We Aussies love our sport, and we love to see one person or team compete against another to try and work out who is the greatest.

And yet beyond any comparison, the Lord, our God, is truly the greatest of us all.

I was reminded this as I read Psalm 104 this week, and experienced a catalogue of God’s greatness.

He created the universe, and shows his beauty in the stars and all the objects that fill the sky.

He controls his creation, providing water and greenery for plants and animals.

He cares for his world, sustaining every part of this living planet.

It is beautifully summarised in these verses:

All creatures look to you to give them their food at the proper time. When you give it to them, they gather it up; when you open your hand, they are satisfied with good things. (Psalm 104:27-28)

And this is why the writer of this Psalm begins with these words:

Praise the LORD, my soul. LORD my God, you are very great; you are clothed with splendor and majesty. (Psalm 104:1)

God is, indeed, very great, and because of this, he is worthy of our praises to him:

May the glory of the LORD endure forever; may the LORD rejoice in his works— he who looks at the earth, and it trembles, who touches the mountains, and they smoke. I will sing to the LORD all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live. May my meditation be pleasing to him, as I rejoice in the LORD. (Psalm 104:31-34)

When we feel that our world is spinning out of control, it is important to stop and mediate on the greatness of God, and to rejoice in him for all he has done.

Praise the Lord… he is very great!

Jodie.

What are the three most important characteristics of being a Christian?

There are three that are highlighted in the New Testament as they occur together time and time again. What would you put in your top three?

The Apostle Paul says, “and now faith, hope, and love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love“. (1 Corinthians 13:13)

Faith looks back to the past looking to what Jesus has done; love has eyes on the present, our response everyday for what Jesus has done; hope looks forward.

While love may be the greatest, I wonder if it is hope that we are most in need of being reminded of?

Hope is often used today to mean something along the lines of wishful thinking, the kind of characteristic you would find among optimistic people.

But hope is a characteristic for all Christians. Our hope is not in some vague picture of the future, but in the solid truth of the resurrection.

Jesus’ resurrection is the first fruit of that day when he will return and raise us up to the new creation, our glorious inheritance.

So Paul prays: “that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance.”  (Ephesians 1:18.)

Why is it that our hope grows dim?

Perhaps our love for this world is too big? We don’t long for the new creation because we are so captivated by this one?

Perhaps our longing for justice is not big enough? We can become skeptical that nothing will ever change, forgetting that Jesus’ resurrection assures justice for all.

Perhaps our imaginations are too weak? We can’t imagine what it will be like because these promises are extraordinary and completely beyond our experience, and so doubt creeps in.

Our world wants us to doubt, but hope is the antidote.

Don’t let it grow dim, for in Jesus the resurrection has already begun, and so your hope is secure.

Simon Chaplin.

Leaving the comfort of Australia, I arrived in the unfamiliar, foreign land of Fiji… a different place, climate, and people, but the same God.

Along with the 75 other students in the Youthworks Year 13 Gap Year program, we were given opportunities to learn how the Fijians live, eat, work and function as a society. We then learnt to apply this to our teaching, ministry, and relationships. 

From organised ministry at youth groups, churches and schools, to unplanned opportunities with workers, and shopkeepers, we shared the gospel with many people.

I quickly learnt that the mission was God’s, not ours, which meant that things often did not go as planned. Sometimes we were disappointed or confused, like when our homestay visit with a family was suddenly cancelled.

Other times we were overjoyed with surprise opportunities, like when we turned up to a local primary school in Suva, prepared for a single 15-minute assembly, only to leave having done 17, simultaneous classes.

My highlight was the ten days spent in the small village of Nakavu, where I was welcomed into the home of a beautiful family from the Methodist Church. We were totally immersed into the village life, living with the people and learning from them.

So much of the mission was unstructured, playing with the children at the stunning Navua River, forming friendships which provided many amazing chats. This has made me realise the importance of investing in children outside set hours of ministry events.

Most of all, I was challenged to be totally reliant on prayer, not only when things go wrong, or as a backup, but as the most important thing for effective ministry. 

I am so thankful for each and every one of you, for your generosity in prayer and financial support. Lives were changed in Fiji, and my life was certainly one of them.

Jemimah McNeill – Year 13 student

Whilst it is true and powerful that children are our future, the problem is that society doesn’t quite know what to do.

We look at the current problems of our world and then look to the next generation to solve them… problems like violence, alcohol, crime, poverty and the environment.

The cause of each of these problems, so the reasoning goes, is a lack of information about the impacts that each of these problems may result in.

So to help our children overcome the issues we introduce educational programs at the earliest appropriate age to arm the next generation with the knowledge and skills to overcome them.

Now all this is well intentioned and not without benefit, but this strategy has always and will aways ultimately fail.

This is obvious when you realise that some of these programs have been going on for generations.

Issues to do with alcohol are a tragic example: we are now trying to teach our kids the very same things that we were taught but have ignored.

And the reason why these educational reforms have failed is that the problem is misdiagnosed.

The problem is not lack of information: the problem is sin, and so our children carry within them the problem itself.

Our children need saving.

While this is profoundly politically incorrect to say unless we understand the problem we will never be able to offer children the answer.

Jesus said “Let the children come to me; do not hinder them,  or the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.”  And he took the children in his arms, placed his hands on them and blessed them. Mark 10:14,16

Jesus is the answer because Jesus came to save us from our sins: he came to save children from their sins.

Simon Chaplin

When we think of support for missionaries, we most naturally think about finances.

After all, when we and our partner missionary organisation send someone to a distant location to preach Christ, we know that there are many costs that need to be met.

Our church loves to financially support missionaries, and we do so by allocating a proportion of your regular financial gifts. Yet, we must never forget that our support for missionaries extends also to our prayers.

When I sit down for my morning prayers, I use an app called ‘PrayerMate’, which helps me remember to pray for CMS, the Church Missionary Society. Alternatively, you might just like the paper version, which works just as well!

But the main point is that we need to keep remembering that God uses our prayers to do his will to share the saving message of Jesus to all the nations.

When we pray for our missionaries on our own each day, or together each weekend in church, we are providing critical support for those who work with us to share the great news of Jesus with the world.

This weekend, as we celebrate CMS Sunday, let’s make a commitment to personally pray for our mission partners, and for CMS as well, who encourage us to use these words:

God of love, whose will it is that everyone should be saved, bless the Church Missionary Society and all who have gone out in its fellowship to preach, to teach and to heal. Guard, guide and use them; raise up more people in your world wide church to pray and to work, to care and to understand, to give to you and to go for you, that your church may grow, you will be done, your kingdom come and your glory be revealed through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Jodie