Thanks to those who helped with the cleaning and maintenance day. Both the worship room and community room were cleaned and mopped, and the windows were cleaned inside and outside:

Toilets, the corridor and kitchen were also cleaned and we even had some sweeping help from youngsters…

Outside, James did a fantastic job of weeding by the side of the church and clearing the car park:

Meanwhile, Garry was busy rubbing down the gates and railings and started to re-paint them (though only the gold got finished today!)

Our next cleaning and maintenance day will be on Saturday 29th June from 10 a.m. when we’ll be finishing outdoor work (painting the gates and railings and staining the notice board) as well as tidying and cleaning inside. Please join us if you can!

It’s our cleaning and maintenance day on Saturday from 10 a.m. and I’ve been thinking about the appropriate materials needed for the different jobs that need doing. Some jobs need soft, dry cloths like dusters. Other jobs need soft, wet cloths for wiping away dirt. Others require scourers and scrubbers, more abrasive clothes, to scrub away hardened stains. Then there are all the different cleaning fluids needed, the different varnishes, paints and stains required to paint railings and treat wood, and it all becomes a little bit of a minefield for somene as inexpert in this field as I am.

Having the right tool for the job is a major part of success in most jobs. This is true in life too. It’s much harder to find the right tool for our relationships, however! Prov 15:23 reminds us that a timely word is a good thing; Prov 16:24 says that ‘gracious words are a honeycomb, sweet to the sould and healing to our bones.’ We have to use words with insight and restraint (Prov 17:27) and remember that a gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. (Prov 15:1).

As we deal with other people, some need encouragement and persistence; others need challenge and perhaps a ‘nudge’ in the right direction; others need tenderness and comfort. Some just need a listenig ear; others need advice and counsel. I am always tempted to by the all-purpose cloths and all-purpose cleaning fluids because I am fundamentally lazy and dislike cleaning and maintenance, so I want a quick-fix solution. Just as we need specific items for specific jobs, however, we need to understand each person is an individual, investing in them time, attention and love that is shaped to their unique personality. This is how God loves us and this is how He calls us to love others.

Please do join us on Saturday from 10 a.m. if you’re able to help with our cleaning and maintenace, but even if you can’t be with us, think about how your words and actions can help to build others up – or tear them down. Let’s be people who encourage each other and find ways to spur each other on toward love and good deeds. (Heb 10:24-25)

My granddaughter has a blanket which goes everywhere with her. Like Linus, she trails this blanket with her wherever she goes, draping it around her shoulders, hiding under it, wrapping it around her as she sits to play. She even feeds the blanket on occasion as if it were a living creature, and on one occasion, ‘made’ the blanket draw a picture for her!

This blanket has become a symbol for me of God’s love and sufficiency. When I see her agitation at leavingt the blanket behind (it’s too big to take out really!), I glimpse my own sense of panic on those days when God’s presence seems distant to me. When I see the comfort she finds in the blanket, I glimpse how I feel when God’s word comes to me afresh in comfort and reassurance. When I see her contented as she trails it everywhere in my house, I glimpse what it’s like to be ‘hidden with Christ in God’ (Col 3:3), contented in Him.

Most of my life has been spent battling a crippling (if invisible) sense of inadequacy and inferiority. The words ‘enough’ and ‘sufficiency’ somehow managed to escape my experience. I understand the meanings; I just don’t seem to experience them. ‘Good enough’ actually has an OFSTED-like definition to me (i.e. inadequate); ‘sufficient’ usually implied deficit to me. I once remarked that the epitaph on my tombstone if chosen by myself would read ‘not good enough’, for this is how I define myself.

That is not how God defines me (or anyone else), however. He sees in us infinite worth and value and loves us regardless of our looks, achievements, failures and mistakes. He tells us that we are clothed in the righteousness of Christ, covered by His sacrificial death for us so that when God looks at us, He sees not our sins and imperfections and failings, but a spotless, righteous Lamb.

Christ is essentially our ‘blanket’. He provides comfort, reassurance, safety and strength. When we are ‘in Christ’ (a phrase used repeatedly in the New Testament), it’s as if all of God’s adequacy and sufficiency cover us.

I’m guessing one day Esther will leave her blanket behind; she will outgrow the need for its physical presence. But these days of the visible reminder are powerful to me, for they remind me of wht it means when it says our lives are hidden with Christ in God, and I am reassured as much as she is by the knowledge of God’s comfort, adquacy and sufficiciency in my everyday living.

This Saturday (25th May) we have our cleaning and maintenance day. Join us from 10 a.m. to help look after the building and grounds. We’ll be having another cleaning & maintenance day on Saturday 29th June from 10 a.m. as well.

On Saturday 1st June we will be hosting a Mosaic Workshop from 10 a.m. until 1 p.m. as part of the Dearne Community Arts’ Festival preparations. Come and be involved in a community tile mosaic which will be displayed at the festival on 28th September at Astrea Academy Dearne. All welcome to attend; no previous experience necessary.

Because of holidays, our meeting at Cherry Tree Court will be on the 3rd Sunday in June (16th June) at 10.30 a.m. We will also be sharing Communion in the evening on the 3rd Sunday rather than the second Sunday.

The next ‘Churches Together’ prayer meeting will be on Wednesday 19th June at 10.30 a.m. at our church.

Advance notice of Summer Fun Days, which will be held from 11 a.m. until 2 p.m. on:

• Wednesday 31st July (Renaissance Centre, Bolton-on-Dearne)
• Wednesday 14th August (GPCC)
• Wednesday 28th August (Thurnscoe Reservoir)

Advance notice also of our next Team Building Day, which will be on Saturday 10th August from 4-6 p.m. Join us for another fun session of exploring our giftings – ending with a takeaway together!

‘The wilderness’ may describe an actual place (desert, barren land, difficult and wild terrain) but may also refer to those times in life when we may feel abandoned by God, even though we are seeking Him intently. Eugene Peterson referred to these times as the ‘badlands‘.From a geographical point of view, these are places where sedimentary rocks and clay-rich soils have been extensively eroded by wind and water. They have steep slopes and it’s hard to grow food in that environment; they are full of canyons, ravines, gullies and other geological features which make it difficult to travel or settle there. The psalmist called this a ‘dry and parched place where there is no water.’ (Ps 63:1)

So often, when we are in these dark, dry, barren places, we ask God why. Why do we have to go through these things? Why do we have to suffer? Why do we have to walk through so many trials and tribulations? I don’t have answers to those questions; God’s will seems to me very often to be a mystery. But sometimes we have to be in these places so we can see and experience first-hand the miraculous providence and provision of God. Isaiah said that God’s people would see all that God had done and would then ‘see and know, consider and understand, that the hand of the Lord has done this, that the Holy One of Israel has created it.’ (Is 41:20) Maybe we have to be in the arid places in order to see, know, consider and understand God’s mighty power afresh.

Mother Teresa is greatly revered as a woman who did great works for God, founding the Missionaries of Charity in India in 1950 which continues to minister to the poor and needy across the whole world today. It was only after her death that many of her letters were released to the public in a book called ‘Come Be My Light’ and these described the darkness and spiritual drought which she personally experienced even while serving God so faithfully. ‘The darkness is so dark, the pain is so painful,’ she wrote. She said that for many years ‘my soul is just like an ice block’ and spoke of having ‘no prayer, no love, no faith – nothing but continual pain of longing for God.’ We can often believe that if we don’t feel God’s presence, we have sinned and done something wrong or that God has withdrawn from us (‘our midnight is Thy smile withdrawn’, as the hymn writer puts it. (‘Lord of All Being, Throned Afar’, Oliver Wendell Holmes)), but I believe the tough times are part of life’s journeyings which we simply have to walk through to teach us to live by faith and not by sight. Spiritual refreshing comes from God. We cannot manufacture this ourselves; we simply cry out to God to provide for us the living water we so desperately need.

Tonight’s message continued the series ‘The Wells of Salvation’ and looked in particular at Psalm 84. This psalm reminds us that God helps us to make even the most barren of valleys a place of springs; the presence of His Spirit in us can transform the darkest, driest place into somewhere that is fertile and green. (Ps 84:5-6) So often, when we are in the desert or wilderness, we feel abandoned and forsaken by God, but living water is available even in the most arid of circumstances. The Israelites discovered this; they experienced, as we do, ‘dry patches, low spots and seeming fruitlessness’ (Nicky Gumbel), but they also found springs and wells which God provided (Num 21:16-20) and on two occasions, God was able to bring forth water from rocks (Ex 17:6, Num 20:8). We can flourish instead of fainting even when we are in dry places.

Ps 84 is a psalm of great encouragement and blessing, but the Valley of Baka is not a happy place; it’s a place of tears (the word ‘baka’ refers to a balsam tree, which seems to weep ‘tears’ of gum or sap.) Balsam trees grow well in dry situations, whereas most trees need water and nourishment to grow; this valley, then, can be said to represent those dry times in our lives when we may not feel God’s presence or blessing, but which can still turn out to be times of growth and development.

Is 41:17-20 reminds us that God can make rivers flow on barren heights and springs within the valleys. He can turn even the desert into pools of water and the parched ground into springs. In the desert, God can plant trees so that people may see and know, consider and understand that He has done miraculous things. God is able to provide for us even when we are in impossible situations – perhaps especially when we are in impossible situations. The result of His provision is our praise. When we flourish instead of faint, when we find a place of springs instead of a desert and therefore go from strength to strength instead of collapsing and dying, we praise God because we know that deliverance only comes from Him (see also Is 43:20-21, 2 Cor 1:8-11).

So if we are in a dry place, we can take hope in the God of living water who is able to refresh us and lead us on.