The next ‘Churches Together’ meeting will be on Saturday 20th September at 7 p.m. at our building on Market Street. Do put this date in your diaries and aim to be there; these meetings are great for helping us to work with other churches and get to know other Christians in the area. We are also looking at holding a joint community carol service as we did in 2012, so watch this space for further news about that!

The Macmillan Coffee morning will be on Saturday 27th September. All proceeds from the coffee morning (from 10 a.m. until 12 noon) will go to the cancer charity.

Anyone who owns a house knows the adage that there’s always something to be done to keep the house in good repair.  Similarly, owning a church building is a great privilege, since the building facilitates the activities the people want to run, but it also brings with it responsibilities to keep the building in good repair. We had to replace the boilers heating the community rooms and have been waiting until summer to be able to remove the old boiler. That happened yesterday.

The boiler as it looked at the start:

Being dismantled:

The new boilers and the space where the old boiler used to be:

Dismantled outside, waiting to be removed:

Our thanks to Ray and his grandson who helped to remove the heavy parts. The next step now is to redecorate the children’s room in which the old boiler was housed and develop this room further. Then, of course, there are the community room radiators to replace and that room to redecorate. There’s always something to be done!

The holiday season is in full swing!

This has implications for the meetings at GPCC. Sunday meetings will continue as usual: morning meetings at 10.30 a.m. and evening meetings at 6 p.m. Don’t forget that on Sunday 10th August, the morning meeting will be at Cherry Tree Court, not at Market Street.

The coffee mornings on Saturdays will also continue as usual, starting at 10 a.m. and running till 12 noon.

There are, however, no midweek meetings on Thursdays throughout August and no youth club on Mondays or Parent & Toddler group on Fridays.

The prayer topic for August is to continue to pray for these church outreaches, whether meetings are being held or not. So please pray for the youth club and the Parent & Toddler group, particularly as a new academic year in September inevitably means changes to those who attend these groups. Pray that God will bring people to these and will give those who help the right words to speak His love and truth.

Pray for the coffee mornings and for the food bank ministry. Poverty continues, no matter what the time of year, and we (along with other local churches) need to continue to give consistently and regularly so that those in need can receive the help they need. Paul talked about practical ways of organising help in 1 Cor 16:2 and 2 Cor 9:7. Adding some extra tinned food or cereal to our own weekly shopping is a very practical way we can give to others and does not impoverish us. Let’s be quick to demonstrate love in practical ways, as our Bible studies have been reminding us.

Pray also for the outreach at Cherry Tree Court, that God will bless the services we hold there and speak to the residents there, encouraging those who already know Him and bringing others into a relationship with Him for the first time.

The Message version of 1 John 3:19-20 talks about ‘debilitating self-criticism,’ that nagging feeling many of us have that we are not fulfilling God’s commandments properly. Over-sensitive hearts can carry heavy loads of condemnation around with them which God never intended them to bear. Other people’s opinions (like Martha’s decisive view that Mary ought to be helping her in the kitchen!) influence us; the Accuser nags us incessantly (rather like the Roman delator, a paid informer who would gladly bring public accusations against people in return for payment!) False guilt can cripple us and stop us from living in the freedom Christ has purchased for us.

John’s advice in this letter gives us reassurance and a strategy for dealing with false guilt. Here’s my paraphrase of this passage (with reference back to other parts of this letter.) As one who regularly carries an unnecessary load of false guilt and pain, I find John’s advice utterly invaluable.

“You know, little ones, it’s not enough to just say we love people. We have to show people our love through our actions. We have to be truthful in love. That’s the way we practically show we belong to the truth, that we live in God’s reality and not our own. And it’s the way we shut our hearts up when they nag us, never satisfied with anything we do for God. Ever feel like that? Never satisfied? Never confident? Never at rest? Always condemned? There’s always something more you could have done, isn’t there?

But you know that kind of debilitating self-criticism isn’t from God. God’s open and straightforward with us. To be sure, He’ll tell us when we get it wrong: no sugar-coating it, no pussyfooting round issues. But this endless worrying, this introspection, this self-flagellation which never brings any relief… that’s not from God! If your heart condemns you, remember it’s not the most reliable of guides! Real sin is easy to deal with. I’ve already told you how to do that: confess it to God and the blood of Jesus will wash you white as snow, wash every sin stain away. Then you’re clean and free! This pseudo-sin is just another tactic of the Accuser. He’s like an informer, going round slandering you to all and sundry, but that’s only because he’s condemned. You’re no longer condemned. God’s already seen to that, wiping all condemnation from us through His Son!

God knows everything, remember, and has made provision for every sin you could possibly commit (past, present or future!) So instead of wallowing in sin or in feelings of guilt that are just millstones from the enemy, tied around your neck with the sole purpose of dragging you down with him, cheer up! God is greater than the Accuser, greater than your accusing heart, and He’s not accusing you.

Instead, you can come before God confidently, boldly, freely, with assurance, as a child does to its father, running up with eager anticipation, asking for what it needs, never doubting his goodness, arms open wide to receive his lavish gifts. When we’re living to please Him, that pleases His heart. And pleasing God is nowhere near as complicated as we make out at times. He just wants us to believe in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ – for that way, we’re confessing Jesus is God’s chosen One, the Saviour of the world – and to love each other, just like He told us. That’s it. Not exactly onerous, is it? As we do that, living obediently, He lives in us and we live in Him, snuggled together through inseparable love. How? By His Spirit, another of His lavish gifts. We really can’t lose!”

Last night’s Bible study (the last till September, as there are no midweek meetings during August) looked at 1 John 3:19-24. So far in this chapter, we have looked at

• God’s lavish love (1 John 3:1)
• who we are in God (‘children of God’ 1 John 3:1-2)
• doing what is right (‘The one who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous’ 1 John 3:7)
• developing the family likeness (‘God’s seed remains in them’ 1 John 3:9)
• practising love in action (1 John 3:11-18)

Now, John reminds us that when our actions match our beliefs, there are 3 benefits we receive:

1. Assurance (1 John 3:19-20)
2. Answered prayer (1 John 3:21-22)
3. Abiding (1 John 3:23-24)

Assurance

Loving with actions and in truth means we know that we belong to the truth. Truth can only characterise the behaviour of those whose very character originates in the truth, so that it is by our loving others ‘in truth’ that we know we belong to the truth. The outward actions reflect the inward reality of our relationship with God. Truth, of course, is a topic that is much debated nowadays, with the idea of absolute truth scorned by our humanistic society. Nonetheless, truth remains unchanged (see Is 45:19, John 14:6) and is found in God’s Word (John 17:17) and is a key topic in this letter (see also 1 John 1:8, 1 John 2:4, 20-21).

Sometimes our hearts condemn us and leave us fearful and doubting. If this arises from sin, John has already given us the strategy to deal with this. (1 John 1:8-9) We need to be able to distinguish between true and false guilt (2 Cor 7:10), for sometimes false guilty arises – either from our own hearts, from the condemnation of other people or from the lies of the enemy, who is the accuser of the brethren (Rev 12:10), the slanderer (the meaning of ‘devil’) who accuses us daily (see Job 1 & 2, Zech 3:1). At such times, we appeal to God’s omniscience and trust to His mercy.

Answered Prayer

Taken out of context, 1 John 3:22 may seem to promise us anything we want, but we need to understand that answered prayer results from our relationship to God; it is not something that can be demanded! Answered prayer is a great blessing from God, resulting from the confidence and boldness we have in approaching God as our loving Father (see Luke 11:1-11.) We don’t ‘earn’ the answers to prayer because of our love. However, our love means we are fulfilling God’s law (Rom 13:8-10) and so obeying Him and therefore He is able to answer these requests, for love is the fulfilment of the law. Answered prayer results from our abiding in Christ (John 15:7), from our relationship to God.

Abiding

Abiding in Christ (see John 15:1-4 and 1 John 2:27) is key to our spiritual growth. This results from our faith toward God and love toward men, which are two sides of the same coin. God’s requirements for us are to believe in His Son and to love others, something He enables us to do through the gift of His Spirit (see John 14:16).

Flotsam and jetsam are not everyday terms. Technically, they refer to specific kinds of shipwreck: flotsam (from a word originally meaning ‘to float’) is the floating wreckage of a ship or its cargo, whilst jetsam (from the word ‘jettison’, meaning to discard or throw away) is part of a ship, its equipment, or its cargo that is purposely cast overboard or jettisoned to lighten the load in time of distress and that sinks or is washed ashore. Lagan is another technical word (rarely used nowadays) which refers to cargo that is lying on the bottom of the ocean, sometimes marked by a buoy, which can be reclaimed.  These words, once used frequently in the 17th century, for example, are not used as much these days and the two words are usually found together, but clearly had different meanings originally, and even now there are differences, for jetsam becomes the property of the finder while flotsam continues to be owned by original owner and marine salvage rules apply to both.

I can’t remember where I first encountered these words, probably in some pirate novel or narrative about an adventure on the high seas. The similarity in sound between the ends of the words mean they go together well and a secondary meaning of ‘useless and discarded objects’, ‘odds and ends’ has been added over the years.

The idea of jettisoning cargo in times of distress is found in Jonah 1:5 and Acts 27:18. The principle of jettisoning cargo is obviously to lighten a ship’s load. and insurance companies reimburse the owner of the dumped cargo because his cargo was sacrificed to save the ship and the rest of their cargo; the captain has the right to act in this way because of the greater need of the ship. The whole principle of jettisoning rests on value judgments, however. What we choose to keep and what we choose to jettison matters. It was with great reluctance that the other sailors threw Jonah overboard (Jonah 1:7-15) because they recognised the value of a man’s life in comparison to inanimate objects.

Paul warns us against those who ‘made shipwreck of their faith’ (1 Tim 1:19) by not holding on to faith and a good conscience. Life is made up of choices every day. Many of these choices seem insignificant to us, but we have to learn to distinguish between things that are truly valuable and things that can be jettisoned without affecting our eternal souls. There is a ruthlessness required in the life of discipleship; we have to take up our cross daily and die to self; we have to count the cost, as Jesus warned us (Luke 14:28-33, see Rend Collective’s ‘The Cost’.) Sin is deceitful and often that which we prize so highly turns out to be not worth the effort of holding tightly in the long run.

The consequences of flotsam and jetsam in the natural world are obvious. Ocean debris accumulates at the centre of  ocean gyres and on coastlines. Flotsam and jetsam found in oceans include anthropogenic artefacts like fishing nets, balloons, plastic bags, wastes from cruise ships, oil rigs and so on. Biomagnification is the most profound and evident effect of marine debris.

Far more worrying, though, are the consequences of spiritual flotsam and jetsam, when God’s people discard the things that are really important to spiritual growth or hold on to things which are only temporal. 2 Cor 4:18 reminds us to fix our eyes not on what is seen, which is temporary, but on that which is unseen, since this is eternal. That requires a daily sifting of priorities and a careful listening to God’s still small voice which helps us to prioritise. As Matt Redman reminds us, ‘All that really matters is You.’