At Cherry Tree Court this morning, Stephen reminded us that things can remind us of Christian truths. Johnny Cash famously sang about a ‘deck of cards’ which reminded him of gospel truths. Today’s ‘reminder’, however, came in the shape of a packet of crisps…

To Stephen, the crisps are a symbol of people (all different sizes and shapes!), but his real message was about the blue packet of salt contained in these crisps. The small amount of salt flavours all the crisps in the packet, reminding us of:

1. God’s power (just as the salt changes the flavour of the crisps, so God’s power changes us dramatically)

2. God’s judgment (Gen 19:26 reminds us of Lot’s wife who was turned into a pillar of salt because she disobeyed His command and looked back. We need to obey God if we are to avoid His judgment)

3. God’s covenant (Num 18:19 reminds us that God made a covenant of salt with people. God’s permanent presence and provision is with us.)

4. God’s preservation (Matt 5:13 reminds us that we are the salt of the earth and are all important to God. Our actions and decisions make a difference to the world around us, keeping Christ at the forefront of our lives and of society.)

5. God’s guidance (Our conversation should be full of grace, seasoned with salt, Paul says in Col 4:6, and in this way we can give an answer to everyone, God guiding our responses and conversations.)

6. God’s peace (Mk 9:50 reminds us that being salty helps us to live at peace with each other, because Jesus is our peace.)

The only thing that is left for us to do is to taste and see that the Lord is good… or at the very least, to enjoy the crisps!

On Friday night, youth leaders from our church took some of the ‘Spiritual Warriors’ group to a youth event in Rotherham called ‘Pulse.‘

There, they were involved in games and activities:

… and one group even won a competition!

They listened to an inspirational talk about how you are never too young to make a difference for God and were encouraged to see what God is doing in other young people in the area and how their lives are valuable and important to God.

I receive messages from a mental health organisation called ‘Moodscope’, focussing on how to deal with differing moods and remain able to see the ‘bigger picture’ when times of depression or anxiety hit. Today’s message had the title ‘broken crayons still colour’ and looked at how easy it is when depressed or anxious to feel just a shadow of your self and therefore for feelings of uselessness and helplessness to increase. It is easy to become locked in a vicious circle: feeling low about yourself leads you to condemn yourself which leads you to focus on negative thoughts even more and so the cycle continues.

The fact remains, the writer commented, that broken crayons still colour. Even when we feel useless, a shadow of our real selves, we are still able to be used by God to love, encourage and help others. I have been meditating on 2 Cor 4: 6-7 lately: ‘For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,”made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ^. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.’

We have the treasure of God’s life within us, the treasure of His Spirit living and working within our earthly bodies. And God’s not finished with us yet! (see ‘Create In Me’ by Rend Collective) We may well be broken, but we can still run into God’s arms and know His joy is available to us. (‘Joy’, Rend Collective) We may well be a broken crayon, but we can still colour. We can still show God’s love, grace, mercy and forgiveness to a broken world. It’s when we are weak that He is strong. (2 Cor 12:9-10)

Garry continued looking at 1 Cor 2:1-5 in the Bible study tonight, this time looking at God’s power. Paul went to Corinth from Athens (see Acts 17:16-18:1), having used rhetoric and persuasive arguments to preach the gospel in Athens. However,  it seems that when in Corinth, he felt that this method was no longer as useful, since he came in weakness and trembling and with much fear and no longer relied on eloquence or superior (worldly) wisdom, but instead resolved to know nothing except Christ crucified. It is not wrong to debate with people or to use reason (in fact, in 1 Cor 9:19-23, Paul spoke of using different methods to reach different people), but the fact remains that people are not always going to be persuaded by reason (see Ex 7:8-13).  God’s power confirms His word, for it is easy to speak words (eg of forgiveness) but harder to demonstrate power (see Matt 9:1-8); nonetheless, we need to see God’s power at work through His Spirit.

We show the power of God by the way we live and the way we love, our lives being a testimony to God’s power. We must not seek the gifts of the Spirit more than we seek God, but we should not be afraid of God’s power, for it is His validation of the preaching of the gospel. Those in Athens listened to Paul until he spoke of the resurrection from the dead and then this became, as Paul has expounded in 1 Corinthians 1, a stumbling-block, for the way God works is beyond our understanding. God’s power and our vulnerability are not mutually exclusive, either. We need to understand that without God, we can do nothing; we need His power and grace if we are to see lives transformed as Paul did.

A trip to the seaside isn’t complete for many people without a visit to the amusement arcades:

… where keyrings were won!

Some went on boat trips (though we have no photos for that!) Others learnt new games:

Once learnt, they enjoyed teaching others!

Others enjoyed playing boules on the sand or going shopping or visiting coffee shops! All in all, an excellent day out with lovely weather. Thanks to Oakleaf for transporting us safely and to all who contributed to making this a very special day.

Today the weather kept fine and GPCC went to Bridlington!

People had a great time on the beach:

Some played in the sand…

Others were more energetic, playing touch rugby!

Then there was a game of rounders:

However, it wasn’t all frenetic activity. There was time for food too!

It was clearly an exhausting day, though!