Christian Reformed Church of Wamberal

Transcription

1 Christian Reformed Church of Wamberal 8 February 2015 Vol 40 #2 Services am and 5pm Pastor Nobin Shunmugam - Ph: nshunmugam@crca.org.au Website: wamberalreformed.com.au Welcome - to all worshipping with us today. If you are a visitor - a special welcome to you - and please, stay and join us for a cuppa in the hall after the morning service. Services Today - Pastor Nobin Next Sunday - Pastor Nobin Morning Proclaiming Jesus Is Lord! Romans 10: 1-13 Afternoon Reconciliation With God Romans 5: 1-11 Today, we plan, dv, to celebrate the Lord s Supper in both Worship Services. For the benefit of our visitors we point out that in this part of God s family we practice a supervised table. That means that visitors sharing a common faith with us are invited to attend along with our own members, after they have made themselves known to one of our elders. An elder will be at the front door of the church for that purpose. We look forward to a blessed celebration together.

2 From the Pastor s desk.... We give thanks to the Lord for the privilege of worship and pray that the Lord will challenge our faith through the preaching of the Word and through celebrating the most glorious feast of the Lord s Supper. Today we have the opportunity of celebrating the Lord s Supper in both services. Celebrating the Lord's Supper is deeply significant and full of meaning. The Lord s Supper looks back to the death of our Lord and ahead to His victory over death at the resurrection as well as His coming again to earth at the end of the age. The Passover celebration that Jesus kept with His disciples is referred to as the Last Supper. The apostle Paul describes it like this: "the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, 'This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.' In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.' For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes." Not found in the gospels, but emphasized by the Apostle Paul, is a warning about eating the elements (bread and wine) in an unworthy manner. "Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. Some examples of eating and drinking unworthily are lack of appreciation for the depth of suffering Jesus endured to save us, or being unwilling to confess sins, or to look upon the Lord's Supper as only a ritual. In order not to eat unworthily, Paul tells us to examine ourselves prior to coming to the table! Fittingly, Jesus broke the bread before He gave it to the disciples. This brokenness of the bread foreshadowed the brokenness of His body due to His flogging and cruel nailing to the cross. And the poured-out wine which Jesus and His disciples drank that night was a fitting symbol of the blood that would be shed the following day. The one-time sacrifice of Christ, God's Passover Lamb, established a New Covenant. This new covenant, in which we receive forgiveness of sins and eternal life through Christ's shed blood and broken body, is celebrated as we remember Him in the Lord's Supper. Have a Blessed week, filled with God s grace, mercy and love.

3 Tuesday Night Bible Study We meet this Tuesday night (10 Feb) at 7.30 pm at Ken and Audrey's. Ken will lead the study from The Gospel of Mark - What Jesus Did, Study 4 - Mark 7:1-8:26. Everyone welcome! Choir Our first choir practice for Easter will be on Wed 11 Feb at the church from 7.30pm. There will be 7 rehearsals in total. New members are always welcome - no qualifications required except a love of singing and praising the Lord! Community FOOD Drive is back on! It is such a simple thing for us to add an extra tin or packet to our shopping list to put in the basket, and it is so much appreciated by those who are doing it tough! Thank you for your continued support. Diary DateS... Saturday 7 March GARAGE SALE Please collect and keep all good saleable items and bring to the church in the first week in March. Large items, please contact Pierre. Also workers will be needed to sort, set up and sell on the day. Proceeds to local mission at Wamberal Public school for Scripture materials. STREET STALL DATES... Thursday 23 April - Stall 1 (Mann Street end) Thursday 16 July - Stall 2 (Kibble Park end) Thursday 15 October - Stall 2 (Kibble Park end) R B T... We continue with the Reading the Bible Together (RBT) program and the next book to be read is Psalm which will be discussed on 22 February 2015.

4 Prayers... Let us remember those who need our prayers and may the Lord make us faithful in the ministry of intercession. Pray for those with ongoing health problems, physical, mental and spiritual, that God may place His healing Hands on them and they may know His peace and special touch. Pray for Ava DeZeeuw, Syd & Rita Green, Arie Janssen, Agnes Buddeke, Ella Joy, Jim Schokker, Henk & Maaika Boddendyk. We continue to pray for Sherree Simpson (Sullivan) as she recovers from her knee surgery. Pray for Nel Vos, Mien Swaab and Rita Scribante in aged care facilities and for the nursing staff who take care of them. Pray for the parents who have children with special needs, that God may grant them wisdom, strength and above all - patience. Pray for the need to call a part time Youth Worker for 2015 and that the Lord will lead the right person to heed the call, if it is His will to go in this direction. Pray for the various ministries in our Church: The Session; COM; Sunday School; Catechism; Lady s Fellowship; craft group; Bible Study Groups; Solomon s mission; Scripture teaching; the Green Team; the Music team and all the behind the scenes workers. Tour of Israel... Over the past 6 years we have had a ministry of organising and leading tours of Israel and Jordan. In this time we have had the joy of taking 134 people on four separate tours, all of which were very successful and thoroughly enjoyed by those who came along. Each person has commented after the completion of their respective tours on how much they learned and gained a deeper understanding of the Bible and experiencing the fact that they walked where Jesus walked. Our Tour Guide is a Messianic Jew who lives in Jerusalem and is a very gifted man with a wonderful knowledge of the Bible, history and the Jewish culture. We are now in the process of organising a 12 day tour of Israel commencing on September 9, 2015 followed by an optional 5 day tour of Turkey incorporating the Seven Churches of Revelation. We organise the land only part of the tour and you are asked to organise your own flights. These tours will only go ahead if we have the numbers to fill the places. If you are interested in joining us or would like more information, please do not hesitate to call us on or us at: peternel4@bigpond.com. Looking forward to hearing from you, Regards and blessings, Rev. Peter & Nel Mechielsen.

5 Have you ever thought about participating in theological education but dismissed the very idea because your life stage or location would make it impossible? Then the RTC distance programme (also known as Refstudy) may be exactly what you are looking for. The RTC was one of the pioneers of online education within the Australian College of Theology (ACT) and over the years our programme has grown from strength to strength. With the New Year commenced, it is not too late to enrol for units at the RTC. Distance education mode can be a great way to get a taste of theological or ministry education, whilst maintaining other work/family/church commitments. Visit the College website for further information about our courses offered via Distance Education. The following units are scheduled to be taught online during the 1 st semester of 2015: Jesus and the Gospels (NT301/501), The Doctrines of Grace and Eschatology (TH403/603), The Church from 1550 to Modern Times (CH301/501) and Christian Worldview (PE301/510) For any enquiries please contact Phillip Scheepers at pscheepers@rtc.edu.au. We are convinced that our online units can be of great benefit to those seeking to be equipped to serve the Lord Jesus, wherever they may be and we hope to virtually see many of those reading this on the Refstudy site soon! There may be potential students within your congregations who could benefit from these programs if so, we d love to speak with them and see how the RTC could assist with providing training for future ministry in Reformed churches. *************************************************** this week to... Tues10 February - Arie Janssen Thurs 12 February - Honnie Venema Thurs 12 February - Jeff Corcoran Thurs 12 February - Ruan van Rensburg Sun 15 February - Paul Vanderstelt

6 KIDSPOT... Q. Who was the smartest man in the Bible? A. Abraham. He knew a Lot. Q. Why didn't they play cards on the Ark? A. Because Noah was standing on the deck. Who/What Am I? I can be carried but not touched Everyone wants to catch a sight of me But I'm kept out of sight I was lost and found; then found but now I am lost I'm in the Bible - what am I? (Answer next week)

7 RTC Graduation The Reformed Theological College is holding its Graduation on Friday, 27 February, 2015 at 7.30pm in the RTC Auditorium, 125 Pigdons Road, Waurn Ponds, Victoria. On this occasion we will present graduating students with their awards. We invite you to come and celebrate with us! If that is not possible, please pray for these students that the Lord will use them greatly in advancing His Kingdom! The speaker will be the Rev. Peter Hastie, Principal Presbyterian Theological College, Box Hill. After the ceremony supper will be served. On behalf of the Reformed Theological College Dr. Henk DeWaard Academic Registrar DIRECTOR OF THE SOLOMON ISLAND MISSION phone: Dear friends in all our CRCA congregations, You will know that we have announced a vacancy for the key role of Director of the exciting mission that our denomination operates in Honiara, for some time. From our well resourced base, great programs are run which support and enable our Christian brothers and sisters there in their witness and church work, in leadership and training. But it is in some jeopardy, as to date no-one suitable has felt the call of Jesus to serve as the manager and coordinator of these vital ministries. We would love to continue supporting prisoners, school students, long term children patients in the little hospital school, building water storage systems, teaching in the media and in Bible Colleges, distributing vital aid, enabling the disabled, serving in women s bible studies, etc plus welcoming and utilizing the skills of lots of SWIM teams from Australia and New Zealand. We do believe that within our denomination, the CRCA, there is such a person, able to support, care, motivate and manage a team of other missionaries and to share in these blessings. That person may have been seeking God s will in prayer for the past six months. If that is you, why not get in touch with us to explore the wonderful possibilities? Peter van der Schoor ( Chairman) Solomon Islands Mission Workgroup

8 ROSTERS: Today 15 Feb 22 Feb 1 Mar 2nd Offering Deacons RTC RTC Duty Elder Daniel Daniel Jeff Jeff Bible Reader Marieka Jonathan Nico Willie Singers Liz/Angus Jeff/Lisa Nico/Kyle Liz/Angus Musicians John/Tim Kyle/Stephen John/Tim/ Paul/Angus John/Tim Paul/Stephen John/Tim/ Kyle/Lisa Creche Jennifer Amanda Marie VIcki Vergers Ron & Vicki Ron & Vicki Ron & Vicki Coffee Corcoran Raukema Alanah HYC P Fokkema Family R Vos Valencia HYC Church Cleaning w/e 14/2 W Stols w/e 21/2 J Corcoran w/e 28/2 A Bowen w/e 7/3 P Vanderstelt Banking Details: Christian Reformed Church of Wamberal BSB: Acct#: Deacons: Mr Herman de Zeeuw Ph: Mr Tim Simpson Ph: Seniors Bible Study Nobin Tues Night Bible Study Nico Ladies Bible Study Emily Prayer Action Team Jonathan Ladies Fellowship Ava CHURCH DETAILS: Correspondence: Session Clerk Mrs Marieka Vos PO Box 3326 ERINA 2250 Ph: admin@wamberal.crca.org.au Committee of Management: Secretary - Mrs Emily Peet Ph: repeet777@hotmail.com Treasurer: Mr Jeff Corcoran Ph: treasurer@wamberal.crca.org.au Newsletter Items: (by 6pm Thurs) Mrs Jannie Robertson Ph: crcwnews@yahoo.com.au CONTACTS: Meets 1st & 3rd Tues at Church hall -10am Meets 2nd & 4th Tues various homes pm Meets fortnightly on Weds at Peet s pm Meets 1st Wed of each month at Crowther s - 3pm Meets last Thurs of each month - at church hall - 10am