture. Our lives often feel like they are made up of broken pieces. Life has a habit of shattering our hopes, dashing our dreams and leaving us with sharp, jagged edges which don’t feel at all beautiful. We wonder what God is doing with these disparate pieces and how He can create anything meaningful or beautiful from them. But He is the master artist, the One who assembles ‘all our broken, shattered pieces/ More beautiful than I had ever known.’ (‘Long Live The King’, Aaron Shust) Or, as Rend Collective puts it, ‘though I’m broken, I am running into the arms of love,.’ (‘Joy’, Rend Collective)

Come along to the mosaic workshop in June and have fun adding pieces to this community mosaic… but remember also that God is making a beautiful mosaic picture out of your life and even the raggedy tiny broken pieces of your life can be fitted into His beautiful picture, into the Bride of Christ.