BeachcomberFX

Category: Sunday@thePub

  • Fleas… and Corrie Ten Boom!

    Fleas… and Corrie Ten Boom!

    Hi folks, I hope you are well! This weeks blog comes from Glenn, we meet at the Kittiwake at 8.00pm, we hope you can join us.

    Corrie Ten Boom’s family helped Dutch Jews escape the Nazi’s during the Second World War. They were eventually caught and Corrie was sent to the Ravensbruck concentration camp with her sister Betsie. Throughout her time there, through unimaginable horrors, Corrie maintained an unshakeable trust in God and the power of prayer. She seems to have lived in an almost continual conversation with God, asking and trusting him for everything. “Any concern too small to be turned into a prayer is too small to be made a burden” she said.

    With their faith and prayers supporting them, Corrie and Betsie lived happily amongst the horror, until they were transferred to a barracks that was infested with fleas. What possible purpose could God have in letting their situation get worse? After a while they realised that the camp guards didn’t enter the barracks, allowing the sisters to continue talking to the other inmates about God and helping them as much as they could. The reason the guards wouldn’t enter was because of the fleas.

    Betsie re-read the bible verse they had read that morning 1 Thessalonians 16-18; Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. From that point on Corrie and Betsie even gave thanks for the fleas.


    Questions

    Things can only get better, sang Professor Brian Cox’s old band D:Ream, do you have a favourite song that can be used as a prayer?

    How does reading about someone with so much faith, like Corrie Ten Boom, make you feel?

    Do you believe prayer works?

    Does praying help you cope with troubles, regardless of the answer to the prayer?

    Are you in continual conversation with God, or is prayer reserved for a specific time in the day?

    Would you give thanks for fleas?

  • Brother Lawrence…

    Brother Lawrence…

    Hi folks, I hope you have enjoyed the summer! This week we meet back at the Crescent Club, meeting in the upstairs lounge overlooking the bay.

    Karen and I have just returned from what has become our annual pilgrimage to Greenbelt. It’s one of the highlights of our year and this year the weather was incredible! Although it does remind me of the climate crisis that is facing us. But that is for another time! This week we get back to our reflections on significant people of faith… we are thinking about Brother Lawrence.

    His original name was Nicolas Herman and his story starts after being injured in a war. While he was recovering he found himself staring at a tree in winter… no leaves, it looked like it was dead…although in reality it was dormant. He recounts that that was what he felt like… stripped bare… and as he thought about it, he realised that in due course it would burst forth in to life.

    This lead him to join a Carmelite Monastery and this is where he changed his name. He was known for being a worshiper at every opportunity… he did this by experiencing the whole of life as an opportunity to worship… in what we now call ‘practicing the presence of God’. He talks about his mind wandering to other things and how he taught himself to come back to God. He says “is it not quicker and easier… just to do our common business wholly for the love of him… for even the smallest remembrance will always please him”.

    Some questions

    What was your summer highlight?

    How do tough times help us to focus on God? Or can these times make it harder?

    Is there a difference between being appreciative of all that is around us and worship?

    How is appreciating all that is around us a form of worship?

    What experience of this do you have?

    Peace, Rob

  • August Plan!

    August Plan!

    Hi folks, here are the venues for the next four weeks as we take some time out from our normal routine, meeting at 8.00pm. If these are to busy we will stay for half an hour and then move on!

    4th August – Enigma Tap –https://www.facebook.com/EnigmaTap/

    11th August – Dog and Rabbit – https://www.facebook.com/The-Dog-Rabbit-Micro-Brew-Pub-780413925376487/

    18th August – Head of Steam – https://www.facebook.com/headofsteam.tynemouth/

    25th August – Left Luggage Room – https://www.facebook.com/leftluggageroom

    Peace, Rob

  • Is the church relevant in today’s world?

    Is the church relevant in today’s world?

    Hi folks, I hope you have managed to stay cool in this fab weather! This week we will be meeting at 8.00pm at the Quarry Pub on the Broadway, we hope to see you there. This week we have a guest blog from John Morley.

    The month of August will be a laid back month, we will be continue to meet each week for those of you who are around but we wont be doing anything formal.

    Is the church relevant in today’s world?

    I suspect those reading this will have very polarised responses to this question but the more I thought about it the more shades of gray I came across.

    On the one hand many of us get a lot of our inspiration and motivation from outside the church…

    But many of us have been inspired and brought up in one sense or another by the church…

    Many, sadly may have experiences where the church may have been worse than irrelevant to them. Abuse issues are often in the news and when we think of issues challenging our society and world, where is the church?

    On climate change, immigration, lgbt rights, disarmament, inequality… where is the church?

    However the church rightly in my view claims many positives too. Personal testimonies of church inspired transformation are prolific and worldwide. Others include: Martin Luther King and Civil disobedience, Shelter for the homeless, anti- people trafficking charities, the Samaritans, Alcoholics Anonymous and food banks to name just a few church originated activities.

    So questions…

    What is the church?

    Is the church important to you?

    If there were no church would we have noticed it or missed anything?

    How has the church been most relevant to you?

    Least relevant?Relevant to what?

    What would your perfect church be like?

  • Desert Fathers and Mothers

    Desert Fathers and Mothers

    Hi folks, I trust you are well? Many of you will now be into the holiday season, with schools closing for the summer and people preparing to spend time with family and friends. And so with this in mind i bring the following to your attention…

    ‘Wherever you go, keep God in mind; whatever you do, follow the example of Holy Scripture; wherever you are, stay there and do not move away in a hurry. If you keep to these guide-lines, you will be saved.’ Anthony of the Desert. 

    This leads us into this weeks reflection about the Desert Fathers and Mothers. By the end of the third century AD, the Christian faith had grown despite persecution and conflict, and then in 312, Constantine the emperor converted to Christianity and soon after temples became churches, pagan feast days became christian festivals. This led to the church gaining significant power and status. 

    Many Christians were deeply unhappy with this. Recalling the humility and simplicity of Jesus, they worried christians were being corrupted and the gospel being diluted. With this in mind, many moved away from the centres of power, craving a simpler, humbler, holy way of life. They became known as the ‘Desert Fathers and Mothers’. 

    They had an approach to prayer called ‘hesychasm’ – this comes from the Greek for stillness, rest, quiet and silence.  This is the practice of inner silence and continual prayer. After fleeing the world they then began to change it by the way they lived. This spoke prophetically at the time and many folk became pilgrims and sought to learn from them. From this counter cultural communities and economics began to form around these prayer warriors, and so the first monasteries were born. 

    Missionaries began to move North from the Egyptian desert, taking the gospel and this simple way of living. They created radical monastic communities and eventually moved to the shores of Britain. This all happened some two centuries before the Romans arrived! 

    Some questions:

    How will you ‘keep God in mind’ during the holidays? 

    What about the advice ‘do not move away in a hurry’? How can you make the most of each moment?

    Do you know anyone who has rejected modern society and decided to live in a different way?

    What does inner silence and continual prayer look like for you? 

    In what ways do the Desert Fathers and Mothers resonate with you or not?

    What can we learn from them? 

    This week we are meeting in the upstairs room overlooking Cullercoats bay in the Crescent Club, meeting at 8.00pm, we look forward to seeing you. 

    Peace Rob 

  • Driving…

    Driving…

    Hey folks! Hope you are having a good week. This Sunday we are meeting at the Kittiwake at 8pm. Hope to see you there!

    This week I’d like us to think about driving. I love driving but it seems to me that being behind the wheel of a car can bring out the very worst in someone. I have seen numerous road rage incidents and indeed been flashed or beeped at on many occasions by seriously agitated drivers (obviously I was never at fault). It’s like being within a car makes us a little bit more anonymous and able to go beyond normal British social etiquette, a bit like social media perhaps. In my time in Probation I saw generally law abiding people go to prison for serious driving offences where lives were lost.

    On the other hand I have had some amazing conversations in a car – it seems like some of the normal barriers are removed when we’re not facing each other. Rob and I do lots of our planning and scheming when on long journeys. Cars also enable us to visit amazing places and maintain contact with friends and family.

    I also want us to think about how we as Christians and/or generally decent human beings should be driving. Back in the 90’s it was the done thing to have a Christian fish symbol on your car. I never wanted one and never really understood why anyone would… unless you were going to be super courteous and stick to the speed limit was there any point?

    Some questions to ponder…

    What was your first car?
    How many times did it take you to pass your driving test?
    What is the best thing that has happened when you’ve been in a car?
    What was your worst driving experience?
    Have you any points on your licence? 
    Did you ever have a fish on your car? If so did it make any difference to your driving?
    How do you think Jesus would drive and what car would he go for?
    If you had to set 5 commandments for driving what would they be and why? What about speeding or the use of mobile phones?

    Looking forward to hearing what you think. Peace, Karen 🙂

  • Susanna Wesley

    Susanna Wesley

    Hi folks, I hope you are good! This week we are meeting at the Crescent Club at 8.00pm in the upstairs front lounge. Over the next few months some of our reflections will focus on various aspects of prayer through the eyes of some Christian ‘heroes and heroines’ based on the book by Pete Greig: ‘how to pray- a simple guide for normal people’. 

    We kick start this series by thinking about Susana Wesley, also known as the ‘Mother of Methodism’. To say she had a rough life would be an understatement! Poor health, dysfunctional marriage to a penniless preacher, lost nine children, raised ten children almost singlehandedly, their house was burned down twice and her husband was imprisoned twice!!

    She was though, a formidable women long before Charles and John became famous. During her husbands imprisonment and because the replacement preacher wasn’t very good, she set up a Sunday school in her kitchen! It wasn’t long before it grew too big and some 200 people were meeting in a nearby barn, where she would read sermons, sing psalms and pray. On top of all this, she gave her kids 6 hours teaching a day and an hour each of individual attention.  

    How then did she cope and manage all this?

    Susanna was predominantly a woman of prayer… although she had no place to go for prayer she would create her own prayer room by folding her apron over her head. Her children knew that when she was like this she was not to be disturbed. She would pour her heart out to God, mourn the loss of her children, intercede for her annoying husband! And pray for each of her kids by name. Simple prayers whispered under an apron. She demonstrated simple, persevering prayer.

    Some questions…

    Have you managed to set fire to anything? What happened? 

    Whats the daftest thing you have prayed for? 

    How does Susanna’s story make you feel?

    What comes to mind as you read the way she prayed?

    How well do you relate to this way of praying?  

    What do you think of the quote? 

    Peace, Rob 

  • Shared Interest…

    Shared Interest…

    Hi folks, this week we are meeting at Hugos in Tynemouth, meeting from 8.00pm. This weeks reflection comes from Martin.

    Shared Interest: the Art of Enabling 

    Hot topics’ in recent years in the news have included:

    • The environment and threats to it.
    • A decade of austerity after the Lehmans-triggered crash (we’ll leave a critique of free capitalism for now!)
    • The Brexit debate.
    • Mental health issues.
    • The Wonga debate.

    I’ll venture that they may be all interconnected by the ideas of responsible human flourishing, living in community (local and global), and use of resources.  [You may make your own connections, I’ll not labour it!]

    Into that mix, may I introduce the work of ‘socially-responsible’ banking, which might be thought of as international relatives of Credit Unions. Websites of two examples (with which I am involved) are below:

    www.shared-interest.com

    www.oikocredit.org.uk 

    In contrast to ‘giving to charity’, these organisations function as banks which lend to people/groups, often in ‘developing’ nations, to ‘pump-prime’ businesses with small loans.  These may be to purchase equipment such as a sewing machine, or farm tools, or to fund training for new skills.

    The donor accepts that interest’ (which would normally accrue in a bank account) may be forfeited, but because of the shared risk of many loans capital is fairly secure.  Thus one can loan to enable others to flourish by using their skills: a mutual use of ‘talents’.  This seems to me a responsible use of ‘spare resources’, and a small contribution to global neighbourly-ness.  Does that make sense?  

    Martin Hood    

  • Who would you invite for tea?

    Who would you invite for tea?

    I can’t remember why I thought of this idea. Maybe it came to me in a dream one night or a vision whilst sat in a local coffee shop. Where ever it came from I thought it would make an interesting conversation starter so here we go.

    Most people like eating and most of all they like eating with others. Whether it is lunchtime at work, sitting around the table at tea time or out with friends. Eating with other people is amazing. The food and drink is a part of that but the conversation and the deepening of relationships with others is where it is at.

    It’s a spiritual experience and it’s these moments that often feel like God moments to me. There is a reason why Jesus spends a lot of time sitting and eating with others. It’s not just Jesus though, throughout the bible people enjoy eating together.

    So here’s what I wanted to ask!

    What is the greatest meal you can remember sharing? Was it because of the food or the people you were with?

    If you could sit down and eat a meal with 3 “baddies” from the bible, who would they be and why? 

    If you could sit down and eat a meal with three “goodies” from the bible, who would they be and why? (You can’t have Jesus…. or God or the Holy Spirit)

    Why do you think eating with others creates a great space to build relationship and deepen our experience of faith? 

    We are at the Crescent Club at 8pm. Hopefully see you then.

  • Commonalty… Unity…

    Commonalty… Unity…

    H folks, I hope you are well, this week we are meeting at the Kittiwake at 8.00pm, it would be great to see you! 

    This week I stumbled upon this quote: 

    ‘The primary problem is that our identities are too small. We tend to rely most on our smaller, cultural identities and ignore our larger, common identity as members of the body of Christ. . . . Indeed, adopting a common identity is the key to tearing down cultural divisions and working toward reconciliation.’ —Christena Cleveland 

    When I read this quote there were a few things that made me think, firstly Christena talks about a common identity in relation to the body of Christ… I want to explore that in relation to being human… particularly in our current political climate. I’m thankful that some of my time is spent in Newcastle now and as such I can, if I put my mind to it, meet different people, the homeless and vulnerable. I can pop to the coffee shop in Brunswick and mingle… but I often don’t. It’s too easy to stay put in my office.

    The second reflection is about the body of Christ, I have been thinking a bit about where I have come from and the people I have met on my journey of faith. I have traveled with all kinds of folks! There are things that today I find difficult to relate to about some of the values from my past, but at the same time there is a deep sense of love and thankfulness for those folks who I have crossed paths with over the years. The challenge, as the quote alludes to, is how to continue to be open to other ways of understanding the story of God.

    The third thought that really made me sit up and think was, what are the commonalities that help us to tear down the cultural divisions to lead towards reconciliation, particularly in our current time for the human race and the people of God? 

    Some questions…

    Were you a mod, rocker, goth or hippy growing up?

    How do you label your politics/religion/national identify?

    What makes you belong?

    In what ways can you feel commonality with someone you fundamentally disagree with?

    What borders do you see in the wider community? 

    What ‘fake borders’ do you think exist?

    What borders do you see within ‘our’ community? What is our commonality?

    How open are we to other ways of thinking?

    ————

    A pondering question – who are you rubbing shoulders with that is different to you? 

    Peace, Rob.