Thanks were given tonight to Gillian, who has served faithfully for many years in the music team, playing the piano on Sunday evenings. Now she feels it’s time to step down from this role, and we wanted to thank her for her faithfulness and worshipping heart. Thank you very much!

Life can so often seem full of limits: speed limits, limits to how many items can be bought on the special offers in supermarkets, limits to how many calories you’re supposed to consume in a day, download limits, height limits and so on. Many of these limits are for our protection and safety and we easily become used to these and view them rather like a box where we have to keep the lid on for our own good…

The problem comes when we apply these limitations to God. Ps 78:41 talks of how the Israelites repeatedly put God to the test, limiting (or vexing) Him. God has promised limitless supply and help (see Phil 4:19), but so often we prefer the safety of our life-limiting box to the abundant life God has promised us.

This can be seen in several different areas:

1. Trust (it’s easy to think we are trusting God when all is going according to our plans, but much harder when we don’t know what the outcome of a particular situation will be. Matt 17:20 tells us that with faith as small as a mustard seed mountains can be moved: ‘nothing will be impossible for you.’ Trust leads us to a place where the impossible becomes possible!)
2. Fear (so often, fear can be a stumbling-block to us. We prefer the safety of our box, even with all its limits, to the vastness of God’s wide unknown.)
3. Leaning (so often, we lean on our understanding and ingenuity, but Prov 3:5-6 reminds us that we need to trust God with all our hearts and refuse to lean on our own understanding.)
4. Lack of expectation (seen so often in our lack of expectation that God will heal us (‘this is a trial I have to bear’) and our lack of expectation that God will do miracles in our day)

Job 11:17 reminds us of the awesome power of God; His understanding has no limits (Ps 147:5) and Jesus has promised to give the Spirit without limit (Jn 3:34). We can open the lid on the box of our lives and inhabit the vast country called salvation where God can do more than we ask or imagine. (Eph 3:20) It may seem daunting and even scary, but this way of living in God’s limitless supply has the power to transform our lives.

This morning at Cherry Tree Court, Pat reminded us of the Jewish heritage from which Christianity is derived. The New Testament cannot be fully understood without reference to the Old Testament, and this morning, in looking at Matthew 9:18-25, she referred back to Numbers 15:37-41 where God gave Moses instructions about the Jewish tassels that were attached to their garments, which the bleeding woman probably took hold of. These tassels were reminders of the commandments of God (the blue thread reminded the people of these whilst the white threads reminded them of the holiness of God.)

A tallit (Jewish prayer shawl) is a large rectangular shawl made of wool, cotton or synthetic fibres. In each of the four corners of the shawl are strings tied in a particular pattern, called tzitzit. The shawl contains written blessings which Jews use as prayers. Pat’s tallit contained Scriptures from 2 Cor 5, Matthew 14, Mal 4:2, Is 53:5 and would be used by Jews who have come to faith in Jesus as Messiah to aid them in prayer. The number of tzitzit is often symbolic and meant to remind Jews of specific aspects of faith.

Prayer involves drawing close to God and dwelling under the shadow of His wing (see Ps 91:1). The Jews often were given symbolic means to do this and it can be helpful for us also at times to use similar symbolic means when we draw near to God to act as reminders and to focus our attention on Him.

Some of the men at GPCC went go-karting at Barnsley Tyke Racing yesterday, thus fulfilling the competitive streak they possess!

Checking in

Practising and racing (they went for the ‘Grand Prix Plus’ package):

They had enthusiastic (?) support from cheerleaders:

Coming to an end…

On the podium (Roger and his son are clearly the ones to watch…!)

Fredrick sent us photographs today of Amshika, whom he and Reeba visit regularly. We are very pleased to be able to support this little girl who is severely disabled and are grateful for your generosity in making this possible.

October promises to be quite a busy month. In addition to our usual services, some of the men will be going go-karting on Saturday 7th October, enjoying a competitive Grand Prix at Barnsley’s Tyke Racing.

On Tuesday 17th October at 7:15 p.m. we will have our next ‘Churches Together’ prayer meeting at GPCC. Please come along to that if you can and pray for our local communities and the different outreaches each local church is involved in.

On Sunday 22nd October, we will be having a Christian bookstall at church – a great opportunity to buy Christmas cards, calendars, diaries, books, CDs and other gifts and contribute to church as well (CLC gives 10% of sales back to the church.)

On Saturday 28th October, there will be a special coffee morning to raise money for Barnsley Hospice. Refreshments will be on sale and there will be the opportunity to take part in raffles and tombola stalls. All proceeds will go to Barnsley Hospice.