We always like being involved with community events so were pleased to offer free crafts, drinks and crisps at the Bounce Into Summer event in Goldthorpe yesterday, organised by Goldthorpe Development Group. We had an unexpected meeting with Snappy, the Snap Tin dinosaur!

Children enjoyed painting rocks, fruit and people as well as decorating plant pots and purses and love hearts.

It was good to have four churches attending the event, with helpers from the Salvation Army, GPCC, Furlong Road Methodist Church and St Helen’s present.

There was lots of other things for families to do, including inflatables, Hook-a-Duck, donkey rides and many community stalls.

Dave spoke tonight from Luke 17:30-32, where Jesus told the people to ‘remember Lot’s wife’ Lot and his family lived in Sodom, a wicked city, and God sent messengers to rescue Lot from that place. They told them to flee and not look back, but Lot’s wife did indeed look back and was turned to a pillar of salt.

What can we learn from such a bizarre story? We don’t know why Lot (Abraham’s nephew) was living in Sodom in the first place, whether he met his wife there or chose to live there despite its reputation. It is clear by this time that the influence of the godly Abraham on his life was waning and it’s possible that Lot was out of touch with God. God, however, was not out of touch with Lot and sent angelic messengers to help him. We need to remember the words of prophecy God has spoken to us and take heed of them.

Lot appeared to want to negotiate with the messengers and his wife was tempted to abandon where God was leading them, looking back. Looking back can be very dangerous. We can view the past with rose-tinted glasses, but need to understand that God wants us to move forward. We don’t hear much more about Lot in the Bible after this and we don’t know if he followed God’s plan for his life. What we need to consider is that when God moves, will we move with Him?

This morning we looked at quite an unusual miracle recorded in three gospels (Matthew 8:28-34, Mark 5:1-20 and Luke 8:26-39) which shows us Jesus delivering a man from a legion of demons by means of sending the unclean spirits into a nearby herd of pigs, resulting in the deliverance of the man and the death of the pigs. Though there are variations in the stories, the key elements remain the same, and leave us puzzled as to why Jesus acted in this way.

It’s clear that individuals matter to God, and in this case, the sanity and healing of one man mattered more than the wealth produced for Gentiles by two thousand pigs. Before meeting Jesus, this man was in a hopeless position, living in tombs, without clothes and self-harming. His violence and aggression meant he was shunned and feared by people, but once delivered from the legion of spirits by Jesus, he is seen dressed, in his right mind, and willing to tell of all God had done for him to his community. Mission starts at home, and this man obeyed Jesus faithfully. We do well to do the same, remembering that we all have a personal story/ testimony to tell.

This miracle divided opinions. Many were amazed and astonished at what Jesus had done and the transformation wrought in this man. Others were less enthusiastic, Luke tells us they were overcome  by fear. (Luke 8:37) Despite their mistrust and lack of control over the man previously, they were not reassured by the fact that Jesus was in total control of the situation, giving permission for the evil spirits to enter the pigs, but fully in control of what was happening. Miracles will always divide opinions, but we can be confident that Jesus is in control and therefore can have hope in every situation, even those which seem so dark and evil to us. Nothing is more powerful than Jesus.

On Sunday 6 August we welcomed 75 people into our family service. At the ‘Churches Together’ family fun days we have been looking at the parables of Jesus and in particular over the summer at the lost sheep, lost coin and lost son (Luke 15). In each of these stories, we saw that there is a party in heaven every time someone comes back to God, so we decided to throw our own party to celebrate God’s goodness and kindness to us.

We sang a song about the shepherd looking for the lost sheep, searched for lost sheep in the building and heard a story about Cecil the Sheep by Andrew McDonough.

We played Pass The Parcel and enjoyed party dancing with bubbles and disco lights.

We had party food, because a party without food just doesn’t seem right, and God talks about that great party in heaven by comparing it to a wedding banquet!

We also had fun on the Bouncy Castle and on the Nerf Shootout provided by Alison Taylor-Fellows. All in all, we had a great time!