Micah 6:8 is probably the most famous verse in that book. “He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” The verse clearly shows us that our faith in God has to be reflected in how we live our lives. This simple truth is nonetheless so profound, cutting through our complacency and hacking away at our apathy.

The Message version translates this passage:
“How can I stand up before God
and show proper respect to the high God?
Should I bring an armload of offerings
topped off with yearling calves?
Would God be impressed with thousands of rams,
with buckets and barrels of olive oil?
Would he be moved if I sacrificed my firstborn child,
my precious baby, to cancel my sin?
But he’s already made it plain how to live, what to do,
what God is looking for in men and women.
It’s quite simple: Do what is fair and just to your neighbour,
be compassionate and loyal in your love,
And don’t take yourself too seriously—
take God seriously.” (Micah 6:7-8)

Christians who take God seriously take the injustice in the world seriously and work hard to reflect what God would do if He were physically present on earth. Think of all the Christians who have worked tirelessly to change things for good, offering their lives to God and campaigning and working for the poor, the oppressed, the needy. Mother Theresa. Francis of Assisi. William Wilberforce. The list is long, with many names known only to God, for our works are often unseen by the world. We may not be famous or significant in the world’s eyes, but we can still affect our families and local communities as we seek to live out Micah 6:8.

At times, movements do arise which are noticed and noticeable. 27 Million is one such campaign. It seeks to highlight the problem of human trafficking and works to stop this, working with the A21 campaign (http://www.thea21campaign.org/) which seeks to prosecute those who are involved in human trafficking and works with the victims, rehabilitating them and offering them a new way of living and the hope of the Gospel.

On 27th February, Matt Redman and LZ7 are releasing a single which aims to highlight this problem (called ’27 Million’ because that’s the estimated number of people involved in human trafficking, often associated with the sex industry and modern day slavery). They talk about this here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJ15rbJUnNM&feature=youtu.be. And you may not think this is particularly relevant to us in Goldthorpe or that it matters very much, but God can stir our hearts and help us to care about others in situations very different to ours. Buying the record can actually bring this problem into the news and reminds us that our worship isn’t just about making us feel good. We have to ‘rise up, open our eyes up, be the voice, be Your freedom’. Jesus came to ‘to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners’ (Is 61:1). The song is one way we remind people not only of the existence of the problem of human trafficking, but of the Saviour who came to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners. Let’s worship not only with words or with music, but with everything we are and everything we do.

God is above all, omniscient, omnipresent, eternal. He doesn’t dwell in time. These are big concepts for us to grasp, especially when we’re in the middle of things. Our perspective (more on that this Sunday!) is limited. But it’s tremendously encouraging to know that whatever we are going through, God is ‘already there’. He knows about it all. He is ‘waiting on the other side’. He is in control.

From where I’m standing
Lord it’s so hard for me to see
Where this is going
And where You’re leading me
I wish I knew how
All my fears and all my questions
Are gonna play out
In a world I can’t control

When I’m lost in the mystery
To You my future is a memory
Cause You’re already there
You’re already there
Standing at the end of my life
Waiting on the other side
And You’re already there
You’re already there

From where You’re standing
Lord, You see a grand design
That You imagined
When You breathed me into life
And all the chaos
Comes together in Your hands
Like a masterpiece
Of Your picture perfect plan

When I’m lost in the mystery
To You my future is a memory
Cause You’re already there
You’re already there
Standing at the end of my life
Waiting on the other side
And You’re already there
You’re already there

One day I’ll stand before You
And look back on the life I’ve lived
I can’t wait to enjoy the view
And see how all the pieces fit (x2)
(Casting Crowns, ‘Already There’)

You can listen to the song here:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ouj1Ai4lIeY
You can hear Mark Hall talk about the inspiration behind the song here: http://www.godtube.com/watch/?v=KWG7GPNX

I’m sure most of us realise the need to declutter from time to time… getting rid of the junk, sorting through the rubbish we accumulate, tidying, spring-cleaning… whatever we like to call it. There are countless programmes about this type of thing on TV: how to make your house attractive to sell it, how to live more simply, getting rid of things so that you can live more simply. Decluttering, downsizing, getting back to basics… all these synonyms point to a less materialistic lifestyle which, hopefully, results in a less stressful way of living.

As we approach the Lenten period when we reflect on the last weeks of Christ on earth, leading up to His death and resurrection, this is perhaps as good a time as any to think about decluttering our spiritual lives and getting back to basics. Our souls get cluttered perhaps even more easily than our houses, and we need to be careful that we keep Christ first and foremost in our lives, in central position, not relegated to a tiny corner of our hearts, but being pre-eminent in everything.

That means letting go, clearing out, spending time with God.

Have you been walking on a surface that’s uncertain?
Have you helped yourself to everything that’s empty?
You can’t live this way too long.
There’s more than this, more than this.
Have you been standing on your own feet too long?
Have you been looking for a place where you belong?
You can rest, you will find rest.
You can rest, you will find rest.

Let this old life crumble, let it fade.
Let this new life offered be your saving grace.
Let this old life crumble, let it fade, let it fade.

Have you been holding on to what this world has offered?
Have you been giving in to all these masquerades?
It will be gone, forever gone.
It will be gone, it will be gone

Let this old life crumble, let it fade.
Let this new life offered be your saving grace.
Let this old life crumble, let it fade, let it fade.
(Jeremy Camp, ‘Let It Fade’)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h843f2GXie0

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.