There are a few community events this week which are worth attending!

Today is the last Family Fun Day at Houghton Road Centre, run by ‘Churches Together’. This will run from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m. and is an opportunity for toddlers and children to play minigolf, do craft activities, play in a soft play area and have a free lunch. All are welcome and there is no charge. Adults are more than welcome too!

The Dearne Community Arts’ Festival is on this Friday and Saturday (1st & 2nd September), running from 11 a.m. until 5 p.m. each day, at the Dearne Playhouse (situated just behind Goldthorpe Medical Centre.) This community event which champions creativity and celebrates community boasts a packed programme, roughly divided into 3 sections:

1. exhibitions (inside and outside the building)
2. performances on stage (involving dance schools, music groups, a fashion show, Thurnscoe Harmonic Male Voice Choir and much more)
3. workshops and demonstrations (featuring a range of crafts and skills, including spinning yarn, 3D printing, floristry demonstration, hand massages and a creative writing workshop on Friday with the Barnsley bard, Ian McMillan at 2 p.m. – photo courtesy of www.turningimages.co.uk)

Entry is free, so please do come along at some point over the two days and let others know about this great community event!

We are bombarded by words every day, and advertising in particular seeks to impress particular products on our consciousness through words and jingles (often known as ‘sticky music’ because of its simple melodies which stick in our minds – apparently we spend about 58 minutes a week humming or singing catchy commercial tunes, and it takes almost 17 minutes for us to stop humming or singing these tunes!)

The most popular commercial in the UK was apparently the advert for ‘Cornetto‘ ice-creams which put new words to a very famous aria!

Advertising is very successful in affecting what we think about; as Christians, we need to ensure that we are careful what we listen to and that we choose what we listen to and what we say and sing carefully, because words affect our thinking, and our thinking affects our behaviour.

Luke 8:48 speaks about God’s word as seed and the different effect this has, depending on the kind of soil the seed is received into. God’s word is powerful and cleansing (Eph 5:25-26, Heb  1:3); His words have authority (Luke 4:32) and shed light on our lives (Ps 119:130). When Jesus spoke, things happened! – demons were cast out, people were healed and the wind and waves were stilled. God’s word has the power to change us and liberate us; His words are flawless, like silver purified in a crucible or gold refined seven times. (Ps 12:6) Nonetheless, His words can be ineffective if they are not received, listened to and acted upon (see Matt 7:24-27).

For us to be changed by God’s word, we need to receive it and meditate upon it, speaking and singing it to ourselves and to others. (Eph 5:15, 19-20) We have to pay careful attention to the words we speak and hear; we must learn to be perceptive and to let God’s word, His message, dwell among us richly, welcoming it in to our lives as we welcome friends and family gladly into our homes (Col 3:16). As God’s word washes us, we will grow!

Roger spoke on Sunday morning about how we can know when God is talking to us. We often speak of God as One who reveals Himself to us and speaks to us, but it can be notoriously difficult at times to discern between our voice, God’s voice and the enemy’s voice. How can we tell when God is speaking? What does it sound like?

God speaks in many different ways. Primarily, He speaks to us through His word, often seeming to highlight something for us (‘it jumps out of the page.’) We may have read a particular passage repeatedly, but all of a sudden, God underlines it for us! We should always seek confirmation from His word, because God will never contradict this.

God may speak in other ways: through the words of people (after all, He even used a donkey once!), through circumstances, through pictures and visions, through dreams, through the words of prophecy. He speaks to us through impressions and, occasionally (though rarely) through audible voices. What matters is that we are receptive to God’s voice and learn to listen carefully. God’s words will always build us up, whereas the enemy seeks to lie, deceive and distort. Hearing is the first step, but this must then be married to obedience. (Jn 2:5)

Quite often, people say in response to this question, ‘You just know’, which doesn’t seem much help to those who don’t know! But there is a sense in which we acknowledge the truth of this: God’s voice often leaves us squirming or with a deep conviction we cannot shake off. If God is speaking to you today, test that word (remember Gideon’s fleece?) and then obey. Our hearing and obedience arise from our relationship with God. We don’t have to be afraid; we do have to step out in faith and do what He says.

We’ve had another great family fun day at Houghton Road Centre.

Playing crazy golf

Having fun indoors

Weeding and planting vegetables in the new planters

Meeting old friends

Come along next week (Tuesday 29th August, 11 a.m. – 1 p.m.) for more family fun!

In my daily readings today, the following verse reminds us of the need for whole-hearted living: ‘The eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to Him.’ (2 Chron 16:9) It’s very encouraging to know that God is ‘constantly on the lookout’ (as the Message version puts it) for people who are totally committed to Him.

There are a number of aspects to whole-hearted living. We are encouraged to do the following things ‘with all your heart’:

1. Love the Lord (Deut 6:4-5; Matt 22:36-38)
2. Trust the Lord (Prov 3:5)
3. Obey the Lord (Ps 119:34, 69; 1 Chron 29:19)
4. Praise the Lord (Ps 111:1, Ps 138:1)
5. Work for the Lord (Neh 4:6; Col 2:23)
6. Seek the Lord (Deut 4:29; Jer 29:13)

That’s enough to keep us going for a while!

With the Dearne Community Arts’ Festival less than two weeks away, it’s perhaps not surprising that my thoughts are on crafty things lately like mosaics and embroidery! When I was at school, the subject I hated the most (because I was no good at it!) was sewing or embroidery. I could never see well enough to thread needles and the sewing machine I had to use seemed all wrong to me, being left-handed. I lacked the patience to persevere with these skills and always ended up with work which would be tangled and messy and need unpicking and re-working.

I loved to look at embroidery that was done well. Tablecloths and cushion covers at my grandparents’ house were inevitably embroidered, and I would marvel at the neatness of the stitches I saw. Tapestry and cross-stitch both fascinated me and I would gaze for hours on wall-hangings in museums, taking in the intricate detail which I was unable to reproduce in any of the kits I tried! If you’re interested, Pat Harris & Ralph Fletcher from church are exhibiting their cross-stitch, hardanger and tapestries and these are beautiful works to see.

Just as God is described as a potter and builder, so too He is a weaver and embroiderer. He takes different colours, different strands, and weaves them into the fabric of our lives. When viewed from our limited earthly perspective, the picture looks like the ‘wrong’ side of an embroidered piece, with tangled threads, hastily-tied knots and lumpy, bumpy sewing! But God is not working from the limited perspective we have. He is working out eternal purposes. He is shaping us for eternity. The work isn’t finished yet, and the picture can’t yet be fully comprehended. But we should not be discouraged, for He is infinitely patient and doesn’t give up on us!