In the rest of the meeting, we heard testimonies from those attending about how God has worked in their lives. It was good to hear of how people came to faith, how God is providing jobs for people, how God is bringing people to the area and how God has helped people through very difficult personal circumstances. Thanks to Julie, Jimmy, Diane, Anthony and Sue for sharing their stories.

We also prayed for our community, thanking God for all He is doing here and for His promise of what He will do in the future, and worshipped God in song.

Afterwards, the conversations continued over cake and coffee!

Last night we hosted the latest ‘Churches Together’ meeting and it was wonderful to have people from a variety of local churches in attendance. In order to help us get to know each other, we played a game at the start:

The game focussed on finding letters to spell out words which were all contained in Psalm 133. Mark took this Scripture about unity to remind us that God says it is good and pleasant when brothers dwell together in unity. It is good for us and it is good for God! Jesus’s prayer in John 17:20-21 is for unity, for the unity of the Godhead is the pattern for our unity. Where there is unity, God commands His blessing; it is like the anointing oil of Aaron running down his beard and body (we need God’s anointing on the whole body of Christ) and like the dew, which is like God’s blessing and provision on us in power. The challenge is for us to work together as different churches, appreciating that unity does not mean uniformity and that there is room for diversity within our working together!

Tonight’s Bible study looked at 1 John 2:18 where John discusses both ‘the antichrist’ and ‘antichrists’. Clearly, the word can be split to describe anything or anyone which is anti-Christ: in other words, against Christ. We looked at different characteristics and attributes of Christ compared to the antichrist, who is clearly motivated and directed by the devil. Thus, Jesus is the Good Shepherd (John 10:1-15), compared to the foolish or worthless shepherd of Zechariah 11 who does not care for the sheep at all. Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life (John 14:6), whereas the antichrist is a liar like the devil (John 8:45). Jesus humbled himself and was obedient to death on a cross and as a result was exalted by His Father (Phil 2:8-9), but Satan exalted himself and was therefore cast down from heaven. (Is 14:12-15)

2 Thess 2:1-12 gives us further insight into the ‘man of lawlessness’ who will come and seek to lead people astray from worship of the true God. Jesus is the Son of God, but the antichrist is the ‘son of perdition’ (2 Thess 2:3 KJV). We need to be on our guard against the pervading anti-Christian attitude of the world and to live with constant anticipation of Christ’s return and with careful thought as to how this shapes and moulds our everyday behaviour.

Today there was a community event held at the Salvation Army where a number of local groups and council organisations met to show what is happening in the local area:

A lot is said about the lack of community spirit and the difficulties facing local communities, but it was gratifying to see how many local organisations, headed by volunteers from all areas, are involved in the region. The Goldthorpe Development Team and Big Local groups are working with local groups to discover how we can best work together to improve our area and events like this provide an opportunity to get to know people and work in our community. As we often say, we are a community church and we believe we work with God in the community and with God for the community. Let’s continue to be salt and light in that community.

If you have seven minutes to spare, I strongly recommend you watch this video from Rend Collective explaining the heart behind their new album ‘The Art of Celebration.’  It’s summed up in their comment “This record is an attempt to reflect something of the irrepressible laughter in the heart of God. It’s a call to the cynical to once again choose celebration over condemnation and a reminder to the broken that ‘the joy of the Lord is our strength’.”

Jesus said, ‘unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.’ (Matt 18:3) One of the aspects of little children is their capacity for celebration and joy. They jump and splash in puddles. They throw snowballs with glee. They wade through piles of leaves with uninhibited pleasure. They run everywhere. They skip. They dance. Joy comes naturally to them: they squeal with delight over simple things; they chortle with pleasure over bubbles being blown and towers being knocked over. Their joy is infectious and makes us feel good.

As we grow, alas, we lose that capacity for celebration in the ordinary. We are wounded by others and so we retreat, building forts as defences. We fail and feel shame and condemnation and so we hide away. Our relationships are damaged; our self-esteem is bruised. Sin ruins and destroys. It’s hard to be joyful and to celebrate in those circumstances.

But God remains the source of all joy and offers restoration, forgiveness, healing, freedom. Far from being the miserable killjoy some of us imagine Him to be, He is the author of celebration: of feasting and festivity, of dancing and delight, of unbridled pleasure and unlimited joy. John Piper talks of ‘Christian hedonism’ arguing that ‘the chief end of man is to glorify God by enjoying Him forever.’ C. S. Lewis makes a similar point when he writes ‘We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinitive joy is offered us… We are far too easily pleased.’ (‘The Weight of Glory’)

There is joy available in the God who is ‘immeasurably more than we can know, than we can pray.’ (‘Immeasurably More’, Rend Collective) He is more than our sin and our shame, and therefore ‘We will not bow to sin or to shame’ (‘More Than Conquerors’, Rend Collective) – for if we bow to these things, not only do we give them authority over us, we give them the worship which is due to God alone. We can rejoice because of the very character of God: ‘In my failures You won’t walk out… In the silence You won’t let go.’ (‘My Lighthouse’, Rend Collective) We have hope because ‘by grace somehow I stand where even angels fear to tread’ (‘Boldly I Approach,’ Rend Collective) and we can know we’re free from condemnation, having grace as an anchor that will hold us come trouble or high water (‘Finally Free,‘ Rend Collective.) God is the source of joy and commands us to rejoice (Phil 4:4), but He also gives us the power and the reason to do so! ‘You turned my wailing into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy.’ (Ps 30:11)

One of the most encouraging verses in the Bible is Phil 1:6 which says ‘being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.’ In our journey towards spiritual maturity, it behoves us to remember that we are all ‘works in progress’ and that God has not finished with us yet!

‘Create in me a clean, clean heart
Create in me a work of art
Create in me a miracle
Something real and something beautiful

Create a miracle in me

You’re not finished with me yet;
You’re not finished with me yet.
By Your power I can change, I can change,
‘Cause You’re not finished with me yet.

Make all things new.’ (‘Create In Me’, Rend Collective)