Discover God’s deep love for the world

Discover God’s deep love for the world

 

For many Christians the pressure to engage a dark and dangerous world results in either an extreme position against it or an abandonment of their previous convictions. We need to discover God’s deep love for the world. Thanks to what God did in Christ, humanity deserves nothing less than to hear the glorious, good news of the redemption that has been made available to them.

And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. 19For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation.

2 Cor 5:18-19 NLT

Romans 4:25 says Christ was put to death because of our offenses but was raised because of our justification.

For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son.

Rom 5:10 NLT

Now we have great confidence to appeal to every man’s conscience to realize the truth that they are already redeemed and forgiven. Every individual now can come to Christ by faith and receive Him as Savior and Lord.

In His lordship over our lives, we find a whole new expression of what life is all about. Creation becomes something to be enjoyed and therefore we tend to it as our physical habitat with responsibility. Humanity becomes the object and focus of love and relations. We celebrate mankind as God’s representative here on earth. Through His work in and through us we bring God’s presence to every place!

'“Let me tell you why you are here. You’re here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth. If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness? You’ve lost your usefulness and will end up in the garbage. “Here’s another way to put it: You’re here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We’re going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. If I make you light-bearers, you don’t think I’m going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I’m putting you on a light stand. Now that I’ve put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand—shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you’ll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven.

Matthew 5:13-16 MSG

Vision Sunday

Come along this Sunday to hear “How to live a better Christian life".
 

Free coffee and biscuits this Sunday!

To celebrate Vision Sunday, we are putting on free coffee and biscuits! Get here early to put your order in at the Café!

 

Government QR Codes

The current Victorian Government requirements for all church venues is we must apply the two square metre rule and keep electronic records for tracking purposes.  As of the 30th April, we are also required to encourage everyone attending to use the Victorian Government QR Code Service.  We still need you to book-in using the church booking system located at www.berwickchurch.org.au/bookings, so we can ensure we do not exceed the maximum number of people allowed in our Auditorium or at Kids Church, and if you don't book online then you will need to use our QR Code check-in. 

The reason for both systems is that the Victorian Government QR Code system doesn't give us any information at all, so we need our own system to manage numbers attending and have electronic records. So when you attend a service – check in with our Welcome Team as normal and then also check-in using the Victorian Government QR Code system which is located on signs near the Auditorium doors. Please reach out if you have any questions.

 

Partnership Class

We will be conducting Partnership Classes again on 2nd of May 2021. This is a 2hr class that orients people in regard to taking up formal partnership in our church. You can invite people to enroll via Trybooking or book yourself and attend as a refresher. We will start @ 12:30 after our morning services, so you’ll be able to have a quick snack with us from 12pm in the Connect Lounge.
 

AGM

Our annual AGM will commence on the 23rd of May. We would love for all our partners to book in on Trybooking for the event as it will be an on-site AGM again. We would like to remind you that the reports will be sent out two weeks ahead of time for your convenience. An email will soon be sent out to all partners to help them assess their involvement as partners and to help them prepare for the AGM.
 

Partnering for a more effective ministry

As we respond to the prophetic word brought by elder Matt Ormiston this past Sunday (if you missed it, you can see it on our YouTube channel) to remove the “out of service” boards and take up being “in service” again, I’d like to invite all partners in a formal assessment of the quality of our ministry. We will be doing this as part of our Annual General Meeting. Natural Church Development has done research with more than 40 000 churches and has an assessment tool that we will use for this purpose. It requires partners to answer pertinent questions about their experience of the ministry. This will be done specifically with the first four months of the year in mind. As Senior Pastor I want to invite you to take up your partnership responsibility in this manner. It will greatly assist us in determining what our areas of improvement should be and to prioritize them.

 

Mother’s Day

We invite you to come down to the church on Sunday, 9th May as we celebrate Mother’s Day. I have the privilege of preaching that day, we will have a photo booth set up so you can take photos with your mum and we will give out prizes for the best photos chosen by a special judge. It will be a fun day to honour our mums!

However, for some, it could be a day that reminds us of grief and loss. Very recently, a number of dear friends have been asking us how we are doing given the recent anniversary of my wife’s mum’s passing. We lovingly call her Lola Gely and we are doing ok. We are doing ok because we openly talk about her, laugh at her funny quirks and appreciate the impact she had in our lives. We are doing ok because we have a God and a church around us who care. 

As followers of Christ, we have an opportunity to walk alongside people who are grieving the loss of a loved one. The Faithbook talks about how, 

He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us. – 2 Corinthians 1:4 NLT

This Mother’s Day, let us honour all mums by celebrating them and by being kind, caring and sensitive to those who need comfort at this time. To minister to them with the same comfort that Jesus gives us.

 

Your help is needed

The Food Pantry is running low on the following items. If you are able to help, please place your donations in the trolley in the foyer.

  • Plain flour
  • Self-raising flour
  • Cake and muffin mix
  • Sugar
  • Soup
 

Thank you for being His Presence in Every Place! 

BRAAM BOTHA

Senior Pastor