Labour MP left red-faced over sex ed complaint (from www.christian.org.uk)

A Labour MP has been left embarrassed after her assistant accidentally issued an email making fun of parents’ concerns about a controversial sex education film.

Chris and Pauline Power began campaigning against the “cartoon porn” video, entitled Living and Growing, after seeing a preview of it at their son’s junior school.

The video, which is produced by Channel 4, shows a cartoon couple chasing each other around a bed before having sex in various positions.

Belittled

However, when Mr Power contacted his local MP Alison McGovern about the video he didn’t expect his concerns to be belittled.

After four weeks of silence Mr Power received an accidental email from one of Miss McGovern’s staff.

The email, sent by a Labour Party worker known as Jay, said: “Alison, think we need to get a response out to this gentleman. Know it’s an awfully uncomfortable discussion to have, but think we need to get a position (stop giggling at the back) sooner than later.”

Juvenile

Mr Power has expressed dismay over the juvenile response.

He said: “We have tried our best to protest against the important issue of sex education in schools and have contacted Ms McGovern on many occasions over the last four weeks.

“I hadn’t received anything back until today and even then it was an email I wasn’t supposed to see.

Serious

“There is a time and a place for joking around, but this is a serious issue and what message does it send out when those who are supposed to represent us have such a disregard for the opinions of electors.

“It is a sad comment on our society that this is how an MP treats her constituents.”

Miss McGovern, who described the email as “puerile”, indicated that the staff member may be disciplined.

Speaking

She said: “Although it was clearly sent by mistake, I will be looking at the situation and speaking with him personally.

“I have tried to get in touch with Mr Power to send my personal apologies.”

The staff member has also offered his apologies.

Earlier this year angry mums blasted a primary school’s plan to show pupils the Living and Growing video.

Outraged

Cliff Lane Primary School in Suffolk was planning to show the video to seven-year-old pupils, but outraged mums were left horrified after they saw the graphic DVD during a consultation.

Kara Munday, whose five-year-old daughter attends the school, said: “We are genuinely concerned that sexual activity would take place because they would be aware of what these parts do and how to make it feel nice”.

She added: “Their innocence will be taken away at an early age.”

Her concerns were echoed by Emma O’Brien, whose seven-year-old son attends the school, who said: “There are some body parts kids don’t need to know yet. They shouldn’t be taught that.”

Wonderful News Healing Crusade

Wonderful News Healing Crusade!

Melvin Banks has seen the deaf hear, the lame and crippled walk and lives completely changed by the power of God for over 40 years of ministry.

He is known throughout the world as an evangelist who preaches the Word of God with honestly, simplicity and integrity.

And now – for three days only – he will be in Dagenham with Tree of Life Church.  This is a sign of divine favour on our church and we are believing for awesome signs and wonders and salvations for these days.

Saturday 21st August 7pm
Sunday 22nd August 9.30am

Both these services are in Dagenham Park Leisure Centre.  For directions click here.  All services are free of charge, and all are welcome.  To reserve seats please contact us.

In addition, on Thursday 9th September at 7pm, Melvin Banks is joining us in Harmony House for a Special Free Buffet.  Again, all are welcome – but it would be preferable to call and let us know if you are coming for the purposes of preparing appropriate amounts of food!

Destiny

Ephesians 2 tells us that we are God’s masterpiece created to perform masterpieces.  God has designed you as a master creator to fulfil a master destiny.

You are not an accident, you are not a mistake and you are not here by chance.  You are here on earth in this generation, in this nation to fulfill God’s will and do exploits of greatness…

Protected by Love (Kenneth Copeland)

Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven.

– Matthew 5:44-45

Love your enemies…turn the other cheek…to most people that sounds like a pretty weak way to handle somebody who’s causing them trouble. But, the truth is, it’s the most powerful way there is. It’s the way Jesus did it– and His way never fails.

Do you remember when Jesus went back to Nazareth and the religious folks were angry with Him and wanted to push Him off a cliff? What happened? He just walked right past them, and no one could lay a finger on Him. Another time they decided to stone Him, and He didn’t retaliate that time either. He just walked off. No one could touch Him.

When Jesus walked through that crowd, He wasn’t afraid. He knew they couldn’t hurt Him because He was walking in the love of God.

When Jesus said to turn the other cheek, He didn’t mean for you to stand there and have your brains beaten out. He meant for you to stand there in love and in faith believing that the protecting power of God that accompanies that love would keep you safe. He meant for a man to swing at you and not be able to hit you!

The story of Nicky Cruz as recorded in David Wilkerson’s book, The Cross and the Switchblade, is a perfect example of that. Nicky was reputed to be the most ruthless gang leader of his time. Yet, when David Wilkerson stood in front of him, telling him about Jesus, Nicky was totally unable to hurt him. He thrust his knife at David several times. But every time he did, David just said, “Nicky, you can cut me into a thousand pieces and every piece will still say, ‘I love you and God loves you.'” Because of love, Nicky couldn’t get his knife close enough to David to hurt him. A supernatural force always stopped it short.

“But I don’t have that kind of love!”

Yes, you do. Romans 5:5 tells us that the love of God is shed abroad in your heart by the Holy Spirit. All you have to do is make the decision to be motivated by that love rather than your own human feelings.

My friend, love never fails! You don’t have to be afraid of failure anymore. In fact, you don’t have to be afraid of anything. If you’re walking in the love of God, you’re living the most powerful kind of life there is.

Scripture Reading: Matthew 5:38-48

God’s Power – Where Is It?

I heard a guy this week ask his church where the power of God is.  He wanted to know what to do to get God to put His power on us. The answer to his question is simple: there is NOTHING you can do to get the power of God to come on us. Why?  Because the same power that raised Christ from the dead is already inside us.  The fulness of God’s power is INSIDE us already.  The moment we are born again our human spirit becomes righteous and holy and pure and we are alive to God and totally pure. In addition, the  fullness of the power of God is inside us.  It is not outside us – we do not have to go looking for it.  We do not have to go hunting for it.  We do not have to fast, to pray, to work, to repent, to do ANYTHING to get hold of the power of God.  It is already inside us. What we have to do is believe that the power is in us and act according to the truth that the power is in us.  When will the sick in your church get healed – when you tell them that the power to heal the sick is inside you and put your hands on them.  You shut the valve or open the valve for the power of God to come out.

Unfortunately many Christians are like the  preacher I heard this week – looking for something that is already inside them.  Most Christians are like the old man looking for his glasses when he is already wearing them – his ignorance of what he already has stops him from enjoying what he already has.

If we think the power of God is outside us we will waste our life, our prayers, our church services hunting for the power.  More love, more power, more of You in my life is possibly the most unChristian set of lyrics ever produced.  It is total doubt and unbelief.

The fact is all the  power of God is inside you. Stop wasting your life looking for it and start enjoying it.  Lay hands on the sick and watch them recover, put some money in the offering and watch it come back to you many times over, show someone the love of God and watch their life change.  Enjoy the adventure of knowing you are redeemed and able to do all things in HIM!

Blog Update

I know this blog has not been updated recently, so I apologize.  I get a lot of emails and comments from this blog and nearly all of it positive, so thanks!

Tree of Life Church has been growing rapidly since we started in Harmony House on Easter Sunday.  We are averaging 15-18 adults in each service, and if everyone came at once then we would have easily 35-40 adults.  Considering we started with 3 people before the August 2009 Wonderful News Crusade, we are doing well.   We have a cell group in Barking, one in Romford and one in Dagenham.  We also have a second group in Dagenham called Stepping Stones for new/ nearly Christians.

God has been blessing all that we do!  Praise His name forever!  However in the next week I am going to continue the work on this blog by collecting great faith building articles from across the world, continuing the series on Romans, starting a series on the Beatitudes (that may become a series on the Sermon on the Mount) and updating people on what is going on in Tree of Life Church across London and Essex.

I was also going to start a question/ answer page on the blog so that if people have genuine theological questions then they could ask them and get an answer.

Thanks everyone for your prayers and gifts to our ministries,

Don’t forget:

Website: www.treeoflifechurch.org.uk

Twitter: holytwiglets

Youtube: londontreeoflife

God bless you all,

Benjamin

Harmony House *IMPORTANT NEWS*

Starting April 4th (Easter Sunday) and every Sunday morning following we are meeting between 10.30am and 1pm in Harmony House for worship, fellowship and the preaching of the Word.

You are more than welcome to attend these meetings.  Don’t feel that you have to dress up or prepare to come and meet with us.  We welcome you as you are!  We have a crèche for pre-school children and a children’s ministry for 6-14s.

The address for Harmony House is:

Harmony House
Baden Powell Close
Dagenham
Essex
RM9 6XN

You can get directions to Harmony House here.

The Christian Party @ Tree of Life Church

What the Christian Party are currently doing in Barking and Dagenham is really exciting.  Tree of Life Church are proud and pleased to be just a small part of what is going on in the area.

Paula Warren is part of the Christian Party and is coming to our church on Thursday 25th March at 7pm to talk about what they are doing and what we can do to help.  This meeting is at our house and all are welcome, contact us to find out where we live if you don’t already know!