The Day of Prayer on Friday 16th March was an oasis of calm, with ‘prayer spaces’ created to help us focus on specific things. We had a prayer labyrinth outside to help us focus on the Lord’s Prayer:

Inside, there was a sand area to help us think about the impression we leave on people and how God wants us to influence society with His love:

There was an area to reflect on forgiveness, with forgiveness stones a tangible way of letting go of the hurt and forgiving others:

We could write our hopes and dreams on paper to float in water, symbolic of how hope blossoms in God:

There were local maps available to help us pray specifically for our area and wider world and a quiet space for intercession as well as an area for colouring pictures from Scripture and the opportunity to share Communion. My personal favourite was the ‘tent’ in the middle of the room filled with lights and cushions, a place to just ‘be still and know that I am God’ (Ps 46:10) and to meditate on our relationship with God. For me, that space left me reflecting on David as he hid from Saul’s persecution or later in life as he hid in the Cave of Adullam (1 Sam 22:1-2) and made me realise afresh that in the midst of busyness, adversity and challenge, we need to withdraw regularly as Jesus did and seek strength and refresment from our God.

We had the opportunity to give thanks to God for our world, our family, our friends and so on and could tie ribbons to the thankfulness tree.

Our thanks to all at Furlong Road Methodist Church who did so much to make this a wonderful day of prayer.

The next ‘Churches Together’ prayer meeting will be on Tuesday 17th April at 10.30 a.m. at our church. All are welcome to attend.

You’ve probably all heard the following story, which has a lot of truth in it:

“This is a little story about four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody.There was an important job to be done and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it. Somebody got angry about that because it was Everybody’s job. Everybody thought that Anybody could do it, but Nobody realised that Everybody wouldn’t do it. It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done.”

I sometimes think we have the same approach to prayer. We know that prayer, our lifeline to God, is not restricted to specific times or places. We know we can pray at any time and in any place. But I also think that if we do not set aside specific times and places to pray, we will end up not praying. Prayer is hard work at times, and we need the commitment of a regular time (just as we need regular times to eat, sleep, work and so on) and a regular place (Jesus talked of going into a room and closing the door to be alone with God (Matt 6:6).

Just as it is useful to have longer periods of times for things on occasions (think of the weekend, that rest from work, or holidays when we set aside time to relax and take time out from work), it is good to set aside specific times to pray. The Day of Prayer today is one such occasion. Furlong Road Methodist Church will be open from 9 a.m. until 6 p.m. today so that we can set aside time and go to that place to pray. I would encourage us all to do just that, not because we have to, not because God will strike us down if we don’t, but because prayer is the most important thing we can do for our own souls and for the world around us. It’s easy to feel helpless and paralysed with discouragement as we look at world events and even at some of the things happening in our communities, but instead of despairing, wringing our hands or launching into impassioned rants against the youth of today, Barnsley Council or any other organisation, let’s pray. Let’s believe that God inclines His ears to the prayers of His people and that He delivers us from the troubles surrounding us (Ps 34:15-22). Let’s believe that as we set aside time to seek God, He will meet with us and do amazing things. (Jer 33:3)

Tonight’s Bible study continued our journey through the Messianic psalms as we looked at Psalm 45. This psalm is entitled ‘for a royal wedding’, and was possibly written to celebrate the marriage of King Solomon. Royal weddings are always grand affairs, as those eagerly anticipating the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle on 19th May can testify, but this psalm was also taken to refer to an even greater royal wedding than that. Heb 1:8-9 refers to this psalm and makes it plain that the throne which will last for ever refers to Jesus (see also Jn 1:14).

Marriage is God’s idea, and one of the many descriptions of HIs relationship with His people is marriage: God is the bridegroom (see Is 54:1-5, Is 62:1-5, Song of Songs and Hosea in the Old Testament) and His people are called His bride (in the Old Testament, the people of Israel, but the New Testament makes it plain that the church is included in this relationship – see Romans 11, Eph 5:25-32, 2 Cor 11:1-2, Rev 19:6-9, Rev 21:1-4). Human marriage is meant to be a reflection of God’s passion and love for His people and we do well to define marriage through this lens rather than through society’s casual understanding of the relationship.

Ps 45 describes both the bridegroom and bride in some detail, evoking the magnificence and splendour of a wedding through the language it uses. We see God as all-powerful, reigining and ruling in majesty; we smell His beautiful aroma; we note the scope of His reign (not just in Israel, but in the whole world.) Perhaps more surprising to us is the picture of the bride: glorious, beautiful and virginal. Paul says Christ’s sacrifice for the church is to make her ‘holy and blameless’. We are washed, cleansed and dearly loved.

The royal wedding to come between Christ and the church is one that will surpass even our wildest imaginations, and should fuel us with hope and optimism. One day, we shall reign and rule with Christ; all sorrow, suffering, sin and pain will be gone (just as the bride in Ps 45 was urged to forget her people and her father’s house, we have to understand the devil no longer has any claim on us and we are to cleave to our new husband.) We rejoice at weddings and celebrate a couple’s happiness, but we look forward even more to the wedding that is to come between Christ and His bride…

Stephen’s sermon title harks back to a 1970s comedy series featuring accident-prone Frank Spencer and his tolerant wife, Betty. In the case of Mary, however, she was a mother who really did have a special child!

What set Mary apart, making her God’s choice to be the Saviour of the world? We cannot know for certain, but what the Bible does reveal about her shows us several important facts:

1. Her betrothal to Joseph meant that she was marrying into the line of David, and the promised Messiah would come from that house.
2. She was a virgin, thus fulfilling Isaiah’s prophecy about the Messiah (Is 7:14). The conception of Jesus truly was unique, a case of the Word becoming flesh (see John 1:1-14) and in this way ‘Immanuel’, God with us, came to live on earth. All mothers think their children are special, but Jesus definitely was! Fully God and fully Man, He was born to be the Saviour of the world.
3. Although young, Mary already had a close walk with God and her attitude of submission to God (see Luke 1:26-38) was key to her role as the mother of Jesus. She remained faithful to God all her life and was faithful to her Son in every aspect of His life and death. Her attitude (‘I am the Lord’s servant. May Your word to me be fulfilled’) exemplifies how each one of us should live. Her submission and obedience to God are characteristics to which we should all aspire.
4. In experiencing the ‘overshadowing’ of the Holy Spirit, Mary knew closeness with God. We too can experience the indwelling of the Holy Spirit with us. He is the key to accessing the presence of God. Like Mary, we can know the presence of Jesus, the power of the Holy Spirit and the blessing of the Father as we learn to serve our God with the same willingness and acceptance which Mary showed.

This year’s Dearne Community Arts’ Festival will be on Friday 31st August and Saturday 1st September from 11 a.m. until 4 p.m. at Dearne ALC. Last summer’s festival was a great success, but the Dearne Playhouse is fully booked on Saturdays throughout 2018, hence the change of venue. The school has more rooms and indoor and outdoor space on offer, so we are hoping that this year’s festival will be even bigger and better.

The festival is aimed at championing creativity and celebrating community in our local area, and we are so glad that local people are taking the opportunity to be involved in the festival through exhibiting their creativity (paintings, photographs, creative writing, crafts, sewing, embroidery, hardanger, woodwork and so on) and through the performing arts (dance, music and drama). We already have many people booked in, including Garry’s Grumpy Old Men and highlights from last year returning (the Pins & Needles Fashion Show, Thurnscoe Harmonic Male Voice Choir and Julia Arts Face Painting & Body Art, as well as art exhibited from local art classes and local artists Lily Dorritt and David Noble.) However, if you would like to be involved in the festival in any way, now is the time to let us know!

In addition to exhibitions and performances, this year we are also running a variety of workshops, including the opportunity to learn to play the ukelele, take part in a variety of crafts and much more. Some of these workshops depend on funding (e.g. the Art of Mining’s amazing virtual reality shows about our coal-mining heritage, featuring Pit Mouse for the children, and a circus skills workshop), but quite a few workshops for children are already booked in (e.g. pirate crafts run by the WEA and making jewellery, bath bombs and origami-based crafts, led by Zoe Green), and we are pleased to announce that Ian McMillan, Barnsley Bard, will be returning to run a creative writing workshop for adults on the Friday. (Photo courtesy of Bob Dickinson).

A range of refreshments will be available at the festival; for further details, please see the DearneCommunityArtsFestival Facebook page.

Prior to the festival, we will be running two competitions in photography and creative writing, both with the theme ‘Loving Your Local Environment.‘ Entries are invited in 3 age categories (under 11s, 12-18s and adult) and can be emailed to julie@gpcchurch.co.uk. The creative writing can be in prose or poetry, with a word limit of 500 words. Digital photographs can be emailed. If you’d prefer to hand in hard copies or printed photographs, just see Julie. The deadline for the competitions is 12 noon on Wednesday 11th July… which may seem a long way away, but there’s no reason to delay!

Our creative God has blessed us all with the capacity for creativity, and this festival is an ideal opportunity to show the world how blessed we are in God!

Jesus’s disciples asked Him how to pray and the Lord’s Prayer was essentially the framework He gave them (and us) for prayer: focussing initially on God (‘hallowed be Your name‘) and God’s kingdom (‘Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth, as it is in heaven’), then looking for God to meet our daily needs (‘give us today our daily bread’, acknowledging that we are physical creatures as well as spiritual beings) and asking for help in living in right relationship with Him and with other people (‘forgive us our debts, as we have also forgiven our debtors’) and for help in avoiding temptation and the ploys of the enemy (‘lead us not into temptation and deliver us from the evil one’). If we keep to this framework, we will be able to pray according to God’s will.

Prayer is more than kneeling in a room and saying the words of the Lord’s Prayer, however, and the Day of Prayer on 16th March at Furlong Road Methodist Church is an opportunity to pray for extended periods of time (if possible, though any time spent there will be useful!) By opening the building from 9 a.m. until 6 p.m., we are acknowledging that it is good to set longer periods of time aside for God and to explore our relationship with Him in different ways. So there will be the opportunity to take part in meditative colouring, praying as we walk a prayer labyrinth, using ‘forgiveness stones‘ to let go of past hurts and ‘act out’ the need to forgive others as we have been hurt and wounded, creating ‘hope blossoms’ to tell God of our deepest longings. These are not ‘magic’ ways of praying, but creative ways of digging deeper into our hearts to share our hopes, fears, desires and wounds with the God who knows us intimately and loves us profoundly. There will also be the opportunity to share in Communion during the day and meditate on the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ.

I would urge all who can to attend the Day of Prayer and for those who can’t to commit to a time of prayer in your own homes or workplaces. Prayer can be anywhere (I find boring bus journeys particularly useful for praying; others like to pray while out walking the dog.) It can be words said out loud or whispered in our own hearts. It can be in just about any format you like. What matters is that we learn to pray every way we know how for everyone we know! (1 Tim 2:1, The Message)