We Cant Set The World On Fire featuring Lucy Stimpson-Maynard from the album Uplifted recorded and produced by Bob Ross
I know that I have already shared this, but it’s this coming Saturday so I just wanted to give one more shout out in case anyone else can make it! About 150 have booked so far so you would not be on your own! Remember its free and includes a free glass of Prosecco or soft drink. Just use this link to book: https://crofton.churchsuite.com/events/bndqyvjl
And here is the basic information again.
Our charity Mustard Seed Songs (reg. no 1077618) was founded in July 1997. My arithmetic is poor, so I missed out that 2024 was our 25th year. However, better late than never so we are holding a celebration evening at Holy Rood Church, Stubbington on February 22nd. I chose that day as it is the date I became a follower of Jesus.
The event is free and includes a free glass of prosecco or soft drink on arrival. Doors open at 7.00 pm with a start time of 7.30 pm. There is music from the re- formed Mustard Seed Soul Band and Edward Baker- Duly, who played Luke in our “A Journey of Faith” Bible study course. The evening sees the launch of “A Journey of Faith” and also includes interviews and clips describing the 25 years of Mustard Seed Songs.
This is not Heaven featuring Lucy Stimpson- Maynard from the album Uplifted recorded and produced by Bob Ross
One of my oldest friends, Kathy recently died and at her Service I had the privilege to read the following words from Chapter 14 of John’s Gospel:
Do not let your hearts be troubled, trust in God, trust also in me,
In my Father’s house are many rooms, if it were not so I would have told you.
I am going there to prepare a place for you and if I go to prepare a place for you,
I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am,
Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
I had read those words before so felt fairly composed as I waited for my turn to read.
Just before that, however, some photos of Kathy’s life came up which were very moving but when they became accompanied by Roberta Flack’s “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” it really got to me. I managed the reading, but with much more emotion in my voice that I intended or expected.
It dawned on me that this song must be up there with my all -time favourites with lyrics like this that are timeless:
And the first time, ever I kissed your mouth
I felt the earth move in my hands
Like the trembling heart of a captive bird
So, I did a little research and found that the song was written by Ewan McColl (yes the father of Kirsty of “The Pogues” and “The Fairytale of New York” fame) He wrote it for folk singer Peggy Seeger who he later married.
Here is the original, sang by Peggy which is so very, very different from the Roberta Flack version
And lastly 66 years on Peggy Seeger again but this time with more of a Roberta Flack feel– if you listen to no other listen to this one- Peggy was 87 years old when she sang this!
“Jesus You Are My Lord And My King featuring Lucy Stimpson- Maynard from the album Uplifted recorded and produced by Bob Ross.
I recently read a heart- warming story accompanied by today’s featured photo. The caption read “And suddenly, I looked at the bull. He had this innocence that all animals have in their eyes, and he looked at me with this pleading. It was like a cry for justice, deep down inside of me. I describe it as being like a prayer — because if one confesses, it is hoped, that one is forgiven. I felt like the worst person on earth.”
This photo shows the collapse of Torrero Alvaro Munera, as he realized in the middle of his last fight … the injustice to the animal. From that day forward he became an opponent of bullfights.”
There was something about the story that made me fact check it and sadly I found this:
A photo of a matador facing a bull has recently resurfaced and is presented as the exact moment that led Alvaro Munera to end his bullfighting career, upon realizing the cruelty of his sport. However, although Múnera did undergo such a conversion, this photograph doesn’t depict the instant of his change of heart, for a number of reasons:
Múnera didn’t undergo his epiphany against bullfighting in the middle of a bullfight; he stopped participating in that activity only when he was forced out of the ring for good after a goring permanently paralyzed him.
In a 2008 interview, Múnera expressed that his conversion to an anti-bullfighting animal rights defender did not occur at any one moment in the ring, but was part of an ongoing process that began before, and extended after, the accident that ended his career.
And to cap it all the photograph is not one of Múnera but of another bull fighter named Sanchez Vara.
Which all goes to show you don’t need AI to get conned.
How sad that because we live in a world of constant scams we now have to check if a heart- warming story is, in fact genuine.
JE and SUS featuring Lucy Stimpson- Maynard from the album Uplifted recorded and produced by Bob Ross
In my testimony of becoming a Christian I explain that I became afraid of dying as I was really worried about having no awareness of existence (see Blog March 27th “Afraid of Dying” | Risen)
Well, I recently read this is on -line blog and thought “That’s exactly what I meant! “
When you wake up, even if you don’t remember your dreams, you are aware that some time has passed. An entirely different thing happens with certain types of anaesthesia. For the patient, everything stops, including the passage of time.
I recently had an endoscopy. Once they’d hooked me up with the IV and the sensors, everybody stepped out of the curtained in area where I was lying for a short time. And feeling around, I noticed my phone in my back pocket, so I pulled it out and called my brother. I got his answering machine, so I told him that I was prepped and waiting for my endoscopy. And I immediately heard a voice from the other side of the curtain telling me, “We’re done, Rik. Give me a minute to pull your IVs.”
For however long that procedure took, the universe, for me, did not exist. And that is what I think actual death is. The non-existence of everything. Time, space, and everything else, vanishes.
I am so grateful, that now I am a Christian, I can totally disagree with the blogger’s belief that death means the non-existence of everything.– John 3:16 promises me that.
Our charity Mustard Seed Songs (reg. no 1077618) was founded in July 1997. My arithmetic is poor, so I missed out that 2024 was our 25th year. However, better late than never so we are holding a celebration evening at Holy Rood Church, Stubbington on February 22nd. I chose that day as it is the date I became a follower of Jesus.
The event is free and includes a free glass of prosecco or soft drink on arrival. Doors open at 7.00 pm with a start time of 7.30 pm. There is music from the re- formed Mustard Seed Soul Band and Edward Baker- Duly, who played Luke in our “A Journey of Faith” Bible study course. The evening sees the launch of “A Journey of Faith” and also includes interviews and clips describing the 25 years of Mustard Seed Songs.
Although free, Holy Rood needs to know the number of those attending so if you are able to join us please use the link provided to book.
Great and Marvellous featuring Lucy Stimpson- Maynard and the Mustard Seed Girls Choir from the album Love is the Way recorded and produced by John Hodgkinson
Jason Carter gave a fitting tribute to his grandfather, Jimmy Carter at the state funeral of the former President of the United States. I believe it well worth sharing in its entirety.
In my church, we sing a song that says, “From the moment that I wake up until I lay my head, I will sing of the goodness of God.”
I don’t know how many people in here can say that. I know I can’t. But my grandfather certainly can. From the moment that he woke up until he laid his head, his life was a testament to the goodness of God.
And I thank all of you for being here to celebrate this life.
To the presidents and first ladies: It is a great honour to have you here. You know the human side of the American presidency like no others. And we appreciate you.
To the vice presidents, other distinguished guests and friends of all kinds: Thank you for being here.
To those of you who came from all across the world: Thank you for being here to celebrate and pay tribute to my grandfather.
I say grandfather, but we call him PawPaw, as many of you know. And we called my grandmother Mom Carter. So we spent our time talking about Mom and PawPaw and mostly, speaking of the human side of the presidency, just letting people know that they were regular folks.
Yes, they spent four years in the governor’s mansion and four years at the White House. But the other 92 years they spent at home in Plains, Georgia. And one of the best ways to demonstrate that they were regular folks is to take them by that home.
First of all, it looks like they might have built it themselves. Second of all, my grandfather was likely to show up at the door in some ’70s short shorts and Crocs.
And then you’d walk in the house and it was like thousands of other grandparents’ house(s) all across the South. Fishing trophies on the walls. The refrigerator, of course, was papered with pictures of grandchildren and then great grandchildren. Their main phone, of course, had a cord and was stuck to the wall in the kitchen like a museum piece. And demonstrating their Depression-era roots, they had a little rack next to the sink where they would hang Ziploc bags to dry.
And demonstrating that they changed with the times, eventually he did get a cellphone. And one time he called me sort of early on in that process, and on my phone it said, “PawPaw mobile.” So I answered it of course.
I said, “Hey, PawPaw.”
He said, “Who’s this?”
I said, “This is Jason!”
He said, “What are you doing?”
I said, “I’m not doing anything. You called me!”
He said, “I didn’t call you. I’m taking a picture.”
A nuclear engineer, right? I mean.
They were small-town people who never forgot who they were and where they were from, no matter what happened in their lives. But I recognize that we are not here because he was just a regular guy.
As you heard from the other speakers, his political life and his presidency, for me, was not just ahead of its time. It was prophetic.
He had the courage and strength to stick to his principles even when they were politically unpopular. As governor of Georgia half a century ago, he preached an end to racial discrimination and an end to mass incarceration. As president in the 1970s, as you’ve heard, he protected more land than any other president in history.
Fifty years ago he was a climate warrior who pushed for a world where we conserved energy, limited emissions and traded our reliance on fossil fuels for expanded renewable sources.
By the way, he cut the deficit, wanted to decriminalize marijuana, deregulated so many industries that he gave us cheap flights and, as you heard, craft beer. Basically all of those years ago, he was the first millennial. And he could make great playlists, as we’ve heard as well.
Maybe this is unbelievable to you, but in my 49 years, I never perceived a difference between his public face and his private one. He was the same person, no matter who he was with or where he was. And for me, that’s the definition of integrity.
That honesty was matched by love. It was matched by faith. And in both public and private, my grandparents did fundamentally live their lives in effort, as the Bible says, to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with their God.
Sometimes I feel and felt like I shared my grandfather with the world. Today is one of those days. But really, he shared the world with me. The power of an atom. The beauty and complexity of a South Georgia forest. When we fished, he celebrated the majesty of everything from the smallest minnow to that grand circulation of waters. And he shared this love with my boys, taking these Atlanta public school kids out into the fields to show them about row crops and wild plums.
In the end, his life is a love story. And of course, it’s a love story about Jimmy and Rosalynn and their 77 years of marriage and service. As the song says, they were the flagship of the fleet. And rest assured that in these last weeks, he told us that he was ready to see her again.
But his life was also a broader love story about love for his fellow humans, and about living out the commandment to love your neighbour as yourself. I believe that that love is what taught him and told him to preach the power of human rights, not just for some people, but for all people. It focused him on the power and the promise of democracy, its love for freedom, its requirement and founding belief in the wisdom of regular people raising their voices and the requirement that you respect all of those voices, not just some.
That conviction made him a naval officer who believed and demonstrated, as you’ve heard, that the greatest power of America was not the military, but its values. Those values were personal to him, and he lived them both publicly and privately. As you heard (former Carter White House aide) Stu (Eizenstat) say, as president, he gave voice to dissidents, stood up to dictators, brought countries together in peace.
His heart broke for the people of Israel. It broke for the people of Palestine. And he spent his life trying to bring peace to that holy land. And he talked about it at the dinner table. It was the same in public as it was in private. And for the last 40 years, as you’ve heard, he spent his time living out that love and that faith alongside the poorest and most marginalized people in the world. And that work, again, has been based fundamentally on love and respect.
The Carter Centre has 3,500 employees, but only a couple hundred in the United States. The rest are spread throughout the countries where we work. Ethiopia, South Sudan, Chad, Bangladesh. And all of the Carter Centre’s programs are based on a respect, that same respect for the power of regular people, even if they are in tiny villages miles from anywhere else.
To give one example, we’ve all heard a lot lately about guinea worm disease. It’s an ancient and debilitating disease of poverty, and that disease will have existed from the dawn of humanity until Jimmy Carter. When he started working on this disease there were 3.5 million cases in humans every year. Last year, there were 14.
And the thing that’s remarkable is that this disease is not eliminated with medicine. It’s eliminated essentially by neighbours talking to neighbours about how to collect water in the poorest and most marginalized villages in the world. And those neighbours truly were my grandfather’s partners for the last 40 years.
And as this disease has been eliminated in every village in Nigeria, every village in Sudan or Uganda, what’s left behind in those tiny 600-person villages is an army of Jimmy and Rosalynn Carters who have demonstrated their own power to change their world.
And that is a fundamental truth about my grandfather. It begins where it ends. When he saw a tiny 600-person village that everybody else thinks of as poor, he recognized it. That’s where he was from. That’s who he was. And he never saw it as a place to send pity. It was always a place to find partnership and power, and a place to carry out that commandment to love your neighbour as yourself.
Essentially, he eradicated a disease with love and respect.
He waged peace with love and respect.
He led this nation with love and respect.
To me, this life was a love story from the moment that he woke up, until he laid his head.
I’ll conclude with this. As Andy Young (a civil rights leader, former Atlanta mayor and Carter’s ambassador to the United Nations) told me, he may be gone, but he’s not gone far.
The outpouring of love and support that we have felt from you and from around the world has showed how many lives he has touched and how his spirit will live on in many ways.
For us, he’ll be in the kitchen making pancakes. Or in his woodshop finishing a cradle for a great-grandchild. Standing in a trout stream with Mom Carter. Or for me, just walking those Georgia fields and forests where he’s from.
2K9Y780 Manchester, UK. 30th Oct, 2022. Lisandro Martinez of Manchester United celebrates the win during the Premier League match at Old Trafford, Manchester. Picture credit should read: Darren Staples/Sportimage Credit: Sportimage/Alamy Live News
You Are The Shepherd Of My Soul featuring Lucy Stimpson-Maynard from the album Love is the Way recorded and produced by Bob Ross.
It turns out the I am not the only Manchester United fan in the world! My very good friend Rev. Andy Economides is as well, and earlier this week he wrote the below which I thought well worth sharing
The Mind
Liverpool 2 : 2 Manchester United, Sunday 4th January 2025. Martinez, the United player, scored the first goal. After the game, Martinez was asked by the BBC: ‘There have been some very poor performances this season. You wonder how you can go from that to this so quickly?’ Martinez replied by passionately pointing to his head saying: ‘The mind’. Following his gesture, Martinez explained:
‘Today we changed the mindset, the belief, the confidence. I saw everyone secure today with confidence, in every duel, with the ball, defending. We really enjoyed the game today. We have to believe; we have to believe. Sometimes when we had the ball, a few games ago, we were like stressed. Thinking too much. Today, we played without feelings. When you play like that you can enjoy football.’
New Year. New Mind. New Belief. New Security. New Confidence (in Christ)
The Apostle Paul tells us we can be transformed by renewing of our minds (Roman 12:2). Let God transform you into the new person by changing the way you think. When we allow God to transform us by the renewing of our minds then we know what God wants us to do and how good and pleasing and perfect God’s will and purposes really are.
Oh Lord By Praise featuring Lucy Stimpson- Maynard from the album Love is the Way recorded and produced by John Hodgkinson
Regular readers of this blog will know that I have supported Manchester United since a child. Apparently, our biggest rivals are Liverpool (if you do not agree then have a word with Gary Neville!)
I really like Liverpool’s former manager, Jurgen Klopp and so regard Manchester City as much bigger rivals. This was multiplied by a thousand after watching today’s featured video about a six-year-old Liverpool fan with a rare disease.
Take a look and see if it brings a tear to your eye – it certainly did mine.
Love Is Patient Love is Kind featuring Lucy Simpson- Maynard from the album Love is the Way recorded and produced by John Hodkingson
All at Mustard Seed Songs trust that you had a very happy Christmas and so now its Boxing Day. Why Boxing Day?
After a little research I leant that the origins of the holiday are a bit muddled, though the generally accepted theory is rooted in Victorian England.
During the reign of Queen Victoria, servants, tradespeople, and the poor typically were given presents. The servants worked on Christmas Day and would have the next day off to go visit their own families. So, according to the Old Farmer’s Almanac, the upper class would take leftover food, goods, or money and put them in boxes to give out to the poor.
Another theory says it derives from the opening of alms boxes provided by the church as opposed to gifts given by employers, according to Encyclopaedia Britannica.
The 26 also coincides with St. Stephen’s Day, a holiday celebrated in parts of Europe and named after the first Christian martyr who was known for helping the poor, according to Farmer’s Almanac.
While the holiday had its roots in giving back to the poor, like many modern celebrations, it’s shifted and become more associated with shopping and sports.
Boxing Day is an official bank holiday in Britain, Canada, New Zealand and most of Australia. While boxes aren’t typically given to the poor anymore, it’s not unusual for service employees to get bonuses around this time of year, says Britannica.
It’s typical for families to invite others over to enjoy a casual lunch made from Christmas Day leftovers. Many will also head out to stores to shop post-Christmas sales or make exchanges and returns.
Traditionally, sporting events included horse races, foxhunting, and rugby. Foxhunting was later modified or banned altogether, with football matches taking its place.
Many, including myself would say thank goodness that football matches took the place of fox hunting.
Amazing Love featuring Lucy Stimpson-Maynard from the album Love is the Way recorded and produced by John Hodgkinson
A local Vicar made the national press when parents complained that he brought their children to tears by telling them that Father Christmas no longer exists. He was, in fact speaking to children ten to eleven years old, telling them that they were, of course old enough to realise the truth.
Whatever our views I thought this article below by Jenny Sanders well worth sharing.
For me, waking up in the early hours of Christmas Day, feeling the weight of a goodie-filled stocking and hearing the satisfying crackle of the contents, always fed into the grand anticipation of a magical childhood Christmas ahead. I could go back to sleep safe in the knowledge that Father Christmas had been.
I don’t remember feeling devastated when the truth of who bought those presents was discovered. We learnt about St Nicholas at primary school, but Father Christmas steadfastly remained part of the whole festive tradition: the tree, the lights, the paper-chains, the carols, the turkey, the family gathering on Christmas Eve, the inevitable game of cousins’ hide and seek.
Once I became a parent, we discussed how we would or wouldn’t include him in our new-look Christmases. We resolved firstly that we would never lie to our children. Father Christmas, the Easter bunny, the Tooth Fairy – where do you choose to draw the line? Perpetuating these fictions raises the prospect of tricky conversations down the road: if Father Christmas isn’t real, who we can’t see, what about Jesus? Did we lie about him too?
Our grown-and-flown children recall that we were clear that the man in red was a fictional figure. At least one of them asked me outright. I replied, as wisely as I could at the time by batting the question back to them: ‘What do you think?’ The answer – whether fuelled by some better informed primary school contemporary or a flash of realisation: ‘I think it’s you and Dad.’ I nodded, but added in a conspiratorial whisper, ‘But it’s good fun anyway, isn’t it?’
In a world where we’re increasingly challenged to parent well, ensuring a robust bridge of communication is always open with our children is as important as ever. Helping them navigate that obstacle-filled journey from childhood through adolescence to adulthood is fraught with challenges that would test the wisdom of Solomon. On that basis alone, I would recommend resisting making it harder for ourselves.
If you want to perpetuate the idea that all the presents beneath the tree were brought by Father Christmas, you are free to do so. Enjoy it. Your children may go along with it, or not, though if they decide he isn’t real it begs the question, will there still be presents next year?
My friends and family will tell you that I am a huge Christmas fan. December 1st is open season for Christmas music, decorations, ratcheting up the atmosphere, watching Christmas films (It’s A Wonderful Life; Home Alone; Miracle on 34th Street etc), trawling the garden centres to admire or express horror at the latest products, and touring the neighbourhood to see everyone else’s lights before scurrying home to munch hot mince pies.
Compulsory reading of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol is also required for me and well worth reading at any time of year. The redemption of Ebenezer Scrooge is a morality tale firmly rooted in the themes of Christmas. It’s the Ghost of Christmas Present who is presented as a jolly Father Christmas character who repeats the invitation to, ‘Come in, and know me better, man!’
The characters are all fictional and yet, for me, bound up in the magic of Christmas. As one friend put it, keeping Jesus at the centre but including Father Christmas in our celebrations helps children and adults alike ‘develop an internal muscle for wonder.’ That’s so life-giving and demonstrates again the power of story without needing to be confused about reality. Father Christmas is no less real or important in our culture as Winnie-the-Pooh.
