Mark spoke this morning from Luke 8:40-56, reminding us that one touch from Jesus can make all the difference in our lives. This passage talks of two miracles: healing for a woman who had suffered bleeding for twelve years and the raising from the dead of Jairus’s daughter. Jesus had been having a very busy time; immediately prior to these healings, He had calmed a raging storm and healed a naked madman. The fact that He had time to reach out to others in healing demonstrates His compassion and love for people.

Jairus, a synagogue leader, must have been desperate when Jesus stopped en route to his home to ask who had touched Him. (Luke 8:45) His daughter was dying and he needed the help of Jesus immediately. Jesus knew that power had left Him and wanted to give the woman who had reached out to touch the hem of His garment the opportunity to receive even more than the physical healing she had already experienced.

For a woman to suffer for so long would have left her alone, poor, isolated and perhaps wrestling with the idea of being under God’s condemnation since she was officially declared ‘unclean’. Jesus’s words to her reminded her of her status (‘daughter’, in a personal relationship with God, not cursed, but loved, precious and valuable) and gave her peace. She received not only physical healing, but her mind and spiritual life were all put right by His words.

It’s so easy when we suffer to believe the enemy’s lies that this is because we are under God’s wrath. God treats us as sons and daughters, however,  and always has time for us. Jesus had time for both the woman and for Jairus’s daughter: both received healing and life from Jesus. We can be sure when He touches us that our lives will be irrevocably changed for the better.

Corrosion occurs when metals are gradually destroyed by chemical and/or electrochemical reactions with their environment. Perhaps the most common form is rusting, the formation of iron oxides, which results in a distinctive orange colour on the normally silver-coloured metal, typically caused when iron is corroded by water or air moisture.

Given sufficient time, oxygen and water, any iron mass will eventually rust to the point of distintegration, as the image above demonstrates. Clearly, such a problem has led to many working to prevent corrosion (by creating, for example, rust-resistant alloys such as stainless steel or by galvanisation, protecting the metal with a layer of zinc.)

In the spiritual realm, corrosion is just as destructive to spiritual health as rust is in the natural world. It is not caused by exposure to water or oxygen, however; it is caused by bitterness and resentment, by holding on to a grudge, and by an unwillingness to forgive others.

Forgiveness is at the heart of the gospel, and Jesus calls us to pass on all we have received from Him freely. The command to forgive is unequivocal and without limits (see, for example, Matt 6:12, 14-15; Matt 18:21-35; Mk 11:25; Luke 17:3-4; Eph 4:32; Col 3:13) and is the only known cure for spiritual corrosion. Without forgiveness, we hold on to bitter roots which destroy us and defile others (Heb 12:15). Only as we forgive do we find freedom from anger, bitterness and resentment, and the joy and peace which God promises to His children.

Jesus said to the religious Jews who opposed Him, ‘I know that you are Abraham’s descendants. Yet you are looking for a way to kill me, because you have no room for my word. I am telling you what I have seen in the Father’s presence, and you are doing what you have heard from your father.’ (Jn 8:37-38)

Having no room for God’s Word is like wearing tight-fitting clothes which are uncomfortable and restrictive. It’s not enough to know what God says about truth. We have to do what He commands us to. (James 1:22)

If we want to have the freedom to change, to move freely in the spacious world of salvation which God has provided for us, we have to make room for God’s word in our lives and hearts. Just as there was no room at the inn for Mary and Joseph and Jesus made His appearance as a baby in a stable, we can shut Jesus out of many rooms in our lives, building walls to keep Him out of certain areas of our lives. We might come to church on Sundays, but we don’t want to make room for Him in our everyday lives. We don’t want Him to challenge us on our attitudes; we’d rather continue in our unforgiveness and misery than swallow our pride and forgive. We don’t want Him to challenge us about our money; we’d rather go it alone than give Him everything. We don’t want Him to set us free because we have got used to living in restricted room and there is a certain familiarity to slavery which is less daunting than the wide, open spaces of freedom. We so easily have no room for God’s word, thinking it impractical and illogical and justifying to ourselves why we think that. When we are like this, we turn our backs on the possibility of miracles and transformation, all because we have no room for God’s word.

Making room for God’s Word means being responsive to what He tells us to do – whether that’s to forgive, to speak a word of encouragement, to step out in faith or however He speaks to us and challenges us. This can be very difficult, but Jesus is the One who is full of grace and truth. (Jn 1:14) If we’re struggling with the truth, we can ask for grace to obey and it will be freely given.

Many of us believe in a wrong definition of truth. Truth is not…

• … simply whatever works (this is pragmatism!)
• … just what we can understand (there are many truths in both the physical and spiritual realms which we don’t understand, but our capacity to understand something is not the arbiter of what is true or false.)
• … simply what the majority of people say is true (sadly, we are often swayed by majority opinion, but history teaches us that opinion by numbers doesn’t necessarily equal truth.)
• … just what makes people feel good (whilst truth is ultimately liberating and beneficial, in the short-term, it can be very painful, and often we shun truth because of this.)
• … simply what we can prove (though we like to believe we are able to prove everything, this is clearly not true even in the physical realm and definitely isn’t true of the invisible, spiritual realm!)

Truth is ultimately defined by God because He is the ultimate Being in our universe. If we live in a human-centric universe, we will want to define truth for ourselves, but if we accept the Bible’s teaching that God is the centre of everything and we are His creation, we will be content to accept God’s definition of truth.

Tonight’s alphabet series on essential ingredients in a life of faith looked at T is for Truth. Absolute truth is not something many people believe in nowadays, the preference being to say things like ‘If that’s true for you, that’s fine, but this is what I believe so this is true for me.’ Truth is, however, ‘that which is in accordance with fact or reality’ and God defines truth by His own character. Jesus said, ‘I am the Way, the Truth and the Life’ (Jn 14:6) and whilst spiritual truth may not be visible to natural eyesight, God clearly says that there is such a thing as absolute truth and that truth is bound up in Jesus (see also Is 45:19, Jn 1:14, Jn 1:17).

The idea of absolute truth is necessarily intolerant and exclusive and will arouse the opposition of many. Jesus is ‘a stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall.’ (1 Pet 2:8, quoting Is 8:14) We do not go out of our way to be contentious, but the recent political furores over politicians who have held to Biblical truth (e.g. Tim Farron and Jacob Rees-Mogg) remind us that there is a cost to holding to truth (see 2 Tim 3:12).

Truth is, however, liberating (see Jn 8:31-36) and brings many benefits. Truth leads us away from the slavery of sin and into the freedom of being called God’s children (see Rom 8:14-16). As we embrace the truth Jesus brings into our lives, we are set free from the kingdom of darkness (whose king, the devil, is the father of lies (Jn 8:44)) and become heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ (Rom 8:17, Gal 4:6-7).

This new life, though, isn’t automatic. We have the choice to offer ourselves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness. God wants us to learn to obey from our hearts the pattern of teaching which He offers us so that we realise we have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. (Rom 6:16-18) Truth is powerful because it can have an impact on how we live, but we need to allow truth to work in us and through us for it to have this effect.

Don’t forget we have the ‘Churches Together’ prayer meeting on Tuesday 17th October at 7:15 p.m. at GPCC. It’s been a real privilege to pray with Christians from other local churches this year and we are looking forward to joining together again to pray for our churches and communities. Join us if you can!

Next Sunday (22nd October) we have a Christian bookstall at church, so please come prepared to buy! There will be Christmas cards, calendars, diaries, gifts, books and CDs for sale, with CLC giving 10% of all takings back to the church. That’s not a bad deal and you don’t even have to venture far for these presents!

On Saturday 28th October we have a fundraising coffee morning for Barnsley Hospice (10 a.m. – 12 noon), so please do come along to this and support a very worthwhile charity.

We are very excited about the opportunities for outreach in November. ‘Churches Together’ will be involved in giving out goody bags and doing Advent activites at the Winter Wonderland event in Thurnscoe Flower Park on Saturday 18th November (12-5 p.m.)

and we will be hosting refreshments, craft activities, games, raffles, wrapping Christmas presents, family photos and much more at GPCC as part of the Goldthorpe Christmas Market on Friday 24th November from 4-8 p.m. Such events are great ways to chat with people and invite them to church meetings, so please do come along.

Prior to these events, you can help by:

1. donating items for the food hamper which will be raffled (biscuits, chocolates, soft drinks, Christmas food items, tinned food etc.)
2. donating items for the raffle or tombola
3. making craft items to sell
4. donating Poundland gifts for children or wrapped sweets/ lollies/ chocolates for the goody bags
5. helping us to prepare the goody bags on Wednesday 8th November at 10:30 a.m. at the Salvation Army

On the day, we need people to come along and help with the different activities (e.g. providing home baking, serving on the stalls or serving refreshments), so please let us know if you’re available at all on those dates!