In our series ‘Battles & Blessings’, we looked at Eph 2:11-22, where Paul looks at the blessings derived from God’s plan to unite Jew and Gentile. In these verses, he reminds us of our position as Gentiles (‘separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.’ Eph 2:12) This sense of alienation and exclusion is experienced by many in our world today, but God is able to change that situation around, giving us free access to His presence and welcome into His family.

God has made a way for us to draw near to Him; as Paul reminds us, ‘the Lord is near.’ (Phil 4:5) We have been brought near to God through the blood of Christ (Eph 2:13) and now have the right of access to God because of our relationship with Him. We are family; we are called children of God. (Jn 1:12) As such, we belong to God and to each other. This sense of belonging is much needed in a world of alienation and isolation; we are never alone.

We have peace with God through justification by faith (Rom 5:1), but we are also reconciled not only to God but to each other (the dividing wall of hostility has been destroyed by Jesus, the Prince of Peace.) God is now busy building a dwelling-place (Eph 2:21, Rev 21:3). It’s amazing to think that He dwells within us (see Rom 8:9-11).and wants to make His home with us. (Jn 14:23)

The Watoto Children’s Choir from Uganda were at Grimethorpe Pentecostal Church last night and are a powerful reminder to us all that Jesus can transform any situation and bring joy even from tragedy and adversity. The Watoto programme, founded by missionaries Gary and Marilyn Skinner, seeks to help orphaned and vulnerable children, providing homes, schools and training programmes which can help to provide hope and a future to those who apparently have none, and the children’s choir are ‘ambassadors of hope’; Certainly their joy and testimonies of how Jesus’s love has transformed them remind us of the power of the gospel and the difference we can make to individuals.

As a church, we are privileged to sponsor two children: Bedline in Haiti (through Compassion UK) who is 8 years old and Amshika in India (through our connections with Fredrick and Reeba), who is 2 and severely disabled. We hope soon to sponsor another child through Watoto, so watch this space for more news and thank you very much for your generosity to these programmes and prayers for these children to grow up knowing the love of Jesus, whatever their circumstances in life.

The children at Sunday School learned all about Pentecost tonight, as the photograph shows! They had their own tongues of fire to illustrate the narrative from Acts 2:1-8.

Jesus taught about the living water the Holy Spirit would bring even before His death: “On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood up and said in a loud voice, ‘If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.’ By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.” (John 7:37-39) As we celebrate Pentecost today, the fulfilment of that promise, we reflected on the fact that we need to be thirsty, to come to Jesus and to drink. Only then can we live life out of the overflow of God’s living water.

Spiritual Thirst

Ps 63:1 and Ps 42:1-2 both reflect the fact that spiritual thirst is the first step to receiving the Holy Spirit. If we are content with life lived in our own strength, we will never live life out of the overflow of God’s living water (Ps 36:8-9). We need to hunger and thirst for righteousness (Matt 5:7) and to draw from the wells of salvation with joy. (Is 12:3) Jeremiah warned against the dangers of forsaking the springs of living water and making our own cisterns (Jer 2:13); we need to be desperate for God and to thirst for His Spirit if we are to move from self-dependence to God-dependence.

Believing

As we come to God to drink, we need to exercise faith. Jesus said, ‘Anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing.’ (Jn 14:12) ‘Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.’ (Jn 7:38) Faith is the key ingredient to receiving from God: ‘without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.’ (Heb 11:6) We need to let go of faith in ourselves and our reliance on ourselves and trust in God. ‘Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.’ (Prov 3:5)

This sounds (and is) simple, but we tend to find it very complicated. We feel we are not worthy to receive the Holy Spirit. We are not: God gives His Spirit as a gift, not a wage for good service. We are unsure if God really wants to bless us. Jesus taught us, however, of God’s desire to give and to bless. (Luke 11:9-13) We need to be convinced of God’s desire to give and believe that in Christ, every promise God has made is ‘yes’! (2 Cor 1:20)

Come and drink

As we thirst for God and believe His word, all we then have to do is to come and drink. The first disciples had to wait for the Holy Spirit to come. They had to wait for Jesus to die on the cross to deal with our sins. They had to wait for Him to rise again from the dead as proof that His sacrifice for sins was acceptable. They had to wait for His ascension, for Jesus to be glorified, so that the Spirit could be poured out. Those things have now happened and so we benefit from the Day of Pentecost, for we too can now come and drink from those living waters which turned the world upside down in the 1st century and can do so today as we believe, come and drink.

Today’s Dinosaur Day at Phoenix Park saw crowds turn out on a beautifully sunny afternoon for a family fun day organised by Big Local Thurnscoe. Dearne Churches Together took part in dinosaur crafts and digging for fossils:

There were animatronic dinosaurs to see:

Crowds of people also enjoyed walks with alpacas, a dog show, a dinosaur trail, learning about making dens from the Conservation Volunteers and much more.

There was even a very strange leader looking like a very hot dinosaur…

John spoke this morning from John 5:1-15 about being at the back of the queue.

Queuing is seen as being quintessentially British – so much so that the Royal Mint, in their A-Z of what is British, put ‘queue’ for the letter Q! Sometimes we are quite happy to queue, but most of the time we find it tiresome, whether it is waiting in a queue on the telephone, waiting in shops or being stuck in traffic queues for hours on end… Apparently, we spend about 5 years of an average life in a queue!

A queue is in some ways a hierarchy of entitlement. Those at the front of the queue are seen as privileged, advantage, often rich. Those at the back of the queue are disadvantaged, poor or, as in the case of this man, disabled. We talk of ‘Postcode lotteries’ regarding healthcare and schools, so if we are at the back of a queue, we feel we are less important, less deserving or insignificant.

The man in this story had no way to get to the front of the queue, but the presence of Jesus rendered this unimportant. He didn’t need to get into the pool to be healed, because Jesus healed him there and then. Clearly, he had tried in his own strength to get to the pool of healing and so often we try to rely on our own strength, instead of letting God sort things out. We need to learn to trust God.

In Mark 5:21-24, we see the story of the woman with the issue of blood and Jairus’ daughter. Jairus, a leader, had no trouble getting to the front of the queue to speak to Jesus, but the woman had to push through the queue to reach Jesus. Her determination and persistence were what is needed, and we too must seek God and desire God with all our hearts if we are to receive from Him.

In Mark 2:1-12, four friends are not put off by the crowds, but find a way through the roof to bring their friend in need to Jesus. Their support and help were needed for the paralysed man to come to Jesus and be healed. We are called to support one another in faith and prayer.

In Acts 3:1-10, we read of a man for whom there were no queues. He was left at the Temple gates, forgotten and apparently forsaken. He probably felt that his opportunity for healing had gone, for Jesus was no longer present. He may have felt there was no future for him, but Peter and John prayed for him and his life was transformed. We too need to be confident in God. We so often feel we have missed our opportunities in God and write ourselves off. God never writes us off, however. We are never at the back of the queue as far as He is concerned, for He has given us all free access to His presence (Heb 4:15-16)