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I don’t know if you’re like me, always feeling that you have to be busy doing something. Maybe it’s work, maybe it’s around the house with the family, maybe it’s just stuff.  Whatever it is, you find it hard to slow down, to relax, to switch off from the business of everyday life.  You can’t stop yourself from checking Facebook or keeping your phone turned on. The verse above reminds us that it is the shepherd that chooses the path, prepares the pasture and protects us. Our role is simply to follow, feed and fellowship with him.

Which of the Ten Commandments do you think takes up the most words?  Not adultery – only five.  Not murder – only four.  The longest is about taking a day off – 96 words! (Exodus 20:8-11).  God knows just what we’re like. God says that for one day a week we’ll say no to work and yes to worship. We’ll slow down, sit down, lie down and rest.  After all, he rested on the seventh day and the world didn’t crash.

Now I know that being a teacher I get obscenely long holidays in comparison to everyone else. It’s perhaps easier for me to find time to switch off from work.  I don’t know how your summer has been, whether you have managed to get a break from everyday life or if you’re planning to in the next few weeks. Whether you’re going away or not, it’s important to take time out to relax in God and with God. We need to allow him to just wash over us, to restore us, to minister to us and to refresh us.  We need to use the time, whether it’s just at the weekend or during a week away, to spend time worshipping him and finding out more about him.  Between now and Sunday  5^th September, 3.45pm, when we meet together at Burnholme College, how are you going to worship God in a different way? How are you going to find out more about him?  If the fact that G2 has stopped for the summer means that your only source of worship and feeding has ceased, then there’s something wrong.  Use the next few weeks to read a book which delves into an area of Christian life that you maybe haven’t thought about before – if you haven’t a clue what to choose then give Christian, Luke, Hannah or myself an email.  Put your headphones on and listen to some worship songs whilst sitting by the river, surrounded by his creation. Take yourself somewhere quiet and just spend some time talking to God and listening in the silence for him to speak to you.  You don’t need to be heading off abroad to do any of this. You don’t even need to be going on holiday, You just need to have the self-discipline to say I’m going to set time aside to do this, because it’s what God has commanded me to do.

Charles Spurgeon said, “Even the sea pauses at ebb and flood; earth keeps the Sabbath of the wintery months, and man must rest or faint, trim his lamp or let it burn low. In the long term we shall do more, by sometimes doing less.”  If we honour God’s principles we’ll find rest for our body, mind and emotions.

One girl, Kelsea, who had had the attitude of a moody 13 year old since I known her, was surprisingly upset by my departure.  It turns out that, despite the hard exterior, she really did like me being her teacher.

On my final day, I arrived at school at 8:30am to be greeted by a very excited Kelsea.  She explained that she had got up early and emptied her money box of the £3.20 that was in there.  She had rushed her breakfast and left the house extra early so she could go the shop and buy me a present.

Her £3.20 stretched to buy a packet of milky way stars, and a card which read “Our thoughts are with you…we’d like you to know that our thoughts and sympathy are with you are this time of sorrow.” Bless her.

She arrived at school at 8am so she could write in the card (BEST TEATCHER EVER!!!!) and then waited like it was Christmas morning until I arrived and she could experience the joy of giving.

Kelsea’s gift warmed my heart in a new way, this ten-year old girl did not have much.  She was never dressed particularly well, was usually tired and had little confidence in her ability.  She clearly wasn’t from a rich family and the present she gave me wasn’t extravagant, the card wasn’t even appropriate!  But she gave what she had.

Kelsea’s gift reminded me of the Widow’s Offering in Mark 12:41-44.   Jesus sat and watched people putting money into the temple offering.  A poor widow only put in two small copper coins, worth barely anything.  Yet Jesus saw her heart and the true value of her offering.  “I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more in the treasury that all the others.  They gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything – all she had to live on.”

Do I give like Kelsea gave?  Do I give like the widow gave?  If this is an example of how we should give, then it means giving so much that we have nothing left.   For most of us, this has big consequences, because most of us have quite a lot.  Does God want us to have nothing and be miserable?  In my experience, the more we give, the more God gives to us.  Perhaps the real blessing comes not in the receiving, but in the giving away in the first place.

Listen to Luke Smith’s talk on the Holy Spirit living within us here.

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Burnholme is not very far from where we have been meeting.  From Hull Road turn down Tang Hall Lane, which is opposite David Lloyd, after 1km turn right onto Fourth Avenue, which quickly becomes Bad Bargain Lane and Burnholme Community College is on your right hand side, postcode YO31 0GW.

York Community Church will also be meeting at Burnholme from September, their meeting time is 11am. We are exciting about having 2 Churches meeting in the same venues and the possibilities for mission this will bring.

Our first day of meeting after the Summer break is 5th September, and don’t forget the new time is 3:45pm!

To download the audio files (mp3) then please ‘right-click’ on the link below …

God is Man-centric

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Pippa Winterburn will be leading us in the last of our series ‘Lies we believe in’, specifically looking at ‘The pursuit of Happiness’.

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Click here to download the file or use the player below.

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