Garry continued his series from 2 Peter 1 this morning, looking at godliness (or holiness: to give dutiful regard, respect or reverence, piety.) Essentially, becoming holy or godly is to become like God. Historically, there are two extremes people have gone to in their desire to pursue godliness: firstly, to believe that the body is evil (hence, the self-flagellation of the monks in mediaevel times) or, on the other hand, to believe that because only the spiritual counts, it doesn’t matter what we do with the body (a view Paul corrected in 1 Corinthians – see 1 Cor 6:19, for example, when he reminded the church that our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit). The ‘Holiness movement’ of the 19th century also took the view that we no longer have to sin to extremes, believing in ‘sinless perfection’ in this life. The fact remains that we do still sin, but God has made provision for us when we sin (see 1 John 1:9)

Jesus remains, as always, our perfect example of godliness. He appeared in the flesh (1 Tim 3:16) and yet lived a perfect life. He showed us how life should be lived, even though he lived among sinners. He even drank wine! He showed us that life is not just about keeping rules, but about that relationship with God which motivates us from within. In the Sermon on the Mount, He went beyond the outward letter of the law to show that heart attitudes are what count (see Matt 5:21-28). Rules are actually the easy way, but they can never cover every eventuality and can never be the definitive last word. Paul shows us that we have to go beyond rules when he discusses meat sacrificed to idols in 1 Cor 8. It is not a question always of who is right, but of letting love be our motivator and being determined not to put any stumbling-block in another brother’s path.

How do we become godly, then? 1 Tim 4:7-8 tells us “Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives’ tales; rather, train yourself to be godly. For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.” We have to train ourselves to be godly – the word in Greek being the root of our word ‘gymnast’, and we all know how hard gymnasts have to train! A godly life takes time to develop and needs commitment; ultimately, it arises out of our desire to please God and is based on relationship. As Augustine said, ‘Love God and do whatever you want.’ If we truly love God, we will want to please Him (just as in a good marriage, we are motivated to want to please and help our spouse.) Augustine’s words can obviously be distorted (as can the Bible – see 2 Pet 3:14-16), but the key to godliness is loving God whole-heartedly so that we aim to please Him in all we do.

Care for the Family is a charity I very much respect. We mentioned them when praying for Christian organisations involved in schools and I think one of their ventures is worth discussing in the context of praying for local churches. They are running a summer tour entitled ‘Getting Your Kids through church without them ending up hating God’.

As Christian parents, our greatest desire is for our children to come to a personal faith and saving knowledge of the Lord. We don’t want to preach to everyone else and see our own children drift away from God. This seminar costs £5 to attend and will be at the Mega Centre in Sheffield on Tuesday 18th June, starting at 7.30 p.m. Further information and tickets for the event can be found here.

With passion and humour, Rob Parsons from Care for the Family will help those attending to understand what we can change in our homes, our churches and our hearts which will make it less likely that a generation will be lost to the church. In particular, the evening will look at the themes:

* God has no grandchildren – how children find a faith of their own
* The jelly-mould syndrome – there is no “one size fits all”
* Facing up to “the Big Five” – the main killers of faith
* Creating a sense of belonging – making sure our kids feel they fit in
* Giving our children a vision
* Handling the three disappointments that come to all of us

I would strongly recommend giving up an evening to attend this seminar. If we are serious about seeing God work in our churches, we need to be praying for all generations within those churches. God is interested in our children and young people and we need churches to welcome, nurture and strengthen faith in all who attend.

March’s prayer topic is for local churches. We are praying for all the churches to be blessed by God and:

• that they will be moving in the gifts of the Holy Spirit
• that they will be lights of hope in this community
• that their leaders will be blessed, encouraged and envisioned by God & man
• that there will be unity of worship and vision between churches
• that God will protect the buildings and people
• that the Word of God will be inspiring to them & us
• that God will continue to bless our joint outreaches
• that God will bless Furlong Road Methodist Church
• that God will bless all the events and meetings in all the churches

The local churches we are praying for include:
Goldthorpe
• Goldthorpe Pentecostal Community Church
• Salvation Army
• St John’s & St Mary Magdalene’s Parish Church
• Sacred Heart Catholic Church & Marist Convent
Bolton-on-Dearne
• Furlong Road Methodist Church
• Church of St Andrew the Apostle
Thurnscoe
• St Helen’s
• St Hilda’s
• Emmanuel Pentecostal Church

Join with us in praying that God will work powerfully in all the local churches and that there will be ongoing cooperation between God’s people in our area.

Please note that the last Thursday in each month will be a day of prayer and fasting. Prayer meetings in March will be on 14th and 28th March.

The Women’s World Day of Prayer meeting was held at the Salvation Army in Goldthorpe on 1st March. The meeting was not fully completed on schedule as one of the ladies became ill during the service, but prior to this, members of a range of local churches had joined together to celebrate the theme ‘I Was A Stranger And You Welcomed Me’ prepared by Christian ladies from France.

Captain Chris Lee welcomed us all to the meeting and acted as the leader of the service:

The service used the idea of different coloured scarves to emphasise the diversity of ethnicity within modern-day France:

The service focussed on the theme of serving our communities and loving our neighbours (the key passages were Leviticus 19 and Matthew 25), with songs such as ‘When I needed a neighbour, were you there?’ reinforcing the teaching that we should reach out to our communities in every possible way.

Later in the service, I had the opportunity to sing a French song written especially for the service, which focussed on the thought that ‘each time you welcome a stranger, it’s me, the Lord, that you welcome’.

Testimonies from women living in France were read out and local women also gave their own testimonies of how they had found fellowship and help in their local churches:

Chris spoke about the ways we as local churches have been serving our communities. Last year’s WWDP service saw each church bring tinned food to be donated to the Salvation Army food bank. Since then, a range of local churches have become involved with supporting this on a regular basis and there has been a great increase in cooperation between the local churches and a greater understanding of the practical ways in which we can help the poor and needy. This fulfils Jesus’s teaching in Matthew 25 and is a great encouragement. She urged us not to look down on what we can do as individuals, since every donation and every act of help are important. Together, these simple acts form something of great value and worth as we serve Christ by serving the people around us.

At the end of the service, croissants were distributed and other refreshments served:

Many thanks to all the ladies who participated in the service and who helped with refreshments. Thanks also go to the Salvation Army for hosting this year’s service and to Stephen for playing the keyboard.

Before we move on to look at the prayer topics for March, I found it interesting that the Evangelical Alliance published the results of their survey on education at the end of February. This online survey was carried out in November 2012 with 1,377 evangelical Christians responding (including me!) The full report can be read on their website. Now you all know how much I love statistics (gentle irony alert). Nonetheless, I found it interesting that:

* 45% of those responding said their churches pray regularly for their local schools
* 69% said that all schools should have regular assemblies with a Christian act of collective worship
* 84% agreed that sex education without a clear moral value framework is harmful
* 96% believed there should be more apprenticeships and high quality vocational courses suitable for less academic students

It’s easy to question the value of surveys, but since 73% of those replying had some significant involvement in education (either as parents, teachers, governors or some other involvement in education), clearly these people are at the sharp end of this discussion! Perhaps the most interesting (to me, anyway!) question in the survey was “What is the point of education?” These are the answers offered:

1) To help everyone to fulfil their potential as a human being (86%)
2) To ensure every person can think for themselves (78%)
3) To help build a healthy society where everyone is cared for and has a chance to contribute to the common good (73%)
4) To ensure all develop as caring people who value and treat people equally and respectfully, regardless of ethnicity, faith, gender, sexuality, ability or wealth (71%)
5) To equip people for a successful working life (59%)
6) To give everyone a rich cultural experience and interest in the world around them (58%)
7) To direct human development toward God’s objective for human beings – godliness of character and action (48%, of whom many were teachers!)
8) To shape a worldview which corresponds to Christian values and biblical understandings (41%, with students significantly lower than the average on this answer)
9) To ensure that the country has a skilled and productive workforce and a prosperous economy (39%) (interestingly, teachers weren’t as interested in this answer as most people!)
10) To help everyone to achieve high academic qualifications (17%, a surprisingly low figure, you may feel!)

Make what you will of these answers, but hopefully they will provoke thought and ongoing prayer for our schools. Some of the quotes included in the report are also worth pondering:
* “The hardest thing about education is the constant criticism that teachers get and then the constant questioning of standards that our pupils are achieving – it is demoralising.”
* “I object to statefunded schools inculcating any children with liberal humanism.” (Whether we realise it or not, this is largely what is happening in our schools – our children and young people need our prayers that they will see beyond the world’s belief systems which are presented as fact and understand that we all have the right to choose what we believe.)
* “I strongly believe in education for life and not just for academic study.”
* “Christian teachers have had a profound impact on my life in primary and secondary education, both as witnesses and in teaching a Christian worldview.”
* “I struggle to have a positive outlook on education. I think too much emphasis is put on academic achievement.”
* “Education has changed, it has become more prescriptive and unrelenting, there is less time to think and reflect.”

The report ends with some interesting conclusions and challenges. As we continue to pray throughout this year, it is worth thinking about and praying for these challenges:
1) The challenge is for Christians to understand and critique the educational practices which, in the name of neutrality, may be influencing children with the ideas of liberal humanism. While affirming the historic value of Christian education in the UK, we need to speak out for a genuinely open public space, where the Christian worldview can be expressed on equal terms with other faith-based and non-faith philosophies.

2) We also need to value teaching as a God-given vocation. This means supporting the teachers and students in our congregations by seeking to understand the pressures they face and praying for them. We should also encourage and support school governors and ensure that they are trained and equipped to work effectively in their vital role.

3) The challenge is to move on from mere grumbling to providing a better vision for schools and other educational institutions. Churches should take opportunities to build relationships and partnerships with local schools, and also to affirm the vision of the Christian schools with which they are linked.

4) The challenge for Christian parents, and for the church leaders advising them, is to prayerfully consider the educational options available to them on the basis that our children are not conformed to the pattern of this world, but are transformed by the renewal of their minds.

5) The challenge for us is to speak up for a fairer education system for all, and to become actively and practically involved in delivering such a system.

The overall conclusion of Steve Clifford (General Director of the Evangelical Alliance) is also worth pondering:
“Christians have both responsibilities and opportunities to be involved in education. Engagement is taking place through the teaching vocation, and developing stronger links between our churches and local schools. Church schools, new faith-based academies and independent Christian schools all have a role to play in this vitally important mission field. There is much about education in the UK to disagree with, but it is essential that we move on from grumbling to providing a clearer vision for Christian engagement. Helping children to grow towards a Christ-like character within a caring community should be a priority for us all.”

The Christian walk is all about following God. He leads; we follow. It sounds such an easy principle that I wonder why we struggle with it so much!

The Israelites, when travelling in the wilderness, moved when God moved. “By day the Lord went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night. Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people.” (Ex 13:21-22) Sometimes the Israelites stayed in one place for some time; on other occasions, they moved on quite quickly. It all depended on God and was, I imagine, rather disconcerting to the people at times. There was certainly no room for complacency!

Nor is there room for complacency with us. Chris Tomlin’s song ‘I Will Follow’ echoes the idea of Exodus 13:
“Where you go, I’ll go
Where you stay, I’ll stay
When you move, I’ll move
I will follow…” (Chris Tomlin, ‘I Will Follow’)
Chris Tomlin, ‘I Will Follow’

Jeremy Camp, too, in the song ‘Without You’ looks at this theme of our following:
“I’ll walk beside You
As you lead me through still waters for my soul
I place my hope in all You are,
And I know You’ll guide me
To places where there’s beauty to behold
There’s no other place I’d rather be, no

And I won’t make a move
Without You,
I won’t make a move
Without You
Right by my side
So I will wait for You
To lead me to
Any place where You need
I won’t make a move
Without You
Without You.” (Jeremy Camp, ‘Without You’)
Jeremy Camp, ‘Without You’

Paul tells the Romans “those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.” (Rom 8:5) To the Galatians, he talks about being led by the Spirit and keeping in step with the Spirit (see Galatians 5), which is, I suppose, the New Testament equivalent of following the pillar of cloud or fire! Nonetheless, I don’t think it’s quite as easy as having that outward, visible sign to follow! Now we have that still, small voice within us, leading us and guiding us; now we have to learn to recognise the voice of the Shepherd if we are to follow. Sometimes that is not easy, but the principle still remains: where God leads, we follow. Socrates said, “The end of life is to be like God, and the soul following God will be like Him.” Perhaps we need to keep the end point in view, for the scenery en route will surely change!