Jesus

How will you follow Jesus in 2018?

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As we prepare to begin another year it is a good time to reflect. I am asking some  questions . What kind of community are we going to be? What kind of community does God see us becoming?

We are a gathered community of people who meet on Sundays and in small groups through the week. We are gathered because of Jesus and many of us would say we are His disciples. How then should we live? How do we follow Him?  How do we love one another well? What does that look like? How do we handle conflict well? What does it mean to be people walking in step with His Spirit?

We have articulated some thoughts on this already:

We are a community growing in being a blessing. We understand that God has so richly blessed us and invites us to offer blessing wherever we find ourselves.

We understand that belonging to a community is good for all of us as God says many times in scripture and secular psychologists now articulate clearly. Belonging allows for blessings to flow in many directions.

What we believe about ourselves influences our actions ( Behave) I am loved by God therefore I don’t have to perform to win his approval, for example. I work from grace not work for grace.

As we live this out day by day we are becoming, God willing, the human God intended and the community that brings Him glory.

Are you someone determined to follow Jesus in 2018 in this community? I am.

Shalom Jamie

Carols & Cappuccino 2017

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Immanuel

This Sunday is our Carols and Cappuccino service where we celebrate the birth of Jesus because of who He is, what He has done and what He is still doing to this very day. Jesus invites us into a relationship with Himself and through Him a relationship with God the Father. IF this seems a meaningless statement perhaps you will consider joining us next year on an Alpha course to explore that?

In the bible there are many names given to describe Jesus .  As Matthew writes in summary of what happened in Bethlehem ‘All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet

( Isaiah 7:14) ‘The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him ‘Immanuel’ which means ‘God with us.’ Matthew’s Gospel chapter 1v22-23

Our service this evening is more reflective than last year, an invitation to encounter Immanuel . To experience God with you in the trials and challenges of life, the joys and sorrows, the upsets and uncertainties, the times of confusion, despair as well as in celebration is what Jesus made possible. He came to us. Christ-mas…literally the anointed one sent. He continues to come to us through the Holy Spirit and we have prayed that if you have not experienced this before you will this evening.

May you be blessed. May you know that you are loved by God. May you discover the wonderful truth that the baby in Bethlehem went on to reveal the nature of God, to be the crucified Christ, the risen Christ, and He did that for each one of us so that we could know Immanuel.  God with us.

Shalom

Jamie

Being Blessed. Our confirmation candidates and farewell to Bishop Allan

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This Sunday we welcome friends and family of our confirmation candidates. We pray you will be blessed. It is also our last opportunity as a community to welcome Bishop Allan and Tricia. We have been encouraged and enabled in our shared ministry here through his prayerful oversight. We are going to miss you both and will continue to pray for you over an intense time.  Simple words of thanks are inadequate.

To our candidates. Thank you for encouraging us through your public affirmation and trust in our Lord Jesus. We are so glad to share life with you here in Australind. It is a beautiful thing to receive prayer for a fresh filling of the Holy Spirit. I am confident you will be blessed!

Blessed, belonging, believing, living differently and becoming increasingly whole is all part of the reconciliation and new life we find in Jesus. It  is the Holy Spirit who breathes life into us as the body of Christ. So as always we pray….

Come Holy Spirit….today fill the hearts of your people renew in us the fire, the fire of your love.

Shalom Jamie

Who do you believe Jesus is?

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This Sunday we join with Saint Peter in facing the most challenging question we will have to answer in our Journey of Faith with Jesus Christ. The question we must all answer is “ Who do you believe Jesus Christ is?” The response we make will influence every aspect of daily life during these difficult times.
 
Jesus has spent perhaps 2 years with His disciples. They had been with Him in every aspect of His ministry. They had shared in His teaching and miracles alongside the ridicule and rejection by the Jewish leaders . Sometimes they got the message but on the other occasions Jesus was filled with frustration with their responses.
 
On this day Jesus had set His face towards Jerusalem to face the cross following the transfiguration experience on the Holy mountain . Jesus looks directly into the disciples eyes and asks the question ,

Who do you believe the Son of Man is?

At first they dodge the issue by answering , some say John the Baptist risen from the dead, others Elijah, others Jeremiah .  Jesus says but  “Who do you say I am?” Peter almost cries out, “You are the Christ, the Son of
the living God.” Jesus then gives Peter the keys of the Kingdom.
 
Today we are challenged to answer the same question. It is no use answering, Jamie says this or Brian says that, or even Bishop Allan believes this. If we can answer Jesus is truly the Son of the Living God then life is transformed for ever. It means every promise Jesus made is vindicated.
We come to church every Sunday to learn about these promises and then apply them to our daily journey of faith.
 
Yours in Christ’s Service
Ven. Brian Newing

Becoming Fully Alive

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Over the past two years the framework for our community life has been expressed in the following Bless, Belong, Believe, Behave. At our recent Parish Council half day we decided to add a 5th B, namely  Become. In effect this will take centre as we recognise an ongoing process in all of us both individually and as a community. The other B’s contribute holistically to this ongoing transformation.

Become what?  Julian of Norwich wrote:

The greatest honour we can give Almighty God is to live gladly because of the knowledge of his love.

And Irenaeus wrote

‘The glory of God is a human being fully alive.’

As we are rooted and established in God’s love we begin to grow. (Ephesians 3:16-19.) We are like a tree planted in good soil. The fruit over time is love and patience, kindness and goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control.  Reconnected to our creator we can become the human being God intended with our unique personalities, gifts and talents, strengths and weaknesses. In community we can complement one another and together along with other churches in the area be the body of Christ in Australind. We can become people fully alive, we can become a people who live gladly. It’s a beautiful thing!

This takes time. The rescripting of our inner life is a process. There are various components to that. A significant one is the love of Christian brothers and sisters around us.  It was only after several years of following Jesus before I truly knew deep in my soul that I was loved unconditionally by God. Being part of a wonderful Christian community, surrounded by people who loved me was a significant part of that process. To my delight people are experiencing the same thing here among us, in this community, St Nicholas. With God’s grace let’s continue to become the church He wants us to be….

Shalom

Jamie

 

Encouraging one another – a life of discipleship

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A warm welcome back if you have been on holidays and as always welcome to our guests. We have prayed you are blessed and may that continue as you return to daily routines , school pickups and pack lunches, after school clubs and so on!

One of the challenges facing us and many church communities is how can we encourage one another in a life of being Jesus disciples if we don’t meet up regularly?

For some of you coming more than once or twice a month on a Sunday is difficult. We continue to trial different formats at 10 and thank you for feedback on the past two weeks changed format as Godly Play has been on Sabbath rest! I am wondering about continuing the Wednesday evening meal  for anyone who wants come along, with small groups following after.

Some of you are not in our mid week small groups for various reasons. So how can we support and encourage you in your life of discipleship. Let me know as I want each person involved with St Nick’s blessed, growing in their sense of belonging to a loving community, engaging with their trust in Jesus and working that out in daily life. It’s difficult to do that alone. It’s hard to live out the ‘one another sayings’ of scripture  in isolation!

If you want to know what we are thinking about then don’t forget you can listen to sermons from our website www.stnicholasaustralind.org.au/sermon    last month there were a good number of people downloading and listening to sermons which is great. Not because we think we have the best teaching rather it means we are thinking and praying about the same challenges in following Jesus. E.g. Why mention hell, Jesus? June 25th Rewards ? July 2nd The harvest is plentiful June 18th.  

It’s never been easier to find helpful bible reading / study/ devotionals online for our smartphones. I am recommending Nicky Gumbel’s Bible in One Year which works well. There are three readings per day which may be too much, in which case do one. The format is simple i.e.  an introduction, a bible reading and then a short commentary by Nicky followed by a short suggested prayer. Try it or something similar and experience a ‘little daily bread ‘in your spiritual diet! The app link is here https://www.bibleinoneyear.org/

However the Christian life is generally lived in community. Currently we have 61 people linked into our current and new small groups that meet mid week . This is not including the lovely gatherings of Thursday Craft group or monthly Care and Share.  

Let’s encourage one another in our walk with Jesus and  bless one another in community. Let’s be disciples making disciples.

Shalom

Jamie

Knowing Jesus in a new way: Known by the Holy Spirit (Godly Play Version)

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Our last Godly Play all age service was the story of Pentecost, we remember this as a transition between Jesus’ earthly ministry and the coming of the Holy Spirit.  After being told to go make Jesus known to everyone the disciples must have had mixed feelings.  Even today we have mixed feelings about making Jesus known to others.  The missing ingredient was yet to come, as promised the Holy  Spirit arrived at Pentecost.

“Suddenly, they heard the sound of a mighty wind.  It filled the whole house.  Bits of fire began to dance around each one.  The Holy Spirit had come.  Even their tongues felt on fire.  In their joy they rushed our into the streets to tell everyone!”

We cannot do this alone.  In knowing Jesus we must know the Holy Spirit.  How will we know the Holy Spirit?  For the disciples it was an overwhelming joy that they had to tell everyone – have you felt this? 

“Peter stepped into this chaos with a confidence and calm that the disciples had never seen before.”

Peter felt confident and calm in the wake of a storm – have you felt this?

“what has happened is what the Prophet Joel wrote about.  He said that God will pour out God’s spirit on us so that our sons and daughters will prophesy, the young will see visions, and the old will dream dreams.”

I wonder if you have experienced this?

Jesus had talked about the Holy Spirit and when he did, he called the Spirit, the Comforter.  Jesus had said that the Holy Spirit …
1. helps people see what they’ve done wrong and points
them to God
2. helps people do what is right
3. helps us understand the Bible
4. prays for us when we can’t find the words

5. helps us find out what our special gifts are so we can use
them to help others

I wonder if this is your experience of the Holy Spirit?

Lord, help us to discern your voice in the midst of so many others.  Guide our desires and aspirations for your Church.  Renewing our courage, by your Holy Spirit.

Karen

Knowing Jesus in a new way: Known in making him known

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Last week in our Alpha course we were exploring the question, How do we tell others?  For us today we are bombarded with different ways to tell the Gospel.   On Google, we get 2.3 Million results with for example 14 steps to evangelise, top 3 effective outreach opportunities, Effective Evangelism: 10 tips for success.  This was not the case for our first disciples.  There was no Alpha course for them.  For the disciples and others, it was a time where they began to know Jesus in a new way.  He is neither simply human nor simply spiritual, he is completely both.  Through Godly Play we can explore this fearful wonder and astonishment of this transition time for the Disciples.  It must have been a huge adjustment to learn how to know Jesus in this new way.  Our Godly Play story describes it like this;

“We remember how all the disciples gathered in Galilee.  They gathered together and went to the mountain to meet Jesus.  He was already there.  It was good to see him, even in this new way, but what were they supposed to do now?  Listen.  He was talking again.  What was that? “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.”  What was he talking about?  Then he said something that they could understand, but did not want to hear.  “Go everywhere.  Tell my story, even this part, to everyone.  Show them how to be good disciples.  Tell them the story so they can become part of it.  Baptise them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

This was too far to travel, too much to do.  Then in their dismay they heard him say, “I am with you always to the end of the age.”  Then he was gone.  What did he mean?  As they walked back south to Jerusalem, they knew they had been followers, now they were to be leaders. They had been sheep, now they were to be shepherds.  They had come home for the last time, now they were to make a home for others.”

The disciples were commissioned to spread the good news of the reality they experienced during the transition and in Pentecost.  There was no precedent for this.  They were called to help God create a new and unknown world!  This must have been overwhelming for them, as it is for us today, but we at least, have this story to guide us.

I wonder what part of the story is about you or what part you are in?

I wonder what part is most important?

I wonder if you know Jesus?

I wonder how you would make Jesus known?

Karen

Do you 'know' Jesus is King?

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If you are with us at our 10 am service this week you will be taking part in an innovative experience as we explore with you our approach to children’s ministry: Godly Play and we are doing so through a shared experience.

In Hebrew knowing is not an abstract concept held in the intellect. Rather it involves our whole being and is experienced. It’s the difference between knowing about parachuting and actually jumping out of a plane. Walking with Jesus is something we can talk about or something we do. Godly Play facilitates this.

This next week we walk once again with Jesus through what is known as His Passion.

The word passion is derived from Latin meaning suffering. In Jesus God enters fully into our suffering. He is not aloof or remote but knows suffering and through it sets us free.  ‘God, for whom and through whom everything was made, chose to bring many children into glory. And it was only right that he should make Jesus, through his suffering, a perfect leader, fit to bring them into their salvation.’ Hebrews 2:10

We will be reflecting on this through our services this week. Thursday at 6 pm we will consider the significance of Jesus washing the disciples feet and share in that humbling activity. On Friday at 9 am we will take time to reflect on three of the sayings of Jesus from the cross and bring back our stones  completing the lament we have been encouraged to follow from +Allan.  In handing over our stones we symbolise giving our burdens over to God, carried by Him in our place. Additional stones will be available on the day if you did not have the opportunity to explore that this Lent with us.

On Sunday we rise to celebrate once again the glorious truth of Jesus resurrection. We will have two services as usual and there is children’s ministry for the over 3’s . I’d like to thank Karen, Verity, Kylie and Shirley along with Andrea,  Betty, Jan, Carol, Carli and Sophie for all they have brought to our children’s ministry this term and for committing to provide this over Easter.

'Meet the team' Karen

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Karen Dennison

Q1  What are your roles/ministry here at St Nicholas?

I am the communications officer which basically means I keep the website up to date.  I am also involved in the Children’s ministry and will be leading our Godly Play program.  Music is also a passion of mine and I occasionally sing with our worship team.

Q2  What other ministry have you undertaken in the past?

I have been a Licensed Lay Minister, Priest’s warden, worship team member and Parish councilor.  I have also served on team at Cursillo.

Q3  Do you remember when you became a Christian?

Yes I had two defining moments.  One was when I made the conscious decision to become a Christian after a period of study and research.  Before this I was an atheist.  This was my head knowledge of Jesus.  My second defining moment was during a church service where I experienced the Holy Spirit in what can only be described as a flood of love raining down on me.  I couldn’t move or speak all I was capable of doing was crying with joy.  At this point the Holy Trinity became real for me and so did the power of the Holy Spirit.

Q4  What helps you daily with your walk with Jesus?

Prayer! My ongoing conversation with God is something I enjoy doing throughout the week.  Coming to Church to be encouraged and nourished by being a member of one of our small groups.

Q5  Favourite Hymn or worship song

I’m a huge fan of the music from Taize.  I love the repetition and prayerfulness of the words and also enjoy singing them in their original language.

Q6  Any last thoughts? (favourite scripture…what are you reading at the moment?…interesting fact about yourself?)

I’m a librarian so always have a number of books on the go.  I also love movies.  The last film I saw at the cinema was Dr Strange.

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