“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven."
- Jesus in Matthew 26:43-45
Ahoy Church,
MEN - Final Reminder: We still have room for a number of men to join our Emotionally Healthy Discipleship course starting next Monday night over 8wks. Please chat to Renee or contact Katie ASAP if you're keen: 0412 500 940 / katie@ksidesign.com.au
What a joy to celebrate with three young people following in Jesus' footsteps and being baptised last weekend!
This week, Martine and I are at AWAKEN, the Qld Baptist Conference, in Brisbane with pastors and leaders from all over the state. It was lovely to have a few of the young adults join us Tuesday night for worship, some ministry and some VERY danceable African worship :)
We even had a chance to share with the conference some of how God has led us to meet together on the beach and learn to be Fully Alive in Jesus as we go about our daily lives on the beautiful Sunny Coast!
As I shared on Sunday, one of the beautiful things about faith in Jesus is that the relationship with him is not limited to buildings, services or titles. We can meet with him anywhere we are.
In fact, the moments and seasons when we feel alone or want to give up are the very moments Jesus calls us to look up to him and lean into his presence.
"...one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." Philippians 3:13-14
In Philippians 3, the Apostle Paul echoes Christ's teaching to focus our energy on our future with him, not our past without him. Often, when we feel like giving up, we are allowing failures in our past to dominate our thinking. However, Jesus promises to forgive and heal the pasts of every one of his followers. This frees us to "look up" to him as we head into the unknowns of the challenges of life.
This is not simply a religious version of "positive thinking", but grounded in the historical freedom-authoring victory of Jesus over our past.
This weekend, we look at some of Jesus' most challenging teachings - to love, actually love, and pray for our enemies, in particular those who are anti-Jesus. Baked into the scripture above, Jesus reveals that he isn't after polite, improved behaviour, but rather our transformation into the heart and character of our Heavenly Father.
As you place your faith in Jesus, he promises to include you within his heavenly family. He promises to give you all the eternal riches he has. Furthermore, he promises to give you the "family Spirit", his Holy Spirit, who will train you in the family ways.
To see this become a reality, we again need to let go of our past. To let go of the values of our birth-families. To let go of the poor examples we have witnessed from loved ones, leaders or abusers. Rather, we "press on" towards God's invitation to be transformed into his loved, loving son or daughter.
What an invitation!
I encourage you to sit with the realisation that the God of the universe not only invites us all into his family, but that he believes you can become like him and he trusts you to figure it out with the presence, guidance and comfort of his Holy Spirit within you.
Much love, see you Sunday!
Dan
Coming Up
April - 9am [Home] + 4pm [Moffat]
Mondays - Young Adults - Marcello + Mariela 0428 986 423
Fridays - 6am Men's Prayer - Fred 0431 437 080
Apr 19 Home + Moffat Gatherings
Apr 25 Anzac Day
Apr 26 Home + Moffat Gatherings
Apr 27 EHD: "Emotionally Healthy Spirituality" Launches (till June 22nd)
May - 9am [Home] + 4pm [Moffat]
Mondays - Young Adults - Marcello + Mariela 0428 986 423
Fridays - 6am Men's Prayer - Fred 0431 437 080
May 03 Home Gathering + Monthly Worship
May 10 Home + Moffat Gatherings
May 17 Home + Moffat Gatherings + Baptisms
May 24 Home + Moffat Gatherings
May 31 Home + Moffat Gatherings
June - 9am [Home] + 4pm [Moffat]
Mondays - Young Adults - Marcello + Mariela 0428 986 423
Fridays - 6am Men's Prayer - Fred 0431 437 080
Jun 19-21 Church Camp @ Cobb & Co
Jun 22 EHD: "Emotionally Healthy Spirituality" Ends
Church Camp!
We are planning a church camp at Cobb & Co around mid-year. Stay tuned.
Our Mission
To help people find and follow Jesus.
Our Vision
Fully Alive through faith in Jesus. To see vision come to life, we developed FAM, our Fully Alive Model. Ideally, you can work through FAM with someone else.
Our Rhythms
Get to Know Jesus: how are you getting to know Jesus this week?
Invite people into your life: who can you intentionally open up your life to?
Gather and get involved: who can you connect, listen, share, or pray with this weekend?
Giving Up, In, and Out
Our church follows the same simple pattern of giving that we encourage each other individually: UP, IN, and OUT.
Giving UP
As a church, we give 2.5% to our denomination to support what's happening in churches like ours statewide and show appreciation for all the support they provide. We encourage each follower to consider giving "up" to support their local church - in this case ours :)
Giving IN
We give to personal/family needs within our church from our $5,000 Giving Kitty. Please alert us if you know someone with genuine needs that you're unable to meet out of your own resources.
Giving OUT
We encourage giving to several Christian projects beyond our church and local community: individual missionaries in Africa and Mongolia, an aid project in Cambodia, a local community non-profit called Sprout, and a church plant in Walkervale (Bundaberg). We'll give to them as a church, and we encourage you to give to them too.
Last month's giving: $12,146
Last month's expenses: $14,207
Balance: $73,166
Giving in : Oct 23-Mar 26: $5,000
Giving out : Oct 23-Mar 26: $18,793
"Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will repay him for his deed." - Proverbs 19:17
If you would like to support what we are doing and our giving to those in need, you can get started giving to Open Road to meet the needs of our church or get in touch with any questions you may have.
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