“We Are Hard Pressed” featuring the Portsmouth Gospel Choir from the EP ” How Great Are His Signs” recorded and produced by Joffy Girling
So the sun is 93 million miles away from earth and its surface temperature is 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit – if the earth’s temperature was 50 degrees hotter or colder all life would cease. So it is an accident that the earth is not further away or closer to us It is also an accident that we rotate 365 times a year as we pass around the sun. If we rotated only 36 times a year our days would be ten times as long and we’d be terribly hot on one side and unbearably cold on the other and life as we know it would cease.
Oxygen constitutes 21% of our atmosphere, the precise balance of air we need to breathe. If it was 50% then as soon as a match was lit we would all be blown up. Again this an accident. Well I am no academic but surely it takes a lot of faith to believe that all this and all the other amazing facts about our world and life just happened by accident- some would say a similar amount of faith to believe that a hurricane could hit a scrap yard and accidently create a Boeing 707! It seems to me that it takes a lot less faith to believe that creation was designed; in which case there must be a Designer.
I do get a tad cross when some people say that science has disproved God – in fact I would say that facts like the above actually help to prove there is a God. Another thing that annoys me is schools teaching evolution as a fact rather than a theory. I can see that Genna, our lovely Labrador puppy, evolved from a wolf (especially when by accident Caroline or I get a nip!) however that is not at all the same as believing that she and we both evolved from some form of “pond life.” It seems much more likely to me that Genna evolved from the first wolf/dog that was designed by God and we evolved from the first human being that was designed by God. Yes it takes faith to believe this but, as I said, it also takes faith to believe that all creation happened by accident and then all the different, wonderful and amazing species somehow evolved from “pond life.”
Anyway if there is a Designer who we could call God – it would be pretty amazing if we were able to get to know Him – even more amazing if He wanted to get to know us. But how could He do that? Would He not have to leave where He abides (let’s call it heaven) and come to earth? Now wouldn’t that be amazing – God coming to live with us – God with us – Emmanuel – yes that would be truly amazing! That would warrant a really big celebration and we could call it ….. Christmas!!
I Love You Lord (L. Klein) featuring the Portsmouth Gospel Choir from the EP “How Great Are His Signs” recorded and produced by Joffy Girling
I could not resist sharing this picture of our lovely dog Genna taken by our MD Joffy Girling when he was at our house a few weeks ago recording. Obviously his camera is a bit special !
I am not sure what the future holds for the full stage production of Risen! The Musical – it would be wonderful for the show to take place again but we will just have to wait and see. However, we are all ready to go for another school tour of Risen! The Musical Theatre in Education – just need £10k of funding!
The versions of Risen! The Musical on YouTube with subtitles in Mandarin, Spanish and Romanian are getting views – please visit www.risenthemusical.com but we really need some help in knowing how to guide more people towards viewing.
One project of Mustard Seed Songs, of which we know the direction, is the sequel to Risen! The Musical which keeps having its working title changed but which at present is ACTS – The Musical – Part One.
We have already had a number of singers record parts including Alex Knox (Luke) Oscar Batterham (Theophilus) Katie Forge (Mary Magdalene) Max Panks (Saul/Paul) Gemma Terry ( Rhonda) Tim Prestige (Matthias) Ron Long ( Simon the Sorcerer) and Chloe Brockenshire (Suzanna.) I am delighted to say that now Nicola Poustie, one of the original Mustard Seed Girls’ Choir and Mustard Seed Soul band members will be recording for us after Christmas. Nicola sang the part of Mary Magdalene for the Risen! CD and is singing the part of Tabitha for ACTS. We are also hoping that James Townend will be able to record the part of Philip. James sang the part of Thomas for the Risen! CD. In March we will be recording eight more members of the London Touring Cast for parts such as Stephen the first martyr, the Ethiopian official of Queen Candace, the crippled man who was healed at the Gate called Beautiful plus all the ensemble.
I thought you might like to see how the Show opens:
Luke: – Acts 1: 1- 11
Theophilus- Theophilus- – it is your humble servant Luke,
Theophilus:
Luke, my dear friend- it’s been too long – writer of such a wonderful book
Jesus crucified – then risen alive
For forty days appearing as hundreds testified
Theophilus and Luke
Ascended – ascended to heaven
Angels proclaiming He would return.
He would return it again
Luke:
Most excellent Theophilus may I be so bold
There is now so much more of the story to be told
The church has been born – I’ve witnessed it all
How the gospel has spread -allow me to recall
Quote of the week:
The issue with worry is that it does not change anything except you.
Every Day With Jesus
Heart on Fire from the album “How Great Are His Signs” featuring the Portsmouth Gospel Choir recorded and produced by Joffy Girling
My wife Caroline and I were discussing what to do about Christmas presents this year – in particular how to broach the subject with some family members of how the money we all spend could be put to much better use -by giving it to those people that really need it. We decided the time had come to end buying a family member a bottle of wine or pair of socks and getting something of similar value in return.
We knew this was the right thing to do but was not sure how to approach the subject as we felt some might not agree with our sentiments. Now it may have been a coincidence or more likely a “Godinstance” but we just happened to watch a Martin Lewis Money Expert programme on TV in which Martin referred to a plea he had made some years earlier “It’s time to ban unnecessary Christmas presents. ” This is this week’s featured video clip.
So we included the clip in a message we emailed to those family members who were foremost in our mind and lo and beyond they all agreed to our suggestion! So now instead of unwanted socks and scarves we will be donating the monies saved to “Crisis at Christmas.” https://www.crisis.org.uk/get-involved/reserve-a-place-at-crisis-at-christmas/
So for every £28.18 donated a homeless person receives:
A warm welcome and good company
Three nutritious, hot meals daily, including a delicious Christmas dinner
A bed for the night, if needed
A chance to shower, freshen up and get clean clothes
A health check and treatment from a doctor, optician and dentist
Expert help with mental health and addiction problems
Advice on housing, employment and benefits
A way out of homelessness for good through Crisis’ year-round training, education and support.
Of course “Crisis at Christmas” is not the only charity which needs support- The Salvation Army also has a campaign by which you can donate, for example £19.00 which will provide for a box filled with food and modest gifts for a family in need -https://www.salvationarmy.org.uk/donate
One of our family members is donating the saved Christmas present money to the Alzheimer’s Society- the point it that it really is time to change – in addition to the good it does – donating monies to good causes that otherwise would be spent on worthless presents – what Martin Lewis calls “tat”- really is liberating.
Quote of the week
If you want to go fast go alone if you want to go far go together
“How Great Are His Signs” featuring the Portsmouth Gospel Choir from the album “How Great Are His Signs” recorded and produced by Joffy Girling
Suffering this week with a touch of “man flu” so just a short blog – however the video is 1 hour 43 mins and 24 secs long!
So many, many thanks to Katherine Olivia Hobbs for translating Risen! The Musical into Mandarin and to Alex-Emanuel Şerban for creating the subtitles.
In addition to Mandarin Risen! The Musical also has subtitles in Romanian and Spanish. This made me wonder which language is the most used in the world. A bit of googling came up with this:
Determining what are the most spoken languages in the world is a more difficult task than you might imagine. We can say with some confidence that Mandarin, English, Spanish and Arabic will make an appearance (and roughly in what order) but there are some surprises, too! Would you have guessed that Bengali is in the Top 10 most spoken languages?
The number of native speakers of Mandarin is almost 1.2 billion native speakers. If we were only to look at native speakers, Spanish has its nose in front of English with about 400 million speakers. There are 360 million-odd native English speakers and half a billion people who speak it as a second language.
Of course there is also the Chinese language of Cantonese – what is the difference between Mandarin and Cantonese? Again a bit of googling resulted in:
Mandarin is the official state language of China and is the lingua franca of the country. In much of the country, it is the primary spoken language, including Beijing and Shanghai, although many provinces still retain their own local dialect. Mandarin is also the main dialect in Taiwan and Singapore.
Cantonese is spoken by the people of Hong Kong, Macau and the wider Guangdong province, including Guangzhou (previously Canton in English). Most foreign Chinese communities, such as those in London and San Francisco, also speak Cantonese because historically Chinese immigrants hailed from Guangdong.
Quote of the week
What matters in not the years in your life but the life in your years
Risen Christ Central Chapel – July 2017 to October 2018
Pastor Patrick with some of the orphans in his congregation
A Mustard Seed Of Faith – featuring the Portsmouth Gospel Choir from the album “How Great Are His Signs” recorded and produced by Joffy Girling
Mustard Seed Songs are, at present involved in four different projects- Risen! The Musical, Risen! The Musical Theatre in Education, our new musical Acts- Part One “Fire” and the construction of the Risen Christ Central Chapel in Southern Nigeria.
More on Risen! The Musical next week after we have made public on YouTube the version with subtitles in Mandarin.
I am writing more letters this week to potential sponsors of an Easter 2019 Risen! Theatre in Education tour of Primary schools.
Thanks to Chloe Brokenshire, Gemma Terry and Tim Prestige who on Monday recorded ensemble parts for Acts (thanks also to Joffy Girling our Musical Director recording and production wizard)
This week, however I just wanted to show the fantastic progress that has been made on the building of the Risen Christ Central Chapel in Cross River State, Southern Nigeria. I hope the pictures speak for themselves as to how much has been done in the past 15 months. The next stage is to finish lining the inside of the roof and then it will be the installation of windows and doors, next electricity and then tiling and plastering.
It is still not too late to help with the costs – you could either download the CD “How Great Are His Signs” featuring the amazing Portsmouth Gospel Choir which was recorded especially to raise funds for the build. https://mustardseedsongs.hearnow.com/
Lord I Come to Bathe in Your Glory featuring Lucy Stimpson-Maynard from the album Love is the Way recorded and produced by John Hodkinson
For many years I have read the daily Bible reading notes published by CWR and written by Rev. Selwyn Hughes-“Every Day With Jesus” (EDWJ.) Selwyn’s words have inspired many Mustard Seed Songs, in fact in 2005 we were honoured to have a mini CD of Mustard Seed Songs attached to a special edition of EDWJ which marked the 40th anniversary of this daily devotional. It was our honour that 80,000 of these editions were distributed worldwide. The featured song today comes from that mini CD. Selwyn died in 2005 and it was also our honour for some of our songs to be played at the celebration of his life held at Central Hall, Westminster.
CWR continue to publish previous editions of EDWJ with the September/October 2018 issue named “Ten Words” – an in- depth exploration of the Ten Commandments. The points that Selwyn made were I felt very well summed up in the final devotion of Wednesday, October 31st which had Romans: 13 8- 14 as the day’s Scripture: “Therefore love is the fulfilment of the law.”
Here is Selwyn’s summary:
We saw yesterday that every breach of these Ten Words (Ten Commandments) is a breach of love and when love directs life there is no such breach. So important is this simple but magnificent principle that we spend our last day together applying it to each of the Ten Commandments. If we love God absolutely, then we will not be able to find room for another god and the first of the Ten Words is fulfilled. Supreme love for God also means that we will not suffer anything to stand between us and Him and so all idols are broken to pieces. Out of love will spring a reverence of His name and a life worthy of the one who lends His name to us. Love understands the principle behind the Sabbath and will not just cease from work but will also gladly engage with rest and remembrance.
In the second part of the Commandments, love for God means we will honour our parents and will quench all thoughts of hatred for others. Love treats another’s property with respect and keeps our thoughts and conduct towards the opposite sex pure. When love is the filter of what we speak it arrests the faintest whisper of false witness against others. And love of God gives us a contentment with ourselves and what we have that leaves no room in the heart for coveting anything but Him and the greatest thing- love (I Corinthians 13;13) When men and women learn to love then Sinai, the mountain of fire holds no fear. They can stand tall against it, knowing that as Jesus lives and loves in them thoughts will be born, words will be spoken and deeds will be done – in love. Then in thought and word and deed the law is fulfilled.
Quote of the week
If God’s mind was small enough for me to understand then He would not be God.
Rev. Christopher Wickland – Senior Pastor of The Living Word Church Network
Video clip from Mustard Seed Songs’ first musical His Story
Triumphal Entry (Shearsmith/Wickland) featuring the Mustard Seed Soul Band from the album His Story recorded and produced by Ross Gill
Last week I mentioned that before Risen! The Musical, Mustard Seed Songs’ produced another musical called His Story. In His Story actors relived the life of Jesus cuing up songs performed by the Mustard Seed Soul Band, enhanced by dancing and a multi- media package. His Story played at the Kings Theatre, Southsea (at which the featured clip was filmed) the Ferneham Hall, Fareham and Central Hall, Westminster, London. There are some songs from His Story that also feature in Risen! The Musical including “Jesus is my Lord,” “Be Set Free” and an up tempo version of “You Are My Rock.”
Members of the Mustard Seed Soul Band have included – Guitar: Ross Gill and Chris Wickland, Bass: Andy Herbertson, Gareth Matthews, Ben Lewis and Harun Kotch – Drums: Darren Lewis and Josh Eaves – Percussion: Ian Johnson – Trumpet: Stuart Fowler and Jo Downs – Saxophone: Rob Richardson, Mike Backhouse and Tim Downs – Trombone: Matthew Sargent and Philip Brockenshire – Violin: Cathy Matthews – Vocalists: Nicola Poustie, Fiona Poustie, Kat Hands, Katy Summer, Lianne Wilson, Lucy Rutherford, Jessica Castillo-Burley, Ross Gill, Harun Kotch and Mike Backhouse.
I highlighted the name of guitarist Chris Wickland because on Friday of last week I heard him give a fantastic talk about his life – only about thirty seconds was given over to his life as a musician – the rest was devoted to his journey from Witchcraft to Christ. I cannot give what was an amazing and totally unique talk justice here but instead I encourage you to take the time to listen to Chris’ talk via this link https://www.facebook.com/501936389/videos/10156645094346390/
Incidentally Chris playing guitar with the Mustard Seed Soul Band is captured approx. 1 min 1 secs into today’s His Story video clip. He also penned the fantastically catchy music of today’s featured song which Chris originally titled Winter Festival. I loved the tune so much that Chris graciously gave me permission to add lyrics and so it became a His Story song – The Triumphal Entry.
Quote of the week
Let God’s peace be the Sentinel that stands on duty at the door of your heart.
“Because Of Your Grace” featuring Harun Kotch from the album “The Season of Singing” recorded and produced by Ross Gill
Mustard Seed Songs have been wonderfully blessed in being able to call on the help and support of so many people who are brilliantly gifted. I often mention the amazing Joffy Girling, our Musical Director and recently have given updates on members of the London Touring Cast who performed so wonderfully in Risen! The Musical.
As I have said we are, at present working on the sequel to Risen! based on the Acts of the Apostles and about eight years before Risen! we had another production called His Story. His Story told the whole story of the life of Jesus through acting, music, dance and multi- media. We had singers, musicians, actors and dancers but no multi- media. The legend that is Mr Mill (Bob Milliken) who is a Trustee of Mustard Seed Songs and who taught with me at Crofton School, suggested I meet at Porchester Baptist Church someone called Darren Bovis-Coulter. Mr Mill said that what Darren didn’t know about all things computer was not worth knowing and he was not wrong! Since those first productions of His Story Darren and his lovely wife Nikki have been indispensable to Mustard Seed Songs, producing the His Story multi-media, countless amounts of artwork and design for CDs, DVDs, brochures, banners and in addition the websites for Risen! The Musical (www.Risenthemusical.com) Mustard Seed Songs (www.mustardseedsongs.org.uk) and His Story (www.Hisstory.org.uk ) Most recently Darren designed and built the stage set for the Risen! The Musical Theatre in Education tour. The children loved the “Minecraft” theme which was another brilliant idea of Darren’s.
Darren read the prayers at Caroline and my wedding so that is an indication of how much I rate him (I nearly said love him – perhaps I should have done!)
Another relatively new talent in which Darren is excelling in is photography – his work is absolutely stunning and is gaining international recognition – check out https://gurushots.com/BadlyFittingHat/
Darren is now a Pastor in Coventry – which reminds me -he also instigated the first live professional performance of Risen! The Musical at the Coventry Pentecost Festival in May 2015. We also co- wrote today’s featured song “Because Of Your Grace.”
On his recent birthday he posted this mini bio:
What a blessed day… I don’t want this to be a long post… But as it’s my birthday and so many people have said such lovely things I wanted to share why today in particular was so special.
Some will know my full story and others not, but looking back on my life and reflecting on how far I’ve come, today has just been the most amazing day.
I wasn’t brought up in a Christian home but had a loving family, unfortunately when my parents split up I found myself in a difficult …place which ended up with a period of homelessness, and as a result of that homelessness I went on a journey where I met my biological father, Paul, who at the time was journey through Faith and he was part of my story that led me to Christ. Many other wonderful people were also part of my journey which was full of stories, twists, turns and life can be so ‘exciting??’ sometimes.
I went to uni where I met my wife Nikki and we lived in Portsmouth for about 14 years. Now my journey to Faith started a few years earlier when I was listening to a preacher one night speaking about all the things you want in life, the house the wife, the boat the car the whatever, but at the end of the day it all turns the dust and the one thing that doesn’t is the love of God.
So here I was 40 years old with the house, the wife, the boat, the car, the family, the kids and cats, a thriving business etc., when God said to me, pack it all up and come and follow me, the things that you do, the skills that you’ve got, don’t take them to the grave without serving me first, so I uprooted my family in obedience and came to Coventry to work in what I thought was the dream job where God wanted me and my family to be. This was not to be and after a short time, the role came to an abrupt end.
We found ourselves living in an area we didn’t know, and it seemed all our new family and friends of church had gone. We felt very lonely and redundant… Not required!
But it was Nikki that had the wisdom and said there’s a church just round the corner Limbrick Wood Baptist Church, and long story short, having looked for many different jobs the church and I agreed to dip our toe in the water and see if God is calling me to serve there… Well… We’ve been there for nearly 3 years now, and today, my birthday is the first time I have ever been part of taking a church on mission! To #GO! into the community and to preach the good news with lots of prayer and fasting!
This has been the most amazing birthday ever… 48 years old and the privilege of leading a church on mission, that we might see God’s kingdom come and God’s will be done and I just want to thank everybody who wished me happy Birthday and for those that are praying and continue to pray.
I said it might be a long post, but I really wanted to share my joy and to say thank you to everybody that’s been part of our journey!
Quote of the week
Dreams always come a size too big so that we can grow into them
“Heart and Soul” featuring the Mustard Seed Soul Band with Mike Backhouse from the album “His Story” recorded and produced by Ross Gill
In response to thousands of requests I have attached another photo of our lovely new Labrador puppy called Genna. (Well to say thousands may be a bit of an exaggeration but there has been a least one – from Caroline my wife!)
It has been a great week with Risen! The Musical now with subtitles in Mandarin thanks to translator Katherine Olivia Hobbs and film editor Alex-Emanuel Şerban. More of that next week I hope when it goes live on YouTube. Also we had Alex Knox recording some more of Luke for our next musical ACTS – Part One. Oscar Batterham recording Theophilus and my old friend Ron Long recording Simon the Sorcerer- all course all recorded by Mustard Seed Songs’ brilliant Musical Director – Joffy Girling. Again more of that next week as today I wanted to share a real message of encouragement from someone who had seen Risen! The Musical on Revelation TV and who then contacted me to purchase DVDs of Risen! for his friends. He wrote:
I sat down and watched the DVD with a couple of Christian friends earlier today. Their comments were along the following lines – excellent quality, been very thoughtfully and prayerfully crafted, tremendous enthusiasm (are the cast Christian?) and energy, comes across as very sincere / authentic – connects with the emotions, simple but very effective staging, sympathetic lighting, great camera work, its simplicity of presentation (i.e. costumes) gives the production relevance to today’s society, didn’t expect to be as impacted as much as they were! Brilliant!!
It is so encouraging when one receives a message such as this and it reminded me of how important Barnabas was to the ministry of St Paul. Barnabas in fact means “Son of Encouragement” and Barnabas Ministry of Encouragement is the name of a charity based in Mindanao, Philippines which was founded by my two very good friends Jim and Evelyn Palmer.
Barnabas is first mentioned in Chapter Four of ACTS:
Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas (which means “son of encouragement”), sold a field he owned and brought the money and put it at the apostles’ feet.
So Barnabas was obviously very generous- on another occasion he stuck up for Saul (later to be known as Paul) when the disciples were understandably afraid of him as he had been persecuting followers of Jesus and had, in fact condoned the stoning of Stephen the first Christian martyr.
When he (Paul) came to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples, but they were all afraid of him, not believing that he really was a disciple.27 But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles. He told them how Saul on his journey had seen the Lord and that the Lord had spoken to him, and how in Damascus he had preached fearlessly in the name of Jesus.
So in a nutshell being an encourager is a great and very important gift – one we all have – but one that we, and I include myself in this, – just need to use it more.
Quote of the week
We must be content with what we have but never with what we are.
Father Help Me Acknowledge You featuring Lucy Stimpson-Maynard from the album ” I Look Up To The Heavens” recorded and produced by John Hodgkinson
I need to check that in my earliest blog posts I mentioned growing up in Gillingham, Kent and not moving to Portsmouth until I was nine years old. But anyway when I lived in Gillingham I went to the most fantastic Primary school ever- Forge Lane. The teachers were just so unbelievably kind and I had the most wonderful time there. I have, on quite a few occasions returned to visit Gillingham, the old street where I lived – East Street and Forge Lane School- I was so very fortunate to have had such a wonderful childhood.
One of the pupils at Forge Lane was Clive Reader – I remember him being brilliant at art. Well about a year ago I received a Facebook message from him asking if I was the same Ken Shearsmith that he had known from his schooldays. I replied that I was and sent him some class photographs. I did not hear back from him and left it, but then a week or so ago I thought I would try again- again nothing so I contacted one of his Facebook friends – his daughter in fact who told me that Clive was useless with social media and had about three Facebook accounts, none of which he ever used. However she gave me his telephone no and I rang him. We spent about an hour on the phone reminiscing about those schooldays which were a very, very long time ago. If I said 50 years that would not even be close!
So you might think this is all very nice but what is your point Ken? Well I have heard one argument for not believing the Gospel stories is that they were written too long after Jesus’ death to be accurate. There is some debate as to which Gospel was written first and when but it was about 40 years after Jesus’ ascension. Some would say that is such a long time that memories of what happened during the lifetime of Jesus are bound to get distorted. Not so! Stories of WW2 are usually regarded as authentic if told by first hand witnesses and that was nearly 80 years ago. And in the case of Clive and me we remembered and agreed on what happened at Forge Lane School because we were actually there and because we were first hand witnesses our stories can be believed without question.
The disciples Matthew and John were eye witnesses of Jesus’ ministry, Mark heard the stories first hand from the disciple Peter and Luke was a respected doctor and historian who many believe heard about Jesus directly from His mother Mary. Their Gospels of Jesus can be believed in the same way that Clive and myself can be believed- passage of time is not important if the testimonies come from eye witnesses.
