This is the latest blurb that is published on the front of our weekly bulletin

What’s On Your Mind?

Most of us have a thousand things on our minds on any one day.

Some of us have more than one thing at a time, and it seems our life is crowded with demands, disappointments and decisions.
Others may seem to have nothing in particular and cruise through life with never a care in the world. 
But we all have an ‘internal drive’, that hard wired default place where we dream, hope and desire for what we think is good.

Hugh Mackay, the Australian psychologist, tried to capture what is on our collective minds in his 2015 book, The Good Life. In it he asks Aussies “what makes life worth living?” 
We could be cynical and compare ourselves to the citizens of ancient Philippi, who Paul described in chapter 3 verse 19 in his letter: “their god is their appetite, they think about shameful things, and they think only about this life here on earth”.
Not us, surely!
Mackay has a surprising conclusion to his research. He writes ‘The good life is not the sum of our security, wealth, status, postcode, career success and levels of happiness.
The good life is one defined by our capacity for selflessness, the quality of our relationships and our willingness to connect with others in a useful way.’

Mackay is on the right track.
But the Gospel is both much worse news, and much better news. Without God’s rescue mission through Jesus, we are all like the citizens of Philippi – driven by selfish desires, giving ultimate worth to possessions and experiences, and not a thought for eternity.
We are heading for destruction.
The great news is that if we love God and follow his Son Jesus, he has taken hold of us for his very own.
We can now live for Him, love others as He has asked us to do, have our minds made new, and live with the certain hope of seeing him face to face forever.

Now that’s a good life!

Andy McPhail

Special Religious Education (SRE)

One great way to ensure that the next generation hears about the GLORIOUS deeds of the LORD, is through SRE (Special Religious Education or “teaching Scripture”).

Every Thursday afternoon during term time, a team of loving and dedicated servants from our church invest in the kids next door at Jamberoo Public School by teaching them about God through SRE. It’s a fantastic opportunity to walk alongside these young ones, pointing them to WHO God is, WHAT he’s done, and WHY that matters for us.

Given that the school is quite small, we teach the students in stage groups

  • Kindy is taught by Elise & Paula
  • Year 1-2 has been taught by Jodie, and is being taken over by Lesley
  • Year 3-4 is taught by Rach
  • Year 5-6 is taught by Deb

My role is to coordinate the team, liaise with the school, oversee the admin and to fill in when one of the other teachers can’t make it (which turns out to be pretty often!)

We’d really love for you to pray for us each week as we teach these energetic young ones about God from the Bible. The team has asked if you can please pray:

  • That we would have love and compassion for the students
  • We would have creativity to convey the love of Christ in language and actions that will touch their hearts and minds. 
  • God would help us pitch the lesson at a level the children can understand.
  • That the Holy Spirit would go ahead of us each week.
  • For the recruitment and training of more SRE teachers from our church to take over some of the classes in 2025

If you’d like to know more about SRE or would like to talk about how you can support us, please get in contact!

Matt Bartlett

God is For Us

This week I have been reflecting on Romans 8 verses 31-39, one of my favourite passages in the Bible.

If we look at the earlier verses in chapter 8, we read that God works for the good in the life of the believer, including salvation.

In verse 31, Paul now asks the question: what shall we say in response to this? ‘If God is for us, who can ever be against us?”

The question for us then is this, ‘is God for you or against you’? It’s a pretty important question!

These final verses of chapter 8 offer great assurance with two precious truths for believers in Christ. That God is for us and that nothing can separate us from God’s love.

So how do you know that God is for you?

Because God, who gave his own Son, will graciously give you all things along with him (v32).
Because God who justifies you will not allow any charge to be brought against those he has chosen (v33). If the God of all creation has already declared you innocent of all charges, then who can bring accusations against you? Satan is the ultimate accuser, but he has already been defeated.
Because he doesn’t condemn us. Instead of condemning us, Christ died and was raised, and not only does he not condemn us, he intercedes and speaks for us.

And because absolutely nothing can separate us from God’s love.

How do we know that God is for us?
He gave his own Son for us. He justifies us. He can condemn us but chooses not to.
And nothing can separate us from the God who loves us.

We can see that the only way God will be against us is if we reject the Son he did not spare for us.

How then, would you answer the question, Is God for you or against you?

SANDEE BATELIC

What is Church?

Church is my Spiritual Home.

A home where I am nurtured, loved, grown as a Christian & encouraged to serve my fellow family members. I have experienced this in abundance here at Jamberoo Anglican and I thank you for this.

In a family we all have something to contribute. Don’t hold back, find your gift and use it. Serve and be served. Be an active family member. This has been so evident in our church over the last few months of Graham’s illness.

Thank you so much for all the practical things people are doing for me.
Things like meals, taking shower screens off so Graham can be showered, dashing to hospital late at night because I needed something. Others are feeding me. Many of you are praying for me. I thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12 Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honoured, every part rejoices with it. Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.”

We here at Jamberoo Anglican are truly “one body”.
Each and every part doing its bit to help our body function in a spiritually healthy way. We are family.
Many members, different ages, different jobs, but all working together & supporting each other as one body.

Family members move on. Graham has moved on to his eternal home. We are sad. We are bereft. But know we will see him again when we too leave this earthly life and join all the saints in Heaven who have gone before us.

Jodie and Mandy are moving on, taking Jesus’ command in Mark 16:15 “Go into all the world and preach the gospel” literally.
We will miss them greatly, their leadership, their friendship, their love of us and the gospel but we know God is sending them out and when God sends, you go.

Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.
In the name of Christ. AMEN.

LESLEY ERRINGTON

God’s World Through God’s Eyes

Last weekend, Jamberoo Anglican Youth went down to Burrill Pines for our annual youth camp.

We enjoyed eating together, relaxing in the beautiful beach and bush around our site, playing sport, chatting, and scavenger hunting. But most of all, we were challenged from the book of Jonah.

We heard 4 talks from our speakers and spent extended time in groups diving deep into the word and discussing how to apply what we’ve learned to our lives.

Something that challenged all of us was God’s compassion towards his creation that is all through Jonah but particularly stands out in Jonah 4.

Jonah 4:11 says And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?”

Ninevah was the capital of Assyria – the enemies of God and his people. They were spiritually blind and headed for destruction.

Yet God has such love and compassion for all people that he sent Jonah to warn the people of Ninevah to repent from their wickedness.

Over the weekend, the question we were asked was ‘do you view the world through God’s eyes?’

We are often tempted to view some people as beyond God’s reach. As people who would never give their life to Jesus.

This is not how God views the world. God has compassion on all his creation.

Our challenge from camp is to view God’s world through God’s eyes – a world full of people he loves who need Jesus to save them.

We were all enemies from God (Col 1:21) before we heard his word and he rescued us.

Our job is to preach Jesus to all people, even our enemies. Because that’s what our saviour did.

BRAD VIDILINI

Relief From Our Burdens

Are we weak and heavy laden, cumbered with a load of care? Precious Saviour, still our refuge—take it to the Lord in prayer!

These words come from the famous hymn, ‘What a friend we have in Jesus,’ and they bring us great hope as we feel the burden of life.

The words come from Jesus’ famous ‘comfortable’ words from Matthew chapter 11, verse 28 where he says:

Matt. 11:28    Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”

These words bring hope to the hopeless and help us in our helplessness, for they speak to all of us who find it impossibly hard to deal with our sins and failures.

But originally, Jesus was speaking to the lost sheep of Israel, who were overcome with the burdens of keeping hundreds of rules, regulations and traditions.

They carried the burden of keeping the law… but today we carry the burden of performance anxiety.

By nature, we all feel we need to perform well to impress God, so that we will survive judgement day.

It’s a burden that will crush us, and so Jesus offers ‘rest’.

He offers rest that is about peace with God, and we get this ‘rest’ as a gift from Jesus.

As we follow Jesus, we find rest for our souls that brings us relief from the burden of our sins.

And this is the greatest relief we could ask for from the heavy burden of guilt and sin.

JODIE McNEILL

Together in Christ’s Service

In Australia, being a Christian is often fun. Friendships, food, answers to life’s challenges, inspiring music, encouragement, purpose. At the same time, there is a serious side- life and death.

God’s Word puts it this way: Sin pays off with death. But God’s gift is eternal life given by Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 6:23).

You let sin rule your life- you die. Jesus rules your life- you have eternal life. This is the good news- the gospel. Yet what about those you care about- family, friends, even enemies? Life for you, death for them?

As a unified church, we are one another’s team mates, our goal being to “work together to see each person in our village, valley and region know how to follow Jesus and why it matters.” This goal is urgent and important.

Jamberoo Anglican Church is well-resourced to stir, equip and sharpen you as you play your part in seeing your loved ones have the eternal life that only Jesus gives.
Here are some of the evangelistic resources that our church provides for your ministry in seeing people repent and believe the good news.

Sunday sermons that clearly communicate the gospel. Bring people along.
Growth groups that explore the gospel as revealed in the Bible. Bring people along.
Training and support in friendship evangelism. Get out there, being present alongside people.
Short courses that explain the gospel for people. Bring people and sit alongside them.
Bible, tracts and books. Prayerfully give them to people.
The Illawarra evangelistic gathering in March 2025. Get alongside people in relational evangelism, bring and support them.
All these may challenge you personally, such as the investment of your time.

Amidst the fun and personal gain in being a Christian, the gospel opens our eyes to the life-giving serious side of our lives.

Steve Bligh

God’s Love in Action

One night a little girl was woken by a storm. “Mummy, Mummy” she cried out. The rain beating against the window frightened her, the lightning and thunder terrified her. “Mummy, where are you?”
Her mother hurried into the room. She sat in the side of the bed and held her daughter tightly to comfort her, “Honey, when you are frightened like this you know that God is with you and loves you.”
“Yes Mummy, I know that” she sobbed. “But I need love with skin on.”


Jesus said, ‘A new commandment I give to you: that you love one another as I have loved you’.
We all need ‘love with skin on’ from time to time and so we need to be ‘love with skin on’ for one another.

Sometimes, pastoral care is seen as an optional extra, however, caring for one another is fundamental to our lives as Christians.
We all have different personalities, abilities and gifts, and therefore, we show our love in diverse ways.
However, at its foundation pastoral care involves caring for God’s people and walking alongside them in their Christian formation.

Pastoral care is gospel shaped, Bible nourished and prayer dependent. It is God’s love in action.

At Jamberoo Anglican, we work toward providing a ministry of support, hope and caring for one another’s – Spiritual, Emotional, Relational and Physical Wellbeing.

Our growth groups are a natural place to provide care for one another. They are the place where we develop relationships and support one another.

If you are not part of a growth group, then I would encourage you to join one of our existing groups.

Given that not everyone can be a part of a growth group, let’s each consider how we can show God’s love and care to someone different this week.

The Victory Parade

The Paris Olympics have been the most successful ever for Australia, and when the competitors return, we can expect a grand parade of medal-wearing winners.

Throughout history there have been other victory parades, but it was not uncommon for the spoils of success to be the captives taken prisoner through a successful military campaign.

Which is what makes Ephesians chapter four so remarkable, when it says of Jesus in verse eight, “When he ascended to the heights, he led a crowd of captives and gave gifts to his people.”

In this quote from Psalm 68, it’s speaking of the captives who are paraded before the people and are given as the spoils of war.

Yet, the greatest surprise is seeing in the coming verses just what, or in fact, who are these captives.

It turns out that they are the leaders who speak the word of God, as we see in the list in verse 11.

The valuable gifts that Jesus gives to his church are actually the speakers of the word of God, namely the apostles, prophets, evangelists and pastor-teachers. 

For, as they speak the word of God, Christ builds his church, which brings unity and maturity to all who know and love Jesus.

When the Olympians return, they will be parading their gold, silver and bronze medals, as a demonstration of their victory over the athletes of the other nations.

But when Jesus rose from the dead, his victory led to him giving his word to his people, through hearing the voices of his preachers.

This is how Jesus brings us blessing: through hearing his word, which builds his church to maturity and unity.

There’s something better than Olympic medals, for the faith that comes from hearing the word of God is of greater worth than gold.

JODIE McNEILL

Celebrating Creation

Every four years the people of our planet gather together to celebrate God’s remarkable creation, as the Olympics showcase how people are able to go faster, higher, and stronger than before.

However, as they do so, they usually celebrate humanity, rather than God.

In what could easily be an opportunity to praise the remarkable creation of God, instead his creatures worship themselves as they pursue an atheistic celebration of the breaking of the records that once confined and defined humankind.

It’s a fine line between idolatry and doxology—between worshipping humanity and giving glory to the God who made us—and at each Olympics the gap seems to grow wider.

This year the opening ceremony created controversy with the appropriation of Da Vinci’s ‘The Last Supper’ by a drag queen DJ in the place of Christ.

Yet, the most offensive aspect of the Games must be the lack of worship of the one who fearfully and wonderfully made the men and women who perform and compete at the myriad of events.

As we witness the extraordinary feats of the athletes, our appropriate response should  be to glorify the God who made us and who has given the remarkable gifts that enable the athletic feats splashed across screens throughout the world.

When we glorify humanity we show a contempt for the creator who made every human in his image, and who created us to glorify him as our loving Lord and Saviour.

The distortion of ‘The Last Supper’ seemed to target those who revere Jesus, and yet it is the natural ignorance of God’s hand in creating everything we see that is the most offensive act that happens almost every medal ceremony.

As we marvel at creation, let us glorify the creator, who is worthy of all our praise.

JODIE McNEILL