In November, we will continue praying for God to give us the ‘yield’, the harvest of people coming to know salvation for the first time. The coming of Jesus to earth was so that He could save people from their sins (see Matt 1:21), and we are reminded that ‘salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.’ (Acts 4:19)

Let’s pray for:

1. our witness (both within church services and in our personal witness) to focus on Jesus, to lift Him high and to proclaim the salvation He along can bring
2. all the outreaches of the church, including the Monday night youth club, the Friday parent & toddler group, the Friday night badminton and Saturday coffee morning to yield Christ-centred conversations and the building of good relationships
3. all the preparations for Christmas outreaches, including the Christmas market (9th December) and carol services at Cherry Tree Court (11th December) and Market Street (18th December)
4. our own personal witness to family, friends, neighbours and colleagues, that we may have boldness and courage to speak God’s word

N. T. Wright reminds us ‘the work of salvation, in its full sense, is (1) about whole human beings, not merely souls; (2) about the present, not simply the future; and (3) about what God does through us, not merely what God does in and for us.’ Let’s be confident that God can use us and is working in our local area to bring people to know Him!

Jeremiah lived in a difficult period of history. Called by God to prophesy about judgment and the need for repentance, he witnessed Israel’s captivity, the conquest of God’s people by the ruthless Babylonian empire. Scorned by leaders in his own country who wanted an easy message of hope and carte-blanche to carry on with their idolatrous disobedience, Jeremiah clearly struggled. Traditionally, the book of Lamentations has been ascribed to his authorship, and this lament shows his grief and sorrow plainly. Anyone who believes that following God leads to an easy, trouble-free life will have difficulty maintaining this view after reading this book!

Jeremiah spoke of having seen affliction and walking in darkness (Lam 3:1-2, 6), of bitterness and hardship, including physical pain. (Lam 3:4-6) He knew the pain of unanswered prayer, of God’s silence (Lam 3:7-9). He knew all about crushed hopes (Lam 3:13-19). Yet at the same time that he knew the weight of crushed hope, he also knew how to keep on hoping. In the midst of his lament, we read ‘Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.‘ (Lam 3:22-23)

Jeremiah knew how to talk to himself. The words we say to ourselves, in the inner recesses of our hearts, words which are rarely, if ever, heard by anyone else, are crucial. Jeremiah’s ‘inner dialogue’ said, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.” (Lam 3:24) He reminded himself of God’s truth: ‘The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him,  to the one who seeks him;  it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.‘ (Lam 3:25-26) He was prepared to seek God alone, to wait in silence, to ponder God’s character, even when his own personal experiences did not seem to tally with that description. He reminded himself,  ‘For no one is cast off  by the Lord forever. Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love.  For he does not willingly bring affliction or grief to anyone.’ (Lam 3:31-33)

It is extremely difficult to keep perspective and hope in the midst of trials and tragedies. The only way we can do this is to remind ourselves of God’s truth, which does not change. It’s wonderful when we feel God’s presence, when we see His answers to prayer, when we experience His deliverance. But it’s perhaps even more wonderful when we lift our hands in praise or bow in humble adoration when life seems to make no sense to us at all and darkness surrounds us. God does not despise the sacrifices of a broken spirit and a broken and contrite heart. (Ps 51:17)

Don’t forget to put the clocks back an hour tonight or you’ll be very early for church tomorrow!

There are a number of different events happening in November apart from our usual meetings. Details are given below:

Thursday 3rd & 17th November

On these two Thursdays, there will be an opportunity to prepare with the community choir for the ‘Churches Together’ carol service on Friday 9th December. The choir practice will start at 6.30 p.m., immediately before the Bible study at 7.30 p.m.

Sunday 6th November

Meetings at the usual time of 10.30 a.m. and 6 p.m., with the family service looking at our identity as children of the King.

Thursday 10th & 24th November

Our prayer meetings will be at 7.30 p.m. Do come along to pray for revival, for our outreaches, and for the Christmas Market outreach. Pray for the youth club on Monday nights, the Parent & Toddler group on Friday mornings, the coffee mornings each Saturday morning, the badminton group on Friday evenings and all the community groups who use the building throughout the week. Corrie Ten Boom once asked if prayer is our steering wheel or our spare tyre. It’s so important to pray! – and praying together is as vital as praying individually.

Sunday 13th November

The morning meeting will be at Market Street at 10.30 a.m. (not Cherry Tree Court), and there will be a Christian bookstall at both morning and evening services – an opportunity to buy Christmas cards, calendars, CDs, books and gifts, Advent devotionals, children’s books and so on. Payment is needed on the day, with CLC donating 10% of all sales to the church.

Saturday 19th November

This will be the Big Local’s ‘Winter Wonderland and Christmas Market’ event at Thurnscoe Flower/ Memorial Park (just off High Street) from 12 noon until 6 p.m. A lovely opportunity to buy Christmas purchases and enjoy a community event, complete with skating rink and Santa’s grotto.

Sunday 20th November

This morning’s service will be at Cherry Tree Court at 10.30 a.m., with the evening service at 6 p.m. at Market Street.

Wednesday 23rd November

Preparation day for the Christmas Market! If you are free from 9 until 11 a.m., come along to prepare the 300 goody bags we will be giving out to families who come in to our building. A joint ‘Churches Together’ project, the goody bags will contain literature about Christmas for children and adults, sweets and glow sticks to light up the carol service as well as information about church services and community events. We pray God will really use these to speak truth into people’s hearts and to encourage people to consider the meaning of Christmas.

Sunday 27th November

Fredrick and Reeba will be with us all day, sharing about the work they are doing in India, helping us to prepare for the missions’ trip (April 2017) and enjoying fellowship with us. Come prepared to chat and maybe stay longer than usual!

Tim Hughes’ song ‘When the Tears Fall’ starts with the line ‘I’ve had questions without answers’, a sentiment most of us can identify with. The life of faith answers many questions, but leaves us still with many unanswered questions (and even perhaps creates some for us!) Habakkuk is just one of the prophets who brought his questions to God (and found some of the answers he did get even more baffling than his questions!) This short book ends with his unequivocal decision to praise God no matter what the circumstances; as Joyce Meyer writes, ‘we need to allow our difficulties to help us develop “hinds’ feet”. When we have hinds’ feet, we will not stand still in terror in the face of our problems. Instead, we will walk and make progress through our trouble, suffering, responsibility or whatever is trying to hold us back.’

‘I’ve had questions without answers.
I’ve known sorrow, I have known pain
But there’s one thing that I cling to:
You are faithful; Jesus, You’re true.
When hope is lost,
I call You Saviour.
When pain surrounds
I call You Healer.
When silence falls,
You’ll be the song within my heart.
In the lone hour of my sorrow
Through the darkest night of my soul
You surround me, You sustain me:
My defender for ever more.
When hope is lost,
I call You Saviour.
When pain surrounds,
I call You Healer.
When silence falls
You’ll be the song within my heart
And I will praise You
I will praise You
When the tears fall.’ (‘When The Tears Fall’, Tim Hughes)

Today’s meeting about ‘Dementia Friends’ offered information and support for those caring for people with dementia and gave useful information about the South Yorkshire Dementia Action Alliance’s Dementia Fire & Home Safety Project. People struggling with dementia but still living in their own homes often need help in ensuring their homes are safe. Gill Carr, Barnsley coordinator of this project, reminded us that we can all have free fire and home safety checks to try to reduce the risk of fire and associated consequences.

Those living with dementia are given priority in these checks, and as a result of this project, South Yorkshire Fire Rescue has seen the number of home fires they attended in South Yorkshire fall from 1008 in 2001-2002 to 649 in 2014-2015. For your free home safety check, phone Gill on 0771 400 2323 or email gillcarr.daa@icloud.com or call Fire & Rescue directly on 0114 253 2314.

The other information shared was about the ‘Herbert Protocol’, a police initiative which uses a form to collect historical information that can be used if a person with dementia goes missing. Information such as other places the person has lived in, favourite places, other names they have used (e.g. a maiden name) and an up-to-date photograph can all help the police to find the person quickly. All police officers carry mobile devices which can be used to transfer this information to every officer in the area and in neighbouring police forces. It can be extremely distressing to the person and to friends and family if a person living with dementia goes missing, and having this information available can help speed up the searching process.

Dementia Friends aims to increase awareness about dementia and change the way that our society thinks, talks and acts about dementia. Dementia is the umbrella term for a variety of brain diseases which manifest themselves in different ways, including forgetfulness, speech problems and difficulties with visual perception. For more information, visit the Dementia Friends website.

Anyone who has spent time worrying and fretting about hypothetical scenarios will know that the imagination is not always a blessing. There is a world of difference between imagining all that could go wrong in life and letting God’s story fill our minds, broaden our horizons and expand our vision. If we only dwell on our story, we run the risk of going into realms that may well trip us up, but if we allow God’s story to fill our minds, broaden our horizons and expand our vision, we will be able to explore God’s exciting plans for our futures. When we read the Bible, we need to imagine ourselves into the story. We’re not just reading facts; we’re invited to explore the story from the inside.

Think about the story of David and Goliath (1 Kings 17). Goliath is the Philistine giant who taunts the Israelites daily. He reduces them to quivering jelly; he makes them feel utterly inadequate; he bombards them with facts. He uses words to intimidate, to discourage, to dishearten – and the world uses words like this every day; sometimes, we use words like this every day. ‘I can’t do this. This problem is too big. Look at the size of Goliath. Look at my size.’ As Casting Crowns sing, “The giant’s calling out my name and he laughs at me, reminding me of all the times I’ve tried before and failed. The giant keeps on telling me time and time again ‘Boy, you’ll never win.’” (‘Voice of Truth’) The Scripture says, ‘On hearing the Philistine’s words, Saul and all the Israelites were dismayed and terrified.’ (1 Sam 17:11)

David, on the other hand, isn’t dismayed and terrified. He hears the same words, the same taunts, the same jeering as the others, but his response is totally different. ‘Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?’ he asks (1 Sam 17:26) David has spent his life as the youngest of eight sons, relegated to looking after the sheep, but whilst he’s been doing what appeared to be a very ordinary and mundane job, he has actually been letting God shape his imagination and fuel his faith. He has been meditating on creation; he has been ‘immersed in the largeness and immediacy of God.’ (Eugene Peterson, ‘Leap Over A Wall’, P 40) He’s been learning first-hand about God’s protection and provision; he’s been soaked in the reality and relevance of God, so that he says now, without any sense of boasting or arrogance, ‘The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.’ (1 Sam 17:37) David, who has been sitting through the watches of the night looking after sheep and writing poetry – poetry! how useless is that!!– is suddenly able to become the deliverer, the one who defeats Goliath with a sling and a stone, because his imagination has seen God’s victories and cannot conceive of Goliath as a giant when he knows the greatness and grandeur of God. That is what can happen when our imaginations are God-dominated, rather than Goliath-dominated.

Elisha once enraged the king of Aram so much that he sent his horses and chariots to Dothan in order to defeat him once and for all and stop him from bringing God’s word to the king of Israel. ‘When the servant of the man of God got up and went out early the next morning, an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city. “Oh no, my lord! What shall we do?” the servant asked.’ (2 Kings 6:15) Elisha’s response was: ‘Don’t be afraid. Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.’ (2 Kings 6:16) The servant could be forgiven for thinking his master had finally lost the plot. Those who function with a godly imagination and faith are often accused of being insane; as Terry Pratchett, fantasy author of the Discworld series said once, ‘Stories of imagination tend to upset those without one.’ But the story goes on: ‘And Elisha prayed, “Open his eyes, Lord, so that he may see.” Then the Lord opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.’ (2 Kings 6:17)

Elisha, through imagination and faith, could see far more than his servant. He knew more of the invisible reality of God and was therefore not intimidated by the king of Aram. We are only intimidated by the problems of the world when we have not let our imaginations be re-formed by God’s story. When we are secure in God, ‘it doesn’t matter what we see.’ (Aaron Shust, ‘Deliver Me’) That’s why Paul urges us to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. (Rom 12:2) When we have our minds renewed, we see things from God’s perspective rather than from our own and thereby become connected to the invisible world He inhabits.

Jonathan Swift said ‘Vision is the art of seeing things invisible.’ Let’s explore the wonderful world of the arts – stories, poems, paintings, sculptures, photography, music, crafts – and allow God to nourish our souls and fuel our imaginations so that we live in the ‘immeasurably more’ of God’s reality. There’s so much more to explore!