Para Vista Lutheran Church

A Surprising God, with worship elements (Video)

When we look back over our lives, we might find that God has prepared the way or guided us in surprising ways.  This week is the first in an occasional series of interviews with people who will share their faith journey, exploring how God has guided and shaped their lives through people, events, and prayer.

Sometimes God is prompting us to “put a toe in the water” without us knowing what He has planned.  Are we in tune with God’s promptings and do we trust Him enough to step out in faith?

A Surprising God, message only (Audio)

When we look back over our lives, we might find that God has prepared the way or guided us in surprising ways.  This week is the first in an occasional series of interviews with people who will share their faith journey, exploring how God has guided and shaped their lives through people, events, and prayer.

Sometimes God is prompting us to “put a toe in the water” without us knowing what He has planned.  Are we in tune with God’s promptings and do we trust Him enough to step out in faith?

A Surprising God, with worship elements (Audio)

When we look back over our lives, we might find that God has prepared the way or guided us in surprising ways.  This week is the first in an occasional series of interviews with people who will share their faith journey, exploring how God has guided and shaped their lives through people, events, and prayer.

Sometimes God is prompting us to “put a toe in the water” without us knowing what He has planned.  Are we in tune with God’s promptings and do we trust Him enough to step out in faith?

Relational Prayer (Audio)

At its simplest, prayer is a conversation between two people who love each other. That means prayer is not about perfecting the correct methodology. Instead, it’s about growing in this love relationship where we can respond with all we are, to all that Father God is to us.  When it comes to praying, we’ve already been given everything we need: a heart, mind, mouth, and ears. Using these, prayer becomes a flow of love toward God that can bear fruit of all kinds as we submit to him and know him better.

Pr Peter Steicke

Relational Prayer (Video)

At its simplest, prayer is a conversation between two people who love each other. That means prayer is not about perfecting the correct methodology. Instead, it’s about growing in this love relationship where we can respond with all we are, to all that Father God is to us.  When it comes to praying, we’ve already been given everything we need: a heart, mind, mouth, and ears. Using these, prayer becomes a flow of love toward God that can bear fruit of all kinds as we submit to him and know him better.

Pr Peter Steicke

God said ”Ask For Whatever You Want”

If you could ask God for anything you wanted – what would you ask for?

Would it be pleasing to God?

Solomon was given this option and he asked for ‘wisdom’, but what is wisdom?

Bishop Stephen Schulz unpacks what this meant for Solomon and what it means for us today.

Is God’s offer still open to us?

Bible Reading: 1 Kings 3: 5-10.

How God Changes Us (Video)

The older I get the more I’m noticing how hard it is to change. There are things I have been wrestling with for many, many years and yet I seem to have made little or no progress in changing them. It can be rather discouraging and disconcerting. I also find myself wondering what God must be thinking about my inability to change those things in my life that are not his best for me.

The good news for me and all of us is that God’s loves us as we are, and there is nothing we can do to make him love us more, or less. That’s important to remember so that we don’t slip into despair over our inability to change. While God loves us just the way we are, He loves us way too much to leave us as we are. God knows how much pain and struggle those things we need to change bring into our lives. God wants to work change so that we can live more fully in the blessings of the life he has made possible for us in Jesus.

This Sunday we are going to look at Jacob and how God worked change in his life after many years of living deceitfully and running away. As we observe what God used to change Jacob, we realise that God is still using this approach to transform us to be more and more like Jesus.

I look forward to sharing this message with you on Sunday.

Yours in Jesus
Noel Kluge

How God Changes Us (Audio)

The older I get the more I’m noticing how hard it is to change. There are things I have been wrestling with for many, many years and yet I seem to have made little or no progress in changing them. It can be rather discouraging and disconcerting. I also find myself wondering what God must be thinking about my inability to change those things in my life that are not his best for me.

The good news for me and all of us is that God’s loves us as we are, and there is nothing we can do to make him love us more, or less. That’s important to remember so that we don’t slip into despair over our inability to change. While God loves us just the way we are, He loves us way too much to leave us as we are. God knows how much pain and struggle those things we need to change bring into our lives. God wants to work change so that we can live more fully in the blessings of the life he has made possible for us in Jesus.

This Sunday we are going to look at Jacob and how God worked change in his life after many years of living deceitfully and running away. As we observe what God used to change Jacob, we realise that God is still using this approach to transform us to be more and more like Jesus.

I look forward to sharing this message with you on Sunday.

Yours in Jesus
Noel Kluge

Hang In There! (Audio)

Resilience has become a bit of a buzz word in recent years.  Doubly so, as we’ve battled through Covid and are still recovering from that, emotionally, socially, financially, and even spiritually.  We’d all like to know how we might hang in there during the tough times in life and continue to thrive and live well, in even the most challenging of circumstances?

In today's message we explore resilience, look at how worship helps us hang in there, and unpack a simple prayer for resilience: “Lord, warm my heart, renew my mind, use my hands, and shape my life.  Amen.”

Hang In There! (Video)

Resilience has become a bit of a buzz word in recent years.  Doubly so, as we’ve battled through Covid and are still recovering from that, emotionally, socially, financially, and even spiritually.  We’d all like to know how we might hang in there during the tough times in life and continue to thrive and live well, in even the most challenging of circumstances?

In today's message we explore resilience, look at how worship helps us hang in there, and unpack a simple prayer for resilience: “Lord, warm my heart, renew my mind, use my hands, and shape my life.  Amen.”