Bulletin Announcements – 3 July 2016

• Sunday School: Holiday program is on for today, 10 and 17 July. We encourage Year 5 and 6 to join our English Service during those weeks. Term 3 will be back on 24 July (Sunday school) and 19 July (PlayGroup).
• June Mission Month and Faith Promise Giving: Thanks to all who were involved in June mission month. We thank God for a wonderful start to the Faith Promise Giving for 2016/2017. So far 115 response slips have been received. A faith promise involves committing to give a specific amount to our global mission fund over the next 12 months. This giving is separate to our general offering. If you wish to contribute please simply put your blue response slips into the offering bag for this week. Please continue to pray that we will be able to reach our budget target of $175,000.
• Diaconate Announcement: At the Annual General Meeting on 25 September 2016, election of deacons for the next Diaconate term will take place and 5 Deacons from each ‘Language Congregation’ will be elected. A Deacon Nomination Committee from each ‘Language Congregation’ has been formed and their names are listed below: Cantonese Congregation (C0845 and C1030): Jack Lai, Winnie Chan, Rose Wong, Carrie Tang; Mandarin Congregation (Strathfield Mandarin and CPM): Ching Ping Chan, Luke Zhang, Ley Bee Tio, Paul Lim; English Congregation (S9 English and CP10): Leslie Lee, Lydia Tan, Anthony Choong, Arthur Teng. If you have considered serving in the Diaconate or you might want to nominate someone in your congregation to serve in the Diaconate, please first contact the Deacon Nomination Committee of your ‘Language Congregation’ and discuss with them. Please note that the closing date for all deacon nominations is 12 August 2016.

 

Ariel writes – a weekly Scriptural devotion:

“Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.” (Romans 12:9 NIV)

Nestled away here in the letter to the Romans is this very surprising verse if you think about it. It’s because in the original language “hate” and “cling” are better translated as “hating” and “clinging”. They define how honest love works. So the surprise is this; how can you have a love that hates? Well, it hates evil and you’ll notice being ‘glued’ to what is good is part of it. Let me give you an everyday example. Loving my kids means hating the evil they do. Therefore, when they do something wrong I discipline them. I also explain to them why hating the wrong they did is a good thing. And when they do good I praise them for it. This is sincere love – honest, pure, and without hypocrisy. Of course I don’t always get it right. And in the church this sincere love needs to be at work for our own good. Therefore, next time the preacher disciplines you over your love of some idol like wanting better grades more than God, or being obsessed with what school your child goes to rather than how much they love Jesus, or being proud of your achievements more than your unearned salvation in Jesus, just remember this is the preacher showing you sincere love. So thank them for it.

from pastor Ariel