This was the title of Dave’s sermon last weekend (or so he tells me… I was away in Somerset then, but it’s great to be kept in touch!) He talked about how an ordinary day holds the possibility of miracles and how in fact there are no ‘ordinary’ days in the Christian life.

Take, for example, Noah. There he is working on his boat, as he has done for the last few years. It was his project and he took great pains to make sure that it was the best it could possibly be. Then, one morning, it began to rain and this resulted in the great deluge that flooded the earth and destroyed every living thing apart from Noah and his family and animals on the ark.

Or what about that morning in the Sinai desert when an 80 year old shepherd named Moses, who is looking after his father-in-law’s sheep as he had done for 40 years, comes across a burning bush that won’t go out? As a result he becomes the one who leads his people out of the slavery of Egypt.

Or how about a young Jewish teenager named David, tending his father’s sheep on the hills of Judea, who hears his father call him to meet the man of God, and by sunset that day he would learn that he was to become the king of Israel? Indeed, that very day, he is anointed to that very position.

Or what about that day when a young virgin in Nazareth, going about her normal day, meets with an angel who tell her she is to be the mother of the Son of God?

More alarmingly, Dave also spoke on the parable of the rich fool, who built his barns but had no thought of God… the story of a man who was brilliant, but who forgot the one inevitable certainty that stares everyone in the face, and that is that we’re all going to die. He was ready for anything and everything … except that.

And it seems that God just stands back amazed at the folly of a person who would cover every base, and plan for every contingency (no matter how remote), and then forget about the one inevitable certainty, and that’s death.

We may not know what each day will bring (except the certain knowledge that each day has enough trouble of its own!), but we do know that there is a need for us to be prepared to meet God. Let’s not be fools, but let’s acknowledge our need for God, believe in His way of dealing with that need and commit ourselves to following Him. It’s as easy as ABC…

Yes, we are now officially a church!

Oh. You thought we already were?

Well, I guess that’s the thorny question of ‘when is church not a church?’ Or, more officially, when is a church building recognised as a church building?

Because, let’s face it, the church is not actually a building. It’s the people.

Under the provisions of the Places of Worship Registration Act 1855, a place of meeting for religious worship may, if the congregation wish, be so certified to the Registrar General. The certification is arranged by applying to the Superintendent Registrar in the district where the building is situated. Many of you may remember Dave talking about this a few weeks ago and members signing the official form which told the Superintendent Registrar that we did, indeed, so wish to be certified.

The official letter has now been received saying that the building is registered as a place of worship and has also been registered as a place where the solemnisation of weddings can be held.

So, in the eyes of the law, we are legally a church and people can legally get married in the building.

Some people may find all the legal jargon confusing. It’s perhaps good, therefore, to fix our eyes more on how God describes His people than on the actual buildings we use:

“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” (1 Peter 2:9-10)

“Christ is faithful as a son over God’s house. And we are his house, if we hold on to our courage and the hope of which we boast.” (Hebrews 3:6)

One of the traditions of the church is to have silly prizes for the quizzes we do at the family services. Here are people enjoying their prizes.

And just to keep up the spirit of silliness (!), we had a bit of a change-around at the front before the meeting…

Did you guess the identity of the hands?

After the games and quizzes about hands, Garry preached on ‘the hand of God’- which is powerful and protective. God upholds us with His righteous right hand (Is 41:10) and our times are in His hands (Ps 31:15), so we can live with confidence and trust.

Perhaps, though, at times the hand of God can be hard to recognise… which means we have to spend time getting to know God if we are to recognise His hand in the same way that those who did best at the quiz obviously were observant and knew the people well.

On Sunday, we had our ‘family service’, usually held on the first Sunday of the month. The format of this meeting is even more relaxed than usual and we usually have a series of games and quizzes as well as worship and the Word.

The theme this month was ‘the hand of God’, and for one of the quizzes, we had to look at photographs of hands and guess whose they were. It’s not as easy to recognise a person when all you can see if a photo of their hands!

Here are some of the hands:

So… how are you doing with the guessing? It was interesting to see how quickly some people guessed (Gary guessed Stephen’s straightaway, with the comment ‘well, I see his hands playing guitar in front of me every week, so that was easy’) and how long it took with others! There were all kinds of clues: rings, nails, jewellery… But it was surprising how hard it was to recognise a person from their hands alone.

The Bible teaches that God knows every part of us and that He created us; He knit us together in our mother’s womb (Ps 139:13) and we are ‘fearfully and wonderfully made’ (Ps 139:14) It teaches us that even the hairs on our head are numbered by God (Luke 12:7). It is good to celebrate the individual uniqueness of each person in our congregation!

Answers coming soon!

“Come near to God and he will come near to you.” (James 4:8)

Life is full of distractions and busyness, all of which conspire to stop us coming near to God. It’s so much easier to fill our days with activity than it is to take the time out to stop and listen to God.: But, as Jeremy Camp says in the song ‘Slow Down Time’, ‘I need to stop so I can hear You speak’.

The sermon on Sunday morning encouraged us all to take time to draw near to God and to learn new ways we can do this so that we can ultimately become more like our amazing God. Time is the one thing we all have that we can give to God and we need to prioritise so that He receives our due attention. Thanks to all that Jesus has done for us, we can draw near to God with confidence and assurance, even as we learn to come in submission and humility.

“Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.” (Hebrews 10:19-22)

What ways do YOU use to draw close to God? How do you counter the onslaught of busyness to carve out time to be still and know that He is God? I’d love to hear your suggestions and ideas.