Don’t forget the church outing to Scarborough on Saturday 9th June. Deposits of £5 are needed by the end of this month. We will be leaving church at 9 a.m. and leaving Scarborough about 5 p.m. for a fun day out – travel is by coach.

Looking further ahead, don’t forget the Dearne Community Arts’ Festival on Friday 31st August and Saturday 1st September at Dearne ALC (11 a.m. – 4 p.m., both days). This is a great opportunity to champion creativity and celebrate community with loads of arts on show (paintings, photography, crafts, woodwork, sewing, embroidery, tapestry, paper crafts, 3D printing etc.), performances on stage (dance, music, other performing arts) and workshops where you can get hands-on with different artistic endeavours (make your own pirate crafts for kids, make bath bombs and soaps, make your own jewellery and much more). We’re pleased to have received some funding from the Ward Alliance and Awards for All, so we hope to have additional workshops featuring Pit Mouse (virtual reality film clips) and circus skills as well. Ian McMillan (the Barnsley Bard) will be running a creative writing workshop for adults on the Friday afternoon (photo courtesy of Bob Dickinson) and Thurnscoe Harmonic Male Voice Choir will be giving a concert on the Saturday afternoon, so it really will be a great community event.

Coming up in April…

• Easter Sunday (1st April) – services are at 10.30 a.m. and 6 p.m. and we will be celebrating the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ!
• Sunday 8th April – in the morning, the service is at Cherry Tree Court at 10.30 a.m. and we will be offering Communion to all there who know the Lord. This will be done at least twice a year for residents there. In the evening, the service will be at Market Street at 6 p.m. as usual.
• Sunday 15th April – after the morning service, we will be taking part in the Dinosaur Day at Phoenix Park (12 noon – 4 p.m.) where ‘Dearne Churches Together’ will be hosting craft activities, a fossil excavation pit and the opportunity to discuss whether Christianity is outdated or whether we still have a message of hope for our communities! The evening service will be at 6 p.m. as usual.

Prior to the Dinosaur Day, there will be craft sessions at Thurnscoe Library in the Easter holidays for anyone with children interested in dinosaurs!

• Services will be at 10.30 a.m. and 6 p.m. on Sunday 22nd and 29th April.

Midweek meetings on Thursdays at 7.30 p.m. will be as usual. Youth club restarts on Monday 9th April and the Parent & Toddler group restarts on Friday 13th April, with coffee mornings running each Saturday throughout April from 10 a.m. until 12 noon.

During the Easter holidays, there will be no Mums & Toddlers or youth club, but the following events are happening over the next two weeks:

• Our prayer meeting will be on Thursday 29th March at 7.30 p.m. Please join with us to pray for our churches, our outreach and our world.

• The Good Friday Church Crawl will start with a service at Furlong Road Methodist Church on Friday 30th March at 10.30 a.m. and continues throughout the day with visits to the Salvation Army, our own church, the Parish church, Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church, Thurnscoe Pentecostal Church and St Helen’s in Thurnscoe. We are hugely excited to have the opportunity to learn about Easter through crafts, film, messy church, the Stations of the Cross and sung worship as well as through the live theatre production ‘So On And So 4th’ from 4Front Theatre. Please feel free to come along to whatever activities you’re interested in and if it’s too far to walk between churches – when we will also be giving out Easter eggs, daffodils and literature about Easter – then feel free to drive from one church to the next. See below for more details. The craft activities at the Salvation Army and Thurnscoe Pentecostal Church are particularly suitable for children of all ages (including toddlers) and the theatre production at St Helen’s is suitable for children aged 8 and over, though younger children are welcome to attend with parents. Some of the other events may not be suitable for children (the film at our church will show scenes from John’s Gospel depicting the crucifixion of Jesus.)

• Coffee morning will be as usual on Easter Saturday (31st March) between 10 a.m. and 12 noon.
• On Easter Sunday (1st April), we will have services at 10.30 a.m. and 6 p.m. The evening service will be our family service, looking especially at the theme ‘Resurrection!’

• The Bible study (concluding our study of Psalm 119) will be on Thursday 5th April at 7.30 p.m.

Good Friday (30th March) is one of the most important dates in the Christian calendar, as Christians take time out to focus on the death of our Lord Jesus Christ. This year, we will be exploring different Christian traditions by visiting different local churches and we hope many local people will join us to discover the variety of ways we can remember and celebrate the death of our Lord and Saviour. We are also hugely excited to walk between the different churches as a witness and sign of unity, giving out daffodils, chocolates and leaflets about Easter as we go, wearing our yellow sashes made by local people as we go as a sign that we carry with us a message of hope and life.

Feel free to join us at any of the venues below. There is something for everyone and even if you are busy, please try to take some time out of the usual busyness to stop and focus on our Lord during that day.

1. 10.30 a.m. Furlong Road Methodist Church service (Furlong Road, Boltong-on-Dearne, S63 8JA)
2. 11.45 a.m. Salvation Army (lunch & crafts- suitable for all ages) (Straight Lane, Goldthorpe, S63 9DW)
3. 12.45 p.m. Goldthorpe Pentecostal Community Church (film excerpt from John’s Gospel & worship) (Market Street, Goldthorpe, S63 9HA)
4. 1.20 p.m. Goldthorpe Parish Church (Stations of the Cross) (Lockwood Road, Goldthorpe, S63 9JY)
5. 1.40 p.m. Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church (Worship from Taize) (Lockwood Road, Goldthorpe, S63 9JY)
6. 2.30 p.m. Thurnscoe Pentecostal Church (Messy Church craft, suitable for children) (Houghton Road Centre, Thurnscoe, S63 0JY)
7. 4.00 p.m. St Helen’s Church Hall (theatre production ‘So On & So 4th’ – suitable for ages 8+) (High Street, Thurnscoe, S63 0RJ)

We do hope you will be able to join us for some or all of these events. Please feel free to travel by car if you’re not able to walk the distances involved. Refreshments will be served at the Salvation Army (a buffet lunch will be provided) and at Thurnscoe Pentecostal Church (drinks only). Admission to all events is free, but donations at St Helen’s would be appreciated to help cover the cost of putting on this theatre production by the company 4FrontTheatre.

Psalm 37 mentions the command ‘do not fret’ three times in the space of a few verses (Ps 37:1, 7, 8) Fretting often seems to us less serious than worrying or being anxious, but it can be just as destructive to our mental and physical health. The word in English is from the Germanic root meaning ‘to eat completely’ and could also be translated as ‘devour, feed upon or consume’ Fretting has this effect on us: it eats us up as we gnaw away at a problem, ‘worrying’ it as my grandfather used to describe his dog’s enjoyment of a bone.

Fretting also has the idea in English of wearing away by rubbing or scraping, and this idea of consuming by rubbing away is also present in our understanding of this verb, ‘rubbing us sore’, as it were.

The Hebrew word used in Psalm 37 has the idea of burning or consuming by fire. Fretting eats away at our peace, causing discontent to rise within us, and so it is vital that we choose to focus our attention on God rather than on evil. (Ps 37:1-2, 7) The antidote to being worn out through the friction of the world is to be still before the Lord and to wait patiently for Him. (Ps 37:7) The antidote to burning out is to refrain from anger and turn from wrath, a conscious decision not to let other people or circumstances rob us of God’s peace. (Ps 37:7-8) In all things, we have to keep the long view (Ps 37:2, 9) and learn to trust in God and do good (Ps 37:3), delight in Him (Ps 37:4) and commit our ways to Him. (Ps 37:5)

In the Bible study last night, Garry started looking at Psalm 119, the longest psalm in the Bible. In it, the psalmist extols the delights of God’s word. In Hebrew, this is an acrostic poem, with each stanza of 8 verses beginning with a different letter of the Hebrew alphabet –  a very useful memory tool in an age when the word was memorised and spoken aloud rather than being read. The tone of the psalm is set in the opening two verses, when those who walk according to the law of the Lord and keep His statutes are termed ‘blessed’ – happy, fortunate, people whose lives are secure.

There are different words translated ‘word’, ‘law’, ‘statutes’, ‘commands’ and ‘precepts’ in this psalm which look at different aspects of God’s word. First of all, there is reverence for the written word (the ‘Torah’, Ps 119:9, which is effectively the Old Testament books), but also a knowledge that God’s spoken word to us matters and must be hidden in our hearts (Ps 119:11). Obedience to God’s commands is the key to blessing. and far from viewing these commands as burdensome and heavy, the psalmist delights and rejoices in them, finding freedom and understanding. (Ps 119: 20,24, 47)

All through the psalm, the way of the righteous is contrasted with those who have no regard for God’s word (Ps 119:53, 61, 69-70) and the psalmist finds that God’s word has the power to strengthen in suffering and adversity (Ps 119:50, 76), bringing comfort because it reveals God’s goodness and love (Ps 119:68, 76). No one enjoys affliction, but the psalmist is able to see God’s good purposes even in this (Ps 119:75)

All around us, we may see limits and restrictions, but God’s commands are boundless (Ps 119:96) and in His ways are freedom.