Harold Rubin was a versatile musician. Michael Morgan said of him, “Rubin’s versatility was legendary. You had the feeling he’d played everything in the world at least once and knew all the music he hadn’t played … He was absolutely one of a kind.”

I think the musicians at our church are going for a similar record. Certainly here we see their fondness for swapping instruments over!







And when the music was over, they swapped the instruments for toys!:

We had two things in particular to celebrate last night.

One was a birthday:



One was an engagement:



The latter was definitely cause for a party!

Getting ready for the party:





Enjoying the party:







The proud grandparents:



The happy couple:



The willing washer-uppers (including the happy couple!):

Dave preached last night from John 1:43-51, looking at the call of Philip and Nathanael. In recent Bible studies on Romans, we have been looking at the question of predestination and free will (doctrines which have sadly in the past split the church.) Predestination teaches predominantly about God’s sovereignty, that God is in control and has a plan for our lives: taken to extremes, however, it can lead to the view that people are mere puppets of God. Free will, on the other hand, says that we are given a choice to follow Jesus or not and are not mere robots or puppets. Taken to extremes, it can virtually render God powerless.

As always, we need to have balance in our beliefs. Scripture teaches us that God has chosen us. It also teaches us that when we hear God call us, we have a choice as to whether we respond or not. This passage in John shows us Jesus calling disciples to follow Him; it also shows us the response of those disciples.

Philip and Nathanael are not the best known of Jesus’s followers. We do know quite a lot about Philip, though. An eminently practical person (see his response to the feeding of the five thousand or to the arrival of the Greeks who wanted to meet with Jesus), Philip hears Jesus’s call to ‘Follow me’ and responds to this. Others chose not to follow (the rich young ruler or the man who wanted instead to bury his father, for example.) Philip was both chosen by God and chose to follow. We find him later on in Acts doing exactly the same thing as in John 1, seeking to introduce others to Jesus.

Philip, having decided to follow Jesus, goes to tell others, giving them the same choice. He goes to his friend Nathanael, who responds very cynically to the idea that anything good could come out of Nazareth. Philip is not put off by this rebuff, however. He persists, urging Nathanael to ‘come and see’ for himself. That is what our response to others should be. We should urge them to ‘come and see’ for themselves.

The ultimate aim is that we introduce people to Jesus – not necessarily to ‘church’ itself but to the Lord. There are numerous ways our church seeks to introduce people to Jesus, many of them not apparently evangelistic in aim. The community outreaches we hold (coffee mornings, youth meetings, Mums & Toddlers etc.) may not seem to mention Jesus all that much, but at the heart of all we do is the longing that we may befriend people and introduce them to the best friend we have ever met. What people then choose to do as they hear that call from Jesus is their responsibility. Our responsibility, like Philip’s, is to seek to introduce our friends and acquaintances to Jesus. They then need to hear His call and choose for themselves.

Stephen preached from Psalm 93 this morning, looking at the might and majesty of God.

The psalm begins by telling us ‘the Lord reigns, he is robed in majesty.’ A coronation is probably the time when we appreciate the majesty of a king or queen. It’s a public display showing the power invested in the crowned person. They wear elaborate robes and gowns and their crown is the symbol of their authority.

Queen Elizabeth II at her coronation in 1953:



God’s splendour and majesty are enormous. He is ‘armed with strength’ and rules for all eternity. All of creation rises up to give glory to God. The pounding waves and breakers of the sea all acknowledge how mighty God is. We should be like the waves, relentlessly giving praise to God, never ending, never ceasing in our ongoing acknowledgment of who He is!

God’s holiness adorns Him. Do we reflect His holiness? Do we see His strength from on high? May we praise Him and reflect Him in all we do.

“All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy,” the saying goes. I’m sure dullness is not a characteristic of church members at Goldthorpe! – and we certainly know how to both work and play as we proved on Friday, when we had a cleaning session before we played badminton.

Cleaning chairs



Cleaning play equipment:



Playing badminton:





A short badminton video:

For those of you old enough to remember talent shows before ‘The X Factor’ and ‘Britain’s Got Talent’, there was a show called ‘Opportunity Knocks‘. This talent show was famously hosted by Hughie Green, and later editions were hosted by Bob Monkhouse from 1987 until 1989 with Les Dawson (a former winner) in 1990.Unlike its rival New Faces, the winning acts on Opportunity Knocks were decided not by a panel of experts but by the viewing public. A singing dog apparently once won the show!

I’m not a great fan of this kind of programme, but was reminded of this show the other day when I came across a quote from Thomas Edison about opportunity. I think this is more apt than the kind of sensationalist talent show which currently graces our TV screens!

“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” (Thomas Edison)

I think this is very true. So often we want the glitz and glamour of fame and fortune, of ‘being discovered’, of having our moment in the limelight. But we often fail to recognise the God-given opportunities we face every day because they don’t look like we expect them to. Abraham’s servant, coming to a well at the end of a long journey, seeking a wife for his master’s son and praying that God would send the right person to him… Ordinary moments can be very much God’s hand working in our lives, but it may not look spectacular. For every amazing victory (think of David and Goliath!), there has generally been a lot of behind-the-scenes activity that looked very ordinary (David being a shepherd, taking on the wild animals as part of his everyday job description…)

We attended a concert last week given by Jack Gibbons. This talented pianist amazed us with his skill and ability to play. His repertoire is vast – classical, jazz, many different styles of music. But behind the glamour of a 2 hour concert lie hours and hours of work… opportunity in overalls, practising tirelessly, repetitively, boringly. He has transcribed all the works of George Gershwin by ear from recordings made in the 1920s and 1930s, once spending all day listening to the notes of one single chord to make sure they were right. Does this look like opportunity or hard work?! Sometimes, perhaps, the two things are indistinguishable…