We are very blessed to be part of a community which is supportive and willing to help. At the Christmas Market on Friday, we are holding a raffle with a variety of prizes on offer, many of which have been donated by church members or local shopkeepers. One of the prizes is a large food hamper, which Sue and Mavis from our local shop ‘Cards and Chocolates’ on Doncaster Road kindly came to wrap at our coffee morning today:

The finished product looks amazing and Sue has kindly donated a prize as well:

In additon, the local butcher’s Elmhusts has donated a £10 voucher for meat at the shop and Porter’s Fruit and Veg. and Lee’s meat van at the market have donated £5 vouchers for produce from their stalls and Martin has donated a mug, with Bobbiz Hairdressers also giving a voucher.

Other prizes include the choice of Pompom blanket from Pompom Heaven for a baby’s pram or car seat, worth £15:

… plus a beauty set and a hand-knitted scarf, among other things. We are very grateful to all who give so generously of their time and efforts and for our local businesses for supporting the Christmas Market so enthusiastically.

On top of all that, there will be craft stalls selling a variety of Christmas gifts, including wreaths, knitted toys and Christmas decorations. Here’s a sample from one lady who has been busy knitting away for us! The dangling items are octopuses (or octopi or octopodes, if you prefer!), and as well as the knitted teddy bear, we have been promised an owl as well!

Do come along on Friday between 4 and 8 p.m. All proceeds inside the church hall will go to the Salvation Army Christmas Appeal, helping local families in need. Last year, we raised a fantastic £500 to help make Christmas a truly blessed time for people who were struggling; we hope this year will be even better!

As always, December looks set to be a busy month, so check out what’s happening at church below!

Midweek meetings

Please note that the Parent & Toddler group will close for Christmas after the party on 9th December and the Monday night youth club will have its last meeting on 12th December. Both groups will re-start in January. There will be no Friday night badminton until after Christmas.

Midweek meetings on Thursdays will be on Thursday 8th & 22nd December (prayer meeting) and Thursday 15th December (Bible study), but there will be no midweek meeting on 29th December. Slimming World classes will run every Thursday throughout December as usual.

Sunday 4th December

Services at 10.30 a.m. and family service at 6 p.m., looking at shepherds and sheep!

Friday 9th December

The Parent & Toddler Christmas party will be in the morning (9-11 a.m.) and the Christmas Market will run from 4-8 p.m. Come along to enjoy the ambience and do your Christmas shopping, then bring your presents over to GPCC to have them wrapped! Refreshments will be available along with home baking, craft stalls, raffles, tombola stall and a variety of activities. All proceeds will go to the Salvation Army Christmas Appeal. At 6 p.m. we’ll be having the ‘Churches Together’ community carol service, so come along to sing carols in the car park.

christmas-market-churches-together-poster

Saturday 10th December

The coffee morning will be on as usual from 10 a.m. until 12 noon.

Sunday 11th December

Carol service at Cherry Tree Court at 10.30 a.m. and evening service at Market Street at 6 p.m.

Saturday 17th December

The coffee morning will be on as usual from 10 a.m. until 12 noon. After this, we will be distributing carol service leaflets around Goldthorpe, so come along to help with that if you can. Then we will be going to the pantomime at Dearne Playhouse, leaving church at 1.30 p.m.

Sunday 18th December

Our morning service is at 10.30 a.m. and our carol service (‘Bright Morning Star’) will be at 6 p.m., with festive refreshments after the service.

Saturday 24th December

There will be no coffee morning on Christmas Eve.

Sunday 25th December

Come along to celebrate the birth of our Saviour for a short service starting at 10.30 a.m. There will be no evening service that day.

Coming in January…

Don’t forget the morning service on New Year’s Day at 10.30 a.m. and the New Year’s Day party at 4 p.m. Bring your friends and family for a fun-filled time of food and games!

December has arrived, and with it the prospect of new birth! As we prepare to celebrate a new arrival in our immediate family and to remember the arrival of our Saviour as a tiny, vulnerable baby, our thoughts are turned to all that is involved in new birth: the travail of labour, the hopes and fears of anticipation mingled with uncertainty, the joy that babies bring to their families. We’ve been cooing over a new baby at the Parent & Toddler group; there is a collective joy that comes with new birth.

In Luke 15, Jesus tells three parables that capture something of the rejoicing in heaven when something lost is found: ‘there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.’ (Luke 15:10, see also Luke 15:7, 31-32) Throughout December and beyond, we need to be praying for new birth to come in the spiritual realm, for people to be called out of darkness into God’s wonderful light (see 1 Pet 2:9) and for them to be born again (John 3:3).

Spiritual birth comes when the Holy Spirit convinces us of the truth of the gospel message, and Christmas is an ideal time to talk about spiritual things with our families, friends, colleagues and neighbours. Pray that we will be able to witness boldly and effectively to all, showing joy and hope because of Jesus. Christmas is about so much more than decorations, presents and cooking, and we have an incredible opportunity to let others know of the reason for the hope we have.

Pray for our outreaches during December (especially the Christmas Market and community carol service next Friday, 9th December, and our carol services at Cherry Tree Court on 11th December and at Market Street on 18th December). Pray for the invitations which will be posted through doors in Goldthorpe over the next few weeks and for the courage to invite people to services. We long for God to touch people’s hearts as they receive invitations and for the Holy Spirit to bring many people into contact with us.

Pray especially that people will hear the truth of the most amazing story in the world and that eyes will be opened and hearts softened to believe and receive Jesus Christ as Saviour. We long to see not only new birth in the natural realm, but new birth in the spiritual realm.

Today, we received the following email from Compassion concerning their work in India.

“Earlier in the year, the Indian government placed restrictions on Compassion which meant we were unable to send funds to our local partners in India. The majority of our projects continue to operate to some degree in India, but most have very little money left and some have had to suspend certain activities. We’ve been working closely with the Indian government and have complied with all requests, including re-registration and government approval of all our local partners. However despite our best efforts, the situation has not improved.

I’d like to ask you to pray urgently for this situation.

We’re praying regularly as an organisation and will have a day of prayer and fasting on 6 December. I’d like to invite you to join us in prayer as we continue to try every avenue open to us.

Please pray:

• For our local partners delivering the Compassion programme in India. That, despite having very few funds left, they are able to continue to deliver support and care for the children in their communities for as long as possible.

• For those in senior positions in the Indian government. That they will deliver a favourable outcome for Compassion which allows our work in India to continue.

• For politicians in the USA. On 6 December, the Foreign Affairs Committee of the US House of Representatives will hear testimony from Compassion International about the situation with the Indian government. Please pray for Compassion staff as they prepare for this, and that the US government will respond positively to these submissions and will advocate strongly on behalf of the children in our programme.

• Above all, pray for the children living in poverty in India. That their needs are prioritised by everyone involved in these negotiations, and that Compassion is allowed to serve them. We currently have approximately 130,000 children in our programmes in India.

We are now at a critical stage with our India programmes as this will determine the viability of continuing our work in India. Our hope and prayer is that we are able to continue to reach out to the poorest of the poor and enable children to gain access to food, education and all the tools they need to break free from the chains of poverty. But without the ongoing co-operation of the Indian government, this will not be possible.”

A prescription is a recommendation that is put forward authoritatively (we would be foolish to ignore a doctor’s prescription which gives us the medication we need to help us in our illnesses, for example.) In 1 Cor 16:13-14, Paul issues some pithy prescriptions, commands that are expressed quite tersely with a good deal of vigour: ‘Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong. Do everything in love.’

These imperatives or commands give us a snapshot of how we are to live. There’s a need for us to be watchful, attentive, on guard (see also Acts 20:30-31, Col 4:2, 1 Thess 5:6, Matt 24:42). Division and confusion often arise from within the church, so we have an obligation to be vigilant (Eph 5:14-20). The Corinthians seem to have been distressingly unstable in many aspects of faith; God doesn’t want us to be yo-yos, for Jesus does indeed, as the song says, give us stability! (see Col 2:6-7, Eph 3:16-17, 2 Thess 2:15) We are to grow up, to act like adults, not children (see 1 Cor 13:11), showing courage and strength in the face of adversity (see Josh 1:6-9, Eph 3:16, Ps 31:24). If we want to summarise this even further, Paul says, ‘Do everything in love.’ (1 Cor 16:14, see also Phil 2:1-4, Col 3:14, 1 Thess 1:3). Love is the one thing that should characterise us (see Jn 13:35).

God’s prescription for us, therefore, to live well is:

• Wake up & be attentive!
• Stand firm!
• Be strong! (made strong in Him… we don’t have to acquire our own strength, but can be strengthened with His!)
• Act in love!

A springboard is a strong, flexible board from which someone may jump in order to gain added impetus when performing a dive or a gymnastic movement. During the recent Olympic Games, we saw examples of divers and gymnasts using springboards to gain added height and momentum (e.g. in the vault, balance beam and uneven bars events in gymnastics, gymnasts use a springboard to start the event by springing onto the apparatus; in diving, the springboard enables divers to gain height so as to maximise their ability to turn and twist in the air before they hit the water.)

Our service for God can be motivated by all kinds of reasons: we may feel guilty that we have so much and others have less than us, so we try to compensate for this by giving our belongings or our time to help people; we may feel obliged to serve because we are people-pleasers who can’t say ‘no’ when someone asks us to do something. Service for God needs to be more than drudgery or duty, however. We need the springboard of God’s grace and love as our motivators.

Paul says that the household of Stephanas ‘devoted themselves to the service of God’s people.’ (1 Cor 16:15) He talks of Stephanas, Fortunatus and Achaicus refreshing his spirit. (1 Cor 16:18) How do we maintain agility and dexterity in our service for God? How do we get that added ‘oomph’, the additional height we need to keep on doing good?

Paul told the Galatians ‘Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.’ (Gal 6:7-10) Perseverance and stability are needed in service, for there is much that is monotonous, boring and unexciting about any kind of work, even the service of God’s people! What puts spring into our step and zeal into our service is our daily reliance on God’s grace and love. We serve out of gratitude for all God has done for us; we are compelled to serve because we have tasted and seen that the Lord is good, merciful, gracious and kind. May all our service have this springboard that lifts us higher and puts a smile on our faces.