Raising great families

Genesis 2:18 - 25

Amongst many things the creation story reminds us that God's plan for humanity includes relationships with other people, most particularly within the confines of a family relationship.  When families are acting the way God intends for them, they can offer the very best of relationships.  Families can offer their members deep love, unconditional acceptance, unswerving allegiance and absolute support.  But for this to be requires that each family member, at each stage of the family's life, needs to be intentionally acting to make the family great.  Three ways in which this can happen is through:

1. Spending quality time together and lots of it - families need to be around each other often, having fun times, sharing experiences, creating memories for the future.
2. Expressing love - where feelings and words are placed in action.  In Ephesian 5:21 Paul starts his household code by telling each family member to submit to each other.  Deep love in a family is found when each person humbles themselves before the other in love, service and honour.
3. Honouring God - great families are united in their allegiance to Jesus Christ, find their values shaped by scripture and share a common purpose and destiny.  In Ephesians 6:4 Paul reminds fathers that it is their responsibility to raise their children in the faith of Jesus Christ.

Whilst focusing attention on these three areas can help families be great, we also need to remember that not all families will be like this.  Sometimes families can be the source of our greatest hurts and sorrows.  Focusing on making our families great during the good times, can help in the hard times.  But we also need to remember that God is a God of reconciliation, and that through prayer, the ministry of Jesus and the hope for the future, that restoration will comes.

In our congregation there are already many families that do things that help make their families great.  What are some of the things that you do?

Grander Vision Living

Luke 5:1 - 11


Any fisher person, amateur or professional, would have to be ecstatic about the catch of fish that Peter and his mates caught after they listened to Jesus and lowered their nets.  But the great irony of this story, is that Jesus calls them to fish for something even greater and more important and that has a longer lasting impact.  This is to fish for people.  The call that Jesus makes to the disciples and us, is a call to a larger vision of what life can be like. 


In our relationship with Jesus we experience love, peace, joy and hope, we have a promise of the hungry being fed, the homeless finding shelter and justice being offered for all.  But for people to experience this life, and for this life to be seen by all, they need to be invited into a life transforming relationship with Jesus Christ. 


This requires a commitment and passion on behalf of Christ followers, to live with a priority for other people.  The call to fish for people is the call to place as our top priority being people who walk across rooms, develop friendships, discover stories, discern next steps and dare to believe that people will come to faith in Jesus Christ.


But it all starts with us having the passion and commitment to place loving people into the kingdom as our top priority.

The Power of story

John 5:31 - 47

As we continue with our Just Walk Across the Room story we think this week about the power of story.  We each have a story to tell about our relationship with God and his invovlment in this world and our lives.  Becasue our friends are interested in us, they are interested in our stories.  For this reason we need to be able to tell our stories with passion, clarity, and honesty.  Our stories can be used to shine light onto Jesus in a way that discussion about doctrine will never be able to.  Stories have the capactiy to draw people in and see themselves in the picture and the application for their lives.

This is why it is important for us to be able to share the story of how we came to faith.  Based on Paul's testimony in Acts 26, we see a three fold structure for telling our faith story.  What we were like before we knew Christ (verses 4 - 11), how we came to know and acknowledge him as lord and saviour (verses 12 - 18) and then how you are different after you committed to Jesus (verses 19 - 23).  In our groups this week we will spend time working on this story.  I encourage you to make the effort and be able to tell the story of your encounter with Jesus.