Jesus is coming!
Tonight’s Bible study looked at the subject of the Second Coming of Christ, an event heralded by the ‘last trumpet’ (1 Cor 15:52, see also 1 Thess 4:13-18). This has been a hotly debated topic for centuries, discussed by Jesus in Matt 24; as with all prophecy, there is an element of uncertainty and it is unwise to be dogmatic about these events. All too often, people want to be certain of dates and times, but Jesus made it clear that this coming again (often known as the ‘parousia’ or ‘arrival’) cannot be tied to dates in this way (see Matt 24:36, 1 Thess 5:1-11). The Thessalonians clearly felt that if the coming of Jesus was imminent, there was no point in doing anything except sit back and wait for it, a view Paul refuted in 2 Thess 2. We live somehow with the tension between the fact that Jesus could come soon and that this coming does not seem (in our eyes) to be anywhere on the horizon (see 2 Pet 3:3-9). Essentially, the truth that Jesus is coming again should shape how we live every day, whilst in the meantime, we seek to serve Him faithfully until His return.
Views about the Second Coming have been manifold. Some believe this will come at the end of the church age and tribulation; others that the Rapture (Christ coming for His church) will precede this final coming to reign and judge. Passages in Revelation (e.g. Revelation 7 & 8) are sometimes interpreted to mean that the church will be taken out of the great tribulation; others believe that all will face testing and trials before the end of the age. Paul makes it clear to the Corinthians, however, that we have a sure and certain hope of resurrection: ‘For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.‘ (1 Cor 15:52-53) This hope shapes how we live on earth and how we wait patiently for what we do not yet have. As John puts it, ‘Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. 3 All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.‘ (1 Jn 3:2-3)
November events
Don’t miss out on the following events:
- Christian bookstall at both morning and evening services on Sunday 13th November. Christmas cards, books, CDs and presents will be available; payment needed on the day.
- The service at Cherry Tree Court will be on Sunday 20th November at 10.30 a.m. (3rd Sunday instead of the 2nd Sunday) as there is a Remembrance Day service there the week before.
- Come along to the Winter Wonderland and Christmas Market on Saturday 19th November from 12 noon until 6 p.m. at Thurnscoe Memorial Park. There will be a skating rink there, plus Santa’s Grotto, children’s fun fair and live entertainment, not to mention the Christmas Food Court, featuring Turner New Leaf’s homemade chutneys, apple sauce and piccalilli!
- Christian bookstall at church on Sunday 13th November. A great opportunity to buy Christmas cards, books, CDs and presents (diaries, calendars, Christian gifts etc.) The bookstall will be there at both morning and evening meetings; payment needed on the day.
- We’ll be getting the goody bags ready for the Christmas Market on Wednesday 23rd November from 9-11 a.m. Come along to help bless our local community with Christmas leaflets, sweets, glowsticks and other items. The more helpers we have, the quicker we’ll get this done!
Dementia Friendly Session
For anyone with any experience of dementia, there is the knowledge that this is a terrible disease which effectively leads to bereavement even before the person actually dies. So often, those looking after people with dementia feel isolated and cut off from society; they become protectors who need the help and support of friends and family. For those with dementia, there can be confusion, fear, panic and eventually a withdrawal into themselves that leads to an inability to communicate or understand.
Next Tuesday (25th October) there will be a ‘dementia friendly session’ at GPCC from 12 noon until 1.30 p.m. (light lunch provided.) People from the Alzheimer’s Society and other organisations will give information -5 key messages – about dementia which can help us to provide practical action to benefit those with dementia and those caring for them. There is often ignorance about dementia which can lead to people being confused and unhelpful to those in need. These sessions aim to combat that and to pave the way for us to make Goldthorpe a dementia-friendly place, allowing people to live in their own homes for longer and to remain independent for as long as possible. If you’re free, please come along and find out more.
Songs for life
Casting Crowns is an award-winning Christian band and youth ministry team whose music has inspired and encouraged me greatly over the past ten years. Their authenticity and ability to marry biblical values and stories with contemporary issues are both examples and spurs to me. Songs like ‘Who Am I?’ and ‘Voice of Truth’ tackle basic questions of our identity in God; others like ‘Lifesong‘ call us to wholehearted discipleship in every area of our lives. Many of their songs tackle the difficulties of life (‘Slow Fade’, ‘Broken Together’, ‘East To West’) and even more question how to bring together zeal and everyday living (‘Somewhere In the Middle’, ‘The Altar and the Door’), reminding us that discipleship is not always the ‘easy ride’ we would like it to be whilst also reminding us there is ‘joy unspeakable, faith unsinkable, love unstoppable, anything is possible’ in God. (‘Thrive‘)
A new Casting Crowns’ album is always eagerly anticipated by me, and this one (‘The Very Next Thing’) all the more so, since lead singer Mark Hall had had a serious operation to remove a cancerous kidney last year, and I wanted to know how that experience would be reflected in song (as he says, writing a song is what he does when faced with hard situations!) The song ‘Oh My Soul’, based on Psalm 42, continues his ongoing acknowledgment that we have to speak to ourselves as we wobble between faith and fear, allowing God to work in us so that we can lay our burdens down at the cross and not take them up again!
The album contains songs which bring Bible stories to life (‘When The God-Man Passes By’ tells us the stories of Zacchaeus and the woman taken in adultery and ‘Hallelujah’ tackles, with profound simplicity, the three sunrises of creation, Easter Sunday and the Second Coming) as well as songs that tackle our fears (‘What If I Gave Everything’ being described as the prequel to ‘Voice of Truth’ and looking at our tendency to say in safe, shallow waters instead of plunging into all God has for us) and sense of shame (‘One Step Away’ is a fantastic call to repentance and return to God.) ‘Loving My Jesus’ is a very personal call to be real in our discipleship (‘loving my Jesus, showing my scars, telling my story of how mercy can reach you where you are‘), not believing the enemy’s whisper to ‘keep all your pain inside, ’cause no one will understand‘). Other songs sing of the divine exchange we can receive (‘For All You Are‘) and how God is able to restore and heal (‘God of All My Days’) and of the awesome gift of salvation God gives us (‘Song That The Angels Can’t Sing’) and of the need for us to be a river, not a stagnant sea (‘Make Me A River’).
For me, Casting Crowns bring life issues to light and then shine God’s light onto those situations (‘The Very Next Thing’ looks at our tendency to spend our lives always looking at the future instead of walking with God right now, for example.) Their insistence, however, that all we face in life can be brought to God (including our guilt, shame, fear and brokenness) and is woven by Him into a beautiful tapestry is refreshing in its honesty and lack of pretence. These are not necessarily songs you would sing in a church service (though ‘No Other Name’ certainly could be!), but they are, indeed, ‘life songs’, identifiable by all who walk with Jesus through the valley of dry bones to find resurrection follows death. It’s easier to listen to them than to read my descriptions, but in listening, I find the relief of discovering my own experiences and emotions articulated in music which can then become part of my offering to God.
[Click on highlighted song titles to hear the song.]
October birthday
We also had a birthday to celebrate:
The Strength of Stillness
Yan Hadley spoke last night on the ‘strength of stillness in a stressed society’, looking at Psalm 46. God urges us to ‘be still and know that I am God’ (rather as He told Moses before the parting of the Red Sea to ‘stand still and see the salvation of God.‘ ) So often, we focus on the problems we face rather than fixing our attention on God and watching Him work.
God is our refuge and help in the storms of life. When we look away and try to solve problems in our own strength, we will reap further problems (see Gal 6:7), but as we wait on God, He will reveal Himself to us and give us fresh direction and help. A. W. Tozer once said, ‘We can have as much of God as we want’; like Mary, we have to choose the better thing, for our decisions determine destiny.
Choosing stillness requires:
- honesty. We can’t have any masks on with God; He desires us to worship Him in spirit and in truth.
- sacrifice. We have to make time for God, deliberately decluttering our lives and re-arranging our schedules to give time and space for God to move.
- a determination to shut out distractions (both external and internal, ignoring the negative voices which often plague us and taking captive every thought which sets itself up against God.) We need that ‘secret place’ of prayer with God (Matt 6:6)
- a determination and whole-heartedness in our pursuit of God. We have to seek God with all our hearts (Jer 29:13).
- setting our focus on God (see Is 26:3, 2 Chron 20:12)
As we are still before God, we find He renews our strength (Is 40:1, Matt 11:28) and reveals His majesty and plans to us. He restores us in the inward places (Ps 23:3) and enables us to rejoice in Him.