Welcome to 2013! Don’t forget the New Year’s Day party this afternoon at church, starting at 4 p.m. This is always a great time of fun and fellowship and is a great opportunity to bring along your friends and family.

Midweek meetings resume this week. We will be starting the month of prayer and fasting with a prayer meeting on Thursday 3rd January which will start at 7.30 p.m. Do come along to this and remember to sign up to the dates you can pray at home as well for all the items the leaders have identified as being crucial to our spiritual growth and development this year.

Pray that we will see:
1. the community regeneration scheme put back on schedule (this involves schools, housing, refurbishment, street regeneration etc.)
2. the people of Goldthorpe of all ages coming to know God, their lives being impacted by the Holy Spirit
3. God’s blessing, guidance and protection as we prayer walk the streets
4. the empty chairs in church filled (with families, with old people, and with young people alike) so that there is an increase in the congregation
5. God’s direction on the spiritual and practical outreach that He wants us to do (so that we have wisdom to do the right thing & put on the right events)
6. the development and training of people into their calling and ministry
7. Pray for wisdom, vision, strength, protection and health for your church leaders and their families
8. signs and wonders in God’s house; the gifts of the Holy Spirit to be present and active in us!
9. people who have backslidden return to God and to church
10. continued blessing on our outreaches (Mother & Toddler, Youth, badminton & food scheme)

The Prayer Walks mentioned in (3) above will start this Saturday (5th January) at 12 noon, after the coffee morning. We will be walking the streets of Goldthorpe and praying every Saturday at 12 noon throughout January. Do come along to this and join us in praying for every street in Goldthorpe. Remember God’s promise to Joshua: “I will give you every place where you set your foot, as I promised Moses.” (Josh 1:3)

Other midweek meetings involving the youth outreach and Mums & Toddlers will start again next week (on Monday evening and Friday morning respectively).

Don’t forget also our Sunday services: the Communion service at 10.30 a.m. and the Family Service this Sunday (6th January) at 6 p.m.

Hope to see you there!

Mark spoke about prayer and fasting tonight, in preparation for the month of prayer and fasting starting in January.

Prayer is the spiritual battlefield which determines whether what we do in the physical realm is successful or not. Prayer involves pouring out our hearts before God, praising Him, asking Him for things we need and (often forgotten!) listening to God.

When we fast, we show God our willingness to be aligned with His will. Fasting is not about forcing God to do something or twisting His arm, but is an indication of our submission to Him and reflects our need to be involved in what God is doing. Isaiah 58 gives us details about the motivation behind fasting. Matthew 6:16-18 also reflects how we should fast: not putting on any outward show, carrying on as normal, not needing man’s approval because this is between us and God (“don’t brag or nag about it.”)

Proverbs 3:5-6 shows us that God wants us to be whole-hearted in our devotion and obedience. As we pray for direction, understanding and spiritual wisdom, we need to :

1) Trust in the Lord with all our heart
The first step is to trust God unreservedly – with our hopes, dreams, ambitions, plans… with our whole life. We have to ‘let go’ and allow God to be in control. That involves not relying on our own understanding, but being willing to lay aside all the reasons we can come up with for doing things differently and actually obey God. We have to accept that our limited view is obscured, whereas God sees everything and knows best.

2) Acknowledge God in all our ways
This means knowing God intimately and being prepared for that direct contact with God to influence our daily paths (the steps we take every day). God promises to direct (or make straight) our paths. The bumps and bends that may lie ahead will be straightened out by God, the God who promises that before we call, He will answer (Is 65:24).

Prayer and fasting become ‘the blessing bringers’. We concluded the service by praying, thanking God for all He has done this year, including the provision of finance to support community work and many improvements to the building and the work done jointly with other local churches, and praying for His direction and leading in the year to come.

We also had a birthday to celebrate:

Stephen spoke this morning on God’s hand in our life. Using a picture of a seedling being held in someone’s hand, he spoke about understanding that God is active in our lives and is there to guide us and direct us.

Christianity is not like a Scouts’ badge, where we can earn God’s favour by our activities. It is a whole way of life where we follow God’s plans and purposes, where our lives become part of a larger picture (rather like how a slip road merges with the motorway and becomes part of the larger road.)

Christmas proves to us God’s active role in human history. Just as Jesus was taken to Egypt to escape Herod’s evil plot to kill Him, so we are called out of enemy captivity. God’s hand is on us, leading and guiding us. We need God’s nourishment, just as the seedling needs nutrients from the soil to grow. We can move forward in God’s plan and be secure in His guidance and provision.

Today I’ve been meditating on Mark 14:1-11, the account of the anointing of Jesus by a woman at the house of Simon the leper at Bethany, an account which Jesus tells us will be recounted wherever the gospel is preached.

Whenever I read this account, I am challenged. It’s a story of reckless extravagance. ‘Reckless’ is defined as ‘without thinking or caring about the consequences of an action’ or ‘heedless’ or ‘careless’. I don’t think the woman cared about her reputation or about what others thought of her actions. She just wanted to do something for Jesus because He had done so much for her. I am not sure recklessness fits into my personality traits and so I am threatened by it.

‘Extravagance‘ is defined as ‘lack of restraint in spending money or use of resources’ or ‘unrestrained excess’. Apart from perhaps at Christmas, when we allow ourselves the indulgence of being ‘extravagant’, it’s not usually something in our Western society which is applauded. If you’ve been brought up on the Protestant work ethic or are frugal by nature, extravagance is something which seems inherently sinful!

But Jesus unequivocally commends this woman’s actions. The disciples and others condemned her, criticising and rebuking her harshly: ‘Why this waste of perfume? It could have been sold for more than a year’s wages and the money given to the poor.’ (Mark 14:4-5) They may well have been speaking reaonably – and how we like to appear reasonable and rational, justifying our actions with careful words and sensible suggestions! But Jesus was not offended by reckless extravagance in the way that we are. ‘She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial.’ (Mark 14:8)

Part of me wonders what happened to the gifts brought by the Wise Men, which also included myrrh. Part of me is afraid of what reckless extravagance looks like today, in my own life. How do I show my devotion for God? What does He mean to me? How can I demonstrate that with my daily living? Do I do what I can or do I live with a safety net reassuringly underneath me? Do I tithe because it leaves me with more than I give? What does reckless extravagance look like in 2012? What will it look like in 2013?

Do I care more for my repuation and what others think of me than what Jesus thinks of me? Do I hold on to what I have, afraid to lose it, or am I willing to let go and find that Jesus gives so much more than I could ever hold on to in my own strength? I don’t think the woman regretted her reckless extravagance. She did what she could. And wherever the gospel is preached, she challenges us to do the same: to love extravagantly, without counting the cost, without holding on to anything.

There will be no midweek meeting this week, so the next service at church will be on Sunday 30th December at the usual times of 10.30 a.m. and 6 p.m.

Don’t forget the New Year’s Day party, starting at 4 p.m. As Mark commented, “this is where the real games will be!” We enjoy a buffet meal together and then a variety of games. It’s the ideal time to bring along friends and family members, so do come if you can.

Don’t forget also that January is our month of prayer and fasting (though not at the New Year’s Day party, obviously!) You can indicate on the prayer board when the best time for you to pray is and we will then have a whole chain of pray-ers (and prayers) for the whole of January as we seek God’s will for the way forward in 2013.

Normal services resume in January. Don’t forget the family service on Sunday 6th January at 6 p.m. on the theme of ‘Divine Clothes’.

In the meantime, have a truly blessed Christmas and take time to unwrap more of God’s gifts to you as you read His word and spend time with Him.

Lest you think that in my descriptions of the carol service so far there has been no mention of carols, we did also sing carols! Following the community carol service on Friday, we had to move all the musical equipment (drums, keyboard, amplifiers, pedal boards, microphones etc.) back to our building and get ready for the carol service there.

We sang a range of carols throughout:
* Joy to the World
* In the Bleak Midwinter
* What Child Is This?
* O Come, All Ye Faithful

We also performed a Kutless song called ‘This is Christmas’:

“Remember how the story goes,
God’s gift was wrapped in swaddling clothes,
Beneath the star, one great and holy night.
The shepherds heard the angels sing,
The wise man brought an offering,
Peace on Earth began in Bethelethm
Have we lost the reason that we celebrate each year?

This is Christmas,
It’s all about the Saviour wrapped in a manger.
This is Christmas,
Because of Jesus Christ!
This is Christmas,
Because of Christ!
Because of Christ!”
Kutless,’This is Christmas’

We also got to sing ‘Happy Birthday’ twice: