Welcome to OPEN Day …. Week 

We hope you have enjoyed the celebrations today. As always it’s our pleasure to serve you.    We are so thankful to the Lord Jesus Christ for leading us this far by His wonderful empowering presence and together we want to thank the Lord for His servant John Podmore (with the support of his amazing family), without whom this Stage One refurbishment would not have reached the point that it has. We are grateful to say the very least! Stage One has focused on some much-needed maintenance and upgrades BUT primarily on aligning our facilities with the mission we believe God has revealed to us these past 3 years as we’ve journeyed together faithfully and with restored HOPE.  Today we celebrate the launch of The HOPE Project. We would like to thank everyone who has come to help us party to God’s glory and to all who have sent us wonderfully supportive messages of love and solidarity. Here are a few of those.

Firstly, from our dear friend Sue Walker (Director Intercession – Impact Nations)

“Hi there, my Corrimal Community Church Family. Thanks so much for the invitation. Would have loved to have come but am leading worship at our church this Sunday. So excited to hear about the launch. This is my prayer for you all (from Isaiah 60) As you move into this new phase may peace be your governor, and righteousness your ruler. May you call your walls salvation and your gates praise. May the Lord be your everlasting light and God be your glory. For you are the shoot God has planted, the work of His hands, for the display of His splendour. May the least of you become a thousand and the smallest a mighty nation. Calling forth the love and the power of God to be in and through everything you do. Bless you all….

Next is a message passed on from our neighbours from over and up the road  

“So sorry we couldn’t be there but Paul, Alan, Christine and I head off on a cruise the Tuesday before your Open Day. We very much like what you’ve been doing and hope you have a great day on Sunday.”

And thirdly from our partner in ministry, Gordon Barr (JP & Pastor Port Kembla Baptist Church)

“Just want to pass on our congratulations on your refurbishment to this point & the new missional vision & journey. We wish you all of God’s best & blessings in this season!

During the week, many of you will have received Gordon’s message of thanks re. his time spent working more directly with us. Here is that message in full.

Dear Brothers & Sisters at Corrimal Community Church,
I am writing to you at this time as Tuesday 21st November is my 12 month anniversary of being Interim Pastor at Port Kembla Baptist Church. I have now been confirmed as Permanent Pastor 3 days per week. I continue to work at Wollongong Hospital an average of 3 shifts per week as well. The reason I am mentioning this is to say a huge “THANK YOU” to you all for the way you allowed/empowered me to be your Pastor for the 3 years I spent with you. You enabled me to go through a season of recovery and restoration from my illness and made it easy for me to come and go, minister or not in my time there. This means a great deal to Helen & Myself as I don’t believe I could have achieved (with God) what I have achieved in the past 12 months. So Thank you for your love & support, your caring and your patience. Things have gone well for me at PKBC and continue to with renewed vision, strength and stamina. So again Thanks for the role you have had in my life. I am eternally grateful!  Bless ya Socks.

Christmas is COMING!

Well, no one can believe it is only a month to Christmas but there you go. We are starting to get energized about what the season will bring this year. It all starts NEXT WEEK.

On Friday (1st) from 6pm we have our annual Christmas Dinner in the Private Function Room in Woonona-Bulli RSL Club. If you and or someone you know would like to join us, please contact Julie (0412180133) or Donna (0448663569) ASAP to work out payment / transport etc.

On Sunday (10th) evening from 5.30pm we will stage our annual ‘Carols on the Lawn’ with Special Guest Carol leaders and item presenters Amber Nichols (Finalist The Voice 2015) and Karen Hush (not only Graeme’s amazing and gifted wife but she is also Amber’s Vocal and Keyboard accompanist. The Elastic Band will be in full swing (or stretch) as usual. There will be BBQ sausages, Kids fun, glow sticks and wonderful music – something for everyone. LET EVERYONE YOU ARE CONNECTED WITH KNOW!. We will also be hosting the good people from Northern Beaches Church of Christ who will be our guests for the evening.

On Sunday (24th) we will have a family Christmas Eve celebration from 10am

On Christmas Day (Monday 25th) we will give thanks for the wonderful gift given us by Father God – His son Jesus, from 9am and following that we’ll provide Christmas Morning Tea till about 11am for ANYONE who’d like to drop by.

Our prayer and great HOPE for you all this Christmas time is for health, safety and an opportunity to take a breath and experience the indiscriminate, restoring and rescuing love of our saviour Jesus.

Change is NOT the Enemy

During a conversation this week, I had a moment’s pause as we talked about ‘change’. Praying about this afterwards I realized that it IS possible that sometimes we get caught up in what’s happening in the world around us and not in a good way. It would seem that people are craving the values of a time gone by and are perhaps grieving the loss of a moral code or simpler way of living which to some degree used to protect and secure us from some of the things that have been engineered by people with extraneous views about just about everything.

I think satan has a field day with this insecurity within us to the extent that it is used to give CHANGE itself a bad name and change becomes something we resist. An outworking of this is growing fear and loss of connection and we start reacting to everything by using negatives. It becomes DON’T this and DON’T that which makes things worse as people we are trying to communicate lovingly to become reactive to the negative or even the perceived negative.

Here’s something to reflect on that I think God has been revealing to my heart of late.

The Ten Commandments as recorded in the Old Testament were given to the Israelites at a time when there was a ‘direct’ need to correct behaviours and so the main thrust of most of the commands from God was DON’T – understandably.

When Jesus was asked in Mark 12 what the most important commandment was, His response was intentionally ‘non-negative or reactive’. Think about what Jesus said, “The most important one is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”

Jesus answered with what we should DO not DON’T.

Change is NOT The enemy. Renewal IN Christ is by definition ‘new every morning’ it is us being CHANGED into His likeness – more and more each day. WE SHOULD SEEK THIS CHANGE.

The enemy is actually the content of the things being engineered and lobbied for and sprouted as ‘the way we should think and what we should believe’ and the way the content is pushed.

The simple journey we have been on is learning how to ignore the distractions and DWELL in the revelation Christ brought. A revelation of the Kingdom of Heaven’s rescuing love and oneness, and you and me aligning with its fullness and the completion of its primary purpose; has been the plan of heaven from the beginning.

Let’s change together so we can BE more of this and by our honest and transparent effort help others see that humans DON’T have to be oppressed by the kingdom of this worlds fads, lusts and controlling, enslaving attitudes; we can DO the kingdom of heaven IN Christ and be purveyors of freedom, justice, kindness, compassion and the Father’s agenda for our good.

Let’s talk openly and humbly with each other so we end up looking like something we really all desperately want and not be caught even enslaved by kingdom of this world agendas.

Mark Chapter THIRTEEN (What did Jesus actually DO?)

Jesus continues to shift from parables drawn from general everyday circumstances that people could relate to, towards using actual circumstances and people’s genuine questions to paint pictures about kingdom truths and values. (vs 1-2)

  1. We are privileged in the rest of this chapter to be flies on the wall for a phenomenal equipping session with Jesus’ disciples (vs 3-4ff)
  2. Jesus declares a number of important warnings:-
  3. Beware of deception – what Jesus prophesied MUST happen (vs 5-9)
  4. Remember AND accept the cost of following Jesus (vs 9-10)
  • The gospel preached to ALL nations will be a key to the end (vs 10)
  1. Be courageous; trust the Holy Spirit’s testimony through us (vs 10-11)
  2. Stand firm even though you will be hated. Even the most intimate relationships will be challenged to their roots (vs 12-13)
  3. The next 12 or more verses are particularly aimed at the Jewish language, stories, history and views on Messianic things. The warnings were to ‘the elect’ and in verse 14 Jesus offers a hint to prepare the disciples and to help them engage and understand. Jesus continues to challenge the worldview of the Jews in relation to His kingship and ‘the day of the Lord’. (vs 14-26)     (NB. You could look this phrase or idea up and see how much of the OT prophets addressed it and you might also discover other Jewish literature which addresses these images and ideas. All helpful context for this chapter of Mark)
  • Again Jesus draws on Fig Tree lessons to emphasise the current outworking of His end time prophecies (Here’s some examples – destruction of Jerusalem AD66-70, Vesuvius AD 79, nations like the Parthians stepping up war mongering and posturing around the Roman Empires borders etc) (vs 27-28)

NB: We have talked before about double reference prophecy. Prophets seeing something in the future that could refer to more than one event. There is quite a bit of this reflected upon by Jesus in this chapter.

  • Finally Jesus warns them to stay alert and be ready. It is wonderful to note that Jesus prefers to be unquestioning of His Father God about things that he humbly and obediently left in God’s hands. We could reflect on why we would develop doctrines and timetables and or specifically enquire into that which Jesus consented to be ignorant of.

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 & Application Process http://corrimalcommunitychurch.com.au/blog/9-uncategorised/10-click-here