Salt and Light Part 2

On Sunday we shared from Matthew 5:13-16 - being the salt and light.

Interestingly, that the traditional way of understanding this passage is that sin makes us lose our saltiness and we hide our good works under our beds!

However:

- Salt is used for flavouring, curing and preserving food.

- The Greek words for losing saltiness, in this passage, MARINO, actually means: to be foolish, (sin, silly mistakes, repeated bad choices etc).

- The Greek word for light, in this passage, is PHOS. When phosphorous hits water it glows brightly therefore we are to burn brightly for Jesus.

Conclusion:

When we avoid being foolish, we can shine for Jesus in being the flavour of the universe!

Robbing God

On Sunday we shared around our responsibility to faithfully manage all that God has given us - i.e. family, work and church:
(Malachi 3: 6-12).

By withholding out Tithes we compromise the churches ability to fulfil Christ's commission:

- To learn to love God
- To learn to love our neighbours

At North Rand, we commit ourselves to fulfilling God's call on us a church for 2011 as we read our convenental vow!

Managing Our Responsibilities

On Sunday we shared, as part of our annual stewardship series, around God's guidance for managing of our responsibilities.

Now, when most of us hear the word, 'stewardship,' we might immediately think of a sermon or teaching on GIVING!!!

But stewardship is some much more.

It involves our managing ALL things we are to be responsible for:

- FAMILY
- WORK
- CHURCH
- ENVIRONMENT
- UNIVERSE

So, we are given this responsibilty but also the MEANS.

We can chose to follow God's guidelines, as laid out in Scripture, or we try to do it ourselves.

Amazed!!!

We concluded our Worship series on Sunday.

I am always amazed at the POWER of the Word!

We simply shared from the Word in between worshiping and allowed the Word to challenge us.

The altar call at the end was amazing as many folk came forward to receive Jesus' forgiveness.

GOD IS GOOD!!!

Worship

On Sunday we simply allowed Scripture to speak to us a we worshipped in song.

Folks came forward for prayer and we trust that many lives were changed and transformed as they received Jesus(Acts 3:1-10)

I trust that God will transform you as you:

- devote yourself to him
- show Him your devotion
- saturate Him with your all

In Spirit & Truth

On Sunday as part of our series on our core value - Worship, we shared from John 4:19-24.

The foundation of worship is to:
- Show our devotion to God
- Tell Jesus that we Adore Him
- Saturate God with our respect

Jesus encounters a women at the well and she highlights that Jews & Samaritans differ in their understand of where/how God should be worshipped.

He takes the opportunity to point out that:
- True worshippers do not need a 'place'
- Salvation is from the Jews - Himself

So what does this mean?

True worshipers:
- Worship in the assembly (congregation) - Proskuneo
- Are committed to service to others (Romans 12:1) - Latreia

I trust you will worship in Spirit and Truth in 2011!

Worship

At North Rand we have decided to spend some time this year on each of our core values.

On Sunday we shared around Worship.

Worship means:
- Adoring God
- Showing our Devotion to God
- Saturating God with our respect

The foundations for us doing this are:

- By Giving thanks & Calling on His name
- Singing His praises & Glorying Him
- Looking & Remembering His goodness and faithfulness

Awesome!!!!