Standard Bearer High Wycombe Salvation Army March 2016 Year 16 Issue 1 Commanding Officer Captain Hilary McClintock

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1 REGULAR CORPS EVENTS Sundays Meetings at a.m p.m. Messy Church every 4th Sunday 3.30 p.m. Mondays Open Door 10 a.m. to 12 noon. Over 60 s Club Fortnightly Lunch p.m.. Meeting 2.00 p.m. Bible Study: See below for time and location. Tuesday Parents and Tots 10 a.m Afternoon Fellowship 1.45 p.m. Wednesday Cameo Club second Wednesday monthly 7.30 p.m. Thursday Tea, Toast and Toys 9 a.m a.m. Open Songster practice 4th Thursday each month 8.30 pm Friday Coffee Morning and Luncheon Club 9.30 a.m. and Standard Bearer High Wycombe Salvation Army March 2016 Year 16 Issue 1 Commanding Officer Captain Hilary McClintock March Wed 2nd Third of Lent Series at All Saints Church p.m. Fri. 4th Women s World day of prayer at Union Baptist Sun 6th Mothers Day meeting led by Carol Gibson No afternoon meeting Mon 7th Bible study at Lucy s home Wed 9th Fourth of Lent Series at All Saints Church p.m. Sun 13th Self Denial Altar Service at am Bible Explore and Praise at 4.30 p.m. Mon 14th Bible Study at the hall 7.30 p.m. Wed 16th Fifth of Lent Series at All Saints Church 7.30 p.m. Sun 20th Palm Sunday Messy Church 3.30 p.m. Sun 21st Bible Study at the hall p.m. Tues 22nd Community Easter Service a.m. Thurs 24th Easter Meditation 7.30 p.m. Fri 25th Good Friday service a.m. Followed by Churches Together Walk of Witness through the town. Sun 27th Easter Day. Sunrise Service 6.30 a.m. Morning meeting a.m. No afternoon meeting. Fellowship Meal following morning meeting. Advance notice. Sunday April 17th morning meeting will be from to a.m. followed by a presentation of new Safeguarding Adults material from THQ. This will be from a.m noon. Everyone welcome to remain for this. Editor: Carol Gibson. Tel Mob carol@standardbearer.info Magazine Website There Was No Other Good Enough

2 Dear Friends, Hasn t it been lovely to see the daffodils, and blossom starting to come out? Spring is arriving after the winter. Two years ago I planted snow drop bulbs but they only flowered this year. The daffodil bulbs planted in clumps a few months ago have only flowered in groups of one or two. Sometimes it seems that it can take time for transformation to happen, as we can t see what s going on under the soil, and transformation does not happen at the same rate. I have been thinking that is like our transformation in faith. Sometimes it takes months or years for a seed of faith to grow. Let us never doubt that God can be transforming and working to help us burst forth into new life either for the first time or after a period of renewal. February Solution Kevin s My Saviour Sudoku.. V R M U A Y I S O I Y O M S V U R A S A U I O R Y V M U O I A V S M Y R A M R O Y I V U S Y S V R U M A O I R I Y V M O S A U M U S Y R A O I V O V A S I U R M Y Bible Anagrams What do they say? Clue...Men O M U V I Y V A M U A R I O U Y O M March Puzzle R V R I Y S 1. Hat on Jan 2. More acid 3. Like Zee 4. Hit goal 5. SOS! Me? 6. Enhance Buzzard. 7. Jim n Bean 8. No looms 9. A manna 10. Hike haze S Last month s anagrams answers. 1.Corinth 2. Thessalonica 3. Decapolis 4. Nineveh 5. Ephesus 6. Beersheba 7. Ptolemais 8. Philadelphia 9. Gibeon 10. Sardinia Apologies for an incorrect letter in no. 4! One of our songs starts with the words He came to give us life in all its fullness. We were made to blossom and have new life that impacts on others because of the love we have for one another. I always smile when I see daffodils or blossom. May the love that we have in Christ s name help our lives to bring joy. God bless you, and have a Happy Easter. Captain Hilary Especially for ladies.. On Friday 4th March, it will be the Women's World Day of Prayer. A truly international event that happens every year. This year it has been devised by the women of Cuba, and in the programme we learn something about that country and the difficulties they face as Christians. Do come along to one of the services, the first at a.m. at the Union Baptist Church, or in the afternoon at 1.30 at St. Michael s and All Angels. The theme is this year is children, with the title of Receive Children. Receive Me. Page 11

3 For Children under the age of 99 (Colouring in is all the rage now for anyone It is said to be very therapeutic) As you colour the letters, contemplate the meaning of the words and remember what it means for you. Holy Week and Easter Meetings March 20th Palm Sunday a.m. Messy Church 3.30.p.m. March 21st Bible Study at the hall. Tuesday 22n Community Service 11 a.m. Thursday Easter Meditation 7.30 p.m. Friday Meeting at 10 a.m. Walk of witness through the town 11 a.m. Sunday Easter day. Sunrise Service 6.30 a.m. followed by breakfast. He is Risen - Celebration a.m. Lunch at the hall. Please book with Hazel. The Hall will be open every morning from 9 a.m. during Holy Week, for prayer. There will be prayer stations to help you to focus. Please call in for a while and make it part of your preparation for Easter. Page 10 Page 3

4 Churches Together in High Wycombe Lent Meetings There are still three opportunities for you to attend this series of meetings being held in All Saints Church on Wednesday evenings at 7.30 p.m. A number of the town centre churches have organised speakers and each week they bring thoughts to help as we think of Jesus. Firstly Bishop Brian Robinson, a Pentecostal minister, spoke about the role of the Holy Spirit in the life of Jesus and then Rev. Ruth Richie, gave an illuminating talk about fasting. Come along and join about fifty other Christians and see what is in store for the last three meetings. A poem prayer written by Commissioner Harry Read You are so open handed, lord, with me; Naught for my good, or joy, have you withheld. Your gifts of grace are made so generously; My wildest hopes have more than been excelled. You are selective too. I much admire The thoughtful way your bounty is dispensed According to my need, not my desire. You know my foibles; that is evidenced! I don t deserve such open-handedness. I merit not your mercy but your rod Yet all my ways are marked by blessedness Since all my ways are yours, my Lord, my God. Your open hands are ever to me turned And they are scarred with scars that I have earned. Matt But seek first his Kingdom and righteousness, and all these things will be given you as well. Page 4 Prayer for Wycombe Have you heard of this group/organisation. Every month I receive a communication from them which gives suggestions and requests for prayer relating to our community. Have you heard of Try Praying, Wycombe Youth for Christ Healing on the Street, Wycombe Homeless Connection, Street Angels, the Dorcas Project One Can Trust Chefs for Jesus, CAP Project, South Bucks Gideons. These are all active in our town and are Christian initiatives aimed at spreading the Gospel message and helping those in need. The Prayer for Wycombe group meets once a month, very early on a Saturday morning, (6-9 a.m.) in various locations, and they pray for all these things, plus others. We are used to praying for the various things that are happening in our own building, but we can also be aware that we are not alone in the work of the Kingdom. When Jesus, as man, walked the earth, He met people with many and varied needs. He had a roll up your sleeves and get stuck in approach. He told them stories, He healed them, He changed their lives, He opened their eyes to the reality of their faith their religion. If we are to be Christlike, then we need to be like Him as far as we can, in His lifestyle. Let us thank God for all those, here at the Corps and elsewhere, who are involved in Kingdom building and let us pray for them and for those who are touched by their ministry. I can put you in touch with Prayer for Wycombe if you would be interested. On Saturday 5th March the prayer meeting will be in The Upper Room at the Old Vicarage Building at St. Peter s, Loudwater. All are welcome between 6 a.m. and 9 a.m., though you do not have to be there all the time! Quotable quotes.. In Jesus, holiness and humanity become the same thing. To be authentically human is to be in the image of God. Don t just speak to God about lawbreakers speak to lawbreakers about God Bishop Brian Robinson. Page 9

5 February Notes Unusually there are no photos for the month, but this does not mean that nothing has happened. In the absence of Captain Hilary who for two weeks was very unwell with a virus infection, other people stepped into the breach, notably Georgina and Ali, who, armed with Captain Hilary s meeting plan and notes, led both meetings on 7th February. They did an excellent job and we are grateful to them for so willingly taking on this task. The afternoon Songs of Praise was particularly memorable for me with the testimonies of five people, who spoke of their own experience of God in their lives. The following Sunday morning meeting was led by Carol Gibson and in the afternoon we had the opportunity to watch the fourth of the DVDs prepared by the Territorial Prayer Network, under the title One Thing (from Ps.27:4)and subtitled, Bringing personal Prayer to Life. These are proving to be so interesting, challenging and encouraging as various experts speak about different aspects of prayer and others tell of their personal experience. Make sure that you don t miss the next one which will be shown on a Bible Explore and Praise afternoon. I am finding them so good that I bought myself the set and have been able to watch again at home. (As an aside it was slightly strange to see Heather on the third DVD, as she and I went to Ealing when that one was filmed) It was so good to see Captain Hilary back with us on Sunday 21st. Her theme was another of the I am statements of Jesus. This time, I am the way, the truth and the life. It was a message that reminded us that the author of our Salvation is Jesus alone. Self Denial..and aren't we glad that we no longer collect from door to door at this time of the year! These days Self Denial is when we consider other countries, namely Ghana, Mozambique, Pakistan, South America East and Finland to offer them as much as we can to support them. This is not collecting from the general public, but our own sacrificial giving. A thank offering to God for our own richness in comparison with others. Make sure you have an envelope or box ready for the Altar Service when we will give our gifts. Page 8 Found on the Internet.. The Mercy Seat By a Salvation Army Officer.. Continued from last month. Mercy Seat-Many Uses (Not just a Place for sinners!!!) Before I close this topic I would be remiss not to mention that the Mercy Seat is so much more than just a place for sinners. It takes real courage sometimes to come before the ecclesia (body of believers; i.e. The Church) and kneel at the Altar. Sometimes many worry about what others might think or say (Shame on anyone who would say anything against a brother or sister penitent before the Lord). Sometimes this erroneous thought that keeps on circulating spoken or unspoken is that once one has gone to the Altar they shouldn t have to go back anymore. Nothing could be further from the truth!! If one of our more esteemed first theologians (Brengle) went to his Mercy Seat frequently, how much more do we still need it in our lives? The Mercy seat still beckons us to: Come and reconnect with our Saviour. Come and bring petitions and prayers as intercessors. Come and cast our prayers of thanksgivings to Him. Come and seek forgiveness again. Come and find reconciliation and re-ignition. Come and pour out those deeply secret spaces of our hearts be fore the Holy Spirit who has been prodding us to let Him in. Come to surrender, or surrender again. Come and bring your brother or sister who needs encouragement and assurance. Come and bring your brother or sister who needs a friend. Come and bring your brother or sister who desires new life and is sick of sin. So is the Mercy Seat pointless in our modern, sophisticated age? Yes, it s as pointless as the Son of God stepping down out of heaven and taking our sins upon himself...if that is pointless, then so are our lives. No, in fact the Mercy Seat is so much more than just a kneeling place for sinners or saints...it is the exhalation of sin and the very same moment, the inhalation of salvation, new life and holiness. It ought to be perpetuated, preached on, and emphasized over and over again with clarity, sincerity and truth. Something more for our Army world to ponder today. To God be the glory. Page 5

6 The New Song Book. Claude s investigation a delve into the indexes and their uses Our new Song Book (NSB) is divided into three parts: The Eternal God, Our Response to God and Benedictions. Each part is sub-divided. The Eternal God part is sub-divided into three sections: God the Father; God the Son; and God the Holy Spirit. The Our Response to God part has six sub-sections: Worship; Salvation; Holiness; Life and Service; Dedication of Children and Enrolment of Soldiers. There are seven songs in the Benedictions Section. When you open your NSB and turn to a song, you will see the usual information, such as the name of the tune and the relevant tune book number. Sometimes an alternative tune book number is given. It is highly unlikely that you will ever need to worry about the metrical information that s the bit here, for example, you see Trochiac, which simply means the verses of the song have alternate eight and seven syllables per line throughout, and the word Trochaic (Iambic, Dactylic or Amphibrachic) indicates which syllables are to be stressed. This is for the benefit of meeting leaders who may want to use an alternative tune to the one recommended. Also at the top, a scripture reference is given (in italics) which refers to the chapter and verse from the Bible upon which the song is based. This is a very welcome innovation and it brings us in line with hymn books of other denominations which already have this reference. At the bottom of each song is the name of the author and, where applicable, the copyright owner. If no publisher is named it s because the duration of the copyright for that song, has expired. Now we come to the indexes at the back of the book. The index to the songs is as before. The Scripture Index will be of great interest to anyone who uses the songbook for Bible study or private devotions and, for this reason, I do recommend that you purchase your own songbook. In the scripture index there are two columns of figures. The left column (in bold type) gives a Bible reference and in the right column are song numbers which have a bearing upon that particular verse or verses. So, opening the scripture index on page 387, the first text in the left-hand column is Genesis chapter 1. In the right-hand column are song numbers 22,36,49,66. So, if we turn to song number 22, we read ; God who made the earth, the air, the sky and the sea, who gave the light its birth, careth for me. The other three songs also take their inspiration from the first chapter of Genesis. this goes right through every chapter of every book of the Bible, although not all such references are as obvious as the one just quoted from Genesis. Page 6 Comparing a song with a related Bible passage can sometimes bring about a eureka moment, when the penny suddenly drops and you say to yourself so that's what it means. Sometimes the Bible passage will reveal the meaning of a song, or, it could be the song that sheds light on the Bible text. The Thematic Index could be of benefit to many. But the heavy preponderance of figures does make for a daunting appearance. To me it looks rather like a railway timetable and I haven t, as yet, fully grasped its significance. As mentioned in my previous article, about 80 of the new songs (i.e. songs not in the old songbook) have already appeared in Songs of Fellowship, and by taking note of the names of copyright holders printed under the songs, we can see that over 40 different publishers have contributed new songs to our songbook. Most of these are what we can describe as Worship Songs (WSs), These songs are as different as chalk and cheese, compared with the traditional songs that worshipers have been singing for over 300 years. (I ll call the old songs hymns from here on for the sake of clarity). It was essential that our SA leaders compiled a song book with the right balance of WSs and hymns. The inclusion of WSs in our NSB is welcomed because they have a spontaneous feeling of here and now about them and the modern language with its absence of archaic words such as Thee, Thou and Thine, is refreshingly straightforward. The words, too, are very personal the pronoun I is used almost to the total exclusion of We - all of which adds to the feeling that one is drawn nearer to God. And that, surely, is our main purpose in worship. Most, if not all, of the new WSs can be heard on the Internet, although you may not have the time, let alone the patience, to track them down. The quickest and easiest way to do this is by typing in the name of the song writer (e.g. Graham Kendrick), and every one of his songs will be found somewhere among his several web sites. The same applies to most of the other composes of modern WSs included in our NSB,. It should be recognised, however, that WSs by their very nature, cannot encompass the whole wide spectrum of Christian doctrine. Like David in the psalms, they are full of joyful exuberance, but, unlike David, they say very little about the trials and tribulations of normal life, whereas the hymns in our songbook embrace all aspects of Christian theology and are no less relevant now than when they were first written. Given the number of new songs that are now becoming available from various publishers 2700 in the last few years from Songs of Fellowship alone it is essential we still sing, study and concentrate on the traditional hymns, by the likes of Charles Wesley and Albert Orsborn, if we want to learn, and keep fresh in our minds, the deep truths that are embodied in this excellent song book. Page 7