At the prayer meeting on Wednesday we were praying about yesterday’s Seminar and about revival in God’s church. During that time, I had a picture form in my mind about the present state of the Lord’s Church—undoubtedly inspired from Dr Paul Brand’s book, “Fearfully and Wonderfully Made”. If we are theBride of Christ, how must we look to Him now—wounded, downtrodden, sidelined, unclean? Why would He still care about us? Well, the truth is that God is faithful to His promise (haven’t I been saying that for the past few weeks!) and He does still care, and He still has an expectation for us to continue to be who we are meant to be. And the Church being relevant in our time is about how we do this—we are still the Body of Christ, Jesus still has expectations of us and at the core of those expectations are that we love God with all our heart and soul and spirit and that we love others (including our enemies!) as Jesus has loved us. We serve a faithful God who honours His promises, as His Bride we must be faithful to Him.

Speaking of brides and husbands, George and Val Tengvall will be celebrating 60 years of marriage on Tuesday—that’s a really good innings! Well done both of you. In an age where faithfulness in relationships is taken far too lightly, you have set an example for all of us. Thank you for doing that. Your faithfulness toGod, to your family, to your friends and to each other has been amazing. I (and no doubt others) have been privileged to glimpse into your life through photographs and personal observation. Yes, life has no always been easy and as the years pass so we do tend to overlook the troubled times, but you havepressed on regardless through your unwavering faith in God and trust in His provision for you. May the Lord continue to bless you and your family. (Here’s a tip … never stop telling your stories to your family. Only now am I beginning to appreciate the wonderful stories which my grandfather shared with me when I was still a very young boy. And I am beginning to really appreciate my heritage.)

There are a couple of new and exciting events on the “What’s Up” page of the newsletter. First the Merredin congregation BBQ and Bonfire at the Higgins’ on Sunday evening September 12th. We do sometimes tend to forget that Christians can also have fun (and lots of it!). Love to see you there! Next is the Merredin Congregation Garage Sale on October 9th at the church. The men are going to be running the Garage Sale and the ladies will be doing …. Well, whatever it is that ladies do. I’m sure that whatever it is, it will be beautiful and tasty. Margie and I are really excited about Tegan and Quinten joining us. They will arrive on October 1st and spend some time in Merredin before Tegan starts her Midwifery Bridging Course in Perth. Quinten already has one temporary volunteer job lined up to rewire a car in Merredin. Anyone else needing autoelectric work? He’s was trained at Mercedes Benz so he should be OK(and, of course, he was allowed to marry our daughter!!!)

Love you
David

His Presence with us gives meaning to us and all of creation, it gives us purpose and direction, it determines our destiny. If God is not with us, then nothing has purpose, everything is just an accidental event. If God is not with us then the fact that the universe exists is a freak of nature, life is irrelevant and nothing actually matters.

The Bible makes it clear that God is not just out there somewhere— having made everything, and now just waiting to see what happens. No! He is intimately involved in His creation and especially with those made in His image—that, by the way, is you and me. There are those who don’t believe in God—for them everything is just an accident. There are those who do believe in God but think that He is just a creator God who, having made everything is not too interested in it anymore— for them, He is just the “guy upstairs”, the grand architect; He is significant but not actually interested in us. And then there are the believers—and what makes us different is our awareness of God’s Presence. We know that He is with us, we know that this makes us different, and we know that we have direction and purpose in Him.

To recap—we began with the account of Paul and Silas in the Philippian jail. We saw that the jailer was converted, not because they had been able to escape but because, they hadn’t escaped when the earthquake opened the doors. They were content to stay because God was with them in the jail and the jailers conversion came because He realised that God was with them. Last week we heard about Moses’ argument with God. Moses was not prepared to move on with God’s people unless the Lord went with them. Despite the sin of the people in worshipping the golden calf, Moses held God to His word of promise to Abraham. “God with us” changes other people’s hearts and our confidence in “God being with us” changes God’s heart.

Today we are going to be looking at God’s desire to be with us. He gave the Israelites the Ark and the Tabernacle while he was with them in their journey from Egypt to the Promised Land. Once in the Promised Land, the Ark languored at Abinidab’s house through the era of the Judges. When David became king he wanted to move it to Jerusalem— it wasn’t as simple as he thought but it taught him a lot about God’s Presence. Later in the Book of Acts, the abode of the Ark in David’s Jerusalem becomes the sign of God’s desire to be with all people—Jew and Gentile. God does not want to inhabit just the “holy” places—He wants to make every place holy with His Presence.

I mentioned last week that Dr Chris Walker—National Consultant for Theology and Discipleship in the Uniting Church will be here to share with us over the weekend of August 27/28. The details of this are now to be found on the “What’s Up” page of this newsletter. He will also preach on the Sunday which is to be a special service of celebration to mark George & Val Tengvall’s 60th wedding anniversary.

If you are looking to step up your walk with Jesus, you might be interested in attending the next Walk to Emmaus weekends. The Men’s Walk takes place at Katanning over the first weekend of September and the Ladies Walk takes place the following weekend. The weekend runs from Thursday evening to Sunday afternoon and is basically a series of talks and events which combine to create an incredible introduction into what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. The cost is $205 for the weekend. Both Steve and I will be on the leadership team for the Men’s weekend and Sal is on the team for the Ladies weekend. Speak to any of us for further details.

Blessings
David

I used a concordance (digital is just so easy!) to look up the number of times in the Bible God says that He will be “with” someone—it was astounding. As I thought about this I came to realise that the most important thing that we need to know about God is that He is with us. And it is the most important thing that we can share with anyone full of questions about life and its meaning. Jeremiah was a prophet who was given a really hard job to do. God told him to tell the people that because of their sin they were going to be punished by God—specifically that they would be exiled in Babylon. The Lord also told him that the people would despise him and ignore him but that he was never to give up or be afraid because He (God) would always be with him and would rescue him. (Jer 1:8) Nonetheless Jeremiah did struggle with the constant rejection to his message and in Chapter 12 he complains bitterly to God about his situation. God says to him, “If you have raced with men on foot and they have worn you out, how can you compete with horses?” I have always been inspired by that verse—if the little things get you down, how do you expect to cope with the big issues?

Jeremiah is a great example of perseverance in the face of great difficulty. When you’ve been in the same job, or house, or situation, or even marriage, for a long time it feels that your world is diminishing around you. Jeremiah could have felt like that but God’s reminder was that there were much greater issues at stake and that He would be with him through them all. And so Jeremiah carried on carrying on—he ran with God. If you find yourself facing insurmountable odds, remember, God is with you in the race!

Today our focus on this subject of God being with us, takes us to Mount Sinai. Moses had been up the mountain to meet with God and was about to come down with the Ten Commandments when God told him that He was furious with the people who had created a golden calf and were worshipping it while Moses was away. The Lord said that He was no longer going to lead the people; they were going to have to find their own way to the Promised Land.

Moses pleads (argues?) with God. He holds the Lord to His Word (that’s why it is important for us to become familiar with the Bible). He reminds God of His promises—this is your nation; these are your people; you said you would
lead us; how can you rescue us and then just dump us; what about your promises on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob? And God relents—He undertakes to continue to lead the people and to be with them. This is the wonder
of God’s grace, this is why God will always be “with” us—He promised, and we need to hold on to that promise as much as Moses and Jeremiah did. A significant aspect of Moses’ reasoning with God is that it is the Presence of the Lord which distinguishes His people from all other people. This can not however be a source of pride for us, or make us haughty over others. N0, that the whole point of the Gospel—it is not God’s desire that any should perish but rather that everyone should come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9). Having found the joy of salvation in Jesus Christ, we can know that God is now with us, and it is our task then to share that with others who do not yet know the Presence of God with them.

If you feel that you are struggling to know the Presence of God with you then ask one of the elders to pray with you after the service today, or come to see me in the week. I am at the church Monday to Wednesday morning. By the
way, its okay to feel like that. That exactly how Jeremiah felt and how Moses felt. So if you are feeling weary after running with men, then ask God to run with you.

Next Saturday is the Great Eastern Gathering at the Kalgoorlie/Boulder Church. It starts at 9.30am and will include a tour around Kalgoorlie and the Super-pit in the afternoon. Everyone is invited, see the details on the What’s Up page. Margie & I (and Sal) will be driving up early on Saturday morning and will be returning in the late afternoon if you would like to attend (and not stay over).

On August 27/28 we will be privileged to have Rev Dr Chris Walker share with us (and surrounding churches) in a seminar. He is the National Consultant for Theology and Discipleship in the Uniting Church and is the author of
five books on spirituality and discipleship for today’s generation. We have specifically asked him to speak on one of his books, “Seeking relevant churches for the 21st century”. You don’t want to miss this!

Grace & Peace
David

Margie and I are really looking forward to our visit back to South Africa and the opportunity to visit with our family and friends. We depart at midnight on Monday and after an 11 hour flight, arrive in Johannesburg at 5.25am their time. Our daughters will fetch us at the airport and we will spend a couple of days with them. On Friday the whole family (including our son Garth from Howick) will drive down to Manaba Beach on the Natal South Coast where we own a timeshare unit right on the beach. It’s the best place to be in the South African winter – the sea is warm and the sun is hot. We will return to Johannesburg via Howick where we will be staying with friends and visiting our former parishioners. I must also finalise my South African tax returns and wind up my financial affairs in South Africa. And then its back home to Merredin on July 20^th!

Some good news is that the processing of our children’s emigration has stepped up a pace. After being given wrong advice about their nursing assessments, they are now back on stream. Tegan has applied for a midwifery bridging course in August at King Edward Hospital in Perth and will initially come across on a student visa to be converted into a permanent residence visa once the course is completed. Linda will follow the same route but will make the move a bit later because she still needs to make arrangements regarding her midwifery practice in Johannesburg. Garth’s situation has been complicated by a change in the Australian Skills List which now excludes anything to do with computers –  apparently there is now no shortage in Australia. However he is pursuing a rural option (where these skills are still needed) and is looking around for job vacancies. He may come to visit with his wife Roxanne in time for my 60^th birthday in October.

By the time we get back, we will have been here for one year. It has truly been a blessed year. The radical change of a new country, new church and new people has been the best thing ever. I have had cause to rethink my worldview as well as my understanding of God and the Church. There is nothing like looking at things from a fresh perspective to give you new insight into that which you begin to take for granted. It is so easy to get into a rut, and, as someone once said, “the only difference between a rut and a grave is the depth of the hole.” From the    pressures of a leading large church, trying to deal with a cycle of poverty in a community, and the politics of separation at government level, I have found a new lease of life during the past year. Much of this has come from more time spent in God’s Word and in prayer. This has challenged my perspectives and enriched my understanding of God’s intention with us. We are not just passing through time – we are on a radical journey into a deep relationship with our Maker. On this journey He is constantly with us, to lead and to guide. On this journey we travel with others – we are to learn to love them, because in loving them, we will begin to understand how we are loved by our Father and how we are to love Him.

Thank you for your part in my journey and may God bless us as we continue this journey together.

This morning our focus is on “standing firm in the Lord” and particularly on how we are to do that. Our text sets out three simple rules – Be care-full of our relationships with each other, with the Lord and with ourselves. First, we must watch our relationships with each other – in the dispute between Euodia and Syntyche Paul pleads with them to make peace, and calls the community to help them. Disagreements, disunity, unnecessary remarks and unforgiveness can weaken the church and destroy our faith. The striving for good    relationships is a vital secret to standing firm in the Lord. Second, we must watch our relationship with the Lord – Paul gives us three tips for doing this: We must enjoy the Lord (rejoice in Him); we must expect the Lord (be gentle with each other for the Lord is near) and we must entreat the Lord (do not be anxious but pray). And then third, we must watch the things that fill our mind – we must think true, noble, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent and praiseworthy thoughts. Someone once said, “A man is not what he thinks he is, but what he thinks – he is!”

As I prepared this sermon, it seemed to me that this focus on “standing firm in the Lord” could be pivotal in directing the future course of our ministry in the Wheatbelt. We need to set the foundation on which we stand as early as possible in our life and so we need to work really hard at creating a good, viable and fulfilling ministry to the children and young people. We need to set within ourselves a foundation of prayer and personal devotion to God. We need to develop good   approaches to reading and understanding Scripture and we need to build good relationships with each other and the community. My mind has already been filled with thoughts which I will share with the elders so that we can begin to develop the ideas. I also plan to devote a lot of time to “thinking on these things” while we are on leave in South Africa.

You might already have heard the news that Brett Guthrie, the Chaplain at the High School, is not well at the moment. He was flown to Perth last week and at the time of writing, the diagnosis was still not clear. Please pray for him, his wife Lyn, and their son, Jonathan. Pray also for the school community which he serves.

Another important item of news is that Rev Paul Cannon from the Anglican Church has been called to the Parish of Bridgetown/Boyup Brook with effect from the beginning of August. He and his wife have played a significant role in the community and they will be missed. A farewell service will be held at All Saints at 10am on July 18^th. Please pray for them as they prepare to enter into a new phase of ministry and pray also for the Anglican Parish as they face a time of uncertainty as they await the appointment of a new minister.

A little while back, Margie bought me an iPod Nano. They were at reduced prices at Target. I loaded up all my favourite music – real classic rock stuff, the blues and those songs which have been my personal “golds” through the years. I haven’t had much opportunity to listen to this music since we got married because Margie doesn’t really like it. It was great to listen to the driving beat of Ten Years After, Blind Faith and Eric Clapton’s early days with Cream. But after a little while I realized that my taste in   music, and the things I actually wanted to listen to, had changed. I dumped the rock music and refilled my iPod with Il Divo, Josh Groban, Andrea Bocelli, Chris Tomlin and Amy Grant. And I added a couple of sermon podcasts from iTunes, including, Bill Hybels, Louis Giglio and Rob Bell. And for those serene moments, I put on some  Gregorian chants.

I began to think about why we change our music tastes and life preferences. My parents hated my music when I was a kid and I thought their taste was pretty dull. And yet, if they were alive today, I think that they would really like the music I listen to. I don’t think that I’ve become dull as the years have piled onto my life. In fact, as I matured, I think that my listening tastes have become fuller and far more discerning.

As I thought about it, I began to discount all the usual answers – that I was “finally” maturing, that I was become more risk averse as I approached the end of my life, and so on. No. I think it is that I have come to appreciate the really good things in life, and, by the way, that still includes really good rock music – I still go crazy when I hear Alvin Lee’s guitar riffs in “I’m going home” and Ginger Baker’s drum solo in  “Do what you like” on the Blind Faith album. As a child, everything is just amazing, we have to try it, have to do it, even when it is really rubbish. For a child, the new and the novel is the attraction, but as maturity comes we become more discerning. We want the good things, the things of value and truth, rather than just the latest gimmick, or hot pop star.

I think that this has a whole lot to do with God. We might not always recognize His hand in our life, but He is constantly guiding and directing His creation back    towards Himself. And as we come into His view we begin to “throw off the things that so easily entangle” and we desire more to enjoy the good and pleasant things that God has blessed us with in this world. We look for quality, we appreciate the wonderful, and we see value in eternal things.

And, by the way, this has very little to do with age. It has, it seems to my way of thinking, much more to do with understanding life and what it is all about. Sometimes, perhaps mostly, it is about a new appreciation for God, who is the author of life and who has redeemed our lost life through the Cross. And, even though I have been a Christian for most of my life, I have, through this process of thinking about music,  realized that I am drawn closer to God and have, in the last few months, come to  appreciate more and more the wonder of God’s grace towards me and His creation.

I hope that this little reflection will give you cause to think about why you do things you do, and like the things you like. I really believe that God loves us much more than we can imagine and that His desire is for us to enjoy all things and to be at peace with everything that He made so well.

God bless.

I jotted down some thoughts … (It took just ten minutes so don’t expect a brilliant theological treatise)
1. All that is came from the pre-existent God who is sovereign, holy and omnipotent.
2. Man has a special place in God’s creation, being made in His image (likeness) and has been given stewardship as God’s representative in the created realm. (Man includes every single human being of whatever race, tribe, language, nationality, gender or creed)
3. Man sinned – he desired to be like God (knowing good and evil and thus able to make choices that do not necessarily please God). NOTE – God’s heart breaks when we sin; which by definition is when we make choices which He does not want us to make.
4. Man’s sin has its origin in the temptation which came from, and still comes from Satan.
5. Satan is the ‘ancient serpent’ – a spiritual being (an angel according to Job) who was hurled to earth (with his angels) to lead the world astray (away from God).
6. Man’s journey throughout his existence has been, and is, accompanied by the Presence and guidance of God in which He constantly seeks to bring this special creature back into relationship with Him.
7. God, who is Love, has a passion to redeem man from his consuming desire to sin.
8. This passion became a reality in the incarnation of Jesus (YHWH is my salvation) and the great love of God was shown in the laying down of His life.
9. The incarnation itself is a sign of God’s great love – God, who is infinite, omnipresent and omnipotent, became flesh, containing Himself not only in Man’s image but also within time and space.
10. The laying down of this ‘taken-up’ life was a ‘sacrifice’ in the sense that God was prepared to give up everything for the sake of the redeeming of Man. (When we say ‘by His blood’ we are referring to the fact that in God’s total self-giving He has redeemed us utterly and completely – for He who is Alpha and Omega has stopped at nothing for the redemption of the body, mind and spirit of Man.)
11. But death could not hold, or limit, the Mighty One. He is risen! The victory is absolutely complete – all that was lost is restored, all that was dis-eased is made well, all that was wronged is made right, all that was separated is brought back.
12. Satan is defeated.
13. Jesus ascended to heaven and He has empowered His church by the Holy Spirit to be His body on the earth to declare the good news of His victory and to prepare His special creation for His return.
14. The good news is that it is not God’s desire that any should be lost but that everyone should be saved.
15. Every time we show God’s love we are declaring the good news. Every time that we do not show love – in either attitude or action, we sin.
16. If I am to live as God wants me to live in this world which He created, I need to know Him. I need to know His mind and His heart. I need to know what pleases Him and what displeases Him. And when my life is lived like that then I find the real joy of life and the peace which passes understanding.
17. When I choose to do this – He fills me with His Spirit to help me live the life which is God’s gift to me.
18. And why do I have this life? Because God wants me to be His friend! (This is not a flippant comment. Somewhere in being God’s friend is a very profound sense of being!)

Today is Trinity Sunday – I was thinking about the reason for having a special day for this; after all, its not at all like Easter, or Christmas, or Pentecost in which we focus on an aspect of the faith story. But today is about a particular doctrine – a teaching which we believe is essential to our faith. I guess that the Church (long, long ago!) realized the complexity of this aspect of our faith in which we believe that there is only one God but who exists in three Persons, and so ordered its    ministers to teach on this doctrine at least once a year. It’s the same with baptism. We are required to teach on baptism, this essential step for the initiation of our faith journey, also once per annum. I suppose that it is so easy – and its our default mode – to neglect that which we do not fully understand. And the result is that  powerful concepts of our faith become dilute and wishy-washy.

Margie and I have been reading the Biblical account of Solomon this past week and we have seen the danger of this. Solomon, the son of David, was a wise king but he failed to keep God’s commands and his reign ended in disarray through the worship of false gods. If he had but only kept to the basics of God’s intention.

And so today we are going to have a brief look at the Tri-unity of God. It is a difficult concept but it is central to our faith. We worship One God. In the tri-unity of the Godhead there are three-in-one, of the same substance: God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. They are equally God in their being, power, holiness and eternality. God is one in essence and three in person. Scripture affirms both the oneness of God, and the deity of the Father, Son and Spirit. The  Father is our Creator, the Son our Redeemer and the Spirit our Sanctifier. They are distinct and yet not solitary. We, in our limited human understanding, attempt to define the three persons by a role which seems dominant and yet all three Persons are  forever together. Father, Son and Spirit were present in creation; Jesus said, “I and the Father are one” and He promised to be with us always in the Person of the Comforter (Holy Spirit).

Today we also have Matthew with us. He is a student from Iran and will share the testimony of his faith journey with us. We all have a faith journey to share for God deals with each of us in a unique way and it is in the sharing of our testimony that we build each other up in faith. Thank you, Matthew for coming to share your story with us this weekend.

After the service today we will have our quarterly Congregation Meeting. I have had peep at the agenda and while there are some items dealing with past things (the journey), there are also some exciting things about the future. The greatest thing about following Jesus is that He is always leading us into the future. Our faith is about that which lies ahead and the certainty of our hope. I want to share a little of what I believe the Lord is saying to me and we will also hear something about Ride for Life, Internet broadcasting of services and propose membership of Pneuma. In a way these are all connected and are aspects of the journey which still lies before us. Kennon Callahan said, “Hope is stronger than memory. Memory is strong, hope is stronger. We are the Easter People, the People of the Empty Tomb, we are the People of Hope.” God bless you and may He be with you

I was also supposed to be one of the Spiritual Directors on the Walk to Emmaus in Perth this weekend but it was cancelled at short notice. There were unfortunately too few people enrolled. I have been part of the Emmaus movement for several years and I really want to encourage you to consider joining. Basically it begins with a “pilgrim” weekend which you attend. The weekend consists of a lot of discipleship teaching and worship opportunities. In essence it is a short course on Christianity. But the beginning “pilgrim” weekend really is just a beginning. You never attend the Walk to Emmaus as a pilgrim again but you are encouraged to be part of the “team” who run future weekends. Through participation as a teacher, or a carer, or hands on stuff like cooking and other practical things, you learn a great deal about being a servant Christian. Every Emmaus pilgrim enters a “Fourth Day” after the pilgrim weekend. The Fourth Day signifies the role that every Christian needs to play out as a consequence of the Resurrection. There is an amazing simple logic to the Walk to Emmaus movement (which obviously takes its cue from the two disciples who walked from Jerusalem to Emmaus with Jesus but who failed to recognize Him at first). It not only teaches the basics of the Christian Faith but encourages each person to put that into practice. It teaches servanthood and leadership, empathy and understanding and so much more. Many people think that it is just about the Pilgrim weekend. Nothing could be further from the truth. Continued involvement leads to continued growth as a Christian. In fact, every single person on Angus Buchan’s team which organizes the Mighty Men’s Conferences was a regular in the Emmaus Community to which I belonged in South Africa. And much of the “success” of those conferences stems from what they learned about being a practical Christian through the Walk to Emmaus movement. I have been invited to be one of the Spiritual Directors at the September weekend of the Great Southern Community in Kattaning. Both Steve Higgins and Sal Marais will also be on the team. If you would like at attend this 72 hour event then speak to one of us.

Next Sunday we have a young Iraqi man who is coming to share the testimony of his conversion from Islam to Christianity. While he is a very new convert, he is utterly committed to his new faith.

We so often view the Ascension of Jesus from the perspective of the disciples looking forlornly up into the sky as Jesus rises on the clouds of the air. But what really matters is what happens on the other side, and the significance of that for us on this side of heaven. Jesus, having prepared and commissioned His church, takes His place as Lord of lords and King of kings. He has all authority and power and He expects us, as His people to continue, in the power of the Spirit, the work that He came to do on the earth. We have the task of reaching the nations, of spreading the good news abroad, of declaring God’s kingdom come upon the earth. The first disciples didn’t quite get that at first (and sometimes we, the later disciples, don’t get it either) and so they locked themselves up in the Upper Room for several days. But they did do something very significant – they prayed about what to do next. Ten days later, the Holy Spirit came upon them at Pentecost and the church burst forth with power. Thousands came to faith, they began to pray for people and they were healed. The good news began to spread out from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth. Friends, the task is not yet done. Stephen Covey, in his book about the Seven Habits, says that we live within two circles of life. The inner circle is called the Circle of Influence and the outer circle is the Circle of Concern. We can do something about our Circle of Influence but have no control over the outer circle – except to make our inner circle grow bigger ie to extend our Circle of Influence. Some things in the outer circle we cannot influence, like the weather for example, but if we focus our lives into being proactive in the areas where we do have influence, we can also be workers in the Kingdom of God as we share the Good News with those around us, and push our influence into the areas of life which concern (worry) us. I encourage you to take time this week, in the lead up to Pentecost, to pray earnestly for this generation of people for whom we are responsible to share the Good News about Jesus.

One of the primary goals at our Strategic Planning Day was to add to the membership in each of the four congregations in the Parish. This is slowly beginning to happen, though much of what we have been doing so far is simply laying the groundwork. At our Prayer Meeting on Wednesday evening we were challenged as to our thoughts on the possibility of revival – just how possible do we think revival actually is in the Wheatbelt; and are we prepared to put that possibility before the Lord in our praying for revival. Without consultation with each other, we prayed that attendance at the churches in Merredin would double by the end of the year. Is it possible? Well, not according to “the flesh”, but with God all things are possible.

But then … we have about 20 people at SNAC doing the “Just Walk Across The Room” course in pointing people to faith and each of us has put two people before the Lord in our prayers. So even in “the flesh” it is possible. In the first session we saw that the single greatest gift we can give to anyone is to introduce them to the God who created them, loves them and who has a purpose for their lives. We also saw that we should not treat people as “evangelistic targets” but as unique      treasures of God. Last week we were introduced to living life in 3D. The first D is to develop friendships. We have a tendency to “cocoon” ie to stay in our warm safe place, rather than to “connect” ie getting out of our comfort zone in order to meet new people. The second D is to discover stories. Before we can engage in a meaningful spiritual conversation with anyone we need to understand their story – why are they where they are in relation to God; what negative experiences or significant events have taken them outside of God’s radar. And then the third D is to discern the next steps we will take. Launching in like a bull in a china shop is not usually very useful. Most often it is the everyday, seemingly insignificant things which    become divine, life-altering tools – like sharing time, recreational pursuits and a bottom-line value of real concern. Next week we are going to see some very interesting tools in developing our own story of faith to share with others.

This Thursday is Ascension Day – a day that has been knocked off most calendars but I believe that it is one of the most important Christian celebrations – not that Jesus left us, but that He went back to heaven, having done His work and to  receive the joy of the Father. We will be focusing on that next Sunday.

Margie needs to go to Perth on Tuesday and I will be without transport. I need to get to Bruce Rock for Bible Study – anyone able to give me a lift?

Rev David de Kock

Paul says that he could put his faith in many things – the flesh (his cultural background), the law (his training and education), his zeal (his enthusiasm to put his culture and education into practice), and his solid observance of his culture and education. But then he says that he counts all these things as rubbish because he has found a new confidence through his faith in Christ. “En Christos” is a concept which crops up all over the place in Paul’s writing – it is a deep idea. It means not only that he puts his faith in Christ, but that he finds himself in Christ. He has no meaning or purpose outside of Christ. His confidence is only in Christ!

And when you look at this man’s life you will find that there was a time when he put his trust in everything EXCEPT Christ. What happened? It was on the road to Damascus that he was confronted by the resurrected Jesus and in a flash, he realized that his faith was absolutely worthless and misdirected. Everything which he had not believed about Jesus was true and everything which he had believed was wrong. It was an epiphany moment – and in moments like these God doesn’t give us much time to ponder the options, or to intellectualize the consequences. That is that! And Paul took off on a journey which totally changed the course of his life and the world.

And Paul has not been a lone star. The course of faith history is filled with people who, when confronted with the challenge as to where their confidence lies, made a dramatic turnaround and profoundly influenced the course of history. And few of them were great people to begin with – Augustine was a drunken loser,  Martin Luther a lowly monk, DL Moody a shoe saleman, John Wimber a has-been musician with a drug problem.

Where does your confidence lie? Does God-with-us, and the Cross, and the Resurrection make any real difference to your life? Do you really love God with all your heart and soul and spirit? (I sometimes have real troubles with that, and need to sit with the Lord from time to time to get my priorities right.) Do you love your neighbour as you love yourself? Whoa – that’s a hard one! I can do it in my mind but struggle when I find that my neighbour is the proverbial Samaritan ie someone of the wrong culture, race and religion (meaning, of course, not mine!).

If Jesus is God, and if the Bible is the account of how God has been loving us all along so that we can be friends again; and if He has done so much (even dying for me!) so that I can have a truly meaningful and purposeful life, then the “something” in which I put my confidence has to be Him. Amen!

Jesus speaks of two things in this sacrifice – love, and friendship. Love, which lays down its life, and friendship which is the driving force behind that love. These are not things of which we speak lightly or very often (and that’s a sadness) but they are vital aspects to understanding the very meaning of our life. Without love and the friendships which rise out of that love, our lives have very little going for them; we are just ticking over from birth to death.

This fits in so well with our sermon this morning as we continue in the series on Philippians. In the text, right between the focus on new responsibilities for ourselves, our society and our church (which we examined last week), and the new confidence we can have in knowing Jesus Christ (which we will look at next time), we have Paul’s excursion to tell us about his friends Timothy and Epaphroditus. He illustrates through them the four marks of Christian friendship: genuine love, common interests, common vision and mutual support in the battles of life.

The Junior Youth Group (Mucka Round – “Mucka” stands for Merredin Uniting Church Kids Australia) kicked off for the new term on Friday and there are some really exciting things planned. For this coming Friday, the children are asked to bring one of Dad’s old shirts to be used as a “coverall”. They will be stored at the church for future events. We also need the congregation to bring empty jam jars asap for a project that they will be involved in. And then we need more helpers in the youth department!!!! We are trying to integrate the Sunday School and Mucka Round to run with a common focus so we need helpers in both areas. You don’t need to help in both! If you would like to help, please speak to Sal or Lisa.

Tonight we return to our SNAC service on Sunday evenings. We begin with a shared Tea at 6pm and then have a time of worship and teaching afterwards. We begin this evening with the first part of a course called “Just Walk Across the Room”. It is a four session video series on simple steps to point people to faith. At our Strategy Planning session we decided to reach out to people in the community in various ways and this is part of that strategy. We are nervous about being evangelists but we are all called to be witnesses. This video course is an excellent  approach to understanding how to share our faith. I hope that you will come along…

The Men’s Group on a Wednesday are going to be using Angus Buchan’s “Farmer’s Journal” (now republished as “A Farmer’s Year”) as resource material from this Wednesday. The idea is that we will commit to do each day’s daily devotion and then focus on the Wednesday study at the group meeting with time for sharing and testimony. I hope to have some copies available at the service today. We had a most meaningful discussion this week on what it means to be a follower of Jesus, and on how we are influenced (often negatively) by our culture and circumstances. It really is a struggle to clear away the many things which cloud our view about faith and life. (BTW I am addressing some of these things in my blog at www.faith2face.wordpress.com).

After the intervention of the Easter celebrations, I am returning to the series on Philippians this morning. If you have missed the introductory sermons, you can catch up on the church website. I hope to also have the earlier audio versions up soon. But to summarise for this morning, the series is called “A Life worth living” and it is based on Nicky Gumbel’s book of the same name (a follow up to the Alpha course). We started by seeing that the new life we have in Jesus is intended to be a life filled with joy. We saw why this often fails and how we could succeed. Next, we saw that to live this new life, we need three things – a new heart, a new purpose and a new attitude. Today we are going to see that this new life calls us to new responsibilities – for our own lives, within our society and to the church. I hope that you find yourself as challenged in this as I have been.

We welcome Matthew Smith to the pulpit at Merredin this morning. Matthew, may the Lord speak through you. I am off to Mukinbudin this morning and then I’m at Southern Cross tonight. On the second Sunday of the month, when I go to Muka, I want to have one of our elders taking the service in Merredin – partly to avoid the haste with which I must end the service in order to travel, but also to encourage the elders as  preachers of the Word.

After the service in Merredin today we will have our Congregation meeting.  Unfortunately Margie and I must tender our apologies but our prayers are with you as you elect new elders and deal with other business in the congregation. Steve, Kevin and Sal have reached the end of their term of office as elders but are available for re-election. Tobias Vudzijena has been nominated as an additional elder and the  congregation will therefore be asked to increase the maximum number of elders to six in terms of Regulation 3.1.14 (c.). The terms of office for the elders has also been varied so that we don’t again end up with most of the elders reaching the expiry of their term at the same time. We will also be electing a new Congregation Secretary to replace Dave Quinn who has stepped down for personal reasons. The elders asked me to approach Anne Stones to consider nomination and she has accepted. Also, after many years of sterling service, George and Val have stepped down from the Youthcare Committee and they need to be replaced. We had an emotional farewell at the recent Youthcare AGM.

Have you had a look at the Merredin Church website lately? www.merredinunitingchurch.org It is absolutely crammed with very useful information. The sermons are now available in both written and audio format – you can listen while you read, or do other things. This is especially useful for folk in our other congregations who have a service only every second week, and also for people who miss a Sunday. I like to preach sermons in series so this way you can always keep up with the theme. The daily Bible readings are also shown at the top of the page and you can simply click on the verses and the text will come up. Prayer Needs and the Duty Roster are also updated regularly – useful if you lose your roster in the clutter on the fridge door. You will also find some interesting links down the right side of the page, including my blog (Faith2Face) and Dave Quinn’s blog (The PASSION Blog). Dave keeps his blog commentary quite up to date in his commentary on faith and life. I try to keep mine up to date when I can. I have a new category entitled “The WAY” in which I am examining what it really means to be a Christ Follower and I also try to comment on the daily Bible readings that show on the church website in a category called “David’s Daily Devotions”.

Finally, grateful thanks to Steve who virtually singlehandedly put together the Men’s Secret Business meeting last Wednesday. It was a resounding success. More than 70 men turned up for a good night of reflection on men’s issues in life, health and faith. Well done Steve! And thanks to the sponsors who ensured that we were well fed and watered. Remember that we have a Men’s Meeting at the Merredin Church every Wednesday evening at 7pm.

God love you all!

And, of course, even on Friday, we know that Sunday is coming! The tomb could not hold our Lord. He, who holds the keys of death and of Hades, chose to open the door to new life. Resurrection is an amazing gift. It’s not revival, that’s just the same life  beginning again…resurrection is about a fresh new start. After the release from the bondage of sin through Christ’s death on Friday, we are not only set free in Christ, but we are given a whole new life. It is a life of certain promise – your sins are forgiven, you are healed, I will never leave you nor    forsake you.

These are more than just words and empty promises – they have eternal value. And this eternal value is received by faith – Trusting in God’s forgiveness in response to our confession of sin, and believing that God’s promises contain a reality or our life. Because of the Cross and sealed in Christ’s rising from the dead, we have a different life. This life is made different by our relationship with Jesus who promises us life in His Kingdom. And this Kingdom is not something we only enter when we die, it is now, as we yield our lives to God’s direction and purpose.

Let’s celebrate! We are set free in the victory of Christ’s death, we have new life in His resurrection from the dead. We are totally different now! Blessed be the Name of the Lord.

Rev. David de Kock

We had a really fantastic evening at Merredin last Sunday with our formal dinner, honoring those who have served the Lord in the congregation over a long time period. It was good to hear the stories of the early days and of the families who are the foundation stones of the church. It was not intended but it was such an appropriate follow-on to the sermon in the morning when I spoke about the “seed of the next harvest.” Indeed the   pioneers of the church have ensured that those who come after have benefited from their “seeding” into the future mission of the church.

We do need to celebrate God’s goodness in the past – this is much of the content of the Book of the Psalms. And we need to honor God for His faithfulness, in the today and tomorrow of our lives. As we do this we can find ourselves inspired to do our own “seeding” into God’s mission, and I want to encourage you to be involved in God’s outreach to the people within your own sphere of influence. Each of the congregations in the Parish have a goal to reach a certain number of people: 42 in Merredin, 10 each in Bruce Rock and Mukinbudin and 5 in Southern Cross. That’s roughly about one person for each person – and we have twelve months to do it. If you have not already begun to do so,  begin to pray for one person; ask God to show you the right time to invite them to church or Bible Study; be caring in Christ towards them and set before them your own example of following Jesus in your everyday life. Easter is a good time to invite people to church – don’t forget the Tenebrae Service at Merredin on Thursday evening at 7pm and the other services around the Parish. Details are on the next page.

Some of the activities in the Parish are also beginning to form as outreach ventures. The Junior Youth (MucaRound) in Merredin is going well under the leadership of Sal Marais and Lisa Arthur (with assistance from Gerhard Seymour). The Bible Study in Bruce Rock has its second meeting this Tuesday afternoon and Margie and I visited the Muka Corner Closet on Thursday. That’s a monthly combined “Morning Tea for the town” and “Op Shop” outreach which has a great atmosphere and attracts all kinds of people. The Men’s Group in Merredin is surging ahead and we have had over 15 men who have     attended the Wednesday night sessions. In conjunction with the Men’s Group at the Church of Christ they are now planning a “Secret Men’s Business” meeting at Venue 68 in Merredin on April 7^th at 6pm. The guest speaker will be Julian Krieg on “Dealing with stress and disappointment”, “Taking life in context” and “Talk to a mate”. The evening will include a “Fast Track Pitstop Health Check”. Plan to be there, and bring a mate!

Have you visited the Merredin Church website lately? There is a lot of useful  information on the site which you can view at www.merredinunitingchurch.org. It includes Bible Reading (with a easy click on download so that you can read it on the screen), Duty Rosters, News updates, most of this newsletter and the weekly sermons. The weekly sermons now also have an audio download button so that if you don’t get to church, you can still get the sermon (almost live!) I am most impressed with all the work that Dave Quinn has put in – we need to use it as much as we can.

Nominations for new elders at Merredin will be announced at the service this   morning. The election will take place after the service on Sunday April 11th. We will also be electing a new church secretary and representatives for YouthCare and the Churches Fraternal. George and Val Tengvall have served in these latter two committees for many years. I understand however that they will still be available for election to serve on the Churches Fraternal.

God bless

David

What does the Lord require of me ?

1. Tithing – a tenth of my income

Leviticus 27:30 – “A tithe of everything belongs to the Lord; it is holy to the Lord.” (Holy = separated to God’s purpose)

Tithing = the seed of the harvest; the seed for the next crop

2 Corinthians 9:10 – “He (GOD!) who supplies seed to the sower (US!) will also increase your store of seed (THAT WHICH IS GIVEN TO BE THE SEED OF THE NEXT HARVEST) and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness.”

2 Corinthians 9:6 – “Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.”

The seed is for the next harvest; just as we are the harvest of someone else’s   giving so our giving will yield a different crop.

In our church we have envelopes available for the giving of our Tithes. They are available at the door.

But isn’t tithing an Old Testament requirement and therefore not for us? eg 2     Corinthians 9:7 – “Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion.”

Paul is actually referring voluntary giving ie that which is over the tithe, specifically this voluntary giving can be divided into Offerings and the Collection

2. Offerings and The Collection

An offering is the “secret” part of our giving – it is what we choose to give of our own freewill over and above our tithe. The offering includes our giving to charity and other forms of alms giving.

The Collection, in Biblical terms, is our response to a specific appeal eg the collection for the Church in Jerusalem which was suffering the consequence of a severe drought (1 Corinthians 16). Other examples of Biblical Collection-taking include the donations by the people towards the construction of the Tabernacle (Exodus 35) and also the Temple (1 Chronicles 29).

We have had collection for the Bush Fire Appeal, Haiti, the Toodyay Fires, the Christmas Shoebox Appeal, airconditioning  and so on.

Offerings and the collection are expected to be sacrificial; the tithe is our obedient response to God’s command and for our blessing (Leviticus 27:30 & Malachi 3:8-12).

The Lord loves us to give – He loves a cheerful (or hilarious) giver. (2 Cor 9:7) and He always rewards the giver’s obedience – Give and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over … For with the measure you use, it will be measured unto you. (Luke 6:38)

Rev David de Kock

We welcome especially the family and friends of Matthew & Beth as their miracle baby daughter, Abigail, is baptized into Christ at the Merredin Church. It has been my prayer that this service would spark some wonderment in us of the love which God has for us all.

There are a couple of things which I need to highlight for each of our congregations.

Merredin: The Men’s Group got off to a good start on Wednesday with a barbeque and lots of talking about all kinds of interesting things. We decided to meet every Wednesday at 7pm. ($10 for tea and mission) We will meet twice each month at the church and twice we will go elsewhere. Once a month we will meet with the other Christian Men’s Fellowships in Merredin. The first of these will be a presentation by Julien Kreig from “:Working with Warriors” at the beginning of April.

On Sunday March 21^st at 6pm we will have a formal dinner at the church (suits & ties!!) to honor some of the long-serving members of the congregation. Come along, it will be much fun.

Sunday Night At Church (SNAC) meets at 6pm for Tea and a focused service afterwards including prayers for healing and renewal.

Bruce Rock: We are starting a Bible Study at Ritia McKenzie’s home, 20 Dampier St on each 2^nd Tuesday at 1pm. All are welcome. Anyone from Merredin is welcome to contact Margie and I for a lift.

There will be an Easter Sunday Service at 11am.

Mukinbudin: There will be Good Friday Service at 6pm.

Southern Cross: The services are held on the 2^nd and 4^th Sundays at 6.30pm. I am looking at restructuring the service. Anyone from Merredin wanting to attend the service is welcome to come along with me.

Finally, with Easter just around the corner, let us prepare our hearts for this celebration of God’s amazing love towards us. Some of the symbols of Easter have been fully absorbed into our everyday life. Hot Cross Buns on Good Friday and Easter Eggs on Easter Sundays are powerful motives. The buns speak of the Body of Christ, the raisins of His blood. The spices indicate preparation for burial and the cross speaks for itself. They are usually eaten hot with butter to symbolize anointing. Traditionally they are shared with morning tea after the Good Friday service. The eggs are the symbols of new life pointing to the Resurrection of Easter Morning. They have their root in the Jewish Pesach (Passover). In the old days they were hardboiled eggs roasted brown. The dark shell spoke of hopelessness and the golden yolk of new life while the white of the purity which come from God.

God bless you all

Rev David de Kock

The Mighty Men Conference last weekend (and for me, the meetings which preceded it) were a great inspiration. The messages were simple – We need to have a recent personal testimony of God’s action in our lives; We need to know the freedom which we have in Christ which unshackles us from the laws, demands and fabric of the world; We need to have personal time with God every single day; and men need to take their place as prophet, priest and king in their homes and families.

Most amazing was that men came from right across Australia, from every denomination, age and maturity in Christ. And we were one. Our group from Merredin got split up (may have been intentional on the part of the organizers) and so I shared a tent with two men from Adelaide and shared in worship with two men from Kangaroo Island. Who we were was irrelevant – we shared faith stories and encouraged each other in our Christian journey. It was good.

Our focus this morning follows something of this sense of unity. Using that wonderful text from Philippians 2, I want to show that our unity is derived from our attitude (the way we look and respond to things). It is ambition, conceit and self-centredness which creates disunity. Paul calls us to “have the same attitude as Christ Jesus” who made Himself less, took the role of a servant and laid down His life.” It is this Christlike attitude which brings unity, joy and peace into our situation. Strained relationships drain out all our joy and the answer is quite simple – make the relationship right, even if it means that you have to “lose the point”. And have a good heart about it.

Tonight at SNAC I want us to look at why we come to church, and why God comes to church. When we come for the same reason then we are truly blessed – not just for the moment, but in our hearts and lives. We need to come to church and God wants to come to church and when we meet together we are filled with the Spirit.

Finally, we are starting a Men’s Group on Wednesday evening at the church. We will start at 7pm with something to eat and time to relax with each other. We have some ideas about where we want to go with the group and it would be good to talk through expectations that you might have too.

Rev David de Kock

Because a lot of our men are at the Mighty Men Conference in Perth this weekend, the services today at Merredin and Mukinbudin are given over to the ladies. And welcome to the Church of Christ congregation who are joining the service in  Mukinbudin.

I recently received some literature from the Frontier Services and was deeply moved by the amazing work that they do in the Outback and in the “not so out” Outback. Four things struck me in particular – the work in Aboriginal Communities, work amongst migrants, the crisis of mental illness in rural Australia and the Work Parties who gather to repair and restore church buildings in small communities. Frontier Services asked us to have a special service sometime to focus on their work which is often not very high on the agenda of the church. With this in mind, it is appropriate that Sal Marais leads our service today. I was asking people about their dreams recently and it came to light that Sal would really like to teach  Aboriginal children on a station. She wants to go to the   frontier, so who better to lead the service today!

But going back to the things that struck me. There is a wonderful article in Frontier News titled “One is the loneliest number”. It details the problem of  depression when one lives in an isolated community. And I can understand that. When you live inside your head and your only conversation is with yourself, it is easy to sink into depression. The article details the valuable  contribution of the Patrol Minister who brings companionship into the isolation. We as a Christian community can also play a vital role in this regard. I read of the Men’s Shed movement and I see its value in helping men who find themselves “alone in the midst of the crowd”. It’s a brilliant concept. Connected to this is our plan to start a Men’s Group in Merredin on March 10^th. Getting  together for an hour of fun and barbeque (with a beer or two perhaps) and then some input on God, life and relationships. More about that later.

Another helpful article was about the Work Party movement. Men and women who give up two weeks or more in some outback town to refurbish the churches. They take their caravan (if they have one) and enjoy the travel to some place 500 or more km’s away. They make good friends and bring a bit of new life into the community. A wonderful idea.

Enjoy the service and may the Lord be with you.

Rev David de Kock

This is going to be a busy week – starting today! Four services today and then gathering steam to the Mighty Men’s Conference in Perth beginning on Friday. I will be going down on Thursday to attend a Ministry Supervision Meeting in the afternoon and the Ministers Pneuma Breakfast on   Friday morning. The Supervision Meeting is an experiment in the        Presbytery where six ministers have been selected to share insights in ministry together – the joyful days and the hard times. This will be our  second meeting and I am already gaining great benefit from the balance of new thinking, experience and academics in the group.

We are continuing today with our series in the Letter to the Philippians. Last week our focus was that we should have Confidence in God;      Compassion for people and Concern for Christian growth. This week we move on to Philippians 1:12-30. The points follow on from last week’s  concern for Christian growth. And this fits neatly with our own goal to reach out to others this year (42 in Merredin; 15 in Muka, 10 in Bruce Rock and 5 in Southern Cross).

If we want to reach out we need to know the great Possibilities that come with the Gospel. We need to understand the Gospel’s Priority and its   Purpose and the message of the Gospel needs to become a Pattern for our life.

The Kingdom of God does not grow simply because the church opens the doors on Sunday. No, the Kingdom grows because Christ Followers are everywhere and everyday living the Gospel in a way that attracts others to Jesus. By the example of our lives lived in an attractive way, contending as one man for the faith of the gospel, other people are drawn to its Good News. As someone once said, “Preach the Gospel at all times, and, if  necessary, use words.”

Tonight we will be showing the video of the Mighty Men’s Conference held in South Africa – it’s a documentary presentation by Angus Buchan of his vision. You will see the setting up of the biggest tent in the world and how it proved to be too small for the conference. I really encourage you to come along (and to bring something for shared tea). If you need a lift please call me and I will fetch you and deliver you home afterwards.

Rev David de Kock

This is very different to the romantic love that has become attached to    Valentine’s Day since Miss Esther Howland of Colorado in the USA sent the first Valentines Day card to her lover in the 1800′s. In a sense this   became an americanisation of the Roman pagan festival of Lupercalia. In early Rome boys and girls were kept strictly apart but on the Festival of Juno – the Roman Queen of goddesses, all the girls put their names in a jar and the boys drew them out and the couple so drawn were partners for the duration of the festival of Lupercalia. The idea was one of a short term romantic liaison – very different to Valentine’s concern for the sanctity of marriage.

So today, use the moment to celebrate your spouse. It is so easy for us to feel as if the love has grown cold, and the relationship has become boring, but from that’s not true. We have just drifted into taking each other for granted. Do something different today to show that your love is still as real as ever!

Please note that there will be NO SNAC meeting tonight. We decided last week to meet on the 1^st & 3^rd Sundays when I don’t go to Southern Cross. Next Sunday we will show the Mighty Men Video.

Be reminded that the Men’s Breakfast is on Saturday and the Parish Council meet will also meet on Saturday at the church.

From this week I will be in the church office on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings from 8.30am to 1pm. Once a month I will be in Bruce Rock on a Tuesday but I will give notice of that. Please feel free to make an appointment. My contact number at any time is 9041 1117.

God bless
Rev David de Kock

This “baptizing” action has been part of the life of God’s people since the time of Moses. The ‘washing’ of Aaron’s body with water was the initial step in his ordination as the first priest of Israel, and Moses made it clear: “This is what the Lord has commanded to be done.” From that time on ceremonial washing was an essential part of Israel’s religious life. Baptism (and circumcision for males) was required for any non-Jew to convert to Judaism. When John the Baptist burst on the scene, he made the dramatic statement that even Jews needed to be baptized with a baptism of repentance because they had slipped from the life of faith and trust in God. And Jesus Himself was baptized in order to “fulfill all righteousness.” And He commanded us to be baptized as a sign of our covenant relationship with the Triune God.

So what does this covenant actually mean? Well, I’m going to leave the answer to that for the sermon. May your ears be open and your heart ready…

I will also partly address that question when we begin to look at the Ten Commandments at the SNAC (Sunday Night At Church) service this evening.  I want to address the fact that the power of the Ten Commandments (“Ten Words”, if we want to be literal) is not that they are laws but rather that they are descriptions of how we are to live in relationship with God. They turn the theory of our faith into a specific behaviour pattern. If I believe in God, then this is how my life is to be lived. Of course, I fail often. But the goal is not rendered impure just because I am not pure, this is why grace and forgiveness is so much a part of being a Christ follower. At the heart of my faith is my relationship with God, and because of His grace, our relationship holds intact, even when I fail. Hope to see you this evening.

Rev David de Kock

In this connection I have been meditating recently on Ps 126 whose theme is about the turnaround which God brings into our lives. The people had been captive in Babylon for 70 years and the Lord has suddenly set them free .. they feel like men who had dreamed; their mouths were filled with laughter; they are stunned by the turnaround in their fortunes. One of the delights of the Lord is that things will not always be as they have been, there IS a promise of a new day and so as we live now, between the burden of yesterday and the restoration of tomorrow, let us always keep our joy. And we do that by simple trust in the Lord who always makes good His promise.

While the year is really only just getting started, we have some good plans in hand to meet our objectives of reaching out to the community in 2010. A lot of these are related to finding our own motivation and the encouraging of one another. I intend for this year that the morning sermons will help us to walk worthily with Jesus in the new life He has given us. We will also start a SNAC (Sunday Night at Church) service in the evening from February 7^th.  We will start with a shared tea and then have a service. I intend that the service will appeal to all the young at heart, will be different, interesting and upbuilding. I’ll tell you more about it next week. Specifically I hope to reach the worldview of the young adults but I am sure that it will be very encouraging even for older folk (and beside, they have to bring the food!).

Aiming at the younger children we have Toddler Jam started up soon and also another group on Friday evenings for older children and young teenagers. We start on February 5^th. And children, don’t forget to register for KUCA Camp Out which takes place over the weekend March 6 to 7.  Sunday School starts next Sunday.

On Wednesday evenings our prayers continue to be focused on revival in our town. We are being encouraged by Ken Terhoven’s book, Breath of Heaven – a selection of inspirational messages from Revivals of past centuries. Please feel free to come along for the hour.

I am still sorting out times when I will definitely be at the church office during the day but if you need to get hold of me at any time, call 90411117. Even if I am not home, the call will transfer to my mobile, at no additional cost to you.

May our Lord bless us with abundance in the year ahead.

Rev David de Kock