One of the things Stephen touched on tonight was that we sometimes find it difficult to accept the gospel because we are unused to such good news being completely free, no strings attached. We are so used to having to pay for things that we view special offers suspiciously. We don’t expect to find monies deposited in our bank accounts unless we’ve earned them!

‘Eagle Eye’ was a 2008 film starring Shia LaBoeuf and Michelle Monaghan. Their characters were coerced into carrying out a plan by a possible terrorist organisation. Jerry Shaw is a Stanford University dropout who learns that his identical twin brother Ethan, a US Air Force first lieutenant, has been killed. Following the funeral, Jerry is surprised to find $750,000 in his bank account. He later finds his apartment filled with weapons, ammonium nitrate, classified DOD documents, and forged passports. He receives a phone call from a woman who says the FBI is about to arrest him and that he needs to run.

The film captures the total sense of bewilderment the character feels on checking his bank balance and finding it much healthier than he expected (he’s used to avoiding his landlady because he can’t afford to pay rent, for example!) That’s a little bit like we feel when we accept the good news that God loves us so much that He sent His only Son to die for us so that we should not perish but have eternal life. We are stunned to discover that not only have we been given the ‘credit’ to live for ever, but we have also received multiple additional blessings – ‘Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.’ (Eph 1:3 TNIV) We discover we were chosen in Him before the creation of the world (Eph 1:4 TNIV). We discover that we are heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ (Rom 8:17 TNIV). We discover that we have been given gifts from the Holy Spirit.

If we can truly grasp all that God has deposited into our lives, we will live life with a new identity and purpose that are independent of our financial wealth or social status.

Stephen spoke on the bank of God tonight – not dealing with money, but with things of far greater value! All of us are welcomed into the bank of God: John 3:16 TNIV shows us that God has made a great investment in our lives, giving His only Son to save us. He has invested so much into our lives, but His bank is not like the world’s, for it is not status-related, credit-determined or income-controlled.

We find it hard to believe that anything can be free these days, but the only condition placed upon us is that we believe (we ‘accept that something is true’.) There are no monthly subscriptions to pay, no annual charges, no standing orders or hidden extras that will impoverish us. We just have to believe and we can move from death to eternal life.

This is the opening statement of our account, which is a current account, relevant to all, however long it is since we first accepted Christ. God’s bank is indeed the bank that keeps on giving! – an even better deal than Santander 123!

In God’s bank, we are given a ‘good deposit’ which is entrusted to us (see 2 Tim 1:13-14 TNIV). God’s investment is in us, and our bank balance is perhaps greater than we realise, for He has given us gifts and talents. Often, we don’t realise what God has given us because we neglect to check on all He is doing, but we have to understand that the Holy Spirit moves in each one of us with investments that are beyond our wildest dreams.

We were urged not to be a ‘rainy day saver’, neglecting or hoarding God’s gifts but using what God has given us now. In God’s bank, there are no credit cards, but He is truly our ‘flexible friend’ who guides us towards great things.

On Saturday 28th September, we will be hosting a Macmillan Coffee Morning, with all proceeds from this going towards the cancer charity.

Do come along if you can to this event, which will be from 10 a.m. until 12 noon in the community hall. We hold a coffee morning every Saturday morning, but this Saturday will be a special event in that we are raising money for Macmillan nurses, who do such a great job of caring for those suffering from cancer. There are currently 2 million people living with cancer in the UK and the charity provides medical, emotional, practical and financial support, pushing for a better cancer care system. If you want to know more about the work of the Macmillan charity, check out their website.

A good week lies ahead for praise and worship albums, as both Matt Redman’s album ‘Your Grace Finds Me’ and Phil Wickham’s album ‘The Ascension’ are released on Tuesday! To whet your appetites, here are two of the songs from these albums, both interestingly focussing on the grace of God.

‘Your Grace Finds Me’, Matt Redman
‘This is Amazing Grace’, Phil Wickham

Garry finished his series from 2 Peter 1:3-8 TNIV this morning, looking at the last item mentioned on Peter’s list of things which we should add to our faith, namely love. He has previously talked about brotherly kindness (or mutual affection), but here, he is talking about agape, God’s love. We need all these qualities if our faith is to be built on something solid! Peter says that we are participating in God’s divine nature, nature being what makes something what it is, and since love is a key part of God’s nature, it needs to be part of ours too.

God wants us to reflect the family likeness, and since He is love, love has to be evident in our lives. John tells us that God is love (1 John 4:8 TNIV) and is, therefore, an integral, intrinsic part of who God is. Love is part of all God is all He does always. We need to grasp that His love does not fail and never gives up. His love is a fact. Situations often test us and cause us to doubt His love (‘If God is love, why has this happened?’), but we need this solid foundation of fact on which to build. God’s love never fails (1 Cor 3:8 TNIV).

Unless we grasp hold of God’s love, we can easily become bitter or hardened or even fall away from the faith. We can’t always answer people’s questions or explain all that happens, but we rest on the fact of God’s love. Love is an identifier of God. He is defined by love, and therefore we too must be defined by love.

God’s love was the motivator to His actions (John 3:16 TNIV). Often, we can be motivated by other things (frustration, anger, road rage, shame, guilt, duty and so on), but God was not motivated by any of these things, only by love. This is a risky strategy. It’s easy to motivate people to do things out of guilt or shame, but since God’s love was the factor which motivated Him to send His Son, we must only be motivated by love. We reach out to others because of God’s love, not simply out of duty or guilty. Love is a risky strategy becasue there is no guarantee that others will respond, but we have to be motivated by the same things that motivate God (including a desire for righteousness and holiness.)

1 Corinthians 13 talks extensively about love. We are reminded in 1 Cor 13:13 TNIV that the greatest of all the things is love. Just as James tells us that faith without works is dead, so John reminds us that faith without love is dead. We need to add love to our faith if we are to mature and be effective in our lives for God.

Last night instead of just holding the prayer meeting inside the church building, we went out to walk the streets of Goldthorpe. This month, we are praying particularly about regeneration in the area, including economic regeneration, so we concentrated on praying for local businesses and also prayed on the barren wastelands which have been earmarked by Barnsley M.B.C. as the site for the new primary school.

Goldthorpe has an industrial estate on Commercial Road, constructed between 1977 and 1994, made up of a detached industrial unit benefitting from its own secure yard and parking area. It houses a number of businesss, including Speed Frame, Home Choose Blinds, Sea Scooter UK Ltd, a firm dealing with hydroponics and other businesses. At the far end of the area, the supermarket Aldi is building a distribution centre. All of these businesses can help bring economic prosperity to the area and provide job opportunities for local people. Other industrial areas are found in different parts of the town and there are many local shops and businesses (lots of take-aways were open at night!) which need our prayers. We prayed for God’s blessing on these businesses and for employers and employees to work honestly and to know the presence of God in the area.

Goldthorpe Industrial Estate

Two verses have particularly come to mind whenever we pray for the area to flourish economically and spiritually. The first is Isaiah 58:12 TNIV (“Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.”) and the second Isaiah 43:18-19 TNIV (“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.”) Parts of Goldthorpe still look like the wilderness or the wasteland: derelict buildings, graffiti on buildings, vandalism and overgrown areas of weeds, untended and uncared for. But as we pray, we are looking for God to move in this area and to bring forth new life, economically and spiritually. We believe that God has good plans for this place and we long to see hope manifested in every aspect of our community’s life.