In a normal year, today would have been the first day of our annual Holiday Club. Obviously, this is not a normal year, and therefore we have not been able to prepare and deliver a normal Holiday Club. But we have been able to produce a virtual Holiday Club. This is a mix of daily YouTube videos and Activity Packs that were delivered in advance. We launched the first video today and have had a great response. It has been good seeing the children send in their photos and videos.
There is lots that I enjoy about Holiday Club - including the fifteen minutes where the team get together before the children arrive to reflect briefly on the passage/story for the day and pray together.
This year we're looking at the story of Daniel, and today the focus was on the captivity and Daniel's training from Daniel 1.
For Daniel, his three friends, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, and for many others this would have been a traumatic experience. No doubt they saw people brutally killed during the attack on Jerusalem and throughout the cruel march to Babylon. The Temple was ransacked and much of the city detroyed. For most people, these events were evidence that Nebuchadnezzar's god was bigger and stronger than the God of Israel.
And yet the author of the book of Daniel wants us to see things differently. Whilst it might look as if things were out of God's control - three times in this chapter we see a different perspective.
It was God who handed Judah into Nebuchadnezzar's hands (verse 2). It was God who caused hardened Babylonian officials to show favour to Daniel (verse 9). And it was God who was the source of Daniel's learning and wisdom (verse 17).
Daniel knew that he could trust God because ultimately God was in control.
However bleak things might look for us today - God is ultimately in control - and therefore we can trust him.
Today is the final assembly in my online series looking at the life of Peter. We've reached the point in Acts where Peter moves into the background, being based mainly in Jerusalem, and Paul comes to the fore as the good news of Jesus spreads far and wide.
But there is still one more dramatic story in chapter 12 although Peter was involved in the Council at Jerusalem in chapter 15. Whilst not material that lends itself to a primary school assembly, the events of chapter 15 are certainly significant in the progress of the church as it became increasing Gentile in makeup.
Back to chapter 12 and Peter's miraculous escape from prison.
We're currently heavily involved in preparation for our virtual Holiday Club - on the story of Daniel (the first half at least). And many of the teaching points revolve around statements like 'we can trust God because he is able to save us from...' And whilst that is certainly the case for Daniel and his three friends, we know too many examples of where that has not been the case.
Here we read about Peter's miraculous escape from prison, and whilst there are modern-day stories of Christians miraculously escaping from prison, there are also stories of Christians who aren't released from prison. Christians being martyred for their faith. Christians dying of Covid-19.
It's interesting to note that chapter 12 starts with the imprisonment and execution of James - who would have been a close friend of Peter. Why did God rescue Peter and not James?
I wonder what the Christians gathered in Mary's house were praying. Were they praying for Peter's release? If so, they didn't seem to have much faith given their surprise at his presence at the front door. Or were they praying for his strength to remain faithful to the end - which was surely only hours away? He certainly seemed to be at peace - fast asleep in his cell.
There are so many questions that we are simply not going to be able to answer.
Peter clearly didn't expect God to rescue him, and yet that didn't stop his ongoing obedience and faithfulness. He was prepared to face prison and execution without the expectation that God would intervene every time to keep him safe and well.
Very little of the Bible makes much sense without the big picture - not just the big picture in terms of the spread of the gospel and the growth of the church, but also the big picture in terms of eternity. Clearly, God had more work for Peter to do in the life of the church in Jerusalem. But both Peter and James knew that even death was not the end of the story.
They would have both known the book of Psalms - many of the Psalms they would have known off by heart. Psalm 56:11 says, 'In God I trust and am not afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?'
The answer to that question is not 'nothing'. But no doubt Peter and James read this Psalm in the light of Jesus' words, in Matthew 10:28, 'Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell'.
Obviously, I didn't go into most of that in the actual assembly.
This Sunday, as we continue our series on Paul's Prayers, we're thinking about what it means to 'live a life worthy of the Lord' - a prayer that Paul prayed for the Christians in a place called Colossae.
For a bit of background to this church and Paul's letter to them here's a helpful video from the guys at the Bible Project.
Welcome to July. We're over halfway through the year and rapidly approaching what would normally be the end of term but with so many of the 'markers of time' having been removed due to the Covid-19 lockdown it really doesn't feel like July.
But there is still today - and then two more Wednesday's to go before the 'summer holidays' begin. So that's three more assemblies on the life of Peter.
Today, we're looking at one of the most significant stories in the book of Acts - the story of Peter and Cornelius. Look at how many words Luke dedicates to this story and then skim through the rest of Acts to see where the story is either retold in some detail or referred to. This really is a very significant and key story in Luke's telling of the story of the early church.
In today's assembly, we're going to focus on Peter's vision of the sheet. Next week we'll unpack the significance of this in Jew-Gentile relations and what God was teaching Peter at this time.
The food laws were a key signpost of who was 'in' and who was 'out'. And until this event, there is no way that Peter would have entertained the thought of entering into a Gentile (non-Jewish) home, let alone eating a meal there. Even having been with Jesus and seen him go and eat with people like Zacchaeus, Peter was still not in the position to make the jump to accepting Gentiles as being a part of the kingdom of God.
This story has much more significance than simply allowing Peter to eat a bacon roll.
