Motherhood is also painful. To those who have broken relationships with their mothers, we pray for reconciliation. To those who long for the gift of becoming a mother, we pray for trust, patience and for God to provide. To those mothers whose children are lost to the world, we pray for their conversion and salvation.

We thank God for the gutsy sacrificial women who have carried us, fed us, sweated for us and patiently served us for decades. They reflect the glory of the sacrifice of our King and God, the Lord Jesus.

Your Pastor,

Wayne

There are many agencies that work to alleviate poverty around the world, and the desperate needs demand a diversity of approaches. One distinctive of Compassion is that they are explicitly Christian and unembarrassed about Jesus. Rather than “secularise” their ministry for the sake of government funding, they fund-raise from generous Christians and partner with local churches to meet both physical and spiritual needs.

The best way to get involved with Compassion is to sponsor a child. You will be able to exchange letters and encourage your sponsor child spiritually as well as physically. Today we have a table where you can find the details about child sponsorship. Please pray that Compassion will be used by God to address both temporal and eternal suffering.

Your Pastor,

Wayne

These two aspects are captured beautifully in Hebrews 10:14:

“By one sacrifice Jesus has made perfect for ever those who are being made holy”

Christ’s blood declares us to be holy and perfect before God, we are now in the process of being made holy in our day to day lives.

This is not an option. We must fight sin and worldliness.

Hebrews 12:14 is clear:

“Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no-one will see the Lord”

Are you pursuing holiness in Christ? Are you pursuing sanctification of every part of your week?

Meditate on this truth:

Without holiness no-one will see the Lord!

Your Pastor,

Wayne

The Spirit of God joins knits us together in an invisible spiritual reality. We are all those for whom the blood of Christ was shed and has powerfully freed us from slavery to sin.

The great Lutheran pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer, writing from a German prison in the time of Hitler, spoke powerfully of the privilege of Christian fellowship:

So between the death of Christ and the Last Day it is only by a gracious anticipation of the last things that Christians are privileged to live in visible fellowship with other Christians. It is by the grace of God that a congregation is permitted to gather visibly in this world to share God’s Word and sacrament. Not all Christians receive this blessing. The imprisoned, the sick, the scattered lonely, the proclaimers of the Gospel in heathen lands stand alone. They know that visible fellowship is a blessing.

Week by week we have the great privilege of anticipating the return of Christ together, don’t take this privilege for granted! And remember those who cannot receive this blessing.

Your Pastor,

Wayne

God is more glorified when we bring the same petitions to him with enduring faith and not give up.

Jesus told the parable of the widow and the unjust judge (Luke 18) to illustrate perseverance in prayer. If an unjust judge will answer the constant requests of a widow, how much more will God our Father in heaven respond when we persevere in prayer!

Please be constant in praying for yourself, your family, our church, and the not-yet-Christians around you.

Pray with boldness in the name of Jesus, knowing that his blood has opened full access to the throne of grace.

Experience God like you never have before, by growing in dependence on him in constant prayer.

Your Pastor,

Wayne

At Easter we celebrate the impact of the death and resurrection of Jesus:

Easter is historical. We have gospel eyewitness accounts and also Roman accounts of the death of Jesus and the reports of his resurrection. Many died for holding true to what they saw with their own eyes.

Easter is powerful. The gospel of Jesus’ death is the power of God for salvation. There is nothing more powerful than resurrection from the dead!

Easter is universal. The purpose of Jesus’ death was to make him Saviour and Lord of all nations. Jesus turns no-one away who calls on his name.

Easter is personal. We all work hard to deny our mistakes, or repair them, or make amends. But ultimately we need to put all our personal evils beneath the cross of Jesus – only his blood can cleanse and save. Wash me Saviour or I die!

Easter truly is the weekend that changed the world!

Your Pastor,

Wayne

Here are some select quotes:

“The purpose for your authority in the lives of your children is not to hold them under your power, but to empower them to be self-controlled people living freely under the authority of God.”

Obedience means training a child “to do what he is told – without challenge, without excuse, without delay.”

“Made in the image of God, a child is designed with a worship orientation. Even as a young child, he is either worshiping and serving God or idols… The question is not ‘will he worship?’ It is always ‘whom will he worship?’”

“The teenage years are often years of rebellion. Some of the rebellion is simply a misguided attempt to establish individuality. But often, teenage rebellion has deeper roots. In some kids, it is an expression of rebellion that has been latent all along… Parents often seem to be taken by surprise, when actually the rebellion has been dormant for years.”

“What your children need is spiritual nurture…They need to understand that all of life rushes toward the day when we shall stand before God and give account.”

May God help us to faithfully nurture our children and grandchildren in obedience to the great gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Your Pastor,

Wayne

I’m not pretending that there is some way that we can twist the arm of the Lord God. God is not beholden to his creatures, nor will he ever contradict his holy character.

So is it ever possible to be assured that God will give us exactly what we ask of him? The simple answer is: yes.

King David wrote in the 37th psalm: “Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart” (verse 4).

If we make the Lord, revealed in Jesus Christ, the primary object of our pleasure then we can be totally assured that he will give us exactly what we seek – he will give us total satisfaction in him!

If you want to get your own way with God then do what he says: delight yourself in him!

Your Pastor,

Hilton

His command for us is to “abide in me” (John 15:4). If branches don’t abide in the vine they will not bear fruit and will be cut off by God the Father.

It is vital (literally!) to remain in Jesus. He says: “Remain in me and I will remain in you”. We must not live life our own way, only following Jesus when it suits us. The Lord Jesus deserves and needs to be the centre and Lord of our whole existence.

It is dangerous to risk leaving Jesus out of our decisions,whether big or small. It is also pointless. Jesus says: “Apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5).

The good news is if we abide in Jesus, even if it is difficult, we will bear much fruit in him, to the glory of God the Father. This is God’s will for our lives.

Your Pastor,
Wayne

Each letter begins with the words “Grace to you … from … the Lord Jesus Christ ” and ends with “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you” or something very similar.

What is grace? Someone has very helpfully suggested the following acronym: God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense.

Grace is God’s undeserved and free gift to us sinners, who only deserve his anger and punishment, of all the benefits of becoming children of the Father through the sacrificial death and victorious resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Through God’s grace we can have adoption, forgiveness, reconciliation, justification, sanctification, redemption, atonement, resurrection and eternal life with God (among many other riches)!

“May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” The Apostle Paul (2 Corinthians 13:14).

Your pastor,
Hilton