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.

It’s been a good year for CDs for me this year so far! I am finding that songs written in all kinds of places at all different times are echoing what God is doing in me: stirring, causing faith to rise, stoking a burning in my soul.

I received the latest Passion album (‘Let The Future Begin’) as a Mothers’ Day present last week. One of the tracks on that album is called ‘Burning in my soul’ by Brett Younker. The chorus says:

‘Hear the sound from heaven! A mighty rushing wind!
We’re calling for revival!
God, let Your fire fall again,
It’s burning in my soul.’ (‘Burning in my soul’, Brett Younker)
‘Burning in my soul’, Brett Younker

The theme of fire falling on the altar and consuming the sacrifice is so prevalent in the Bible that it is difficult to single out just one instance of its significance. This theme is taken up on the Day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came to rest on the disciples in the form of tongues of fire: “They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them” (Acts 2:3) and in the form of a ‘violent wind’ (Acts 2:2). Strangely enough, though, the verse which God reminded me of as I listened to this song was in Jeremiah 5:14 where we read “I will make my words in your mouth a fire.”

There is heat and warmth and a scorching that is not always pleasant in fire. God is stirring and rousing us, causing us to step out in new directions, making us aware of the ‘so much more’. Virtually every sermon we hear reminds us ‘we ain’t seen nothing yet’ or ‘there’s more!’ As the song ‘Consuming Fire’ reminds us ‘there must be more than this.’

We cry out for revival; we pray for God to move; we long to see sons and daughters moving in the realm of the Spirit; our hearts are hungry and thirsty for more of God. Only God can satisfy. Only God can do the mighty things we cry out for.

The GCSE art students at school were discussing their work yesterday and I discovered that their first ‘theme’ had been ‘Identity’. They had to come up with original artwork on that theme, looking at the question of identity from whatever viewpoint interested them.

I was interested because the question of identity is one which fills my thoughts on a regular basis. I have written my thoughts on this on a post-it note which sits in my classroom where I can see it every day: “We are children of God. Our identity must always be based on who we are, not on what we do.”

Today I was reading a commentary on David which contained this quote: “The primary concern of the spiritual life isn’t what we do for God, but what God does for us.” (Eugene Peterson, ‘Leap Over A Wall’).

Eugene Peterson takes this thought further in his paraphrase of Romans 12: “Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him.” (Rom 12:1, The Message) He goes on to say “Living then, as every one of you does, in pure grace, it’s important that you not misinterpret yourselves as people who are bringing this goodness to God. No, God brings it all to you. The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him.” (Rom 12:3, The Message)

Casting Crowns tackle this theme in their song ‘Who Am I?‘, saying that our identity is
“Not because of who I am
But because of what You’ve done
Not because of what I’ve done
But because of who You are.” (Casting Crowns, ‘Who Am I?’)

Our purpose and identity are, therefore, bound up in who God is and what He does. Eph 1:11 in the Message says “It’s in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for.” So often we feel uncertain about who we are and what we should be doing. Kutless sing, “I don’t know how to find myself. Am I the only one, the only one?” (Kutless, ‘Identity’) – a question to which I always give the answer ‘No!’ with gratitude that someone else is articulating how I often feel!

I find the thought that my primary concern in the spiritual life is what God does for us both reassuring and frustrating. It’s reassuring because it removes the burden of performance from us. We live in a performance-saturated culture. Jobs are very task-oriented these days and pay is often linked to performance with little thought to other factors. Employers look at the ‘bottom line’, ‘value for money’, ‘hitting the targets’ till employees feel like performing monkeys. It’s a relief to know that God is not that kind of boss!

But it’s also frustrating to me because I am not in control of God. I can’t dictate what He does, how He does it or when He does it. So often I feel frustrated as I wait for God to move, to speak, to heal, to restore. I am reminded that I am not in charge. I am relatively impotent!

As always, there seems to be two ways of looking at the same thing! Learning godliness with contentment, being willing to wait for the Lord patiently, are things which take time (for me, anyway!) to grasp…