It is 7:15 a.m. on a Saturday morning and I am up early, marking tests from school. This can be both encouraging (when students have worked hard, heeded advice, revised well and succeeded) and discouraging (especially when students have clearly not worked hard, have disregarded advice, not revised and consequently have not fulfilled their potential.)

As a teacher, what I find the most frustrating is when I have laboured a point, underlining its importance, explaining its relevance and generally highlighting something in as many different ways and formats as I can possibly find only to find this completely ignored by students. I find myself writing comments such as “you need to pay more attention in lessons” or “it would help if you heeded instructions more” over and over again.

The phrase that comes most clearly to mind is from Hebrews 2:1. I learnt this in the 1984 NIV translation which says “We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.” However, more recent translations of the NIV say “We must pay the most careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.” The language teacher in me pricks up her ears at that: there is a difference between the comparative (more careful) and the superlative (most careful). Thayer’s definition of that word (perissoterōs) says ‘especially, above others’. I can see why the translation has been amended. I also like the Message’s version: “It’s crucial that we keep a firm grip on what we’ve heard so that we don’t drift off.”

Giving our full attention to what we have heard is not just something for school children. It is a vital principle for life. We need to pay attention to what God is saying. We need to hear and to heed what He says and apply it to our everyday lives if we are not to drift away. Drifting is not intentional. But it requires perseverance and effort not to drift. If we do not pay attention to our spiritual life, it will deteriorate. As James has reminded us, we need to do more than just hear the word, we need to obey it!

Tonight we finished studying James 4, by looking at verses 13-17. Here, the theme of humility we studied in the preceding verses is contrasted with arrogance, for those who are arrogant think they can make plans with no regard to or thought of God. Such boasting about tomorrow and making elaborate plans is futile (see Luke 12 and the Parable of the Rich Fool). All our plans should be made with an eye to God’s will and an openness to have Him direct us and guide us, for He ultimately is the giver and sustainer of all life.

A right view of ourselves (especially when considering eternity) will keep us humble and help us to acknowledge that all we have and are comes directly from God. We need to seek first God’s kingdom and lay aside treasure in heaven (see Matt 6:19-21), rather than allowing the world’s love of money to rub off on us. Godliness with contentment is great gain (see 1 Tim 6:6-10), but it is all too easy to allow all kinds of greed to take over our lives.

James concludes by reminding us that we can sin by omission as well as by commission: “If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.” (James 4:17) Once our eyes have been opened to the good we ought to do, then it is sinful not to do good. Just as all boasting and bragging is evil because it raises ourselves to the status which belongs rightfully only to God, “if you know the right thing to do and don’t do it, that, for you, is evil.” (The Message) James concludes this chapter with his usual forthright commands which pierce our complacency and show us what true religion really looks like.

Garry spoke from Matthew 5:6 last night, continuing his series on the Beatitudes which describe the characteristics God wants His children to have if we are to be God’s heroes.

The word ‘righteousness’ used to describe a straight or true lance which could be depended opon. From this, the idea of being ‘upright’ or morally good came to be understood. Righteousness simply means doing the right thing.

Righteousness is at the very heart of God’s nature and therefore is the motivator to His actions. He loves righteousness and justice (Ps 33:5) and these things are the foundations of His throne (Ps 97:1-2). In Isaiah 59:15-17, we see how God’s righteousness motivated Him to do the right thing and take action to save, since there was no person righteous enough to work salvation for us. Christ came to save us because it was the right thing to do. Righteousness is His belt (Is 11:1-5), the thing that becomes a driving force.

We often find it hard to do the right thing. We might want to do the right thing, but the personal cost of this sometimes deters us. But we need to let righteousness burn within us.

God can get, does get, has been and will be at times in the future, angry. In the commissioning of Moses, where God’s patience gives Moses all the signs he could hope for, God’s anger burned when the real reason for the reluctance is exposed: Moses did not want to go; he did not want to obey God. For forty years, God was angry with the generation that refused to believe Him as they wandered in the wilderness (Ps 95:7-11). Jesus was angry with the Pharisees who were more concerned with trying to trip Him up than see a man healed (Mark 3:1-6). God is not easily angered, however. He is slow to anger, abounding in love and compassion (see 1 Cor 13:1-5). Our anger is often motivated by personal hurt or offence. Jesus did not get angry when He was personally attacked, but entrusted Himself to the One who judges justly. He did get angry on behalf of others when He saw injustice being done.

Paul reminds us that ‘in your anger, do not sin.’ (Eph 4:25-32) James, too, distinguishes between man’s anger (which does not produce the righteousness God desires) and God’s anger (James 1:19-21). Nonetheless, there are times when injustice and suffering should rouse us to anger because we long for the right thing to be done. We are made in God’s image and therefore His love of righteousness is ultimately at our heart. The kingdom of God, ultimately, is all about righteousness (Rom 14:17).

Righteousness will, eventually, come (see Rev 6:9-11). In the meantime, we need to crave for, strain for and work for righteousness. God’s people need to do the right thing, for no other reason than it is the right thing. We discover what the ‘right thing’ is by reading the Word and listening to the Spirit.

At January’s family service we looked at the topic of divine clothes, but God not only provides clothes for us to wear, He gives us armour to put on and weapons to use.

Ephesians 6:10-20 reminds us that we are involved in a spiritual battle. This battle is not ours, but the Lord’s (see 1 Sam 17:47), but we have a real enemy: “our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” (Eph 6:13) It is easy to either become fearful when we read these verses or to think that this is all over-the-top mumbo-jumbo. We have to be clear, though, that our enemy (who can roar as a lion or masquerade as an angel of light) is defeated and God does not want us to be unaware of his schemes (see 2 Cor 2:11).

It’s easy to fix our eyes on the visible and to find fault with people, but the enemy is not other people. This is a spiritual battle and we need spiritual weapons if we are to demolish “arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God” (2 Cor 10:5)

So often we try, like Saul with David, to fight the battle in our own armour and with our own weapons (see 1 Sam 17). David won the battle against Goliath by focussing on God. He was filled with a holy confidence in God: “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the LORD Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.” (1 Sam 17:45) The key to David’s success – and to ours – is to realise that the battle is the Lord’s: “All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the LORD saves; for the battle is the LORD’s, and he will give all of you into our hands.” (1 Sam 17:47) As Zechariah reminded God’s people later on, it’s “‘not by might nor by power but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty.” (Zech 4:6)

The armour that God provides – which has divine power to defeat spiritual strongholds – is listed as:
1. The belt of truth buckled round our waists
2. The breastplate of righteousness in place
3. Feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace
4. The shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.
5. The helmet of salvation
6. The sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
7. Prayer

If we obey God’s command to put on this armour, then we shall be able to stand, even when the day of evil comes. As we seek to see God’s Kingdom come in Goldthorpe, we would be unwise – foolish, even – to attempt to do battle without this armour. We don’t want to be like the men of Ephraim, who, “though armed with bows, turned back on the day of battle.” (Ps 78:9) Instead, clothed in God’s armour and equipped with His weapons, secure in the knowledge that the battle is His and no weapon forged against us will prevail (Is 54:17), we can go forth knowing that He is the victor and that He who is in us is greater than the one who is in the world (1 John 4:4).

Here are some of the streets we prayed for yesterday to add to your prayers:

Probert Avenue
(listed in Wikipedia as the place where Brian Blessed comes from!)

Lincoln Gardens

Welfare View

Dearne View

Straight Lane
(the Salvation Army is based on this street and we prayed for continued blessing and guidance on the church there as they minister the Gospel and seek to help the poor and needy in Goldthorpe)

Manor Avenue

Jackson Street

Homecroft Road

Leadley Street

Lesley Road

Shakespeare’s Juliet says:
“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.”

Names, nonetheless, are distinguishing markers and to some extent set boundaries on individuality. When we think of all God’s names and how they give us glimpses into His nature and character, we can see the power of names. As we walk these streets, which often look very similar and all contain houses and families, we are reminded that God knows each one of us and calls us by name. Let’s pray for these streets by name and ask God to work in the people who live on them.

Snow finally arrived in Goldthorpe this week, and led to the prayer meeting on Thursday being cancelled. This morning, however, there were willing workers clearing the driveway so that the coffee morning could go ahead as usual:

It didn’t stop us carrying on with the third prayer walk of January, either! In fact, there is something rather good about seeing exactly where your footsteps are in the snow and it was quite reminiscent of Joshua 1:3! (“I will give you every place where you set your foot.”)

We started where we left off last week and prayed over the Job Centre, asking God to give jobs to people in the area and to help those struggling with unemployment, illness and low paid work. We moved on to the side streets off High Street:

One of the streets we prayed for is called Hope Avenue:

Hopelessness or despair seems endemic in many local villages. A recent BBC programme entitled ‘A Tale of Two Villages’ looked at the contrasting fates of Grimethorpe and Thurnscoe. “A palpable sense of hope now fills the village of Grimethorpe and people feel their future is once again secure. But five miles east in the pit village of Thurnscoe residents are still waiting for regeneration to make a difference to their daily lives. Many people there feel that the village is dying on its feet and that the money spent hasn’t delivered jobs or hope. So why the difference? How did they take the grim out of Grimethorpe?” the programme asks.
‘A Tale of Two Villages’

The fact remains that no matter what regeneration programmes are implemented from outside, people need hope. As we prayed for Hope Avenue and for Goldthorpe, we prayed that the hope of the gospel would be real in Goldthorpe. Our physical eyes see the same streets from which people long to escape. But we look with spiritual eyes also that say God can make a difference; God can turn things around; God can give us hope. The song ‘Jesus Saves’ starts with the bold declaration ‘Hope is here! Shout the news to everyone.’ That is our cry. Hope is here, in Goldthorpe, in the snow in January 2013, because Jesus is here.