BelieveTogether_13.12.23

Welcome to Believe Together, a Churches Together in Kingcham Saltford production for KTCRFM 105.8 and online. Welcome to Believe Together, a Churches Together in Kingcham Saltford production for KTCRFM 105.8 and online. Welcome to Believe Together, a Churches Together in Kingcham Saltford production for KTCRFM 105.8 and online. Welcome to Believe Together, a Churches Together in Kingcham Saltford production for KTCRFM 105.8 and online. Welcome to Believe Together, a Churches Together in Kingcham Saltford production for KTCRFM 105.8 and online. Welcome to Believe Together, a Churches Together in Kingcham Saltford production for KTCRFM 105.8 and online. Welcome to Believe Together, a Churches Together in Kingcham Saltford production for KTCRFM 105.8 and online. Gloria! Gloria! Gloria! Gloria! Gloria! Hi, I'm Peter. Pleased to be with you again. Now, you probably haven't heard that song we've just started with this week. It was Sing We the Song of Emmanuel by Keith and Christine Getty. It was only recorded last year, so it's really quite a new song, but we've got other newer songs to come. Well, haven't we, Jenny? We have indeed. Hello, Jenny here. Now, have you ever wondered why I have at Christmas, which of course is fast approaching now, isn't it, Christmas in England, we celebrate Jesus' birth in the stable at the same time as the wise men coming to give gifts to Jesus, when in fact the Magi came to Jesus a bit later. Well, maybe someone a long time ago wasn't sure of the biblical timeline, or else it's just that we can get the manger, the shepherds and the wise men all on a platform at the same time in some sort of tableau or performance. Anyway, let's not worry about all that, so long as we recognise there may be some sort of licence involved in Christmas carols and Christmas songs, so long as the truth of the birth and Jesus' visitors is proclaimed. This next song, written and performed by Tony Rees, is a mixture of country and rapping. It's called Nazarene, I guess because Jesus, though born in Bethlehem, did go back to live in Nazareth with Mary and Joseph, didn't he? And, yes, Peter, this is a new song. He was born in the night From the darkness came joy Like each blip before then A God-given boy And tightly wrapped in the folds Of a soft linen sheet The eyes of the mother and son, soul and beast And though a few hours old Well, there's a light in his eyes And she knows it's a hard road Before her son dies Nazarene, Nazarene Everybody give thanks for the Nazarene The greatest gift there's ever been There's the son with the mother standing by Shepherds looking over the stall And God sent three wise men Following the light The combs from the stall Shining in the night And the voices of angels singing on high Watching the son of the king stride by The angel of the Lord sees the shepherds are brave Trembling in the night From the singing that's made Say, don't be afraid It's a night of great joy Look at the light Look at the boy Three wise men should ask for joy Give their gifts to the lamb in the fold Give thanks, give thanks For peace on earth And many years have gone by Since the boy child was born But we'll always remember On each Christmas morn Oh, Nazarene, Nazarene He was born in the night From the darkness came joy Lying peacefully before the lamb Even boys had to be wrapped in the folds Of a soft linen sheet The eyes of the mother and the son slowly meet Though a few hours old There's a light in his eyes And she knows It's a hard road before a son dies Holds him tight A tear starts to fall In her heart she knows He's the savior of us all When the boy grew up He preached in the hills Went to the people And he cured their ills She got twelve disciples To help him with his words To drive out the devil Our history from the dark Many years have gone by Since the boy child was born But we'll always remember On each Christmas morn Nazarene, Nazarene Oh, yeah The lamb's in the fold Come on and hear the Christmas story In a stable they find It means a Christmas It means a Christmas to the world Oh, yeah Nazarene, Nazarene Oh, come on people Frankincense for rent Come on and hear the Christmas story From here to another year It means a Christmas It means a Christmas to the world Oh, Nazarene, Nazarene Come on people The lamb's in the fold Come on and hear the Christmas story In a stable they find It means a Christmas It means a Christmas to the world Oh, yeah Nazarene, Nazarene And now it's time for this week's quiz Over to you Celia Now Christmas is getting really close I'm sure you have heard and or been singing Christmas carols for quite a time now So can you answer some quiz questions about them? In which period was door-to-door carol singing popularised? Was it the Tudor period? The Georgian period? The Victorian period? Or the Edwardian period? Thank you again Celia That sort of sounds like the sort of thing that would have happened in the Victorian period But I don't know We'll find out later That's what I thought but I don't know either Anyway, here's a lovely Christmas poem written by Patch Rock It's called Peace at Christmas With all the rush of Christmas We wish that it would cease Until we think of Jesus Christ Who gives us inward peace Without Him there's no Christmas For Christmas speaks His name And the perfect peace He gives Forever is the same Love, joy and peace at Christmas This is a wondrous sound For the peace that Jesus gives Is present all year round So we'll praise God at Christmas That Christ came from above To give to us eternal life With hope, joy, peace and love Thank you Pat, that's really lovely Indeed Now Jenny, have you got your UCB calendar for December ready for us? Yes Peter, it says Shout aloud and sing for joy People of Zion For great is the Holy One of Israel among you That's from Isaiah It mentions joy there So let's play and enjoy Joy to the world Joy to the world The Lord has come Rejoice we are free And every heart Is glad in joy And every heart Is glad in joy And every heart Is glad in joy Joy to the earth The Savior reigns From sea to shining sea For peace and peace And peace and peace Is peace and salvation Is peace and salvation Is peace and salvation Joy to the world The Lord has come Rejoice we are free And every heart Is glad in joy And every heart Is glad in joy And every heart Is glad in joy Joy to the world The Lord has come Rejoice we are free And every heart Is glad in joy And now, over to Celia for the second question for the Just for Fun quiz Question 2 Lord King Wenceslas is said to be looking out on the Feast of Stephen So what day of the year is St. Stephen's Day? Is it the 1st of December? The 24th of December? The 26th of December? Or 31st of December? So, do you know the date of St. Stephen's Day? I think I do Ken Parn is back with a forkful of wheat And what are we going to say today? Hello, it's Ken Parn again With the second epilogue for this month Last time we thought about families And it was the birth of Jesus that triggered those thoughts This time let's think about the magnitude of that event In that helpless human baby God, the creator of all that is Became a human being Part of his own creation And the fact that Jesus is God Is pretty obvious from the events of his life really, isn't it? But let's consider that just again Let's consider the magnitude of what's happening Of what we're celebrating at Christmas The creator of all that is Seen and unseen And astronomers tell us that What we can see in the universe Makes up only 5% of what's actually there The rest is unseen This creator God Came to be one of us And share our experience of existence as humans One very early Christian document Pictures Joseph, husband of Mary, mother of Jesus Looking around at the very moment Jesus was born And the whole world had stopped Birds hung immobile in the air A stream flowing by was stationary As a goat was frozen in the act of drinking from it A shepherd's hand raised to move And wave and shoo his sheep on Was fixed in the act The event of Jesus' birth Was earth stopping, earth changing Everything became different That's the point of the story, isn't it? In that birth, God united humanity with himself What could be more world changing than that? There's an old hymn that says God came down to earth And raised humankind up to heaven We humans are united with the eternal God All because of Christmas Day God became what we are So that we might become what he is Now those thoughts are more than earth stopping, aren't they? All world changing They're mind blowing too God came to be one of us Because he loves us He loves everything he has made And he invites us to respond to that love When we do that Everything will change for us too, won't it? Dare to imagine Dare to believe The true love that gave us A brand new beginning No room for a game No celebration and no ceremony In that little town no nobody will play This is the story of the coming glory Can you hear the prayers the people pray? Can you see the skies begin to break? When heaven and earth were face to face Oh how the world forever changed For God is with us God is with us All in a moment All in an instant The body was broken And it was finished So let us begin The celebration and the ceremony This silence on earth as the heavens are roaring Hearing the story of the coming glory Can you feel your heart begin to race? Can you see the times begin to change? With all of our futures rearranged The world will never be the same For God is with us God is with us For God is with us For God is with us God is with us For God is with us For God is with us Dare to imagine Dare to believe in The true love that gave us The reason for living Can you feel the hope that's rushing in? Can you hear the song that's echoing? Join with the choir as we sing This is where love truly begins For God is with us God is with us God is with us God is with us God is with us Oh, can you see? Oh, can you see? God is with us Wow, that song really hits the spot, doesn't it? Thank you again, Ken, for your thought for the week and for choosing that song which was for God is with us by King and Country Now, since recording that thought which was actually for the Cainsham Talking newspaper Ken has contacted us and asked us to add a little comment at the end He says this The song God is with us says, dare to believe it I'd want to add that it'd be far better to actually act on it to live as those knowing that wherever we go and whatever we are doing God is with us You know, believing something without acting on it gets us nowhere Just an afterthought Thank you for that, Ken Hey, you Have you ever felt like listening to our sister program on a Friday evening to kickstart your weekend early and prepare for the opposite of calm It's The Lighter Show That's us, The Lighter Show Friday, 4pm We'll be seeing you You're listening to Believe Together A Churches Together in Cainsham and Salford production for KTCR FM 105.8 and online And now, time for the final question for the Just For Fun quiz Over to Celia And finally today The carol God Rescued Mary Gentleman promises tidings of what to its listeners? Is it comfort and warmth comfort and joy rest and relaxation or pleasure and rest? Well, thank you again, Celia You've given us four alternatives there four choices to choose for the answer You know, that's the sort of question where you think you know the answer until you hear the other possible answers and then you think Oh, I'm not quite so sure You know, Celia has done a great job producing these weekly quiz questions for over three years for this show So we were very sad when she recently told us that she thinks it's time for her to retire and to pass on this privilege and opportunity to other people So now, the big question is Who is going to write our questions for the quiz in future? Could it be you? Do you have a subject that you know a bit about and could write us three questions? Could you do it occasionally? Could you do it monthly? Or could you do it even more often than that like Celia has? Well, we are open to all offers What I would ask though, please is that if you're an expert in something please remember that the rest of us may not be Please give us a chance to answer your questions but look, please contact us Send us in some questions about something that you know about but maybe not everybody does Now, we'll tell you later on in this show how to contact us So, if you've got a question if you can think of some questions or think you might be able to work them out please make a note of how to contact us when we mention it later on in the show Yes, thank you indeed A very big thank you, Celia for all you've done It's been absolutely wonderful So many people have had fun trying to answer those questions I know that much Even though we don't get a lot of feedback which brings me on to say I was very pleased we did recently have some feedback of somebody and this was about the news headlines that we like to give out She said, why can't we say more about these things we mention not just a quick sentence the news headlines So I did have to say a big thank you for actually commenting and we did have another think about it but I did have to say that we can only give quick news headlines otherwise we'd be here for a couple of hours explaining all the news But if you are interested in anything we say do look it up yourself on the internet Yes, how about that But anyway, here we go then with some news headlines for this week Church closures in lockdown caused physical and mental suffering among two thirds of worshippers Red Cross staff injured in ambush during church shelter evacuation Bethlehem church places baby Jesus among rubble in nativity scene Unites behind sunak over Rwanda or suffer at the ballot box says Christian director Keeve lights Christmas tree according to new calendar People spending all day on the bus just for a hello Salvation Army urging Christians to reach out as deprivation rises Tory councillor arrested for hate crime after supporting Christian free speech sees case dropped Brian Houston to start new online ministry and church King receives relic from resurrection site during visit to UK's Orthodox Cathedral Joanna Lumley among stars helping St Paul's Cathedral celebrate Christmas Deaf Christians take the lead in online carol services for five major denominations this weekend Okay, well one of the headlines that we've just read mentioned Bethlehem Let's now have one of those classic but fairly recent carols that talks about Bethlehem You look out for where it mentions Bethlehem It's called See Him Lying on a Bed of Straw It's sometimes called the Calypso Carol Here it is sung, played and recorded by the singers and musicians of St Michael's Church Solihull See Him Lying on a Bed of Straw See Him Lying on a Bed of Straw A shoddy table with an open door Mary prayed and in her bed she wore The Prince of Glory in His name All the world needs to rest and rest To see the Lord and love again Just as for a child from day to day The Prince of Glory when He came Star and silver gleam across the sky Show us Jesus in the manger light Shepherds with sheep from yesternight To see the Savior of the world All the world needs to rest and rest To see the Lord and love again Just as for a boy from day to day The Prince of Glory when He came Ancients singing in the song He sang To sing the glory of the gracious Lamb Sing the praises of the Savior Be the Savior of us all All the world needs to rest and rest To see the Lord and love again Just as for a child from day to day The Prince of Glory when He came Try the riches of your poverty Drop your bittersweet insanity Find some peace inside your destiny Love your star and hope for joy All the world needs to rest and rest To see the Lord and love again Just as for a child from day to day The Prince of Glory when He came And here's another answer to prayer from the Eternal Wall of Answer Prayer. When my children were small, 18 months and 4 years, we had a house fire. It was a fault from our dishwasher and we lost everything. Our Reverend came to see us and along with the most amazing donation of cash to help us from the congregation, we had prayers held for us. We were able to get the support we needed and to get back on our feet and find a suitable rental property with the help of those prayers. Since this time, I have always accepted any offers of prayer from my local church as I believe wholeheartedly that my prayers were answered when I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2012. The type of cancer I had was extremely aggressive and I was told I had 70% chance of it returning within 3 years. It is now 11 years since my diagnosis and since then I've also had another primary source of cancer, this time renal. Again, my local church and congregation added me to their prayer list and I am now 3 years away from this diagnosis and have been told since then that my kidney cancer has been cured. Yes Jenny and the lady who sent in that answered prayer to the Eternal Wall of Answered Prayer was number 24,889. How about that? The count is growing. If you have an answered prayer to tell them please send it in. I'll be delighted to hear it. Now last Sunday, Jenny and I were able to join in with a very special carol service. A service in Timsbury for families with members who have special needs. Now I made a recording of what happened at that event and I'm going to play you a few clips now. One clip is of a bit of a singing of a carol. Another clip is of the very tiny talk which they gave and you can see why it was kept short because of all the noise of all the activity and children going on in the background. And then I asked a few of the parents there what they thought of what had happened and you can listen to that too. 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