We have received a newsletter from Fredrick and Reeba this week and are thrilled to hear that the new church building will be opened on Friday 21st December. Here is an extract from the newsletter:

“We are so glad to inform you all that our church construction is progressing well and ahead of schedule. By God’s abundant grace and by all your prayers and love, we could complete the plastering work for the interior and exterior walls, main door frame and outside window frames, plumbing and sanitary works; only the fixture works need to be done.”

Flooring, wiring, fixing doors and windows and painting still need to be done and finances are still needed for this, but Fredrick is confident all will be finished for the official opening.

As Christmas approaches, the annual street children feeding programme and Christmas Gospel ministry are going ahead, with sketches, songs and plays about Jesus teaching the children the truths of the Gospel. Please continue to pray for this ministry, for Reeba’s tailoring ministry and for Fredrick and Reeba, their three children and Fredrick’s mother, who is doing well.

Watching 4FontTheatre set up for the ‘Job & Jingle’ show was an education in itself. First of all they brought in huge poles which had to be screwed together:

Then various bits of carefully painted polystyrene had to be attached to the poles in order to make the castle:

All the castle parts had to be slotted into place before the castle could be opened and closed successfully:

All this construction made me think about our Christian lives and how we need to have a framework and solid foundation on which to build. We need God’s Word to give us direction and to hold us together, shedding light on our path as we walk. We need the conversation of prayer to satisfy our need for communication. We need the sacraments, especially Holy Communion, to direct our gaze constantly to the cross of Christ, to remember afresh all God has done for us in Christ Jesus. We need the fellowship of the saints to encourage us and to broaden our ‘tunnel vision’ so that we learn to see the world through God’s eyes.

What was truly amazing to me about the set of ‘Job & Jingle’ was that it could be packed away in a transit van in less than an hour. It’s a fully portable set, built by the cast members, so that this show can move around the country. We too need to have portable lives, solidly built on the foundation of Christ Jesus, fully aware that wherever we go, His Spirit goes with us and we are His ambassadors, carrying the presence of God with us.

 “So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, ⁷ rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.” (Col 2:6-7)

After months of preparation, 4FrontTheatre arrived in Goldthorpe today, and what a blast we had! I’ve now seen the ‘Job & Jingle’ show three times and I’d happily sit through it again. It had such a positive message about both the meaning of Christmas and the joy with which we should celebrate the birth of Christ.

This morning, the team set up at Goldthorpe Primary School. It was amazing to see poles and polystyrene transformed into a palace!

Later on, they had to set up at Goldthorpe Pentecostal Community Church, where the carpeted stage almost meant the palace didn’t stay intact throughout two more shows!

The show told the story of a competition to find ‘the best Christmas ever’ and the rivalry between the friar, Job, and the court jester, Jingle.

Our thanks to the team and to all who helped today. Thanks to the Salvation Army for feeding us throughout the day:

Thanks also to all who helped to set up and to tidy away today and to the two Goldthorpe Primary Schools for allowing us to share the show with their pupils.

I used to work for someone who regularly said that ‘change is here to stay’ and who would remind us that change is inevitable in life and so you needed to get used to it! Attitudes to change vary greatly, largely because we all have different personalities.

Some people love changing things: hairstyles, clothes, furniture, houses, cars. They are always up for change. They embrace change with fervour and excitement, enthusiasm and optimism. They love the challenges and the sense of opportunity and freshness which change brings. These people are very often eager and keen to do things differently and are impatient with routine, finding it boring. They are often pioneers and visionary people, always ready to move on. If they see a door, they want to open it and run through, even if they have no idea what’s in the room behind the door.

Some people find change much more difficult to manage. They like routine and predictability; they find constant change challenging and are maybe much more apprehensive about change. They worry about what will happen when things change, perhaps even finding some truth in the proverb ‘better the devil you know than the devil you don’t know.’ These people are often a little bit reluctant to change and can even be pessimistic about it. If optimists are like Tigger in the ‘Winnie-the-Pooh’ stories, people who find change difficult are more like the donkey Eeyore. If they see a door, they will probably want to know what’s behind the door before they will consider opening it, let alone going through it.

Many of us are perhaps somewhere in the middle between these two extremes. We are open to the idea of change and perhaps excited about some changes, but are perhaps a little bit nervous about big changes. We might hesitate at an open door, but we’re not going to rule out going through it; we just need a little bit of encouragement and reassurance.

We can be sure that God will only allow change into our lives for our ultimate good. All change can be used by God to draw us closer to Him and to move us further forward, even the changes we perhaps would not choose for ourselves. Paul found that even closed doors were simply signposts to the correct open door (see Acts 16:6-10). We can be confident that God will open doors for us in His time and in His way and that change will lead us forward: as Stephen said recently, ‘Onward, Christian soldiers, marching on to war, with the cross of Jesus going on before.’

Tonight’s message was inspired by Advent calendars..The tradition of Advent calendars dates to the mid-19th century, when German Protestants made chalk marks on doors or lit candles to count the days leading up to Christmas. The first Advent calendars were probably printed in the early 1900s by Gerhard Lang, and although production of these calendars were stopped during the 2^nd World War, they soon resumed after that, with Richard Sellmer emerging as the leading producer of commercial Advent calendars. According to the Guinness Book of Records, the world’s largestadvent calendar was built in 2007 at the St. Pancras train station in London. The massive calendar, which measured 232 feet and 11 inches tall, and 75 feet and 5 inches wide, celebrated the reopening of the station following its renovation.

The doors on Advent calendars usually open to reveal an image, Bible verse or gift (often chocolate!), and God is the God who opens doors. (Rev 3:7-8) There is a time for everything and a season for every activity (see Eccl 3:1-11), but it can be hard for us when doors close (particularly when we do not understand why) and hard sometimes to discern which doors are opening. God is able to use every situation and change in our lives for good (Rom 8:28) and has good plans for all of us (Jer 29:11). We can be confident that the doors He opens for us to go through are the right ones.

God wants us to open the doors of our hearts to Him (Rev 3:20), allowing Him access to every part of our lives. He also wants us to open wide our hearts to each other (2 Cor 6:11-13), not allowing hurts and wounds to fester and cause us to withdraw from each other. He calls us to love each other deeply from the heart, reminding us that love covers over a multitude of sins. (1 Pet 4:8)

As we prepare during Advent to celebrate the birth of our Lord and as we face a new year which will bring change and upheaval to every life, we pray for courage to walk through the doors of opportunity God will surely open for us.

Mark spoke this morning on Eph 1:1-8, reminding us that our job is to find God’s will for our lives and live that out. We are blessed ultimately because we are chosen, adopted and accepted by God – a triple blessing!

Eph 1:4 reminds us that we were chosen by God before the foundation of the world. God’s blessings are already there for us; we simply have to enter into them. His purpose is for us to be holy and blameless in His sight. Not only are we adopted into His family, but He predestined us for adoption, giving us the full rights of children. We are joint heirs with Christ and known by God’s name. We are taught to pray to ‘our Father’, indicating the blessing of being part of God’s family.

We are accepted totally by Jesus, in whom we have redemption through His blood which covers us with His righteousness. Being accepted just as we are by a holy God is an amazing blessing. His grace covers all our sin and allows us to stand before a righteous God as though we had never sinned. Such blessings and many more are ours through Jesus Christ our Lord.