Are you devoted to prayer? For the month of July, Bishop Paul has called all the churches in Jumbunna Episcopate to focus on prayer and attend a prayer day on July 27th. I hope you will attend if able. Prayer is important for so many reasons and it ought to be a higher priority for us as a Church. As we begin looking at prayer in the early church, as depicted in the book of Acts, we see how the early believers were totally devoted to prayer. In Acts chapter 1 we read that Jesus, before ascending to heaven, had told the believers that they would be His witnesses all over the world. After this all the believers went to Jerusalem to gather in what we call the upper room and once there; devoted themselves to prayer. They didn’t begin planning a big missionary endeavour or devote themselves to whiteboarding an action plan. It says they devoted themselves to prayer! (Acts 1:14) This is the first of three different times in these initial chapters and Acts that we see this phrase “devoted to prayer”. See Acts 2:42 and Acts 6, where the leaders of the church say, “We need to devote ourselves to prayer and the ministry of the word”. I want to encourage each of us to spend more time in prayer this month, and in fact be devoted to prayer. As you think about your life, your family, and all the responsibilities you carry, devote yourself to prayer. Make prayer an even higher priority above strategizing, planning, and preparing. I believe that when we put God first, he crowns our efforts with success. There’s no way the disciples would have succeeded in their mission to spread the gospel if they weren’t grounded in prayer, seeking God’s will and relying on the Holy Spirit to enable them to carry out God’s mission in the world. Prayer comes first! May we each choose to devote ourselves to prayer this month and beyond, trusting God will bring about his plans and purposes in our lives and in the church and world. Let us pray about all our missionary endeavors and action plans, learning to depend completely on God, so His work will be done in His way and His time. Prayerfully Yours, Rev. Tanya
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I am a big fan of fantasy series and one of the all-time greatest is no other than The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien. The movie adaptations came out when I was in high school and I remember using the character development of Aragorn as a case study for our HSC theme: journeys. One of my all-time favourite scenes is the arousing speech Aragorn gives in the last film, the Return of the King when the black gates are opened, and the soldiers face the great army of Mordor. Aragorn gallops back and forth along the front lines, rallying the soldiers of Gondor and Rohan as he addresses their fear, saying:
Sons of Gondor! Of Rohan! My brothers. I see in your eyes the same fear that would take the heart of me. A day may come when the courage of Men fails, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship, but it is not this day. An hour of wolves and shattered shields when the Age of Men comes crashing down, but it is not this day! This day we fight! By all that you hold dear on this good earth, I bid you stand, Men of the West! (If you want to watch the movie clip, click on this link: Aragorn's Speech At The Black Gate | LOTR - The Return of the King (2003) (youtube.com)) This week we come to our final instalment of Ephesians (6:10-20) and Pauls sends it off with one final arousing speech like Aragorn's. Instead of the black gates of Mordor, Paul opens their imagination to the cosmic spiritual battle we all find ourselves soldiers in. As we stand on the front lines, the music building to a crescendo, Paul shouts, 'Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armour of God, so that you can take your STAND against the devil's schemes.(v10) '...put on the full armour of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to STAND your ground, (v.13) and after you have done everything, to STAND. (v.13) 'STAND firm then...' (v.14) Paul's arousing call is to STAND in the full power and might of God himself, to put on the armour of God he bestows upon us, so that we can bear with every assault the Devil throws at us and STAND victorious as children of the King. As we consider this cosmic truth, this spiritual battle, how do you prepare yourselves for battle? Are you ready to defend your faith? Are you ready to stand firm in trials? Are you equipped to combat the Devil's lies with the truths of the Gospel? Are you ready to resist evil? This Sunday we'll consider what it means to be ready and put on the armour of God each day so that we can STAND firm in our faith to the end. Amy Winter is setting in. I hope you are keeping warm.
I’ve really loved spending time in the book of Ephesians over the last month. This Sunday will be more challenging though! We have come to one of the most difficult, misinterpreted, and abused passages in all of the New Testament: Ephesians 5.21-6.9, which includes instructions for wives to submit to their husbands and for slaves to serve their masters. To make matters even harder, Paul grounds these instructions within the metaphor of Christ-and-his-body, giving them a theological weight. Thus, it can be hard for us in the twenty-first century to look at these instructions. We know they can perpetuate violence and abuse. They have done over many years of misunderstanding and misuse. So, we will need to take a fresh look and consider the culture and setting they were originally given in, before we can discern how best to interpret and apply them today. As we look at these commands, we will see that Paul (the writer) is a spiritual revolutionary, not a political or social one. He grounds his household code here not in social norms (as he does in Titus and 1 Timothy), but in his understanding of the relationship between Christ and the Church. So, let me here remind you of who you/we/the church are in relation to Christ, in accordance with God’s plan: God has ‘blessed’, ‘chosen’, ‘adopted’, ‘redeemed,’ ‘forgiven,’ and ‘lavished grace upon’ us (1.3-8) God has placed all spiritual powers that threaten the Church ‘under Christ’s feet’ (1.20-22) Christ is the head of the Church, which is his body (1.22-23) God has raised and glorified the faithful with Christ (2.4-6) God calls everyone in the Church to grow up into the fullness of Christ (4.13-16) Each person in the Church has a role to play in its health and wellbeing (4.16) God renews the minds of the faithful, enabling them to see the world clearly (4.23) The faithful are exhorted to imitate God’s love as manifested in Christ’s life and death (5.1-2), to live as ‘children of the light’ (5.8), and to be filled with the Spirit (2.18), which involves submitting to one another (5.21). Adding to this list, the description of Christ and the Church in the Household Code says that: The Church is the body of Christ, and his ‘flesh and bones’ (5.23, 30, cf. 1.22-23) The Church is loved by Christ (5.24, cf. 5.29) Christ gave himself for the Church, which is ‘sanctified’ and ‘cleansed’ through baptism into Christ, and is therefore ‘honoured,’ ‘holy’, and ‘spotless (5.25-27) Christ’s whole goal and purpose is for us to grow into everything that he was and is, irrespective of our gender, age, ethnicity, class or citizenship status. We are all called to be ‘Christs’ to one another; we are all also called to ‘submit’ to one another, as the Church submits to Christ. We are all commanded to love one another (not just wives and husbands). This is the ideal to work towards in a broken fallen world. May God help us all to live faithful lives toward Him and one another. In Christ, Reverend Tanya Cummings As a young person I didn’t know what love was. After my divorce, I wanted to know! I went on a quest to find out. I interviewed many pastors and asked them, “What is love?”. The response I liked most was: “Love is doing what is best for the other person”. It stuck with me.
Now, when I wake up each morning, before getting out of bed and into my day, I remind myself that the most important thing I can do today is love the people God places before me. Without love, everything else I do is just like a clanging (empty) symbol (See 1 Corinthians 13). Jesus emphasised that all the Laws given by God and the teachings of the prophets can be summarised into; Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and love your neighbour as yourself. When we do these things, we naturally turn away from selfish living, greed, impurity, drunkenness, and foolishness, because these things aren’t what is best for God or others, or ourselves. These are the things that will be stripped away from believers lives as we walk in the way of love. Our calling, as Ephesians chapter 5 reminds us, is to walk “in love,” be imitators of God and of Christ, who loved with a love beyond compare. Having Jesus Christ as both the ground and model of love (Eph 5:2), such self-sacrificial love is to be the mark of each of us; the “beloved” children of God (5:1). Ephesians 5 reminds us that we are called to live holy, wise lives, full of the spirit, motivated by God’s love, as children of light (displaying goodness, righteousness and truth), while continually expressing gratefulness to God. Is this the way you are living each day? Are you fulfilling your calling? If not, please ask for the spirit’s enabling today, and speak to your pastors or the prayer team if you’d like extra prayer and support. We love you. In Christ, Reverend Tanya Cummings Are you enjoying the book of Ephesians?
I'm delighted that each week, as we go through another chapter, we are being reminded of what Christ has done for us. This week in chapter 4 we are also reminded of how we ought to live in response to what Christ has done on our behalf. Paul urges us to live a life worthy of the calling we have received. He says we are to be completely humble, gentle, patient, bearing with one another in love, keeping the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace. Together we are one body in Christ and yet we have all been given different gifts to help us all grow up together into maturity in Christ Jesus. Some of us he has appointed to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers. In my experience, I have received greater gifting in one of these areas for a period of time to accomplish certain ministries. It is the same spirit who enables all the giftings so that make sense. I wonder what your gifting is and how you are using it for God's kingdom purposes? I encourage you to take this questionnaire (link below) and discover which of the 5-fold ministry gifts you are most naturally suited to. There's a quick questionnaire and a more comprehensive one if you have time. I look forward to hearing what your gifts are and how you would like to use them to equip God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the son of God and become mature attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. This is God's plan and my desire for us all. Please follow this link to the questionnaire: https://fivefoldministry.com/ Take the Five Fold Ministry Test Now (Free) Discover your kingdom strengths and see if your giftings are apostolic, pastoral, prophetic, evangelistic or teaching. It's fast, effective and free fivefoldministry.com Feel free to share your results on Sunday. Peace be with you, Reverend Tanya Cummings There's a kids' song that I love called 'Great Big God'. The lyrics go:
Our God is a great big God... (repeatx3) And he holds us in his hands He's higher than a skyscraper deeper than a submarine He's wider than the universe and beyond my wildest dreams He's known me and he's loved me Since before the world began How wonderful to be a part of God's amazing plan! Our God is a great big God... (repeatx3) And he holds us in his hands https://youtu.be/0K3TUFFpmhA HERE This is SUCH a good song to sum up Ephesians 3 for us! God's amazing plan is that we - the gentiles, have been included in God's family all because of God's kindness (his grace) to us in Jesus (Eph. 3:6). So now, we are heirs and sharers of the promises from Eph 1! How great is our God?! This amazing plan has been mapped out from the beginning of time as we know it (Eph 1:4-5). That's because God's plan is bigger than we can imagine! Because God is bigger than we can imagine. Because God's LOVE is bigger than we can even measure! Paul prays that the Ephesian church would be 'rooted and established in love' - in God's love - and that they would 'grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ' (Eph. 3:17-19). May that prayer be for us too. May we see God's great, immeasurable love for us - beyond our wildest dreams! His plan for us - bigger than we can fully comprehend. The lengths he goes to save us and bring us into his family through Jesus - unfathomable. Why? Because our God is a Great Big God. And he holds us in his hands. Praise God! Reverend Amy Brown It's Reconciliation Week, thus a good opportunity to turn our thoughts toward Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples who have experienced a long history of exclusion from Australian history books, the Australian flag, the Australian anthem and for many years, Australian democracy. This history of dispossession and colonization lies at the heart of the disparity between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and other Australians today. Therefore, this Sunday we will Incorporate an 'acknowledgement of country/land' to show respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the Traditional custodians of the land we worship God on.
This theme of reconciliation is also a main theme in part of our bible reading this week - Ephesians 2:11-22. Here we read that God is a reconciling God; reconciling sinners to himself through the blood of Christ, and reconciling all believers of all nations, tribes and tongues into one household built on Christ our cornerstone. In Him we are all joined together and rise to become a Holy temple in the Lord. You too are being built together with us to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit. To that we say, "Build your Church Lord!". May he build us up to be a people of power, built on Christ alone as our Cornerstone. Two songs inspired by this message will be part of our repertoire on Sunday; 'Cornerstone', and 'I'm building a people of power'. It's going to be a wonderful time of praise and worship. I hope to see you at our 9:30am service. Note: Our 6:30pm Praise and Prayer gathering is not meeting this week and is on "Pause" until further notice. Every blessing in Christ, Rev. Tanya Are you a Christian? If so, do you realise the full extent of all the blessings you have been given through faith in Jesus Christ?
As we begin a new sermon series in the book of Ephesians, I encourage you to reflect and make sure your life is congruent with who you are in Christ. I want you to be reminded that you have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ and ought to live like it. God has chosen us to be blameless and holy in his sight. In love, he predestined us to become his own adopted children, in accordance with His good pleasure and will. We have redemption through the blood of Christ, and forgiveness of sins, in accordance with God's grace which he lavished on us. He gives us wisdom and understanding and has made known to us the mystery of his will which he purposed in Christ. When we came to saving faith in Christ, we were marked with the Holy Spirit, guaranteeing our inheritance. So, I pray that the eyes of our hearts may be enlightened in order that we may fully know the hope to which he has called us and our inheritance in the saints. Many of us who have been Christians for a long time may sometimes forget to live out these realities. We can easily become distracted, or comfortable and complacent. In this world with all its troubles, and Church systems which can become dull and repetitive, it's good for us to be reminded of our first love. Remember when you first became a Christian and were so in love with Christ and overwhelmed with trying to fathom his amazing blessings and grace? If we aren't living in the fulness of these blessings, we may need to repent and do the things we did at first, like Paul told the Ephesian Church to do in Revelation 2:4-5. I pray that through our studies in Ephesians, we will all rekindle our commitment and live out the calling which God has placed on all who believe. To the praise of his glorious grace! Yours in Christ, Reverend Tanya Cummings One of the first things I attended in my first month working here was a local Faith Leaders' Network.
I was blown away that (a) someone would bother organising such a group and (b) that it is well-attended by local Christian organisations from various denominations - Pentecostal, Charismatic, Anglican, Catholic, Uniting, and also para-church or faith-based social justice organisations like the 247 Prayer Movement or HomeGround catering. This has not always been my experience. Often denominations are known for their stalwart convictions that set them apart from another rather than the core truths of Jesus that unite us. At the first meeting someone shared about FaithValues a relatively new organisation seeking to work with the main religious bodies in Australia to generate a worldviews curriculum called General Religious Education that schools would be HAPPY to include in their curriculum and teachers would be ABLE to clearly teach from their secular point of view. Since this first meeting, I have been to the launch of this new organisation and am attending a zoom webinar entitled 'Distinctively Christian in Secular Education' next week. God is moving! He is at work in this space! I am so excited that the possibility of Christian Education is legitimately back on the table for Victoria, and perhaps Australia. I am excited by the government being on board with this development and that schools are asking for this sort of resource. With such a multicultural society, we as Christians must be willing to work together across denominations to keep the opportunity of young people being exposed to the Christian message in schools POSSIBLE. And yet, it is perhaps the ability to not be able to work together as Christians that may be the downfall of such an important development in secular education in Australia. Jesus says, "I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing." - John 15:5 Such a powerful verse about the unity of believers with Christ. We may have different 'flavours' but together, we must keep the main thing, the main thing. Will you join me in praying for the FaithValues organisation, the cooperation and unity of fellow Christian stakeholders, and that God would keep moving to bring about his purposes in secular education? If you'd like more information on FaithValues you can chat to Amy more about it. If you'd like to join the webinar next Thursday 23rd May from 7-8pm addressing the question: "How can Christians serve an education system for it to flourish in a more secular and multicultural age?" Click this link to register: https://tinyurl.com/mt2upepp Blessings Rev Amy In my experience over the years, many families have chosen John 14:1-6 for a reading at their loved one's funeral. I have preached on it many times, bringing words of comfort and challenge. It is a comfort for those gathered to hear that their loved one knew the way to the father, through faith in Jesus Christ and is now in the place prepared for him/her by Christ himself.
In Jewish culture and tradition, the bridegroom would go away and prepare a house/place for his bride and when it was finished and when the groom's father gave the go ahead, the son would come back and take his bride to go live with him in the place he had prepared for them. This is what Jesus promises those of us who believe in him. Believing in Jesus is the way to our eternal heavenly Father's home. He is the way the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through him. This Sunday I will preach on the 6th of Jesus "I am" declarations in John's Gospel. We will also celebrate Mother's Day with sensitivity to those who may be grieving the loss of theirs. We wish a Happy Mother's Day to all who are mums and empathize with those who haven't had the chance to be a mum. We will celebrate all women. God be with you, Reverend Tanya Cummings |
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