Busy and Growing in Love

25 May Busy and Growing in Love

Welcome to the last week of MAY!? May? Where did the first 5 months of this year go?

Ok…well…June starts in just a few days, and I don’t know if you noticed in worship, but we’ve got a busy busy few weeks ahead of us…so let’s get the calendar all filled in & then we’ll move on to something else…

1. Zoom Bible Study Catch-up
   Friday 30th May 2025 @ 1:00 p.m.
   Join Zoom Meeting  —  https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89674789066  —  Meeting ID: 896 7478 9066
2. Living Water re-Scheduled Prayer Morning

Saturday 31^st May @ 10:00 a.m.
@ the Prenzler’s House (The coffee will be hot!)

3. Biggest Morning Tea Giving Beyond Ourselves for the Cancer Council

Sunday 1^st June

This is always our biggest flood of generosity for helping those in deep need. It’s also our BIGGEST BEST Morning Tea effort. I hope you’re looking forward to it as much as I am!

4. Pentecost Sunday!

Sunday 8^th June – Power Tools

A well-stocked toolbox is essential to tackle the tasks you need to do. But when some jobs are bigger than your toolbox…remember God’s toolbox is stocked to the brim. God’s tool box equips us for the work he calls us to do. Each tool given to us and powered by his Holy Spirit. Each one the perfect tool for whatever task is right in front of us. So join us as God gives us his Spirit empowered tools, instructs us in their use and send us out to use them to build his kingdom in every situation.  PS – Wear RED!

5. LWF Annual Bonfire @ High Valley (Jeff & Norma’s Country Bungalow)

Saturday 14^th June…Lots of details forthcoming, so stay tuned. This is always a great afternoon fellowship event with food & lots of joy. Bring a friend or three!

6. Soup & Safe Church after worship

Sunday 15^th June – again…we’ll have more details this coming week, but this is when we take time to review how we make Living Water an open & welcoming fellowship & learn together how loving one another is done in a God-honouring way that is also encouraging & open-heartedly hospitable for guests. We’ll have a soup & bread lunch together while we learn & grow as a family of disciples.

7. Living Water’s 12^th Birthday! Have we really been serving God this way for 12 years? WOW! Is God good all the time or what?

Sunday 22^nd June – What’s your favourite Living Water moment or memory? Remember, it’s not just about us, but how God has used us uniquely for his Kingdom.

OK…I think I’m  about to run out of pixels…so I’ll stop there for now. I told you we were looking at a full schedule.

I’m still reading through 1 Corinthians. Remember how I said that is my least favourite book of the New Testament. Well…Jesus is working on changing that a bit I think. Here’s what I read this morning: Now our knowledge is partial & incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! But when the time of full understanding comes, these partial things will come to an end…Now we see things imperfectly, like looking in a clouded mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely. – 1 Cor 13:9-10 & 12-13

Everything to which we have access in this world is partial & incomplete…even the coolest gifts of the Spirit like prophecy. Sin has so corrupted this existence that even the work of the Spirit in us in incomplete. BUT…the day is coming when the partial & incomplete & corrupted will give way to the complete fullness of Christ’s recreating work. Ok…so that’s good news for a coming day but it is also an ongoing caution to us right now. I’ll never have full understanding in this lifetime…of you, of myself, or of the circumstances of the world…so I need to live pouring out great amounts of grace, & compassion & patience because I just don’t know what you’re going through, what hurdles someone else is facing, or what is going on in a corner of the world where the news spotlight wants to shine brightest. Paul reminds us we don’t even understand our own motivations & inspirations sometimes. (Read Romans 7:14-25 to see what he says about himself & his struggle with sin)

I believe that is why the highest greatest command in the Bible is “Love one another as I have loved you,” & the greatest prohibition is against judging others. When I stand over you in the superior position of “judge” I’m always going to do that with imperfect, partial, sin-corrupted eyesight & understanding…I’ll always be operating at a deficit. But if I come in love…we stand as equally fallen, equally corrupt & imperfect, but also equally redeemed in Christ. From love we can hold each other accountable for our errors & encourage each other to live to the fullest of the power Christ implants in each of us by his resurrection.

Think about that this week…live from the power of Christ in you to love others toward their fullest…not from how you might think they’ve messed up some way or fallen short of your expectations.

Also…remember how immense Christ’s love for you is…and how immeasurably great is his power in you.

See you Sunday! — or somewhere along the way.

John