pastors ponderings

During a recent Sunday service, Bron prayed for us. It was beautiful and meaningful and there have been many of us who commented how it filled our hearts with peace and hope. In light of that, we asked Bron if we could print it, as it gives us an opportunity to spend a little more time meditating over what was said. May your hearts find faith in Jesus as you pray this prayer. Father God we thank you that we…

Dearest Ida’s funeral was on Tuesday. It was a beautiful service that she would have loved; it was filled with worship and bible readings and fun filled facts about Ida, who packed a lot of experiences into her 102 years. Even to the end of her days she was wanting to serve, and live life to its full. I always remember her volunteering to work in kid’s church just before her 99th birthday! Ida shared a poem she wrote with…

The Ponderings this week come via a new author, A Devoted Seeker: Just pondering! What has the Lord been saying to me today? Well, what do you know?  It’s all there in the scriptures! Every word plain and clear! No new revelation, just the straight, plain pattern for living! I can just ‘hear’ Paul saying, it’s not ‘rocket science.’ Jesus showed us how to live, and now He is making living the Christian Way even clearer, so, what is the hold up? I guess it must be…

4 For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, 5 so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another. Romans 12: 4-5 A couple of weeks ago Daniel spoke from Romans 12.  In verses 4 – 5 Paul explains that the church is a body where we all play our part but he also makes the statement that ‘individually we are members one of another’. …

The Bible calls us to be a people who participate with the Godhead—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—in what They are doing and in who They are.  I guess like me you wonder what that could mean. I know participate means ‘to actively be involved in something’ or ‘to share in something’. So I can picture what it looks like to participate with God. It means I share in riches and glory of God’s grace. It means I share in what…

The Ponderings this week comes via Mrs Jesus Follower: The Story “Halloween is much more fun than Christmas”, I overheard a lad saying to his mate as he pushed his mother’s cart along the aisle of sweets. We get to dress up, go to parties and eat lots of lollies. Halloween or Christmas? Is this going to be the question in a new generation? It set me thinking. True, between our current emphasis on political correctness, and a hunger for…

Last week I highlighted the bold claim in Romans 8 that there is no condemnation for those who belong to Jesus.  But there is a very obvious counter argument to this claim…we still sin and make wrong choices, even though we belong to Jesus. Isn’t this bold claim simply a licence to sin? Can’t we just claim the grace of God covers what we do and carry on sinning? It’s the argument Paul’s audience bought up when they heard this…

Romans 8:1 says there is no condemnation for those who belong to Jesus.  Condemnation is defined as ‘very strong disapproval’ and is probably a word we can quickly associate with. I mean, who hasn’t lived with the horrid feeling of condemnation? But the bible tells us we can stand before God the Father totally free from the feeling of condemnation. How is that possible? I can tell you that I often feel condemned and I’m presuming you would feel the…

This week the Ponderings come via Mrs Jesus Follower: The View “But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:4-6) There is so much more in this passage but it’s these verses and this truth that I’ve been thinking about lately.…

Romans is written to change the behaviour of the people in the church, so you would expect to be confronting and challenging and uncomfortable.  I’ve had all of those feelings as I’ve studied this letter and we are only 7 chapters into a 16-chapter letter. So, I guess there is still more to come. Knowing what I do about the author Paul, he is just getting started.  However, I’m surprised that the result of all that challenge is how exciting the gospel…

Last Week Daniel announced that Rob Jacobs has decided not to seek re-election to his position on the Oversight Team (OT) and that we will be nominating Jeni Ward and Ben Morton to both be appointed as OT Members at the November AGM.  Daniel explained that both Jeni and Ben are already leaders in the church with Ben leading much of the work with playgroup and young adults as well as Alpha and Jeni taking on the vision for Missions…