During a short break in Derbyshire recently, we set out on a walk during which we came across some ruins known as ‘Bateman’s House’, a pump house used as one of the last attempts to keep the mines drained and workable. Garry was keen to explore:

As always, he was keen to explore the countryside, looking at things from what were (to me) rather strange angles:

What these photographs teach me is that there are always more than one way of looking at things and that the angle of observation will inevitably vary from person to person. This reminds me also that our perspective matters a lot. Life is full of strange sights and how we choose to look at things will affect what we see. If we look down, we will see much less than if we look up! Let’s fix our eyes, hearts and minds on things above (Col 3:1-2) and see things from God’s angle!

This Saturday (28th February) we have the church’s Information & Envisioning Evening at 6 p.m. in the community room. This is an opportunity to look back on all God has been doing over the past year (with the opportunity to find out more about the different ministries of the church) and also to look ahead to some of the ways we feel God is leading us on in the future. Do come along if you are able and are interested in the work of God in our area and want to know how we can continue to be with God in the community, allowing Him to shine through us and use us to spread the knowledge of God’s glory to all around us. Paul reminded the Corinthians ‘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.’ (2 Cor 4:6)

If you can help with home baking for this, please do bring along a cake or buns as we’ll enjoy time together discussing ideas and vision for the future and such things usually go down better with a drink and something to eat! The meeting probably won’t be suitable for very young children, but please do try and attend if at all possible.

The family service is this Sunday (1st March) and we will be looking at ‘Lessons in Obedience’ in a quacking way… The family service starts at 6 p.m.

Friday 6th March sees the Women’s World Day of Prayer meeting at St Peter’s church in Barnburgh, starting at 6 p.m. The service has been written by Christian ladies from the Bahamas, so we are all encouraged to wear bright colours at this meeting (a contrast to the winter drabness and a reminder that spring is on its way!) There will be a collection of tinned food for the Goldthorpe Salvation Army at this meeting, so if you are able to attend, please do bring along some tinned food if possible. Let us know if you need transport to this event.

In March, we are also hosting a Christian bookstall again, so if you would like to buy any Easter cards or books or CDs, there will be a selection from the CLC bookshop in Sheffield available to buy on Sunday 8th March. This is a great opportunity to buy high-quality Christian literature and gifts, so don’t forget to bring your money on that day if you want to buy!

Easter is coming soon in the first weekend in April, so watch this space for further details about Easter services and activities to help us focus on the great work of salvation accomplished by Jesus through His death and resurrection.

Stephen continued his series on spiritual armour by looking at spiritual footwear (Eph 6:12-17). Nike may have the slogan ‘Just Do It’, but we too need to be sure to put on every item of armour mentioned in this passage if we are to stand firm for God.

Nowadays we have a great choice of footwear available to us (formal shoes, casual shoes, boots, trainers, flip-flops, to name but a few.) However, God’s footwear is specific and an essential part of our kit. The traditional Roman sandal gave ankle support and had nails on the base to help with marching long distances:

Our feet need to be equally prepared for speed and endurance. Unusually, however, in any discussion on war, our feet are fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. If we are in a war zone and facing conflict, how can peace stand in this place?

Paul makes it clear that our enemy is not flesh and blood (i.e. people), but the spiritual forces of evil aligned against God. Ps 29:11 reminds us that God gives both strength and peace to His people. Our weapons are not of this world and peace is a vital part of our armour. Matt 5:9 reminds us that we are blessed when we are peacemakers, for we can make a difference through our peacefulness. Eph 2:13-14 reminds us that Jesus is our peace, for He has destroyed the barrier that was between us and God and now  we can know peace with God (Rom 5:1) and with each other. Soldiers are usually urged to move forward aggressively and assertively, but our battle requires a unique spiritual armour, whereby we recognise that the God of peace is the one who will crush Satan under our feet (Rom 16:20) and that love and peace are the way that we will see hearts changed and lives transformed.

God’s footwear makes a difference to our lives. We just have to put it on and stand firm.

After a weekend spent looking at silk flowers for weddings and other preparations for weddings, it was quite ironic to find Dave’s sermon this morning was on the topic of ‘the man without wedding clothes’, looking at Matt 22:1-14! God’s word is given to us to warn, teach, encourage and train us in righteousness, but so often, we find we listen half-heartedly, not really applying His word to our own lives. Jesus told this parable towards the end of his life, once again addressing the Pharisees with their acute sense of self-confidence and self-righteousness and showing how we are entirely dependent on God’s mercy and favour.

Wedding banquets are celebrations, times of rejoicing. In order for us to have this kind of joy in our everyday lives, we need to clothe ourselves with the wedding clothes God provides. The king invited everyone, even those who would not normally expect to receive such an invitation, and provided clothing for all who were invited. God provides robes of righteousness and garments of salvation for us to wear, but the invitation in itself is not enough. We have to actually put these garments on and wear faith if we are to be received into the celebration!

In order to live with the kind of joy which characterises such celebrations, we need to apply Paul’s teaching from Phil 4:4-9. We have to rejoice in the Lord always because we know He is near to us, no matter how we feel. We have to let go of anxiety and fear, asking God for the help we need, being thankful for His presence with us and allowing the peace of God to shine in our lives. Next, we have to set our minds on all that is good, pure and wholesome, concentrating on all that is positive in God. Finally, Paul urged the Philippians to put into practice all they had seen in him. Having good role models is essential; we have to fill our lives with good things and follow good examples in order to experience the fullness of life and joy which God promises.

Last night’s prayer meeting looked at bringing people into the light of Christ through our prayers. Jesus is the Light of the world who has come into our world and the darkness has not overcome it. (John 1:5, John 8:12) As Matt Redman’s ‘Light of the World’ makes clear, we need Jesus to shine His light on us and to illuminate the darkness:

As we pray for people and situations which are beyond our ability to change, we need to bring them to the light of Christ and then be prepared to leave them there. Sometimes we ‘worry our prayers’, constantly begging God to move. Persistence in prayer is obviously a good thing, but there are times when this is simply a disguise for a lack of faith and trust.

Waiting is an essential, but disliked, part of prayer! In Luke 15, Jesus talks about things that are lost. In the parable of the lost sheep, the shepherd is pro-active, leaving the 99 sheep in the pen and searching for the one lost sheep. In the parable of the lost coin, the woman is pro-active, sweeping every corner of the room until she finds her lost coin. In the parable of the lost son, however, the father waits. He is looking for the son’s return; he is watching and waiting (and I’m quite sure he was praying!), but he is not active in the same way. Eugene Peterson says ‘something other than aggressive energy is required. Something no less energetic, yet passive – passive energy. There are situations in which our passivities take precedence over our activities.’ (‘The Word Made Flesh’, P 94)

Many of us do not like this waiting aspect of prayer. (If we are honest, most of us don’t like any form of waiting at all!) But ‘waiting provides the time and space for others to get in on salvation. Waiting calls a time-out, puts us on the sidelines for a while so that we don’t interfere with essential kingdom-of-God operations that we don’t even know are going on. Not-doing involves a means of detaching my ego, my still immature understanding of the way God works comprehensively but without forcing his way, without coercion.  The restraint of passivity allows for the quiet, mostly invisible complexities and intricacies that are characteristic of the Holy Spirit as he does his work in us, in the church and in the world for whom Christ died.’ (ibid. P 94-95)

Most of us believe that we need to do more for God. I’m not so sure that is the case. ‘The primary concern of the spiritual life isn’t what we do for God but what God does for us’, Eugene Peterson remarks in his commentary on David. (‘Leap Over A Wall’, P 99) He later goes on to say ‘‘Biblical not-doing is neither sloth nor stoicism: it’s a strategy. When David sat down before God, it was prayer. It was entering into the presence of God, becoming aware of God’s word, trading in his plans for God’s plans, letting his enthusiasm for being a King with the authority and strength to do something for God be replaced with the willingness to become a King who could represent truly the sovereignty of God, the high King.’ (ibid. P 163-164)

Perhaps the reason that the prayer meeting is attended by the lowest number of people in most churches is that we are not ready to sit down before God, bringing people into the Light, because we do not see that as active enough. We need a complete re-moulding of our understanding of activity and a whole-hearted trust in the efficacy of prayer. Only God can save, heal, restore, turn situations around. There are plenty of things we can do (love, serve, feed the poor, forgive, clean the toilets, make the teas and coffees), but we need to be prepared to allow God to do the things only He can do, without interfering, without nagging, without despairing. He will not forget. He is not slow as we understand slowness. He is gracious, loving and working His ways out all the time.

Many of us hold strange views on prayer. We are perhaps used to hearing ‘model prayers’ spoken in church, prayers full of eloquent language and lofty sentiments, and as a result of this, we may feel that our prayers are somehow inferior. We may feel we have to polish our language or refine our phraseology in order to be heard by God. Often, this results not in more prayer (based on the adage that ‘practice makes perfect‘) but less. No matter how much we pray, we feel inadequate.

Then we read the book of Psalms, the Biblical handbook on prayer, and we are taken by surprise. To be sure, there are prayers which are lofty and noble, full of dazzling imagery and equally wonderful simplicity. But interspersed with all these prayers are the ‘imprecatory psalms’ (Ps 5, 10, 17, 35, 58, 59, 69, 70, 79, 83, 109, 129, 137, 140) which seethe with anger and are full of prayers that rail against enemies, calling down curses from heaven.

When life is comfortable and easy, we feel disquiet at these psalms. What are they doing in the Bible?! The raw emotion, the passion, the fury, the outrage, the sheer violence of these prayers takes us by surprise. It’s difficult to imagine these prayers being intoned in the strange voice often heard in church services, that sing-song tone which renders all meaning squeezed out of words. These prayers are furious tirades, passionate pleas for justice, heartfelt cries from the depth of people’s beings.

But when we  find ourselves in such situations – facing injustice, people who plot against us, called to cope with atrocities that are beyond our comprehension – these prayers suddenly take on a whole new meaning. They ‘articulate our own disquiet when we are caught in the agony and emotional upheaval of life’s incongruities and injustices.’ (Bible Gateway commentary.) They help us to see that we can bring every emotion before God, holding nothing back. They show us the very personal and real nature of prayer: not something to be polished or practised, but the heart’s cry to a loving God. ‘These prayers awaken the conscience to the human cry for redress, the cosmic demand for moral order and justice. They can lead one to feel as deeply as one ought the horrendous insult to Yahweh and his creation perpetrated by those who lie and cheat and kill and abuse and blaspheme. Made callous by exposure to continual evil, one may lose the sense of outrage these evils deserve, whether done to us or to others or to God. These prayers awaken that outrage, which is to be offered to God and which motivates to redemptive action.’ (Bible Gateway commentary)

Jesus did indeed urge us to pray for our enemies, not against them. (Matt 5:44) Where we start in prayer is not usually, however, where we end up. We may start with anger, outrage, fury, bitterness and hatred. But as we pray, letting go of those emotions, releasing them to God, we are ‘led through the desire for vengeance to the prayer for blessing and redemption to which we are called.’ 

Trusting in God when nothing makes sense, when life is spinning out of control as far as we can see, when we are wounded and hurt is not easy. But we take heart from these psalms which teach us that prayer involves ‘raw honesty and detailed thoroughness.’ (Eugene Peterson’s introduction to the Psalms) Don’t wait for perfect situations to pray. Pray whatever the situation. (1 Thess 5:17)