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This letter gives us another secret to growth and change to those of us who are feeling a little bit complacent. Maybe we feel a little more bored than blessed when we connect with church … Perhaps we feel a lot more attached to this world than we’d like - (who doesn’t struggle with that?) and looking us straight in the eye Jesus says - “I want you to see your need as you never have before. Then I’d be able to meet your need as I never have before.” John writes this way to the church in Laodicea - “To the angel of the church of Laodicea write, ‘These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation. I know your deeds that you’re neither cold nor hot … I wish that you were one or the other … But you don’t realise you’re wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you get from me gold refined in the fire so you can become rich and white clothes to wear so you can cover your shameful nakedness salve to put on your eyes so you can see.” (Revelation 3:14 ff) Not easy words from Jesus but they end with his remarkable promise - “Look! I am standing at the door and I'm constantly knocking. If anyone opens the door I will come in and I’ll fellowship with him; I’ll relate to him, I’ll dine with him and he’ll fellowship with me.” (Revelation 3:20 – Message)
Episodes
Wednesday Feb 15, 2017
Wednesday Feb 15, 2017
What do you want Jesus to do for you? That’s the question He constantly asked people as He walked around in ministry. He’d look them right in the eye and He’d say to people “What do you want Me to do for you?”
Jesus came first and foremost to change peoples’ lives. That’s what He came to do.
He came to give freedom to people who felt trapped.
He came to give forgiveness to those who feel guilty.
He came to give a future to those who feel hopeless.
Jesus also came to bring light to dark places.
What would we love to be able to see God do in our lives?"
Listen now as Pastor Peter unpacks his thoughts.
Wednesday Feb 15, 2017
Wednesday Feb 15, 2017
People are easily disillusioned with church these days. And a lot of that comes from the fact that we expect perfection.
We expect the perfect coffee every time we visit the café. We expect the bacon to be cooked just the way we like it, the eggs to be cooked just so. We expect people to behave rationally and reasonably. We expect … we expect … we expect …
And one of the things that we expect of church is that it should, like Mary Poppins, be practically perfect in every way.
But what if I told you that Jesus never meant for church to be perfect? What if I told you that His deliberate plan for the body of Christ, is that it would be imperfect? And what if I told you that He didn’t want us uprooting those imperfect people and sorting them out?
So this week, we’re going to explore what Jesus has to say about our relationship, the difficult ones, with some rubber–hits–the road Bible teaching.
Listen now as Berni unpacks his thoughts?
Tuesday Feb 14, 2017
Tuesday Feb 14, 2017
Many of us, view God as a spiritual cop … rather than the Saviour He wants to be. If we’re really honest, we have a view of God like He’s in heaven with a baton, ready to pounce on us.
The problem is, when we view God just as that judge, we tend to distance ourselves from Him.
In the story of ‘the woman caught in adultery’, Jesus could easily have moved into the role of judge. The surprise is, He avoids that role and we learn by His treatment of this woman that Jesus comes to replace ‘guilt’ with ‘grace’, and replace our ‘sin’ with ‘salvation’.
Listen now as Pastor Peter Unpacks his thoughts.
Tuesday Feb 14, 2017
Tuesday Feb 14, 2017
“Daring to go in faith” is one of the keys in daring faith to seeing miracles. Two of the words that summarize Jesus’ message are: “Come!” and “Go!”
We come to Jesus in faith and receive the Holy Spirit, and we go in faith and build God’s kingdom.
To do this, we:
(1) go to God for help,
(2) go together for support,
(3) go on to maturity, and
(4) go tell the Good News.
Listen now as Pastor Peter unpacks his thoughts.
Tuesday Feb 14, 2017
Tuesday Feb 14, 2017
Many times in life we feel like we are waiting for God – waiting for an answer to prayer, fearful to move forward without hearing from Him. Yet in God’s waiting room we have to remember that there will be delay, there is an unseen battle going on, that God is preparing us for His blessing, God keeps His promises and we are in good company.
While we wait we can write down the lessons we learn, act as though we already have our answer (Romans 4:17), imitate the habits that cause our faith to grow strong, and trust God instead of panicking. Let’s talk over a few of these.
Listen now as Pastor Peter unpacks his thoughts
Tuesday Feb 14, 2017
Tuesday Feb 14, 2017
Spiritual growth is a life-long process.
God has a part in this process and we have a part. We can be absolutely certain that God will faithfully do his part, but we must do ours as well.
We need to let God’s goals for our spiritual growth be our own life goals, too. In this discussion we’ll consider some ways in which we can do this.
Listen now as Pastor Peter unpacks his thoughts.
Tuesday Feb 14, 2017
Tuesday Feb 14, 2017
A Daring faith includes daring to commit. Daring to give ourselves completely to God. In Romans 6:13, Paul describes it as giving every part of ourselves to God. Everything. We don’t hold anything back.
This includes the most important commitments in our lives:
worship,
fellowship,
discipleship,
ministry, and
mission.
We can strengthen our faith, by uniting with others in worship.
We can discover our identity and purpose, when we connect with others for fellowship.
To will develop our potential, when we learn with others to grow (discipleship).
We experience significance, when we serve with others in ministry.
We make an eternal difference, when we join others on mission.
Listen now as Pastor Peter unpacks his thoughts.
Tuesday Aug 16, 2016
Tuesday Aug 16, 2016
God tells us many times that this world is not going to last. The universe is winding down, history is moving toward a climax—Jesus Christ is coming again. The Bible has more to say about his second coming, in fact, than it does about his first. How would your life change if you used more of your time, money, and energy on what’s going to last forever?
Tuesday Aug 16, 2016
Tuesday Aug 16, 2016
Daring faith: the key to miracles – includes daring to imagine! God-inspired dreaming often goes far beyond anything we could imagine! Through God-inspired dreaming, we learn that: (1) Our imagination shapes our life, (2) Imagining is essential to living by faith, (3) Great lives are built around great dreams, (4) God’s dream for our lives is bigger than our dreams, (5) Doubt is the enemy of imagination, (6) God’s Spirit and God’s Word fuel our imaginations, (7) Growing our character will clarify our vision, and (8) If a dream is from God, it will be connected somehow to His church and plan for the world.
Listen now as Pastor Peter unpacks his thoughts.
Friday Aug 05, 2016
Friday Aug 05, 2016
On the first Easter morning when Jesus’ disciples John and Peter went to the place where Jesus had been buried, they found an empty tomb and his body gone. When John saw this, he believed in Jesus’ resurrection. God wants us to believe in Jesus. The word “believe” appears 250 times in the New Testament, and God’s people are called “believers.” The question “Do we dare to believe?” may be the most important question in our lives.
Listen now as our Youth Pastor Pierre unpacks his thoughts.