The next phase of refurbishing the children’s room happened today, with the old carpet (apparently fitted in March 1990) removed and new floor coverings put down.

The old carpet:

Back to bare floorboards:

Putting down underlay:

The new paint/ messy area:

The new carpet area:

Putting stuff back in the room:

Further tidying and cleaning will be done tomorrow and the new sink unit should be fitted on Saturday. Thanks once again to all who have helped!

Facts. Our lives are influenced by them. We absorb them from childhood, from the trivial facts that make up quiz shows to the historical facts which shape our world to the scientific facts which inform our thinking. They are there: solid, verifiable, reassuring, terrifying.

The word ‘fact’ comes from the Latin ‘factum’, which means ‘a thing done or performed’. The usual test for a statement of fact is verifiability, that is, whether it can be demonstrated to correspond to experience. Standard reference works are often used to check facts. Scientific  facts are verified by repeatable experiments. As people, we tend to like facts. They are solid, dependable, reliable (even when they are telling us things we’d rather not know…)

Facts rely on the visible and tell us part of a story. They tell us the easy part, actually: the things that have already happened. They are not, however, the whole story.

Facts tell us we have £x in our bank account. They do not tell us what God can do with £x compared to what we can do with it. Facts tell us things about what is happening in our bodies. They do not tell us how God can work miracles in our bodies. Facts tell us our achievement (or lack of it) in a certain test on a given date. They do not tell us what we can achieve later on if we persevere or how God can help us. Facts are usually extremely persuasive because they are true and we like to think we live by the truth, but they cannot be allowed to determine our response to God.

Eugene Peterson, when talking about the excuses we often give God when called and challenged by Him, says ‘the excuses we make are plausible, often they are statements of fact, but they are excuses all the same and are disallowed by our Lord.’ (‘Run With the Horses’, P 51) Just because something is a statement of fact does not, ironically, make it true as far as God is concerned.

When Moses sent the twelve spies into the Promised Land, he received differing reports. The facts of the report were indisputable: a land flowing with milk and honey, inhabited by powerful people, with fortified cities. (Numbers 13:28) However, the difference between the ten spies who were afraid and whose report sowed fear into people’s hearts and the two spies who urged action because of God’s presence was how faith informed the facts. Hebrews 4:2 tells us ‘we also have had the good news proclaimed to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because they did not share the faith of those who obeyed.‘ Some versions say ‘those who heard the message did not combine it with faith.’ Faith is the key element in interpreting facts. The ten spies who were fearful saw only the giants and their interpretation focussed on their inadequacy: ‘we seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes and we looked the same to them.’ (Num 13:32-33) Caleb, on the other hand, acknowledged God’s help could make all the difference. (Num 13:31) Who of us remembers the names of the ten spies? Shammua, Shaphat, Igal, Palti, Gaddiel, Gaddi, Ammiel, Sethur, Nahbi and Geuel are now forgotten, though they were all leaders of their tribes. They never entered the Promised Land. Caleb and Joshua, on the other hand, are heroes of faith who went in and possessed the land.

If we want to please God, we have to live by faith. (Heb 11:6) The truth of facts is not enough for us to live by. Instead, ‘it doesn’t matter what I see.’ (Aaron Shust, ‘Deliver Me’) We have to listen to what God says and obey Him. All His promises are true. What He has promised, He is faithful to fulfil. We need to hear the message and combine it with faith so that we do not miss out on all God has for us.

Mark asked the question on Sunday ‘Why did God choose Joseph?’ All of us have probably asked a similar question at some stage in our lives, usually substituting our own name for Joseph’s. Why did God choose us? Sometimes we ask in astonishment, feeling incredibly privileged to know that we are hand-picked by God. At other times, we ask almost with bewildered resentment, rather like Frodo in The Fellowship of the Ring: “‘I am not made for perilous quests,’ cried Frodo. ‘I wish I had never seen the Ring!Why did it come to this? Why was I chosen?'” (J.R.R. Tolkien)

Tolkien goes on to suggest that the question ‘Why was I chosen?’ can never be adequately answered. Gandalf, to whom the question is asked, says ‘You may be sure that it was not for any merit that others do not possess, not for power or wisdom at any rate.’ Being chosen can cause differing reactions, but often, it can elicit pride in us. We are chosen… special… hand-picked. Our arrogance can then rise up and assume that being chosen makes us superior and better. Moses warns against this tendency in Deut 6:10-12, reminding the Israelites that the gifts of the Promised Land were just that: gifts. They were given cities they had not built, wells they had not dug, vineyards and olive groves they had not planted simply because of God’s abundant grace. They were reminded that ‘the Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were numerous than other people… But it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath he swore to your forefathers that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery.’ (Deut 7:7-8) He went on to remind the people ‘it is not because of your righteousness or your integrity that you are going in to take possession of their land.’ (Deut 9:5) There is no place for smug superiority or arrogance when dealing with mercy and grace. We don’t get grace because we are good enough. We get grace because God is good enough.

The second reaction to being chosen is more like Frodo’s. We feel inadequate to the task. Jeremiah experienced this reaction when called by God to be a prophet. “Alas, Sovereign Lord,” I said, “I do not know how to speak; I am too young.” (Jer 1:6) We gulp at the task God lays out before us, at the dreams He drops into our hearts. Such things are too much for us to take in. Far from filling us with delight, being chosen fills us with trepidation. The responsibilities are too great. We know the weaknesses of our hearts, the frailties of our wills and the inconstancy of our lives too well.

Pleading inadequacy is not a good enough excuse to ignore God’s calling, however. Gandalf goes on to say ‘But you have been chosen and you must therefore use such strength and heart and wits as you have.’ Eph 1:4 says ‘he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.‘ That calling seems way too much for us, and in our own strength, it is. But inadequacy will not be an adequate excuse before God, because we are not required to live in our own strength or adequacy; we are chosen and called to live by faith and not by sight. We cannot answer the question ‘Why did God choose me?’; we cannot respond either with self-sufficient satisfaction or self-abnegating humiliation. We can only respond with faith: ‘Let it be to me as You have said.’ (Luke 1:38)

Dave spoke  from Isaiah 6:1-8 tonight, looking at the holiness of God. Divine holiness is one of the attributes of God. He is separate, different, transcendent, worthy of reverence and awe. Often, we associate holiness with the God of the Old Testament and can emphasise love more, but the two different aspects of God’s nature cannot be separated. Hebrews 12:28-29 reminds us that we need to worship God with reverence and awe for He is a consuming fire. Just as  Moses was commanded to take off his shoes when he met with God at the burning bush for that was holy ground, so we need to understand the moral purity of our God and approach with reverence and awe.

Isaiah witnessed God’s dazzling holiness and saw the angels singing of this holiness. Angels are not the ‘cute’ beings portrayed in shops; they are massively terrifying beings, sent out as God’s messengers. When the angels sang, the temple shook! Isaiah’s vision saw God seated on His throne. He is never at His wits’ end but is always reigning in majesty. A vision of God puts our lives into perspective, and Isaiah became aware of his own sinfulness and how he could not stand within the holiness of God’s presence. Isaiah’s anguished cries were met at once with the seraph bringing a live coal to touch his lips. God Himself provides for our sinfulness. Is 57:15 reminds us that though God is high and lofty, He dwells with those who are contrite and lowly in spirit. He has made a way for us to enter into His presence (something only the High Priest could do once a year in the Old Testament), for His holiness and love meet in Christ, with the cross being both the emblem of holiness (since God’s absolute purity cannot abide in the presence of sin) and the emblem of love (since this was the means God chose to reconcile us to Himself.) The cross is payment for our sin, but is also the beginning of a new way of life for us, in which we too are called to be holy because God is holy. (1 Pet 1:15-16) We cover ourselves in faith and humility as Moses hid in the cleft of the rock as the presence of the Lord passed by.

God is not safe, but He is good. His holiness demands a response of holiness in return, but His love makes it possible for us to be clothed in His righteousness. Love so amazing, so divine demands our soul, our life, our all. Let’s strive to understand both the holiness and love of God and worship Him as the angels do, in never-ceasing praise.

As part of the ongoing refurbishment of the building, we are looking at replacing the stage curtains (which were installed when the church was opened in 1960!) with a concertina partition which can separate this part of the building from the community hall. In preparation for this work, a timber framework had to be added to the stage area this week:

The holiday period will soon be over and midweek meetings will be resuming in September.

On alternate Thursdays, prayer meetings will be held on 4th and 18th September, starting at 7:30 p.m. The format for these will be slightly different, in that we will be involved in prayer walks throughout Goldthorpe, but we will also still have a prayer meeting in the church building for those who are unable to walk far. Whether we pray inside or outside the building is not as important as the fact that we are praying, so please do make an effort to come along to these important meetings. Prayer is so essential for everything we do as a church and this month, we will be praying in particular for Goldthorpe. We will be praying for God to stir people’s hearts, awakening a spiritual hunger and thirst in them and helping them to realise their need of salvation, showing them that God can change lives and give hope to even the hopeless. We will be praying for the churches in Goldthorpe to be transformed by God’s Spirit and to equip Christians to live godly lives. We will be praying for local businesses and residents to know God’s blessing in every area of their lives and for God’s people to be like lighthouses, shining God’s light into the darkness. Come along and pray!

On the other Thursdays, we will be continuing our Bible studies (we’ll be studying from 1 John 4) on 11th and 25th September, again starting at 7:30 p.m. Come along to dig deeper into God’s Word and find out more of what God has done for us and how He has given us all we need to live godly lives. In this chapter, we read the amazing words ‘You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.’ (1 John 4:4) Use these opportunities to share in deepening your understanding of the Bible.

The youth club will re-start on Monday 8th September and the Parent & Toddler group will re-start on Friday 5th September. Please pray for these outreach ministries and support them if you can. Coffee mornings on Saturday mornings and badminton on Friday evenings will continue as usual. Don’t forget the Macmillan Coffee Morning on Saturday 27th September.

Finally, a couple of special notices. In preparation for ministries re-starting and because the children’s room development is continuing, anyone who is free to help with cleaning and tidying on Wednesday 3rd September from 7 p.m. will be most welcome!

Lastly, the ‘Churches Together’ meeting will be on Saturday 20th September at 7 p.m. at our church, so put that date in your diaries now!