At primary school, there is an often an opportunity for children to ‘show and tell’: to bring an item into school to show the class and to talk about what this item is and what it represents. It’s an ideal opportunity to find out what the child likes and to encourage speaking and listening skills.

Today’s song is a re-working of a classic: ‘Go Tell It.’ It urges us to spread the good news that Jesus Christ is born. Spreading that message was the job entrusted to the shepherds and the wise men and is now entrusted to us. Let’s go and tell!

‘Go tell it on the mountain

Over the hills and everywhere

Go tell it on the mountain

That Jesus Christ is born.

While shepherds kept their watching over silent flocks by night

Behold throughout the heavens there shone a holy light.

Well, the shepherds feared and trembled

When lo above the earth

Rang out the angel chorus

That hailed our Saviour’s birth.’ (‘Go Tell It’,  Aaron Shust)

Helping the community is part of our church’s title (Goldthorpe Pentecostal Community Church), for we believe that our role is to be with God in the community in which He has placed us.

Today, a number of us had the privilege of helping at the Salvation Army, wrapping presents for their Christmas appeal and preparing food parcels to go out to needy families:

Food and presents have been donated by people from the community: church members, local shops (such as Asda in Goldthorpe and Thurnscoe and One Stop in Thurnscoe), local residents and other organisations. Volunteers from local churches, local shops, Sure Start and health trainers as well as local residents all joined together to wrap Christmas presents for families and then assembled food parcels, comprising tinned food, fresh food, biscuits and sweet treats. Twenty-nine Christmas parcels were then distributed to residents in Goldthorpe, Thurnscoe and Bolton-on-Dearne whose needs had been identified by local agencies and churches.

Many thanks to all who have provided so generously and to all who worked so hard today, arriving at 9 a.m. and not leaving until 3 p.m. when the last parcels were delivered. Please continue to pray for the families who have received this help. Their needs will not be immediately solved by these parcels, though our prayer is that their hearts might be touched by the kindness shown to them and they might be able to celebrate Christmas more fully because of this help. Nonetheless, we need to continue to help throughout the year and offer practical and spiritual support to those who are struggling in so many ways. Please do keep praying and supporting this vital ministry!

Advent will soon be over and Christmas finally here!

We’re holding a service on Christmas Day, starting at 10.30 a.m. Come along to worship Christ the Lord before you tackle the turkey and brussel sprouts and Christmas pud!

Services on Sunday 28th December will be at 10.30 a.m. (Communion service) and 6 p.m., when we’ll be looking back over the year and considering how Christ is for the whole year, not just for Christmas…

Don’t forget the New Year’s Day party, which will be on Thursday 1st January at 4 p.m. Come along for great refreshments and wacky games… Bring your friends and family too and start the New Year as you mean to go on, with God’s family!

Don’t forget also that the next ‘Churches Together’ meeting will be on Saturday 17th January at 7 p.m. at Furlong Road Methodist Church, Bolton-on-Dearne. These meetings were a real highlight in 2014 and we are excited about how God will continue to work in and through every church in 2015.

Is 55:8 is a verse which needs constant highlighting: ‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways.’ 

Nowhere is this verse seen more plainly than in the Christmas story. The Jews eagerly anticipated the arrival of the Messiah, but did not expect – despite the prophecy in Micah 5:2 – that this would take place in such an insignificant place as a stable. The wise men knew the star heralded the arrival of a king, but they allowed reason to lead them to the most obvious place for a king to be born. So often, God seems to take delight in astounding us by working in ways that seem to us so insignificant and lowly. As today’s song reveals, ‘a throne in a manger, the cross in a cradle’ seems to be the way God loves to work.

‘No reputation, no stately bearing
No palace bed for royalty
But a star in the Heavens, a sign full of wonder
Announcing the coming of the King of kings

Rejoice, o world, your Saviour has come
Through the love of a virgin’s womb
Son of God, Son of man, born that we may have life
You were born that we may have life

A throne in a manger, the cross in a cradle
The hidden revealing this glorious plan
Of a Child who would suffer, a Child who would conquer
The sin of every woman, the sin of every man.’ (‘Born That We May Have Life’, Chris Tomlin)

What might we miss today of God’s workings if we only use our thoughts?

The Christmas play at church was probably the most unusual Nativity most of us have seen. As this blog post commented on 5th December, ‘Christmas is also an invasion. The kingdom of God striking at the heart of the kingdom of darkness with violent repercussions’, with the author (John Eldridge) also saying ‘I would pay good money to have a nativity scene with this included. Not only would it capture our imagination, I think, but it would also better prepare us to celebrate the holidays and to go on to live the story Christmas invites us into.’

Hopefully, ‘Cosmic Christmas’ did just that, for it looked at the Christmas story from the perspectives of both heaven and earth. The birth of Jesus was a truly momentous historical event, ushering in God’s plan of salvation to the visible arena of earth. It’s hardly surprising, then, that the devil did not want the Saviour to be born. As we heard in the song, ‘he knew that once the Light was born, his every hope was lost.’ (‘Spirit of the Age’, Michael Card) Rev 12:1-11 lifts the curtain on the hidden battle between the heavenly hosts and the devil (here personified as a dragon), reminding us that Christmas is a story played out on two levels: the natural and the supernatural; the visible and the invisible, just as the whole of life is actually played out on two levels.

What we see with our natural eyes is not the whole story. God’s plan of salvation was conceived even before the creation of the world (Rev 13:8), with a Saviour promised even as Adam and Eve committed that first sin which tainted the whole world. (Gen 3:15) The Massacre of the Innocents, a tragic but often ignored part of the Christmas story (Matt 2:13-18), reminds us that Satan tried his utmost to defeat Jesus at his birth and we live in an age where he continues to persecute the church and wreak havoc and destruction, but the truth is that God’s plans cannot be thwarted (see Acts 2:23-24).

Jesus reminded His disciples that though they would face much trouble in this world, He had overcome the world (John 16:33) and told them that He would never leave them or forsake them. (Matt 28:20, Hebrews 13:5) These promises allow us to see with unveiled eyes the hope to which God has called us and the ultimate victory He has gained. Because of this, we celebrate Christmas not simply because we like the idea of the Son of God becoming a baby but  because we know that that baby also came to be the Saviour of the world, something which is still relevant today as we receive Him by faith, for ‘where meek souls will receive Him, still the dear Christ enters in.’

Last night’s carol service started with carols and a birthday celebration:

It continued with a production called ‘Cosmic Christmas’, performed by the Sunday School and other church members. This used video clips and song as well as narration and action to tell the story of Christmas from the heavenly perspective as well as from the earthly perspective, looking at Revelation 12:1-11 as well as at more familiar gospel passages. It started with the war in heaven between the archangel Michael and his heavenly hosts and the dragon, another name for Satan, and showed how Satan has always tried to thwart God’s plans.

Some of the cast members after the show:

Stephen and Gemma also performed ‘A Hallelujah Christmas’  to conclude the service: