Mark continued his series on Joseph this morning, looking at Gen 41:55-57 and then also looking at Gen 42:1-6. We left Joseph with a new name (Zaphenath-Paneah), a wife and two sons whose names (Manasseh & Ephraim) reflected the fact that he had not forgotten God, despite spending so many years as a slave or in prison. Now he is elevated to the position of second-in-command to Pharaoh and is in charge of food distribution during the seven years of famine. All who came to Pharaoh for help were directed to Joseph, showing the importance he held in the country. (Gen 41:55)

Joseph was in this position of responsibility because Pharaoh had seen the faithfulness of God in bringing about the fulfilment of the interpretation of his dream through Joseph. At times of crisis, people need to be able to turn to God’s people because they recognise God’s power and faithfulness through our lives. Our lives are fashioned in the furnace of adversity and testing. Joseph was by now at least forty years old. He had been waiting for the fulfilment of his dream for well over twenty years. We do not know if he was still hoping and praying for the dream to be fulfilled, but we know he was working faithfully in the place in which God had placed him and was still loyal to his God. It was a time of great famine, not only in Egypt but all over the world, but Joseph was able to help those in need because of his close walk with God.

At the beginning of Gen 42, the story shifts back to Joseph’s family. They too were affected by the famine, and so came to Egypt to look for grain. God was moving all the pieces of His plan into place. In Gen 42:6 we read one of the most poignant verses in this narrative: ‘So when Joseph’s brothers arrived, they bowed down to him with their faces to the ground.’ How Joseph must have remembered the dream (Gen 37:6-11) at this point. Truly nothing had been able to stop God’s plan or separate him from God’s love. (see Rom 8:35-39) We need to hold on to the dreams God has placed in our hearts, for when the time is right, God is able to bring all things to pass. He is Sovereign over all.

Last night we had a ‘Churches Together’ meeting at the Salvation Army. The theme looked at ‘Getting out of the Boat’, with Alison, Amy-Joy & Shaun being involved in a sketch illustrating Matt 14:27-32.

Peter as a fisherman was used to rough seas and bad weather, but it took courage and faith to step out of the boat to walk to Jesus. When he lost focus on Jesus and focussed on the waves, he was afraid and started to sink, but no matter how fierce the storms are, Jesus is with us. He challenges us to leave the comfort of our boats and get out onto the water, secure that He is with us and able to help us to do so much more in Goldthorpe than if we remain in our own safety zone.

The boat/ holiday theme was continued with activities: writing postcards to people offering messages of hope:

… and making boats to sail in our own mini-lake!

We also had testimonies of what God is doing in different churches, including updates about the food bank at the Salvation Army, where two food banks are run on Mondays, one for referrals (with food provided centrally) and one by the church itself (supported by other local churches.) It was exciting to hear that Bibles are being distributed along with food, spiritual hunger being met as well as physical hunger.

The next ‘Churches Together’ meeting will be held later this year, hopefully at the parish church. Watch this space for further details!

During our visit to Ireland, we visited the House of Waterford Crystal and enjoyed a factory tour learning about how crystal is made. The process is fascinating, time-consuming and involves furnaces functioning at 1300 degrees celsius! Moulds are carved by hand from beech and pear wood:

The moulds are used to shape crystal and the master blowers (who train for five years and have to go on to study even further if they are to be allowed to do all the other jobs in the factory) transform glowing balls of molten crystal into elegant shapes:

Blowing the glass:

There are six stages of production, which include taking the edges off the glass:

Then lines are drawn on the glass to show the engravers where to cut:

Engravers then cut along these marks:

Some of the finished pieces were stunning:

The whole process of making the crystal glasses, vases and other objects is time-consuming and done by hand. The use of furnaces is mentioned many times in the Bible: Proverbs 17:3 says ‘The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold, but the Lord tests the heart.’  God says His refining is done through the ‘furnace of affliction’ (Is 48:10); the furnace is sometimes used as a metaphor for hell (see Matt 13:42-50, for example). At Waterford, there are no ‘seconds’, for if a piece is failed at any of the six stages of inspection, the glass is simply broken and thrown back into the furnace to start again. Similarly, God is able to take all our ‘broken, shattered pieces’ and make of them something more beautiful than we could ever imagine. (‘Long Live the King’, Aaron Shust) The time and painstaking care which goes into every piece of Waterford crystal is nothing compared to the work God is doing in each one of us, creating unique testimonies to His grace and power which cannot be valued in earthly currencies at all. Let’s be grateful for the work of the Almighty in each one of us!

The next ‘Churches Together’ meeting will be held tonight (Saturday 19th July) at 7 p.m. at the Salvation Army church on Straight Lane. Come along for joint worship, prayer, fellowship and fun! It’s always good to realise that God is bigger than our individual church and that there can be many expressions of worship and different ways to learn. Meetings this year have been really interesting and useful and there is a real sense of God working through all of us who belong to His family in Goldthorpe and nearby villages. Come along if you can!

For those of a certain age, the TV programme ‘World In Action’ (a current affairs programme which ran on ITV from 1963 until 1998 and involved campaigning, investigative journalism which dealt with unveiling corruption and highlighting underhand dealings) represented our first experience of righting wrongs. Last night’s Bible study on 1 John 3:11-18 looked at John’s exhortation for us to demonstrate ‘love in action.’ In the previous section (1 John 3:4-10) he has looked at righteousness and right actions and in this section, he contrasts love and hatred, life and death.

The clearest example of how we are not to be is given in reference to Cain’s murder of his brother Abel. (Gen 4:2-16) He and Abel were from the same parents and the same family, but their lives had radically different outcomes. The difference between Cain’s offering and Abel’s offering was faith. (Heb 11:4). Cain rejected God’s Word and decided to worship in his own way. He was angry that his offering was not accepted. God warned him that sin was crouching at this door, but Cain refused to take heed of the warning. He listened to Satan’s voice and plotted to kill his brother. His envy had turned to anger and hatred. He did not repent, but decided to destroy Abel. Cain serves here as the negative example not to follow, for instead of loving his brother, he did the opposite – he brutally murdered his brother. In so doing, he reflected the devil’s nature, for the devil is a liar and murderer from the beginning. (John 8:44)

The command to love (referring back to John 13:34-35 and John 15:12) is age-old, but John links all love to God. Our love needs to reflect the sacrificial nature of Christ’s love (see John 10:11-18); we can only love in this way because He laid down His life for us. John Stott reminds us that ‘the essence of love is self-sacrifice which has been perfectly manifested in Christ.’  (Commentary on John’s Epistles, P 142) This may well need to include the giving of our own lives, but is also manifested in countless other acts of kindness, demonstrating practical love in a whole range of ways that go beyond words, loving ‘with actions and in truth.’ We need to show compassion and help people out of an awareness of God’s kindness and mercy to us, thus demonstrating that we have passed from death to life (see John 5:24). The proverb ‘actions speak louder than words’ might well have been written by John, for it summarises his challenging teaching in this passage – teaching that is not difficult to understand but which must be practically outworked in everyday situations for us to fulfil Christ’s command to love one another.

Cavity wall insulation has been fitted at church today:

Hopefully this will lead to reduced energy bills in the future! Many thanks to Dave for his efficiency and perseverance in getting this job done.