Not surprisingly in February, with Valentine’s Day just around the corner, the family service looked at the subject of love.

We all brought questions on love to the quiz:


Most of the questions people came up with were impossibly difficult! Here is a sample:
1) Which shop in Goldthorpe has the word ‘love’ in its title?
2) Who said ‘A wise girl kisses but doesn’t love, listens but doesn’t believe and leaves before she is left’?
3) Which year was the film ‘The Bodyguard’, featuring Whitney Houston singing ‘I Will Always Love You’, released?
4) Who said it is ‘better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all’?
5) Who is the Roman god of love?
6) Where in London can you find the statue of Eros?

Answers:
1) Love It Boutique
3) Marilyn Monroe
3) 1992
4) Tennyson
5) Cupid
6) Piccadilly Circus

Hallmark cards used to do a series of cards entitled ‘Love is…’ Stephen spoke at the family service last night about love. Love can be hard to define, but we looked at four Scriptures:
Deut 6:5-6 and Matt 22:37-39, where we are commanded to love God with all that we are (showing us God’s requirements of love) and John 3:16 (where we see that He gives us His own love ever before He requires love from us: our love is a response to God’s love.) We also looked at 1 Cor 13:4-13, which is probably the longest ‘definition’ of love in the Bible, showing us the characteristics of love: patient, kind, forgiving, thinking the best, not holding grudges, working for the good of the other person.

God’s love provides deliverance for us. Stephen reminded us how we often used to draw pictures of love hearts with initials on it to signify who we loved. Whose name is engraved on our hearts now?

We also had a birthday to celebrate, in anticipation of Valentine’s Day:

On Sunday morning we looked at the final statements in the Apostles’ Creed: : ‘I believe in the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting’.

Forgiveness of sins
Forgiveness is typically defined as the process of concluding resentment, indignation or anger as a result of a perceived offence, difference or mistake, or ceasing to demand punishment or restitution. Sin is at the heart of all our problems: with each other and with God. Romans 5 clearly demonstrates that our problem goes right back to the fall of man in Genesis 3 but shows us that the one man Jesus Christ makes all the difference. “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace 8 that he lavished on us.” (Eph 1:7-8) The sacrifice of Jesus has purchased salvation for us and with that comes the forgiveness of sins. “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” (Matt 26:38)

Forgiveness is available to all who believe (Acts 10:43) and brings peace with God, which leads us to serve Him out of reverence (Ps 130:3-4). It brings us hope and joy, but it also places on us a corresponding responsibility to forgive others, as Jesus taught in the Lord’s prayer (Matt 6:12, 14-15). The parable of the unforgiving servant (Matt 18) clearly shows us that there are no limits on our forgiveness: we have to go on forgiving. Col 3:13 connects the dots between Christ’s forgiveness and our own: “Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.”

Forgiveness brings freedom, but as Paul reminds us in Romans, that’s not a licence to do as we please, but rather to live like God:
“We are free to love like our God has loved;
We are free to give like He gave.
We are free from sin,
We are free to begin to forgive as He forgave
We are free.” (Aaron Shust, ‘We Are Free’)

The resurrection of the body
1 Cor 15 clearly teaches us that just as Christ was raised from the dead, so too we will all be raised. The new body that we will receive is different from the natural body, just as the seed that is sown looks different from the product which grows from it, but we will nonetheless receive an imperishable and immortal body. We wait for this with eager expectation, for we know “the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” (1 Cor 15:51-54) We long for that day!

Everlasting life
God is eternal or everlasting (Deut 32:27, Jer 10:10, Is 26:4), so it’s not surprising He has set eternity in the hearts of man (Eccl 3:11). Not all believe in everlasting life: the British Humanist Society dispute this fact and believe that this life is all there is and when we die, we cease to exist and that’s the end of it. Some religions believe in reincarnation, but Christianity teaches that everlasting life begins when we believe in Jesus (John 3:36, John 5:24) and will continue beyond death (John 6:40, Titus 1:2). Again, this gives us great hope:
“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” (2 Cor 4:16-18)

We know that Christ “died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him” (1 Thess 5:9-10) and so we have grace for today and bright hope for tomorrow!

Having positively raced through a whole chapter at the last Bible study (Romans 14), we resumed our more usual pace tonight, looking at Romans 15:1-4. Yet again, the chapter looks at the idea of worship being a giving of ourselves, a surrender which leads to service. The strong are urged to bear with the failings of the weak and to support them. Christians have a social responsibility towards the weak, seen from passages such as Ex 22:21-22, Deut 10:18, Is 1:17 and Acts 6:1-4. This makes no sense to those who believe in the evolutionary outlook. If humans are no different to animals really and all that matters is the survival of the fittest, there is nothing to stop us eliminating all those we deem ‘unfit’ – philosophies which led to the atrocities of Nazism or the dangers of eugenics. Christianity teaches, however, that we are all indeed our brother’s keeper and have a responsibility not simply to please ourselves, but to do all we can to encourage and build others up. The strong are urged to use their strength to support others, just as Christ Himself did not come to be served, but to serve (Matt 20:27-28, John 13:12-17).

Paul reminds us in verse 4 that all Scripture is given to teach us and encourage us, helping us to endure and therefore to have hope, no matter what we go through. Endurance is more than simply waiting patiently (as the farmers do – see James 5:7). It is the characteristic of “one who is not swerved from their deliberate purpose and loyalty to faith and piety by even the greatest trials and sufferings.” We can’t deny that suffering and trials occur, but God, through Scripture, through His Holy Spirit and through other Christians, is able to encourage us and comfort us (see 2 Cor 1:3-7). Endurance and encouragement lead to hope and hope in turn builds our ability to endure and gives us further encouragement! 1 Thess 1:2-3 reminds us of the “work produced by faith, the labour prompted by love and the endurance inspired by hope” which the Thessalonian Christians showed. May we too see this never-ending circle in our own lives and be able to encourage and build others up in this most holy faith.

Following the sale of our building on Beever Street, we have been able to have new windows fitted in the remaining rooms: the children’s room, the stage, the ladies’ toilets and the kitchen.





The next job to be tackled will be the rewiring of the community hall, but the trustees of the church are also looking at refurbishing the kitchen and making a new baptistry in the near future, so watch this space for further details of improvements to the building.

When I was a child, I used to play with a toy called a Weeble.

Weebles were roly-poly toys, shaped rather like eggs, which would wobble vigorously but not fall down (hence the catchphrase ‘Weebles wobble, but they don’t fall down!‘) Apparently the toy was based on sound principles of physics:

(A=position of mechanical equilibrium; B=position of mechanical instability; F=gravitational force; y=vertical axis; m1=low-density mass; m2=high-density mass; C=centroid. Note that between positions A and B, C raises slightly and becomes off-centre.)

They’ve been relaunched in the 21st century and you can now even buy ‘themed’ Weebles:

I haven’t thought about this childhood plaything for years, but just recently I’ve been observing how Christians often go through all kinds of difficult circumstances in life and can feel buffeted by trials and troubles. Paul talks about this in 2 Corinthians 4: “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.” Life can be tough at times and we often feel that we are reeling. How much more can we stand before we crack under the strain?

Paul, in this passage, reminds us that “we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.” (2 Cor 4:7) We may be surrounded and battered by troubles, but we’re not demoralised; we may not be sure what to do, but we know that God knows what to do; we may feel spiritually terrorised, but God hasn’t left our side; we may be thrown down, but we haven’t broken. In short, the Christian is indeed rather like a Weeble. We may wobble, but we won’t fall down, because God is able to keep us from falling (Jude 1:24)

Mark preached from 1 Thess 5:12-28 last night, focussing especially on verse 25: “Brothers, pray for us.” This passage is full of imperatives, as Paul concludes his letter with commands. These involve holding leaders in high regard, encouraging the timid, helping the weak, being patient with everyone, learning to be joyful at all times, to pray continually, to give thanks in all circumstances and to allow the Spirit full rein in our lives. But we are reminded of the need to pray for each other.

In John 17:6-21, we see how Jesus prayed for His disciples and prayed for all who would follow Him. We all need prayer. 2 Cor 13:9 reminds us what we can pray for: ‘that you may be fully restored’, that you may reach perfection, for completion and wholeness of faith. Phil 1:3-6 reminds us to pray with thanksgiving for people, to pray continually for people, to pray for continued fellowship and to pray with the confidence that ‘he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus’. (Phil 1:6)

We all completed prayer cards, naming things that we would like others to pray for in our own lives, and then shared these, so that we can each pray for someone else. Prayer is one of the greatest things we can do for each other. May God help us to be faithful in prayer and to willingly share each other’s burdens by praying.