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Church in the Sanctuary

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by Calven Celliers Earlier this week a member of our congregation shared the following short article with me, and I want to share it, and some of my thoughts, with you: “As church attendance numbers fade and online services become very convenient (who doesn’t love not getting ready in the morning or leaving home?), it’s important to remember why church attendance for you and your family matters so much. You can’t serve from your sofa. You can’t have community of faith on your sofa. You can’t experience the power of a room full of believers worshipping together on your sofa. Christians aren’t consumers, they’re contributors. We don’t watch. We engage. We give. We sacrifice. We encourage. We do life together. The church needs you. And you need the church. Wherever you are, find a local church where you and your family can be part of community and use your talents to advance the kingdom and reach others. To come alongside one another physically, not just through a screen. While I’m grateful for technology to keep people connected that can’t physically come to a facility or need to be away, it’s absolutely not like being in the building. Never will be.  Yes, church on the sofa is nice. But it’ll never be the same as church in the sanctuary.” The church’s physical gathering is a glad and visible expression of its spiritual nature: believers are the called-out people of God, united by faith in Jesus Christ as Saviour. Community, however, requires commitment. Only the Holy Spirit can create real fellowship between believers, but it takes God’s power and our commitment to produce a loving Christian community. I reckon there’s truth in the statement that ‘to neglect, or forsake, assembling with other believers is to turn from God’s design for His church and embrace a false substitute: the notion that Christianity is individualistic, rather than familial or communal.’ Life is meant to be shared. God intends for us to experience life together. The Bible calls this shared experience fellowship. Fellowship includes unselfish loving, honest sharing, practical serving, sacrificial giving, sympathetic comforting, and all the other “one another” commands found in Scripture. Most, if not all of those, cannot be done online. We are not neglecting nor forsaking the assembling of God’s people if we temporarily obey a government order to protect public health. But we are neglecting and forsaking our assembling if we decide that physical gatherings are simply not necessary or relevant or as convenient for us. The physical gatherings of the church are God-ordained means for believers to have their faith in His promises strengthened. I firmly believe that for us as believers, our churches’ physical gatherings are essential means of growing both spiritually and relationally. No matter how you look at it, the words of Hebrews 10 are relevant, “ 24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, 25 not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one…

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Forgiven Forever

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by John Doyle“For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins and their lawless deeds, I will remember no more"Hebrews 8:12What an amazing verse of scripture that reminds us of the all merciful, compassionate God that we serve. Most of us have regrets of the things we have done or said and some of them are shameful, while others remain painful in our memories. Being Human means we are not perfect and we do make mistakes, and some of those mistakes are bad enough to weigh heavily on our hearts and minds for years. But God in His Word reminds us that if we are fully repentant we are FORGIVEN, FOREVER.Our verse for the day reminds us that we believe in the God of Forgiveness. No matter how bad we have been or how wickedly we have sinned, God is still willing to be merciful and allow us the opportunity to put the past behind us and begin our journey again with our focus on doing God's Will in all things. He also promises to never bring up ever again those sins and mistakes that we regret and have confessed to Him. That's why we must always apply Spiritual C.P.R. and this will bring full Forgiveness from the Lord. C - CONFESS - James 5:16 "Therefore confess your faults to another and pray for one another ........" P - PRAY - "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by PRAYER and supplication with thanksgiving be made known to God" R - REPENT - Acts 3: 19 "Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord". Applying Spiritual C.P.R guarantees us *FORGIVENESS FOREVER*God does this for us because His Son Jesus paid the price for our sins. This is what it means to be redeemed; this is what happens when we are saved. So today, receive and embrace this blessing. God knows all our regrets; He forgives all our mistakes, and He promises to let go of every one of them FOREVER.My Prayer this morning: Dear Lord Jesus, thank You for taking upon Yourself the punishment of the cross for our sins. Your sacrifice allows us to be saved. Your Resurrection guarantees us to be fully redeemed. Thank You for such a wonderful gift and everlasting blessing that made it possible for us as your children to be FORGIVEN FOREVER, we Love you Lord. In the Love of the Lord Jesus, John and Barbara

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Do Unto Others

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by Graham MolThere is something that will always lift my day and that is kindness. Whether I am the one experiencing the kindness of others or if I have the opportunity to be kind to another, it always puts a smile on my face and a spring in my step. Maybe you can relate. Even if the act of kindness is such a small thing, like slowing down to let you into the lane, small acts of kindness can have a big impact. Be kind. That is one of the core teachings of the Bible. You may be thinking, where does it say that exactly? Well it's contained in what has come to be known as the Golden Rule that Jesus taught us:"Just as you want others to do for you, do the same for them."Luke 6:31 CSBYou may know the more traditional translation: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. This principle is the epitome of kindness. We would all love people to be friendly and helpful, exhibiting kindness to us. We certainly don't want to be on the receiving end of rudeness, impatience or even hostility.Kindness has this incredible quality of brightening up the lives of others. It communicates to a person that they are worth your time and effort. That they are worth consideration. Everyone wants to feel significant. Even if one is "having a bad day" for whatever reason, an act of kindness, or even kind words spoken in kindness, can give that little lift to one's mood.Being kind is especially effective in an environment or society that is self-centred and preoccupied. So often the default is to expect indifference at best and outright rudeness at worst from the people around us. What a joy it is then in those moments to be surprised by kindness.So today as we begin this new week I'd like to encourage you to follow Christ's mandate: "Do unto others what you would have them do unto you". Be that ray of sunshine on a cloudy day. Be kind. God BlessGraham

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Loneliness

https://youtu.be/wr67iNtfKFA?t=1318 Audio Recording In a recent online article, some Harvard professors were discussing the fact that the Covid pandemic has triggered a loneliness epidemic. As the world slowly attempts to shed the weight of COVID-19, we need to face up to the reality that never before, in most of our life-times, has the entire modern world been subjected to such collective feelings of fear, uncertainty, anxiety, sorrow, and loneliness. Sermon by Calven Celliers Download the Summary  

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