Sunday 21 June 2020

Recorded Morning Worship led by Majors David and Jane Alton

To KNOW Christ ~ To LIVE Christ ~ To SHARE Christ

BOSCOMBE CORPS NEWS

Thought for Today Over the coming weeks, the Sunday School are going to be looking at Parables that Jesus told. Following on from last week when we printed the Parable of the Pencil, we did some research and came across a website called GodUpdates which included ten parables for modern living. We have decided to share some of them with you over the next few weeks.

Like many inspiring movies and books, this short story may be fictional. However, the impact that this work will have on its readers is very real. Enjoy!

The Father’s Message

Life is a journey. At times it can be very sweet, but there are also times where it is bitter. In those tough times, we can often feel alone, and

sometimes even abandoned. The little boy in the story below was certainly feeling this way.

But what he discovers is an important reminder for all of us!

A father takes his son into the forest, blindfolds him and leaves him alone. He is required to sit on a stump the whole night and not remove the

blindfold until the rays of the morning sun shine through it. He cannot cry out for help to anyone. Once he survives the night, he is a MAN.

He cannot tell the other boys of this experience, because each lad must come into manhood on his own.

The boy is naturally terrified. He can hear all kinds of noises. Wild beasts must surely be all around him. Maybe even some human might do him

harm. The wind blew the grass and earth, and shook his stump, but he sat stoically, never removing the blindfold. It would be the only way he could

become a man! Finally, after a horrific night, the sun appeared and he removed his

blindfold. It was then that he discovered his father sitting on the stump next to him. He had been at

watch the entire night, protecting his son from harm. We, too, are never alone. Even when we don’t know

it, God is watching over us, sitting on the stump beside us. When trouble comes, all we have to do is

reach out to Him.

Moral of the story: Just because you can’t see God, doesn’t mean He is not there!

‘For we walk by faith, not by sight!’ 2 Corinthians 5:7

Prayer Requests We have a number of our corps family who need our prayers

at the moment for various reasons. Please pray for Harvey Wood who is leaving home on 24 June to join the RAF and for the rest of the family

as they say ‘Bon Voyage’. Please pray for those of our corps family who have been ill or bereaved recently. Please continue to pray for all key workers associated with the corps, those who live alone and for many who are struggling in different ways as this situation continues.

Promotion to Glory It is our sad duty to inform you that Alan Valle passed away peacefully

yesterday afternoon. Please pray for Elizabeth and the family.

Bring Me Sunshine! We would like to thank Joy Whittingham for supplying us with the

jokes for this week’s edition of ‘Bring Me Sunshine’. Remember, if you have a joke or story that you would like to share with the Corps, please

send it to Joanne. You can either contact her via text, WhatsApp, Messenger or by emailing her on joanne.allcock@salvationarmy.org.uk.

Newsletter If you have any news that you would like to share, why not let us know

and we will add it to the next edition of the newsletter.

Update from DHQ Just to clarify that the policy from THQ is still that we do not consider

the reopening our buildings until 1 July, with the exception of the Channel Islands. This was stated in the bulletin sent out on the 18 May. We are aware that the government have announced that churches can open for private prayer, but below is an extract from information sent by

Lieut-Colonel Dean Pallant recently:

“Governments are producing detailed documents. For example, earlier today, the UK Government released clear guidance for England relating

to the use of places of worship for private prayer. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-guidance-for-the-safe-use-of-places-of-worship-during-the-pandemic/covid-19-guidance-

for-the-safe-use-of-places-of-worship-during-the-pandemic This is extremely detailed guidance and enshrined in law so corps in

England must follow this. The guidance from the government in England was only released yesterday so I think we were right to have a

preparation period to ensure we are following the law in the way we open up the halls for private prayer.”

PRAYER MATTERS Compiled by Lieut-Colonel David Phillips

Our theme this week is Flowers. During the last months the weather

has been wonderful and now June is the season of flowers.

Monday 22 June – Our June flower today is the Delphinium. A beautiful blue flower symbolising an open heart , a pure heart. Read Psalm 51 v 10 ‘Create in me a pure heart’. Another appropriate reading is Ephesians 1 v 18. I quote ‘Don’t worry about having the right words, worry about having the right heart’. Pray for people with broken hearts caused by terminal illness, bereavement, breakdown, addiction and many more reasons. (Song 340 ‘Jesus, thou joy of loving hearts’)

Tuesday 23 June – The radiant Marigold is our flower for today bringing sunshine to your doorstep. Symbolising creativity and the desire to succeed. It is important for us to be creative in our Spiritual witness. Energetic, focused, disciplined, passionate. Lord help us to be creative Christians. Read Colossians 3 v 23 and Exodus 35 v 35.

Pray for Christian authors, poets, songwriters creating material for the furtherance of the Gospel. (Song 42 ‘Let us with a gladsome mind’)

Wednesday 24 June – The Freesia is one of the most popular June flowers symbolising trust and innocence together with friendship. It comes in a variety of colours. Trust is an important Christian quality. Trusting God is beneficial because He will lead us to the right path. We can count on our Lord. He will sustain us and fulfil what He has promised. Read Proverbs 3 v 5-6. Pray for the Coronavirus to be contained and a vaccine to be developed. Pray for the economic revival of our Nation. (Song 690 ‘When we walk with the Lord’)

Thursday 25 June – Our flower for today is the gorgeous Peony symbolising romance and prosperity. I notice recently many couples have been celebrating Wedding Anniversaries. June weddings are popular. The Bible has over 100 references to romance and love. 1 Corinthians 13 v 1-13 is one of

my favourites. Pray today for newlyweds and for those celebrating their anniversary today. (Song 468 ‘Love divine, from Jesus flowing’)

Friday 26 June – The Lavender is a wonderful flower. Doriel, my wife, has a beautiful lavender plant on our apartment Balcony. The significance of the flower is its purple colour which speaks of purity, devotion, grace, calmness. It is so often true when we’re in a garden of flowers we sense the grace and quietness of our Lord. Read, as you sit maybe in your garden, Psalm 37 v 7 ‘Be still before the Lord’ and Psalm 46 v10 ‘Be still and know that I am God’. As we pray in the quietness of our room intercede for families coping with disturbing situations, drug addictions, poverty, financial concerns and many other problems. As you kneel to pray, sing song 595 ‘In this quiet moment’.

Saturday 27 June – The Iris flower is a genius of 260 -300 species, symbolising faith, hope and courage. It takes its name from the Greek word for a rainbow. Remember when you see the Rainbow remember God is love. During these unusual days so many illustrations of people exercising faith and courage. Let us give thanks today for all the

blessings bestowed on us by the Lord. Read Joshua 1 v 9-11 and Ephesians 6 v10. (Two songs today, song 488 ‘Courage, brother, do not stumble’ and song 909 ‘Count your blessings’)

Sunday 28 June – Our final flower is the majestic Sunflower, with a large daisy like face. When I first retired and we had a large garden sunflowers were a feature in one of our borders. They symbolise happiness and optimism. They often grow tall, usually 6 to 10 feet although giant ones can reach 15 to 20 feet tall and 24 inches across the face. We need optimism within our Army and Church. I would like to share scriptures of optimism. Genesis 1 v 29, Psalm 118 v 24 and John 16 v 33. Let us pray for optimism in our Corps. Let us work together. Let us discipline ourselves to regular Sunday worship. Let us implicitly trust God. (Song 921 ‘Forward! Be our watchword’)

I hope you have enjoyed our walk through the garden of flowers. I will certainly be buying my wife some flowers this coming week!

Some Baby The minister had travelled from Birmingham to London to attend to the details of a new banner that was being made for his church, On his arrival he discovered that

he had lost the piece of paper with the details on. He sent his wife a telegram asking her to send details by return. When the answer arrive at the Post Office, the

Postmistress almost fainted when she read: ‘UNTO US A CHILD IS BORN. EIGHT FEET LONG, THREE FEET WIDE,

ASSORTED COLOURS’.

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Quick Quiz Below is a list of European countries. Can you name their capital cities?

1. ROMANIA 2. FINLAND

3. MONACO 4. POLAND

5. DENMARK 6. AUSTRIA

7. MALTA 8. NORWAY

9. SWEDEN 10. UKRAINE

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Ice Breaker A friend of mine used to help an undertaker when required. One frosty morning a

lady coming out of the Crematorium slipped on the ice. An onlooker remarked ‘You’d think they would sprinkle a few ashes around here wouldn’t you?’

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Open Wide A lady was very nervous about her appointment with the dentist. Before

leaving home she sought courage by reading the text for the day from her calendar. It was Psalm 81 verse 10:

‘OPEN THY MOUTH WIDE AND I WILL FILL IT’.

Big ‘Thank You’ to Joy Whittingham who supplied the jokes for this week.

Quick Quiz Answers 1 Bucharest. 2 Helsinki. 3 Monaco. 4 Warsaw. 5 Copenhagen. 6 Vienna.

7 Valletta. 8 Oslo. 9 Stockholm. 10 Kiev.

Worship and Word

Sunday 21 June 2020

This act of worship has been prepared for use at home and

follows the service posted on the Boscombe Corps Face Book page and corps

website. Spend a few moments with God, knowing that other people are

sharing this act of worship with you.

Intrada (Regent Square) Boscombe Band

Welcome to Worship Major David Alton

Song 39: Joyful, Joyful, we adore thee

JOYFUL, joyful, we adore Thee, God of glory, Lord of love;

Hearts unfold like flowers before Thee, Hail Thee as the sun above.

Melt the clouds of sin and sadness, Drive the clouds of doubt away;

Giver of immortal gladness, Fill us with the light of day.

All Thy works with joy surround Thee,

Earth and Heaven reflect Thy rays, Stars and angels sing around Thee,

Center of unbroken praise; Field and forest, vale and mountain, Blossoming meadow, flashing sea, Chanting bird and flowing fountain

Call us to rejoice in Thee.

Thou art giving and forgiving, Ever blessing, ever blest,

Wellspring of the joy of living, Ocean depth of happy rest.

Thou the Father, Christ our brother, All who live in love are Thine;

Teach us how to love each other, Lift us to the joy divine.

Mortals, join the mighty chorus Which the morning stars began; Father-love is reigning o'er us, Brother-love binds man to man. Ever singing, march we onward,

Victors in the midst of strife; Joyful music lifts us sunward

In the triumph song of life. Henry van Dyke

Prayers led by Frances Such Vocal Item: How deep the Father’s love Gemma Hinchliffe

(accompanied by Terron Craig)

Bible Reading: Deuteronomy 12 v 1–7 Major Jane Alton Ministry of the Band: Guardian of my soul (Introduced by Major Darren Shaw) Bible Reading: 1 John 5 v 13-21 Donna Blake Song 383: Meekness and Majesty

Meekness and majesty, manhood and deity, In perfect harmony, the Man who is God,

Lord of eternity dwells in humanity, Kneels in humility and washes our feet.

O what a mystery, meekness and majesty,

Bow down and worship, for this is your God, This is your God

Father's pure radiance, perfect in innocence,

Yet learns obedience to death on a cross, Suffering to give us life,

Conquering through sacrifice, And as they crucify prays Father forgive.

Wisdom unsearchable, God the invisible,

Love indestructible in frailty appears, Lord of infinity stooping so tenderly,

Lifts our humanity to the heights of His throne.

Bible Message Major David Alton

Outside William Booth College in London are statues of William and Catherine Booth. William gestures in salute and Catherine reaches out in care. Humorous suggestion is that Catherine is saying “Which bird did that?” pointing to the grounds and that William is pointing upwards, saying “That’s the bird that did it!”

Statues, objects of focus and of attention, are big news - Edward Colston,

Winston Churchill in Parliament Square and Robert Baden Powell in Poole. In

the discussions and demonstrations linked to Black Lives Matter attention is

now being turned to many other statues.

The serious issues raised by the Black Lives Matter movement need to be

thoughtfully addressed and The Salvation Army has made it abundantly clear

in recent days as to where we stand on the abhorrence of racism. That said

the statue protests lead me to ask the question

“What objects of focus, of attention need to fall for me?”

Not the statues on plinths of marble and stone in the town or city centre, but

the objects of focus and attention at the centre of my life and heart?

With that question hanging in the air, consider Deuteronomy 12:1-7 and the high places, places of worship on elevated ground dedicated to idol worship among the Moabites and Canaanites, where Asherah stone pillars or wooden poles would stand. These poles, or pillars stood as a sacred monuments to the Canaanite mother goddess, Asherah, mother of Baal, who also shows up throughout the Old Testament when the Israelites stray after other idols. These objects tempted the Israelites throughout their history to stray after foreign gods instead of the one true God. God condemned the worship of Asherah poles and condemned the Israelites engaging in pagan worship.

These poles find their way into Israel’s history as they rebelled against God, looked for a quick fix, or looked to their selfish desires; during the time of Moses, Gideon and the evil king of Israel, Ahab, who set up an Asherah pole. The list goes on, with 40 mentions in the Bible.

Time after time, the Lord spoke to the Israelites through prophets and kings that these places of worship had to be destroyed. Due to ignorance or rebellious disobedience, this did not happen in many instances. God then judged Israel for their failure to do so.

It’s not just an Old Testament thing, look at 1 John 5 and the very end of the letter, the final line. John ends with sharp injunction that appears to come out of nowhere:

21 Dear children, keep yourselves from idols.

What weird last words to end his letter with. It appears as though that line is a non-sequitur; it bears no relation to what went before, like ending a love letter with the line, “Don’t forget to do the grouting in the bathroom”

In reality in ending with “Dear children, keep yourselves from idols” John is

being very astute. An ending to a novel or short story that comes out of the

blue leads the reader to revisit everything that went before, so it is with John.

John has been writing to his readers and listeners about the incarnation –

Jesus as God with us. He has been stressing having love for each other and

caring for those in believers need in society. Rounding off John hones in on

the nature of sin in the lives of believers.

John’s given them plenty to focus on, priorities to take to heart. More than that John smelts all that he had learned from Christ, and had been teaching for fifty years, into that one sentence.

“Dear children, keep yourselves from idols”

Don’t let idols get in the way of all the other stuff I’ve told you about, don’t let

idols get in the way of relationship with Christ, don’t let idols get in the way of

the truth of the gospel says John.

On the surface John is talking about the statues and symbols of other

religions, cults, Emperor worship, mind-sets and cultural norms. At a deeper

level John is pointing to something deeper, dangerous and subtle.

The Message paraphrase helps us to grasp John’s point “Dear children, be on guard against all clever facsimiles” as does the New Living Translation “Keep away from anything that might take God’s place in your hearts.”

A facsimile, a fake, something that gives the appearance of the original but isn’t the real deal. What clever facsimiles do we need to be on guard against? A Jesus that confirms you in all your viewpoints and opinions, a Jesus that neither challenges nor changes you, a pale insipid Jesus lacking in power?

The fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square was originally intended for a statue of

William IV, but remained bare. For over 150 years the plinth was empty put

from the late 90s onwards new and different statues were placed upon it.

What is on the plinth of your heart and life that might be taking God’s place in your heart?

What Asherah pillar at the centre of your life, in the high place or the town

square of your life needs to fall like the statues of Lenin or Saddam Hussein

fell when their regimes fell? What needs to fall like Edward Colston and be

cast into deep waters?

The current statue issue is divisive, causing strong response and deep felt feelings to be expressed, where individuals are on the defensive and the offensive.

When question is raised concerning what occupies our focus or attention in

place of Christ, we inevitably go on the defensive or the offensive too.

The worship of false gods on the high places took the people’s eyes off the Lord and interfered with their worship and relationship with Him. The people looked to the idols, statues, pillars and poles to provide guidance, provision and deliverance from life’s challenges.

Little has changed in today’s culture. We still have high places in our culture and lives. High places are anything that is elevated above God, praised, worshiped, fixated on, or looked to for help or trusted.

Perhaps you recognize some of the aspects just mentioned. Jesus asked us to follow after Him, to deal with these areas and to give Him full Lordship over our lives. Christ knew these ‘things’ or ‘idols’ could get in the way of our true worship of Him and would be barriers in our growing intimacy with Him. John knew this too and made it the final thought, the final words of his letter.

Back to the fourth plinth in the corner of Trafalgar square, do you know what the first statue placed on the empty plinth was? It was Mark Wallinger's Ecce Homo – the Latin title of which means "Behold the man", a reference to the words of Pontius Pilate at the trial of Jesus (John 19:5). It was a life-sized figure of Christ, naked apart from a loin cloth, with his hands bound behind his back and wearing a crown of barbed wire (in allusion to the crown of thorns).

As an artist, Mark Wallinger chose to place Christ on the vacant plinth, hands

bound behind his back and wearing a crown of barbed wire.

We followers of Christ, people of faith, we too have a choice, a free will choice

to place Christ on the vacant plinth of our hearts and lives. Not a bound and

naked Christ but a Christ robed in splendour, risen in victory reigning in glory.

In the presence of God and in the power of the Holy Spirit take some time now or later to look at your life, your, heart your priorities. Don’t go on the offensive or defensive, because God already knows the score. Take the word of God that comes through the thoughts I have shared and bring them right to where you are at, to ground you are on and the road that you walk.

May the Lord help us to see the high places in our lives, turning away from them to follow after Him, worshipping Him and Him alone, tearing down and rooting out anything that might take God’s place in your hearts.

Let the pillars, poles and Colstons of our lives be pulled down and Christ reign. Let the forts of darkness in our lives stormed and demolished that Christ may have the place of honour and focus in our hearts. Time of Reflection and Response (Including Song 373: Jesus, be the Centre)

Jesus, be the centre, Be my source, be my light, Jesus.

Jesus, be the centre Be my hope, be my song, Jesus.

Be the fire in my heart, Be the wind in these sails

Be the reason that I live, Jesus, Jesus. Jesus, be my vision

Be my path, be my guide, Jesus.

Jesus, be the centre Be my source, be my light, Jesus.

Song 980: Storm the forts of darkness

SOLDIERS of our God, arise! The day is drawing nearer;

Shake the slumber from your eyes, The light is growing clearer.

Sit no longer idly by While the heedless millions die,

Lift the bloodstained banner high And take the field for Jesus.

Storm the forts of darkness,

Bring them down, bring them down! Storm the forts of darkness,

Bring them down, bring them down! Pull down the Devil's kingdom Where'er he holds dominion; Storm the forts of darkness,

Bring them down! Glory, honour to the Lamb,

Praise and power to the Lamb, Glory, honour, praise and power,

Be forever to the Lamb!

See the brazen hosts of Hell, Their art and power employing,

More than human tongue can tell, The blood bought souls destroying.

Hark! from ruin's ghastly road Victims groan beneath their load;

Forward, O ye sons of God, And dare or die for Jesus.

Warriors of the risen king, Great Army of salvation,

Spread His fame, His praises sing And conquer every nation.

Raise the glorious standard higher, Work for victory, never tire;

Forward march with Blood and Fire And win the world for Jesus.

Robert Johnson

Benediction Major Jane Alton Ministry of the Songsters: The Lord is gracious