Welcome to our service today. It is great to have you here and we would love to invite you to stay after the service and join us for morning tea.

Can you remember the children’s song “Stand up and shout if you love my Jesus?” It goes on to repeat each verse but with a different action – “Sit down and whisper if….”, “Go tell your neighbour if…”. I remember singing it with great energy as a young child.

As we get older, God doesn't want us to lose our exuberance in worshipping Him. If we read through the Bible and highlighted all the physical acts used to reverence and praise our awesome God we would be highlighting a lot - standing, bowing, kneeling, prostrating, lifting hands, clapping, shouting...on and on we could go. In a world that regularly uses God's name in vain, we need to stand up as believers and praise God for all He has done, is doing, and will do in the future. We need to be doing this not only in church on Sunday and throughout the week as we meet, but also in our daily devotional times (our personal worship) and in the way we live daily (our public worship). In Nehemiah 9:5-6 we read …..”Stand up and bless the Lord your God forever and ever! Blessed be Your glorious name, which is exalted above all blessings and praise!” Everyday, let’s bless and praise our God!

Blessings, Sandra

Welcome to our service today. It is great to have you here and we would love to invite you to stay after the service and join us for morning tea.

Directly after Jesus teaches about prayer and gives what we refer to as The Lord's Prayer, He gives a startling warning about forgiveness. He says that if we refuse to forgive others, God will also refuse to forgive us. 

When we don't forgive others we are denying our common ground as sinners in need of God's forgiveness. God's forgiveness of sin is not the direct result of our forgiving others, but it is based on our realising what forgiveness means. It is easy to ask God for forgiveness, but sometimes difficult to grant it to others. Whenever we ask God to forgive us for sin, we should also ask ourselves, "have I forgiven the people who have wronged me?" God forgives us solely because of His great mercy which we don't deserve. As we come to understand this we will want to become more like Him and therefore pass it on to others. Maybe today some of us need to ask God to search our hearts and show us if there is anyone we need to forgive. 

Blessings,

Sandra

Welcome to our service today. It is great to have you here and we would love to invite you to stay after the service and join us for morning tea.

The Bible contains so many verses that assure us that God does not change. Malachi 3:6 says, “For I am the Lord, I do not change.”  Hebrews 13:8 tells us, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.”

If God does not change, that means His attributes or characteristics do not change. Well-known preacher Charles Spurgeon listed 25 different traits of God that do not change! If God does not change, His promises do not change. Numbers 23:19 says, “God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?” Whatever God promises will always be true. If God does not change, His gifts to us are ours forever. James 1:17 says, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.” Our salvation is forever. Forgiveness of our sins is forever. Eternal life is forever.

The God we serve is the same God today as He was when He spoke the world into existence. He is the same God today as He was the day He raised Jesus from the dead. In a society that changes constantly, what wonderful assurance it is to know that our God never changes.

Blessings,

Sandra

Welcome to our service today. It is great to have you here and we would love to invite you to stay after the service and join us for morning tea.

A number of times in the New Testament we read that 'the Spirit did not permit them' or 'the Spirit led them'. We read this very thing in Acts 16 in regards to one of Paul's missionary journeys. We don't know how the Holy Spirit told Paul that he and his companions should not go into Asia. It may have been through a prophet, a vision, an inner conviction or some other circumstance. 

To know God's will does not mean we will necessarily hear the audible voice of God - in fact this rarely happens. He leads us in different ways. When seeking God's will it is wise to consider these things: make sure our plan is in harmony with God's Word, ask mature Christians for their advice, check our motives - am I seeking to do what I want to do or what I think God wants, and pray for God to open and close doors as He desires. Sometimes the Spirit will give us an inner conviction that won't let go. Sometimes others will speak into our lives through a word from the Lord. 

However it is that God reveals His will for us, the most important thing is that we are obedient to it. Yes, we may get it wrong from time to time, but God doesn't, and He will always lead us back onto the right path. 

Blessings,

Sandra