Will speaks

October, 2024
From the Pastor’s Desk

When we look at what God has told us about the life of His Church, we can see a clear delineation between our blessings and our place in society. There is a stark contrast between the quality of our relationships with each other, and the quality of our relationship with the world. I often find it quite jarring when my comfort with vulnerability, expectations, and values, are accidently transferred to the outside world and are meet with hostility, rejection, and ridicule. This can be confusing as the reason that we are so blessed inside of faith-based communities, is the same reason we are hated and rejected outside of them: Jesus.

Jesus warns His followers many times that because of our love for Him, the world will hate us, simply because they hate Him. Now it should be noted that these scriptures, particularly the verses in Matthew 10, need to be understood in culture and literary context to expose the nuanced truths they share, the broad brush of English will suffice for our key concept: If they hate the head of the household, they will hate the students. If they hate the master, they will hate the apprentices. It is important to realise that this may not be a conscious decision against Jesus and His people, but rather an inescapable reality that the dark of sin in them cannot understand or abide the light of God that is present in His people. So while it isn’t always personal, scripture tells us it will be ever present.

Inside the people of God, we are blessed by the same light. It is the light that allows us to respond to the call from God to be defined by His presence and to express that presence with an excess of grace, love, sacrifice, and hope. While many humanist groups would claim to have these characteristics, and to an extent often do, it is an unavoidable truth that it is only through Jesus that a people can be strengthened and shaped to be defined by these characteristics, and to live them out as self-expression, not self-determination. So, it is inside our community of believers that we experience this foretaste of heaven; we are shaped towards God, and defined by His perfection.

It is the absolute certainty of these two truths that brings us into the question of how to endure. Do we hide away what we experience in faith life to avoid the bitterness of our rejection by our world? I do not think so, for we are called to be a city on a hill, shining our light of redeemed life before God for all to see. We are the salt that flavours the blandness of life without God. We cannot do that in hiding. I believe that the promise of God is that His blessings will be sufficient in the midst of the world’s hatred, that His ministry to the lost is often through our vulnerability and openness, and that our joy must be in Him, not our peace. This little light of ours, we have to let it shine, let it shine, let it shine!

~ Will ~

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

 

September 8th, 2024

From the Pastor’s Desk

Just a small thought, but one that I think can help us all to get the most out of our upcoming series.

One of the more challenging aspects of the life of King David is that itrepresents incredible Sunday School and Youth Camp sermon material, and it is not uncommon for someone who has been a believer for decades to have a fragmented and itemised understanding of the events of Davids life. This leads to us breaking down the events of the lives of the first three kings (Saul, David, Solomon) into small, often moral or example driven tales but disconnects us from the narrative and flow of their lives.

 

As we come into this series can I invite everyone to keep an eye not only on the life of David, but on the way that David points the way to the true King who was to come in Jesus. I wanted to explore the events of Davids life because it demonstrates so much of the range of relatable human experiences, our strengths as believers, our human weaknesses, our clinging to God, our missing the mark. But underlying all of this is an undeniable truth that God is at work in Davids’s story as much as ours, and that every moment, every story, every psalm, every iconic moment, reveals the King who will come from David’s line but rule forever.

 

I hope it is an incredible series for everyone and please feel free to ask any questions you may have.

Pastor Will Samson