Coming up this weekend 11th – 12th November 2017

/in /by

This weekend, we continue our series on 2 Samuel. In the next talk, Jodie will be speaking on the topic, “War and peace”, from 2 Samuel chapter 17 verse 1 to chapter 18 verse 33.

At our 5pm Saturday service we will have an opportunity to meet one of our church members, which is always a great encouragement to us all.

Also during our 5pm Saturday service, we’ll have our weekly question and answer time, and Jodie will be answering these questions:

  1. How could God be contained in the Ark of the Covenant when it is an object made by humans?
  2. How did David know that Ahitophel’s destruction was God’s will?
  3. Should we follow David’s model of praying curses down on our enemies?
  4. Did David truly submit to God’s will, or did he simply pray and then assume that God’s will aligned with his own?
  5. Given that Hushai deceived Absalom, is it OK to lie and deceive in order to do good?

Our 8am Sunday service will be a Morning Prayer Sunday service.

If you’re wanting to check out our church we’d really love you to visit us on Saturday at 5pm for a contemporary service with kids’ program and dinner afterwards, or come along on Sunday at 8am for a Prayer Book service.

See you at 5pm this Saturday or 8am this Sunday, God willing!

Church news for the week beginning 4th November 2017

/in /by

This weekend’s Bible Talk

This weekend, we continue our series looking at 2 Samuel as Simon Chaplin preaches from 2 Samuel chapter 15 verse 13 to chapter 16 verse 23, with the title, “The King’s Darkest Day”.

Mission of the month

Anglicare is our mission of the month. Support this ministry through the ‘Mission Table’ in the Hall.

Church Planning Meeting

Next Saturday 11th November from 8am to 11am we’re going to meet in the hall to reflect on our recent ministry activities and to plan for the future. In addition to our staff and our elected Parish Council members and Wardens, we would love to welcome any regular members to join us.

Midweek Monthly Service

We are thankful to God for a terrific midweek service on Thursday, so we’re going to now run them on the 1st Thursday of every month (except January) at 11am, followed by a light lunch. Our next service is 7th December. Who will you invite?

Welcome to ‘Alive!’

Our new youth group has a new name: ‘Alive!’ It meets Saturday nights after dinner, during term time. For students aged years 7 to 12. See Rayne Orange for more details.

Christmas Decorating for SRE

It’s great to be holding the combined SRE assembly in our church building this year. To make it an even better experience for the children could we have some volunteers to decorate the church before Thursday 30th November. The decorations can then stay for the whole Christmas period.  See Lesley Errington if you are able to help.

Giving update

Each week we need to receive $6300.00 in order to meet our commitments. In the last calendar month, our average weekly giving was $6272.00, leaving a gap of $28.00.

Olimometer 2.52

Up to the end of the last calendar month we needed to have received $98,802. Compared to that total we received $109,200, leaving a gap of $-10,398.

Olimometer 2.52

Electronic giving is a great way to give! It helps us prayerfully plan our giving, and then the bank will help us keep that commitment, even when we may be unable to attend. To give by direct transfer then these are the details. Account name: Church of England Jamberoo. Account number: 10081274. BSB: 062562 .

Faithfulness in failed families

/in /by

(CREDIT: Heidi via flickr.com)

Can you imagine what it would be like to have a bad reputation before you were even born?

That’s what life was like for the Old Testament character, Jacob.

God told his mother, Rebekah, that the twin sons in her womb would be at war with each other.

After their birth, the tension also grew between the parents, as each favoured a different boy.

In the end, Jacob lived up to his reputation, as he grasped the birthright from his older brother, and deceived his dying father to give him his final blessing.

And this made his brother, Esau, so angry that he wanted to kill him.

It would be hard to find a family that was more dysfunctional!

And yet, it reminds us that God uses imperfect people and imperfect families to achieve his plans.

As Jacob fled from his brother, God reached down to Jacob in a dream.

In this, God repeated the promise he made to Jacob’s father and grandfather.

Jacob had done nothing to deserve this favour and kindness from God.

It was like that back then, but it’s still the same today.

God makes the first move in our own lives when he draws us back to him.

We might boast of our wise decision to follow Jesus, but it’s really all from God.

As we read in the Bible in Romans chapter 5, it was “whilst we were sinners that Christ died for us.”

And two sentences later, we read that “when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him.”

You might feel there’s no way that God could accept you.

You might think your life is too sinful to be saved by God.

Yet, our hope lies in this: While we were still sinners Christ died for us.

Jodie McNeill.

Coming up this weekend 4th – 5th November 2017

/in /by

This weekend we continue our series on 2 Samuel.  In the next talk, Simon Chaplin will be speaking on the topic, “The King’s Darkest Day”, from 2 Samuel chapter 15 verse 13 to chapter 16 verse 23.

We will also share the Lord’s Supper at 5pm Saturday, so come along and be reminded again of the great service of Jesus Christ, who died for our sins.

During our 5pm Saturday service, we’ll have our weekly question and answer time, and Jodie will be answering these questions:

  1. Did Adam and Eve have children in the Garden of Eden before being banished?
  2. Why did David keep Joab in charge of the army since Joab kept taking matters into his own hands?
  3. Since God does not like chariots, was Absalom disobeying God by riding in a chariot?
  4. Where was God during the events in chapters 14 and 15 from last week?
  5. Is it still sinful for two people to be dating in a homosexual relationship if the relationship does not include any sexual relations?
  6. Why isn’t the grape juice we use for the Lord’s Supper alcoholic?
  7. What are some suggestions for someone who is struggling in their prayer life?

Our 8am Sunday service will be a Morning Prayer AAPB service.

If you’re wanting to check out our church we’d really love you to visit us on Saturday at 5pm for a contemporary service with kids’ program and dinner afterwards, or come along on Sunday at 8am for a Prayer Book service.

If you can’t make it in person, you’re welcome to jump online to watch the service (with the same sermon and many other items) at www.oakflats.tv.

Church news for the week beginning 28th October 2017

/in /by

This weekend’s Bible Talk

This weekend, we continue our series looking at 2 Samuel as as Jodie preaches from chapter 14 verse 1 to chapter 15 verse 12 with the title, “Conspiracy Theory”.

Mission of the month

Anglicare is our mission of the month. Support this ministry through the ‘Mission Table’ in the Hall.

New Youth Group!

Tonight from 7.30pm to 9pm, Rayne is going to bring together all of our youth to meet together and share some exciting ideas and plans for our new youth group. If you’re high school age then be sure to come along, and bring your friends. For everyone else, please pray for this exciting, new development in our ministry to the young people of our village, valley and beyond!

New Midweek Service

This Thursday 2nd November at 11am we’re going to kick off a brand-new ‘Midweek service’ in the church, followed by a light lunch. This is an ideal time to come together, especially for those who may find our weekly services to be a challenging time of the day. Bring along old and new friends for a service that is aimed to serve both regular churchgoers and those who may not have been along before, or at least for a long time.

Dinner at the Bowlo

Join us this Thursday at 6pm at the Jamberoo Bowling Club for a relaxed meal together at the ‘Wok and Grill’ restaurant, for great steaks, tasty Chinese, and lots of laughs.

Church Planning Meeting

On Saturday 11th November from 8am to 11am we’re going to meet in the hall to reflect on our recent ministry activities and to plan for the future. In addition to our staff and our elected Parish Council members and Wardens, we would love to welcome any regular members to join us.

Giving update

Each week we need to receive $6300.00 in order to meet our commitments. In the last calendar month, our average weekly giving was $6272.00, leaving a gap of $28.00.

Olimometer 2.52

Up to the end of the last calendar month we needed to have received $98,802. Compared to that total we received $109,200, leaving a gap of $-10,398.

Olimometer 2.52

Electronic giving is a great way to give! It helps us prayerfully plan our giving, and then the bank will help us keep that commitment, even when we may be unable to attend. To give by direct transfer then these are the details. Account name: Church of England Jamberoo. Account number: 10081274. BSB: 062562 .

Is the Bible telling the truth?

/in /by

(CREDIT: Artondra Hall via Flickr)

I’ve been reading a number of detective books recently. So when someone handed me a book about Jesus written by a detective I was curious. The book is called ‘Cold Case Christianity‘ by J. Wallace. He’s a seasoned homicide detective and he applies what he has learnt to the witness accounts of Jesus, especially from ‘cold cases’.

At first I was quite captivated by all the real life stories he threw in, but as I read on he introduced more and more sophisticated analysis.

He made some very persuasive arguments in favour of the reliability of the witness accounts about Jesus.

We’ve probably all heard the argument that witness accounts often tell things from different perspectives. But he gave a much more detailed explanation of this point, using forensic analysis. Specifically he wrote about the phenomenon of ‘inadvertent support.’

No eyewitness ever gives a full account of a scene. So often their description raises a particular question. When Jesus calls Peter and Andrew in Matthew, the account at first seems odd. These men drop everything and immediately follow Jesus on their first meeting. Why would they do that?

If Matthew was the only account of Jesus this would remain unanswered. But Luke ‘inadvertently’ answers this question.

In his account we get a prior story of the fisherman encountering Jesus. Jesus used their boats to teach the crowds by the lake. He then instructed them to take him out and fish. They’d had an unsuccessful night of fishing but now they take an exceedingly impressive catch. This certainly gave them something to think about when he later asked them to follow him.

There are many of these incidental questions & answers in the Gospels.

Now these things by themselves don’t prove Christianity, but it’s exactly the kind of thing you’d expect if the witnesses are real and telling the truth.

Simon Chaplin

Coming up this weekend 28th – 29th October 2017

/in /by

This weekend we continue our series on 2 Samuel. In the next talk, Jodie will be speaking from 2 Samuel chapter 14 verse 1 to chapter 15 verse 12, on the topic ‘Conspiracy Theory’.

We will also take time in our service to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, the day the church marks 500 years since Martin Luther nailed his 95 thesis to the Wittenberg church door.

During our 5pm Saturday service, we’ll have our weekly question and answer time, and Jodie will be answering these questions:

  1. Given all the horrible things that happened to Tamar, how can we say that God looked after her?
  2. What does God think about Christians who remain in an active, homosexual relationship?
  3. Given that Adam and Eve were the first humans, where did the people in the other towns come from?
  4. Is it wrong to teach children about Santa and the Easter Bunny?

Our 8am Sunday service will be the Lord’s Supper Sunday Service.

If you’re wanting to check out our church we’d really love you to visit us on Saturday at 5pm for a contemporary service with kids’ program and dinner afterwards, or come along on Sunday at 8am for a Prayer Book service. Our new youth group starts after dinner on Saturday night.

If you can’t make it in person, you’re welcome to jump online to watch the service (with the same sermon and many other items) at www.oakflats.tv.

Church news for the week beginning 21st October 2017

/in /by

This weekend’s Bible Talk

This weekend, we continue our series looking at 2 Samuel as Simon Chaplin preaches from chapter 13 verses 1 to 39 with the title, “Sin and vengeance in the Kingdom”.

Mission of the month

Anglicare is our mission of the month. Support this ministry through the ‘Mission Table’ in the Hall.

Parish Council

Our Parish Council meets this Monday, 23rd October at 7pm at the church. Please remember them in your prayers.

New Youth Group!

Next Saturday night 28th October from 7.30pm to 9pm, Rayne is going to bring together all of our youth to meet together and share some exciting ideas and plans for our new youth group. If you’re high school age then be sure to come along, and bring your friends. For everyone else, please pray for this exciting, new development in our ministry to the young people of our village, valley and beyond!

New Midweek Service

On Thursday 2nd November at 11am we’re going to kick off a brand-new ‘Midweek service’ in the church, followed by a light lunch. This is an ideal time to come together, especially for those who may find our weekly services to be a challenging time of the day. Bring along old and new friends for a service that is aimed to serve both regular churchgoers and those who may not have been along before, or at least for a long time.

Church Planning Meeting

On Saturday 11th November from 8am to 11am we’re going to meet in the hall to reflect on our recent ministry activities and to plan for the future. In addition to our staff and our elected Parish Council members and Wardens, we would love to welcome any regular members to join us.

Giving update

Each week we need to receive $6300.00 in order to meet our commitments. In the last calendar month, our average weekly giving was $6272.00, leaving a gap of $28.00.

Olimometer 2.52

Up to the end of the last calendar month we needed to have received $98,802. Compared to that total we received $109,200, leaving a gap of $-10,398.

Olimometer 2.52

Electronic giving is a great way to give! It helps us prayerfully plan our giving, and then the bank will help us keep that commitment, even when we may be unable to attend. To give by direct transfer then these are the details. Account name: Church of England Jamberoo. Account number: 10081274. BSB: 062562 .

Is #loveislove enough?

/in /by

(CREDIT: Glenn Lascuna via Flickr)

As the closing date for the marriage postal survey approaches, it’s worth reflecting on some of the slogans we’ve heard throughout the campaign.

One well-known ‘hashtag’ is #loveislove.

It’s a catchy phrase, but what does it really mean?

Maybe it’s saying that if a person feels love, then that love is enough to allow them to marry that person, even if they are of the opposite sex.

But in the end, when people say “love is love”, it doesn’t really say a lot about love.

That’s why it’s good that God tells us in the Bible what love really is.

We see this in 1 John chapter 4 sentence 9: “This is how God shows his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.”

But Jesus was sent for a specific reason, which we read in the next sentence: “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”

In other words, God’s love was shown by a costly sacrifice, by sending Jesus to us, to die for us.

He did that so that we might have our sins forgiven.

So if we ask Jesus for forgiveness and follow him as our loving ruler, then we can now fully enjoy the greatest love of all.

What’s more, we’ll also understand that the heart of love is sacrifice.

As we then know this sacrificial love of God deeper and deeper, and follow his loving rule more and more, then he will also empower us to supernaturally love like he first loved us.

Which means that #godsloveislove is probably a better hashtag!

Jodie McNeill

Coming up this weekend 21st – 22nd October 2017

/in /by

This weekend we continue our series on 2 Samuel. In the next talk, Simon Chaplin will be speaking from 2 Samuel chapter 13 verses 1 to 39 on the topic ‘Sin and vengeance in the Kingdom’.

At both our services, we will have a special update about Anglicare which is our Mission of the Month.

During our 5pm Saturday service, we’ll have our weekly question and answer time, and Jodie will be answering these questions:

  1. Which Pharaoh forgot about Joseph and his place in Egypt’s history?
  2. Since Uriah was a Hittite, wasn’t he an enemy of Israel?
  3. Who are the ‘masters’ that are referred to in 2 Samuel 12:8?
  4. Did the war against the Ammonites continue throughout the events of 2 Samuel 12?
  5. Why was David’s sin of having multiple wives and concubines not dealt with in the same way as his sin with Bathsheba?
  6. Has Christ taken all the punishment for sin or just the cost of death for the sin?

Our 8am Sunday service will be a Holy Communion Second Order AAPB service.

If you’re wanting to check out our church we’d really love you to visit us on Saturday at 5pm for a contemporary service with kids’ program and dinner afterwards, or come along on Sunday at 8am for a Prayer Book service.