Author: andymoyle

There are many opinions about God and questions that could be asked but in our secular society, talking about God has become a taboo subject that restricts meaningful conversations or discussions.

Jesus told his disciples to go and talk about everything that he had taught them, so that the message of Jesus would eventually reach every part of the world and to every generation. This commission that Jesus gave to his disciples is just as important today, in our broken and hurting world.

As a Christian I love to share my faith with others; so what or who is my motivation to share the gospel of Jesus? It is none other than the living Jesus.

There are two principal gifts that God has given to the world that I treasure more than anything.

The first gift was when God gave his precious Son to us as a living sacrifice, instead of us having to kill goats and lambs to find favour with God. The second principal gift was on the day of Pentecost when God sent his Spirit to dwell in the lives of every follower of Jesus.

To me, and to most other Christians, the Holy Spirit, is the very presence of God, dwelling in our lives and who brings inner peace, joy and comfort, in complete contrast to the anxiety, fear and turmoil, that our broken world offers us.

There are a couple of Bible verses that are worth pondering. Verses such as these gives me, and other Christians, real reassurance and hope in what God has promised.

“And you, (believers in Jesus) were also accepted and included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him (Jesus) with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until all those who are God’s possession are redeemed – to the praise of his glory”: (Ephesians 1:13-14).

Based on these verses, here is my tick list:

Am I accepted unconditionally by God without fear of any judgement? Yes – tick.

Am I marked and sealed with the Holy Spirit as belonging to Jesus? Yes – tick.

Is the Holy Spirit God’s deposit or down-payment to me, that guarantees that I will have a glorious inheritance to come? 100% Yes – tick.

Who would turn down these amazing promises from God.

Geoff Duncombe the Gateway Church King’s Lynn

Thought for the week – by Gerald Hall

At the time of writing there is little good news. There is conflict in Gaza. Iran is threatening Israel. Russia continues to occupy parts of Ukraine and Ukraine is now advancing into Russia. At home riots have raged in many of our cities. People say we should learn from history but the present troubles at home and across the world suggest little has been learnt. Where then can we find hope?

In the Bible Psalm 46 gives hope and I recommend we read it.

Psalm 46

^“1 God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. ² Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way    and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, ³ though its waters roar and foam     and the mountains quake with their surging.

⁴ There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells. ⁵ God is within her, she will not fall; God will help her at break of day.
⁶ Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall; he lifts his voice, the earth melts.

⁷ The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.

⁸ Come and see what the Lord has done, the desolations he has brought on the earth. ⁹ He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth. He breaks the bow and shatters the spear; he burns the shields with fire. ¹⁰ He says, ‘Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.’

 ¹¹ The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.”

In the Lord’s Prayer Jesus taught his disciples to begin “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,
¹⁰ your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

With these model words of prayer Jesus is telling us that in God’s kingdom in heaven things are a very lot better than they are here on our planet earth.  The Christian hope is eternal life in the joy and bliss of the heaven to come.

So while there may be little good news at present both at home and abroad we should still strive, seek and pray that we may yet see God’s will being done on earth as it is in heaven.

Nick    If you ask parents what they want for their children it’s not often riches or good jobs, it’s that they want them to be happy.

Sue      Happiness is not that easy to define. Often those who are rich and famous are desperately lonely, and have depression or take drugs to combat it.

N         What makes you happy?

S          Seeing friends, looking at  trees and flowers.  I love looking at our big skies. You?

N         I like taking long walks, spending time with nature – and sometimes talking to God.

S          I’ve been reading Bill Bailey’s  ‘ Remarkable guide to happiness’ and he includes things like being in a caring community – also group singing!

N         So that’s why it’s often said that people live longer if they go to church – all that singing of familiar hymns turns out to be good for us!

S          Well yes but the same could be said of going to a football match.  Two places associated with mass singing is football and church!  I know you read the Bible – does it have anything to say about happiness?

N         Yes a bit.  But it says more about joy.  In the ESV (English Standard Version of the Bible) ‘joy’, ‘ joyful’, and ‘rejoice’ appear 430 times but  ‘happy’ and ‘happiness’ appear 10 times.

S          Is there any difference between happiness and joy?

N         Yes.  Often happiness is based on external situations and it’s transitory.  Joy comes from deep within, ad it’s like a fountain gushing out water that can’t be stopped.

S          How can I find joy?

N         Real joy can be found when you decide to have a personal relationship with Jesus,  and allow him, by the Holy Spirit, to be involved in your life.  Joy is a fruit of the Holy Spirit ( Galatians 5 :22) and it grows in you as you accept that you have messed up ( the Bible calls this sin) and realise that Jesus died in order to give you a new start.

S          Does that mean I’ll have an easy life and feel happy all the time?

N         No.  Nobody has an easy life on earth.  There’s always plenty to disturb us.  But the joy that Jesus gives goes deep inside to give us a quiet peace even in the middle of our troubles.

Just to introduce myself, my name is Lee Gilbert and I am one of the Chaplains at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Kings Lynn and as part of the Chaplaincy role, I get to meet all sorts of different people at all different stages in life.  My main role is to listen to patients.  Hospitals can be scary places and despite having lots of people around you, sometimes lonely places.  Having a friendly face to talk to can be useful for patients and as far as the hospital is concerned, studies have shown that caring for the spiritual aspect of patients, as well as the physical and mental, means that patients tend to get better quicker.  Always useful from a hospital managers point of view. 

But from a Chaplains point of view, I get to meet and learn from many different people.  Most of whom would only probably set foot in a church if there was a very specific reason (i.e. the classic reasons of hatch, match and dispatch!!).  And yet, all those different people, young, old, rich, poor and any other category that you care to mention continually astound me.  They astound me with their resilience, with their fortitude, even with just the different pass times and hobbies that people get up to, with the different jobs and roles in society that people have.  And the one thing that I am constantly reminded about is that all of them have been created by God and all of them have been made in ‘God’s image’.    

There is a verse in the New Testament book of Hebrews that says ‘Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it’. Which for me is the equivalent of that old phrase ‘Do not judge a book by its cover’ and the reason why I am saying that is that often the people who probably astound me the most are those from shall we say an older generation, who have had the most vivid and life affirming lives.  At times, I have to remind myself that this person in a hospital gown (not the most flattering of items, I think we will agree) has had a life, has often a full life and often has much to share.  And so by listening to these people who are strangers, at least initially, perhaps I am showing hospitality to angels without even knowing about it.  I leave you to decide as to whether you are an angel or are entertaining one.         

As I look at the presidential election in America, I get very puzzled, especially with the support for the former president Donald Trump – especially with the support given by Christians.

Donald has openly admitted that he doesn’t need to be forgiven, clearly he doesn’t see himself as flawed  – as certain Christians, like myself do. In his speeches he often makes fun and ridicules his opponents – which other politicians do , but I am feel uneasy about his behaviour.

Why do Christians vote for him? Well he has given them what they wanted, Roe vs Wade re abortion rights, has been overturned. Some religious leaders maintain that you vote for the party in keeping with your beliefs, and here the Republicans score.

Other Christians say that God has raised up unbeliever to do his will, and quote King Cyrus of Ezra 1 – who freed the Jewish captives in Babylonia and allowed them to return to their home land. So people reasoned that God has raised up Trump to do God’s will.

I just have this unease about Trump, I naively expect anyone professing some kind of faith – well you’d expect  a character changed by an encounter with the almighty.

However the relationship which Trump has with Christians is transactional, you give him your vote, he brings in legislation which you wanted.

We all witnessed the horrific scenes with the attempted assassination of Trump, and he has publicly stated that he wouldn’t be with us except for the grace of God. How do you interprete such an event? Was God saving Trump for better things, was God giving Trump another chance? Would there be a change in Trump, only time will tell. But initial signs are not encouraging – certainly if you see how he speaks about his Democratic opponents in the 2024 presidential election.

Trump apparently has around him spiritual advisers, and I’d love to hear what they say to him.

Some of us can remember Watergate and what happened to President Richard Nixon. Nixon had religious advisers, one was John Huffman an evangelical pastor. When questioned as to what advice he had given Nixon in his troubles, Hoffman said “I told Nixon the truth, that he had to be honest with people. I told him the truth because I loved the man”.

But the viewing of Trump  as solving all the problems in American – is like they view him as  messianic figure. Make America Great Again, really means things have changed – that I want things how they were in the past.

It is interesting that Jesus says that his kingdom is not of this world. We are told to pray for those in authority that we might live peaceful lives.

I believe that christians should be salt and light in society, for the betterment of their fellow man. However, I believe that society can only change if the person is changed, what scripture calls the new birth. Anyone who has an encounter with God, must change – or else what does that encounter mean?

Simply put, you don’t trust fallible man, even presidents – but you trust in  God whose business is changing people.

Ken Hubbard

The weather this summer has not been as we had hoped. Damp days make for grumpy folk that’s for sure as we try to manage our expectations and those of our families when we’re stuck indoors looking out at grey skies and constant drizzle.

But cancelled day trips and bored children aren’t the end of it – the inclement weather has a massive knock-on effect on local businesses too: anyone working outside this year has been severely compromised as rainy days mean much work can’t be done; anyone selling summer stuff notes a downturn in sales and our shops and cafes suffer as the footfall just isn’t there.

I noted a conversation the other day where a couple were saying just how quiet it is on the Lynn streets this year. I wonder, then, if our local tourism numbers are down too.

The adverse weather affects all of us in one way or another. While we are complaining of soggy weekends elsewhere in the world (beyond King’s Lynn!) other countries are suffering heat waves and years of droughts. On drier Continents crops are failing and people and animals are going without food. In other places, the sea levels are rising and whole islands are being lost to the sea and their peoples forced to flee.

But it’s just the weather, right? We don’t have any control over that. “Acts of God” they call it. It’s not about climate change…

No, it’s not, it’s about climate crisis and we do have to acknowledge our part in that. We are called to take care of our planet, to be good stewards, not to be greedy or wasteful, but careful and considered about how we live – in love for the planet we live on and for those whom we live alongside now and who will inherit our laziness in future generations.

How can we say we love our neighbour, if we don’t care enough to stand up for the world we live in? What is the point of having the right pronouns if we don’t love the person in front of us enough to ensure that the world we are leaving them is safe?

Revd Kyla Sørensen 

A change is as good as a rest they say. At this time of year, many of us enjoy and look forward to change. Most of us appreciate some sunshine and perhaps some sort of summer break. Maybe we are looking forward to getting away on holiday or enjoying the excellent free activities on offer in our town. Doing things differently, having barbecues with family or friends, listening to music, enjoying the rare sunshine, eating ice cream, and enjoying nature. These out-of-the-ordinary things are good for our souls.

And yet change can often be difficult. When our life circumstances change due to illness, retirement or unemployment. When valued colleagues leave work. When we move house or others we love move away. When someone we care about dies. When workplaces introduce changes which sometimes seem to be simply for the sake of change. We may well look back wistfully, perhaps through rose-tinted glasses, and remember when times seemed better and we were happier. I wonder what changes you have had to face recently? Change is hard.

Some of us like change more than others. We get bored easily and find change to be exciting and stimulating. And yet change comes to all of us, like it or not, there is no escaping it. Inevitably children grow up and although it can be hard to admit it, we get older ourselves, and our abilities change. In the recent General Election, we have had a change of government. Maybe you are excited about this change and hopeful for the future, perhaps you are not.

My life has changed a lot over the past few years. I used to be a doctor, but I felt that God was calling me to church leadership. After a fairly rigorous process of discernment and training, I was ordained last year as a deacon and recently was ordained as a priest. I moved to King’s Lynn last year to take up my post as a curate at the Minster. The expectations and responsibilities of my new role are taking a bit of getting used to.

And yet through all these changes I have realised that the God who calls us is consistently faithful and unchanging. This holy God of love is revealed to us in the Bible. It says in the book of Malachi 3:6 ‘I the Lord do no change’. God’s character is revealed particularly through the life and death of Jesus Christ. We can be reassured that God’s love for us is constant. Things will constantly change in our lives for better or worse, but God will never change. God’s love for us is never-ending.

Fiona Munn

Having time to spare, (well, I am retired!), I was scrolling through YouTtube when a lovely piece about soaring condors in the Andes came on, accompanied by a Simon and Garfunkel track. I was struck by the phrase, “I’d rather be a sparrow than a snail”.
It took be back many years to a time when I was teaching RE. There had been a class discussion of bullying looking at both the bully and the victim. I had put up several ‘thoughts’ on the display board which included one – ‘Sometimes you’re the pigeon and sometimes you’re the statue’. A school inspector (loud boos), not asking about the context of this, criticised me for its inappropriateness. Had he but asked I could have explained how it related to our topic.
As a teacher (and parent) the cry of ‘it isn’t fair’ is often the usual response to some perceived injustice being done to the poor little dear. In the political arena it can be our response to ‘them’ doing things to ‘us’.
Government and councils can seem remote, uncaring and unresponsive. Price rises and the increasing cost of living weigh down on those with limited incomes. Things we want are out of reach but we see others with wealth buying whatever they like. Is that fair?
How we respond to the ‘pigeon’ does not mean we have to feel like the ‘statue’.
Where there is injustice and genuine unfairness then, yes, we do need to challenge it. Even so, the individual, somehow, has to deal with these situations. Feeling you are the victim is not healthy. It can lead to depression or anger. Anger that can be vented on totally innocent folk – either those we meet or those out there who we don’t like, for whatever reason.
We may not be as wealthy, good-looking, healthy or intelligent as others. So what?
Looking at what we do have is a good starting point for feeling at peace with the world. Where it is possible, we can make changes, if we want to, at a pace we control. Where it is not possible, then shrug your shoulders and move on. Who knows, someone else may be looking at you with envy because their situation is even worse than yours. Perhaps supporting others in need may be one way to appreciate what you do have!
Whatever your situation, this is the time of year to be a bit more generous with your time and goodwill. It is a universal opportunity to be grateful for the gifts we receive and to consider sharing something we have with those even more unfortunate than us!
Christmas Season Blessings to all.

John Belfield

The Power of Words

Words are powerful. I’ve been thinking about that a lot, recently. Let me explain.

Firstly, my beloved 81-year-old Nan had a stroke last month, suddenly changing everything for her. She’s not a white-haired, diminishing-old-lady kind of Nan either – she is 5ft 10, plays golf twice a week, makes incredible jam, flies around Tesco like a contestant on Supermarket Sweep and can talk the hind legs off fields of donkeys. Could. Because that has been one of the most heart-breaking effects of the stroke – her words are all gone. Almost entirely. She can communicate a little, but without a wealth of words, she is horribly frustrated and reduced. She can’t keep the nurses on the stroke ward listening for hours, regaling proud tales of her grandchildren and great grandchildren. She can’t explain to them the pain of the loss of my Granddad, so recently, and the lifetime of love they had. Even those of us who know her best can only partly guess from charades and a few stray syllables, some of the myriad things she is trying to communicate to us, each day. We pray for words to return.

The other thing that got me thinking about words was a phrase I heard at the annual Christian camp, One Event, which our church attends every year. It is always a full and exhausting weekend, with so many meetings and talks, that taking it all in is impossible. But one of the phrases that stuck with me, was “I see in you…” The speaker was promoting the importance of these four small words, encouraging us to imagine the things we might unlock in others, the paths on which we might set them, by naming the potential we see in them. Don’t we all long for that – someone to notice our gifting, encourage us in it, champion us, believe in us? While we wait for it to happen to us, let’s get on with sowing that which we long for ourselves, into the lives of others. Four small words. Enough to make a difference.

Finally, the Bible describes Jesus as ‘the Word of God’ – spoken from heaven to earth, to bring life and hope to any who would hear him. Let’s use our words well today, in all their stuttering incompleteness, to bring life, hope and peace to those we meet. In doing so, we echo, in small quiet ways, the gentle voice of the only Word fully capable of speaking life and hope, with no stuttering or incompleteness at all.

Georgie Tennant
Kings Lynn Christian Fellowship