New Bible talk series begins this weekend

This weekend we begin our new series on the New Testament book of Galatians called ‘Free Indeed!’ as Jodie preaches from Chapter 1 verses 1 to 10 with the title, “Freedom Deserted” .

Mission of the month: KBECET

KBECET (Kiama Board for Employing Christian Education Teachers) is our mission of the month. Support this ministry through the ‘Mission Table’ in the Hall.

Men’s Dinner

You’re invited to join the men of Oak Flats and beyond on Tuesday 2nd May to hear Archie Poulos at the Central Hotel, Shellharbour. RSVP via the comment card or 0439 561 373.

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.

Mini Markets

Join us on Saturday 20th May, 9am to 12pm as the Ladies’ Guild host the mini-markets. Plants, cakes, bric-a-brac, local produce, books, craft, jewellery, coffee, tea & pikelets all on offer. A great day for the Jamberoo community. Contact 4236 0158 or 0430 043 765 for further information.

Petition against Abortion

There is an extreme abortion Bill currently before the NSW Parliament. If passed, this legislation would be one of the worst abortion laws in the world. You are encouraged to sign a petition at our Welcome Desk to request that the Legislative Council oppose this bill.

ChurchBot

We now have a new integration with Elvanto called ChurchBot. ChurchBot provides a way to find out about what’s happening in our church using Facebook Messenger. You will be able to “chat” to ChurchBot to access the Elvanto system, and you can RECEIVE reminders of volunteering, TAP to easily find out about your upcoming rosters, and ASK questions like “When am I on roster next month”. How great is that? For more information see the Facebook group or Valerie.

 

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 $5509.00, leaving a gap of $791.00.

Up to the end of the last calendar month we needed to have received $273,000. Compared to that total we received $245,588, leaving a gap of $27,412.

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 .

As we approach another Anzac Day, we are reminded again of the horrors of war.

The Australian War Memorial lists 102,825 people who have died as a result of service with Australian units.

It is sobering to consider the tragic, human cost of these conflicts.

Behind every name there is heartbreak, and behind every casualty there are tears.

Yet, despite this great cost, we know that the sacrifice of lives was not in vain: our nation is stronger for their courage and valour.

Yet, it is not only in the theatres of war that we witness conflict.

All relationships experience some form of conflict from time to time.

It is a normal part of life to disagree with others, but we must seek to show love in our conflicts by listening and loving others.

Sadly, even among Christians, we see conflicts that can often end up with painful outcomes.

As I have been preparing my Bible talks for our upcoming series on the Letter to the Galatians, I have been reminded of the conflict that Paul had with several of the core, Christian leaders:

When Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray. (Galatians 2:11-13)

The conflict was necessary because the truth was at stake.

Yet, despite this painful disagreement, God used this incident to see the gospel spread throughout the nations.

Serious conflict is painful and heartbreaking, but even through such tragedy, God remains sovereign.

After all, the greatest tragedy of all was the death of Jesus, which led to the greatest triumph of history.

Jodie.

Did you know that God has made us responsible for ruling the world?

In the book of Psalms, God’s people say to him,

“…what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them? You have made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honour. You made them rulers over the works of your hands; you put everything under their feet:” (Psalm 8:4-6)

The Lord is king over the universe, and he’s put humans in charge of Planet Earth and beyond.

This is why humans have the authority to make decisions about animals and the environment.

God has given us this charge to rule everything under his command, and this is why a Biblical worldview has humans at the focal point of all decisions.

Yet, with much power comes much responsibility!

It is within our divinely-delegated power to do anything we like to our environment and to treat animals in any way we wish, but, God will hold us accountable for the decisions we make, as we rule his world under his kingship.

And at the heart of our leadership must be servanthood.

For, if we want to see what perfect human rule looks like, we should consider how Jesus rules.

His greatest act of leadership was not to set himself up as a powerful and dominant ruler.

Instead, his ultimate act of kingship was giving his life for the humans under his rule, so that he might taste death for those of us who obey his call to repent and believe in him.

Jesus’ death is an example of how to rule and serve, but most importantly, his death brings his people renewal by the Holy Spirit, so that we might lead with love.

How will this change the way you rule the world?

Jodie

This week there has been some controversy surrounding the production by Coopers Brewery of commemorative beer cans to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the Bible Society.

As part of the celebrations, the Bible Society released a video in which they hosted a mini-debate between two people with different views on same-sex marriage.

The video showed a wonderful example of how two people can clearly differ, whilst maintaining respect.

Sadly, the response to this video was a call to boycott Coopers, which was then carried out by several pubs and beer drinkers.

After originally supporting the tone of the video debate, Coopers went on to strongly distance themselves from the video and eventually state their their strong support of same-sex marriage.

The pressure that Coopers felt is the same pressure that Christians regularly experience to be silent in this debate, even if we speak in a well-mannered way.

This is a sign of the kind of challenges that Christians will continue to experience, and are likely to see grow in frequency and intensity.

This is all the more reason why Christians need to stick together.

And the place to do that is by going to church.

We don’t go to church in order to please God, or to somehow work our way to Heaven.

We come to church to meet with Jesus as he speaks by his Holy Spirit through the words of the Bible, in a supportive and loving community of grace.

Because if you think you can stand up and say you’re a Christian but rarely, if ever, come to church to be supported by your Christian brothers and sisters, then you’re likely to fall away under the ever-mounting pressure of our increasingly-hostile world.

If you’ve not been to church for a while, please come back.

We need you, and you need us.

Jodie

When I was a young boy, I remember receiving a Bible from my grandma as a gift.

In the front of the book she wrote in beautiful handwriting this verse from the book of Proverbs:

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. (Proverbs 3:5-6)

It is only now, as a much-older adult, that these words seem to really make sense.

As a child, I was working hard to grow up into a man, and that meant that I needed to be able to develop skills and knowledge that I could depend upon.

But now that I’m older, I understand that no matter what I’m able to do as an adult, I need more than ever to trust in the Lord with all my heart.

It can be very hard to trust in others when you’ve been hurt or when you’ve become reliant on your own abilities.

But God makes it clear to all of us, young and old, that no matter how good our understanding of life, we still need to rest fully on God, to trust him in every single way.

And when we’re told to trust God, it means that we need to submit to him, following his loving rule over us.

We long to be the “self-made” person who can play “I did it my way” at our funeral, but God tells us that we need to throw ourselves on Jesus, to put our full faith in him.

And the great news is that when we do that, he will make our paths straight: he will smooth out the bends in life, even when it sometimes feels a bit bumpy on the road.

Because when we trust in Jesus as Lord, he will lead us in the road to Heaven, taking us safely home.

Jodie.