Last night’s Big Church Night In was at Huddersfield Christian Fellowship and featured Phil Wickham and Rend Collective (pretty much a dream combination for me…!)

Phil Wickham is an American worship leader whose songs have had a massive influence on our family, some of which we sing regularly in church (‘Beautiful’, ‘At Your Name’.)  Earlier this year, he underwent surgery on his vocal cords and had to be completely silent for over a month, communicating through a variety of apps on his mobile phone and sign language! For anyone, that must be difficult; for someone whose living is through singing and whose calling is to lead worship, that must have been extremely testing. It was good to hear conclusively the success of the surgery and to share in the evening. He wrote ‘Been so blessed and blown away by church here in the UK. Such massive hearts for worship. Huddersfield, it was a joy to sing with you all! Thank you so much!‘ and all who were there were so blessed by him too. His songs included (if you click on highlighted ones, you can listen to the songs):

1. The Ascension
2. Heaven fall down
3. At Your Name
4. When My Heart Is Torn Asunder
5. chorus of ‘Amazing Grace’
6. Heaven Song (my personal favourite… so grateful I got to hear this live!)
7. Beautiful
8. This Is Amazing Grace

Rend Collective are a Northern Irish worship band whose catchy melodies, Scripture-soaked lyrics and amazing range of instruments somehow capture the essence of joy. Any concert they do leaves you hoarse from singing, exhausted from the sheer pace of worship and extremely blessed: we had confetti cannons (twice!), bubbles and joy orbs to add to the experience! Their songs included:

1. Joy
2. Burn Like A Star
3. You Are My Vision
4. Build Your Kingdom Here
5. My Lighthouse
6. Finally Free
7. Boldly I Approach (The Art of Celebration)
8. More Than Conquerors
9. Praise Like Fireworks

They ended with a harmonica rendition of Jingle Bells (their Christmas album ‘Campfire Christmas Volume 1’  was available to those attending on the night, and is officially released on 18th November) and with two final songs, Simplicity and the old classic ‘I Love You, Lord.’

It’s always good to worship with so many other Christians (meeting Chris Lee again, formerly from the Salvation Army in Goldthorpe and now working in Huddersfield itself and others we know from local churches) and to reflect on the ‘bigger picture’ of how God is working in other parts of the UK and the world. The evening also included an appeal on behalf of Compassion, a charity which works to support children in poor communities around the world. Worship is, as we were reminded, about much more than singing, and must include every aspect of our lives which should reflect our gratitude and thankfulness to God for all He has done for us.

Barnsley charity Action Space Mobile (which deals with creative arts in the community) is looking for volunteers to create a Goldthorpe village online newspaper. The charity has secured funding from Awards for All to hold a series of workshops to develop people’s skills in journalism, social media, digital photography, creative writing, factual writing and research. There are 24 free places for the registered unemployed (aged 19 and over) starting in January 2015 and the project will be launched on Monday 15th December this year.

This is a great opportunity to ‘work with a professional team of storytellers in using photography, film and creative writing to turn local events into world class stories’ and would be a useful addition to anyone’s CV.

The charity also needs a local resident to recruit these volunteers and there is some funding available to pay this person a small amount to help recruit others and attend the workshops in a supportive capacity. If you’re interested or know anyone who is outgoing, a good communicator and keen to be involved in local village life, please contact Kate Roberts at Goldthorpe’s Community Shop on Barnsley Road or ring Action Space Mobile on 01226 391112.

Pudsey Bear, champion of Children in Need, made an appearance via cake at the Parent & Toddler group at church this morning!

Our thanks to Bev for her baking and to all who support this group. The Parent & Toddler Christmas party will be on Friday 12th December from 9.30 until 11.00 a.m. and we are sure that will be an exciting end-of-term activity for all!

One of the benefits of doing a Bible study is the opportunity to look at familiar passages in other versions of the Bible. J. B. Phillips’ paraphrase of the New Testament looks at the idea of overcoming the world in this way: ‘God’s “heredity” within us will always conquer the world outside us. In fact, this faith of ours is the only way in which the world has been conquered. For who could ever be said to conquer the world, in the true sense, except the man who really believes that Jesus is God’s Son?’

Heredity is the passing of traits to offspring from its parents, through DNA. In the nucleus of each human cell, the DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) molecule is packaged into thread-like structures called chromosomes. Each chromosome is made up of DNA tightly coiled many times around proteins called histones that support its structure.

At conception, when the sperm cell joins with the egg cell, chromosomes from the mother and father are passed on to the child, with each sperm and egg cell containing 23 sets of chromosomes. When they join, they form a single cell called a zygote which has 46 chromosomes. Each parent contributes a full set of chromosomes, but the order in which these are contributed is random, meaning each child will be unique. Hereditary features include:

• eye colour
• colour blindness
• freckles
• whether you are left or right handed
• whether your earlobes are loose or attached to your face
• dimples
• cleft chin
• the ability to roll your tongue

When there are mutations to specific genes, genetic diseases occur (eg Down’s Syndrome, a developmental disorder caused by an extra copy of chromosome 21) or cystic fibrosis (caused by a defective gene on chromosome 7 called CFTR). Clearly, we owe much to our genes, and in the same way that we are, in many respects, the ‘product of our parents’, so too the new spiritual birth gives us access to God’s nature. (2 Pet 1:3-4) John Stott reminds us that “The new birth is a supernatural event which takes us out of the sphere of the world, where Satan rules, into the family of God.”  Eph 2:1-6 reminds us of what we were in the natural and how God’s mercy and love have given us access to God’s grace and mean that we are no longer slaves to sin (see Rom 6:4-14). We are new creations, transferred from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of life and residents now of a heavenly city! No wonder we can rejoice in our faith as the victory which not only overcomes the world but which has already conquered it, for Jesus has completed the work of salvation! (see Heb 10:12-14)

Tonight’s Bible study looked at 1 John 5:1-12. The chapter starts by looking at the connection between being born of God and love and reiterates John’s firm belief (which echoes Jesus’s words in John 14:15, 21 & John 15:10) that love is chiefly demonstrated through our obedience: in Mike Pilavachi’s words ‘our love is proved by our obedience.’  John Piper comments that ‘you can know whether you love someone by whether you let the commandments of God govern your relationship‘ and goes on to say ‘‘The love for God that can test the genuineness of our love for man is an experience of God in our relationships with people that not only causes us to submit to his commandments but also to do it freely rather than begrudgingly. When you have this experience of God—what Elizabeth Elliot calls the “glad surrender”—then you have assurance that your love toward the children of God is real and no mere self-deception.’

This belief that God’s commands are not burdensome (1 John 5:4) makes no sense to the natural mind, but to those who are born of God, there is delight in exchanging our heavy burdens for Jesus’s light yoke (see Matt 11:28-30). The Christian life makes extravagant claims: here, John tells us that our faith overcomes the world. So often, we feel that the world is squeezing us into its mould rather than our faith overcoming the world, but the Message version says ‘the conquering power that brings the world to its knees is our faith.’ It is not our victorious person, Plummer writes, but the victorious power in us which overcomes. Indeed, the amazing truth is that we are invited by God to participate in His divine nature (2 Pet 1:3-4) and it is because of our identification with Christ (in His death, burial, resurrection and exaltation as Gal 2:20, Rom 6:4, Eph 2:6 and Col 3:4 make clear) that we can have confidence in ultimate victory. Our authority is determined by our position in Christ. We don’t have to walk around defeated because Christ has made us victors.

John goes on to talk about the power of testimony. Christ’s baptism and death (‘water and blood’) testify to the Father’s redemptive heart and the Holy Spirit testifies to all that Jesus has said and done (see John 14:26, John 16:15.) The continuing presence of Jesus’ power in the Christian community is experienced by believers as they are

1. made alive (by the Spirit),
2. cleansed from their sins (represented by water)
3. and reconciled to God (by Jesus’ death on the cross).

These three things are “witnesses” because although the opponents can deny the apostolic eyewitness testimony regarding the importance of Jesus’s earthly life and ministry they cannot deny the present effects of Jesus’ actions in the lives of believers within the congregation. God’s testimony about Jesus (eg Matt 3:17 at His baptism or Matt 17:15 at His transfiguration) is that life is in Jesus (see John 5:26) and we have been given the enormous privilege of sharing in that life: life which is eternal (see John 3:16, 36 & John 20:30-31).

You can listen to the main talks from the Worship Central conference on their website. The main talks from Tim & Rachel Hughes, Louie Giglio and Mike Pilavachi are all available to listen to; simply click on the relevant picture and then on the ‘play’ button for some great teaching.