Para Vista Lutheran Church

This week we continue our interview series with people from our community sharing their faith and prayer journey.

This week Perry Campbell shares how God has placed him in a place where he can use his Gifts to share his faith with young people and use his personal interests to witness to others.

Come and be challenged, and then look at how God has shaped you and how you can witness to others using who you are.

Bible Readings: Mark 3:33-34 (NLT) and Matthew 13:31-33 'Parable of a Mustard Seed' (NLT)

This week we continue our interview series with people from our community sharing their faith and prayer journey.

This week Perry Campbell shares how God has placed him in a place where he can use his Gifts to share his faith with young people and use his personal interests to witness to others.

Come and be challenged, and then look at how God has shaped you and how you can witness to others using who you are.

Bible Readings: Mark 3:33-34 (NLT) and Matthew 13:31-33 'Parable of a Mustard Seed' (NLT)

The Church makes many claims about God – about who God is and what God does and what God is like—and the biggest claim of all, the one that is at the core of all its claims is that God is love—above all else, God is love.

We sing songs and hymns about the God of love—we pray to the God of love—we are called to offer the gift of ourselves to the God of love—and then we dwell in Matthew’s Gospel reading (5:21-37) which speaks about God’s Law.

Are these really the words from the God of love, words from the very heart of God made flesh, Jesus? Well, yes, they are. We read a section of the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus had gathered with his disciples near the Sea of Galilee and began to teach them how He came to fulfil all that He was telling them.

Now we all know the joys of listening to the sounds of the heart—we have perhaps felt, even heard the sound of our own hearts beating in excitement. Our heart is the centre of our personality—”Heart” means the core of ourselves in all our most vibrant aspects—we talk about the human heart as the centre of loving, of compassion, or tenderness, of courage.

But while God’s heart sings out a love song, begun in creation and is sung to us every day, our hearts so often fall far short of singing a love song back to God, or to others.

And so, in God’s mercy, God gives us the law—the teachings of Jesus—and this law will not let our hearts fall short of loving as God would have us love—it’s a law that would have us love in a way that respects the dignity of every human being—as reflected elsewhere in the Scriptures—and it’s a law that ultimately convicts us, because what it demands of us, we cannot achieve.

And here again the law shows us God’s love—for when He shows us our failings it is meant to drive us into His merciful arms. Discovering our failure to love as God loves is not a cause for despair—rather, it’s a call back to God, into the arms of Jesus, who loves and strengthens us, and sends Holy Spirit to us to lead us to love again.

The sound of our hearts and the sound of God’s heart are different—but they’re meant to sing the same song—so we are given the law that we might know more completely how to love—and when we fail—because we do fail—we are given the key to God’s heart—Jesus our Saviour and Holy Spirit our Sanctifier.

God’s heart is the key to the vast treasure of God’s mercy that stands ready for us to receive and use—the key to a heart that offers us true joy—true love—true grace—true mercy—true forgiveness—all because our God is a God of love—and in that we can be sure—for it comes to us in and through Jesus and Holy Spirit, for us to give to others.

Pr. Wayne Kerber

The Church makes many claims about God – about who God is and what God does and what God is like—and the biggest claim of all, the one that is at the core of all its claims is that God is love—above all else, God is love.

We sing songs and hymns about the God of love—we pray to the God of love—we are called to offer the gift of ourselves to the God of love—and then we dwell in Matthew’s Gospel reading (5:21-37) which speaks about God’s Law.

Are these really the words from the God of love, words from the very heart of God made flesh, Jesus? Well, yes, they are. We read a section of the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus had gathered with his disciples near the Sea of Galilee and began to teach them how He came to fulfil all that He was telling them.

Now we all know the joys of listening to the sounds of the heart—we have perhaps felt, even heard the sound of our own hearts beating in excitement. Our heart is the centre of our personality—”Heart” means the core of ourselves in all our most vibrant aspects—we talk about the human heart as the centre of loving, of compassion, or tenderness, of courage.

But while God’s heart sings out a love song, begun in creation and is sung to us every day, our hearts so often fall far short of singing a love song back to God, or to others.

And so, in God’s mercy, God gives us the law—the teachings of Jesus—and this law will not let our hearts fall short of loving as God would have us love—it’s a law that would have us love in a way that respects the dignity of every human being—as reflected elsewhere in the Scriptures—and it’s a law that ultimately convicts us, because what it demands of us, we cannot achieve.

And here again the law shows us God’s love—for when He shows us our failings it is meant to drive us into His merciful arms. Discovering our failure to love as God loves is not a cause for despair—rather, it’s a call back to God, into the arms of Jesus, who loves and strengthens us, and sends Holy Spirit to us to lead us to love again.

The sound of our hearts and the sound of God’s heart are different—but they’re meant to sing the same song—so we are given the law that we might know more completely how to love—and when we fail—because we do fail—we are given the key to God’s heart—Jesus our Saviour and Holy Spirit our Sanctifier.

God’s heart is the key to the vast treasure of God’s mercy that stands ready for us to receive and use—the key to a heart that offers us true joy—true love—true grace—true mercy—true forgiveness—all because our God is a God of love—and in that we can be sure—for it comes to us in and through Jesus and Holy Spirit, for us to give to others.

Pr. Wayne Kerber

We live in an increasingly polarised and cynical society.  There is deep division, mistrust and hurt.  Sometimes we find ourselves caught up in this fragmentation and we find it seeping into our lives, our homes, our schools, and our churches.

When Saint Paul wrote to the church in Thessalonica, he was writing to a church that was thriving in the midst of some big challenges and sorrows. Instead of fragmenting and falling apart – they were “falling together”. This Sunday Pastor Stephen Abraham unpacks 3 lessons from Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonian church, titled “Choose Kindness”.

We live in an increasingly polarised and cynical society.  There is deep division, mistrust and hurt.  Sometimes we find ourselves caught up in this fragmentation and we find it seeping into our lives, our homes, our schools, and our churches.

When Saint Paul wrote to the church in Thessalonica, he was writing to a church that was thriving in the midst of some big challenges and sorrows. Instead of fragmenting and falling apart – they were “falling together”. This Sunday Pastor Stephen Abraham unpacks 3 lessons from Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonian church, titled “Choose Kindness”.

 

I was at a youth camp recently and the young people were talking about wanting to do something for God – to live out their faith in a truly meaningful way. They talked about various missions they would like to go on. They were inspiring in the vision they had for how they could serve God.

However, as the discussion continued, I began to feel a bit sad, because I realised they were undervaluing what they were already doing. As I looked around at these young people I knew, I had always really valued the way they witnessed to God in their everyday lives. Particularly that they lived out their faith in a way that was real and authentic. But they couldn’t see that. They were looking to serve God in meaningful ways but did not realise that in their day to day lives they were living out God’s love to people around them in marvellously meaningful ways. I wanted to shout out to them “YOU ALREADY ARE!”  But I’m not they would have heard me.

What about you? If I said that to you, would you hear me?

You see God’s love comes to life as we simply live out our faith in, dare I say it, our ordinary lives.

Love comes to life in our relationships, in our vocation, in our family and social life.

Love comes to life where we are.

Love comes to life as we simply use the gifts that God has given us, for others.

1 Peter 2: 4-10

Pr. Paul Fielke

I was at a youth camp recently and the young people were talking about wanting to do something for God – to live out their faith in a truly meaningful way. They talked about various missions they would like to go on. They were inspiring in the vision they had for how they could serve God.

However, as the discussion continued, I began to feel a bit sad, because I realised they were undervaluing what they were already doing. As I looked around at these young people I knew, I had always really valued the way they witnessed to God in their everyday lives. Particularly that they lived out their faith in a way that was real and authentic. But they couldn’t see that. They were looking to serve God in meaningful ways but did not realise that in their day to day lives they were living out God’s love to people around them in marvellously meaningful ways. I wanted to shout out to them “YOU ALREADY ARE!”  But I’m not they would have heard me.

What about you? If I said that to you, would you hear me?

You see God’s love comes to life as we simply live out our faith in, dare I say it, our ordinary lives.

Love comes to life in our relationships, in our vocation, in our family and social life.

Love comes to life where we are.

Love comes to life as we simply use the gifts that God has given us, for others.

1 Peter 2: 4-10

Pr. Paul Fielke

Jesus was the Messiah, the promised Saviour, who ushered in the Kingdom of God (the reign of God).  The Scriptures tell us that the Kingdom of God exists, wherever Jesus reigns as King.

In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches us to pray, “Your Kingdom come.” That is, “Lord, bring in your Kingdom.” God’s Kingdom comes to us when we acknowledge Jesus as our King and trust in his help and salvation.  Let that be your prayer throughout 2023, that Jesus would reign as King over your heart and life and that he would help you to trust in his forgiving, saving, healing, and renewing love – as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, including yours and mine.

Jesus was the Messiah, the promised Saviour, who ushered in the Kingdom of God (the reign of God).  The Scriptures tell us that the Kingdom of God exists, wherever Jesus reigns as King.

In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches us to pray, “Your Kingdom come.” That is, “Lord, bring in your Kingdom.” God’s Kingdom comes to us when we acknowledge Jesus as our King and trust in his help and salvation.  Let that be your prayer throughout 2023, that Jesus would reign as King over your heart and life and that he would help you to trust in his forgiving, saving, healing, and renewing love – as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, including yours and mine.