Dear Friends
We are glad to announce that the new Scargill Programme (covering new events both in-house and online from March to August 2024), combined with our latest Momentum magazine, will be available to book online from Wednesday 8th November (from after morning coffee) – please place booking requests via the website if possible, as our ‘phone lines will be busy.
Our lovely Admin Team will be working their way through your requests in order, and will respond to specific requests as soon as they are able. We hope that you enjoy our new publication as you read, browse and start to make plans to come to visit us. We look forward to welcoming you through our doors or seeing you online at one of these programme events.
Momentum is packed full of articles for you to enjoy and includes updates on our Phase 7 Building project which has been progressing well since April.
We are still looking for new members of the Community who can be a lead on worship and youth – Job Descriptions are here. Please do pray with us for the right people to join the Scargill adventure.
This month, Di has been reflecting on ‘faith’. Enjoy!
Diane writes:
Evening Prayer liturgy:
Opening prayer
God the fulfiller of enduring promises,
God the sharer of abundant love, and giver of eternal life
We remember Your faithfulness
God, who calls all life into being – the earth, sea and sky are Yours
Your Spirit enlivens all who walk on earth
We remember Your faithfulness
We praise and thank you this day
We remember Your faithfulness
Our prayer is one and simple
May God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven,
God’s righteousness and beauty echo through the universe
A while back in morning prayers I heard a quote from David Pawson ’It is not the faith we start with but the faithfulness we finish with that is important.’ I was intrigued and challenged by these words, placing them on my desk and mulling over them. Then recently we had cause to have been given a courtesy car and I was horrified to find no brake handle to firmly hold onto when wanting to release or apply my brakes. NO! All I had to do was apparently rely on a button that shone, presumably to reassure me, and another that said AUTO HOLD. Hence the most uninspiring photo to look at.
But it does highlight my apparent complete lack of faith in technology. I found it really hard to believe that those two buttons were going to keep me safe, I honestly felt scared avoiding at one point to drive it. But that was silly, so, yes, I did embrace the technology and even began to rest and relax when stopping or parking. Alas, just as I began to ‘enjoy’ driving the car, in fact only yesterday, we had to return it – I had survived, Phew!! And it was such a joy to use a handbrake again.
So why was it so difficult to have faith in the light and the button – perhaps because it was trust I was lacking rather than faith. Which did get me thinking once again about faith. Merriam-Webster defines faith as “belief and trust in and loyalty to God.” So, there is a link between the two words but recent research has prompted some to argue that New Testament faith and belief in Jesus should be understood in terms of faithfulness, loyalty, and commitment to him and his teachings, rather than in terms of belief, trust and reliance.
Faith is important because faith frames who we are, our existence, our values, our hopes, and our dreams. Faith is the quiet calm before a storm as well as the anchor within it. You see Faith is a gift from God, an absolutely gratuitous gift. It is the establishment of God’s relationship to his people. A relationship our evening prayer reminds us of with the refrain ‘we remember His faithfulness’.
The Old Testament is full of examples of God’s faithfulness. We are all very familiar with Noah’s rainbow and whilst writing I saw the most beautiful double rainbow. A visual reminder that God’s promise to Noah is not simply part of an ancient story or merely a symbol of hope, it is a living example of God’s faithfulness. It is an assurance that God has not forgotten us and that he continues to work in this world. Also, I read an article (https://www.pastorwoman.net/podcast/episode/2… Posted by Christine on November 11, 2022) about faithfulness’ through the eyes of Caleb. Christine talked about Caleb, one of the twelve spies, along with Joshua who were sent to ‘suss out’ Canaan. They were the only two who brought back a good report [because they trusted God!!] Joshua and Caleb ‘through Eyes of Faith’ saw no reason to delay but to immediately go and take the land. Caleb was a man who remembered the God who was faithful, and on that basis, plus God’s promise, he trusted him. And that trust readied him for action. We too have the choice to either see with eyes of faith what may seem impossible for us to accomplish or see with expectant eyes of faith what is possible for us, us only to accomplish – an interesting thought!
This reflection has strengthened my resolve to seeing faith in the terms of faithfulness, of moving beyond being something I think to including an attitude of action. James’ letter is all about the works of faith, in fact faith is the centrepiece of his argument. In 2v14 James writes “What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works?” And a few verses later he firmly answers his own question by stating, “So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead”. Well, that’s quite clear!
What makes faith a living and a saving faith is what you do about it. We must not stop at a faith that involves mere mental consent. Our faith is meaningless unless it produces the confidence in God that would cause us to act … to take on giants in the land.
So let me finish as I started with our Evening Prayer liturgy:
Closing prayer
May Your kingdom come O Lord, on earth as it is in heaven,
May our words proclaim it, our actions reveal it
May Your kingdom come through us, this day and every day
May we feel its heartbeat of love
With love and prayers from