Last night at the Worship Central UK Tour in Sheffield, we had the privilege in joining with other Christians from local churches to worship God and to learn about gratitude.

Worship Central released a live album ‘Let It Be Known’ last week and many of the songs sung were from that. The set list is given below:

* 10,000 Reasons
* Hallelujah
* Guardian
* God Most High
* Happy Day
* Let It Be Known
* Ready for You
* Breathe on me
* You are holy
* The Same Power

Tim Hughes & Al Gordon introducing the evening:

Al Gordon spoke from Luke 7:35-50 on the woman who anointed Jesus with the costly perfume. He spoke about the importance of gratitude, quoting G. K. Chesterton: “When it comes to life the critical thing is whether you take things for granted or take them with gratitude.” The benefits of gratitude are physical, emotional and spiritual.

1) Gratitude shapes the heart.
Al spoke about how he had proposed to his wife in Paris and been so utterly grateful when she actually accepted the proposal of marriage! When we realise all God has done for us, our hearts are filled with gratitude, as happened in Luke 7. ‘Gratitude is the memory of the heart’, a French proverb says and Jesus has delivered us from all the rubbish in our lives. Simon the Pharisee was outwardly religious but was missing what God was doing, whereas the woman, though outwardly sinful, grasped all that Jesus could do for her. God wants to shape our hearts and this process starts with two simple words: ‘thank you’.

2) Gratitude shapes the house
The Pharisee did not welcome Jesus into his house, but the woman did all that a host was supposed to do. We need church to be more than a ‘house of politeness’, where things are done properly. It needs to be a house of praise: praise which will always be extravagant, embarrassing and costly. God is drawn to gratitude like a magnet! Jesus turned to the woman and faced her: if we want God’s face to shine us, we need to have gratitude and express this.

3) Gratitude shapes history
Thankfulness leads to fruitfulness; Jesus told the woman ‘Your faith has saved you; go in peace.’ The woman was changed by Jesus. History belongs to those who hunger for God and who are changed by Him. We carry with us the fragrance of Christ (2 Cor 2:15) and enter His presence with the password ‘Thank You’. Others then see and are drawn to the presence of God within us.

The evening concluded with prayer and praise, singing:
* Dry Bones
* Spirit, Break Out
* The Cross Stands
* For Your Glory (We Will Dance)
* Dance
* Let It Be Known
fun video of ‘Let It Be Known’

Just to let people know that there will be a prayer meeting this Thursday (21st March) as well as next Thursday (28th March). This is largely due to a number of people being away this Thursday – and as we approach the end of the book of James, no one wants to miss the final instalments!

Some of us will be away this Thursday because we are at a worship/music training event in Sheffield, led by Worship Central, an organisation headed by Tim Hughes among others which seeks to ‘encounter God, equip the worshipper and empower the church.’ We have a lot of respect for the people involved in this and are keen to learn more so that we are, indeed, better equipped to serve God in leading worship here in Goldthorpe, so please do pray for us. More details can be found here.

Much to the surprise of the visitors from the Salvation Army and Great Houghton Methodist Church last night, we had two birthdays to celebrate in our own unique Goldthorpe style! (Garry called it ‘ritual humiliation’, but I steadfastly refuse to believe that is what we are doing: celebration and singing couldn’t possibly be termed that, could they?!) Apologies for the quality of the photos below; obviously my camera wasn’t functioning well!

Last night was a special service when Adrian Lee from the Salvation Army and members of that church and the Methodist Church in Great Houghton joined with us to celebrate all that God is doing in Goldthorpe through the food bank.

Adrian showed us a video about homelessness and the benefits reaching out to people with food and kindness can have.

Alison from the Salvation Army spoke about the effects the food bank is having on families in Goldthorpe: how it is helping people to cope with the difficult economic climate and how this is a bridge to people, showing them that there is a Saviour who cares and changing their attitudes:

Adrian spoke about how there is a spiritual hunger within people (as seen by the ‘Mind, Body, Spirit’ seminars and stalls held in local places such as Elsecar) and how there is a need for the church to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ to those who need to know the reality of the Good Shepherd. So many people still do not yet know Jesus and can be deceived by alternatives which sound plausible but which cannot offer real life and hope. There is only one way to the Father. We have the privilege of pointing people to the Lord through the practical things we do. We shouldn’t simply be sitting in church doing nothing, but need to be seeking those who are lost, even as Jesus did. Jesus gives us eternal life and offers us guidance and hope for life. Let’s be obedient to Him and reach out to those around us in need.

Stephen spoke this morning from Colossians 4:2-6, a sermon partly inspired by a sign at work saying ‘cut back on salt’! These verses talk about our prayer life and how this leads us to make the most of every opportunity, including living lives that are always full of grace and seasoned with salt:

“Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.” (Col 4:2-6)

God wants to communicate with us and spend time with us; Paul urges the Colossians to ‘devote yourselves to prayer’. Prayer covers so much and should not be restricted to any one formula. At school, we are often taught to pray ‘hands together, eyes closed’, but clearly if we are being watchful, we can also pray with our eyes open! Prayer can include set times and places and positions, but is far more than this. We should not restrict how or when or where we pray, but should be eager to develop our prayer life. Thankfulness is also fundamental to prayer, since it is an attitude that dwells on all God has done.

Jesus gave us models for prayer (eg the Lord’s prayer), but ultimately we need to pray not only for ourselves and our own needs but also for others. The guidelines we have been given by our leaders for prayer topics should help us to see new areas we can pray for, but ultimately as we spend time wih God, He will direct us and lead us.

Opportunities for sharing all that God says and does in our lives abound; as the TV programme used to proclaim, ‘opportunity knocks!‘ We need to be aware that opportunities abound each day: as we pray and seek God for guidance, we become more aware of the opportunities He sets before us. Our individual lives can make a great difference and since we are all different, those opportunities will vary for each one of us. As we devote ourselves to prayer, God’s life is formed within us and that acts as saltiness in a society that desperately needs both flavour and preservation. Paul exhorts us to make the most of every opportunity, to grasp every opportunity, to be alert and mindful of all that God is doing. As we do that, His wisdom is given to us and we have the opportunity to share God with all we meet.

Last week we bought some new bedding. It’s a long time since I did this and I was a little surprised to find how much styles have changed, since I had assumed that sheets and pillowcases and quilt covers are all basically the same: functional items that serve a specific, but limited, purpose.

Most of what was on offer in the shop went by the exotic name of ’embellished bedlinen’. It had raised patterns on the plain linen to make it look prettier. And that got me thinking about embellishment.

‘To embellish’ as a verb has two primary meanings:
1) To make (something) more attractive by the addition of decorative details or features: “blue silk embellished with golden embroidery”.
2) To make (a statement or story) more interesting or entertaining by adding extra details, especially ones that are not true.

Obviously, the first definition is what applies to the bedlinen. The decorative patterns made it look more attractive, more beautiful. In food terms, embellishment is the garnish that comes with a meal or the way a skilled chef makes a meal look even more appetising through its presentation. Embellishment in this sense is all very well, but it’s additional. The linen works perfectly well on its own, but the embellishment is an additional extra that enhances it. It’s unnecessary, in some respects, but it is pleasing to the eye and enhances the whole.

That made me wonder if beauty is simply an additional extra that enhances something or is actually more intrinsic than that. Ecclesiastes 3:11 says “He has made everything beautiful in its time.” I think beauty is something God values and that He has gone to extraordinary lengths to embellish our lives. We only have to look around us at the diversity of nature – the beautiful flowers, the amazing shades of green in the different trees, the vast stretches of sandy beaches, the rugged splendour of the mountains – to see that God loves beautiful things.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, the proverb says, and certainly I think God makes things beautiful or sees beauty where we do not see it. It’s far more than outward adornment or embellishment, as Peter makes clear when he talks about a woman’s beauty not coming from fine clothes, make-up or jewellery but being the beauty ‘of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.’ (1 Pet 3:4) Beauty comes from within, from the work God does in our lives by His Spirit. He who had ‘no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.’ (Isaiah 53:2-3) has become beautiful to us because of all He has done for us and in us.

Let’s open our eyes today to the beauty God has placed all around us, not simply to embellish the ordinary, but as an intrinsic part of our everyday lives, a gift from One who is generous and lavish in everything He does.