Stress and anxiety are often part of our lives nowadays; we worry about so many different things, including our jobs (or lack of them), finances, relationships, politics and so on. Even when we don’t have any specific reason to worry, anxiety can gnaw away at us; Charlie Brown once said, ‘I worry about my worries!’ The problem with stress, worry and anxiety is that these are futile; as Charlie Brown also comments, ‘worrying just stops you from enjoying the good.’

In Matt 6:25-34, Jesus addressed these problems and gave us the antidote to anxiety. He told His disciples – who faced much the same worries we do, even if they may be dressed in different clothes! – not to worry, showing them it was pointless (it can’t add an hour to our lives or an inch to our height) and that life is about much more than the material world. The reason we don’t have to worry is not because bad things don’t happen, but because we have a God who loves us and provides for us.

Many people struggle to believe that God is in charge and that He loves us and therefore feel that they must be able to solve all of life’s problems by themselves, which is clearly impossible. So often, our worries are about tomorrow, but as Jesus reminded us, if God cares for the flowers in the fields and the birds of the air, He will surely look after us, since we are even more valuable to HIm. The only way we can successfully live without worrying is by seeking God’s kingdom and His righteousness above our own desires and needs. If we focus on ourselves, worry is inevitable, but in the divine paradox of life, if we turn our attention away from our needs, our needs will actually be met by God. When we learn to rely on God’s righteousness rather than our own and put God first, we find that trusting God is the cure for anxiety (see Prov 3:5-6). Habbakuk reminds us that we can rejoice even when circumstances don’t appear to be favourable (Hab 3:17-18). It’s all a question of trust; trust is the antidote to worry. When we put God first and trust Him, we can relax into His loving care. ‘Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions‘, as the Message version puts it!

We have a couple of special meetings left in September. On Tuesday 17th September at 10.30 a.m. we resume our ‘Churches Together’ prayer meetings, joining with Christians from other churches to pray for our churches and community, this time at the Salvation Army on Straight Lane in Goldthorpe. All welcome; please feel free to let us know your prayer requests. John tells us, ‘This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.‘ (1 John 5:14-15) What an encouragement to pray!

We are hosting a coffee morning in order to raise funds for the cancer charity Macmillan on Saturday 28th September between 10 a.m. and 12 p.m. Come along for home made cakes and buns and hot and cold drinks and support Macmillan at the same time!

On Saturday 28th September between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. there will be the Dearne Community Arts’ Festival at Astrea Academy Dearne (secondary school on Goldthorpe Road, S63 9EW). This local event seeks to champion creativity and celebrate community and is a wonderful opportunity to see what local residents get up to all year round! There will be exhibitions, performances, workshops and demonstrations with all kinds of arts on offer – painting, photography, crafts, woodwork, jewellery, knitting, sewing, crocheting, circus skills, music, dance, pyrography, 3D printing, virtual reality cinema, paper crafts, needle felting, hot wax painting, sand art, making bead badges, creative writing, poetry and much more!

The festival is free and suitable for all ages. It’s a great opportunity to buy Christmas presents (we have local people selling home decor, children’s clothing, blankets, baby cardigans, jewellery, hair accessories, Scrabble tile gifts, wooden vases and bowls, for example) and to look at some lovely art work (including projects done by local organisations such as Station House, the local history group and Dearne Churches Together), but there is also the opportunity to have a go at something creative yourself and to learn about different kinds of crafts. With face painting and body art by Julia Arts and light refreshments sold, we really hope you’ll come along to see for yourself and to support this local arts’ festival!

The apostles in Acts 6:1-7 teach us an important principle: if we are to say ‘yes’ to the things God calls us to do, we have to learn to say ‘no’ to other things.

This sounds beautifully simple (and the principle is indeed simple), but it can be exceedingly difficult to put this into practice, especially if, like me, you have a personality that likes to say ‘yes’ to everyone for a whole slew of reasons, many of which look virtuous but actually aren’t.

So often, I say ‘yes’, not because I believe this is what God wants me to do, but because saying ‘yes’ feeds my ego or pleases somebody else, thereby keeping me in their favour. Saying ‘yes’ makes me feel needed, important, special, valued and wanted. Flattery will get us everywhere, the saying goes, and there is a hugely selfish part of me that is simply flattered when I am asked to do something and responds accordingly, almost by rote.

I often fear saying ‘no’ in case this makes me unpopular, disliked and causes me to lose respect and friendship as a result, but the truth remains that we cannot say ‘yes’ to everything and remain balanced, sane and emotionally stable people.

The apostles did not dismiss the work of feeding the widows as unimportant or unnecessary, but they recognised both their finite capacities (there are only so many hours in a day!) and their primary calling in God. They were happy to help organise a solution to the problem, but they were not willing to take on additional responsibilities, no matter how pressured they may have felt to do so.

The comment ‘it would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables’ (Acts 6:2) showed that they knew their priorities and were determined to say ‘yes’ to their God-given calling. They were not dismissing other roles as inferior, but they knew what they had to do.

Saying ‘no’ often seems negative and we cannot always avoid disappointing other people and letting them down. Nonetheless, there will be times when saying ‘no’ is the right thing to do. It not only kept the apostles on track, but freed up other people to serve God in new ways.

What things do we need to say ‘no’ to? What things do we need to say ‘yes’ to? The grace of God ‘teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age.’ (Titus 2:12) Let’s learn to say ‘no’ in order to say ‘yes’ to God.

Legislation is being considered in the UK to ban all forms of mobile phone usage while driving. It is currently illegal to hold a phone or SatNav while driving, with only hands-free access allowed (e.g. a Bluetooth headset, voice command, a dashboard holder or mat, a windscreen mount or a built-in SatNav), but because of the number of accidents where the distraction of a mobile phone is considered a major factor, even banning the use of hands-free phones is being considered.

In 2015, six hundred and sixty thousand drivers in the United States were estimated to use mobile phones each day, while driving behind the wheel during daylight hours. Mobile phone use while driving has become a leading cause of vehicle crashes over the last two decades. This is not the only potential source of distraction for a driver (as any parent of screaming babies or warring toddlers will testify!), but it is one which can be easily remedied. Remove the source of distraction!

Distraction is one of the enemy’s favourite weapons. It is particularly dangerous to us because it looks so attractive; we are often lured to do something which is good, rather than tempted to do something we know to be dangerous or harmful. In the early church, the growth of the church (something good!) had the potential to become something bad, as Acts 6:1-7 describes.

Church growth led to the problem of the Greek-speaking widows being overlooked in the process of food distribution (Acts 6:1). This was a real problem, because the protection of and provision for widows was a key part of the church’s call to mirror God’s nature and obey God’s laws (see Deut 24:19-21). However, the solution proposed by the apostles recognised the important principle that they should not be distracted from their primary calling (to prayer and the ministry of the word) in order to solve the problem. (Acts 6:2)

It would have been easy for them to seek to solve the problem themselves, but if they had done so, they would have had less time to devote to their primary calling. This is what distraction does to us. It offers us new opportunities for service and leads us down the path of diversion. There will undoubtedly be times when God leads us in new directions and we may well have to be diverted from our everyday routines and jobs. But we need to seek God’s leading in all things and understand our primary calling. The enemy loves to distract us, very often with good causes and new opportunities, but we need wisdom, as Nehemiah showed when the opportunity to leave the work of rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem came up: “I am doing a great work and I cannot come down.” (Nehemiah 6:3) He knew what God had called him to do and he refused to be distracted or diverted from it (with the result that the walls were rebuilt in an incredible 52 days!)

It’s easy for us to look at the apostles and think they were being inflexible. Actually, the solution they proposed (appointing others full of the Holy Spirit to do this work) was wise: delegation is an important strategy, since we all have different giftings and callings and need to use these in God’s service. More than anything, in knowing their calling and role, they demonstrated what is the very essence of success in God. To be successful is simply to do His will, to follow His calling for our lives. That will differ for each one of us, but if we continue with our gaze fixed on Jesus (Col 3:1-3, Heb 12:1-2), we will not be distracted or diverted from the race marked out for us.

We often have a very naïve and rose-coloured view of the early church, believing this to be a golden age when nothing ever went wrong. By contrast, we see the differences, disputes and divisions in the church nowadays very clearly and often get disheartened by these. As we study Acts 6:1-7, however, we see how differences and disputes can be handled so that division is not the end result, and this acts as a spur to us in our own everyday disputes and differences.

The devil loves to promote and keep our attention on differences and disputes in order to create division and disunity. Paul warns us against this, telling us to ‘make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.’ (Eph 4:3) He stresses the unity of the Godhead in order to make us realise the importance and relevance of unity: ‘There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; ⁵ one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.’ (Eph 4:4-6)

The Bible is very clear that differences will always abound and are to be embraced and appreciated. We are all different and there is a place for each one of us in the body of Christ (see 1 Cor 12:12-14, Rom 12:4-8). When disputes arise because of these differences (in this passage, the dispute was that the Greek-speaking widows were being overlooked in the distribution of food, a fact no one seems to have actually disputed), we can either let the dispute escalate to the point where we are divided and no longer want to work together, or we can bring the dispute to God and to the church and seek to work through the differences to find a solution (usually compromise is required at this point!) It requires maturity to do this and many people leave churches because of unresolved conflict which is never really addressed, often dealing with relative minor matters.

Grumbling and complaining, trying to sweep issues under the carpet and not addressing problems almost always leads to division and disunity. By bringing the dispute into the open and seeking God’s solution, the apostles showed us that disputes can be resolved. The solution of appointing Spirit-filled men to oversee the food distribution, freeing the apostles to devote themselves to prayer and the ministry of the word, worked and everyone was happy and united.

If we are to overcome disputes and divisions, we have to understand the Biblical precedent of honouring others above ourselves (see 1 Cor 10:24, 33; Phil 2:2-4), clothing ourselves with love (see Col 3:12-14) and striving for unity. This is hard work; it isn’t something that comes easily to us and does indeed require a spiritual perspective which helps us to explain the criteria demanded (‘to be full of the Spirit and wisdom’, Acts 6:3). Only as we see unity as integral to God and to His church will we be able to embrace differences without becoming divided.

Diversity is a bit of a buzzword in today’s society, especially when associated with ‘equality and diversity’ training in the workplace. The truth about diversity is indisputable, however: we are all different and diversity is to be found everywhere.

In Acts 6:1-7, we see how the apostles reacted when faced with the logistical problem of feeding so many widows. We’re not sure how many people were involved, but with the church growing at a fast pace (5,000 believers were mentioned in Acts 4:4 and the number had probably grown by then, as Acts 6:1 indicates), this was not an easy task. As a result, some Greek-speaking Jews complained that their widows were being overlooked in the daily food distribution.

The apostles’ response indicated that there needed to be diversity in ministry: ‘It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables. ³Brothers and sisters, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them ⁴ and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.’ (Acts 6:2-4) There is no indication that the ministry of the word of God is more important than waiting on tables, simply a recognition that we are all called to different ministries (ways of serving God and the church.) Paul taught about this in 1 Cor 12:7-31, reminding us that even though the body is made up of many parts, it’s still one body and all parts are equally needed.

When we recognise the diversity of gifts and ministry in the church, the church can flourish. One person doesn’t have to do it all. We need different people to do different jobs: cleaning the church, making drinks, sorting finances, ordering equipment, teaching the Bible, leading worship, working the words on the projector, welcoming people into meetings, teaching children and so on. The apostles recognised that God had called them to prayer and the ministry of the word and they couldn’t do this if they were overseeing the distribution of food, so other people were appointed to do that.

The criteria for service are not simply skill or willingness, though both of these things are key. Service is spiritual, therefore the apostles wanted the church to choose men ‘known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom.’ (Acts 2:3) In all things, we need to be spiritual people, people born again of the Spirit of God and seeking to live according to His ways and wisdom. There really is no division between our service to God. Whatever our roles, however we serve God, we are required to be people full of the Spirit and wisdom, for there’s no other way to serve God.