We are pleased that long-term Presbyterian missionaries, Dennis & Glenys Tranter (with AIM), who have worked extensively among the Aboriginal people of our land (particularly Borroloola in the Northern Territory), will be with us on September 27th and 28th.

Dennis will speak at the Men’s Fellowship at 8am on Sat 27th and Glenys will speak at the Ladies’ Brunch at 10am which follows on the same morning. Then on Sunday 28th, they will both share in the morning service, Dennis will preach and then they will share with us again over our regular monthly lunch in the hall. Come and join us!

We’ll be meeting together for prayer this coming Saturday, September 13th from 10am – 12:30pm in the Upper Room. All are welcome. Come and join with us. Come when you can, leave when you must!

Yep..!   ‘Spur’ is back and we’re pleased to be a part of it. The keynote speaker is Russ Grinter and there will be special input from Rev. Nello Barbieri (PCV Training Officer) and Rev. Brian Harvey (PCV Youth Ministries Director).  It’s open to all ages and to men and women. Come and join us!

Join us as we travel up to the Presbyterian Church in Rochester (Victoria Street) to participate in the Women’s Ministries Victoria seminar on Saturday August 30th from 10am.

The morning session is open to both men and to women. The post lunch session will mainly be directed towards the ladies. Morning tea and lunch are provided (at a small cost).

The speaker for the morning session is Rev. Dr Douglas Milne (former Principal of the Presbyterian Theological College).

Term 3 is underway again and so are our Home Groups on Wednesdays at 1:30pm (Ladies) and Thursdays at 7:30pm (2 mixed groups). We’re studying Exodus 1-18 and you’d be very welcome if you wanted to join us!

Our Home Groups are getting together to give more attention to the vital ministry of prayer on Thursday night July 17th at 7:30pm in the Upper Room.

Come join us!

Yep, we’re up and running again this month on Saturday the 21st!

The men are gathering for breakfast at 8am with guest speaker, Daniel, and the ladies are meeting together at 10am with guest speaker, Courtney,. All are welcome! Food and spiritual food supplied!

Join us on Friday May 30th at 7:30pm when we will meet together with guest speaker, Glenda de Jager, National Director, Mukti Australia.

Mukti was founded in 1889 in India, where it is known as Pandita Ramabai Mukti Mission, after its founder Pandita Ramabai and the Marathi word ‘mukti’ which means freedom, liberation and salvation.

There will be hand made items for sale and a gold coin donation is requested for the coffee and cake dessert!  Oh…and yes, men are also very welcome 🙂

It has been reported in recent years from the UK that a student in a Religious Education class asked his teacher if he could stay behind after class and ask her a question about her Christmas lesson. (The student probably didn’t want to ask the question in class for fear of being embarrassed in front of his classmates). The question he asked was this, ‘Why would Mary and Joseph name their baby after a swear word?’

The truth that this story conveys is striking. When a student has never heard the name ‘Jesus’ apart from as a swear word, then we know for sure that general knowledge about the Bible or even about Jesus is at an all time low. It must be the greatest irony of all times. Human history is divided into two great sections – ‘BC’ (Before Christ) and ‘AD’ (Anno Domini – Latin for ‘the year of the Lord’) with Jesus Christ the very centre of it all, and yet two thousand years later, in many cases He is ignored, despised, hated and greatly misunderstood!

At Easter time, we are forced again to consider what the Bible says about Jesus. We simply cannot afford to ignore Him although many continue to do so. The great writer C.S.Lewis once summed up the situation logically like this – Jesus has to be one of three things. Either he is a liar (He deliberately went around telling people that he was the Son of God when He wasn’t) or he is a lunatic (He thought He was the Son of God but he was badly mistaken) or he is Lord (He really was and is the Son of God.)

The accounts of his life in the New Testament’s 4 Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John), clearly help us know which of the above options best fit the facts that are recorded about Him.  To come to some other conclusion other than the evidence the Bible gives and the conclusion it reaches would be ludicrous! But even if we agree with who Jesus said He was, it will not be enough just to have the right idea about Him, or just to be sympathetic to Him, or be more or less in favour of Him…If He is Lord as He says, then He can be nothing less than your Lord and having Him as less than your Lord will never be good enough for Him. It’s all or nothing.

Jesus once asked his disciples this question, ‘Who do you say I am?’ (Matthew 16:15). This Easter, He is still asking us the same question.

Getting pounded by insults is one thing in life that I hope you will never ever have to face. The old saying ‘sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me’ is simply not true. Remember how poor old Charlie Brown copped a verbal barrage of ‘nyah, nyah, nyah’ one day from a girl? His response was, ‘I just hate it when those nyah, nyah, nyahs just lay there in your stomach and burn’. 

The same could be said of course for Jesus. All through his life he copped a few of them – accusations that he was a drunkard (which was not true) or that he was a friend of sinners (which was true – but was never said simply as fact). He even copped this one when he was dying, ‘If you are the Son of God, come down from there and we will believe you’ (Mark 15:32)

Why was it that Jesus refused to do what they said? Logically it was a good idea. He could have done with some more followers. But Jesus knew better than what logic suggested. He could have got down quite easily, but that would have nullified the reason He came. See, it was more than nails that held Him there.

It was more than the ropes by which He was bound to the wood. It was more than that, much much more that held Him there despite the taunts of the crowds. It was out of His love for sinners, the greatest love for sinners ever known that caused Him not to get down and caused Him to die a death and pay a debt that He did not owe. It was for the purpose of our salvation that He endured these threats and hostility.

Logic said ‘get down’. Insults taunted him to do likewise. The devil also. All would entice him down except for His strong love for sinners, like you and me. Love would not let Him give up that easily. And by staying up there and not getting down, he proved that He was who they said – the very Son of God. This Easter, seek Him.