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\nThere’s Going To Be A Party featuring the Mustard Seed Soul Band from the album “Uplifted” recorded and produced by Bob Ross.<\/p>\nSo last blog I told you that I did reluctantly go on an Alpha Course. I was greeted by a smiling person (obviously a \u201cDo Gooder\u201d I thought) and presented with a badge with my name on it. I expected everyone to be wearing Jesus sandals and when I saw that someone actually was, I decided to beat a hasty retreat. My friend, Paul Hiscock had been trapped by the Vicar so no help there \u2013 but then I smelt the curry. Now curry is my staple diet so I decided to delay by escape until after I had sampled the curry.
\nDuring the Chicken Korma I spoke to a lovely lady called Margaret who asked me what I was doing there and when I had difficulty in answering, reassured me that she too was unsure why she was there.
\nTasty curry over \u2013 perhaps I should give the Vicar a chance? He looked a pretty cool guy and was not wearing a dog collar \u2013 not that I had a problem with that \u2013 So here we go to the ice -cold pews for a boring sermon on Christ dying for my sins just like my past experiences as a choir boy. Actually, no not at all! We went upstairs in the Church Centre to a warm and pleasant room with sofas \u2013 all rather nice and relaxing. The Vicar, Michael Christian- Edwards (appropriate name I thought) who has also become a dear friend started off with a joke and quite a good one at that \u2013 the laughter relaxed everyone and then Michael talked about whether or not Jesus really did exist. I really enjoyed the talk and even more the opportunity to ask questions afterwards- which I did in abundance. What about this and what about that \u2013 Michael answered all my questions with patience and great knowledge. I went home thinking I wonder? But there was no way really that I could ever become a Christian \u2013 what would my mates say? I would be a laughing stock \u2013 \u201cJesus Freak\u201d and \u201cBible Basher.\u201d However, I went back the next week and then the next and then the next and then I began to think that I wanted to become a Christian \u2013 I felt reassured by the words in John\u2019s Gospel, Chapter 3 verse 16 \u201cFor God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life\u201d Eternal Life \u2013 that is what I needed to take away my fear of death. Not something to be earned but something to be accepted as a gift. Perfect \u2013 apart from two problems 1) did I have enough faith to accept Jesus\u201d gift\u201d with any degree of sincerity? 2) If I did ask Jesus into my life what would my mates say- how much ridicule would I have to endure? Let me have a look at problem no 2 first.
\nThree of my very special friends are Barry Stares, Dave Conchie and Ian Beacham. Barry I have known since Junior School and Dave and Ian since PE College. We regularly meet for a drink and something to eat (yes curry) At one curry Ian said \u201cYou will never guess what\u2019s happened to Mick\u201d He was referring to another ex-PE College friend, Mick Mellows who played football for Pompey and who is now a Director of the charity Faith and Football -www.faith&football.org.uk . I thought Ian meant that Mick had been struck down with some horrible illness but no that is not what he meant at all. He continued \u201cHe\u2019s only gone and become a Christian!\u201d To which Dave replied \u201cNo \u2013 and he was such a good bloke!\u201d
\nCould I face that sort of comment if I \u201cadmitted\u201d to becoming a Christian? I really doubted it.
\nAs for problem no 1 re did I have enough faith? \u2013 Well thankfully someone told me I only had to have faith as small as a mustard seed (the smallest of all seeds in Biblical times.) I simply had to focus on what I believed not on what I did not \u2013 simply had to trust \u2013 simply had to take a \u201cleap of faith\u201d Did I take that leap \u2013 I\u2019ll tell you next week.
\nThe webmaster, me and all at Mustard Seed Songs wish you a
\nHappy New Year
\nQuote of the week
\nLet God\u2019s promises shine on your problems
\nCorrie ten Boom<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There’s Going To Be A Party featuring the Mustard Seed Soul Band from the album “Uplifted” recorded and produced by Bob Ross. So last blog I told you that I did reluctantly go on an Alpha Course. I was greeted by a smiling person (obviously a \u201cDo Gooder\u201d I thought) and presented with a badge […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ken-shearsmiths-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2216"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2216\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2219,"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2216\/revisions\/2219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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