Dave spoke from Ezekiel 37:1-14 tonight,  a passage commonly known as the ‘Valley of Dry Bones.‘ Quite often, the church is seen as being insignificant and irrelevant, but this is not a new situation; in Ezekiel’s time, Israel was in exile, feeling forsaken and cut off from God and apparently insignificant. How we view situations is not necessarily how God views them, however.

For Ezekiel to see the valley of dry bones must have been distressing; as a priest, he was not allowed to touch the dead, and this valley was so full of bleached, brittle bones that it was obvious that bodies had been abandoned, something which would have been anathema to Jews for whom burial was really valued. Nowadays, we have become inured to the sight of mass bodies killed in war or disasters, but this vision must have underlined the hopelessness of Israel’s situation.

Nonetheless, God’s question ‘can these bones live?’ evoked an answer that implies Ezekiel recognises there is more to this vision than is apparent from natural sight. ‘Sovereign Lord, You alone know’, he says. God’s response must have seemed even stranger: why prophesy to bones which cannot hear? Nonetheless, he obeyed God and spoke to the bones. What he saw next was beyond imagination, but still he needed to prophesy further for breath – life – to enter these bones.

God speaks and breathes life into us (as at creation) and can do the same for the church today. He could act without us, but He wants us to be involved in His work. We may see dry bones (churches that have closed in recent years, lack of spiritual vitality and so on), but God sees more than we do and knows we can be a ‘mighty army.’ We have to speak out what God says, standing on His promises, prophesying as He commands us to, for God’s Word is living and able to bring even the dry bones to life. God moved as Ezekiel did as He was commanded; we need to rise up and believe and see the valley not as one of dry bones but as the valley of potential.

Stephen spoke from Isaiah 60:1-2 this morning at Cherry Tree Court. First of all, he showed us a picture of darkness (not very interesting to look at!), reminding us of what life was like before God created light. When we view earth from space, we can see the countries and continents outlined:

God holds the whole world in His hands, and, as the children’s song reminds us , we are urged to let ‘this little light of mine’ shine, since we are all here to shine for God. A night view of the earth shows us lights shining:

In the same way, we are urged to rise and shine, for our light has come and the glory of the Lord rises on us. Have we turned our lights on? We need to allow God’s light to shine through us so that He can work in our world as only He can. Rather than simply living mundane lives in darkness, our lives can be transformed by God’s glory, allowing us to be filled with vitality and enthusiasm (like effervescent drinks!) God’s vibrancy and life make all the difference to us.

Today’s morning service is at Cherry Tree Court, starting at 10.30 a.m. Come along to bless the residents of this housing scheme and to be part of our work in the community. Cherry Tree Court is situated just off the main road in Highgate (turn down the road marked ‘Saltersbrook.‘)

Don’t forget the church Information Evening on Saturday 28th February, starting at 6 p.m. This is a time for learning more about everything the church is involved in as well as looking ahead to the future, so it’s important that people come along and find out more! We’ll be having coffee and cake after the meeting, which probably won’t be suitable for small children.

The Women’s World Day of Prayer is coming up soon on Friday 6th March. This year, it will be held at St Peter’s Church in Barnburgh and is based on John 13:1-17, a service written by Christian women from the Bahamas. Further details will be available after the planning meeting tomorrow, but it is always good to support this interdenominational event and to participate in prayer for the whole world.

The Salvation Army food bank needs UHT milk and tinned vegetables in particular at the moment, so if you can help with these needs, please bring items to church and we will pass them on.

Culture has been defined as ‘the way we do things round here.’ It’s evident in our families, though we often don’t realise it until we meet other families and see that not everyone does things the way our family does! (This is one reason marriage is such a challenge, for it’s the clash of cultures as much as personalities which forces us to re-evaluate why we do the things we do.) It’s evident in our workplaces (though again, it often takes an outsider to notice the strange things that are done which seem perfectly normal to us until they’re pointed out to us.) It’s evident in our churches (where we ‘come round the Communion table’ even though we don’t normally move from our seats or where we ‘take an offering’, even though we actually give money voluntarily…!) It’s evident in our society, where we don’t have to explain shared values and beliefs, because we all know where they come from (though quite often, we may not…!)

Culture is not itself sinful; there’s no particular sin in dunking croissants into bowls of coffee (as they do in France) or eating raw fish (as they do in Japan), even though we may feel squeamish at the thought (neither of those things being part of British culture.) But ‘the way we do things round here‘ is not of itself a good enough reason to motivate our behaviour.

Beliefs mould behaviour. We need to explore the beliefs which lie behind all behaviour to ensure that we are not mindlessly influenced by our cultures. We are not to be squeezed into the world’s mould, but are to let God re-mould our minds. (Rom 12:2, J. B. Phillips) We don’t have to join in the office gossip just because that’s what everyone else does, because we know that God doesn’t want unwholesome talk to come out of our mouths. (Eph 4:29) We don’t have to avoid certain people because others do, because we know that God has no favourites and loves all people. (James 2:1-4) We don’t have to live with a partner before marriage, even though everyone else may seem to do that, because we know that our bodies are designed by God and for God and that He made us for purity and holiness. (1 Cor 6:13,18) We don’t have to defraud people, even though this is the norm in our workplace, because we know God values honesty and integrity. (Prov16:11)

Moulding culture is not easy. But I can remember when I first moved into this area asking about recycling sites and being told that ‘no one in your area cares about recycling.’ I felt puzzled, since clearly one person cared (why else was I asking?!) It took many years before there was any visible proof of this, but when BMBC sent out leaflets to all households in the area explaining about different recycling bins, I had to smile. Now everyone in the area had to care about recycling!

I don’t for one moment claim to have been the one who influenced the local Council to start recycling. But the saying ‘the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing’ remains true. As God challenges us from His Word, as we become aware of ‘the way we do things round here’ and find differences between that way and Jesus’ Way, let’s be unafraid to stand for Him and to allow His way of doing things to motivate and mould everything we do.

Last night a group of us from church went to the Worship Central #100Gatherings event in Sheffield:

The aim was to hold 100 different prayer & worship meetings in 100 different worldwide locations over 10 days, and Sheffield (hosted by St Thomas Crookes church, which runs the ‘Worship Central Academy’ in the north, an opportunity for people to spend a year learning about leading worship and serving the church) was one of the last venues to host this event.

It was a time of offering our songs and prayers to God, prayer for our local churches and leaders, and waiting on God. Tim Hughes (who heads the Worship Central team) reminded us through a video of the consecration of Solomon’s temple and how the tangible presence of God made all the difference to the Israelites. Jesus is our ‘magnificent obsession’ and must be at the centre of all we do; as we make our ‘one thing’ the worship and adoration of Jesus, then our world is changed by His presence and power.

The ‘official’ group photo, taken by Nick Law (Worship Leader at St Thomas Crookes), can be seen here. I’m sure you can spot some of us on that one!

For those of you who enjoy online worship and teaching, the final 2 sessions from Passion 2015 at Houston are still available (today only) to watch here.