Building Your House

On Sunday evening, we spoke about Jesus questioning whether we build our HOUSE(our understanding of life) on a solid foundation or a shaky one?
(Luke 6: 46-49)

Jesus refers to himself as a ROCK i.e. solid and dependable

Now here's a thing:

- Jesus is the ROCK upon which we can build our understanding of life because:

- HE went to the Cross for our sins,
- He suffered but remained faithful to God's call upon His life,
- He longs for a relationship with us and will never abandon us.

Awesome!

Now the question we need to ask ourselves: Who is a our ROCK?

- Money?
- Friends
- Family?
- No one?

Well, Jesus suggests that you make Him the ROCK in your life.

If you want to do this, go to our web page and click the Tell Me About Jesus Link and pray with us.

Lip-synching life?

I guess that most of us find it pretty surprising that the singing for the opening of the Beijing Olympics was lip-synched. Apparently the little girl who actually sang the song was not cute enough and so another performer was told to stand in front of the world and lip-synch.

What makes us feel upset about this?

We believe that the singer should get the credit. We somehow value integrity over appearances. Most of us are shocked at the organiser's attempt to make the ceremony as aesthetically appealing as possible even to the detriment of a seven year old, talented singer.
I wonder if we, as Christians, don't often do the same? Do we try to project an image of perfection, when really we are struggling inside? Do we feel that we cannot let our weaknesses and inadequacies show for fear of being rejected? We sometimes think that we need to pretend in order to be part of the church.

At the end of the day, our integrity is of more value than our pretence! When we are real and true to ourselves we are able to start genuinely changing and becoming the people that God wants us to be. We also stop discouraging those who feel that they can never attain our perfection.

We can 'lip-synch' through life. Or we can acknowledge who we are, with all our short-comings, and ask Jesus to start transforming us through his saving power. Some people will be harsh - but both you and God will know that you are moving to a better place.

Salt and Light

Sunday we spoke about Jesus stating that we are the salt of the earth and the light of the world ( Matthew 5: 13-16).

What a profound statement: You are...!!!


It’s profound because:

- We don’t always feel like the salt so shinning our light is not an option

- God takes and uses our weaknesses to change the world

- Jesus asks us to bring our impurities/dilutions (sin, fear, doubt, pain etc...), so they will not affect our flavouring the world


Listen again to Jesus words: Matthew 5: 13-16

You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.

You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.

A Just and Merciful God

Here’s a tough question:

Is God just and merciful?

Easy answer: Yes he is!

So then:

What will happen to those who reject His Son Jesus Christ?


Scripture is clear: Romans 8:1-2

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.

We can then take this to imply that for those who reject Jesus, there is condemnation.

Accepting this is tough because:

We might have loved ones and friends who we care about.
We may ourselves be unsure about Jesus.


For me, however I look at it, God is just and merciful after all He gave His Son to die for my sins.

More I cannot say but pray that God will have mercy on others and that they will come to accept Him..

North Rand Methodist Church

At North Rand, we are busy with our annual three week stewardship series.

Third week:
(see below for first two stones)

Stone 3: Righteousness - meaning faithfulness.
We are to live with a faithfulness which shaped by Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross

Stone 4: The Word of God – the sword of the Spirit
The Bible is a blue print for our living. We need to study the Word is order to know how to live as Christians

Stone 5: Generosity
The church needs the generosity of its members in order to fulfil its calling to be the chief steward of Christ


At North Rand, our people have given generously and therefore we have been able to reach out in mighty ways.


Thank you for your generosity!

The Church

At North Rand, we are busy with our annual three week stewardship series.

Second week:

God calls us, the church, to be part of his plan to change and transform the world.

Awesome!

But this can seem like a Goliath for most of us.

David used five stones to defeat Goliath.

So perhaps what we need is five stones:

Stone 1: Faith – believing that God exists ( Hebrews 11:3)

Stone 2: Salvation – understanding that we live as fallen people in a fallen world and need to be saved (Ephesians 2:8-10)

Three more stones to follow next week!

The Church

At North Rand, we are busy with our yearly stewardship series.

We find in Matthew 16:18-19, the Church, both as a local congregation and the church universal exists to be the steward of Christ!

Awesome!

What this means is:

- To teach its members how to love God
- To teach its members who our neighbours are and how to love them
- To be an agent of healing and transformation to broken and fallen world

That’s it.

Simple.

Profound.

Only possible when all the parts of the body are working and working together.