“In The Beginning Was The Word” featuring the Lord is Truth Gospel Choir from the stage production “His Story” – recording by Ross Gill but not published.

So, on Monday of this week Jupiter and Saturn lined up and appeared as one bright shining star for the first time in 800 years, and won’t occur again until 2080. Many refer to it as the Christmas Star. It’s also known as the Star of Bethlehem, which guided the wise men to the birth of Christ. How amazing!
I am writing this blog on the Eve of Christmas Eve- a day that will always be special for me. In March 2014 I wrote why in a blog some extracts of which I have taken below:
Bob Milliken, the Head of RE at my school, Crofton, where I was Head of PE, invited me to go to his church in Paulsgrove. As it was a Christmas Service, I thought I would go and sing a few Carols and that would appease him. So, I went with my son Chris assuring him that we would only have to sing “Oh Little Town of Bethlehem” listen to a sermon on the Wise Men and then we could come home. So, you can imagine my shock when the Pastor (it was a Baptist Church) started talking, not about The Wise Men, but about death (at that time I was very frightened about what happens after you die) So he got my undivided attention and it seemed like I was the only person in the church and so the only one the Pastor was talking to. At the end of the service Bob introduced me to an old gentleman who had been sitting to my left – his dad. Bob went off to talk to someone and I chatted to his dad, obviously also called Mr Milliken. Mr Milliken told me that he had been a Missionary in the Belgium Congo and that he and his wife had evangelised the natives by singing hymns to them around camp fires; his wife playing a squeeze box. I knew that his wife, Bob’s mum, had died about two years previously and I found myself asking “Oh is she in heaven now then – singing to the natives?” Mr Milliken replied, not with a “God willing” or “That’s a nice thought” – he simply replied with one word and it was the one word that began to change my life – “Yes”
So, I was knocked out with the simplicity and absolute belief that Mr Milliken (Mr Mill’s dad) had that his wife was in heaven. I took Mr Milliken back to his sheltered accommodation in Titchfield, and listened with my son in awe to his stories of being a missionary in the Belgium Congo.
The next day I rang Mr Mill to say how amazing I thought his dad was. I told Mr Mill that I felt I wanted to go to Midnight Mass that evening and asked if he would he come with me. Mr Mill said that his church did not do Midnight Mass but that he would go with me to the church near Crofton School – Holy Rood.
Now most Christmas Eves I would be down the local pubs to have a few beers with ex- students so I was rather embarrassed about missing out the Red Lion and going “next door.” However, I thought it would be worth it as the heavens would, no doubt, open up for me and I would experience something “spiritual.” However, nothing ”spiritual” happened but at the end of the service a member of Crofton School’s Senior Leadership, Paul Knight, told me he was doing an Alpha Course (an introductory course on Christianity) and would I like to go. I thought “No Way!” Paul is now a dear friend, but at that time he was simply a member of the Senior Leadership Team so there was no chance of me going to an Alpha Course led by him.
Well in fact I did go on the Alpha Course but more of that next week, but in the meantime from the webmaster, me and all at Mustard Seed Songs
HAPPY CHRISTMAS

Quote of the week
The Son of God became the Son of Man so that the sons of men might become sons of God
The Word for Today