Base Camp is ALREADY Two Thirds of the way up the Climb!

Mountaineering … it’s underrated. Especially so, if the Lord keeps revealing pictures as we pray, pictures that portray climbing an unclimbed peak as a way to understand what’s required for us to effectively ‘move on’ in this journey of ‘SEEING and ENGAGING the HARVEST’ that God has given you and me responsibility for.

To come to grips with this idea of being at Base Camp, it is important for us to acknowledge that we have been on a trek towards Jesus’ Holiness, Oneness and Fullness these past few years and that we need to become acclimatized to the environment we NOW find ourselves in, so that we can begin in earnest, the toughest part of the climb i.e. joining the company and performing our unique and important function ON the rope line towards completion.

Tune IN over these next few weeks as we complete the process of determining the shape of the company and begin gathering provisions and checking the safety equipment for the journey to Camp ONE a bit further along AND up the track.

Let me encourage you to start re-reading Matthew’s (Kingdom) gospel LIKE YOU ARE FAMILIARIZING YOURSELF WITH A MAP that we will use for this pilgrimage. With that effort in place we will pre-prayer for a re-connecting to the TRUTH that God’s Kingdom Comes Through Covenant. We will re-install this truth as the tool box that will carry the tools for what we will encounter on our climb.  The tools will be forged as we TOGETHER (the Company committed to the climb), unpack Paul’s letter to the Romans in bite size pieces. My suggestion (which will of course need confirmation by mutual accountability to the vision) is that Romans is the apostle Paul’s journaling of Christianity 101 i.e. as it is engaged and lived out by the Church that Jesus builds. Welcome to BASE CAMP …. let’s have a look around.

The NEED of THIS Hour (or ANY Hour)

We will continue to use Tuesday evenings from 5.30pm to 6.30pm as an anchor or beacon marker, PRAYING AS A CHURCH COMPANY for this ‘Base Camp to Summit and Back’ adventure. It IS NOT designed in such a way that expects people to be able to be at the location of our Hub’s Prayer Lounge in East Corrimal at the time for Tuesday prayer, but we are hoping that as we have made AN INTENTIONAL commitment to PRAYER-PERATION TOGETHER or AS ONE, that you will SEND to me or Julie by text to our phones OR via email OR by calling us from wherever you are at or about 5.30pm, your prayer points about your part in the mission OR your excitements or concerns about it OR anything that God is revealing to you as you read the mud map of Matthew in cohorts with Romans.  Please join us one way or another.

The need of this hour is strategic prayer, combat readying prayer, communion facilitating prayer, prioritizing our approach and resource providing prayer. Another breath of life giving, sustaining and restoring Prayer – Prayer & MORE Prayer. (Js 1:2-8; 3:14-26; 5:16)

Releasing Tim & Sharon with Gratitude and Joy!

As was reported on Sunday, our mission partner Timothy Hall received his Bachelor of Theology Award in his passing out parade at Sydney University on Saturday. Congratulations Tim as this represents an important milestone.

It was our pleasure to make a commitment to you and Sharon this time last year in the shape of commissioning you to be recognized in Pastoral ministry with us whilst we helped supervise the effective completion of your degree.

We AGREE with your calling to military chaplaincy, an almost life-long goal, and we know how challenging the journey has been. We are thankful to God that due to this small, seemingly invisible platform, you have been able to re-engage with the most likely denomination to endorse you into chaplaincy over the next 2 or 3 years. We celebrate that the Church of Christ that meets in Calderwood has seen fit to take the baton from us and recognize you as an associate minister to help fast track this process. We thank God for our many friends in that church family and we will continue to pray with and for you that this support will lead quickly to you being commissioned into a chaplaincy function with our Defence Forces. God bless you and even though we release you from the specific function you performed on our mission team, we continue to commit to being part of your family for all that we can usefully provide in support during the journey ahead. Looking forward to working with you as we seek to bless essential community service personnel for National Thanksgiving Day late in May as we did last year.  

A Summary of this week’s message for Prayer, Reflection, Response & Action. ‘Whatever gift(s) you have IN Christ; USE Them’ (Part 2)

Seeing as I used this week’s message time to further emphasize points made by Julie last week, to add clarity to & facilitate testimony about the sign up to the move of God (gifts & serving) process & to commence articulating the mountaineering vision as per the first article in this edition of the journal, I’ve put together some review thoughts & questions for …

Prayer, Reflection & Response

(There are 3 sections below. Firstly, a REPEAT of some of the more pertinent questions reviewed before Easter that you might have more to add to NOW, Secondly, some further clarifying questions, particularly about this engaging the mission – sign up process and Thirdly, some specific questions related to what you think or believe about the gifts that Christ has apportioned you with. If you are willing, email or text Graeme with your answers to section 3)

Section 1        (Some repeat questions from 18^th March)

1. Do you think you are attuned to the movement of the Spirit in your daily life? If not why? If so, how do you recognize this movement within you (whisper, feeling, itch you can’t scratch)?
2. Can you remember a time when you listened & responded to that nudging? How about a time when you chose not to respond?
3. Do you know what gifts you have been given by the Spirit?
4. If you have awareness, how might your gifts be used to serve the church in its efforts to advance God’s kingdom on earth?
5. How have you used the considerations of questions 1-4 as you’ve approached the lists of tasks that have appeared in this journal & have materialized in hard copy near the entrance doors at the Hub?

Section 2

1. A few times now, Graeme has proposed the idea that the church is built by Jesus through people who are not known by their BIG personalities or human developed extravertive-ness BUT who daily YIELD to the will of Father God and the infilling resourcing and power of the Holy Spirit. Do you think this is a realistic view? What are your thoughts about ‘who’ God uses? Do you have a personal response?
2. Graeme used Exodus 14:10-15 to make a strong point about excuse making. Is it relevant, something that happens a bit? To you?
3. Julie reminded us from Romans 8 that if we know who we are, God’s children IN Christ, nothing holds us back. Is there anything you think needs to happen to make it a reality for you, if it isn’t?
4. What do you think you would do for Jesus with the rest of your life if there were no limits to stop you? Feel free to share what you wrote down with someone for prayer and mutual accountability.

Section 3       

(Respond to each of the following without thinking about why it impacts you. Pray before you start and mark each statement with a 0, 1, 2 or 3 where a 0 means the statement doesn’t spark ANY response, 1 means a little spark, 2 means ‘yes, that is something’ and       3 means a genuine spark. If you are willing, email or text Graeme your answers)

1. Being asked to work through the complexities of an idea, an issue or a tough question in order to share wisdom, knowledge or even experience that might help another person.
2. You often find yourself declaring your position on an issue or a value without much concern about how people you relate to will respond.
3. You are reasonably relaxed about being vulnerable & transparent with people (whether you know them or not), with the purpose of helping others have generally more fruitful & effective everyday lives.
4. You find that you regularly have conversations in which you inevitably share an experience you have had in your faith journey to simply make a helpful point or help clarify something.
5. Repeatedly seek ways to create safe spaces or events, establish frameworks or even build communities of support right where others live, work & or play that seem to empower them to seek more life.
6. Passionate about generating interest & enthusiasm amongst all kinds of people about projects & their goals & consistently point people towards those goals.
7. Find that you are energized by tasks that need to be done to advance a campaign or collaborated effort, even tasks that are unseen or avoided by others.

Here’s the Link to What’s Happening at the HUB this week http://corrimalcommunitychurch.com.au/blog/9-uncategorised/7-click-here

Here’s the Link to this week’s Prayer Diary for The HOPE Project http://corrimalcommunitychurch.com.au/blog/9-uncategorised/9-click-here

Here’s the Link to HOPE College, Student information & More http://corrimalcommunitychurch.com.au/blog/9-uncategorised/10-click-here

Here’s the Link to Graeme’s Available Weekly Calendar Times https://graeme2.youcanbook.me/