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 have been pondering the difference between faith and courage. I believe the difference is this - FAITH is believing God's promises without being able to see them (Heb 11:1) but COURAGE is doing what we know to be right even if it costs us something. Courage is an act of our will.For example, courage is choosing not to sleep with our non-christian boy or girlfriend. Courage is not getting drunk when our friends around us might be. Courage is standing up to, speaking out against and not supporting some of the current legislation before us in parliament (abortion, euthanasia, legalising of marijuana). Courage is defending our faith in the midst of those who want to put us down.Being a Christian means being courageous - it is not for the faint hearted! It takes courage to be a Christian. So when the attacks, put downs, mocking and laughing come your way - be prepared - and be strong and courageous - be very strong and courageous, not turning to the left or the right.! (Joshua 1:6-7)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.Because God created us and knows our innermost thoughts (Psalm 139) He knows what delights our heart. He also knows the desires of our hearts. But have you stopped to think about what delights the Lord?I believe we delight the Lord when we follow His instruction. I believe it is when we choose not to criticize someone but instead choose to say nothing or instead say something encouraging about them. I believe it is when we choose to honour the Sabbath when we might rather be doing something else. I believe it is when we carry out an act of service for someone in need when we might rather be doing something for ourself. I believe it is choosing to tell the truth when it might be a lot easier to tell a lie. And of course the list goes on......There is nothing we can do to make God love us more. He loves us more than we can ever imagine or put into words. But we can show our love for Him by firstly reading His inspired Word and then obeying it as we live out our daily lives.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.It was such a blessing to have a lovely restful weeks holiday in the beautiful township of Akaroa last week. Thank you to all who made it possible, in particular Neville, Teresa, Ann, Luke, Jono and Nic.I find holidays are a great time to 'reset' my 'spiritual clock' - to get back into the basic spiritual disciplines which sometime go amiss during the busy term time. For me this includes daily walks with my worship music, regular praise and prayer and doing my daily devotional and bible reading. I'm reminded during this time of how important these disciplines are - I use the word 'disciplines' because that's what they need to be. A discipline is something that we develop by instruction and exercise especially in self control. I'm reminded how crazy I am not to be exercising them in the more busy periods of my life! Spiritual disciplines are like the air that we breathe and the food that we eat - without them we malnourish ourselves and become weak and unable to move forward in all that God is calling us to.How are you going with your spiritual disciplines? Have you formed good habits and patterns or are you like me and in need of 'resetting' your spiritual clock? If so, I encourage you to take some time to pray and work out how you can do that because the result is SO worthwhile!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.One of the most important questions we can ask ourselves as followers of Jesus is “what then shall I do with Jesus”? When we accept Jesus into our hearts and ask Him to lead us and guide us it doesn’t stop there. Salvation is a gift freely given but it comes with a call on our lives. We are called to be the light in the darkness for Jesus is the HOPE of the world and the world needs Him more than ever today as the end draws near. As suicide rates increase, as despair grows, as people lose hope, as loneliness increases, as crazy laws are introduced into the country and as the battle increases we are called to always share the good news of Jesus Christ and to have an answer ready for those who ask us. This is the privilege we have as believers.For Christ IS good news. He came to set us free. He is our hope. He is our purpose and He is our gift to give away and share with others.With love & blessings, Sandra