Fruit and vegetables

Stephen and Stacey provided us with quizzes about fruit and vegetables. Stacey’s quiz involved recognising these pictures:

RomanescoDragon fruitBuddha's handsbeetroot(Romanesco, dragon fruit, Buddha’s hands and beetroot…)

Stephen’s quiz tested our knowledge of when fruit and vegetables are harvested (surprisingly difficult in this day and age, when so much is imported throughout the year!) However, we did know that tomatoes are usually harvested in September, as we’ve been making chutney this month to sell for the Christmas markets!

It’s very easy for us to take our food for granted. Supermarkets offer us a wide choice of foods and there are many opportunities to buy from markets and even to buy exotic foods online. We need constantly to remind ourselves of God’s provision and to thank Him for this. His overflowing generosity is our daily experience.

God’s Provision, Our Thankfulness

Tonight’s family service was a rather unconventional harvest festival! Mark spoke on the subject of God’s provision and our thankfulness from Matt 6:25-34. There, we see that God promises to provide for all our needs (see also Phil 4:19), not just in food and clothing. Jesus reassures us that we do not need to worry, because God’s provision and power are evident in nature (beautifully clothed flowers and birds whose needs are met by God) and we are far more valuable than these.

Worrying achieves nothing (except possibly magnifying the problems in our minds as we envisage all the ‘mights’ and ‘coulds’ which so often do not materialise.) We can rest in the secure knowledge that God knows what we need and loves us so much that He does something about it! Worry distracts us from God, but God is ever mindful of all our needs. Thankfulness is our response to God’s provision and power.

Diane’s testimony at the end of the service also reminded us how much God cares for us as individuals. In 1996, just before the birth of their third child, Mark was made redundant, and this period was difficult financially for them as a family. Nonetheless, as they learned to trust God for their everyday basic needs, they found they never went hungry and God’s provision and faithfulness upheld them. Sometimes, in the depths of winter, it feels like spring will never come, but God sends us signs of hope to remind us that there is light at the end of the tunnel. His love carries us through and His provision never fails.

Pressing on

One of the key ingredients to pressing on towards the new things God has for us is a firm belief that God is for us. One of the most frustrating things about being a teacher was when students would view me as the enemy. In schools, there is often a ‘them and us’ atttitude, with pupils seeing the teacher as an adversary rather than a helper. Only when pupils actually realise that teachers generally are there to pass on expertise, advice, knowledge and help rather than being sadistic enemies can true progress be made.

Similarly, we often feel that God is out to get us, rather than to help us. We view God as the enemy, the killjoy, the one who gives us rules and regulations simply to spoil our fun and make our lives miserable (a view propounded by the devil – see Gen 3.) The truth is completely the opposite. God is on our side.

‘You work together for our good.
You are loving.
You give us more than we deserve.
You are unfailing.
And we are more than conquerors, Saviour.
In you our future is secure
By your power.’ (‘God Is For Us’, Aaron Shust)

God is the One who blots out our transgressions and remembers our sins no more. (Is 43:25) God is the One ‘who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go’ (Is 48:17). God is working for our good in every situation. (Rom 8:28) Whatever new things God has for us, whatever new paths He might call us to travel along, whatever knee-knocking challenges lie ahead, we can be sure that God is on our side and will not leave us or forsake us. We’re on the winning side! As Phil Wickham puts it,

‘Nothing can stop us for You’re on our side:

Even in dying our souls are alive,

Standing together forever and marching on.’ (‘Children of God’, Phil Wickham)

Our part is not to shrink back, but to press on towards all that God has for us. (Heb 10:36-39)

don't shrink back

Look out! Listen up!

Is 43:19 says ‘See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?’ So often, like the disciples, we don’t perceive what God is doing. To perceive means ‘to see, to observe, to discern, to discover, to have knowledge of, to understand’ and so often, we find it hard to understand what God is saying and doing, usually because we can’t see beyond our own circumstances.

God tells us to see (behold, look out, notice) what He is doing and to take heed (listen up!) to what He is saying. When I watch Thumper the rabbit, his ears are able to swivel independently; he’s always listening out, always alert to sounds. We need to have that same attentiveness to God so that we can hear what He is saying to us.

listen upPaul urges us to fix our attention on God (Col 3:1-4) so that we are not deceived or distracted by what we see (or don’t see.) When Elijah was prophesying that rain would come after three years of drought, this seemed unlikely. He kept sending his servant to look for rain, and six times the same answer came back: ‘There is nothing there.’ (1 Kings 18:43) It would have been easy to give up at that point, but Elijah persevered in prayer and the seventh time the answer was ‘a cloud as small as a man’s hand is rising from the sea’ (1 Kings 18:44)

It’s easy for us to be like the servant:  ‘There is nothing there. God’s not doing anything. He may have promised to save people and move in power in this valley, but we can’t see anything. There is nothing there.’ If Elijah had listened to the servant, he could have given up, but Elijah was a prophet. He was accustomed to listening for God’s voice. He was not distracted by what the natural eye could or could not see. We have to be able to perceive and listen for what God is doing and we have to hold on in believing prayer and faith until what is invisible finally becomes visible.

The God of New Things

This morning’s sermon looked at Is 43:18-21. September in England is traditionally associated with the start of the new academic year, and in Goldthorpe, this is especially poignant since the new primary school will be opening this week. At this time of fresh starts and new beginnings, it’s worth realising that God also has new things for us. (Is 43:19, Is 42:9)

If we are to hear and see what God wants to do in the future, we have to be prepared to let go of the past. It’s important to remember what God has done, but we are not to dwell in the past, becoming ‘set in our ways.’ Often, we expect God to move in the same ways He has previously, but we need to be flexible and embrace the new things He does. We don’t want to become petrified (literally: ‘turned to stone’; figuratively: ‘paralysed by fear’) like the creatures in C. S. Lewis’s tale ‘The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe‘:

Narnia petrificationSo often, we are resistant to new things because these take us out of our comfort zone, but God wants us to be wholly dependent on Him, not on our skills and past experiences (see 1 Cor 2:3-5, 2 Cor 1:8-9). God is able to make a way in the wilderness (after all, He provided for the Israelites for 40 years while they were in the wilderness, giving miraculous provision of water, food and clothing) and streams in the wasteland; as we see new buildings emerging in Goldthorpe, we need to continue to believe not only for the economic regeneration of the area, but its spiritual regeneration also. God is on the move – are we ready?

Missionary Update

Steve and Katuska Davies ask for ongoing prayer for the Bible college in Maputo, Mozambique. There is a small team there, with a new missionary (Michelle Heffer) about to join that team. There has been a lot of change in Mozambique recently, with much political instability, so please pray for peace in that country.

Steve and Katuska have made the decision to stay in the UK for the foreseeable future, mainly because of the educational needs of their three sons. Steve has recently been offered the pastorate of a church near the Mull of Kintyre and so they are looking to find accommodation in that small town. Please pray they will be able to find the right house for rent and that the boys, who are currently in school in Scotland, will make the transition to another school smoothly. Steve writes ‘pray that their varied experiences so far will be an asset rather than an obstacle.’ It can be very difficult to settle down, so pray for good friends and a smooth transition into a new area, new schools and new church.