How we react

A few Sundays back I was driving home with my daughters in the car. All of a sudden there was a terrible screeching sound coming from my front tyre. The sound very much resembled fingernails being scrapped against a blackboard. It was terrible. Me, being the only adult in the car was trying to remain calm, thinking ‘I just need to get home safely’. Whereas my daughters had more of a reaction of fear, worry, and panic. Luckily the next day we found that it was just a little stone caught in my wheel and the solution was quite simple.

My daughters expressed a very natural reaction about how they were feeling in the situation. I didn’t show them the panic I was actually feeling inside. What if there is something seriously wrong with the car? How much money will this cost me? What if I can’t use my car for work? No matter what distress I was feeling, I was choosing to display a different response in this situation in order to create a calm that my daughters needed to regain a feeling of safety. If I had chosen to display my actual emotional reaction it would have completely changed the situation and made the atmosphere a lot worse.

Often in life things can happen that create different responses and reactions from us. People can say things to upset us or make us angry. We have a choice whether we react emotionally or respond thoughtfully. Sometimes our reactions are not thought through and our initial feelings about a situation rise up and actually have the potential to make things worse. Sometimes we need to just take a step back and think about how to respond in the situation.

That Sunday even though I wanted to react negatively to the car screeching, I chose to think calmly and positively. Each of us has the same choice to make when we are faced with a situation that can evoke either a negative reaction or a positive response. Whatever you face this week I implore you to try and take a step back, a deep breath and choose a positive approach. In Proverbs 13:16 it says “Wise people think before they act; fools don’t—and even brag about their foolishness.”No matter what we may face let’s choose to be wise in our responses by thinking before we act from here on out.

Emily Hart
Kings Lynn Christian Fellowship

What’s your memory like?

What’s your memory like? Apparently, the storage capacity of the human brain is virtually limitless. I guess that means I don’t have an excuse for forgetting what I came upstairs for, or forgetting to take my lunch to work the other day, or worse still – forgetting my wedding anniversary! Incidentally, you might be relieved to know that there is a scientific explanation for forgetting what we went into a room for. Apparently, going through doorways may act as a trigger for the brain to store memories away so that we then can’t remember once we get to the next room.
My mum tells the story of when my sister (her first child) was born and she went to a shop. As was common in those days, she left the pram outside and went in to do her shopping. She finished the shopping, left the shop and started to walk home, completely forgetting to take my sister with her! She didn’t get too far before realising! I am so glad that God promises never to forget me. There is a verse in the Bible that compares God to a mother and says, “how can a mother forget her baby? And yet even if she does, I will not forget you.” (Isaiah 49:15) God can’t forget us because we are his precious children and he is our perfect parent.
But what is equally amazing is what he chooses to forget. The Bible tells us that when we ask God to forgive us, he doesn’t just forgive, he forgets, (Isaiah 43:25). When we forgive people, we don’t automatically forget what they have done – we can’t erase the memory just by choosing to do so, although the memory can become less painful. It is very easy to bring those things back up again in our relationships, even when we think we have forgiven someone. But God CHOOSES to forget. He decides not to remember the mistakes we have made. That means that we can be absolutely sure that he will never hold it against us. When God says he forgives, he means it because he wipes it from his own memory. So, if I try and ask for forgiveness for the same mistake again, he says, “What mistake?” Jesus came not just to forgive us, but to wipe the slate clean so we can start again with him.

Wendy Hill

Overcoming Fear

As part of our summer holiday, my wife, my two daughters and I walked up the beautiful Peak District hill, Mam Tor. It’s no Everest, and when we reached the peak there were young children happily marauding around the triangulation point.

As for me: my palms were sweating, I felt dizzy; my heart leapt every time my daughters strayed too far from the path. I gripped my wife’s hand, flinching a little as people brushed past me. I felt myself relax only when we had safely completed our descent a couple of miles later at the end of the ridge path.

There’s nothing particularly rational about my fear of heights. Unless I was to take some deliberate and reckless course of action, I’m perfectly safe walking up and down a hill. But sometimes fear grips us even when we know it has no place in our minds. Sometimes fear overwhelms us when we face difficult circumstances. Will my mum survive her cancer treatment? Will I have a job in a year’s time? Will my daughter ever be able to live an independent life?

Fear has a lot to do with lies. They’re the sort of lies that are laced with a little truth, the sort of lies that take the worst case scenario and magnify it until all other options seem unlikely. Fear can literally be paralysing.

In the Bible, we learn that “there is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear” (1 John 4:18). What is perfect love? It’s the love that came from God; the love that made itself human, experienced every emotion that we feel, “was tempted in every way, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15). It’s the love that wept in his favourite garden, that cried out for another way to restore relationship with us, but that stared fear and death in the face, and “for the joy set before him, endured the cross” (Hebrews 12:2). It’s the love that was ultimately victorious over all the wrong things we’ve ever done, and ever will do. It’s the love that has robbed death of its sting (1 Corinthians 15:55).

I do still struggle with feelings of fear. There aren’t too many opportunities to test my fear of heights in an area as low-lying as West Norfolk, but there are plenty of situations in life that rattle me. Nevertheless, I’m learning to take these to God, to kill fear with His love, to trust Him in all circumstances and to be strengthened by him. No matter what fear is gripping you, God is there, and there are churches across the town full of people, who may have their own fears, but who are learning to trust God in everything.

Andy King
The Gateway Church

Truth isn’t truth

“Truth isn’t truth!” is the most ridiculous statement President Donald Trump’s lawyer Rudi Gulliani has said so far in a news interview. It is like saying one is not equal to one. What he was trying to say was that Trump’s truth was different from Cohen’s truth, but even that sounds ridiculous!

For decades, many have argued for relativism – the idea that there is no absolute truth in the areas of belief and morality. Trump’s legal team are trying to leverage moral relativism into matters of law. Specifically over whether hush payments to a porno actress during the presidential campaign are legal or not.

The idea that there can be no absolute truth is self defeating. To say there are no absolutes is itself an absolute. It is trying to bring preferences into matters of right and wrong or whether any idea is true or not. What is considered right and wrong in society changes as culture changes. That though is inherently selfish – if there is no such thing as right and wrong, then stealing is right, until someone steals from me, when it becomes wrong again. What you end up with is a mess!

Some of my friends have said of my Christian faith that if it is true for you then good for you, but it is not true for me. C.S. Lewis argued “Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important. “

The claim of the Christian faith is that Jesus Christ died on our behalf for our wrongdoing. On the third day he rose again thereby defeating the power of sin and death. If Jesus is still dead, the Apostle Paul wrote, we are to be pitied more than all men – we are wasting our lives on a delusion.

So the issue of whether Christianity is true or not comes down to whether he really died and if he rose again. The spear in his side effusing blood and water we now know is fluid from the pleural cavity followed by blood from the heart, proving death.

The body was never produced by the Romans or Jewish authorities to disprove the troublesome new faith. Grave robbers would have stolen the spices and grave-clothes rather than the body. The disciples who had fled in fear then lived in boldness and never wavering to produce the body when they were persecuted. He was seen by 550 people for a period of 40 days and then no more. Of course there are far more detailed arguments that can be made than in those few words. It adds up to the resurrection being the only credible explanation for Jesus no longer in the tomb.

If the resurrection is objectively true and many lawyers who have investigated for themselves have come to that conclusion then Christianity is true. Truth is truth! Why not investigate and decide for yourself?

Andy Moyle, The Gateway Church

How to relieve suffering

How to relieve suffering.

I wonder how many of you recall Roy Scheider, who played Brodie in the film Jaws, the big summer hit film of 1975. He said, when he saw the size of the man-eating shark of the film’s title, ‘you’re gonna need a bigger boat’. It occurs to me that a similar expression might help us when confronted with the size and endurance of human suffering. ‘You’re gonna need a bigger brain’.
There are said to be about 100 billion nerve cells (neurons) in the human brain and each makes about 7000 chemically mediated connections (synapses) with other neurones so that the number of synapses in a human brain is estimated to be a staggering one quadrillion (1015). Our Christian culture is also centred on making good connections, but between people, not neurones. This suggests to me that, if every human acted as a mobile neurone and made functional connections, mankind could come together to produce a form of higher order brain.
An early example of this can be found at http://www.parkinsonnet.info/. Through this network people with an interest in Parkinson’s disease can interact, learn and share research, knowledge and hope.
In his book ‘Fractal Brain Theory’ Wai H. Tsang, who studied Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence at Imperial College, London, finds that there is a hierarchy of nerve connections in the human brain with emotions at the top, powerfully driving us to satisfy our needs. The power of emotions can feel as though it grabs our sense of life or death. Could we form a higher order brain governed by creative and life giving motivation? For me that means the dominion of Jesus Christ.
Carl Jung (1875-1961), who was a practising psychiatrist and a polymath, wrote extensively on psychology. Jung thought that humans need to develop through life to reach their full potential, otherwise mental illness occurs. Could a higher order brain allow the whole of mankind to reach their full potential and consign mental illness to history?
Individually we are not fully conscious. In her book ‘Consciousness: A Very Short Introduction’ Susan Blackmore, who is a visiting psychology professor at Plymouth University, concludes that: ‘Consciousness, then, is a grand delusion.’
In conclusion, could mankind develop into a higher order brain which, beyond meritocracy, gives its members equality through full consciousness? Would sin then be impossible and could you say to anyone; ‘you exist, therefore I love you’, and mean it?

Peter Coates,
Kings Lynn Catholics

Remembering Noah

REMEMBERING NOAH
It is easy for us to ignore history, yet if we cannot learn from the past, we are likely to repeat the mistakes made by our forebears, leaving us unprepared for what is to come. We all know the story of Noah, his ark and the animals, but the real significance of this account is rarely mentioned in books that are mainly written for children’s entertainment.

The account of Noah in the Bible tells us much about the character and actions of God and how He governs the world with love, mercy and justice, When Noah received the command from God to start building the ark, he was told that God would destroy the whole population of people who had turned away from God. Noah was told ‘what’ was coming but he was not told ‘when’ it would come.
For over 100 years Noah faithfully believed everything that God had told him and when the deluge came, those who remained outside of the ark were all destroyed. This account was not just an isolated incident in history, but was a foreshadowing of an event yet to come.

In Noah’s generation, the ark was the only place of safety that God had provided for Noah and his family. The ark had a doorway and a threshold that Noah, his family and the animals had to pass through before they were safe. God has also provided a place of safety for us living today, Instead of a wooden ark, Jesus is building his kingdom with people from every nation, tribe and culture, The
kingdom that Jesus is building also has a doorway and a threshold. The doorway can be entered by those who believe in Jesus and who identify themselves with his death on the cross and his resurrection to new life. On our part, the threshold must be crossed before we can enter into God’s kingdom and be saved. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever
believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). Jesus also forewarned us that the world will see another earth-shaking event that will come suddenly. Jesus said “Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in
the days of the Son of Man (the return of Jesus Christ)” (Luke 17: 26-27). I have chosen to follow Jesus as my saviour and I am safely inside His kingdomwhatever happens. How about you; are you safely inside or currently outside? Its your
choice.

Geoff Duncombe
The Gateway Church
Kings Lynn

The Enemy Is Our Superiority.

The Enemy Is Our Superiority

Thank you for your love which contributes towards the functioning of society. Your love contributes towards our realisation of the wholeness of everything and everyone (God the Father), the wholesomeness of everything and everyone (God the Son) and the harmony of everything and everyone (God the Holy Spirit). But we frequently get things wrong.
Because God is so high above us, the first step to love is to acknowledge our faults and change. Jesus started his ministry by calling for repentance because our love starts with being wrong.
One of the greatest wrongs down through history has been a conscious or subconscious desire for superiority. Examples of manmade disasters caused by the desire for superiority include the First World War, the holocaust and extremism. In true Christianity we give away to God our desire for superiority. Because I believe in the mercy of God I am pleased to tell you that I made an inadvertent error in my last ‘Thought for the Week’ in December. When writing about the book ‘The Meaning of Blue’ by Luke Bell OSB I wrote that blue is the colour you get when you look towards the light. In fact the book says: ‘Blue is dark seen from light. It is therefore the colour of the light-filled, the spiritually realised’.
The Infinite Joy of Repentance.
What value my dreams?
In a history of dreams;
In a history of conflict,
That symptom of failed repentance,
In an ocean of dreams.

If I could dream God’s dream
I would dream of repentance.
Of sin rejected;
Of naked humility;
Of Christ crucified;
Of your good dreams fulfilled
In forgiveness and prayer.

Then my dreams are our dreams;
A shared consciousness;
An ocean of dream;
An ocean of repentance.

Then Lord we invite you into our lives,
Where gently, repeatedly, you wash in;
As waves wash the seashore;
As truth repeatedly corrects;
Washing the spirit
In waves of repentance.

An ocean of repentance
Becomes an ocean of faith.
An ocean of faith
Becomes the kingdom of God,
Just as Jesus said it would.

What value my story now?
Since we bought your eternity
With our repentance
And we paid with the life of Christ.

Your love became our life;
My story became our story;
My isolation became our joy;
My ignorance became our knowledge;
My grief became our creativity,
In the infinite joy of repentance.

Peter Coates,
Secretary CTKL

Loneliness

Britain is the 3rd loneliest country in Europe according to the Office for National Statistics. Some five million people have no close friends. Loneliness has long been recognised and worked on for older people, but recent research is showing an epidemic of friendlessness among younger people. You’d think with Facebook “friends” that people would have lots of friends, but the reverse seems to be true.

God is the model for relationship and He created us for relationship.

It is not good for the man to be alone. Gen 2:18

We were created to be social beings, not islands. We were made with a need for friends and the desire to enjoy warm, healthy and lasting friendships with others. The fundamental issue that hinders friendships is of course the sin that separates from God and from each other. The Gospel wonderfully reconciles us to God and one another. We have seen how Jesus beautifully models friendship. He is a friend of sinners, continually eating with tax collectors and sinners. He is the one who says of His disciples,

No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called your friends… John 15:15

Friendship thus became a glorious hallmark of the early church, who were devoted to fellowship. Jesus promise’ By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another (John 13:35) was so thoroughly obvious to the Jewish historian Josephus, that he wrote “See how these Christians love one another.”

There are levels of friendship. Jesus was friendly to the crowd, knew the 72 better, had 12 close followers, 3 inner circle and John his closest friend. At the bottom of the scale of friendships is “no friends at all” –Jesus experienced that when he was rejected in the lead up to the cross. Jesus promises to be a friend like no other, God promises to never leave you or forsake you. Then there are acquaintances – Liam at the garage, Simon in the coffee shop – people I say hello to regularly! Good friends are the ones you know their birthday (correction my wife does!) Jesus picked the twelve “he desired” (Mark3:13) to be good friends. Really good friends are like Peter, James and John, for Jesus, that He took with him to the mount of transfiguration. These are the friends you look forward to spending an evening with and would drop everything to help solve a middle of the night crisis. Finally there are intimate friends – John describes himself as the disciple that Jesus loved.

How are your friendships doing? God is interested in you and that area of your life and would love to help you if it is a struggle. Ask Him and pop into a local Church this Sunday if you don’t normally.

Andy Moyle

The Gateway Church
Excerpted from “Friends, Food and the Gospel”

Oh no it isn’t!

Oh no it isn’t! Rev John Belfield, Catholic Church, King’s Lynn

Well, Christmas is over, fight in the sales, take down the decorations and look for the Easter eggs!
Or perhaps shop for discounted Christmas cards and wrapping paper for next year first!
Oh and find a way to get rid of all that wrapping paper and packaging. Put away unwanted presents for a future raffle. Anyone for turkey AGAIN!

Why is it over so quickly? It took ages to get ready. Credit cards to pay off. Was it worth it? It’s over the next day and everything seems so gloomy and depressing. What with the rain, cold and the thought of work again.

Well, if that sounds like you I am sorry for you. You have missed the point.

It doesn’t have to be about being religious. This time of year is a time for everyone of whatever faith or none to look at friends families and neighbours in a different light. To spend time thinking how to make others and yourself happy in a different way. Different because most of the world is doing it at the same time. People greet each other, sometimes complete strangers, with ‘Happy Christmas’. There are more smiles. Sending cards to folk you rarely see. In the writing you are thinking of them – you may not have done so since you wrote them a card last year, but you are thinking od them now.

Getting ready should be a build up of anticipation for the fun day. Like getting ready to go on a holiday you have been waiting for, for ages. Enjoy the moment. Make it last as long as possible. Hang on to the warmth and friendships.

Christmas isn’t over yet. Christmas Day is, but the celebration goes on. If we let it. In fact there is no reason why the heart of it – the celebration of peace, joy and love should not be a daily part of our lives. Many of us try to live like that and share it with others outside of our circle of friends and family. If you don’t then its not too late to start.

Many organisations in West Norfolk are looking for volunteers and supporters. There are so many ways the spirit of Christmas can be shared every day of the year. We just have to want it to.

Should Church Roofs be Made of Glass?

Should Church Roofs be Made of Glass?

To God belongs the enduring wholeness and wholesomeness of everything; a vast existence. God makes a home in each loving person (John 14:23) and this is why we pray and how we all become equal. There is then no place for the inequality of tyranny, race or power, no need for male domination or reactive feminism and no superiority of the rich or talented over the poor, jobless, sick, deformed or dead.
The symbol of God is light and this is why some people find a sense of God in the visual beauty of the sky. In his book ‘The Meaning of Blue’ Luke Bell OSB, who is a Benedictine monk at Quarr Abbey on the Isle of Wight, points out that blue is the colour you get when you look through the atmosphere towards the sunlight. This is why Mary, the mother of Jesus, appears in paintings dressed in blue, because she looks towards the light which is God. So when I look at the sky, which is blue, beautiful and vast, I am reminded of what is behind it, creating and maintaining it, the vast existence of God.

A Vast Existence

Give me a view of the Norfolk sky,
That lovely blue,
Where shapes of cotton wool drift by;
A vast existence.

Give me a view of the Norfolk sky,
In an age of dysfunctional thought,
Where clouds make shapes like animal faces,
Changing, drifting, merging, lifting;
A vast existence.

Give me a view of the Norfolk sky,
When I am stressed or hurt,
Where sunny clouds will shine like pearls,
And rays beam down through cloudy curls;
A vast existence.

Millennia past evolved our minds,
Viewing the heavens high,
Perhaps it’s why I feel depressed,
When buildings hide the sky.

Give me a view of the clear night sky,
That Norfolk sky,
That vast existence,
Where countless stars vault rustling trees
Or the yellow moon shimmers on rippling seas,
A silent sky;
An awesome sky;
A vast existence.

Give me a view of the Norfolk sky,
That high sky,
That vast existence.
No me, no lack,
No world, no work,
And no distress;
A sense of God;
A vast existence.

There is no judgment given,
There are no violent acts;
In looking up at beauty,
From the grief of imprisoning facts.

For God is the only
Vast existence.

Peter Coates, Secretary of Churches Together in King’s Lynn.