Hi Church,
Well Ironman 24 has come and gone for another year, thank you to everyone who made the effort to come to church despite the traffic difficulties. But it was worth it as we were blessed with the ministry of Pastor Peter McHugh.
Peter again shed so much light on the scriptures to assure us of the Father’s love through John 15:1-10. Here we see that the Father attends to the grape vine because he is the vineyard owner. We the branches are grafted into the vine of Jesus His son. So, for our fruitfulness and health we need to abide in the vine in relationship to him and others. Now the good news is the Father does not go around looking to cut off branches because they are dirty. No! Rather they are considered valuable to him, He wants us the branches to be fruitful. So what he really is doing is lifting up branches from the dirt, washing them and cleaning them, removing unnecessary leaves and tying them onto the trellis.
From this place of tenderness, great fruitfulness will come. What a beautiful picture of love and care. Thank you Peter for showing us the true translation of the Greek word airō , is not “cutting off to cast away” but “lifting up”, (see the Passion Translation) not a harsh performance based translation that has distorted the true extent of Father’s love for us. The Fathers’ desire is we know His tender love and be lifted and so likewise we lift those that are around us, rather than cutting them off with criticism and judgement.
Church there are a number of people who are suffering with illness in our Church family, so I encourage you to pray for the Lord ‘s healing touch upon our Church and protection over others who are vulnerable. (see prayer List below).
This coming week is Mother’s Day and it is an opportunity to bless all our Mum’s for the hard work and sacrifice as an expression of their love for us. Where would we be with out them? So let’s be generous with words and gifts. As we think of Mother’s Day we can think of the example Mary showed, who agreed by faith to take on the purpose of birthing the Son of God. But not just birthing but loving and letting go of her first-born son to be sacrificed for us. So we recognise that great love …. costs greatly.
Mum’s we see you and we see your sacrifice. Thank you!
Church also just a gentle reminder that as we enter the colder months often, we lose people to warmer climates and through colds and sniffles. As such our volunteer teams shrink and we are often left with skeleton crews trying to do a lot with a few and serve so many. Please consider how you can help and join a serving team today. A big thank you to all our regular faithful servers.
Love and Blessings Church,
Ps Greg and Amanda.