Bulletin Announcements – 6 July 2014
Children Ministry Announcement: Holiday program for Sunday school will be on today and 13 July. Term 3 will start 20 July. Play Group will start 15 July. We pray for a good break for all of our leaders and helpers.
Strathfield 9am Ladies Fellowship Bible Study: Today 10.45am to 12.15pm at the home of Alice Cheng, Strathfield.
Welcome Home Lunch for the Lepelaars: Rolf, Bonnie, Jasmine and Samuel (our missionaries in Cambodia) are back in Sydney on home assignment for a few months. To welcome them home, a lunch is being held at the Strathfield Church Hall today at 12:30pm. Come and hear them share about the ministry in Cambodia. Please do bring a plate of food to share for lunch.
Diaconate Announcement: At the Annual General Meeting of the church on 5 October 2014, election of deacons for the next Diaconate term will take place (5 deacons per language group). Please reflect on 1 Timothy 3:1-13 and prayerfully consider whether you are moved to serve, or nominate someone amongst your congregation to serve in our church as deacon. If you do, please first contact a member of Deacon Nomination Committee (see the names below), and ask for the nomination form & related information. The closing date for nominations is 29August 2014. Please be prayerful and prompt. Deacon Nomination Committees: Cantonese: Kit Ling, Winnie Chan, Jack Lai, Maurice Cheng; Mandarin: Ching Ping Chan, David Chen, Ley Bie Tio, Yue Zhang; English: Lydia Tan, Les Lee, Anthony Choong, Cerise Yeung.
earch for Success – Thursday August 7th – Francis Chan and John Lennox. “Our greatest fear should not be of failure, but of succeeding at things in life that don’t really matter” – please see www.sfs14.com for more details.
Ariel writes – a weekly Scriptural devotion:
Women received back their dead, raised to life again. There were others who were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection. (Hebrew 11:35 NIV)
Hebrews chapter 11 is all about faith and in this one verse we learn one very clear and profound truth about it. Can you see it? It stares you in the face in a confronting, almost offensive way. And the truth is this – a Christian’s faith is not anchored to this world! “Women received back their dead, raised to life again.” Yes, they did. And how wonderful it was too. What a precious gift from God and all because they put their faith in him. But “others… were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection.” Wow, not life but death, and all because they too put their faith in God. And can you see the contrast in this verse? Raised to life again in this world Vs an even better resurrection. For all this world holds, it’s treasures and pleasures, it’s hopes and dreams, it’s ups and downs, and even it troubles and woes, the Christian’s faith grips onto an even better resurrection in Jesus.
from Pastor Ariel