At this time of year, many of us are thinking about what gifts we can give to our family and friends to celebrate Christmas. I usually enjoy buying Christmas presents, but it can be difficult if someone doesn’t seem to particularly want anything or when finances don’t permit many things to be bought or if the gift someone really wants is just beyond us.

This time of year always prompts me to reflect on value. What makes an item of jewellery or clothing ‘worth’ a certain amount? Who decides what the latest ‘must-have’ item is and how much it should cost? Value seems to be in the eye of the beholder even more than beauty; what one person considers reasonable and proportionate seems extortionate to someone else!

I then inevitably move on to consider all the gifts which are (to me, at least) immensely valuable, but which money can never buy. These include health, happiness, peace, acceptance, harmony and contentment.

The older I get, the more I value contentment as the most precious gift. Contentment includes both happiness and satisfaction, and as such seems to me to be valuable beyond money.

So many of our problems in life seem to be bound up with dissatisfaction. We see this manifested in ingratitude on a daily basis; no matter what gift you give to some people, they are dismissive of it. There’s always a better item out there which would lead to that elusive happiness. Even the rich are not necessarily content. Dissatisfaction is a poisoned chalice, often filled with resentment and entitlement that sour our lives unpleasantly.

Contentment, on the other hand, oozes gratitude, thankfulness and peace, and as such seems to me to be a precious gift.

Contentment is seen in the little things in life: the well-fed baby nestled in its mother’s arms, sleeping without a care in the world. Contentment is seen in the child happily taking apart a cardboard box and playing with it for hours. Contentment is seen when we realise we are blessed by God, that His undeserved favour is ours and that He will meet all our needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus.

I wish I could wrap contentment in a shiny box, adorned with a sparkly bow, and give it to all those I care about as my Christmas present to them. But contentment is not mine to give, alas. I can only pray that God will open people’s hearts to receive this gift which He freely gives and enables all to see its value and embrace the satisfaction He provides, which money can’t buy.

Garry spoke this morning from Genesis 42:35-43:10 about the need to respond to truth correctly. Jacob, when confronted with the news that Simeon had been kept behind in Egypt and would only be released if Benjamin went there, refused to countenance that idea, effectively lamenting that he had been deprived of a second son (even though Simeon was still alive!) Reuben tried to persuade his father to let Benjamin go back and even put his two sons up as collateral for Benjamin, but Jacob refused point-blank. He was prepared to risk famine for all his family rather than take a risk.

Eventually, of course, Jacob came face-to-face with reality, as we all must at some point in our lives. The longer we avoid truth and reality, the bigger the crash can be when we face it. Truth can be unpleasant, painful and even devastating, but lies are worse. We cannot afford to ignore truth (or we will end up with eternal damnation; we have to accept God’s word as truth in order to be saved.)

If we build on anything but truth, we are building on a shaky foundation (Matt 7:26). Truth is reality. God is true. Jesus came ‘full of grace and truth’ (John 1:14); he was a man of integrity who taught the way of God in accordance with the truth. (Matt 22:16) He gives us the Spirit of truth (John 16:13) and we are told that God’s word is truth and that it has the power to sanctify us. (John 17:17) Ultimately, only the truth can set us free (John 8:32), because everything which is not true constrains and restricts us.

Truth is good for us, enabling us to grow (Eph 4:15).If we depart from the truth, we will end up departing from it (2 Tim 2:18).We must avoid distorting the truth (Acts 20:30-31) and refuse to suppress it. (Rom 1:18) Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, the winner of the 1970 Nobel Prize for literature, was exiled because of his criticism of Stalin in 1945. He was not released until 1974 and from this long period of imprisonment urged people to ‘live not by lies.’ Jordan Peterson, a Canadian psychologist whose book ‘12 Rules For Life’ includes the injunction to always tells the truth, says, ‘If you betray yourself, if you say untrue things, if you act out a lie, you weaken your character. If you have a weak character, then adversity will mow you down when it appears, as it will, inevitably. You will hide, but there will be no place left to hide. And then you will find yourself doing terrible things.’

In our country, there are many lies being propagated in our schools and in our society, and it will take courage to stand against these lies. God is willing to work with us as we face truth; He can redeem our mistakes and can restore in miraculous fashion, but He is demanding and insists that we face truth and repent of wrongdoing. Jacob tried to carry on regardless, but in the end, he had to let Benjamin go. Facing truth takes courage, but there is no peace without it. Once we have made the decision to live in and by truth, God will take us by the hand and walk with us. He will lead us into peace and joy, into abundant life. We avoid this at our peril. Short-term escapism does not work in the long-term.

This coming week is half-term and there’s lots to do locally that is free for all the family.

On Tuesday 25th October, the More Money In Your Pocket event is at Goldthorpe Parish Hall between 12 and 3 p.m., with lots of free activities:

– Pumpkin Carving

– Halloween Crafts

– Make your own Pizza

– Chocolate Apple decorating

FREE Slow Cookers*

FREE Room Temperature thermometers*

FREE Energy saving lightbulbs*

FREE Data Sim Cards*

FREE Vegetables with slow cooker recipe cards*

FREE Feminine Hygiene Products*

FREE Winter Warmth items*

We very much believe in being a part of our local community and joining in with local events where possible. The Snap Tin Community Hub is running a Scarecrow Trail between 29 and 31 October in Goldthorpe and Bolton-on-Dearne, and so we decided to make an angel scarecrow to represent light and God’s messengers bringing messages of hope wherever they go.

Never having made a scarecrow before, we were grateful for the volunteers and Stacey Turner who provided hay and materials for our parents and toddlers to join in this craft. Janet rose to the challenge as always and has produced a costume for our scarecrow. Our angel has a pumpkin head, a conker halo, googly eyes, wings from our Nativity box and fairy lights, as well as ribbons bringing the word of God to Goldthorpe. The angel will hang outside for the trail itself, but in the meantime, let’s be grateful for real angels who are ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation. (Heb 1:14)

Sewing our sparkly fabric from Walton’s

The body is taking shape.

Ribbons to proclaim the word of God:

Wings added, now working on the pumpkin head:

We’re getting there!

Fairy lights and tinsel attached

Heaven is a mystery to us on earth. We get glimpses of it throughout the Bible, but we can only ever have imperfect knowledge of this place where God dwells whilst we are limited by earthly thinking and understanding.

Often, we cannot understand how worship will be so central to eternity, and imagine cherubic-looking angels with harps on fluffy clouds which seem to bear little resemblance to life as we know it and which, frankly, put us off. Some of these images may have arisen from Revelation 5, where the four living creatures and twenty-four elders are said to have a harp and golden bowls of incense representing the prayers of God’s people. (Rev 5:8) Again, however, just because something may not be literally true (as in the case of metaphors) does not mean it is not real or true. We live in a world of cause-and-effect where people think they are the most important part of the world; the reality God describes is not this kind of world at all. Just as we cannot really imagine a world without time, so we cannot imagine how we will spend our time (eternity) in worship. We fear repetition on earth, finding that it leads to monotony and boredom, but this will surely not be the case in heaven!

I don’t have any easy answers to the question ‘What is heaven like?’ or ‘What will we do in heaven?’ I simply know that the Bible speaks of us being in God’s presence and worshipping Him out of hearts that are full of gratitude for who He is and what He has done. As the book of Revelation makes very plain, heaven is wonderful; the alternative, hell, is not. To be apart from God, to be judged by Him and inevitably found wanting, is not the cheerful alternative many would have us believe. Paul said, ‘now is the time of God’s favour, now is the day of salvation.’ (2 Cor 6:2) Heaven is for those who have been redeemed by Jesus Christ: ‘with your blood you purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation.’ (Rev 5:9) It’s not the automatic ‘destination’ for ‘good’ people; it is God’s free gift to those who believe on Jesus Christ.