Merredin Uniting Church

Hello all, here are some of the photos that were taken on the Variety Night. Who knew that we had so many talented people at our church!

Texts: Luke 5:1-11, Colossians 4:2-6 & Luke 5:27-32

I watched a rugby match a little while back. Even though my team lost 66-12 they played the whole game as if they could win. They put everything into it even when they were 52-0 down at half time. For me that was a picture of living with a Grand Vision.

And when we live in the grand vision of God then even though the odds are stacked against us, even if it seems that our effort will be wasted, we live life for all its worth.

We were made to live in relationship with God but were separated from Him by our sin. But God’s desire was always for that relationship to be restored and he made it absolutely possible in Jesus Christ. God entered the world to pay the price of our transgression. Christ died so that we would be redeemed and that the relationship would be restored. We believe that, it is our faith – the certainty of what we have not seen but of which we are sure.

But – we so often live our lives in such a small way. We don’t see the grandiose plan of God, and of how we fit in to it. We carry on in a closed up world, rarely daring to venture outside of our comfort circles. We sit at our nets, like Peter and Andrew and James and John. We clean them after another unsuccessful night of fishing and just hope that tomorrow will be better.

Then Jesus steps into our boat. He come into our life and He challenges us in areas that we thought we had tightly sealed up – where we were in control, where we were comfortable and time just passed by.

“Put your boat into the water,” He says.

This entry of God into our lives is a little disconcerting. We were comfortable even if we were not satisfied, we wanted more but didn’t expect anything.

When Jesus told Peter to put out into the deep water, and to let down the net he was reluctant –they had been fishing all night and hadn’t caught anything. He was tired and just wanted to get his nets clean and to go home for breakfast. In any event, fish in Galilee are caught in the evening or early morning in the shallows at the northern end of the lake where the shoals gather to feed at the inlet of the Jordan river, not out in the deep.

But then, for some strange, unimaginable reason, Peter says, “But because you say so, I will let down the nets.”

BECAUSE YOU SAY SO…

Because you say so… unconscious obedience!

AND they caught such a large number of fish that the nets began to break. They called for help from the other boat and they filled the two boats so full that they both began to sink.

We can see what’s happening …. but what’s actually going on here?

Jesus has stepped stepped into their boat. God entered the world of Peter and James and John and He showed them the possibilities of the world into which they found themselves.

It was an invitation to live life in the grand vision of God.

So often we simply push through with our lives, aware only of the limitations. This we can do, that we can’t do. But in the realm of God’s Kingdom, all things are possible –even when they seem impossible.

For what possible reason did Jesus enable them to catch so many fish that the boats almost sank … its almost bizarre.

But it brought Peter to his knees – “Go way from me Lord, I am a sinful man.”

He recognized his own weakness, but he had also seen God’s greatness –against all odds.

The point of the exercise was to show to Peter that in God all things ARE possible … AND to call him into a new mission.

Jesus says, “If this is possible with fish – where you are the expert, just think what it will be like when you come with me, into the area where I am the expert. I will make you a fisher of men. Your catch with will be far more than this.”

No wonder they simply left everything and followed him. God does these amazing things to remind us that we must not limit Him. He is able to do exceedingly abundantly more than we could ever ask or imagine.

Let me tell you a story.

After visiting a school in South Africa run by one of our elders with the man who headed the Council of our church, this man felt compelled to approach a friend at a university in the United States to see if they had any computers to donate to the school. They had -18 of them, but we would have to arrange the packing and the shipping. I approached someone else in our congregation involved in the shipping business and he went to the ends of the earth to find someone prepared to ship it from New York to Howick at the cheapest possible price. We got the cost down to $8000 –but it far beyond our ability to pay. We were about to give up when our Council Chairman had the idea of contacting the pastor of a large church in Chicago. He didn’t know him but thought it worth a try. The pastor came back almost instantly, as if he were waiting for the email to say that they would arrange the shipping and he would get someone to contact Paul. In a few minutes, Paul had another email – don’t worry about a thing – consider it done! I got news that the computers arrived a few weeks ago – at no cost whatsoever.

That which was impossible, became possible in a matter of minutes.

Why? In large part, I believe, because the pastor and that church have consciously decided to live within God’s Grand Vision. They didn’t know us, had probably never heard of Howick, but they filled our boat with fish and in doing so they put the challenge before us to see the potential of living within the grand vision of God’s purpose.

There are people all around us who have heard of Jesus but have never come to that place where they put their faith in Him. I believe, that to a significant extent, it is because they have never had the opportunity – they might have a skewed perspective of what it means to be a Christian, or have been put off by some unfortunate experience, or because they think that they are not worthy, or simply because they have never been asked or don’t know who to ask about how they come to faith.

We need to see people with “other eyes” – with God’s eyes, in His grand vision. That doesn’t mean that we go door to door with a big Bible under our arm, it doesn’t mean that we wait at church and simply hope that they will arrive.

No, what did Jesus do? He was busy with the crowd but He stepped into Peter’s boat – he walked across the beach to a fisherman, and He showed him what God was capable of. That’s all which is expected from us – just walk across to people.

When Matthew, or Levi (to give him his Jewish name) was called from his tax booth the first thing he did was to hold a great banquet for all his tax collector friends. He wanted them to hear Jesus, he wanted them to get that which he had found. His vision became grand. “So what if they are people despised and rejected by society. I was like them and I want them to be like me. I want them to discover that which I have discovered in Jesus.”

And God wants us to do the same thing. Our ordinary life means that we are content just where we are, we are content with the spiritual situation of our family, our friends and others around us. The status quo seems fairly satisfactory. But God is not satisfied with that. In 2 Peter 3:9, the Scriptures tell us that God does not want anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

Living in God’s Grand Vision, we see that – and we begin to live in such a way that the spiritual lives of those around us really matter to us. It will not be the pressure that we put on them that influences them, but the love that we show to them.

God does have a concern for your family, your friends and your neighbours. And He wants you to be excited about what He can do in their lives –He wants you to have a grander vision for them: His Vision.

When God sent Jonah to Nineveh, the prophet didn’t want to go. He got swallowed by a fish – interesting contrast to Peter’s great catch OF fish. But eventually he went – he called the city to repentance and they repented.

Jonah was furious with God about that. “You see Lord, this is exactly what I thought would happen. I know what you are like, you are gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love. I knew that despite your anger you would deal with the people of Nineveh with grace, despite the way they have lived their lives outside of the law. That’s why I didn’t want to go. All that’s happened now is that you made be out to be a great big fool … I announce your anger and wrath and instead you forgive with love. I’m so angry I could die”, he says.

But the Lord says to him, “Jonah, Jonah. Nineveh has more than 120 000 people who cannot tell their right hand from their left – should I not be concerned about them?”

Yes, God is angry at the wickedness of Nineveh, but He is, at the same time, deeply concerned about them. He does not want them to carry on as they are – He longs to have compassion on them, to pour out His grace upon that city.

Is God confused? NO! Not at all. He is holding the place of perfect tension between law and freedom, between justice and grace –this is, in fact, the story of the Cross!.

God’s unrelenting call to us is to find ourselves in that place also – in the fullness of God’s power and grace in our lives. It is not easy – because it almost always puts us at odds with our comfort zone. We are comfortable and relatively content where we are – our lives place few challenges on us, we choose the path of compromise that avoids any great discomfort.

And yet, we are not fully content. There is always something missing. Life is OK, but its not great. And the more we think about it, the more we realise that our life has no meaning. What is it’s point? What is its purpose?

In Nineveh they found its point when they believed God.

Simon and Andrew and James and John found its point when they believed the good news … when they left their nets to follow Jesus to become fishers of men.

Paul tells us that we will find true purpose in life when we lift our eyes from the immediate and look into eternity.

In 1 Corinthians 7 he says, “^?29? What I mean, brothers, is that the time is short. From now on those who have wives should live as if they had none; ^?30? those who mourn, as if they did not; those who are happy, as if they were not; those who buy something, as if it were not theirs to keep; ^?31? those who use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them. For this world in its present form is passing away.”

Live with your wife as if you had none (ie love her with everything AND love God with all your heart)

Mourn the dead, but live as if they had not died.

Be happy in this world, but live as if the only happiness is not here but with God.

Buy things, but live as if they are not yours to keep.

Be in the world, but do not be engrossed by it. It is the present but it is not the reality – Have a grander vision!

Whew! Its today, and yesterday is behind us…

Praise God that we are the Easter People, the people of the empty tomb, the people who are constantly led forward by God into the land of His promise.

I am writing this before our Strategic Planning Day so in a sense, I am writing from a step of faith. I believe that the day was a success – anything we put into the hands of God always turns out well. We are probably all a bit exhausted but I am sure that there is a stirring in the spirit and an excitement about what lies ahead. Our next step is to take all the things that were discussed and all the proposals and suggestions which were made and to create out of that a timeline for implementation. I am sure that some of those things have already been decided yesterday but there is value in caution. And we need time to prepare. I believe that we should always strive for excellence in anything that we do for God, so lets get the foundations right. We have some time anyway – the Harvest is about to begin, soon we will be into the Christmas Season and then the holidays. When we all get back at the start of February we will have had time to think and plan and will be filled with energy for the year that lies ahead. At the root of the Strategic Planning Day, and indeed, of the church’s mission is to develop the means and to seek the empowering from God to reach out to others who have yet to know the promise that has been realized in Jesus Christ. One of the things which should have been obvious yesterday was that while we challenge the structures which deny the Lordship of Christ, we must, at the same time, make every effort to make it possible for people to come to faith in Jesus. And that starts with us. Our attitude needs to be positive and faith-oriented, our integrity must be of the highest standard and our compassion must be from the very depth of our heart. The world is cynical about the church. To a significant extent they have every right to be, our tendency is to become puffed-up, proud and exclusive. We must constantly guard against that – all the harsh words of Jesus are directed against the so-called religious people of His day. On the other hand He showed deep compassion, concern and love for those who came humbly to Him seeking help and guidance.

Some years ago I created this chart to show how the path which people have to take today in order to find Jesus. (I got the idea from a book but I forget which one).

Although people are cynical, everyone has a longing to know God. In fact, the primary life search for most people is to find meaning for their existence and they know that this search must take them into the spiritual realm. In the past, the issue was relatively simple. The issue was sin, and sin alone. We are separated from God by the sin of Adam and our continued transgression. This crisis was solved in the death of Jesus who, in His death, atoned for our sin and made it possible to cross over the “gap” between ourselves and Him. This is depicted on the right of the picture. The Cross is the bridge that allows us to cross over the “sin gap”.

But in the season of the church, ie from the first Christian Pentecost onwards, other barriers have needed to be dealt with by the church. This was the basis and reason for the empowering of believers which came by the Holy Spirit. These barriers are the “Life Barriers” – basically the burden of lives filled with other priorities; and “Cultural Issues” – the difference between people which make up our social structures. These have become more and more exaggerated as time has gone on, as technology has advanced and as the world has become smaller. Today, we have to first help people to climb over their Life Barriers and cross over the Cultural Issues before we can begin to speak to them about sin (which the world now defines in terms of life priorities and cultural differences). So when we say that people are “far from God” what we mean is that their Life Barriers and their Cultural Issues have pushed them further back. So how does the church help? (It would really help you to understand this if you were to read John Bunyan’s “Pilgrim’s Progress”. There is an Aussie version by Kel Richards which is an excellent read.)

The church needs to handle all three barriers (Life, Culture and Sin) simultaneously understanding that the third cannot really be confronted until the first two are part of the approach. So, we need to help people to understand their life priorities. The top priorities are not fame, fortune or the ‘good life’. It’s God, family, community. The best way for people to understand this is to see it in you – ‘you’ve got something which I want – peace, contentment grace’. Jesus taught us a lot about this and summed it in the two great commandments – Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind; and love your neighbour as you love yourself. Go and read the gospels, put yourself beside Jesus as He talks with people and you will see that He was teaching us right priorities in His words and actions. He shows us how to climb over these barriers.

And we need to help people overcome their cultural issues. We do things in our culture because that is how we were framed. It used to be easier but in today’s world of instant communication and super stars, culture differences have become even more confusing. Now its not just language and food (the issues they had to deal with in the early church) but music, clothing, make-up, hairstyles (well, I suppose Paul had to deal with that too), attitude and behaviour. And it almost changes from week to week. So what does the church do? We need to realize that cultural issues should not separate us. We should embrace different cultures, realizing that we can step over them (using them as ‘stepping stones’) to cross the cultural divide. If the people of the church insist on dressing differently on Sundays from the rest of the week and stick to 17^th century hymns, we will not touch the culture of today – indeed, it’s often not even our culture.

God has a grand vision for His people. He called Abraham to lead a people to the Land of Promise, He used Moses when they strayed off to Egypt, Ezra and Nehemiah when their sin had exiled them in Babylon and Jesus when the whole world had gone astray. God’s vision has not changed. But now He wants to use you and I to accomplish His work. He has come in Jesus, He has fulfilled the Scriptures and given us Good News. And best of all, He has poured our His Spirit on us – God accompanies us as we go forth in His name to accomplish His purpose. This is not a “job” He has given us to do, it is the very joy and love of life that motivates us.

God bless and have a great week.

Texts: 2 Chronicles 20:6-12 and Acts 16:6-10

“Dwight had one goal when he arrived as a teenager in Chicago – to accumulate a fortune of $100,000. Working night and day, he threw himself into his quest.
Dwight also ran a Sunday school program at his church because he was primarily interested in the prestige that came from racking up big attendance numbers. Then one day, one of his teachers was absent, so Dwight had to take the teacher’s class of teenage girls.
He had a terrible time. The girls were unruly and undisciplined. They laughed at his face. He wanted to throw them out and tell them never to return.

The following week this teacher came to Dwight, looking extremely pale and upset. It turned out that he was suffering from tuberculosis.
Dwight told him that he could understand why he was depressed, since he was on the brink of death. “No, that’s not what has upset me,” the teacher replied. “I know that when I die I’ll be going to heaven. No, what upsets me is the girls in my Sunday school class – after all these months of teaching them, not one of them has received Jesus. I can’t bear the thought of dying without that happening.”
Dwight had never heard anyone talk like that before. Moved by this teacher’s concern for his students, he said, “How about if I drive you around in my carriage, and we’ll visit each girl individually and tell them about Jesus?”

That’s what they set out to do. At the first house, the teacher was barely able to climb the stairs due to his illness. The two men talked to the teen about Jesus, and this time there was no laughing – instead, she prayed to receive Christ as her Saviour and Lord.
They drove to the next girl’s house – and the same thing happened. And at the next and at the next. They went out the following day, and the same thing happened again and again.
Finally, after 10 days, the dying teacher came into Dwight’s shoe shop, his face shining. “The last girl in my class has yielded herself to Christ,” he announced joyfully.

Together, they celebrated as never before! Since the teacher was leaving the next day to go home to New York to die, Dwight called all the girls together. Later, he said that it was a meeting that kindled a fire in my soul that has never gone out.”
These children, newly adopted into God’s family, gathered around their dying teacher and read the words of Jesus, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house, there are many rooms…”

They sang hymns and then knelt while Dwight prayed. But as they were rising, one girl spontaneously began praying for her teacher – and then another and another. They were prayers of thankfulness for God’s influence on his life, prayers of thanksgiving that his eternity in heaven was assured. Dwight had never seen anything like it – these children were turning around and ministering to their teacher in his time of need.
As he was leaving, Dwight said to himself, “Oh God, let me die rather than lose the blessing I received tonight.”

Dwight’s life was changed that day. In light of all he had seen, his dream of $100,000 lost its attraction. “I got a taste of another world,” he said.

Today, we remember Dwight L. Moody as the 19th Century world-renowned evangelist whom God used to bring countless people to faith. It’s a name that would have been lost to history if he’d been content to merely pursue the lesser dreams of this world – dreams that pale in comparison to the daily adventure and rewards of reaching people with the eternity-altering message of Christ.

So let me ask: What’s God calling you to these days?”
While you think about it, let me tell you about Paul’s great vision… He saw a man from Macedonia, pleading with him, “Come over here and help us.” So he decided to leave for Macedonia at once, for he could only conclude that God was calling him to preach the Good News there.

This was a pivotal moment, not only in church history, but also in the history of the world! This vision from God was the primary catalyst for the timely transporting of the Good News about Jesus from one continent to all the people groups of the earth!

This vision of the man from Macedonia helped Paul and his missionary friends to focus God’s direction for their lives. We all need dreams which that have that kind of focus.

What kind of hopes do you have for your life?

Do you want wealth? Fame? Freedom? Just plain Safety even?

Or do you dream that you had faith to move mountains? Or that you could be an instrument to reach a generation of people for God?

I see the churches in the Wheatbelt full of people. I see revival in our town. I can’t wait for Saturday to see how God is going to use us to make that happen.

What is God saying to you?

Here are five points to help us prepare for Saturday.

1. Be open to new possibilities.
Let’s put the Macedonian vision in context. Paul and his missionary team had just attended the Jerusalem Council. The leaders of the church got together to decide whether or not Gentile converts to Christianity needed to adopt Jewish ceremonies and customs. There had been considerable debate and friction about this matter. Eventually the council agreed that Gentiles did not need to become Jews in order to become Christians. They were expected to follow God’s moral laws, but the church was free to flourish in cultural contexts other than Judaism.

The church had crossed an essential bridge in carrying out the Great Commission. We need to understand that what happened at the Jerusalem Council can help us focus on God’s vision for our life.
Some of the Jews in Jerusalem wanted to limit God by superimposing their personal agenda to it – if you want God’s vision for the church you’ll need to be open to focusing on new possibilities!
Don’t limit God as to how He can achieve His intention.  Don’t say, “God, here’s the way I want you to make it happen.”
God’s ideas will not be limited like ours! He has ways of doing things we’ve never imagined. His plans are always bigger and better than ours!
Years ago a team of 3M researchers was trying to develop a high-strength adhesive. One of their attempts produced the exact opposite – a very low-strength adhesive. Most of the team thought the result was a failure, but one man saw it as an opportunity. That “failure” became the glue on 3M Post-it Notes!

If we’re not careful, we can become so fixated on what we’re expecting to see, that we fail to see what God wants us to see!
The Jerusalem Council helped set the stage for the Macedonian vision. And when you and I are open to letting God do new things we too are setting the stage for God’s vision entering our lives.

2. Be objective enough to see other points of view.
When Paul and his first missionary partner Barnabas started planning their second missionary journey, just after the Jerusalem Council, a problem cropped up. Barnabas wanted to give John Mark a second chance at being a member of the team after he had deserted them the first time.

Who was right in the disagreement over John Mark?

Paul or Barnabas?

We could say that Paul was right because the books of Acts tells us nothing about the missionary travels of Barnabas. But there’s also a point to be made about Barnabas being right, because in later years Paul says, “Get Mark and bring him with you when you come, because he can help me in my work here.”

Was it Paul’s discipline or Barnabas’ compassion that made Mark a good worker after his early failure? Probably both. It’s likely Mark needed his mentors to take two different approaches for his spiritual progress. He needed a mixture of discipline and compassion.

Let me warn you though, you will find that the more focused your vision is, the more it will exclude some people. They can’t see what you see because God hasn’t given them the same vision – don’t let that discourage you. God likes it when our vision focused. It takes focus to see clearly. It takes focus to get specific things accomplished for God.
Our attitude needs to be one of grace when this happens in our lives. Let others work out the vision God has given them while you focus on the vision God has given you. Don’t turn against them, and don’t let their opposition unnerve you. Trust God. He knows what He’s doing.
Actually it was a good thing that Paul and Barnabas split. Now there were two missionary teams going out where there had previously only been one! They were now able to cover twice the territory spreading the Good News, and they were each able to minister with a focused outlook!

3. Be observant enough to spot your support team.
After Paul and Barnabas realized their specific directions were not compatible, Paul found a young man named Timothy who shared his vision.

Perhaps no one understood the religious and cultural gaps between Jews and Greeks like Timothy, a young man who grew up in both worlds! What a great addition to the “dream team” of Paul and Silas – men interested in taking the gospel to Jews and Gentiles alike.

Just as it is true that, when your vision comes into focus, some won’t share it, it is also true that other will! It is precisely because your vision has focus that people will be willing to join you like Timothy joined Paul. Be on the lookout for those people.

4. Be obedient to whatever God says.
Our text tells us that Paul and his companions were kept from going into the province of Asia at that time. Again, they were prevented from entering Mysia and they went on to the city of Troas.
As the missionaries tried to enter what is modern-day Turkey God deflected their efforts. They were doing their best to take the Good News to those who had never heard, but God was saying, “No, don’t go there. Not now.”
We all wonder why God closes doors in our lives sometimes. We’ve all headed out before in what we believed to be the right direction, only to have doors closed in our face. It can be discouraging when God isn’t opening doors when we think they ought to be opened.

Why does God do that?

We need to remember something very important about God. God has impeccable timing. He’s never ahead of schedule and He’s never late. We can have confidence that God will open the right door when the time is right.

This doesn’t absolve us from the responsibility of trying to find the right door at the right time. We should do all that we can according to our understanding – just as the Paul was doing. We simply need to learn to accept God’s “no”.
Too often we have our minds made up and our lives mapped out and all we want God to do is put a rubber stamp on our plans.

There is a never a time when “trust and obey” is more important then when it comes to focusing your God-given dream.

Finally…
5. Be optimistic about the future.
Here are some definitions of an optimist.

“An optimist is a 75-year-old man, newly married, and looking for a house near an elementary school.”

“An optimist is one who takes four pounds of steak, five pounds of charcoal, and one match to a picnic.”

“Optimists are parents who have three teenage children and one car.”
And the Best One – “An optimist is one who has been captured by the love of Jesus.”
Without vision, life can easily devolve into pessimism. But since Christianity is a visionary faith – no one has more reason to be optimistic than the Christ follower!

When Paul followed God’s vision great things resulted. While they were seeing doors closed God was preparing the hearts of people to hear the Good News.

One of them was Lydia from Thyatira –the first convert in Europe. As Paul spoke the Lord opened her heart, and she was baptized along with other members of her household.
The next person who came to faith in Christ was a demon-possessed girl who had been making money for others by telling fortunes. Paul cast the demon out of her.

It caused her owners to turn a mob against Paul and Silas and they were arrested and imprisoned.
You might think this temporary setback put an end to their optimism but they spent the night singing hymns and praying to God. When an earthquake came their shackles fell off and the Jailer, thinking that they had escaped was going to kill himself. Instead they preached the gospel to him and the jailer took the missionaries home, cleaned and dressed the wounds from their beating, fed them, and he and his entire family were baptized!
That’s what happens when we follow God’s vision!

Never lose the optimism of knowing that God is constantly at work to help us accomplish His will. If He is closing doors now, it is only because He is working to open other doors later!

Do you have a clear vision of what God wants you to do?
Are you being open to new possibilities,

Objective enough to see other points of view,

Observant enough to see the support team God has given,

Obedient to whatever God says,

Optimistic about God’s intention in your life?

Remember Jehoshaphat’s prayer – We have no power, we don’t know what to do, but our eyes are on You!

Hallelujah! This is the Day of the Lord.

Don’t forget! Our Planning Day is on Saturday, hope to see you all there. Its going to be a lot of fun seeing just how far we can go in God’s plan. Much of what we will do relates to discovering who we are and defining the strengths which God has already given us as a congregation. I believe that God draws together groups of His people with a specific intention and purpose and gives them foundational strengths to fulfill the task of the Kingdom right where they are. As we discover these foundational strengths that God has given us we can move confidently into our future with Him. I have the results from a similar exercise conducted in our Parish in 1996 and 2006 through the National Church Survey. That study does not have the same depth which we will seek but will certainly support the results of this exercise. My experience is that congregations are all different; we are gifted differently and God has given us different goals. When we move outside of our gifting and/or decide to determine our own goals we lose track of God’s intention. The Church Growth Movement has tended to define this losing track of God’s intention using medical conditions. The one I like (coming from a Presbyterian background) is “Presbyopia” – the inability to see things in the distance. We need to be far-sighted with God, to see and recognize His intention for us – and, believe me, it is always “exceedingly, abundantly more than we could ever ask or imagine”.

That’s the focus of the sermon this morning which I have called, “Discovering God’s Plan.” It is specifically a preparation for the Planning Day next week. You may want to remember the five points which I will make, and to mull over them in the week. Here they are:

1. Be open to new possibilities
2. Be objective enough to see other points of view
3. Be observant enough to know your support team
4. Be obedient to whatever God says
5. Be optimistic about the future.

You might also like to consider using these five points in steering the direction of the life which God has given you. I have discovered, from the time I became a Christ Follower at the age of 27 that there is so much more to this life than I ever imagined. I cannot imagine being bored with life, not being expectant of some new wonder, or not having a clear sense of direction. As I follow in the footsteps which our Lord has set before us, I am, and must, be open to His newness and the refreshing of His Spirit.

In the book of Acts we read that after Pentecost when Peter and John went to the Temple to pray, they met a lame man at the Beautiful Gate. He was at the entrance to God‘s glory but he was not inside. As well as being physically lame, this man was spiritually lame – and many people today are just like that. Peter called him to stand up and walk and that man’s life was changed – he went “walking and leaping and praising God” right into the Temple precinct from which he had previously been excluded. He was given new life and new opportunity. Peter later spoke to the crowd who gathered in response to this wonder saying, “Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord…” God is, I believe, inviting us to be part of His great refreshing. Repent – turn to God – so that – sins wiped out – times of refreshing = God’s eternal pattern for revival.

The Planning Day next Saturday will begin at 10.30am with Tea and Fellowship, following after the Parish Council Meeting which begins at 9am). I have a burial at the Merredin Cemetery early on but as soon as I get back we will begin with our program. Can you please bring a shared lunch. We will finish in the late afternoon with a Sausage Sizzle and the Variety Concert. Kevin has put together 10 items which promise to be great fun with lots of laughter and mirth. It is also a Fund Raiser for the School Chaplaincy. A good way to end a time of intense planning. And then next Sunday I will preach on God’s Grand Vision for His Gospel – ‘“Don’t be afraid; from now on you will catch men”. So they pulled up their boats on shore, left everything and followed Him.’ (Luke 5:10,11) I am excited!!

The website www.merredinunitingchurch.org has some new innovations designed to improve information flow from the church. Besides having my weekly letter and all sermons posted up, we now also have the list of Bible Readings for the week in an easy to find tab. In addition the Prayer Diary is also available as a tab at the top of the page. These additions will be especially helpful to you if you are away and don’t get a copy of the Newsletter.

I have also begun to comment on the Morning and Evening Readings in my own blog at www.faith2face.wordpress.org . You may find it useful to refer to those in your own devotion time. For years I had a brief sermonette each Wednesday morning at our midweek Communion service back in Howick which was based on the morning reading and folk often asked me for copies but it tended to be an off-the-cuff reflection so my notes were pretty unintelligible to anyone else. However I have been prompted by several people to write a devotional book using the Daily Lectionary Readings. Perhaps the writings in my blog will provide the foundation for that. I want to try and keep the spontaneity of “first impression” of the text which was the hallmark of the Wednesday morning sermonettes, so don’t expect any deep theological renderings – its just the musing over what God seems to be saying to me through the text. It might also give you some insight into one way in which you might do your own devotions. I do not necessarily refer to each of the texts – just that which “jumps out at me”.

God bless, be at peace and know the peace which comes from the God of Peace. Amen