The first of our March birthdays was celebrated today.

We are profoundly grateful for all those who have gone before us in this journey of faith. Hebrews 11 talks about the heroes of faith who have gone before us and who continue to inspire us through their faith, and there are many in our church’s individual history who remind us of God’s greatness, mercy and love. As Sir Isaac Newton once said, if we see further, it is because we stand on the shoulders of giants.

We are called to build on the past, to learn from the past and to be grateful for the foundation of faith we have received. I am profoundly grateful for my paternal grandparents, even though my grandfather died when I was only three months old and my grandmother died when I was only young, for I know that their faith and prayers had a great influence on my life; I am in effect reaping now what they sowed and am keen to sow into my grandchildren’s lives the seeds of faith and love which have greatly blessed my own life.

We are indeed called to build on all that is good in the past and to honour those who have gone before us in faith, but we are not called to live in the past. God calls us to be ambassadors for our generation, to be people who will serve His purposes now (see Acts 13:36). Now, He does a new thing (Is 43:19). In Is 48:6, we read, ‘I will tell you of new things, of hidden things unknown to you.’  This is our heart’s cry for our church at this time, that we are attentive to God for the new things He has planned for us, for the hidden things that may be unknown to us as yet, but which He will reveal so that we can live for His purpose and His glory.

We can only live in the present (today is God’s gift to us), but we can build for eternity. We can look to the future in all we do now and seek to build with things that will last (see 1 Cor 3:10-15). Living in the light of eternity helps us through present sufferings and trials (see 2 Cor 4:1-18). We serve a God who lives outside of time and who has set eternity in the human heart (Eccl 3:11).

We build on the past, but we don’t live in the past. We live in the now, but we’re not living for now. We’re building for eternity.

In one sense, people are the very building blocks of the church, the ‘living stones’ Peter describes as being built into a spiritual house in which God dwells. (1 Pet 2:4-5) But there are also ‘building blocks’ we need to use in our lives if we are to be built up and if we are to see the church built up. It’s not only the number of ‘stones’ or ‘bricks’ which matter, but the strength of the material.

Paul tells us to encourage each other and build each other up. (1 Thess 5:11) We do this as we each individually attend to our personal relationship with God and help each other to follow God more closely. Our ‘interior life’, as Mother Teresa called it, is all important, for it is out of this intimacy with God that all our work flows. To build ourselves up, we must develop:

1. our prayer life (both individually, spending time with God, listening for His voice and pouring out our hearts to Him, and collectively, understanding that there is power in corporate prayer.)
2. our knowledge of God’s word (reading the Bible daily and taking every opportunity to take in God’s word and build our lives upon it, using the opportunities we have collectively to learn from Bible study and sermons so that God’s word is constantly shaping our lives and directing all we do.)
3. our care and concern for each other (fellowship or ‘koinonia’ is so important to the life of the church – see Acts 2:42, Acts 4:32-35. As the saying goes, ‘united we stand, divided we fall’. Think of the acronym ‘TEAM’ – ‘together everyone achieves more’. We need each other and we need the encouragement of meeting together to pray, study the word, take part in Holy Communion and worship to keep us actively pursuing God in every area of our lives. (Heb 10:24-25))
4. our outreach to others (we are a royal priesthood, called to be ambassadors for Christ, bringing His message of reconciliation to everyone. (2 Cor 5:19-21) Personal witness is vitally important; we all have a story to tell. (Ps 107:2) But we can also do more together than we can do individually, which is why corporate outreach is so important. There are many ways we can be involved in witness (e.g. helping at the church youth club, Parent & Toddler group, coffee morning or holiday fun days), but however we reach out to others, we have to be aware that our lives must match our words and there must be consistency, honesty and integrity in how we live.)

At our family service we looked this month at the subject of ‘Building the Church’ (1 Pet 2:4-5). We used a variety of building blocks to have a go at building (Jenga blocks, differently-shaped wooden blocks, pebbles etc.) and discovered that it’s easier to build with regular shapes that have no curves!

Building with Jenga blocks

Building with irregular-shaped blocks

Building with stones

Did the bear get in on the act?!

The Bible tells us that foundations matter enormously (Matt 7:24-27) and Paul reminds us that we must build on Jesus Christ Himself as our foundation (1 Cor 3:10). He is our cornerstone – the most important stone in a building. (1 Pet 2:4, 6) Whatever we try to build ourselves without Jesus at the centre won’t last (Ps 127:1), but with Him at the centre, all kinds of people can be fitted together as ‘living stones’ into the building He calls His church (people are the church, not the buildings we meet in!)

Naturally speaking, it’s not easy to build with stones, though those who build dry stone walls are very skilled at getting those layers of stones to hold together. It’s not easy for people of different genders, races, ages, personalities and beliefs to come together as the church, but God is able to do this work so that we are able to offer spiritual sacrifices to God. Jesus said He would build His church and the gates of hell would not be able to overcome it (Matt 16:18). We can be confident that Jesus is building His church here and He will prevail!

Pat spoke this morning about the need for us to be wholly surrendered to the Lord and seeking more of Him. Recently we have had many messages calling us back to prayer and we need to be a people of prayer. In Jonah 3:1-10, we see how God responds to prayer and repentance, for ‘He had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction He had threatened.’ (Jonah 3:10)

Jonah disobeyed God initially and did not want to go to Nineveh. Only when Jonah admitted his responsibility to God did the storm cease. Sometimes our situations get worse before they get better because we need to surrender to God’s will. We are not all called to be evangelists, but we are all called to be witnesses to God and to be faithful to His calling. When we do this, we see Him move in great ways.

Another example of surrender is Joshua, before the battle of Jericho. The commander of the Lord’s army appeared to him and reminded him (as Moses had been reminded at the burning bush) that the place where he was standing was holy ground. (Josh 5:13-15) For the Israelites, they needed to renew the covenant of circumcision (Josh 5:1-9) and consecrate themselves afresh. We need to be consecrated and committed to God.

The battle of Jericho is well known, but after this came the difficulties when the people of God were defeated at Ai by a much smaller army (Joshua 6 and 7). The problem was Achan’s sin in taking the things which should have been devoted to God. Joshua sought God for the reason behind the defeat (Josh 7:6) and realised that one family’s sin caused defeat for the whole of Israel. He took courageous steps to remedy this and Ai was then destroyed (Josh 8). When we believe and trust God, we will see His victories in our lives.

God has compassion on us and we are all invited to be part of His family (Jesus chose to wash all His disciples’ feet, inlcuding Judas’s). The call to prayer and consecration is for us all, but it is up to us how we respond.

The World Day of Prayer service was written by Christians from Slovenia and at the Salvation Army service in Goldthorpe today, we had Slovenian food to celebrate the theme ‘Come – Everything Is Ready’ (based on Luke 14:15-24) It’s wonderful to consider that God invites us to a wedding banquet and offers us a place at His table!

Continuing the food theme, we were also invited to draw pictures of our favourite foods:

We joined in lively children’s songs, including Doug Horley’s ‘God’s Love Is Bigger Than A Burger’!

Slovenia in Eastern Europe declared independence from Yugoslavia in 1991 and has a rich and varied history. During the communist years, Christianity was persecuted and Christians were often imprisoned or had restricted access to jobs. Now, there is freedom of religion, but Islam continues to grow and there are still many difficulties for Christians.

Alison and many of the volunteers dressed in Slovenian clothing:

The theme of the service was celebration of God’s invitation to all to become children of God. It was lovely to see children there singing, dancing and joining in craft activities: