17 Sep Abundant in…opportunity!
Welcome to Wednesday y’all!
I hope you’ve enjoyed the little kick in the britches we’ve had this week from Ol’ Man Winter as he makes way out so Spring can come in. I remember one of the years I lived in Ohio and we had a brief snowstorm during Holy Week…I had that feeling as I rode my bicycle Monday morning…brrrr…
On Sunday I mentioned we had a calendar brimming with excellent opportunities…for learning, fellowship, fun, food…and all the wonderful things we share as Christ’s people in his mission to this community. Let’s see how many we can list here…and then we’ll see what else is we’ve got going on…
- Zoom Bible Study Catch-up – we’ll wrap up Jeremiah 45 and get set for the next series “Pressure Points”
Friday – 20th September 2024 @ 1:00 p.m.
Join Zoom Meeting — https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83006349720 — Meeting ID: 830 0634 9720
- Special Guest this Sunday 22nd September – Rev Brendan Handel (Olive Tree Media) Helping us prepare for a special city-wide evangelism event coming February 2025
- Information Session & Launch of the “Faith Runs Deep” Event @ St Alban’s Anglican Church Kooringal – 3:00 – 4:30 p.m. includes afternoon tea
- Saturday 28th September – Living Water Prayer Morning – 10:00 a.m. @ the Guilfoyles’ house…I’ll have the kettle on!
- Sunday 29th September – Wagga Intersport Lake Run & Ride – This is our annual opportunity to serve our community by hosting a water station for the athletes & their dogs (yes, some folks bring their dogs along & we have bowls for them too) The streets around the Hall will be blocked off starting from about 8:00 a.m. So all hands on deck by 8:00 to set up our drinks station. We’ll continue in the Hall with Lunch & Worship together starting at 12:00 noon. This is a full day but great fun. It’s also a great day to invite your friends who wouldn’t normally be in worship!
- Saturday night → Sunday morning – 5th/6th October – Daylight Savings Time…we’ll all move our clocks ahead 1 hour.
- Sunday 6th October – Living Water Fellowship AGM – Immediately following worship. We’ll grab some morning tea & get stuck into our essential business. Reports should be out soon & we’re going to take some time during the budget discussion to really talk through our looming large scale financial shortfall. When you see the reports, the Treasurer’s Report will have some “prime the pump” questions that we might use to get the conversation going. They’ll be good to pray through before the day.
- Sunday 3rd November – Living Water Church Picnic immediately following worship at the Botanic Gardens. Think how much fun you’re going to have riding the little trains!!!! Details will be forthcoming.
God is setting the stage for some amazing things in our city…we know what to be praying for as we move into the end of this year toward the wonders of 2025.
I had a bit of a chuckle this week thinking about the elections last weekend…I’ve been reading a book with a group of pastors & the “coach/mentor” who coordinates our meetings noted this sentence: “We often think that the will of God is determined by the majority, but that is almost never the case. Look in the Scriptures. Every time the majority decided something, they voted against God. The majority will almost always vote for comfort & self-interest. Rarely for faith.” I think about how I vote…pretty convicting. The book is set in the world of churches, but when I think about how most of us carry out our politics outside the church…pretty convicting.
The other morning while I was reading the Bible an interesting thing happened. As I have for a good number of years, every day I read a few chapters of the Old Testament AND a few chapters of the New Testament. Sometimes, there is a connection between one part of the reading and the other…not always but sometimes.
Yesterday the Old Testament reading was Ecclesiastes 3:11 – “God has made everything beautiful in its own time. He has also planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, no one can see the scope of God is doing from beginning to end.” We’re familiar with that text perhaps & the truth it contains. God’s beautiful creation has its seasons in which one thing flourishes while another fades. At the same time, humans have always sensed & yearned for a place where the flourishing was constant & nothing faded…we dream & reach for eternity, but can’t grasp how God can achieve it or we can join it.
BUT the New Testament offered this, 2 Timothy 1:9-10 – “For God saved us & called us to a holy life; not because we deserved it, but because that was his plan from before the beginning of time—to show us his grace through Christ Jesus. And now he has made all of this plain to us by the appearing of Christ Jesus, our Saviour. He broke the power of death and illuminated the way to life and immortality through the Good News.” There it was…the answer humanity has sensed & search for…from the beginning of time Christ was the “scope of what God is doing.” When the time was right Christ came & brought to effect God’s plan to save…once, for all, forever.
As always…the New Testament interprets the Old. The Old Testament points to the good news of Jesus revealed in the New. I’m so glad a mentor taught me a good number of years ago to simply read and re-read the Bible…cover to cover, beginning to end and then do it again and again. The treasure of God’s word is never exhausted.
I’ll see you Sunday when Rev Brendan Handel brings it to us! I’m excited for what God is doing in the weeks ahead & the years we have left on his earth. I trust you are too.
John
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