Category Archives: Parish News

Articles which have appeared in the parish news

Everything I Have Is Yours

Parish News

EVERYTHING I HAVE IS YOURS – Luke 15 v31.

We always have a Topical Talk at Squeeze Breakfast Club. It needs to be provided – otherwise it would be a silent talk with no content, no words, no thoughts or points to be made. What goes into the talk needs some provision of ideas, images and content to be relevant. Jesus used Parables to make a simple story show profound truths.

Mankind cannot have Provisions without a Provider. The super-markets have to provide goods on their shelves and use heavy lorries for daily replenishment. If they do not arrive – empty shelves, no provision. The supply appears endless but in reality it is limited.

Jesus says “Everything I have is yours.” And Jesus’s everything is everything. Everything that truly matters. His loving provision has no limit. His supply does not dry up. So often we forget to ask – He likes to be asked. That ‘asking’ we call prayer, and the answer is only a prayer away.

How often in life we say “I forgot to ask – Sorry.” How much more do we forget to pray. Who to? To the Creator and Provider of all we have – Jesus. Can you try to hear His voice this New Year?

“Son, Daughter, everything I have — is yours.” Pastor Jim Beveridge

LOVE IN GOLDEN BOXES

food-box

The major activity at the January Squeeze Breakfast Club was to wrap ordinary cardboard boxes with coloured paper to make them very bright and welcoming and however a surprise gift box should look. Then into those transformed containers were packed tins of food, such as a variety of vegetables, meat and fish, baked beans with or without those little sausages, and packets of long-lasting dry items such as rice, pasta and even a few Pot Noodles.

food-boxes

These were destined for the Matthew 25 Mission in Eastbourne where they would be distributed to local families hard-hit by the current economic situation. In Matthew’s Gospel, towards the end of chapter 25, God commends those who had given food and drink to the hungry and thirsty as if they had given these things to Himself.

biscuits

The younger ones concentrated on decorating biscuits with tiny dots of coloured icing, and there were other handicrafts available.

 NEXT SQUEEZE BREAKFAST CLUB ON SUNDAY 3RD FEBRUARY

These events on the first Sunday in each month are intended for all ages, people on their own or whole families, and they take place in the Herstmonceux village hall, between 10.00am and 12.00. A simple breakfast is provided, materials for a variety of handicrafts, and the Sunday papers. Come when you can and leave when you must.

Twinkle Twinkle Christmas Lights

Parish News

The one who is the true light, who gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. John 1, v 9.

Christmas tree lights – don’t you love them when they are up! Never mind trying to find them in the loft. Then plugging them in before they go on the tree to see that they work. They did when you put them away and they come with a guarantee – they will not work when you get them out. They need a bulb replaced – so where’s that spare one? I’m sure we had two or three!! But lost they are. Off to the shops to get some spare bulbs that cost more than the whole set.
At last they are up and working, and don’t you just love them. They reflect the Christmas Gift of a Child who would grow and become our Saviour. Jesus, among whose names is Light of the World. And yet we forget the Christ in Christmas. Do the twinkling lights distract us from the True Light? A light that does not fail us and as our relationship with Jesus grows, so we can reflect his light.
I think Christmas is a time not only for busyness but for reflection:
To reflect on the Baby who was fed in a feeding trough.
To reflect on the Christ Light.
To reflect on Christ’s provision of the Gift of Life.

You see, it’s simple to plug in those tree lights. It’s simple to plug into the Light of the World. Jesus. The Christ in Christmas. He has already sent the Invitation to you – Reflect and Respond if you please. He is so pleased to lighten your Christmas this and every year.
Happy Christmas and New Year to you all. Pastor Jim Beveridge

Giant Snowflakes

LET IT SNOW, LET IT SNOW – ON PAPER!
Handicrafts at the December Squeeze were very much on the festive theme: giant snowflakes carefully snipped from folded sheets of paper appealed to the ladies-who-used-to-dressmake; wine glasses and jam jars took on a new purpose at the hands of glass painters.
Those who lacked Christmas cards or table decorations had the opportunity to make their own from materials provided.

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CAROLS BY CANDLELIGHT: Sunday 23rd December at 4pm. Please bring tinned foodstuffs for local homeless.

CHRISTMAS DAY: Tuesday 25th December at 10.45am.
Squeeze Breakfast Club: Sunday 6th January 10.00am – 12.00
in the Village Hall. All ages are welcome

No Ark For New York

Parish News

The theme of ‘Flood’ was given to us before any news arrived of hurricane Sandy and its impact on New York. The city, built on a swamp, into which man in his wisdom puts an underground railway system, which to no-one’s surprise flooded in the deluge. It all reminds us of the story of the man who built his house on sand – and the winds blew and the rains came, and the house was washed and blown away. We saw wooden houses blown over and floating away like boats. The roofs became hulls and floated like the Ark.
So, do we build our lives on swampy sand – or anchored to a Rock? Do we have a place of security against the Storms of Life? An Ark in our life, to buoy us up against the floods of life’s events, so that we are not overwhelmed or drowned but can be carried to a harbour of safety?  In the changing winds of life, as the Hurricane comes we stand in the eye of the storm – where there is tranquillity. A Sea of Tranquillity – not the one on the moon, but here and now with Jesus, the Rock who cannot be shaken. Rock or Sand? You choose. It’s a shame there was no Ark for New York. Pastor Jim Beveridge

 

A SIGN OF THE COVENANT BETWEEN ME AND THE EARTH
DSCN0790Pastor’s wife Jenny asked the Lord what the theme should be for the November Squeeze and His reply – “The Flood.” So we set about replacing the large mural of Jonah and the Whale above the serving hatch with one of Noah and the Ark. One table was given over to the production of animals and birds, a second table to a model of the Ark devised by Harry, and the third to making a sectioned rainbow so that each person could work on part of the finished arch. The final masterpiece will appear on our website, but don’t wait for that – come and see it for yourself.

Squeeze: Sunday Dec. 2nd 10.00am – 12 noon in the village hall.

A PRECIOUS VOLUME IN DAMAGED COVERS
David came to one of our 200th Anniversary events last year expecting to find “a sad, old preacher with a couple of old ladies in the front row.” Instead, he found the presence of the Lord who put His arms around him and David went away “with more faith than I had had for ages.” He needed that faith because he had a son who had turned from a Christian upbringing to drugs and drink. His own Pastor encouraged him to look into his son’s eyes and see the love there. For five weeks he could not look at the pierced and haggard face, although the boy begged him not to judge the book by its cover but by its contents. His son has now completed a whole year without drugs or drink. “Seek the Kingdom of God above all else,” David told the October Squeeze, “and He will give you all you need.”

Thunderbirds Are Go! – What About you?

Parish News

Do you remember Thunderbirds and their home on Tracy Island with its hidden secrets to protect it from discovery? Today we have brought our ideas of a Perfect Island – but we must ask ourselves, is this what God wants of us? To remain on the island of our creation, whatever it is, within the boundaries we have set?
As people together and as individuals on what we can call Christian Island we have such Good News within us that is too important, too big, too vast for a mere island existence. God says to us “Get off the Island,” because his perfect place is called Paradise and he has not got enough people who leave “Island Earth” to fill all the places which He has prepared for those who know him.
And the people who do know him personally, now, are on “Gospel Island.” God says ”Get off the Island and take this Good News to people so that I can see imperfect people become forgiven people.” Then they, through His son Perfect Jesus, can become inheritors not just of an island paradise, but of His Kingdom Paradise that starts with Jesus on this earth, and His Kingdom lasts for ever.
John Donne wrote “No man is an island, complete of itself.” But you plus Jesus makes completion. Have you met Him and reached Completion Day? Or have you so far put it off? Thunderbirds had a key character called Brains. It takes brains to do the right thing by God. Thunderbirds are go! – are you?

Pastor Jim Beveridge

OUR ISLANDS IN THE SUN

We fielded four teams of children and adults intent on producing a map of their Perfect Island. All of them had white surf on silver sands and sunshine everywhere. One had a diamond mine, which took care of the finances. The maps formed part of our Harvest Display. Two of the teams produced and sang a ‘National Anthem.’

SEASON OF FELLOWSHIP AND FRUITFULNESS
We are pleased to have found the Matthew 25 Mission in Eastbourne which provides daily meals and food parcels for needy people. It also runs a charity shop to support this work. So our Harvest display this year majored on tinned foods and tea bags among the traditional fruit.
A handful of our folk were able to share the Wartling Parish Harvest Lunch and the following Sunday a few of us got to All Saints’ lunch. A big thank you to both Parish Churches for making us welcome.

Believer’s Baptism

Parish News

“I HAVE COME THAT YOU MIGHT HAVE LIFE…. ABUNDANTLY.”
The words of Jesus, or as John 10, v10 says, “My purpose is to give a rich and satisfying life.” So it is Jesus who provides this abundant life. In the early life of Jesus there is mention of his teaching skills, but no healings, no miracles, not what we would recognise as ’abundance.’
So how did he receive that powerful, abundant ministry? We read in John 1v32, that God had told John the Baptist, “The one to whom you see the Spirit descend and rest upon is the one who will baptise with the Holy Spirit. So we see Jesus baptised and come up out of the water and the Holy Spirit descending like a dove.
This was the beginning of Jesus’s Abundant Ministry, the mystery of Jesus, part of the Trinity, Three in One and One in Three and here the Holy Spirit comes upon Jesus, and that power is released on earth through Jesus on earth.
Today we will witness a Believer’s Baptism. A testament, a profession of faith as a Christian. But that is not all. There is an abundant sign of the Believer following Jesus down through the water as to Death, and rising up through the water as Jesus did to new Life, empowered afresh by the Holy Spirit.
What happens through life after this day is a three-way partnership of the one baptised with Jesus and the Holy Spirit. It often fills a long-felt desire of Christians who have been blessed by Christening, Confirmation and their actual experience of being saved, being prayed for, and having hands laid upon them to seal them as Christians.
It is a freewill choice. It is in obedience to what Christ said and did. A disciple, a follower, does what the Master teaches. Let us hear ‘Liz’s personal testimony and witness her baptism today. And watch for the future Abundant Life. Pastor Jim Beveridge

I have always believed in God, Mum and Dad told us he was real and they never lied to us. As a teenager I might have stumbled in my faith more had I not seen their faith played out in their lives. Amid all the hormones and drama, my parents were the constant voice of reason. We weren’t really allowed to dislike anyone, because Mum or Dad would help us see the other side of the story. I could plainly see that there was real good in the world and God was the source of it.

When I went to ‘Uni’ the decision to follow God became my own. Would I attend church? Who would I make friends with? In the first week I had met my husband to be, and friends Steve and Hannah, who all had a big part in encouraging me to keep the faith.
Hannah took me to Romania for a month; God kept me there for two and a half years. I worked with other volunteers who prayed every day and expected God to answer every day. I saw a charity with no income feed hundreds of families every week. Any questions about God were totally answered. There is horrendous injustice in the world, but all the people I met who were truly listening to God were doing something about it. Elizabeth Ford