First of all, answers to the photos posted from the quiz!

1) Iron Man
2) Michael Jackson
3) Peter Pan
4) Simon Cowell
5) Wallace & Gromit

Christmas and the January sales often bring us the opportunity to buy and receive new clothes. But the clothes God has to offer us are far more important than any bargain we may get in the sales!

In a divine exchange that is truly amazing, our ‘filthy rags’ (Isaiah 64:6) – which is what our own righteousness and goodness look like to God – are exchanged for ‘robes of righteousness and garments of salvation’ (Isaiah 61:10).

We looked at some examples of filthy clothing and talked about how much value our world places on external appearances:

Just as no amount of scrubbing or washing powder will get rid of the stains on those clothes, nothing we do can remove our sins from us, but Jesus has made the way for our sins, though red as crimson, to become as white as snow (Isaiah 1:18) through His death on the cross.

Once we have exchanged sackcloth for garments of praise and joy (see Ps 30:11), we have a whole new set of clothes to put on:
“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.” (Col 3:12-14).

The clothes God wants us to wear are characteristics of Christ (elsewhere referred to as ‘fruit of the Spirit’) which are far more important than any fashion parade or jewellery we may wear. God wants us to wear:

1) compassion
2) kindness
3) humility
4) gentleness
5) patience
6) forgiveness
7) love.

The Message version of Colossians 3:14 says “dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you. Wear love. It’s your basic, all-purpose garment. Never be without it.”

Our ‘all-purpose garment’ (like the little black dresses below?!) can look very different. We all speak different ‘love languages’ and have to learn to express love in a variety of ways.

Love can be shown in different ways (spending time with people, serving them, speaking encouragingly and kindly to them and so affirming them, through hugs and giving gifts), but most of all, when we wear the clothes Christ gives us, we become ‘clothed with Christ’ (Gal 3:27) and can reflect His character to all around us.

The first family service of 2013 looked at the subject of divine clothes, but we started with a quiz about famous people or characters who can be recognised simply by their outfits!

Or can they?!

Mark had got some exciting clothing prizes for winners!

These T-shirts were quickly donned:

We also had a birthday to celebrate, the first in 2013!

Dave spoke from John 18:33-37 this morning, looking at Jesus as our King.

The world’s idea of what a king is is not at all the kind of king Jesus represents, however. An earthly king was a powerful human being who secured order and peace and was honoured and respected, revered and feared. Nowadays, the monarchy generally is not held in high regard and there is a general lack of respect for any kind of authority. What does it mean, therefore, for us to own Jesus as King?

Pilate served the Roman Caesar, so he knew all about respecting (and fearing) authority. He knew what earthly kings looked like and recognised that Jesus was no earthly king! Jesus Himself confirmed this when He said, ‘My kingdom is not of this world… my Kingdom is from another place.’ (John 18:36) Despite the sign He placed above the cross, Pilate knew there was no legal basis for finding Jesus guilty of being the kind of king whom Rome would fear. There was no reason to crucify Him for the kind of sedition Rome feared. He simply was not that kind of king.

We can reject Jesus’s kingship in our own lives, either by thinking He is authoritarian and a king in the fashion of all worldly things or by thinking His kingdom only applies to the spiritual realm and has no bearing on how we live our lives on earth. In actual fact, we need to understand that Jesus’s kingship is not like the world’s idea of a king. He exercised His power by serving others, by giving, by forgiving and by loving. He demonstrated what truth, faith, hope, love and life really look like. We need to accept, believe and obey Him, secure in the reality that Jesus reigns. He really is the One in charge and in control of our lives and of the universe. He brings healing and peace to the world and has control over darkness. Jesus is King!

Throughout the Bible, names are incredibly significant. In the Garden of Eden, Adam named all the living creatures God had made: “So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals.” (Gen 2:20) Many languages now have animals named with every letter of the alphabet – from aardvark to zebra! Name changes often represented something significant that God had done: Abram (exalted father) being renamed Abraham (father of many) in Genesis 17:5, for example, or Jacob (the deceiver) being renamed Israel (he struggles with God) in Genesis 32:28 after probably the most significant wrestling match ever! Even the names of God are incredibly significant, telling us something of His character and purposes – He is our provider (Jehovah Jireh, Genesis 22:24), our banner (Jehovah Nissei, Exodus 17:15); our peace (Jehovah Shalom, Judges 6:24); the One who is there for us (Jehovah Shamma, Ezekiel 48:35).

Every village, town and city is divided up into streets. These provide an easy way to locate particular places or houses. These days, our streets are numbered and also have postcodes to distinguish them from streets in other areas with the same names. As we walk around, we have been taking photographs of the street names to help us to pray for these when we are not out and about as well. Here are some of the street names we saw yesterday:
Foxmires Grove

Pearwood Close

Kents Grove

St Mary’s Road

Pickhills Avenue

Main Street:

Elizabeth Street:

King Street:

Lockwood Road:

Market Street:

Co-operative Street:

Victoria Street:

Beever Street:

Garden Street:

Hamilton Road:

Nora Street:

Each of these streets – and all the others walked yesterday – represent a vast number of people and households loved by God. Let’s pray for each household to come to know the Lord and to be strengthened and helped by Him, for any evil powers to be broken and for God’s glory to shine in these streets and in the lives of the people who live there.

Paul told the Romans that they should understand the present time:“the hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.” (Rom 13:11)

As we pray during the month of January, we need to understand the present time. There is great discouragement all around our area. Unemployment is high; the economic conditions are not good; there is a general feeling of insecurity and even despair in many areas. We should not be discouraged by what we see in the visible realm, however, and need to keep our eyes fixed on God, who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine (Eph 3:20).

As we walked the streets of Goldthorpe today, there were two scenes which set people praying.

The first was this desolate, overgrown area on the new estate:

Isaiah 43:18-19 is a Scripture which has been coming back to various people at church over recent months. This says, “‘Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” What seems overgrown and untended to us can still be made into something beautiful by God.

Isaiah 58:12 says “Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.” We have a God who is able to repair and restore that which looks desolate and barren.

The second was the water tower:

Water is often seen as a symbol of the Holy Spirit. In John 7, we read “On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, ‘Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.’ By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.” (John 7:37-39) Our prayer is for those rivers of living water to flow from within many more people in Goldthorpe as they come to know the Lord in 2013.

Each Saturday in January after the coffee morning, the church is holding a series of prayer walks through the streets of Goldthorpe. We pray God’s blessing on the people and the community in which we serve and look to God to move in every household and every street.

Goldthorpe was originally a small mediaeval farming village in Yorkshire, mentioned in the Domesday Book. In the early 18th century Barnsley Attorney William Henry Marsden Esquire of nearby Burntwood Hall bought the Lord of the Manor of Bolton on Dearne with Goldthorpe for £10,000 together with over 1,000 acres (4.0 km2) of land. Goldthorpe is recorded in the 1761-1767 Inclosure Awards. The Marsden family continued to hold the manor until 1815.

Work has recently been done on the main road and pavements in Goldthorpe and some of the history of the place has been captured in flagstones:

The flagstone captures the original spelling of the village name (Godetorp, also known as Guldetorp, presumably after the first man who settled in the ‘thorpe’ or outlying farmstead.)

The rise of the mining industry in Yorkshire accounted for the growth of the village in recent years, but since the closure of the mines in the late 1980s, it has become a deprived economic area. This is evident from the number of rundown buildings and closed shops in the area.

Child poverty in the Barnsley area as a whole (and in Goldthorpe as one of the worst areas in the borough) is much higher than the national average. The percentage of children classed as living in poverty (defined as where at least one parent is claiming Income Support, Incapacity Benefit, Jobseekers’ Allowance or Pension Credits) in Goldthorpe is 45%.
Goldthorpe Statistics

Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council announced regeneration plans for the village in 2008, and some improvements have been seen (the new paving on the main road was part of this plan, for example), but the majority of these plans are at the moment still on hold, largely because of the current difficult economic climate. One of the things we are praying for is the general regeneration of the village.

New housing has been built on the outskirts of the village:

How does praying on the streets of Goldthorpe effect change in the village? Well, the short answer to that is we don’t know ‘how’! We only know that God wants us to pray for people and for our area and we are content to leave the ‘how’ to Him! There is no value in ignorance, however, and we want to support the local authority and any organisations who seek to improve the area as a whole. The ‘Goldthorpe Master Plan’ proposed by BMBC looked at 5 key areas:

1.Regenerating the Village Core
2.A new, larger primary school facility
3.Better housing (which includes the development of Beever Street, where the church used to be located)
4. Improving green spaces in the village
5. Celebrating Goldthorpe (Celebrate Goldthorpe’s historical and cultural heritage and create a stronger identity through new landmarks and focal points of interest)
Goldthorpe Master Plan

As you join with us in praying during January, bring these 5 areas to God and see if we can part of the physical regeneration of our village, as well as praying for spiritual regeneration.