We had our first April birthday to celebrate tonight.

Mark’s activity tonight involved a blindfolded person being led by a child… an object lesson in learning to trust!

Then the adults had a go!

Stephen pointed out in the epilogue that there is a difference between honest doubt, when we have questions we are willing to bring to God and to accept the answers we get, and the kind of sceptical doubt which does not really want answers, but is a cover-up for our unbelief. Doubt can easily be used as an excuse, a refusal to believe. God’s Word is able to ‘throw doubt far away’ (‘My Hope Is In You’, Aaron Shust), but we have to be able to be honest and open and willing to bring all our wrestlings and doubts to God. (‘My Lighthouse’, Rend Collective) When we do that, we find that doubt can’t separate us from God’s love and faith can grow.

Tonight’s family service looked at the subject of doubt and faith.

‘Doubting Thomas’ is perhaps unfairly known as the disciple who doubted Jesus’s resurrection (see John 20:24-29), and it seems he struggled with pessimism, melancholy and doubt. What is so encouraging, however, is that Jesus’s group of disciples included so many different personalities and all were valued and loved by Him.

Thomas was not with the other disciples when Jesus appeared to them after the resurrection, and he struggled to believe this incredible story. Jesus did not reject him for his doubt, however, but gave him the opportunity to see and experience his presence for himself. Doubt in itself is not the end of the world; what matters is that we learn to bring all our doubts to God and move from doubt to faith. We don’t have to suppress doubt and pretend it’s not there; we have to be as open and honest as Thomas was, but we also have to be like Thomas in that when God speaks to us, we have to be prepared to change.

God is not scared of our questions and the Bible encourages us to be open, honest and real as we approach God (see Ps 13:1-2; Ps 89:46; Hab 1:2-3). He may not always answer our questions (as Job discovered!), but a real, personal encounter with God as experienced by both Job and Thomas is enough to move us from doubt to faith.

Thomas is traditionally believed to have sailed to India in AD 52 to spread the Christian faith, and is believed to have landed at the port of Muziris, where there was a Jewish community at the time. He is believed to have been martyred there and is known as the ‘apostle of India’… not a bad epitaph for someone we usually refer to as ‘Doubting Thomas’!

Next week, several of us will be in India ourselves, experiencing a mission trip for the first time. And whilst I’m not saying that Thomas ever went to Bangalore, the mere fact that there is a thriving church today in India is partly down to the fact that Thomas was transformed from a doubting, pessimistic, fearful man into a faith-filled believer who was prepared to leave his comfort zone and preach the gospel to people who had never even heard of Jesus Christ. There is no limit to what God can do with our fearful, doubting hearts. When we encounter God in His majesty and power, in His brokenness and mercy, when we see God afresh as Thomas did, we too can be transformed. All of us can be used by God in ways that defy logic, astound our questioning hearts and bring glory to God. As we bring our questions and doubts, our hurt and confusion to God, He is able to meet with us in ways that have repercussions all down through history. Doubt doesn’t have to have the last word. Faith can rise. As Jesus said to Thomas, so He says to us: ‘Stop doubting and believe.’ (Jn 20:27) When we do this, God will do far more than we can ask or imagine!

Garry spoke this morning at Cherry Tree Court about our value as people. In 2012, he was involved in a motorbike accident which resulted in the insurance company writing off his motorbike; in 2015, his car was also written off after another car misjudged a corner and hit him sideways on. On both occasions, he was not as quick to write the vehicles off as the insurance companies, but so often these days, it is seen as more cost effective to scrap the vehicles (or clothing or equipment) and start afresh than it is to repair.

We have a culture of abandoning things; gone are the days when clothes were patched and socks darned. Our culture is more ‘disposable’, but unfortunately, it is easy to treat people in the same way.

Abortion is seen as the way to rid society of ‘undesirables’, people with disabilities such as Down’s Syndrome (shockingly, 90% of those with Down’s Syndrome in the UK are aborted before birth), despite the fact that many people live profitable, happy, fulfilled lives with Down’s Syndrome. Disabilities affect many people, but so often, we treat people with disabilities as if they are stupid or worthless. The elderly are often similarly dismissed or overlooked, with euthanasia an option to ‘rid’ society of those who are deemed to have outlived their usefulness. Such attitudes are at odds with Jesus’s attitude and treatment of people.

In Jn 4, we see Jesus taking time out to converse with a woman whose background caused her to be shunned by others. Instead of writing her off, he wrote her into history. In Jn 5, we see him taking the time to heal a man who had been disabled for at least 38 years, because he values the write-offs. With God, no one is deemed useless or valueless; we are all loved and valued so much that Jesus died for us. We are not write-offs but are written in to God’s story and given a place of value in His kingdom.

This month, we are meeting at Cherry Tree Court on the 1st Sunday of the month, since so many people are away on the mission trip next Sunday. This morning’s meeting (2nd April) will be at Cherry Tree Court, starting at 10.30 a.m.

Tonight’s family service is at 6 p.m., looking at the theme ‘From Doubt To Faith.’ Often, we hide our doubts and consider them to be harmful to faith, but we need to look honestly at this subject and take all our doubts to God. We’ll be looking at ‘Doubting Thomas’ and seeing what we can learn from this disciple.

On Thursday, we have a joint Bible study and prayer meeting as we use the Psalms to pray for the mission trip to India. That is coming up very soon! The team leave at 5.45 a.m. on Sunday 9th April, flying from London Heathrow at 1.15 p.m., arriving in Bangalore the following morning (Monday 10th April at 7.50 a.m. local time). Please pray for the eight people going to India throughout the trip.

Church meetings will be continuing throughout April, though there will be no midweek meeting on Thursday 13th April. Sunday meetings will be at 10.30 a.m. and 6 p.m. on Sunday 9th April, with Alison Sykes from the Salvation Army speaking on Palm Sunday in the evening, and on Easter Sunday, with Alan Jeffs speaking at the morning meeting. Hopefully, there will be a live Easter update from Garry and Julie on their return in the evening!

Please pray throughout April:

• for safety and protection and effective ministry for the eight going to India
• for God to move in Goldthorpe as well as in Bangalore!
• for healings at home and abroad
• for our ongoing witness to our local community and wider community

On Sunday 30th April there will be a Spring Show run by Big Local Thurnscoe from 12 noon. After the morning meeting, we will be going to Lidget Lane for a short memorial service concerning the miners’ memorial to be dedicated that day. There will then be a procession to Houghton Road Centre led by a variety of local groups and HRC will be hosting a range of family-friendly activities until 4 p.m., including a maypole with dancers, fire eaters, children’s entertainers and stalls. New sports equipment on the land opposite HRC will also be unveiled that day, so do come along for an afternoon of fun and see what is happening in your local community.

I was brought up with a sports-mad father, and therefore as a child, I went along to watch Barnsley F. C. play football and Yorkshire C.C.C. play cricket. I learned to enjoy both sports, mainly because I enjoyed being with my Dad, and I remember the years 1979-1984 with great fondness: watching Ian Botham’s match-winning performance in the Headingley Test against Australia in 1981, savouring the midfield magic of Ronnie Glavin and enjoying seeing Mick McCarthy, a Barnsley lad, make it to the big time. One of my abiding memories of this era is the passion with which fans approach every match or game. Sport is not, for many of them, simply a game…

In 1983, I discovered a new passion, for it was then that I found Jesus Christ as my own Saviour. And it struck me then, and still strikes me now, as odd that the passion seen every week in football grounds and cricket grounds and every other sporting venue is not often seen in churches. I have stood on some football terraces in freezing weather cheering on a team that was never in the top 6 in the country; I have frozen in April at cricket grounds with hardly anyone there, and still there was more passion there than is seen when people come together to worship Almighty God.

As we approach Easter and consider the mind-blowing love God has for us, love which caused Jesus to suffer on the cross for our sins and to embrace suffering for the joy set before Him, let’s put away our British reserve and worship Him unashamedly, with passion and fervour and fire and zeal. Let’s ponder how much He loves us and raise a shout, a cheer, a paean of praise.