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Weekly messages from Good Shepherd Lutheran Church Para Vista Inc
Episodes
Sunday Jul 24, 2022
Sunday Jul 24, 2022
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
Sunday Jul 17, 2022
Sunday Jul 17, 2022
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.
Sunday Jul 10, 2022
Sunday Jul 10, 2022
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
Sunday Jul 10, 2022
Sunday Jul 10, 2022
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
Sunday Jul 03, 2022
Sunday Jul 03, 2022
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.”
Sunday Jul 03, 2022
Sunday Jul 03, 2022
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.”
Sunday Jun 26, 2022
Sunday Jun 26, 2022
Here is a thought that comes from the book “The Peacemaker” by Ken Sande, where he talks about an effect of using the Golden Rule to treat others as we would like to be treated. He calls this the Golden Result:
The Golden Result says that people will usually treat us as we treat them. If we blame others for a problem, they will usually blame us in return. But if we say, “I was wrong,” it is amazing how often the response will be, “It was my fault too.”
I have seen this result in hundreds of cases over the past twenty-one years. Whether the dispute involves a personal quarrel, divorce, lawsuit, or Church division, people generally treat one another as they are being treated. When one person attacks and accuses, so does the other. And when God moves one person to start getting the log out of his or her own eye, it is rare that the other side fails to do the same.
The Golden Result occurs more often with people who understand and cherish the gospel. When we admit our own sins are so serious that Jesus had to die for us, and remember that he has forgiven us for all our wrongs, we can let go of our illusion of self-righteousness and freely admit our failures. When we do this, we experience the wonderful gift of God’s forgiveness.
In so many cases this results in a softening and a willingness to work things out rather than to continue the conflict.
Pastor Paul Fielke
Bible Reading: 1 John 4:11, 15-21
Sunday Jun 26, 2022
Sunday Jun 26, 2022
Here is a thought that comes from the book “The Peacemaker” by Ken Sande, where he talks about an effect of using the Golden Rule to treat others as we would like to be treated. He calls this the Golden Result:
The Golden Result says that people will usually treat us as we treat them. If we blame others for a problem, they will usually blame us in return. But if we say, “I was wrong,” it is amazing how often the response will be, “It was my fault too.”
I have seen this result in hundreds of cases over the past twenty-one years. Whether the dispute involves a personal quarrel, divorce, lawsuit, or Church division, people generally treat one another as they are being treated. When one person attacks and accuses, so does the other. And when God moves one person to start getting the log out of his or her own eye, it is rare that the other side fails to do the same.
The Golden Result occurs more often with people who understand and cherish the gospel. When we admit our own sins are so serious that Jesus had to die for us, and remember that he has forgiven us for all our wrongs, we can let go of our illusion of self-righteousness and freely admit our failures. When we do this, we experience the wonderful gift of God’s forgiveness.
In so many cases this results in a softening and a willingness to work things out rather than to continue the conflict.
Pastor Paul Fielke
Bible Reading: 1 John 4:11, 15-21
Sunday Jun 19, 2022
Sunday Jun 19, 2022
Being a follower of Jesus is a package deal. If we have God as our heavenly Father, through Christ, then because of that, other Christians are our brothers and sisters in Christ.
St Paul tells us in Galatians 3:36-29 that, because of our shared union with Christ, the usual cultural distinctions and separations between people no longer apply. Our unity with each other is grounded in and flows out of our union with Christ. We don’t come together as a congregation simply as a human arrangement, but because God has drawn us to himself and made us part of his family. This is not our doing, but his. It is a gift of grace!
Our unity as Christians is a gift – and this precious gift is what that determines our identity. Who am I? I am God’s beloved and forgiven child, through my union with Christ. And who are we? We are God’s beloved and forgiven family, though our union with Christ. That’s how we are to think of ourselves and of each other.
We are one in Christ – praise God! Let’s live that way!
Sunday Jun 19, 2022
Sunday Jun 19, 2022
Being a follower of Jesus is a package deal. If we have God as our heavenly Father, through Christ, then because of that, other Christians are our brothers and sisters in Christ.
St Paul tells us in Galatians 3:36-29 that, because of our shared union with Christ, the usual cultural distinctions and separations between people no longer apply. Our unity with each other is grounded in and flows out of our union with Christ. We don’t come together as a congregation simply as a human arrangement, but because God has drawn us to himself and made us part of his family. This is not our doing, but his. It is a gift of grace!
Our unity as Christians is a gift – and this precious gift is what that determines our identity. Who am I? I am God’s beloved and forgiven child, through my union with Christ. And who are we? We are God’s beloved and forgiven family, though our union with Christ. That’s how we are to think of ourselves and of each other.
We are one in Christ – praise God! Let’s live that way!