Welcome to our Sunday service at 10.30am led by Ralph & Gilly.  Our speaker today is Alan McCormick, who will be speaking on Luke 5 v 1 – 11.

A prayer meeting to which everyone is invited, is held in the back hall before the service.

Church Fellowship meeting today at 4pm followed by tea.  Our Revival prayer time will follow tea for those who can remain.

Ladies’ walk  – Monday 29th April – meet in the church car park by 10.00am.

Home Groups –  Wednesday and Thursday evenings and Friday afternoons.

Men’s Coffee Morning  – Wednesday morning at the Oak House from 10.30 – 11.30.

The evening Alpha Course continues on Thursday evenings.  For more information click here Alpha Course

Maldon Food Pantry  If you have any items for the Food Bank, please put them in the hamper which is in the entrance hall.

Echoes Conference –  18^th May,  Bishop’s Stortford Baptist Church, Twyford Road, Bishop’s Stortford, CM23 3LJ.

Church Calendar for April/May
Noah’s Ark – Fridays – 9.30 – 11.15 in term time
Home Groups – Wednesday and Thursday evenings and Friday afternoons
Wednesdays – Men’s coffee group at Oak House, Maldon 10.30 – 11.30am
Open Doors’ prayer meeting 7.00-8.15pm,  2nd Monday of the month in May
Zoom prayer meeting, 3rd Sunday of the month – 8.00 – 8.30pm
Revival Prayer Meeting fourth Sunday of the month 7pm
Alpha runs Tuesdays during the Hub and Thursday evenings.
Youth Alpha first Sunday of the month.
Ladies’ Walk fourth Monday meet 10am in the church car park
The Hub – Tuesdays 9.30 – 1pm
28th April leaders Ralph and Gilly. Alan McCormick will be speaking on Luke 5 v 1-11. Samaritan’s Purse update.
28th April Fellowship meeting at 4pm followed tea. Revival prayer time will follow after tea.

A family friendly service with seasonal refreshments and an Easter Egg hunt to follow.

 All are very welcome.

The Friary Walled Garden sits adjacent to the White Horse car park in what used to be the centre of medieval Maldon. Founded in 1293, the Friary housed a small order of Carmelite friars who were (and are) expected to go out into the community to serve and do good works as well as pray. Maldon’s friary was located where the library and adult education centre stand today and the Walled Garden probably originated with the friary, although its present form is Georgian. Managed by volunteers the quarter acre ‘secret’ garden, entered via a large wooden gate, is full of botanical surprises and a lovely place to sit and rest.

Beeleigh Abbey, was a monastery constructed in 1180 for the order of canons known as the Norbertines, or Premonstratensians, which obtained a royal charter from Richard I in 1189. Subsequently used as a farm and a public house, the building eventually fell into disrepair until it was restored in 1912 and was purchased by William Foyle (of Foyles bookshop) in 1943. The Foyle family still own and reside at the Abbey and have established over three acres of beautiful formal and informal gardens in an historic countryside setting, including woodland walks, cottage, kitchen and bog gardens, an orchard and a wildflower meadow. The views, flowers and scent are for us a perfect escape from the phrenetic world in which we spend so much of our time and an oasis in which to be refreshed and inspired! Do I dare say a taste of paradise – or is it?

My family are all gardeners but although I enjoyed gardens, I was never a gardener myself. Despite my best efforts, I had a reputation for being able to kill the hardiest of plants, including a large cactus and I couldn’t grow a single thing! More recently, however, having my hand forced by ill-health, spare time and a garden jungle that began to resemble the Congo Basin, I took the challenge and armed myself with spade and loppers. At first it was sheer hard work cutting back trees and shrubs, breaking the soil and removing brambles, bamboo and weeds, but gradually I began to plant, nurture and create. I learnt that patience, perseverance and realistic expectations are key to gardening and I began to treat my plants with care and embrace the challenges and rewards that hard work brings, in fact . . . I love it!

There are several references to plants and gardens in the bible that are too numerous to include here, but I feel it would be good to focus on when God created man and woman (Adam and Eve) and a garden that He called Eden (translated as paradise in Hebrew).

The Lord God planted a garden eastward toward Eden, and there he put the man that he had formed. The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:8-9)

Can you imagine how beautiful and perfect Eden was? By comparison, Beeleigh Abbey, Hampton Court and indeed the best gardens around the world would pale into insignificance – and He gave it all to Adam! He made Adam a companion (Eve) and gave him just one rule:

The Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.” (Genesis 2:16)

Okay, so we all know the end of the story: How Eve was deceived by the serpent and Adam was persuaded by Eve to eat the forbidden fruit, but do we truly comprehend the enormity of the consequences that arose from such a wicked act of disobedience? Adam and Eve effectively consumed sin, which led to banishment from the garden, painful childbirth, the beginning of the fall of all creation and physical death for mankind – God did not lie! The man and woman whom God had breathed into life, that He loved with a pure love and lavished with every good gift, His joy, His pleasure and His delight, so quickly and tragically betrayed Him! Surely the greatest tragedy ever told!

Therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden, to cultivate the ground from which he was taken (Genesis 3:23)

Thousands of years later God is in a different garden. This time Jesus, the son of God, the second Adam, is in the garden of Gethsemane (possibly an olive grove situated at the foot of the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem). Jesus prayed in anguish, grieving with sweat like drops of blood, knowing the dreadful events that awaited Him as a man, and the spiritual battle that He would soon fight as the son of God. Meanwhile the murderous Chief Priests and Pharisees closed in like serpents, being led by Judas Iscariot (one of Jesus’ disciples).

On the other side there was a garden, and He (Jesus) and his disciples went into it. Now Judas, who betrayed him, knew the place, because Jesus had often met there with his disciples. Judas [the traitor] came to the garden, guiding a detachment of soldiers and some officials from the chief priests and the Pharisees. They were carrying torches, lanterns and weapons (John 18:1-3)

So this garden, once a place of prayer and refuge, became a place of wickedness, betrayal and fear – sound familiar? Jesus was arrested, falsely accused and crucified, but God had the victory and provided a way for Man to be saved and find paradise again – a new Eden at the end of days!

Then the angel showed me [John] the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb ² down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. ³ No longer will there be any curse. (Rev 22:1-3)

Twice God had significant encounters with man in a garden and they proved to be two of the most pivotal spiritual events. It is perhaps, therefore, no surprise that Jesus made so many references to gardens and gardeners in His parables, such as sin like weeds, faith like a mustard seed, reaping what you sow, growing spiritual fruits and being pruned like a vine to improve the yield of your spiritual fruit. God made Adam from mud and He tells us that we are also like soil, whilst His living word is like seed. See the parable of the Sower (Matthew 13:1- 23) and note that just as the condition of the soil is at the heart of successful growth in a field or garden, so the condition of your heart affects how you will grow spiritually. The good news is that God is the master gardener with unlimited patience and perseverance.

I [Paul] planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth (1 Cor 3: 6-7)

Thank God for His abundant grace and mercy, because despite being betrayed within the paradise that He had so lovingly created for us all to enjoy forever and knowing that He would be betrayed again in the garden of Gethsemane, He still sent His only son to defeat death and give us all a second chance – to be tilled, sown, watered, fed, weeded, pruned and presented perfect and unblemished on that great day of salvation! How great is the Father’s love for us!

The Lord will guide you [the faithful] always. He will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail (Isaiah 58:11)

A few weeks later I visited the increasingly popular Farleigh’s Charity Warehouse that sits just behind Morrisons. I rummaged through the vast array of jumble, that might be described as ‘pieces of junk’, but many were clearly the remnants of peoples’ past lives, once wanted, useful and even treasured, but now strewn across industrial shelving like unwanted pets desperately looking for a new home. I wandered over to the assortment of tatty picture frames, prints and eclectic mix of DIY paintings. To my surprise I found an original John Bonny oil painting, very dirty and sadly damaged, but I paid the asking price of £3 and took it home. The painting is of a grand medieval church building overlooking a large pond with a lady standing next to two people who are casually reclining on the grass in the foreground. As I was describing this to a friend over the telephone, I suddenly realised that the picture God had given me weeks before now made perfect sense and it even had a link to Maldon (the charity shop) just for good measure! I would now like to share with you what I believe God was saying about the palette, how that relates to the discovered painting and how all of that answers my questions.

The very first sentence that we read in the bible is that ‘In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth’ (Genesis 1:1) and we later learn that ‘He has made everything beautiful in its time’ (Ecclesiastes 3:11). God is the ultimate artist specialising in awesome overwhelming beauty: The ultimate painter, sculptor, carver, who creates the most massive of stars and planets and the Earth in the minutest of breathtaking detail, including you and me! God loves art and He uses it to convey messages, demonstrate the importance of worship and display His glory, such as the incredible design and creation of the tabernacle and all its contents:

The Lord said to Moses, “See, I have called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with ability and intelligence with knowledge and all craftsmanship to devise artistic designs, to work in gold, silver, and bronze, in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, to work in every craft” (Exodus 35: 1-5).

God is like a Master of art who stands holding His palette in his hand with His canvass on the easel. He doesn’t require any instruction or assistance and will not request any opinion as He applies the paint – He is perfect in all His ways and all that He does is perfect. The paints on the palette may say “He doesn’t need us, for he is the Master and we are just his paints: He makes us and uses us without needing us to do a thing!” They would of course be quite correct, but at the same time quite wrong, because without the paints that He has selected, the Master would not be able to complete the picture that He intended!

Just as the John Bonny painting of a medieval church has gathered dirt over the years, the paint scratched and damaged, its value diminished, desired only by a few enthusiasts and for a time hidden in a dark place, looking for a new home, so God’s church may be found wanting, grimy, damaged, apparently losing its appeal and devalued in the shadows of current social acceptance. This reminds me of the opening verse to one of my favourite worship songs:

O Lord, the clouds are gathering
The fire of judgement burns
How we have fallen!
O Lord, you stand appalled to see
Your laws of love so scorned
And lives so broken

So, will this priceless work of art created by God’s own hand be consigned to the metaphorical charity reject shop? By no means, because just like the John Bonny, it can be restored, but the church of Christ will be restored by the Master himself!

We are just like those paints on the palette: It is true to say that God, the creator, does not need us, the created, but He chooses to use all of us for the purpose for which we were created. It is paradoxical – He needs us because He chose to need us. If we truly grasp what Christ has done for us and if we are passionate about our Lord and all that He has in store for us, if He want us to see others share in that merciful salvation, then surely we will want to serve Him, however He chooses. God calls us to share His good news with others and encourage them to follow Him as we do, because He has made us and wants to include us as part of His great commission! He still does all the work but it is part of our blessing to see others being saved and bringing back the backsliders is part of the great restoration work. He wants us to work with Him in creating, restoring and presenting a beautiful image of the church (the bride) to the groom (our Lord Jesus) on His wedding day, despite all of the bride’s imperfections and flaws – perhaps we could call it artistic license! In the final verse of that chorus we sing:

Yet, O Lord, your glorious cross shall tower
Triumphant in this land
Evil confounding
Through the fire your suffering church display
The glories of her Christ
Praises resounding!

This is the art of serving God!

Maldon Sea Salt is made by evaporating brine in salt pans over fires mounted on an elaborate network of brick flues, resulting in soft white, flaky pyramid-shaped, crystals. The crystals prevent the salt from caking and it is used as a finishing salt in fine cuisine. Did you know that Maldon Sea Salt is the top sea salt brand in the United Kingdom and is sold in 40 countries around the world, including the United States.  Table salt, however, is mined and processed, stripped of minerals and infused with anti-caking substances, whilst other salts and salt substitutes often contain additives that can create a bitter aftertaste. As testament to the purity of its product, Maldon Sea Salt Company was awarded Kosher Status in April 2013, due to meeting the highest standard for an additive-free, flaky, coarsely refined salt!

Salt is mentioned over 40 times in the bible! Speaking to His followers by the Sea of Galilee (known as the sermon on the mount) Jesus said, “you are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under peoples’ feet” (Matthew 5:13). This sounds quite straight forward but what exactly did Jesus mean? Well, salt was and continues to be used to preserve food and enhance flavour as an essential part of our survival diet: It is also a symbol of purity and permanence. Jesus calls us to be like salt, pure, preserving from corruption (not spoiling), enhancing, unchanging and remaining wholesome. Through the ages Christ’s words have become a world-wide saying in everyday usage, to mean a good, honest, dependable person who others can rely on.

Impurities in salt can lessen its apparent saltiness or make it taste bitter and in the same way we can lose our saltiness for Christ by tainting our lives with worldly impurities: The truth is that sadly we all do because we are not and can never be perfect and sin free, so what can we do about it? In his letter to the Colossians, Paul urges the church to lay aside the earthly nature, put on the character of God and to live under His grace. He encourages the Church to “Bear with each other and forgive one another. . . let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace” (Colossians 3:13-15). He could have said you insiders are the ‘salt of the earth, so do these things and don’t lose your saltiness! Paul then goes on to say “Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. “Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone” (Colossians 4:6).

In his letter to the early Christian churches, James builds on Paul’s message, he says that “the tongue is a small part of the body but it makes great boasts” (James 3:5) and “out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be. Can both fresh water and salt-water flow from the same spring?” (James 3:11-13). Here James’ refers to salt, not as good seasoning, but as saltwater that is not usable, warning us that our tongues can either yield bitter and destructive words like seawater that will also make us spiritually sick, or praises like a freshwater spring that will edify and refresh – its our choice!

So the next time that you reach for the salt pot, remember that the more time we spend with God and the more that we forgive, the more we put on the character of God, so that our conversation will become seasoned with salt, to encourage one another, to build the church and to encourage unbelievers to also taste His goodness!

You may, or may not, know that Thames Sailing Barges were built and commissioned in the late 19^th century and by the early 20th century over 2000 barges had been registered. They were a fast and efficient means of transporting goods, able to access shallow creeks and estuaries and many were rigged to be crewed by just two people to transport building, or agricultural, materials such as bricks and manure along the East Coast.

Their rapid success was, however, sadly short-lived and quickly followed by a sharp decline in demand: The last wooden barge was built in 1928 and the last steel hulled barge was built in 1930, just down the coast at Mistley. The barges began to disappear, as did the communities, generations of barge builders, sail makers, owners and crews that had grown up around them and the once busy, bustling waters of the Blackwater estuary began to fall silent. Now just footprints in their last moorings, like timber skewered impressions in watery graves, the ghostly remnants of many of the barges appearing only briefly at low tide. The sounds, energy and people that were once part of this thriving industry now mostly confined to sympathetic texts clinging to sad reminisces of a bygone era, although a few remaining champions, have rallied to the cause, with great skill and knowledge, to keep a few floating survivors alive and sailing, or anchored, in their moorings . . . thank you brother Ralph!

Okay, enough of this salty sentimental, nostalgic nonsense . . . what does any of this have to do with God and how does it relate to you and me today? Well, do you ever feel blown around by the winds of change, living as we do in a world where the pace of change is accelerating beyond imagination. I’ve worked on the cutting edge of Healthcare development and transformation as an advisor and NHS lead, for many years, so change is my bread and butter and I welcome it . . . right? Wrong . . . because if I am being completely honest with you, the rate of change has grown too fast and it often leaves me behind and terrifies me! I can no longer foretell what tomorrow might bring and cannot comprehend the future, just like the fate of the Thames Sailing Barges could not be foretold or controlled by the barge community all those years ago! My dreams and my plans so often turn to muddy footprints, hidden from view, as the tide rushes in and I am out of my depth!!

Do you ever feel overwhelmed by these changing times, advances in technology, wars, politics and shifts in culture with new worldly attitudes pressing in? Do you ever feel like you are being dragged along by a relentless gale? Well, if you do, the good news is that the word of God (the Bible) tells us over and over again about the constancy of God, unchanging and true, giving complete certainty from the beginning to the end of times and His word endures forever! (Isaiah 40:8). Jesus confirmed that “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away” (Matthew 24:35) and again, in the letter to the Hebrews we are reminded that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8).

What a relief to read in the book of James that “every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change” (James 1:17).

He is always there like a safe harbour in which to ride out the storms of the future and if we ever feel out of control, that’s just fine, because the bible tells us that Jesus is all knowing, all powerful, all present and always in complete control. So it’s not nostalgic nonsense after all, but a wonderful metaphor that whatever the times, winds and waves may do, God holds us fast so that “we have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure” (Hebrews 6:19).

How can you help?

Churches and community groups in this country are mobilising to form teams that can offer wraparound care to refugees, migrants, and host families. Fullbridge Church has registered its interest with Krish Kandiah at “Sanctuary Foundation” www.sanctuaryfoundation.org.uk  – a charity who give support to potential sponsors by offering resources and training and assists central government with its refugee schemes.  Fullbridge is currently working with Maldon District Council and the Community Voluntary Service to create a community hub in the town. So, our first job is to assess what skills we have amongst us at Fullbridge and in the wider community.

What do you have to offer?

One little lad brought his lunch to Jesus – it didn’t look much (just 2 fish and 5 loaves) but the result was incredible. Together, our offering could be amazing! If we don’t stand-up now, then when?

Could you:

• Host a refugee family? (Mostly mothers and their children)
• Give support to a host family? Such as, meals, befriending, trips out etc.
• Help with sorting government benefits?
• Arrange a school place?
• Organise a GP or Health Visitor?
• Help with English language and conversation?
• Introduce refugees and migrants to a mother and toddler group?
• Provide a meeting point for Ukrainian refugees and migrants from Hong Kong?
• Commit to praying for a refugee or migrant family?
• Give social and emotional support? Such as, counselling, encouraging, caring etc.
• Liaise with groups such as ‘Baby Bank’ to procure equipment.
• Organise a local store of donated items
• Liaise with local community and voluntary services
• Interact with other Churches
• Build links with the Local Authority?

Remember:
‘Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.’ (Ephesians 6:12) Please put on your armour!

 Please respond with how you can help to Ralph and Gilly.

 Thank you!