Mark’s sermon on Sunday morning looked at the subject of house building. House building depends on several things, the first probably being location (do we want to be near the shops and amenities of a town or in a more rural area, for example.) In the Bible, house building often refers to household (referring to the family or people more than bricks and mortar) and labourers can often refer to those in church who serve God.

Location

Jesus taught His disciples that the location or foundation of a building was extremely important. (Matt 7:24-27) Whether we build on rock or sand matters enormously. When the storms of life come, our foundations are exposed and people who have built on things other than God will find that their houses do not stand. If God the Rock is the foundation, we will survive life’s storms together with God and each other.

Building Plans

Ps 127:1 reminds us that unless we base our decisions about life, family and church on God, what we do will not add up to much! Unless the Lord builds the house (family), then those who labour (the sons of the family) build in vain. God has good plans for us and so we need to involve God in every decision, base our lives on God’s Word, pray about all of life (family, work, church and so on) and listen and watch for God’s leading.

Building Materials

1 Cor 3:6-15 talks about the materials we use to build houses. God builds a household of faith, which is dependent on God to give the increase. We need to give God our best (gold and silver) rather than just giving Him our leftovers. He is able to use all we give Him – we need to give Him our time, effort and money, for with God as our foundation, planner and builder, God commands a blessing on our households!

Our Macmillan Coffee Morning is coming up on Saturday 30th September at 10 a.m. If you can provide home baking for this event, that would be really helpful, and please do come along to support this charity and have a chat and a cuppa at the same time!

‘Churches Together’ Prayer Meetings

On Tuesday 17th October, we have our next ‘Churches Together’ prayer meeting, this time at 7.15 p.m. at GPCC. It’s always good to pray together and this meeting is timed to allow those who work during the daytime to get along too. The next ‘Churches Together’ prayer meeting after this is on Wednesday 15th November at 10.30 a.m. at Houghgton Road Centre, Thurnscoe.

Crazy Golf Days

These will be on the last Saturday in September, October and November (30 September, 28 October, 25 November) from 11 a.m. until 12 noon at Houghton Road Centre, Thurnscoe. During half-term, we will also have a Family Fun Day on Wednesday 1st November from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. which will include free access to the crazy golf and craft activities, as well as free refreshments.

November Dates

‘Churches Together’ will be involved in the Winter Wonderland at Thurnscoe flower park on Saturday 18th November (11 a.m. – 4 p.m.), featuring rides, stalls and a skating rink. We will be involved in Advent-themed activities and will be giving out goody bags with Christian literature, flyers and sweets. Help prepare the goody bags on Wednesday 8th November at 10.30 a.m. at the Salvation Army or come along to give them out at this event.

The Goldthorpe Christmas Market is on Friday 24th November from 4-8 p.m. We will need help serving refreshments, supervising craft stalls, running activities and wrapping Christmas presents, so please do let us know if you are available at any time. We will also need tombola prizes and raffle prizes donating and will be making up a food hamper again to raffle, so please do start bringing these items in as soon as possible.

Over the weekend, we had the privilege of attending Festival Church in Chester, and once again it was interesting to see how God is moving and speaking in other areas and to see just how many points of commonality there are.

Festival Church, situated in the heart of the historic city of Chester, meets in a former Methodist building which has been refurbished so that the balcony area now houses a lovely coffee shop which reaches out to local people during the week.

The welcome there was warm and it was good to join with people from all ages and backgrounds. The pastor was speaking on the church’s values, one of which is to be ‘faithfully creative.’ Having just organised a community arts’ festival because of my firm belief that we are all created to be creative, it was encouraging to hear the same theme being preached on at another church!

Creativity takes many shapes and forms – since we are all so diverse as people, our creativity flows from this diversity. Some ponder and reflect and are very deliberate, being good at taking things apart and seeing how things work in order to build new things. Others are good at organising and pulling strands together. Others are more spontaneous and emotional, visionaries (like Elijah!) who ‘see’ the invisible. Whatever our style, everyone has ‘an irresistible, divinely-inspired impulse to create, organise and fashion.’ (Stephen Altrogge)

John Piper said, ‘If you are God, your work is to create out of nothing. If you are not God, but like God – that is, if you are human – your work is to take what God has made and shape it and use it to make Him look great.’

We are called to glorify God in all we do, and as we are creative in myriad ways, others will see the fulness of God and be drawn to Him.

Motivated by the family service on Elijah and Elisha, Dave spoke on Sunday night from the life of Elijah. Israel was in a bad way at this time, with Ahab king and Jezebel queen. The name of Jezebel will forever be linked with evil. She is regarded as the epitome of a shameless impudent scheming woman. But more than that, she introduced into Israel the worship of Baal with all the immoral and vile practises that this entailed. Baal was the Canaanite god responsible for rain, thunder, lightning, and dew.

Jezebel was a very strong woman and she was the power behind the throne. Ahab may have been the king but Jezebel was the one with the power. The tide of evil was so strong in the land that it appeared as though the knowledge of God would be wiped from the face of the earth… but in fact this did not happen, because God raised up the prophet Elijah to save his people, a prophet so great he is talked of in both Old and New Testaments (see Mal 4:5-6, Matt 16:14).

God used Elijah to prophesy drought to Ahab. He used him to challenge Israel to stop wavering and sitting on the fence (1 Ki 18:21) and to choose God. Tolerance is a great buzz word these days, but God is not tolerant of sin, nor does He want us to be. Jesus warned us too that we cannot serve two masters (Matt 6:24) and Elijah challenged the people to choose between God and Baal. We too need to choose. Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life (John 14:6) and we need to follow the narrow path if we are to find salvation. We also need to return to this path if we have strayed from it.

Revival doesn’t mean religious hysteria, like the prophets of Baal displayed. It means coming back to our first love, taking up our cross and following Jesus. It means flourishing again after decline. It means making a decision, not wavering, and following the Way. The way of obedience is the only way to God.

John spoke yesterday morning on shadows, contrasting the shadows that can blight our lives with the security and comfort of living under God’s shadow. David Crowder’s song ‘Shadows’ talks about this theme too:

‘Life is full of light and shadow
O the joy and O the sorrow
O the sorrow

And yet will He bring
Dark to light
And yet will He bring
Day from night

When shadows fall on us
We will not fear
We will remember

When darkness falls on us
We will not fear
We will remember

When all seems lost
When we’re thrown and we’re tossed
We remember the cost
We’re resting in the
Shadow of the cross

With every breath I take, every heartbeat
Sunrise and the moon lights the dark street
Every dance, every glance, every note of a song
It’s all a gift undeserved that I should have known
Every day that I lie, every movement I covet
I’m deserving to die, I’m just earning Your judgment
Without the cross there’s only condemnation
If Jesus wasn’t executed
There’s no celebration
So in times that are good, in times that are bad
Or any times that I had it all, I will be glad
And I will boast in the cross I will boast in my pains
Boast in the sunrise, boast in His reign
What’s my life if it’s not praising You?
Another dollar in my bank account a vain pursuit
I don’t count my life at any value or precious at all
Let me finish my race, let me answer my call

When shadows fall on us
We will not fear
We will remember

When all seems lost
When we’re thrown and we’re tossed
We remember the cost
We’re resting in the
Shadow of the cross.’ (David Crowder, featuring Lecrae)

We had another birthday to celebrate last night: