Mark spoke from Ezekiel 37:1-14 at the family service last night – an unusual theme for March, perhaps (if you were expecting a Mother’s Day service, you were disappointed!), but definitely a theme that has been recurring in our church life this year. This is the famous passage about the valley of dry bones and he showed us some dry bones initially.

The Israelites were in captivity in Babylon and seemed helpless. Psalm 137 captures their sorrow and despondency. Nonetheless, God has not abandoned or forsaken His people. When He moves, He does so sovereignly and in power. Ezekiel is moved by the power of God’s Spirit and taken to a place where he sees a valley of unburied, dry bones that represent the death of the people:

The passage abounds with the promises of what God will do:‘I am going to open your graves’; ‘I will bring you back’; ‘I will put my Spirit in you’; ‘I will settle you in your own land’. These ‘I wills’ come from the great ‘I AM’.

God asks Ezekiel if the dry bones can live and his answer is ‘O Sovereign Lord, You alone know’. Nonetheless, he is obedient to the command to prophesy (see vs 7 and vs 10) and God’s breath of life changed the situation around, with the bones gaining flesh and tendon and sinew and God’s breath coming into them to give them life so that ‘they came to life and stood up on their feet – a vast army.’ (vs 10)

We need the prophetic, the specific word of God, in our churches, for we need God’s word and God’s breath to bring new life. Ezekiel brought a message of hope to a despondent people living as slaves and reminded them that God had a future for them beyond Babylon. God has good plans for us too.

What kind of listeners are we? Are we like the deaf, dry bones, oblivious to God’s voice? Or are we those who don’t listen because we think we have heard it all before and know it all? Have we become over-familiar with God and therefore complacent? Or are we the people of God who are muscly and alive, ready to be living bones to people in need?

After the service we prayed that God would breathe on us and complete the unfinished plans in our lives and in our communities.

We also had a birthday to celebrate:

The theme of the family service last night was ‘Bones’. We had a quiz about bones:

The answers to those questions?
1. Cranium
2. The official name is the ‘humerus’, which sounds like ‘humorous’ or funny.
3. Leg
4. Hand
5. B 206
6. D 270
7. Brittle bones
8. Bone marrow
9. Ball and socket joint
10. Calcium

Karen’s team won the quiz:

Later in the service, we had a game where we had to pin the skeleton bones together to make a proper skeleton!

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.