We are heading towards the season of Advent and preparing for Christmas, and as I ponder these times, I look at Advent calendars. These are big business these days. In our society, it seems that anticipation isn’t enough: the calendar where you simply open a door and count down the days seems boring!

The most common kind of Advent calendar (I think) is the chocolate one, but even these range from relatively cheap chocolates to luxury ones:

Then there are the speciality calendars, offering perfumes or alcoholic drinks:

Or the Advent calendars for pets:

I’m all for anticipation and preparing our hearts to make room for Jesus, but I think there’s perhaps a simpler way of doing this than succumbing to retail therapy. It’s called ‘counting your blessings.’ My Advent challenge is to make a list of all the ways God blesses you throughout the season of Advent. Write them down. All that’s required for this Advent challenge is a piece of paper and a pen or pencil and a thankful heart that will ponder God’s blessings. I can guarantee there are far more than 24 blessings to be found, so maybe you should start now!

‘I was blind, now I’m seeing in colour.
I was dead, now I’m living forever.
I had failed, but You were my Redeemer.
I’ve been blessed beyond all measure.

I was lost, now I’m found by the Father
I’ve been changed from a ruin to treasure
I’ve been given a hope and a future
I’ve been blessed beyond all measure

I am counting every blessing, counting every blessing
Letting go and trusting when I cannot see
I am counting every blessing, counting every blessing
Surely every season You are good to me.

You were there in the valley of shadows
You were there in the depth of my sorrows
You’re my strength, my hope for tomorrow
I’ve been blessed beyond all measure.

Surely Your goodness pursues me
Surely Your heart is still for me
I will remember Your mercies all my days
Through every storm and gale.’ (‘Counting Every Blessing’, Rend Collective)

On Thursday, our area faced one month’s rainfall in one day and there was widespread flooding. All my family was in the affected areas of Sheffield and for many hours I was uncertain what was happening to them. Because they were travelling, it wasn’t always possible to get in touch with them, and then my phone battery ran out of energy. I was without a phone charger and felt very much the lack of communication. There was nothing I could do to help them, but as I prayed for God to help them through the floods, I realised that our prayers are far more effective than anything else we can do.

Life can often feel like a flood to us, overwhelming us with situations over which we have little or no control. We are swept away by circumstances. Illness comes unexpectedly. Our job security can vanish in a moment. Relationships can be severed without warning. We can feel caught up in situations which baffle us and confuse us and we are left afraid, insecure and troubled. Ironically, as floods were battering South Yorkshire, there were news reports of bush fires in Australia which were raging. Danger can come from varied sources!

The only answer to troubled times is God, and He promises His help at all times. (Ps 46:1) Phil Wickham’s song ‘Eyes Fixed On You’ reminds us that through fire or flood, through wind and the waves, God is with us (see Isaiah 43:1-4). Because of Him, we are safe. Because of His presence and favour, there is ultimately nothing to fear. We need to have our eyes fixed on God. (Col 3:1-3)

‘I look up towards the sky,
Eyes fixed on You.
Your presence is where I hide.
Above every fear I rise,
Eyes fixed on You
And You’ll never leave my side.

Through fire or flood
Through wind and the waves
I follow Your voice through the darkest of days.
Whatever may come
You carry me through
Oh, You are the One I choose.

Eyes fixed on You
Eyes fixed on You

I walk with You on the waves
Eyes fixed on You
You’re with me, I know I’m safe
Completely You captivate
Eyes fixed on You
I trust every word You say.

Whom shall I fear? – for You are with me.
Whom shall I fear? –  You are by my side.
You are for me; who can stand against me.
God, on You I fix my eyes.
Whom shall I fear?-  for You are with me.
Whom shall I fear?-  You are by my side.
You are for me; who can stand against me.
God, on You I fix my eyes. (‘Eyes Fixed On You’, Phil Wickham)

Here are some dates for the diary:

Wednesday 20th November is our next ‘Churches Together’ prayer meeting at 11 a.m. at Furlong Road Methodist Church. Later on that day, at 1 p.m. at the Salvation Army, we will be preparing the Goody Bags for the Christmas show the following week. These are given out to local school children who attend the 4FrontTheatre production ‘Back In Time For Christmas.’

On Monday 25th November, 4FrontTheatre will be back with us, performing their Christmas show ‘Back In Time For Christmas’ for children of Goldthorpe Primary School and Sacred Heart Primary School. The evening performance at GPCC at 6.30 p.m. is just about sold out! Please pray for the actors and for each performance of this great show.

On Friday 6th December we’ll be opening up to serve refreshments, offer craft activities and a Christmas present wrapping service during the Goldthorpe Christmas Market (run by Goldthorpe Development Group). If you can help on that afternoon/ evening (4-8 p.m.) or provide baking for the event, please let Julie know. We’ll be singing carols outdoors at 6 p.m., so please for fine, dry weather!

Don’t forget also our carol services at Cherry Tree Court on Sunday 8th December at 10.30 a.m. and at GPCC on Sunday 22nd December at 6 p.m.

Tonight’s ‘Little Big Church’ looked at the idea of kings and queens. Some of the children dressed up and became queens for the evening:

They were involved in knighting loyal subjects (Sir Stephen of Keys and Sir Gary of Percussion), who then had to make them crowns and sort out their thrones.

They then listened to requests from their subjects (the rest of the congregation), dispensing money to help children in Haiti and India.

However, some of the requests could not be solved by gold coins: a giant threatening the nation’s safety and a law banning prayer needed God’s intervention, not theirs.

The truth is that God wants us to do all we can to help people, and if it’s in our power to help, we should. There are many situations in life, however, which are beyond even the most powerful person’s ability to intervene. We need to realise that God is ‘the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God’ (1 Tim 1:17) and that He wants to be our King too.

Rend Co Kids’ song ‘King Of Me’ looks at the stories of David and Goliath, Daniel in the lions’ den and Jonah to remind us that these stories are not just history. They are testimony of God’s intervention in human situations, and, as the song says, ‘He will do the same for me.’ We can be confident that God is the King and is able to do far more than even the most powerful of human kings or queens.

Dave spoke this morning from Mark 1:40-45, an encounter between a leper and Jesus. Leprosy was one of the most devastating diseases recorded in the Bible, killing through destroying the nervous system so that limbs were lost, blindness occurred and destruction came, in effect, slowly and painlessly. It was a most disfiguring disease and lepers were treated as outcasts and shunned. They were considered ritually unclean and were not allowed to come near people or take part in collective worship. This lack of social contact and physical contact must have made life exceedingly difficult for a leper.

For this leper to approach Jesus during His public ministry took courage. He made his way through the crowds and said to Jesus, ‘If you are willing, you can make me clean.’ (Mark 1:40) He wanted to be able to take part in society again and knew that Jesus was his only hope.

Jesus healed people in many different ways, often simply by speaking a word of healing. Here, in touching the leper, He broke all the taboos of society and signified that He understood the importance of touch to the leper. Babies need human contact if they are to flourish; the tales of deprivation in Romanian orphanages in the 1990s showed us the terrible consequences of not giving babies the hugs and cuddles they need. Touch can be an important way of giving comfort, reassurance and affection (think of the way a mother hugs her child after it has fallen down in the mud or the way lovers constantly touch each other to convey their love), and in reaching out to the leper in this way, Jesus conveyed total acceptance and love. He tailors His response to our needs; He knows exactly what to do to minister to the whole person.

The Bible has other accounts of Jesus healing lepers (e.g. Luke 17:11-19), but in that narrative, the lepers remain far off, standing at a distance and shouting out to Jesus. Here, we see the benefits of drawing near to God and we have a vivid reminder that no one is too bad to come to Jesus. God can cleanse us and make us whole; He is most definitely willing to hear us when we call and responds when we draw near.

When we read some of the promises in the Bible about prayer, we may feel we have carte blanche to a life of unending bliss (see 1 John 5:14-15, Matt 7:7, John 14:14). Yet we soon come to realise that prayer is not a slot machine programmed to pour out coins every time we pray. We can spend a lot of time disappointed with prayer and with God because we have unrealistic expectations and because we don’t always get the answers we want.

‘No’ and ‘wait’ are as much a part of prayer as ‘yes’; waiting on God is a vital part of prayer, and in those positive verses about prayer, we see the importance of asking in Jesus’s name and according to His will. Prayer is not the spiritual path to selfishness, but an invitation to participate in a relationship with God. I listen to my granddaughter’s confidence when she speaks to me (‘I watch videos now; I get an ice-cream‘), and if her views are challenged (‘it depends. Maybe. Later’ or even ‘No‘), she nods her head and says ‘yes, yes, I say so.‘ We can be like that too, telling God, ‘yes, yes, I say so’ if He doesn’t give us what we want immediately!

So often, we believe we know better than God, but what we want is not always the best for us (a life of watching videos and eating ice-cream seems wonderful to a two-year-old, but a wise parent knows these things are not always good for us!) In the same way, God knows what is best for us and this kindness and goodness are what lie behind the ‘no‘ and ‘wait’ which so often infuriate us. Waiting and refusals do not mean God doesn’t love us, any more than my refusal to hand out an endless stream of ice-creams means I don’t love my granddaughter. We grow up when we learn to yield to HIs wisdom.

Not getting what we want in prayer can leave us feeling frustrated and disillusioned with God, but in truth, all God’s answers to our prayers are meant to shape us into His image. Rick Warren says, ‘The things you wish most removed from your life are often the very things that God is using to shape you and make you into the believer that he wants you to be. He wants to use that problem for good in your life.’ We grow up when we learn to pray as Jesus did: ‘not my will, but Yours be done.’ (Luke 22:42)