40Acts 2016 - 5 ' QUICHE '

What better way to start the week than with food?

Some of us struggle to share a box of popcorn, whilst others happily over-feed everyone who crosses their threshold.
Wherever you are on that spectrum, consider this: food has brought people together since the dawn of time. Use it as a means to build relationship today.

While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, 

he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, ‘Take and eat; this is my body.’ 

(Matthew 26:26 NIV)

Everyone was squished together on the boat travelling down the Mekong in Laos. My husband was the only non-local. A woman opposite him got a leaf out of her pocket, carefully unwrapped it, and began to eat the rice rolled inside. She glanced at my husband and instantly recognised him: someone who has no food. She offered him a portion of her tiny packed lunch. Language and cultural barriers were smashed – albeit a bit awkwardly – as they chewed and nodded and smiled.

Across land and time, in Edinburgh in Scotland, some 15 years later, my daughter and I chat with a guy sitting in the drizzle on the pavement outside a well-known coffee chain outlet. Actually, he says, in answer to our question, he doesn’t need a sandwich – someone’s already in the queue buying him one! We laugh with him, pat his dog Basher, and get him a latte to go with his sarnie.

I love the fact that some of the most powerful conversations Jesus had were over a meal. He invited himself to lush banquets with the ‘wrong kind of people’ such as tax collectors – social outcasts of the time – and had beach barbecues of fish and bread with his dearest friends and followers.

In fact, what they ate wasn’t really important. It was the conversations and human connections made over those meals that changed hearts and touched minds. It’s no coincidence that Jesus spoke of himself as synonymous with food – essential to the human condition. When you share food with someone, you share something incredibly valuable and precious: yourself.

Today's blog was written by Jackie Kaines. 
Find out more about them and support her chosen charity here.

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40 Acts - Open Up

your thought for today

Hear my prayer, O Lord! Listen to my cries for help! Don’t ignore my tears. For I am your guest – a traveller passing through, as my ancestors were before me. Leave me alone so I can smile again before I am gone and exist no more.  Psalm 39: 12-13 (NLT)

Ask my friends to describe me and they’ll say something like ’Sorted. Together. Always smiling.”’ I like to be all of those things, and quite a lot of the time I am. However, 2014 was a pig of a year – full of stress, a couple of nasty betrayals and, worst of all, unexpected bereavement. My natural inclination had always been to bottle everything up and pretend I was fine. Last year, I learnt the painful lesson that sometimes you have to let your slip show.  By September, anyone in church asking how I was would not always get the auto-answer of ’Fine, thanks.’ Sometimes I would actually tell them. It was outside the confines of church, however, that I was most honest. I spend a lot of time with the mums at my children’s primary school and I’m involved in Messy Church and outreach. They don’t see a benign plaster saint, but more of the real me. This year they’ve seen someone who is finally able to cry in front of others, admit she’s struggling and ask for help when needed. I would rather have plucked my eyebrows with a pair of pinking shears than do any of those things once upon a time.  I thought that letting sadness show indicated weakness. Turns out it doesn’t. Relationships have strengthened and grown, prayers have been answered and opportunities have appeared which I would never have dreamt of in my ’I’m fine’ days. God’s been at work, quietly, in the background.  I don’t know what 2015 will bring. I hope it’s better than 2014. But I’ve gone into it with God at my side, my true feelings much more accessible and a feeling that the best may just yet be to come. Take Action Don’t over-use that catch-all phrase ‘I’m fine, thanks.’ Take a deep breath and admit it when you’re feeling down, or burdened, or unsure. You’re not saying ’I’m weak.’ You’re giving others an opportunity to help and build a friendship. Ask God to prompt you next time someone asks how you are. You might be surprised at what he says. Ruth Leigh

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40 Acts - SENDING A BIGGER MESSAGE

"A person finds joy in giving an apt reply – and how good is a timely word!" Proverbs 15:23 (NIV)

I've written many passive-aggressive messages in my time, from scrawled notes to housemates pointing out how lovely it would be if we washed up occasionally to polite emails alluding to veiled displeasure at someone’s actions.

And I’ve received a fair number too. I can still conjure up the disproportionate rage evoked by seemingly insignificant Post-it notes or their technological equivalents, and cringe at time spent dreaming up witty come-backs to words which ruined my day.

Far better to dwell instead on messages which leave positivity in their wake.

I smile at the memory of my first job, single-handedly cooking for 40 students for weeks on end, and am so grateful to the person who arrived early to leave me encouraging little notes in the kitchen. I chuckle at the unexpected joy of finding funny pictures randomly stuck inside cupboards by a housemate.

I find pleasure in the pretty postcard received for no reason other than someone thought I’d like it, and in those ‘saw this and thought of you’ text messages. I appreciate photos of my new niece WhatsApped to me when her tired parents have every excuse not to be in touch, and remain thankful for that croissant on my desk in the run-up to Christmas from a colleague who knew me well enough to know that it would help.

How good, as the proverb goes, is a timely word!

Little communications, unnoticed by the majority, with surprising power to show their recipient that they are known, loved, and worth the effort. Timely Post-its, texts, cards and emails which – by choosing love, joy, kindness and the rest over criticism and passive-aggression – reflect in some small way the Word coming among us at just the right time and send a bigger message that another way is within our grasp.

Emily Bowerman

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40 Acts - SELFLESS COMMITMENT

“Give generously to them and do so without a grudging heart; then because of this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to.” Deuteronomy 15:10

While on patrol with a small four-man team from my SAS squadron, out in the deserts of North Africa, we were waiting for a delayed helicopter pickup. A delay like that, when you’re nearly out of water and in the roasting heat of the desert, can be life-threatening. We were all severely dehydrated and getting weaker fast.

Every hour we would sip another small capful from the one remaining water bottle we each carried, carefully and methodically rationing the little we had left. To make matters worse, I was sick.

The call came in; our extraction would come at dawn, some 20 miles away. We loaded up and began our slow and tortuous shuffle across the mountains, weighed down by kit and fatigue. I was soon struggling, with each footstep a monumental effort of will.

My sergeant, Chris Carter, could see this. He stopped the patrol, came to me, and insisted I drink the last remaining capful from his own bottle. No fuss, no show, he just made me drink it.

It was his kindness, that extreme of practical generosity that gave me the strength to keep going when I had nothing left inside me. No ego. No bravado or show.

Simple goodness.

The kind of goodness that Jesus talked about when he told us to love each other like ourselves; putting others needs above our own.

Mother Teresa said: ‘Never worry about numbers. Help one person at a time and always start with the person nearest you.’ Carry that with you today and don’t underestimate the power you have to change lives, to show others a little glimpse of Jesus, as you give in practical and powerful ways.

Bear Grylls

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Prosperity - Word of Faith - Heretics or Heroes?

I have to admit that I really struggle with so much of the flashy gold, sharply dressed, 'name it - claim it' brigade. Recently, watching a sermon by one (I didn't watch it all because I didn't want to pay the $$$ for the whole thing) I struggled to hear how all I needed to do was 'live in the triumph of Christ' and take the riches He has for me. Health, wealth, 'that job I've dreamt of' - all of them were mine - all I needed to do was claim them in the name of Jesus!

So I turned over to another channel and found a really slick performance going on. 'Let me have a BIG AMEN', they said - strutting up and down. They went on to repeat this little mantra:

'If you believe in your heart and say it with your mouth, it shall come to pass. God is Faithful'

Interestingly, or perhaps not, I know many who deeply believe stuff and proclaim it and it's never happened.

Perhaps God is unable to do what He is supposed (but being God, don't you think He'd know His job?).

Perhaps the people just didn't believe it enough (after all, belief is not the easiest thing to have now, is it?)

Perhaps they didn't say it enough and, like hits that generate money on a blog, there's a certain number of times that it needs to be said before you get it!

But fortunately the large gentleman in the shiny suit answered my question (perhaps God told Him I was wondering about it):

'And some of you do not receive because of your sin!'

Bazinga! There it is, the small print that says you aren't going to get it. That's it then - game over man, I know I'm a sinner and even though I've confessed it, repented of it and seek to sin less, it seems I'm not going to get what I want because of it. *

And because God was talking to him he heard what I have just written and continued:

'But you say to me, 'I've confessed my sins, why don't I receive?' and I have to tell you that what's getting in the way is your unconfessed sins, those sins you don't even know are there. They are stopping you from getting that job, From getting that house, From being healed.'

'Oh, no,' think I, 'There goes the farm! After all I have confessed, repented and work at living a right life (I haven't managed to rest in my redemption and celebrate Grace just celebrate yet), I'm doomed!'

And the bloke on the TV does it again:

'But you can give God your unconfessed sin and open the doors to the riches God wants to give you . . . let's pray ."

So he prays and they sing a song and I wonder whether the way forward is the next sermon in the series when, Hallelujah, I find the answer is already available and mine, all In need to do is send a donation and in return I will receive 'free of charge' the book:

 'How to confess stuff you never knew was there so you can get all the stuff you really deserve because after all that was the reason Jesus died - to make you healthy, wealthy and ....'

No, it's not the name of the real book (for that would tell you who this snake oil salesman was) and the final word of the title most certainly wasn't 'wise' either. Perhaps it should be, 'Look how rich He has made me!'

Now, can someone explain how on earth there is any integrity (worldly or Christian) in what I saw on my TV and how I can have any confidence in the proof texting, they hype and the misquotes?

As a pastor my desire is to see people in union with God, living for God because of the cross of Jesus, the Christ, and enabled by the Holy Spirit. I don't want to see people bound by law and weighed down by restrictions and demands upon them they can't keep. I know God provides and heals and blesses, but that, like Grace is a gift, not a right and I cannot comprehend a God who is a cross between Santa, the easter Bunny and the Genie from the bottle.

God meets our needs - and sometimes fulfils our wants too. In return he expects us to mirror Him and do the same in the world we find ourselves for Jesus came to bring peace to the earth - and He did - but we need to take it and share it because he opened the depot and filled it high, but unless we take it out and distribute it and help others to join the distribution firm, this world will live broken and out of control.

Now you don't need to send me money for that (but if you do :-)  )

I'll have to give it away!

Pax

*This would explain how, even though the Arsenal have been in the top spot of the English Premier League for longer than any club this season, they've fallen to fourth place - it's not Arsene Wenger's fault - it is my sin what took them there before it was accomplished!

Church - Working to be ONE!

Today I will find myself being Church with a variety of people I don't usually get to fellowship with and this is a source of great joy for me.

The day begins with me crossing town to take a early Communion service, sharing God's word and breaking bread with them. This is followed by our congregation (St Francis') going up the hill to have a joint service with the Methodists (St Andrew's) - something we began last year having made the journey both ways and having run a joint Alpha and continue with a shared House group too.

This evening will see many of the Christians from the Tamworth area crowd into the town centre church, St Editha's, where we will celebrate the many things done to serve the town's residents (and there are a fair number of them) and add to their number Tamworth Street Angels. We have the diocesan bishop and senior clergy from the Baptists, Methodists and RC Church. How cool is that?

Having done some of my training in a couple of Methodist colleges and working with them in the East end of London during the seventies, I have long appreciated them (enjoying the fact that they are of course 'splitters') and this joy has deepened with the coming of the current minister, Tim, to our town a while back. The addition of two new RC clergy, Michael and Noel, has brought opportunities to share I new ways - the previous incumbents were a blessing too - (and loving the fact that we become the 'splitters'!). The arrival of the Baptist minister, Graham, has deepened the joy and the cherry on the cake has to be the Living Rock Church and John and Caleb.

Ecumenism is often regarded as something that doesn't that sounds great when reading the label on the tin that contains it but is, when opened, is something rather bland that lacks the ability to sustain. This is not the case though, for where there is a willingness to dialogue and a desire to serve the people in the place where you live, ecumenicism is a deep and enabling joy.

This week we will see us meet in different church building at 7pm every day to pray together as one Church as we engage in the 'Week of Prayer for Christian Unity' - can it get any better?

To all the members and leaders of the churches that is Tamworth Covenanting Churches:

Thank You!