Never-ending jobs
It has poured with rain today in Goldthorpe, and therefore painting the gates and railings has not been finished as planned. However, inside the church building, it feels like the ‘to do’ board, listing all the jobs remaining, is not diminishing much, no matter how hard we work!
Today, we have cleared the stage of all the decorating utensils and made room in one of the storage cupboards for everything:
The doors from the alcove have been re-hung and new signs put on one of them:
And in the meantime, tidying and cleaning continue. We are waiting for the new buffer machine to arrive to help clean the wooden floors and for display paper to arrive so that the new notice boards inside can be decorated. Other jobs include painting the alcove ceiling and finishing the outside painting as well as putting handles back on doors and fingerplates and kickplates on doors. These jobs may seem small compared to the amount of decorating tackled so far, but it’s surprising how long such things take!
A hymn I grew up with has the lyrics:
‘I have tried to count His blessings,
and I fail to understand
Why the Lord should so richly reward;
Could I count the stars of heaven,
add to them earth’s grains of sand,
Still His blessings are more, praise the Lord!
And the end is not yet, praise the Lord,
And the end is not yet, praise the Lord;
Blessings new He’s still bestowing,
And my cup is overflowing,
And the end is not yet, praise the Lord!’ (E. D. Elliott)
It feels like ‘the end is not yet‘ in terms of the work still to be done, and that’s not quite as good a thing as being unable to count God’s blessings! But we remain grateful for all the people who have willingly given up time, energy and money this summer to help with the practical work in the building and look forward to the day when all the work is completed (for now)!
Outside work
The doors have been stained and railings painted:
More decorating work
Further work has been done on the corridor, with all the glossing now completed and the pictures back in place! In addition, the main doors have been stained and the railings painted.
Week 4 and still going…
Work continues on the corridor, with second coats of emulsion going on the walls and doors and radiators being glossed.
The alcove area leading to the stage and children’s room received its first coat of emulsion:
Meanwhile, in the community room, the notice boards were still being measured and put up (no mean feat, considering how no wall is straight!)
Outside, the notice board was also cleaned, along with the windows:
All in all, another busy day!
Talking Point – Islam
Garry’s latest ‘Talking Point’ sermon looked at the subject of Islam. Headlines appear almost daily in the newspapers informing us of terrorist atrocities committed by radical Muslims, and it is undoubtedly true that violent jihad is a constant of Islamic history, the theology of which is given by some as a justification for terrorism. Many Muslims in the Middle East and Asia see Westerners as selfish, immoral and greedy, with America viewed as the ‘great Satan‘, and the radicalisation of British Muslims is of great concern to people at the moment. However, it would be naive to view terrorist organisations such as Al Qaeda, ISIS and Boko Haram as representative of all Muslims; one website refutes the tactics of ISIS, saying ‘as British Muslims, we utterly condemn ISIS who are abusing the name of Islam with their acts of terrorism. We call on fellow British Muslims to unite and denounce this evil group and their acts.’
For many years, the only way for Christians to reach Muslims with the gospel was through ‘tentmaking’ ministries in Middle Eastern, North African and Asian countries, using mail, radio and personal contact as evangelistic means. Now, with many Muslims in this country, the opportunities for witness are enormous and the headlines which rarely feature in newspapers tell of massive numbers of Muslims converting to Christ all around the world. David Garrison, whose book ‘A Wind In The House of Islam’ recounts tales of revival in the Muslim world over the past two decades, writes of a time of spiritual breakthrough, with centuries of drought in terms of Muslim communities turning to Christ coming to an end. Many Muslims testify that ‘we didn’t have salvation in Islam… but we have found assurance of salvation in the person of Jesus Christ.’ (see here for further details.) There are also many testimonies of Muslims coming to faith in Christ through miraculous visions and dreams.
Christians may fear Islam, and certainly many Christians in Islamic countries suffer persecution for their faith, especially those who have converted from Islam. 1 Pet 2:22-23 reminds us that suffering for Christ’s sake is part of the gospel call and we are called to love even those we may perceive as enemies (see Luke 6:26-29). Ultimately, we must love Muslims, for God loves them; we cannot impose our views on them, but must propose a radically different worldview which reflects Christ’s spirit of love. The spiritual breakthrough seen by so many is the result of much prayer (see ‘Pray30Days‘, for example) and God calls us to pray and intercede for people (for more information about this, see organisations such as Arab World Ministries and Open Doors.)
Rev 12:10-12 reminds us that we overcome through the word of our testimony and the blood of the Lamb. This may seem to be a time of great instability, uncertainty and suffering, but the devil knows his time is short and, in the words of Bill Brown, ‘the beautiful truth is that the history of the faith is filled with those who once spoke violently against Christ and then, overwhelmed by grace, embraced Him as Savior.’ (quoted in an article here.) We need not fear, but should be motivated to pray that Muslims embrace Christ as Saviour, for He alone is the Way, the Truth and the Life. (John 14:6)
The Best Treasure
At Cherry Tree Court this morning, Dave spoke from Matt 13:44-46, looking at two short parables describing the treasure that we find in God and in His kingdom. The farmer found something valuable by accident; the gemmologist something valuable through searching, but either way, finding Christ is the most wonderful thing which can happen to us. Nothing else compares to the treasure we find in Jesus. Paul reminds us (Phil 3:8) that everything else is to be counted loss; he is a model for us to copy because his entire focus was on the joy of knowing Jesus.
Finding treasure may be easy, but possessing it is costly. The gemmologist had to sell everything he had to get the pearl of great value; everything else was secondary compared to this jewel. We have to learn to distinguish between the excellent and the good, between the best and second best, for we must lose our lives and give up everything to follow Jesus. The price of salvation was paid by Jesus, but there is a cost to discipleship which must be counted. However, the joy of knowing Jesus makes this cost no hardship to us in comparison to the surpassing greatness of knowing Him as Lord.
If we want to develop this closeness and know the best treasure, we have to:
- rid our lives of competing distractions
- spend time alone with God in prayer and in reading the Word, for we cannot know someone without spending time with them
- confess our sins and make a clean break with sin.
How much we value our relationship with God will determine whether we find the best treasure or not.