Sunday 1st February will be our usual family service, starting at 6 p.m. This month’s theme (with a nod to Valentine’s Day later that month!) is ‘True Love… not just for fairytales.’ Come along to find out more!

On Monday 2nd February, a group of people from church will be attending the ‘Worship Central’ event at St Thomas Crookes church in Sheffield. If you want to know more, please see Garry or Julie on Sunday.

In February, we will be starting a new Bible study on 1 Corinthians. Come along on 12 and 26 February to find out more.

Later in February (Saturday 28th February) we will be holding an information and envisioning evening for church members. If you want to know more about what the church is doing and what we’d like to do in the future, please come along to that meeting which will start at 6 p.m.

The Women’s World Day of Prayer will be held on Friday 6th March at St Peter’s Church in Barnburgh. This year, the service has been written by Christian women from the Bahamas and is based on John 13. Further details will be available soon.

The prayer focus for February will look at children and young people in our area, especially praying for the outreaches run by the church to this age group. Pray for all who are involved in teaching children God’s Word, especially on Sundays. This is a tiring and time-consuming ministry which often is carried on behind-the-scenes, but it is vital that helpers are soaked in Biblical truths and can present these to children in fun and relevant ways… all of which requires their commitment, energy and enthusiasm. We are grateful to all who are involved in this work and who have a real commitment to teaching children the truths and joys of God’s Word.

The church also runs a youth club on Monday evenings for 5-11 year olds. Give thanks for the fact that we have new adult helpers at this who want to be involved in this work and for the many people who have served faithfully in this ministry for years. Pray for the children who attend, many of whom do not have any other association with church. Pray that there will be opportunities for Christians to share Jesus with these children and that the children will be drawn into church through this outreach.

Pray also for the Parent & Toddler group which meets on Friday mornings. Some of the Mums who attend also have children who come to the youth club. Pray for each of the families with whom we have contact, for friendships and the opportunity to share Jesus.

It’s not easy growing up in our present society. There are enormous pressures on children and young people: pressures to perform well academically, pressures to find appropriate training and jobs, pressures to ‘fit in’ with friends and conform to the world’s ideas about fashion, morality, media and so on. Family structures are not always stable and there can be issues with insecurity, image, self-esteem and worth. Pray for all who work in schools and for Christian witness in schools. Pray also that children and young people will be taught about God and will come to know God for themselves. Prov 22:6 reminds us ‘Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it.’ The Message version of this verse says ‘Point your kids in the right direction— when they’re old they won’t be lost.‘ Pray also for children of church members (whatever age they now are!) who do not follow Christ to find Him as the Way, the Truth and the Life and to pledge themselves to His way.

Stephen continued looking at the armour of God which is necessary for us in our prayer kitbag, focussing on the breastplate of righteousness. (Eph 6:14)

A breastplate aids our defensive position, covering the upper torso, protecting our bodies. Righteousness is a state of being acceptable to God which is possible through Jesus Christ. Rom 13:14 urges us to clothe ourselves with righteousness and Gal 3:27 reminds us that all who have been baptised into Christ have clothed themselves with Him. Christ is our defender, our defence, the One who intercedes for us (Heb 7:25), the one who needs to be in the centre of our lives. Is 59:1-17 reminds us that man’s righteousness will never be enough to bring salvation; God ‘put on righteousness as His breastplate and the helmet of salvation on His head’ in order to be able to work salvation for us. 1 Pet 2:24 reminds us that Christ died for us ‘so that we might die to sin and live for righteousness.’ When we are clothed in the righteousness of Christ, we have nothing to fear.

The imagery of armour may seem remote to us, but each one of us is called into God’s army and we need to ensure that the breastplate of righteousness is in place, with Christ having the central place in our lives. If He is not there, we are vulnerable and are not protected from the enemy’s attacks, but if He dwells within us, we are protected from every onslaught he may make.

What happens when we hear God’s voice? How does it change us and our community?

God’s voice is the real catalyst for change that we desperately need. In chemistry, a catalyst is a substance that causes or accelerates a chemical reaction without itself being affected. God is the real catalyst who precipitates events or changes. He is the One who whispers ideas to us, who gives us inspiration, who nudges us to do things which may not seem particularly earth-shattering in many ways but which gradually cause a shift in the way things are done.

Think of William and Catherine Booth serving tirelessly among the homeless in London, ultimately founding the Salvation Army because they heard God’s concern for the poor and needy in their personal times with God.

Think of Elizabeth Fry, driven by divine compassion into the hellhole of Newgate prison and the force behind prison reform, motivated by the love of God to make a difference to her society.

Think of William Wilberforce and others, labouring to see the slave trade abolished because they listened to God’s heart of freedom for all.

Or what about George Washington Carver who used to pray regularly to ‘Mr Creator.’ One night he walked out into the woods and prayed ‘Mr Creator, why did you make the universe?’ He listened and felt God answer ‘Little man, that question is too big for you. Try another!’ So the next night, he walked into the woods again and prayed ‘Mr Creator, why did you create people?’ Again, he felt the answer was ‘Little man, that question is too big for you. Try another!’ So on the third night, he asked ‘Mr Creator, why did you create the peanut?’ And he felt God say ‘Little man, that question is just your size. You listen and I will teach you.’ And apparently he went on to invent 300 ways to use the peanut, including 105 food recipes using peanuts and about 100 products made from peanuts that were useful for the house and farm, including cosmetics, dyes, paints, plastics, gasoline, and nitroglycerin.

We might never be famous like any of the above, but when we hear God’s voice speaking to us, we never know what that will do or where that will lead. The prophet Jeremiah said, ‘This is what the Lord says, he who made the earth, the Lord who formed it and established it—the Lord is his name: Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.’ (Jer 33:2-3) He gave this word whilst he was kept confined in the courtyard of the guard, effectively under house arrest. We might feel our circumstances aren’t good; our situations are not what we want them to be; we might feel we ourselves are not where we want to be or who we want to be… but nothing is a barrier to God speaking. Let’s call and listen for His voice and be prepared to hear great and unsearchable things we do not know, to be changed forever by the things that God will say.

If we want to hear God’s voice, we have to ask the question ‘what does God’s voice sound like?’ Dallas Willard, in his book ‘Hearing God’, says ‘Certain factors distinguish the voice of God, just as any human voice can be distinguished from another’ and says these factors involve the quality of the voice of God, the spirit of the voice of God and the content of the voice of God.

The Quality of God’s Voice

Stanley Jones says, ‘The inner voice of God does not argue, does not try to convince you. It just speaks and is self-authenticating.’ (‘A Song Of Ascents’, P 190) In the creation narrative in Genesis 1, we read ‘God said, “Let there be light” and there was light.’ (Gen 1:3) God speaks and creation happens. God speaks and things happen. God speaks and we cannot deny He has spoken. We are not always sure how we know this, but there is a weight, an impact, an authority to His voice which every other voice lacks. God speaks and something happens. Just as He created our entire universe through the power of His word and just as He sustains the universe through His powerful word (Hebrews 1:3), when He speaks to us, there is an authority which makes things happen.

The Spirit of God’s Voice

There are many voices in the world which seek to dominate our thinking. One of the chief characteristics of God’s voice is that it builds up and does not tear down. Other voices may be critical and belittle us, but God’s voice, even when it chastises us, does not leave us guilt-ridden or dejected. It’s like the ‘sting’ we get when we put an antiseptic cream on a wound; we gasp initially as the pain hits us, but then the cream does its work and we can feel the wound being healed. God’s voice will never leave us wounded beyond repair. It will always cleanse us, heal us, restore us and set us right again.

The Content of God’s Voice

Dallas Willard says ‘the content of a word that is truly from God will always conform to and be consistent with the truths about God’s nature and kingdom that are made clear in the Bible.’ (quoted in Richard Foster’s ‘Sanctuary of the Soul’ P 81-82) God does not change (Malachi 3:6) and so what He says to us will always be consistent with His revelation of Himself. We need to be soaked in Scripture so that we know as much of God’s character as we possibly can (see 1 John 4:1, Acts 17:11) False teachers, misguided enthusiasts, bigoted opinions abound and it’s very easy to be taken in by persuasive speech, powerful rhetoric and manipulative marketing, so it is imperative that we learn to recognise the content of God’s voice.

Prayer is a tw0-way conversation with God, but more often than not it is easier to focus on the ‘speaking’ part of prayer than on the ‘listening’ part. Since James tell us we should be ‘quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry’ (James 1:19), it’s important that we learn to listen to God’s voice. Jesus told us that He is the good Shepherd and we are His sheep (John 10:11, Psalm 100:3) and says ‘I know my sheep and my sheep know me— just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep.  I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.’ (John 10:14-16) If we want to know God’s guidance throughout 2015 and beyond, we need to learn to listen.

This is not always easy, for distractions abound. We need to practise the discipline of silence if we are to hear God speak and shun the distractions (see how Martha and Mary dealt with this in Luke 10:38-42). God may well roar like a lion (Amos 1:2, Amos 3:4, 8, Jer 25:30, see Chris Tomlin’s ‘The Roar‘) and thunder louder than mighty waters (Ps 29:3, Rev 1:15), but He also speaks in gentle whispers (1 Kings 19:12) and if we are to hear these whispers, we need to be still and know that He is God (Ps 46:10, see also Ps 131:2). We have to ‘crucify the spirit of distraction’ (Richard Foster, ‘Sanctuary of the Soul’ P 106)  and pursue prayer diligently and passionately (see Lam 3:26-31, The Message). Setting time aside and learning to quieten our impatient souls is the first step to listening to God.