24th June

"And Jonathan Saul's son arose, and went to David into the wood, and strengthened his hand in God." (1 Samuel 23:16)

The story of David and Jonathan is one of the best examples of a Godly friendship we have in the Bible. You know they had a positive friendship because when they hung out together they enlarged each other's relationship with God. We all need friendships with people that allow room for the Holy Spirit to move when we are connecting. Sometimes friendships can be so full of our humanity that they never take us anywhere in God, or even worse we can be dragged backwards by the people we connect with.

As preached about last Sunday Elisha received his double portion of anointing because he chose to connect deeply with Elijah. Peter and John going up to the temple to pray, Paul and Barnabas praying in the Antioch Church prayer meeting and Paul and Silas in prison, worshipping together are other great examples of this. Let's always seek to discover and develop great Christian friends in our lives. How can we do this?.........

The Bible says Jonathan "arose" and found David, in other words these friendships don't always just happen naturally. Sometimes we need to get pro-active and seek out people whose company causes us to grow in our walk with God. We can find people like this in Church services, prayer meetings, connect groups and other such places.

Let's arise like Jonathan’s Church and be all we can be in God by connecting to people who love Him more than anything else!!


Have a super weekend!

Andrew & Shara McLennan
www.c3indooroopilly.com

June 6th

WANTED: DEAD OR ALIVE?

"I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." (Galatians 2:20)

The Bible constantly talks about life and death. In the beginning God breathed life into the nostrils of man and he became a living being. But he also warned Adam that disobedience to God would result in death to himself, which is what happened when Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit.

Moving forward to the New Testament we know that Jesus, who is called the second Adam, died for the world so that we could have life. And Paul teaches Christians in Galatia and elsewhere, that to fully experience the life of God we also have to experience death to ourselves...ouch! Our society talks a lot about self and the empowerment of "I" or "me" in our lives is a characteristic of our culture. But Jesus taught that we Christians are to take up our cross (die to ourselves) and follow Him and that this is the path that leads to true life. This is so counter culture to our modern world. He said:

"Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." (Matthew 10:39)

Let's lose our life for Jesus and discover His love, purpose and power as The Son of God arises in our hearts! John the Baptist said it like this, "I must decrease but He must increase."

Have a great weekend and we are so looking forward to Dr Bob!!

Andrew & Shara

13th May

THE LOVE SHACK

"A new commandment I give to you that you love one another as I have loved you so you must love one another." John 13:34.

Jesus always intended His Church to be filled with His love. Of all the places in the world God's Church should have the greatest amount of love, by far!

As was preached last Sunday Noah's arc was a prophetic picture of the New Testament Church. All those animals on the boat with Noah managed to live in peace and harmony, despite their natural and obvious differences. It was a miracle!

So it is in the Church, as we ignore our natural tendencies, prejudices, likes and dislikes and decide to love one another unconditionally our lives and Church become supernatural….... because God is love and as we walk in love we walk in God!

Let's decide to always be people who love one another with pure hearts and fulfil God's dream of a Church that burns with His love and becomes magnificent, glorious and famous in the Earth!

7 May

Lift up your eyes!

It was so good to see people respond to the call of salvation at Church last weekend. It was actually the response to the Gospel in the history of our Church.

Jesus said “Lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already ripe for harvest!” (John 4:35)

This comes from when Jesus and the disciples were on a journey and stop at a well outside the city of Samaria and the disciples go to buy lunch. While they are gone a random woman comes along and Jesus leads her to faith in God. She is so excited she goes into the city telling people about Jesus and starts to bring thousands of people to see Him.

But before the crowds arrive the disciples return and try to get the Lord to eat. They are only focused on their normal responsibilities of life (which isn’t bad) but Jesus is in another zone, he senses many people are about to be saved. He refuses to eat and tells them to lift up their eyes and see the harvest! They probably thought He was mad because they were in the middle of nowhere and no-one is around.

· The disciples saw the stop as nothing more than a time to eat & rest for the next part of their journey in life. They were busy!

· Jesus saw the stop as an opportunity to reap a harvest of souls – and that’s exactly what He did! Because shortly after He mentioned the harvest thousands of people came seeking Him, and many were saved!!

Let's always seek to view our daily lives through our eyes of faith...as we do this we can see a harvest of should coming to Jesus even in the hustle and bustle of our busy lives.

Lift

Have a great week.

Andrew & Shara

29 April

A HEART FOR SOULS

We see the heart of Jesus towards people all through the four Gospel accounts of His life. When He saw great crowds of people His heart yearned for them:

“But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, the harvest is plentiful but the labourers are few…” (Matthew 9:36-37)

Another time as He approached the city of Jerusalem His heart was moved deeply:

“Now as He drew near, He saw the city and wept over it.” (John 19:41)

Jesus lived, died and rose again so He could connect with unsaved people and see them welcomed into His family and Kingdom. His heart still yearns for people to come into relationship with Himself and as Christians we have the incredible responsibility of introducing people to Him.

TL Osborn said that "soul winning is the heart beat of God."

Let's flow with His heart and keep believing and working for greater harvest in our city and Church...this weekend is a great opportunity to do it too!

Have a great weekend!

Andrew & Shara

Newness of Life

25th April

"The next day, Jesus...finding Philip, said to him, "Follow me." Philip found Nathanael and told him, "We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote--Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph." "Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?" Nathanael asked. "Come and see," said Philip." (John 1:43-46)

One of the greatest joys a Christian can experience is sharing their faith and seeing someone else find Jesus for the first time. It stirs up the joy that is already in our hearts and brings us back to the newness of life we experienced when we first found Jesus. Its almost as if God has designed Christians in such a way that if we don't share our faith, our joy can lie a little dormant...But when we step out and share with someone it flows out of our belly like a river of living water!

The above story has some great keys to -

1. "Phillip found Nathanael." We need to internationalise our outreach and target friends/relatives or neighbours we want to see saved
2. "Can anything good come from Nazareth"? Understand that people will always make excuses or arguments when you reach out to them
3. "Come and see." Never stop when people make excuses, keep reaching out and believing for their salvation, Phillip did and it paid off!

As a Church lets continue to believe for salvations and target the 5 people on our connect 5 cards. Next weekend with Johnny Lee Clary in our 9.30am service is a perfect opportunity to reach out...Heaven is waiting to celebrate the birth of new should into God's Kingdom. Let's go there, reach out and be a part of God's plan for our city and the people in it!

Have a great long weekend!

Andrew & Shara

Easter

4th April


"While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men suddenly stood near them in dazzling clothing and as the women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, "Why do you seek the living One among the dead? "He is not here, but He has risen!" (Luke 24:4-6)

Easter is a great time for us to remember who Jesus is and what He did. He's the only person in history who has died, come back to life and never died again! He totally conquered death and the grave, the great enemy of mankind that eventually claims the life of every person who has ever lived on this Earth.

We have reason to live in hope now, both in this life and also in death. Our risen Lord promises us relationship and a supernatural life with Him now and then throughout eternity. This is the foundation of our faith in Jesus, without this hope Christianity is a complete waste of time.

As Paul said "If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep (died) in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead." (1 Corinthians 15:20)

Jesus is risen and all have great hope because of this, let’s celebrate Easter this weekend and remember how amazing Jesus and being a Christian is!

God bless,

Andrew & Shara