Let Every Creature In Heaven featuring Lucy Stimpson- Maynard and Friends – unpublished recorded by John Hodgkinson

When I read this, I thought it was obviously fake, however I felt the message to still be strong, hence I am sharing.

Does evil exist?

The university professor challenged his students with this question. Did God create everything that exists? A student bravely replied, “Yes, he did!”

“God created everything? The professor asked.

“Yes sir”, the student replied.

The professor answered, “If God created everything, then God created evil since evil exists, and according to the principal that our works define who we are then God is evil”. The student became quiet before such an answer. The professor was quite pleased with himself and boasted to the students that he had proven once more that the Christian faith was a myth.

Another student raised his hand and said, “Can I ask you a question professor?”

“Of course”, replied the professor.

The student stood up and asked, “Professor, does cold exist?”

“What kind of question is this? Of course it exists. Have you never been cold?” The students snickered at the young man’s question.

The young man replied, “In fact sir, cold does not exist. According to the laws of physics, what we consider cold is in reality the absence of heat. Every body or object is susceptible to study when it has or transmits energy, and heat is what makes a body or matter have or transmit energy. Absolute zero (-460 degrees F) is the total absence of heat; all matter becomes inert and incapable of reaction at that temperature. Cold does not exist. We have created this word to describe how we feel if we have no heat.”

The student continued, “Professor, does darkness exist?”

The professor responded, “Of course it does.”

The student replied, “Once again you are wrong sir, darkness does not exist either. Darkness is in reality the absence of light. Light we can study, but not darkness. In fact we can use Newton’s prism to break white light into many colors and study the various wavelengths of each color. You cannot measure darkness. A simple ray of light can break into a world of darkness and illuminate it. How can you know how dark a certain space is? You measure the amount of light present. Isn’t this correct? Darkness is a term used by man to describe what happens when there is no light present.”

Finally the young man asked the professor, “Sir, does evil exist?”

Now uncertain, the professor responded, “Of course as I have already said. We see it every day. It is in the daily example of man’s inhumanity to man. It is in the multitude of crime and violence everywhere in the world. These manifestations are nothing else but evil.”

To this the student replied, “Evil does not exist sir, or at least it does not exist unto itself. Evil is simply the absence of God. It is just like darkness and cold, a word that man has created to describe the absence of God. God did not create evil. Evil is not like faith, or love that exist just as does light and heat. Evil is the result of what happens when man does not have God’s love present in his heart. It’s like the cold that comes when there is no heat or the darkness that comes when there is no light.”

The student was Albert Einstein

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The One Whose Name Begins With J from His Story Live – unpublished – recorded and produced by Ross Gill

I recently read this and thought it well worth sharing:

John D. Rockefeller was once the richest man in the world, the world’s first billionaire. At age 25, he controlled one of America’s largest oil refineries. By the age of 31, he had become the world’s largest oil refiner.
By the age of 38, he had refined 90 percent of the oil in the United States. For 50 years, he was the richest man in the country. As a young man, every decision, attitude, and relationship was designed to build his power and wealth. But at the age of 53, he fell ill. A colleague wrote:

His whole body shook with pain and all his hair fell out. In utter agony, the world’s only billionaire could buy anything he wanted, but could only digest soup and crackers. He couldn’t sleep, couldn’t smile and nothing in life meant anything to him.

Doctors predicted that he would die within a year. That year passed slowly in agony. As he approaches death, he wakes up one morning with the vague realization that he is unable to take any of his wealth with him to the next world. The man who could control the business world suddenly realized that he was not in control of his life. He was left with a choice. He called his attorney, accountant, and managers and announced that he wanted to transfer his assets to hospitals, research, and charity.

John D. Rockefeller established his foundation. This new direction eventually led to the discovery of penicillin, a treatment for malaria, tuberculosis, and diphtheria. The most amazing part of Rockefeller’s story is that the moment he started giving back a portion of everything he earned, his body chemistry changed so dramatically that he got better and better.

There was a time when it seemed that he would die at the age of 53. But he lived to the age of 98. By giving wealth to charity, he became healthy, as if this thing called charity is also a method of treatment. Before his death, he wrote in his diary.

The Supreme Energy taught me, that everything belongs to Him, and I am only a channel to obey His wishes. My life has been one long, happy holiday; Full of work and play. I left worry on the way. Now I was me and my God. Every day was good for me.

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Jesus Christ

Love is Patient, Love is Kind featuring Lucy Stimpson- Maynard from the album Love is the Way recorded and produced by John Hodgkinson.

Well somehow England are in the final of the 2024 Euro’s!!
My champagne moment so far is captured in today’s video clip when Luke Shaw chose to shake hands with the disconsolate Swiss players rather than rush to his teammates after they won the penalty shoot- out. The video also shows Christian, Bukayo Saka praising God before joining his teammates to celebrate.
I love sporting moments like this – one of my favourites still being Andy (Freddie) Flintoff’s gesture to Brett Lee as captured here: Blog July 18th “England World Cup Cricket Champions” | Risen

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So, in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you,
Jesus Christ -Matthew 7:12

Love is the Way featuring Lucy Stimpson- Maynard from the album Love is the Way recorded and produced by Bob Ross.

Last week I shared Richard Goodhall’s amazing “Golden Buzzer” performance on America’s Got Talent. Today I wanted to post some background information about him which is pretty heart warming.

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Yep, its another Britain’s Got Talent/ America’s Got Talent clip – but this is so, so good, I just had to share it. And, of course Richard Goodall’s brilliant rendition has created interest again in the 80s original – here are some details of Journey’s classic “Don’t Stop Believing.”
By 1980, the Californian rock outfit “Journey” was on its way to becoming one of the most successful acts of the era. After discarding its roots in progressive rock, the group hired vocalist Steve Perry and smoothed out its sound. The band had notched several domestic top-25 hits with “Lovin’, Touchin’, Squeezin'” and “Any Way You Want It”. Original keyboardist Gregg Rolie, with the group since its progressive days, amicably departed in 1980, leaving the foursome without one of its signature elements. Rolie recommended the band invite Jonathan Cain of British rockers the Babys to be his permanent replacement, who accepted and joined the band as it prepared to record its next album, Escape (1981).
To prepare for writing its next effort, Journey rented a warehouse in Oakland, California, where they worked daily to complete arrangements and develop new ideas. Cain came up with the song’s title and hook; it stemmed from something his father frequently told him when he was a struggling musician living on Los Angeles’ Sunset Boulevard. Cain was unsuccessful and ready to give up, and each time he would call home in despair, his father would tell him, “Don’t stop believing or you’re done, dude.”[5] Guitarist Neil Schon invented the song’s distinctive bass line, and Perry suggested Cain write a driving synthesizer piece to complement that bass line. Drummer Steve Smith added a standard rock backbeat behind that, and instructed Schon to play 16th note arpeggios over the rest of the instrumentation, as though he were a “train” guiding the song in its direction.[6]
Jonathan Cain, the band’s newest member, developed the song’s title.
This motif lyrically inspired the song as well. Cain and Perry thought the imagery brought to mind a story of two people leaving behind past lives in their hometown and boarding a midnight train to anywhere else. Perry liked the concept that the characters be a girl from a small town and a boy raised in the city. “We felt that every young person has a dream and sometimes where you grow up isn’t where you’re destined to be,” Cain said. They copied the day’s progress to cassette tapes and took them home for further review. Smith felt a regular rock beat wouldn’t suit the entire song, so he supplemented it with melodic, syncopated additions on the tom-toms and ride cymbal bell, increasing its complexity as the song builds. The song was built backwards, as the title hook were the only lyrics the band had developed initially.[6]
The band recorded the song at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley, California. Perry had a cold on the day of recording and was unable to make it, so its instrumental was tracked without him. The musicians found the song’s tempo and varying sections difficult to record, especially Cain and bassist Ross Valory’s intro. Co-producer Mike Stone turned on a verbal click track for the group to practise to; after about twenty minutes, they turned the machine off and recorded the song live in one take. Perry rejoined Journey the next week and also completed his vocals mainly in one take. Altogether, the song and its corresponding album came together under its budget and in about two months. Cain was grateful that Perry gave his ideas equal weight given his status as a new member of the band.

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A Mustard Seed Of Faith featuring the Portsmouth Gospel Choir recorded and produced by Joffy James

Recently I was sorting out some papers when I saw the featured document reminding me that this year is the 25th anniversary of the foundation of Mustard Seed Songs. We are planning a celebratory concert in November but more of that later- in the meantime let me please share how we became a charity – I know I told this story back in 2021 but I believe it is worth telling again!

I had borrowed money to pay for the duplication of the first 1000 copies of our first CD “I Look Up To The Heavens” but was selling more that we needed to cover the monthly repayments. I remember having “that feeling inside” that we should send Katherine Knight some money in Peru. Katherine was the daughter of Paul Knight who introduced me to an Alpha Course and which led me to become a Christian. Katherine had taken time off from her studies to work voluntarily in Peru for the Christian agency, ““Latin Link”. She was part of a young team that were helping build two projects, the first of which was an orphanage.

I rang Paul in February 1999 to tell him that CD sales were going well and that I would like to send Katherine £500.00 – in fact they were not going that well – I just felt confident that we would be able to raise that amount. Paul was obviously delighted and agreed to ring Katherine to tell her the good news. When he made the phone call, he did give her a chance to first say anything but went straight into “I have some great news for you- the sales of “I Look Up To the Heavens” are going well enough for Ken to send you £500.00.” Paul expected some sort of emotional reaction but not the flood of tears that followed. Katherine then explained that her team was near the end of their orphanage building project, but all the materials they needed to complete the work had been stolen. The team were devastated and thought that they would have to abandon the project. In tears they spent the night in prayer. That had been the previous night – so when Paul told his daughter that £500.00 was on its way, that was indeed a real answer to their prayers, especially as when the money was converted to local currency it turned out to be the exact amount needed to replace the stolen materials and so finish the project!!

Sometime later I got a phone call from Alan Passmore, the father of one of Katherine’s “Latin Link” team saying that he had heard the amazing story of how money received from our CD sales had enabled the orphanage building work to be completed. He then went on to say that he was a Solicitor who specialised in creating charities and would I like our song writing mission to become a registered charity? “Yes please” was my simple answer. Mustard Seed Songs was not a rocket science title – the parable from Matthew 13 seemed totally appropriate for a project that we felt from a small beginning would grow and grow. So, in late 1999 Mustard Seed Songs became Registered Charity No 177618.

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Love is the Way featuring Lucy Stimpson Maynard from the album Love is the Way recorded and produced by Bob Ross.

So last week I explained that we have just finished filming our current project “A Journey of Faith which is a “spin- off” from our major project – “Theophilus- The Musical” – the sequel to “Risen! The Musical.”
The featured video hopefully explains it all – only correction is we now have 10 not 8 episodes!

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Filming “A Journey of Faith”

Put Your Hand in the Hand of God featuring Lucy Stimpson- Maynard from the album Precious recorded and produced by Ross Gill

Hooray- we have now completed the filming of “A Journey of Faith.” (AJOF) This is a “spin- off” from our major project – “Theophilus- The Musical” which is the sequel to “Risen! The Musical” and features Luke recounting to his patron, Theophilus, his second book – the Acts of the Apostles. We would love to film this but in the meantime our focus has been on the conversations that Theophilus and Luke have relating to such big questions as to why a God of love allows suffering and what will happen to me when I die?
There are ten episodes with Luke and Theophilus’ conversations featuring musical theatre. Study notes are being prepared to create a course suitable for church home groups – similar in concept to the famous Alpha course.
The cast and tech crew all had a fabulous time working at the studios of GLOBAL FIRE CREATIVE and staying at the Anglesea Hotel, Alverstoke.
The next job is the edit and then hopefully churches worldwide will be rushing to use AJOF!!

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For the last four days we have been filming Mustard Seeds’ latest project “A Journey of Faith” More of that next week as I just had to share this heartwarming episode from Britain’s Got Talent.

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Titchfield Festival Theatre

The Fire of Sacrifice featuring Lucy Stimpson- Maynard from the album Precious recorded and produced by Ross Gill

So last week I shared that the venue for our Year 2022 staged concert of Theophilus- the Musical was to have been St John’s Church in Forton Road, Gosport. (and here, as promised is a link to Act Two)
Theophilus -The Musical staged concert version – Act Two – YouTube)
Although we did not end up at St Johns, I wrote of what a great venue it has now become. Another of our plans was to stage our Risen! The Musical at the new Arden Theatre, one of the facilities of the Titchfield Festival Theatre (TFT) Sadly that did not happen with one of the reasons being that Fareham Borough Council issued an injunction against them. Below is a Trustee of TFT arguing their case.
https://youtu.be/6ntCj6CxvZo?si=opEQYYZSgRXfOqDI

Below is a published article on the subject published in the Portsmouth News:
Titchfield Festival Theatre’s appeal against a planning enforcement notice entered a third day, with a planning inspector set to decide the fate of part of a 450-seat theatre, which is part of the St Margaret’s Lane site. Fareham Borough Council said it was built without permission, but this is disputed by the theatre.

On the third day of the inquiry, planning inspector Nancy Thomas heard evidence from Fareham Borough Council’s town planning expert Stephen Jupp to support an enforcement planning notice the authority issued against the charity.
He began by answering questions from the council’s barrister Emma Dring and then from Titchfield Festival Theatre’s KC, Megan Thomas. The inquiry had already heard evidence from Ian Donohue, the theatre’s planning expert on day two.
Under questioning from Emma Dring, Mr Jupp said the development was clearly in conflict with planning policies. The theatre had not gone through the procedure of looking for alternative sites, a ‘sequential test’ before expanding and should have looked at Fareham for a satellite site. He said the theatre was not just serving a local need but had a wider client base than just Titchfield as evidenced by Steve Clark, from a Portsmouth-based theatre company who gave a representation at the inquiry on the first day.
Mr Jupp had calculated that with 102 performances per year, at 70 per cent capacity, the Arden Theatre alone would generate 33,000 visitors. This intensity and expansion meant that the existing planning application had been breached and could not be considered a small-scale rural development. It materially changed and so new planning permission should have been sought.

Under cross-examination, Mr Jupp said to Megan Thomas: “There was no way of mitigating harm that had already taken place or future harm of parking, noise and [road] safety. Harm occurs and continues to occur.”
Megan Thomas said the theatre is a community and leisure facility and part of the cultural infrastructure and located in the countryside. As such there is a policy where countryside expansion should be allowed if there is a local need.
There was much back and forth over the distinction of local and regional need, and Ms Thomas said there was not another theatre nearby that offered the community benefits and facilities Titchfield Festival Theatre offered.
While Mr Jupp agreed with the benefits of the venue, he said he was not placed to compare it to other theatres, like Portsmouth’s Kings Theatre. He said it was also about the scale of expansion and harm caused to its locality that breached planning permission.

Planning inspector Nancy Thomas also heard representations from four more Titchfield Festival Theatre supporters on Thursday morning who sat in the packed public gallery at The Holiday Inn, Fareham.
Sarah Lock, of Locks Heath, who runs the Tots Rehabilitation programme at the venue, said she makes theatre accessible to a current group of 15, 18-month to preschool-age toddlers. She said: “It gives the children the opportunity to do shows with professional lights and music in an auditorium not offered elsewhere in the area. It brings together its parents and carers who have become good friends. The potential of losing that would be devastating.”
Titchfield resident Donna Lennon said the community theatre has helped her mental health and her five-year-old daughter’s stutter. She said it’s a great facility for the children and gives them somewhere other than McDonald’s to go to in the future. She said: “It’s somewhere to go, very positive and good for the community.”
Volunteer of six years, Jeanette Evans, runs the outreach programme at the Arden Theatre. She said: “We do so much for the mental health and emotional support of large numbers in the community. We go out into the community to rest homes, to lunch clubs, to local schools. By destroying the Arden you will be destroying the opportunities to a huge amount of people.”
Stewart Trotter, talked about Titchfield Theatre’s cultural importance ‘making a bond with Shakespeare’. He said there is growing evidence that Shakespeare was in Titchfield and cited a letter signed by the Earl of Southampton with the body of the letter in Shakespeare’s handwriting.
The inquiry continues into a fourth day at the Fareham Borough Council chamber. Closing arguments will be heard on Tuesday, May 21 virtually, with a decision from the Inspectorate by July 3.

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