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 tea and coffee.

The pressure these days to depart from the truth, to put aside what God tells us is right, and to treat it as outdated church teachings is increasing. Do you ever feel like you're constantly swimming against the flow of everything around you as society moves to a 'lower' level?

If you believe in Jesus, if you take Him at His Word, if you've made Christ Lord of your life - over all things, then it is inevitable that the world is going to hate you for it - or at least demean and make fun of you. In Matt 5:10-12 Jesus says "Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven."

Conformity is doing what everybody else is doing, regardless of what is right. Morality, on the other hand, is doing what is right, regardless of what everybody else is doing. Let's choose what's right, for our reward in heaven will be great!

With love & 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 tea and coffee.

Scripture tells us that the purpose of our lives as followers of Jesus is to glorify God. This means that as believers, we honour and serve God with all of our lives, our natural gifts, our resources, our bodies, our worship and our decisions. Within the greater purpose of glorifying God, we find our purpose in what we do every day as we seek to fulfil the Great Commission that Jesus has called us to. We are to carry out the good works God has already prepared for us to do. This is what Paul was talking about when he wrote, "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we should walk in them" Eph 2:10

God has a specific plan and purpose for each one of us. Knowing this brings great peace and a sense of understanding that we don't need to strive to be someone we are not. When we know who's we are and who we are, we simply need to step out in faith and trust that God will lead us in the power of His Holy Spirit on the incredibly exciting and fulfilling mission He has for each of us. How strange that people spend their lives striving for meaning, purpose and enjoyment that God gives us freely - as a gift, when we choose to follow Him. 

With love & 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 tea and coffee.

My heart is being stirred by a book I am currently reading by Jim Cymbala called "Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire". If I could summarise what I have read so far it would be two words - "fervent prayer". 

Let me quote from the book. "The sad truth is, in the city where I live (Chicago), and all across the country, more people are turning to crack than to Christ. More people are dipping into drugs than are getting baptised in water. What is going to reverse this tide? Preaching alone will not do it; classes aren't going to do it; more money isn't going to do it. Only turning God's house into a house of fervent prayer will reverse the power of evil so evident in the world today."

We know that prayer is the foundation of everything. I believe we are starting to see a 'fervency' in our prayer meetings that we haven't seen before. So let me encourage us all again - if we prioritise anything in our week let it be prayer. We gather corporately weekly on Thursdays at 12 noon, before the Sunday service from 8:45am and on the third Wednesday of the month at 7:30pm in the lounge. Let us carry everything to God in prayer.  

With love & 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 tea and coffee.

This week I had someone say to me that they were apprehensive about a way forward with a family relationship. Two people who were close to them had grown further apart due to some actions taken by one party which had caused an existing divide to grow even further. As I considered my response I realised there was only one answer. 

I replied that even though it was our human tendency to try and step in and 'help' solve the problem, that the best way was to bathe it in prayer and not to worry, for each day has enough troubles of its own (I do listen to the Pastors sermons!). The people involved would need to take responsibility to deal with the divide and it wasn't her responsibility. She just needed to hand it over to the Lord and keep being the person God has made her to be. 

The first response is and HAS to be prayer. God is interested in every detail of our lives. Sometimes I forget that.....but more and more I am learning that His way is and always will be the best and only way to finding the solution in any problem. 

With love & blessings,

Sandra