The reason Jesus tells us we don’t have to worry and fret is because we have a heavenly Father who knows all our needs and who provides for us. (Matt 6:25-34) So often, we don’t believe that God cares enough to look after our earthly needs, but Jesus reminds us that our God cares for the birds and the flowers and we are more valuable in His sight! Instead of fretting, trying to sort out impossible situations in our own strength or wondering how God will step in, we need to seek first His kingdom and righteousness. We need to seek the Giver more than we seek the gift.

God’s provision can come in a myriad different ways: in the wilderness, He provided manna and quail for His people to eat (sending a double portion of manna on the day before the Sabbath so that the people did not have to work on that day!) He also ensured that their clothes and sandals did not wear out! (Deut 29:5) Other examples of wild and wonderful means of provision include:

• a raven bringing food and drink to Elijah each morning and evening (1 Kings 17:2-6),

• a jug of oil and small amount of flour which made bread each day during a time of famine (1 Kings 17:16)

• a boy’s picnic lunch of 5 loaves and 2 fish being able to feed five thousand men (not counting the women and children) and still having 12 baskets of leftovers! (John 6:1-15)

We have seen God’s provision for us as a church (when buying this building, we only had just over £7,500 in the bank, but as we gave all we had, we saw God provide over £170,000 through grants and loans and were able to repay all loans before the sale of our old building went through) and as individuals, but faith means trusting God rather than looking to what we can see and work out with our own eyes. Only as we seek God and spend time with Him, learning His generous heart and practising generosity ourselves, can we live in the blessing of God (see 2 Cor 9:6-12). God’s generosity is poured out on us not so that we can become rich hoarders, counting our money like the farmer who wanted to build bigger barns. Instead, He gives us something so we can then give away, so we can bless others. God blesses us so that all the ends of the earth will fear Him. (Ps 67:6-7) He blesses us so we can bless others. Jesus told us it is more blessed to give than to receive. (Acts 20:35) May we learn to live carefree before God because He is most careful with us. (1 Pet 5:7, The Message)

In the last of our series ‘Battles & Blessings’, we looked again at the fact that God is a God who loves to bless His people (see Ps 67, 2 Cor 9:8, Eph 1:3, John 1:16, James 1:17), but so often we find this difficult to hold onto in times of trial. We are easily disorientated by battles, it’s like being in the Vortex Tunnel at Edinburgh’s Camera Obscura, where the walkway is surrounded by flashing lights, making it hard to walk along the walkway because it feels like it’s moving.

We need to live by faith and not by sight (2 Cor 5:7), trusting that God not only exists but that He ‘cares enough to respond to those who seek him.’ (Heb 11:1, The Message) Ultimately, however, we need to seek God first, rather than only looking for His blessings; His provision and providence flow out of our relationship with Him.

In Matt 6:25-34, Jesus dealt with our human tendency to worry and fret, reminding us that God provides for the birds of the air and the flowers on the ground and loves us dearly. We can trust in His provision; the Message version of these verses says, ‘People who don’t know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don’t worry about missing out. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.‘ When we live this way, seeking first God’s kingdom and His righteousness, we will find ourselves in a place of blessing because we know that God is with us in all situations at all times.

Throughout August, Thurnscoe Big Local have organised a ‘Go Wild In Thurnscoe’ sculpture trail where children have to find 9 animal sculptures in key locations.

As part of this community event and as part of Dearne Community Arts’ Festival’s aim of ‘championing creativity and celebrating community’, a number of people were involved in the decoupage decoration of a sun bear sculpture (named Vincent, after we drew suggested names from a box, in passing homage to the artist Van Gogh, whose ‘Sunflowers’ provided an apt decoration since a sun bear’s chest is yellow-coloured!)

The other sculptures have been painted, but we decided to use decoupage (sticking random bits of paper onto the bear seemed to be within our capabilities!) and in order to celebrate the arts, we used famous paintings, sheet music and other colourful paper to decorate the bear. He even ended up with a Union Jack neckerchief!

We started outdoors at the ‘Love Your Park’ event in Thurnscoe, but heavy rain meant we had to carry on indoors after the event was called off because of the weather.

Vincent still needs his eyes and mouth finishing off and varnishing, but he will then be ready to join the other animals in the sculpture trail and will be on display at the Dearne Community Arts’ Festival on 28th September at Astrea Academy Dearne.

‘Changing the world’ is a grandiose phrase we often bandy around, but most of us struggle to believe our small acts of random kindness can have much of an impact on anyone and therefore deal daily with a sense of worthlessness which can be as sapping as the recent humid heat.

This past week I have visited an unobtrusive museum in Birmingham which tells the history of pen manufacture in that city.

Pen manufacturing seems an unlikely topic for world revolution and yet the manufacture of pen nibs in the 18th and 19th centuries revolutionised literacy in the entire world. From these factories in Birmingham, 90% of American schoolchildren received the means to learn to write and 75% of the whole world gained access to a pen – and therefore access to the wonderful world of writing. In our days of mass-produced ballpoint pens (another revolution not dealt with in this particular museum!) and computers which render the physical art of writing virtually obsolete, it’s easy to overlook the revolutionary nature of a metal nib when compared to writing with a feather quill.

Sheffield-based cutlers facing a slump in their trade moved to Birmingham and found a new use for their metal skills. A pen nib used to cost enough to be accessible only to the privileged rich; their technology meant a gross (144 nibs) could be produced for the same price as one nib previously cost. Each factory worker produced approximately 18,000 nibs per day. This quiet revolution proved the maxim ‘the pen is mightier than the sword’! The museum holds so many nibs, it’s overwhelming to see – and the marketing of these became a work of art in itself.

As a wordsmith who loves to write, this museum was a delight to behold and a testament to people whose fame had happily passed me by until that moment. It reminded me that God can use our skills and talents for His glory, however obscure, insignificant or irrelevant they may seem to us. It also showed me that significance and worth simply cannot be measured in boxes, as the pen nibs were! Only God sees the measure of what we do and invests in it its true worth.

Nowadays in the same area of Birmingham, the streets are full of jewellery shops which measure the worth of precious stones in thousands of pounds. Frankly, I can’t understand how anyone can afford such jewellery or why a particular stone has that particular worth. But this is why we have to allow God to measure our offerings and why we must trust Him with our most precious gift: the offering of ourselves, our talents and time, to Him.

The theme of suffering and persecution is one which runs throughout the book of Acts and yet we live in a society which does not like to talk about these things. The openness of the apostles as they faced opposition and the faith and courage of Christians throughout history demonstrate to us that we simply cannot afford to be ostriches, with our heads buried in the sand, when it comes to this topic.

Jesus told His disciples that in this world they would have trouble (John 16:33) and both Peter and John told us not to be surprised at suffering and hatred (1 Pet 4:12, 1 Jn 3:13). Paul went even further and said that ‘everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.’ (2 Tim 3:12) How we can be so surprised when suffering and persecution come is a mystery – presumably one which reflects our lack of Biblical reading.

The book of Acts narrates many instances of opposition and persecution, such as that experienced by the apostles in Acts5:17-42. This included imprisonment and physical beatings as well as the prohibition to speak in the name of Jesus (something which is occurring with frightening regularity in the United Kingdom, as any supporter of charities such as The Christian Institute or Christian Concern will know.) Yet what stands out in this passage is not simply the intensity of the opposition, but the boldness and confidence of the apostles. They rejoiced because they had been counted worthy of suffering for the Name (Acts 5:41); they knew what James meant when he wrote, ‘consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance (James 1:2-3)

Rejoicing and suffering go hand in hand in the Bible (see also Matt 5:10-12, Rom 5:1-4). This is only possible because the apostles had complete confidence in the sovereignty of God (after all, if He could raise Jesus from the dead, nothing was impossible for Him!) and because they were willing to take the long-term view. Paul reminds us, ‘our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us’ (Rom 8:18) and goes on to tell us that ‘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 4:17-18) If we want to have the same attitude to persecution and suffering as the apostles, we need to develop this long vision!

The fact that the apostles were not killed in Acts 5 was (from a human point of view) due to the intervention of a man named Gamaliel – an unlikely mediator!

Gamaliel was a grandson and follower of the liberal Rabbi Hillel and mentor to a man called Saul, who was later to feature predominantly in the spread of Christianity. A Pharisee with a reputation for scholarship, wisdom and moderation, Gamaliel was honoured by all the people and renowned for his piety. His intervention in the ongoing dispute between the apostles and the Sanhedrin was largely responsible for persuading the furious Sadducees to take a more conciliatory tone and thus averted yet more violence.

Gamaliel’s plea for restraint and caution reminded the Sanhedrin that movements of human origin would come to nothing without any interference by the Jewish authorities, whereas if the movement were inspired by God, it would be dangerous to take action against it. (Acts 5:33-40). He cited two examples of rebellion (one led by Theudas and one by Judas the Galilean, both of which had fizzled out once these leaders were killed) and advised the Council to leave the men alone. (Acts 5:37) Whether he actually thought this was a movement of God is not known, but his common sense approach definitely diffused the tension of the moment.

Gamaliel’s speech persuaded the others, who were content (for now) to flog the apostles (‘a serious lesson to offenders’, as Howard Marshall comments) and dismiss them with further warnings not to speak in the name of Jesus. (Acts 5:42) His words were a reminder to us all of the benefits of restrained speech (‘the one who has knowledge uses words with restraint, and whoever has understanding is even-tempered’ Prov 17:27) and the fact that God can – and does! – frequently use the most unlikely people to further His plans. It’s perhaps no coincidence that Gamaliel’s pupil, Saul, was chosen by God to be His apostle to the Gentiles. We serve a God of endless surprises!