Garry spoke tonight from Romans 8:1-3. 5-17 where Paul talks about two realms (or worlds): the natural world we all know and inhabit and the spiritual world. All of us are familiar with the first world, but when we become Christians, we gain access to a spiritual realm. Christ opens up for us a new dimension. We can either ignore the spiritual world altogether or believe that the material world has little value. In truth, both are necessary; to live life to the full, we must engage fully with both worlds.

Those who belong to the spiritual world must move away from the seflishness with which we are all born and learn to live with an awareness of God and of other people’s needs.God rules His world, but still gives us freedom to choose and always wants what is best for us. Even as Christians, we can live as though God does not exist; we can be concerned only with what we can see and touch. But this is not what God wants for us, for He wants us to live in the spiritual realm, where we are filled with love, hope and joy. He wants us to live with the eternal view in mind and to know that there is purpose in life. The choice is ours: will we swap the mediocre for the majestic?

This morning in our series ‘The Miraculous & The Mundane’, we looked at Mark 9:14-29 (see also Matthew 17:14-20), the account of Jesus healing a demon-possessed boy when his disciples could not. We may feel that it was unreasonable to expect his disciples to do miracles: surely only Jesus could do that? But as John 14:9-13 and Luke 9:1-2 make plain, Jesus did not perform miracles because He was the Son of God; He had authority from His Father to do these things and gave that authority to His disciples as well. He was clearly frustrated by His disciples’ lack of faith and we see from this account not only Jesus’s power over everything, but the revolutionary truth that ‘everything is possible for the one who believes.’ (Mark 9:23)

This scene is set just after the Transfiguration, when God has declared ‘This is my Son, whom I love.’ (Mark 9:7) There, Peter, James and John were left dazzled by the brightness of God’s glory, but ultimately saw only Jesus. Our eyes need to be firmly fixed on Jesus rather than on the needs surrounding us. As Matt Redman puts it, ‘The first step for a worshipper is to confidently get to grips with just how magnificent and mighty God is. The next step is to let that confidence in God seep into the very depths of our hearts and minds, forming a holy confidence on the inside of us.’

Jesus was secure in His identity as God’s Son and in who God was: ‘Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God.’ (John 13:3) Knowing who we are in God and who God is are the keys to the miraculous; they are also the keys to a contented, happy life.

The boy’s father reflects the tension many of us feel as he says, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”’ (Mark 9:24) All of us struggle with the battle between the old nature and the new nature (Rom 7:15-19) We must learn to move from unbelief to belief, from doubt to faith, from insecurity to security, and this can only be done through prayer and the word. Jesus reminds us that apart from Him, we can do nothing (John 15:5); if He Himself could only do what He saw His Father doing (John 5:19-20), then we too must learn to make our relationship with God our priority. Only by prayer and faith (which comes through hearing the message of Christ) can we access the miraculous in our everyday lives. We must see God as Almighty, realise everything is possible for those who believe and ask for His help to overcome any area of our lives where unbelief reigns.

We had a lovely evening painting and colouring at the ‘Churches Together’ ‘Mindful Moments’ evening in April.The next session is on Monday 15 May between 6 and 8 p.m. at GPCC.

We continued to make covers for the wooden story books which will be used at the Phoenix Park Fun Day on 31st May, and thank Sharon Seaborne, Karen Dunn, Julie Unwin, Claire Croot, Julie Beaver, Kathy Tasker, Stan Bryan and Julie Turner for their help in creating these.

We also painted ceramic coasters and did Easter colouring.

Here’s an overview of special meetings in May.

Saturday 6 May @ 10 a.m. – 12 p.m.

Apart from our usual monthly prayer walk, we will be holding a Coronation Coffee Morning between 10 a.m. and 12 p.m.

Sunday 7 May @ 4 p.m.

Instead of our usual evening service, we will be holding a Coronation Afternoon Tea and Celebration Service, starting at 4 p.m. It’s free to attend, but please book in by contacting Julie Turner on 07729 421405 or by emailing julie@gpcchurch.co.uk We’ll be having a yummy afternoon tea and then holding a messy church service suitable for children with crafts based on the Coronation and the theme of Jesus as King of Kings.

Monday 15 May between 6 and 8 p.m.

Our ‘Mindful Moments’ evening of creativity for adults will be on 15 May between 6 and 8 p.m. Come and make cards, colour, learn about creative writing and much more.

Wednesday 17 May @ 1.45 p.m.

The monthly ‘Churches Together’ prayer meeting will be at Furlong Road Methodist Church in Bolton-on-Dearne

Tuesday 23 May between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. @ GPCC

Join us for a community consultation and design day as part of the Dearne Community Arts’ Festival community art project to make selfie boards to celebrate our local community. Bring your photos of Goldthorpe throughout the ages and help us design a selfie board for the new Town Square, for Dearne Churches Together and for the arts’ festival itself. Storyteller Rebecca Dye will be present to record our reminiscences and to find out what local groups mean to us and we will also be packing story bags to raise funds for the arts’ festival at the Phoenix Park Fun Day later in May.

Wednesday 31 May between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. @ Phoenix Park, Thurnscoe

Come along to this family fun day at Phoenix Park, where a range of organisations will be doing different activities for families including sports, cycling, crafts, trails and looking at different stories and storytelling. A great free fun day for all the family, with portable toilets and refreshments available. Or you can bring your own picnic. Children are encouraged to come dressed as book characters and to bring a Teddy Bear!

If you can help at any of these events, please contact Julie on 07729 421405 or email julie@gpcchurch.co.uk

In 1959 Dinah Washington had a hit with the song ‘What A Difference A Day Makes’, reminding us that a lot can happen in twenty-four little hours. We looked at two miracles Jesus did in one twenty-four hour period tonight (see Luke 8:40-56 & Mark 5:21-43).and saw how He was able to meet all the needs, even though these were desperate – a woman who had been suffering for twelve years and a girl who actually died during the course of the day but who was raised to life by the power of Jesus.

Both Jairus (the girl’s father and a synagogue ruler) and the unnamed woman were in desperate situations, but they still had faith that Jesus could heal and make a difference. They put aside their pride to reach out to Jesus and this is an example to us. It’s easy when things don’t go our way and God seems indifferent to us to give up hope, but these two people show us that Jesus will never turn anyone away who comes in humble, desperate need. Asking for help goes against the grain in Western society, but it’s only when we come to God honestly, confessing our sin where applicable and throwing ourselves on His mercy that we find the help we need.

Both people ultimately received help from Jesus, but the delay Jairus faced when Jesus healed the woman and commended her faith meant his situation initially got worse, not better, for his daughter died. At that point, it would have been natural for confusion and even anger to have arisen; everyone assumed that there was nothing Jesus could do now. But Jesus urged him not to be afraid and to keep on believing, and ultimately went to his house and raised the girl from the dead. Delay is hard for us to understand, but often we have to wait for the Lord’s timing before He steps into our situations with miraculous solutions. ‘Don’t be afraid; just believe’ is good advice to us in those waiting times when God doesn’t seem to be doing anything.

Isaiah tells us, ‘in perfect faithfulness You have done wonderful things’ (Is 25:1), and this is what we see Jesus doing in the gospels. Nothing is too difficult for Him – not long-term illness, not even death. Even when things are not going according to our plans, even when things apparently go from bad to worse, He is still able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine. (Eph 3:20) Our part is to ask for help, to believe He is able and willing to help us and to keep on believing, even when the evidence of our eyes says there is no longer any reason to hope. God is the One who does the miracles. We are simply the blessed recipients of His grace and favour; our response is simply to praise Him and come to Him with thanksgiving in our hearts.

Dave spoke this morning from Luke 24:13-35, the story of two disciples disillusioned, depressed and downcast. They had entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday with high hopes of Jesus being crowned king, but life had not worked out how they had expected: Jesus had been arrested, tried and executed in the space of a few days. Their hopes had been dashed and they were not at all sure what to make of the women’s bizarre stories that they had seen the risen Lord. Having our dreams dashed and facing disappointment is one of the many things we have in common with these two disciples, who were joined on their long walk to Emmaus by Jesus HImself. He explained what Jesus had taught about being raised from the dead and answered their disasppointment by reminding them of what God had said.

We need, as Paul reminded Timothy, to continue in what we have learned and to remember that we serve a risen Saviour, no matter what our personal circumstances look like. As these two reflected on what Jesus said, God’s word burned in their hearts and they realilsed who their companion was, that they had a friend in need, a friend in God. They discovered new hope and realised the bigger picture as they listened and learned from Jesus. The same will happen to us if we walk with Him through our darkest days.