The Mobile Community Pantry (MCP) began at Oak Flats Anglican in February this year. It is a collaboration with Anglicare to provide low-cost groceries to those who need it most. And judging by the response it is a service that is being well received by the community.

Every fortnight, on a Thursday, a van from the MCP arrives at the church loaded with top quality groceries, that for some reason the major supermarket chains want off their shelves. This food can be sold to those who come to the church. Each individual is able to choose how to fill up a bag or two from the van. The cost is $10 a bag but the value is well in excess of $60. This represents a massive saving for those who come, but also offers them the opportunity to pay for the goods – and people really seem to like the way this works.

An encouraging side to this is that local businesses have started to donate items that can be taken for free too. Also one of the church members is also cooking home-made meals to take away!

As a church which has experienced the love of Jesus for us, we are really interested in showing love to our community who need an extra hand to purchase food essentials. However we want to do much more than that. The strength of this program is not just the low cost groceries but the community that people are invited into on a Thursday morning. People are warmly invited in by a whole team of volunteers who offer tea, coffee, home made food, and best of all, a warm and friendly conversation.

The MCP is an easy way for our church to show the love of Jesus, in the same way Jesus did to those who were in need when he walked on Earth. And yet Jesus never left his actions of love alone.

They were always accompanied with an explanation of the thing that people needed most: it is the spiritual needs of Oak Flats we really want to help people with, and we pray that as we get to know those who come along, we will be able to hold out the Eternal food that God offers us in Jesus.

Simon Chaplin

CREDIT: Photo NAPARAZZI, via Flickr.

It must be very hard to be a professional sportsperson, with the constant pressure to perform for supporters and sponsors.

No doubt this contributed to the decision this week by disgraced Australian male cricketers to undertake a premeditated and coordinated act of ball tampering.

The level of public outcry has been extraordinary, and the call for punishment and justice has been deafening.

Yet no matter how tempted the players were to cheat, their temptation dwarfs that felt by Jesus in his life.

We read in the Bible in Luke chapter 4:1-13 that Jesus was tempted by the Devil after he spent forty days without food in the desert.

Jesus was tempted by the Devil to bow down to him, instead of trusting and worshiping his heavenly Father.

But Jesus knew that it was vital that he obey God’s word, and resist temptation.

For, if Jesus had cheated in his mission, he would have failed to have dealt with our sin on the first Good Friday.

For, it was only because Jesus was truly sinless that he could take our sin upon himself, and be punished for those sins in our place.

But more than that, by resisting the temptation to cheat in his mission to redeem his people, he also showed that he knows what it is like for us to be tempted, too.

As we read in Hebrews 2:18, “Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.”

As Smith, Warner and Bancroft make the long and lonely flight back to Australia, it is worth remembering that Jesus’ death brings forgiveness to everyone who asks him, no matter what the crime.

It is only by Jesus’ strong resolve not to cheat in his mission that sinners like you, me, and the Aussie cricketers can be saved from the punishment we deserve from God.

Jodie McNeill.

CREDIT: Photo Waiting for the Word, via Flickr.

Depending on the situation, it can be good or bad for a person to be emotional.

It’s obviously good and normal to cry when you meet your newborn child for the first time, or farewell a loved one for the last time.

But, we’d find it unsettling if a police officer, or a judge, or a surgeon was to cry or laugh out loud in the course of their solemn duties.

Interestingly, the Bible shows us several times when Jesus is emotional.

One time he was clearly upset at how he was rejected by his own, Israelite people, whom he came to save.

He was angry at those religious rulers in Jerusalem, and he expressed a heart-felt sadness about them:

Matt. 23:37 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.”

Another time he was famously upset was when he uttered the words that make up the shortest verse in the Bible: “Jesus wept.” (John 11:35).

Jesus saw how Mary was upset at the death of their mutual friend, Lazarus, and Jesus himself was caught up in tears.

Because Jesus continues to live in human form as he rules with his heavenly father, we can be confident that Jesus continues to have emotions like this as he engages with those he loves and leads.

This doesn’t mean that Jesus’ judgement is somehow impaired by his emotions: he doesn’t stop being fair and wise.

Instead, it is a comforting reminder that Jesus’ love for his children is genuine and caring.

And it gives us a fresh reason that it’s so good to follow Jesus as our loving ruler and rescuer.

Jodie McNeill.

This week there’s been more bad news in the world.

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that he has tested a new design of nuclear weapons that cannot be intercepted, and that have a practically unlimited range.

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates says the likelihood of another financial crash like the GFC is a certainty, with some economists saying that we are close to seeing another economic bubble burst.

On top of this, our Facebook feeds keep reminding us of cancer and funerals and grief and trials.

In many ways, this flow of bad news is really, very normal.

Every week we hear about threats of war, economic instability, and personal sickness and death.

And none of us know if more of our own, personal trials are just around the corner.

In the end, the only certainty we have is that life is full of uncertainty.

Except for one thing: we can be certain about eternity if we put our trust in Jesus.

Jesus make it clear that we can have certainty about life after death if we follow him as our loving ruler and rescuer.

He said that his followers are his sheep, and that he is our shepherd.

And he gave this assurance:

My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. (John 10:27-29)

In a time of uncertainty, we can find certainty in Jesus.

No matter what happens in the world or in our household, we can have certainty if we choose to have Jesus as our shepherd.

Since Jesus is certainty, it seems crazy to put your hope in anyone or anything else.

Jodie McNeill 

We give thanks to God for the life of Billy Graham who died this Wednesday.

Many of you will know the impact of his ministry personally. It was through his preaching that God called you back. If not you personally, then you have seen his impact on your friends, on your spouse, indeed on a generation in Australia.

I am of a generation that came after his great crusades in Australia. And yet for us to understand the Australian Christian landscape we need to understand what God did through Billy Graham.

In any Christian gathering I have ever been in where the question is asked ‘who was converted at a Crusade?’, there has always been many hands that have gone up. And this legacy has had a multiplying effect on Christianity in Australia.

I’m sure each member of my generation has had at least one significant mentor or preacher who was converted through Billy Graham. For me it was one of my university leaders. He was the one who encouraged me into ministry through his passion for reaching the lost. And it was Billy Graham who spoke the Gospel to him. It wouldn’t take long for each one of us to find these connections with his ministry.

The clarity in which he preached was astounding – the way he could explain so clearly the tenets of the Gospel and call people to repentance. I was listening to the radio once where the presenter had one of his talks running in the background. He would fade him in and out at random.

The amazing thing is that each and every sentence of Billy Graham was a self contained piece of brilliance, it felt like the most compelling thing about Jesus you could hear.

While his preaching is what we remember him for, it was his personal integrity and godliness that has safeguarded his ministry.

He resisted the temptations of money and power that came with his position, and while the media made it a sport to uncover the scandals of American evangelists, there was never a hint of that in his ministry. His life and his words were all motivated by God’s love:

“For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” John 3:16

Simon Chaplin.