by Riikka Kuronen | 2024 Jul,12 | Pastor's Desk
Both ‘adulting’ and letting kids really grow up can be too challenging for some! We generally don’t like change and tend to love comfort. Change is difficult. It is uncomfortable. On the other hand ‘comfort’ seems easy and familiar. But think about your life journey thus far. You began life literally being held by your mother. Then nine months or so – everything changed. And it changed because you had grown! In fact, ‘growth’ and ‘change’ are partners! One day you were in a basinet, then in a cradle, then in a cot, then in a bed – and were still not yet four years old! We are not meant to stay the same (although, as we get older staying the same in appearance would have been quite nice!!). You may have heard the saying that “God loves you just as you are, but loves you too much to leave you the way you are.” God knows that change will be rewarding and lead to you having a more fulfilling life. You may not like change, or even want to change – but you’re already an expert at it – and may not even realise it!
by Andrew Corbett | 2024 Jun,6 | Pastor's Desk
This year we have been laying a foundation for knowing God and then each Sunday building upon it. Throughout June we are focusing on how knowing God enables us to find our joy in Him and consequently to discover that He enables us to find joy in our relationships with others. But sadly, for many people who have vowed to love, serve, and follow Jesus, this has not always been easy to do. This is why the current sub-theme of humility is critically important if someone desires to truly experience joy in each of their various relationships with others.
by Andrew Corbett | 2019 Nov,1 | Pastor's Desk
Jesus asked a question, that I’m pretty sure every wife frequently asks her husband, “Do you love Me?” But the question Jesus asked of Peter was not the same as the similar sounding question that wives ask their husbands. The kind of ‘love’ that Jesus was asking of His disciple was extremely odd. And while many a sermon down through the centuries has claimed that Peter’s answer to the Christ was not satisfactory, I think they may have missed the point of this profound exchange between the Saviour and one of His servants. It is from this exchange that we are gifted one of the greatest insights into what love really is and why it requires something in particular.
He said to him a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me?” He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.” He said to him, “Tend My sheep.”
John 21:16
by Andrew Corbett | 2016 Sep,17 | Pastor's Desk
In the movie, The Matrix, the lead female character, Trinity, learns to fly a military helicopter in twenty seconds. In the hit TV series, Heroes, one of the heroes, “Copycat”, can master any skill after watching it just once. And in real life, there are people who can flick through a many-paged book and read it in under a minute. Unfortunately though, most of us don’t live in the movies or TV shows, or have highly developed mental faculties. Instead, most of us have to work really really hard to learn how to fly a military helicopter or to be able to read War And Peace in under a minute. Achievements usually take time, effort, application, and a deal of concentration. And the deeper Christian life is no exception. Perhaps this is why our Enemy will today use multiple means of distractions to tempt the followers of The Conquering Lamb away from the rewards of concentration. This is a call to the Blood-Bought to shake off the bewitching of our Enemy and begin to experience concentrated Christianity.
