A thought-provoking magazine

January - February 2012

When God Brings Laughter

FamilyMatters

A new section for families

The Art of CommunicationWhen it comes to communication we can often find ourselves in deep water without evenknowing it. A few misplaced words can mean the difference between getting a point across orbeing totally misunderstood. Read more on Page 04

contentsA thought-provoking magazine

Welcome

When God BringsLaughter

Welcome to the first issueof Relevance for 2012. We

trust you enjoy reading thisissue.

Beloved, God under-stands the weariness that

comes to our soul from waitingand struggling to keep holdingonto His promises to us. ButHe is gracious. He does notabandon us when we strugglewith believing...

01

03

04

07

03

Family Fun Crossword

See if you know thebooks of the Bible by

completing this challengingcrossword.

14

Rocky The RatA children's story writtenby Pam Wishart. This is

part one of the story. Followthe adventures of Rocky in thenext issue.

13

Prepare The WayIt is always such a devastating thing when

high profile people in the Kingdom of God blow up. Itseems that the enemy perversely waits for the personto have maximum profile...

07

Open HandClosed Hand

It is always a wonderfulthing to look around us

and see how different we are.

06

The Art of Communication

When it comes to com-munication we can often

find ourselves in deep waterwithout even knowing it. A fewmisplaced words can mean thedifference between getting apoint across or being totallymisunderstood...

04

Family MattersA new section startingthis issue. Family really

does matter, so gather the family and read a story or doa crossword together.

11

January - February 2012RELEVANCE

www.gatewaycf.org.uk/

IT’S ALL ABOUT

JESUS

Many people know stories from the Bible but do not know the storyof the Bible. That's like having a handful of pearls with no string tolink them together.

Colin S. SmithUnlocking the Bible Story

01

Welcome to the first issue ofRelevance for 2012. We trustyou enjoy reading this issue.

What makes the beginning ofa new year so special? Why do we turn over a newleaf in our lives during thistime of year?

We believe this time of theyear is very special and weare able to turn over a newleaf because as one yearcomes to an end, we feel wecan draw a line under every-thing that went wrong and fillour hearts with renewed hopeand that the new year aheadwill be better than the last.

As Christians, this should bea daily event. As the sun setson one day and rises on thenext, we find God’s love andmercy anew every day.

Lamentations 3:22-23: ‘Thesteadfast love of the LORDnever ceases; his merciesnever come to an end;they are new every morning;great is your faithfulness’.

We are able to draw a lineunder every shortfall andevery failure for that day. As

we see the sun setting everyevening, our hearts should fillwith hope and joy that tomor-row morning God’s love andmercy are new.

You see, the Bible says lovekeeps no record of wrong andthat love covers a multitude ofsins. God’s love for us is sogreat that He sent His son,Jesus Christ, to not onlycover our sins, but to totallyremove them from us. Theblood of Jesus cleanses usfrom all unrighteousness andwe receive forgiveness everyevening and morning.

1 John 1:9: If we confess oursins, he is faithful and justand will forgive us our sinsand purify us from all unright-eousness.

What makes everyday specialand who gives us hope everyday? Jesus.

Hebrews 12:2: looking untoJesus, the author and finisherof our faith, who for the joythat was set before Him en-dured the cross, despisingthe shame, and has sat downat the right hand of the throneof God.

Welcome

Cliff & Hayley Wishart

02

Closer

01869 232 908www.gatewaycf.org.ukGosford Hill School Hall

What does a relationship with God look like?What are the enemies to a relationship with God?

How can I move forward in my relationship with God?

NEW SERIES STARTING15 JANUARY10:30am

Gateway Christian Fellowship - Kidlington

03

When God Brings Laughter

By Chim Onyebilanma

Now the LORD was gracious to Sarah asHe had said, and the LORD did toSarah what He had promised…Sarah

said, ‘God has brought me laughter, andeveryone who hears about this will laugh withme’”. Genesis 21:1& 6 (NIV)

It is very encouraging to read here that God‘was gracious to Sarah’. Just think, it was thesame Sarah who doubted and laughed, whomGod now visited for good! Our God is gracious.In as much as He longs to see strong faith de-velop in us, He does not disown us when it be-comes a struggle for us to keep on believing.

Sarah had laughed the year before when theangels reaffirmed God’s promise that this agedwoman would bear a son, and that it would bewithin a year (Genesis 18:9-15). Now I can re-late to Sarah’s disbelief. After two decades ofhoping against hope, it had become hard forSarah not to doubt. It was not that she couldno longer believe. It was just that she could nolonger help doubting.

Beloved, God understands the weariness thatcomes to our soul from waiting and strugglingto keep holding onto His promises to us. ButHe is gracious. He does not abandon us whenwe struggle with believing. Listen:

“If we are faithless, He will remain faithful, forHe cannot disown Himself” 2 Tim 2:13 (NIV)

Sarah said God had brought her laughter. Shehad been used to people laughing all aroundher. But it was never with her but at her. Foryears she had endured the jeers of men be-cause of her obvious barrenness and it seemedat one point that things would never change.But we serve a gracious God who knows howto bring us laughter!

“And she added, ‘Who would have said to Abra-ham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet Ihave borne him a son in his old age”‘. Gen 21:7(NIV)

Who would have believed that Sarah’s situationcould ever have changed? But our God is gra-cious. He delights to bring us laughter!

Does your situation look impossible? Have youcome to the point where it seems foolish tokeep on believing that God’s promise to you willever come to pass? Has it become a strugglefor you to believe? Listen, don’t despair, ourGod is gracious. God has not forgotten you. Atthe right time He will bring laughter to you too.He knows how to make impossibilities possible.He will cause men to laugh with you too.

The Art of Communication

04

January - February 2012RELEVANCE

Never text or email in anger•Never text or email in response to something•that offends youUse smiley faces appropriately and carefully•Don't expect an immediate response, if it's•that important phoneDon't assume the worst if you don't get an•immediate response Read and re-read before hitting send or post•Resolve conflict, whenever possible, in•

person, not via text, email or FacebookLook for possible misleading words,•comments and sometimes even leave it toone side for five minutes before sendingBe considerate and thoughtful, don't use this•form of communication to vent yourfrustrations with othersWatch your words closely•

By Cliff Wishart

When it comes to communication we canoften find ourselves in deep waterwithout even knowing it. A few mis-

placed words can mean the difference betweengetting a point across or being totally misunder-stood. Numerous people struggle with verbalforms of communication and find they are oftenhaving to explain what they actually meant.When it comes to communication in the 21stcentury, we find this is more often than not in awritten form; whether via text message, email,Twitter or on Facebook. Many corporate compa-nies send their staff on training courses to helpminimise the number of mistakes and wastedman hours spent rectifying miscommunication

via any of these forms of communication.However, the average man on the streetdoes not have access to these training times, so we are leftto our own devices and find ourselves notonly being misunderstood but also misunderstanding. This leads to offense andmore bad communication being sent and sothe cycle continues. I am sure as you readthis there is a particular situation that haspopped into mind. Below are a number ofsafeguards you can use to minimise these,sometimes, painful experiences, by followingthese simple safeguards you will be able tonot only communicate better but also saveyourself from misunderstanding and frombeing misunderstood:

The Authentic GospelsFour GospelsThree ExpertsOne DayNew Evidence

Saturday, 21 January 2012 - 9:30am - 4:00pm

We are delighted be hosting this special Bible & Church event in co-operation with Tyn-dale House, at which three world-class Bible scholars will provide evidence in support ofthe historical basis of the Christian faith, renewing our confidence in the Bible.

Peter Williams, Dirk Jongkind and Simon Gathercole will speak on the authenticity of theGospels, with time for Q&A at the end of the day. Lunch and refreshments will be pro-vided.

Oxford Community Church,The King's CentreOsney MeadOxford, OX2 0ES

Standard £12Student/unwaged £6Tea/coffee & lunch provided

With new books being published every year throwing a smokescreenof doubt and innuendo over the integrity of Christianity, the "Bibleand Church" series of conferences offers evidence for the reliabilityof the New Testament Gospels as a rational source of knowledgeabout Jesus.

Visit www.oxford.occ.org.uk and book your place today

06

January - February 2012RELEVANCE

It is always a wonderful thing to lookaround us and see how different weare. We are unique in every aspect of

our being. Our brains are all wired tothink differently, reason differently andreact differently. Our bodies look different, as do our faces. Imagine if wewere all the same! It would be SO boring. Imagine a world without lawyersand politicians, two year olds andteenagers. We would not be challenged and entertained, amazed andshocked. The only thing that is essential to each of us (and identical ineach of us) is our hearts. Without them,we are dead. With them, we are alive.

This is a fact, it is simply not up for debate. The same applies to our spiritual existence. We have many different ideas about how God created,how long He took, how we should worship, etc.

These matters are really non-essentialto our salvation. If they stimulate

debate and drives us to examine thescriptures more deeply...well, we can dothat . However, for me, the essentialthing is that we are unified in the following simple facts. We were all bornin sin. We cannot redeem ourselves, no matter how hard we try.Christ died for us, each and every oneof us. We need to turn to God in repentance. We come in faith and obedience to His calling. THAT is theonly way we receive eternal life. This issimply “the heart of the matter”. Godhas redeemed us through His son JesusChrist and that is enough. In these essentials, we are entitled to the“closed hand”. In all other non-essen-tials we must give the liberty to debateand discuss, using the Word of God asour Holy text book. We can argue, discuss and debate, but we must do soin love. The question is simply, “is ourspiritual heart alive for Christ, or is itdead without Him?”

In essentials: Unity (the Truth of the Scriptures)In non-essentials: Liberty Above all: Charity”Extract from Augustine

OPEN HAND CLOSED HAND

By Kathy Hill

07

It is always such a devastating thing whenhigh profile people in the Kingdom of Godblow up. It seems that the enemy perversely

waits for the person to have maximum profileand therefore the potential to do maximumdamage before their sin is exposed to theworld. This should surely be a warning to all ofus. You may say I have absolutely no profile soI'm not in any danger of having my sin exposedpublicly....but what you forget is this wouldapply to your circle of influence.

I think in times like these we need to heed thecall of the scripture to think soberly about our-selves Romans 12:3.....to take stock of wherewe are at and allow God to help all of us surviveboth life and ministry. Karen and I joke about rocking on our porch oldand wrinkly and still having the hots for eachother....I really am determined to reach that endand still be on track and not letting sin derail thepurposes of God in my life.

Prepare The WayBy Peter Rasmussen

08

January - February 2012RELEVANCE

In the light of all this God gave me a word theother day out of 2 Chronicles 27:6 which says:‘So Jotham became mighty because he prepared his way before the Lord’

We need to be those who are more concernedabout the inner life than the outer expressions.Give time to the issues of the heart and the ac-tions of life will take care of themselves. In con-junction with this scripture God gave me threewords LAUGH, WAIT and BREATHE.

These words represent the way that we prepareour way before the Lord.

First we need to laugh.....at both the world andourselves. If our joy goes down then our open-ness to sin goes up. It works like a graph, if youcannot laugh or you have little ability to joy inthe small things of your life then the line thatrepresents your openness to temptation goesup. The human soul is amazing, if you die to joythen your soul will try and find other ways to'energise' itself....and it will often result in open-ness to the cheap and superficial. KEEP YOURJOY LEVELS UP.

Secondly we need to wait.....we need an ex-change and Isaiah 40:31 "but they who wait forthe Lord shall renew their strength; they shallmount up with wings mlike eagles; they shallrun and not be weary; they shall walk and notfaint;. speaks about that exchange. The heart ofthe message is that if you would wait thensomething happens to your weaknesses, theyare exchanged for His strength. Waiting is not

what we would normally see as Christian wait-ing, such as prayer and reading the scrip-ture.....no this is waiting in its truest sense.....noagenda just wait for His strength to infuse youagain, so WAIT WITH NO AGENDA.

Lastly we need to breathe. You may rightly say Ibreathe all the time....well obviously I'm not talk-ing about that kind of breathing. The breath I'mtalking about is the Spirit of God present andworking in you. We need the perspective thatevery breath we take is another breath of thelife of God. In the Old Testament the Spirit is theRuach of God or translated the breath of God.Isn't this what Jesus does to a confused bunchof disciples in the upper room ....He breathesupon them and says 'receive the Holy Spirit'.Take a breath right now as you read this articleand take it with the awareness that you are fill-ing your life with the breath of God. BREATHEHIS LIFE AGAIN.

How do we affair proof our marriages? How dowe guard ourselves against spectacular failure?There is only one way and that is to prepareyour way before the Lord. Give time and atten-tion to your soul.....and make sure you can saywith the song writer 'IT IS WELL WITH MYSOUL'.

How do we affair proof ourmarriages? How do we guard ourselves

against spectacular failure?

The heart of the message is that ifyou would wait then something happensto your weaknesses, they are exchanged

for His strength.

09

Policies and procedures;does this sound boring?

I think it does. It reminds meof life before I retired, whenthey were taught over andover wherever I worked.

In order to have a successfullyrun business, you have tohave policies and proceduresin place so that, in any situa-tion, you and your staff willknow exactly what to do andwhen to do it. All places of em-ployment have thick guidebooks on them.

Fortunately, we as Christianshave the Bible that covers allpolicies and procedures per-taining to any situation. Wehave only to read the answerto any problem; to know whatto do and how to do it God’sway. So for any question we

may have or in any dispute weencounter, the Bible has theanswer.

1 CORINTHIANS 6: 1-11. Weread what we are to do if thereis a dispute between two peo-ple in the church and tells uswhy we should not go to theunbeliever for council.

1 CORINTHIANS 6: 7-8. It isbetter to be wronged andcheated, than to go to the un-believer for advice and coun-cil. It tells us to seek council inthe church.

PSALM 37: 5. Commit yourway to the Lord. Trust in Himand He will make your right-eousness shine like the dawn.

PSALM 37: 4. Delight yourselfin the Lord and He will giveyou the desires of your heart.

PROVERBS 14: 12. There is away that seems right to aman, but in the end it leads todeath.

PROVERBS 15: 22. Plans failfor lack of council, but withmany advisers they succeed.

The answers are all there inthe Bible, it is up to us to takethe time and find them. Let uscommit ourselves to findingGod’s policies and proceduresand then we will live a suc-cessful Christian life.

How do we know this …..?

JOHN Chapter 14 verse 6.Jesus answered ‘I AM THEWAY THE TRUTH AND THELIFE, NO ONE COMES TOTHE FATHER EXCEPT BYME’.

Policies and procedures

By Pam Wishart

January - February 2012RELEVANCE

A thought-provoking magazine

March - April 2012

Next issue...Coming up in Relevance, out on March 4th 2012

Facing thestorms oflife

The originof easterCoping with the loss of a child

Plus much more...

11

A thought-provoking magazine

Relevance started as a monthly newsletter inGateway Christian Fellowship and has pro-gressed to a bi-monthly (every two months)magazine. It was an internal magazine with amonthly planner included. The decision wasthen made to make it available as a communitymagazine, with the hope of broadening its read-ership and contributors.

Those who contribute to the magazine are fromall walks of life. Pastors of local and interna-tional churches, leaders in these churches, con-gregation members and from time to timeteenagers and children. We are hoping to growour list of contributors and will be approachinglocal churches throughout Oxford. If you wouldlike to contribute please contact us via emailand we will send you a brief for our next issue.

It’s the teams hope Relevance will become aquality recourse for local churches in Oxfordand the county of Oxfordshire. We would likethis magazine to be a thought-provoking, chal-lenging magazine that will find it’s way intohomes throughout the region. FREE of charge,yes that's right, FREE. The vision is to keep thisa FREE resource through our partners. Wewant to take this opportunity to thank those whohave already partnered with us and trust they

will continue to help us keep Relevance free.

We want to grow distribution by having localchurches partner with us. As our base of part-ners grows, the more we will be able to printand distribute through local churches. Our ulti-mate hope is that we can supply and distributeRelevance through local news agencies.

This is where you our readers come in, it's ourhope that you will catch the vision and prayer-fully consider partnering with us. The reasonyou are holding this magazine in your hands isbecause someone else decided to partner withus and make Relevance available free ofcharge to you. If you are able and willing topartner with us simply follow the instruction onthe opposite page and we will send you details.

If you would like to advertise in Relevanceplease contact us and we would be happy todiscuss your needs and accommodate you at areasonable price. We are a not for profit charityand all advertising revenue will go towardsprinting and distributing Relevance. Keeping itFREE. If your church has an exciting eventplanned send us details and we will consider in-cluding it free of charge.

History

Contributors

Vision

Distribution

Partnership

Advertising

12

We want this magazine to be a free recoursethat finds it’s way into homes all across Oxfordshire and in order to do this we needyour support.

With your support we can continue to pro-duce a great quality magazine free to anyonewho picks up a copy or is handed one.

With your support we can make this maga-zine available for free in news stands acrossOxfordshire. Prviding a Christian presence onnews stands in the county.

THREE REASONS TO PARTNER WITH US

HOW TO PARTNERWITH US

Keep it FREE

Keep Quality

Broaden Reach

YOUR DETAILSTitle_______ First Name___________________Surname_______________________________Address____________________________________________________________________________________________________________Postcode_____________County____________Telephone number________________________Mobile number___________________________Email Address___________________________

YES! I would like to partner with Relevance

Simply complete and post your details to the address at the bottom of this page and we willsend you details of how you can partner with usas well as your free issue of Relevance.

BY POST

Simply email your details to the email addressbelow and we will send you details of how youcan partner with us as well as your free issue ofRelevance.

BY EMAIL

OUR DETAILS

Gateway Christian Fellowship - Kidlington10 Reid Place, Upper Heyford, OX25 5TW01869 232 908office@gatewaycf.org.ukwww.gatewaycf.org.uk

PARTNERSHIPThis is your oppurtunity to partner with Relevance

January - February 2012RELEVANCE

Family Matters13

A FridayThe 13th Birthday Party By Bernadine Symonds

I meandered through the bopping teenagersand found myself a nondescript spot, where Itoo could dance. I see my daughter, vaguelythrough the vapours sent off by the ardent andcommitted smoke machine. I see her weavingthrough the orchestrated lights and then I seeher face to face. She is mouthing something.“What?” I screamShe mouths again. “What?” Please understand this had nothingto do with my age – the music was screamingsongs at the top if its “lungs”.She leans in closer, “Mom, don’t do that”.“Do what?” I yell.“Dance”. If incredulity had a body it wouldhave wrung her neck, but it didn’t so I slunk offthe dance floor and resumed my position atthe snack bar.Can anyone believe it? But here’s the clue: nomatter the sophistication, no matter how nim-ble their texting fingers or how advanced theirtechnological brains, one thing remains thesame – children are subject to ancient forces -need for affirmation, need for acceptance,

need for independence and need for purpose. Inone, horrible little sentence my daughter wastelling me: “Mom, we can dance (no need to tryand show us); I don’t want to be embarrassed infront of my friends; this is my party and one day Iam going to be a lawyer …” ok so the last bit did-n’t quite fit, but you get my point! Unfortunately as a result of technology, our chil-dren are exposed to far more, far earlier. Do notlet this accelerated growth fool you. The child isstill a child and their emotional and spiritualbarometers are aligned with their age, not whatthey may know or think they know. It is important to meet the four primordial needsmentioned above. Affirm your child always. Letthem know you love them regardless of who theyare or how they behave. Part of affirmation is dis-cipline. How? It is simply the message that thechild is special and loved enough to have theirboundaries set for them. Yes folks, the woodenspoon is affirmation if preceded by communica-tion and followed by forgiveness and acceptance(Oh, please don’t spank your fourteen year oldwith the spoon – rather just take the phone away,it’s a lot more effective). Accept your child al-ways. Acceptance is not bought and is not sold.Acceptance is free. If they have to compromisefor it, it is not true acceptance. Give your childmore and more responsibility and reward faithful-ness with incremental independence – it will saveyou having a thirty year old baby in the houseand could be quite fortuitous in old age. Lastly,what does God want your child to be? Lead themin their purpose. Find out who your child really isand lead them to a Father who will fashion theirbeauty for Him.

January - February 2012RELEVANCE

14

By Pam Wishart Part 1Rocky The Rat

13

Rocky the Rat was born one day,In a stable far far awayThe stable was dry and very very warm,It was shelter for the sheep from the storm.

Rocky would run round the stable and playWith his brothers and sister all the long day,The sheep knew Rocky and loved him so well,They knew when he was happy – they always could tell.

Up and down the stable he would run,In and out the straw; having so much fun.The sun shone in the stable by day,The moon shone at night in the same way.

One night as he was sleeping all tucked up in bed, The moon shone so brightly right on Rocky’s head,His eyes opened wide and guess what he saw,A bright shiny light all over the floor.

It shone on the roof, the walls and the straw,This light was shining right out the main door.He followed the light so silver and pure,He followed the light with footsteps so sure.

High in the sky was a wonderful sight,A star so BIG so BEAUTIFUL and BRIGHT.He blinked his eyes as he looked at this sight,The star was blazing a message – far into the night.

Across1 A book of books (5)4 Shortest book in the Old Testament (7) 7 The numberof chapters in Philemon (3) 8 This testament contains 39books (3)9 Jesus' brother, who wrote a letter (5)11 In authority before the kings (6)12 His epistle contains one chapter (4)13 Successor to Queen Vashti (6)14 David wrote many of these, set to music (6) 17 Wroteabout the restoration of the temple (4) 18 Originator,writer of a book (6)21 Number of letters written by John (5)23 Number of chapters in 13A (3)24 Galilee, Dead, for example (3)26 Paul wrote many of these (7)27 He prophesied the birthplace of Jesus (5)

Down1 There are 66 of these (5)2 Behold (2)3 Revelation comes in this part of the New Testament(3)5 Donation of money to the poor (4)6 This letter lists the faithful (7)9 He prophesied of the 'day of the Lord' (4)10 A faithful Moabitess (4)13 He foretold the regathering of Israel inprophecy of dry bones (7)15 A prophet who was a herdsman (4)16 One of the gospel writers (4)19 A prophet, reluctant to go to Nineveh (5)20 Adam and Eve ate from this in the garden (4) 22 Theborder of a garment (3)25 Joshua writes about this city near Bethel (2)

Books of the Bible CrosswordFAMILY FUN CROSSWORD

© 2007 BibleQuizzes.org.uk

January - February 2012RELEVANCE

14

Editor: Thandi Meets Design: Thandi Meets and Cliff WishartLayout: Cliff WishartThanks to all who have contributed time and effort to this issue:Cliff Wishart, Peter Rasmussen, Pam Wishart, Chim Onyebilanma,Kathy Hill, Bernadine Symonds.

Thanks to CityHill Church for the use of images and articals.

If you have any news, ideas or feedback to share, please contactthe editor.

Gateway Christian Fellowship - Registerd Charity Number: 1123454

Contact

Tel: 01869 232 908E-mail: office@gatewaycf.org.ukWeb: www.gatewaycf.org.ukBlog: www.gatewaycf.org.uk/blog

Photo by Cliff W

ishart