To Know Christ. To Serve Christ. To Proclaim Christ.

REFLECTTION: Matthew 17:1-9 “The Transfiguration” Do you understand the transfiguration? If you think you do, you have probably only begun to scratch the surface, because as many times as I look at it, the more I realise that I don’t fully understand it and the more mysterious it gets. In the transfiguration, we see the past, the present and the future blurring together with Jesus, now in a glorified future form, talking with Moses who died 1500 years earlier, and with Elijah

REFLECTION: Matthew 5:13-20 “Salt & Light” What does it mean to be in the world but not of the world? Jesus tells his disciples in John 17 that though they are in the world, they do not belong to the world. Paul tells us in Romans 12 “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds” Romans 12:2. How do we live faithfully for God in a corrupted world so that we are not shaped by it or conformed to it? Are we to live separately from the peopl

REFLECTION: Matthew 5:1-12 “Blessed are you” Who are the happiest or most blessed people in the world today? Popular opinion would probably come up with a list that sounds something like this: - Blessed are the rich, because they have all they need and more. - Blessed are the beautiful people, because good looks go a long way. In today’s reading from the Sermon on the Mount, we see a different set of values. Those who are blessed in God’s sight include the poor in spirit, the

REFLECTION: Matthew 4:12-25 “The Kingdom of God has come near” Jesus’ preaching focussed on the phrase: ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” What does it mean that the kingdom of God has come near? And, what is a kingdom and what does it look like? A kingdom is essentially a realm where a king or a queen reigns. In the coming of Jesus, the kingdom of God has drawn near to us because its king has come amongst us and has used his kingdom power in signs and wonders

REFLECTION: Isaiah 49:1-7 “A Light to the Nations” Have you ever wondered how much of your life is in your hands to determine and how much depends on God? Does God have a plan for your life? We read in today’s reading from Isaiah: “The Lord called me before I was born, while I was in my mother’s womb he named me.” The Lord has a purpose for his servant Israel, his servant Jesus, and for us his servants in the world today. That purpose involves us sharing in the mission to be

REFLECTION: Isaiah 42:1-9 “The Servant of the Lord” What is it you look for in a leader? If you were God, and you were going to send the earth a leader to rescue humanity from the mess we have gotten ourselves into, what would that leader be like? Would you choose a warrior, an orator, a diplomat, a business leader, a strategist, a philosopher, or a great intellectual? We find here in Isaiah 42 that the one that God delights in and that has been chosen as his instrument is fi

REFLECTION: Isaiah 60:1-6 “A light to the Nations” Today we celebrate Epiphany. The dictionary definition of Epiphany is “a moment when you suddenly feel that you understand, or suddenly become conscious of, something that is very important to you.” When we use Epiphany in its Christian senses, it refers to the manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles as represented by the Magi (Matt 2:1–12). It is the realization that the gospel is for all nations and not just for Israel. Go

REFLECTION: Matthew 2:13-23 “Evil in the World” As we continue through our Christmas readings, we see that the Christmas story takes a very dark turn as the ageing tyrant King Herod tries to kill the new-born king. It is a sober reminder that that the birth of Jesus is not just some sugar-sweet story for Children but God’s intervention into the world to overcome the power of sin and evil, and in these events, evil fights back. Evil is real. Here is an outline of the message.

REFLECTION: Isaiah 7:10-16 – “Immanuel – God is with us” Where is God when we are in trouble? Sometimes he just seems silent or even absent. We start to wonder if we have got it all wrong with him. You wouldn’t be the first to feel that God sometimes seems far away. At many times in their history, the people of Israel felt alone and far from God and wondered if they were about to be extinguished as a nation. They wondered if God had abandoned them. They needed to know that he

REFLECTION: Isaiah 35:1-10 ‘Is he the one?’ John the Baptist was beginning to doubt himself. He had believed that Jesus was the Messiah, the one that God had promised to send, but he was having second thoughts so he sent some of his followers to ask Jesus directly, “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?” Matthew 11:2. Jesus’ answer draws strongly from our reading in Isaiah 35 and other parts of Isaiah. He has given sight to the blind, healed the lame

REFLECTION: Isaiah 11:1-10 “The Ministry of the Messiah - The Root of Jesse” Advent is a time for hope. Today’s reading from Isaiah is a reading filled with hope, firstly for Israel as they hope for their Messiah, but also for all nations, as the messiah is not just the King of Israel, but the king of Kings & restorer & redeemer of all things. They had waited for centuries for God’s promised Messiah. God had promised King David that one of his sons would be called the

REFLECTION: The Kingdom of the Messiah: What do you think it will be like in God’s Kingdom of Heaven where Jesus reigns as King? Will it be clouds and harps and angels? Will be a kingdom of peace and righteousness? The Bible gives us many colourful images and metaphors that describe what is impossible for us to fully comprehend. We know it will be wonderful beyond our imagination and we would love to know more, but some surprises are worth waiting for. God’s kingdom has come

REFLECTION: Colossians 1:11-20 ‘’What’s so great about Jesus?” Is Jesus over-rated? What is so great about him? Why are so many people completely committed o follow him and even to die for him? In today’s reading in Colossians, we are reminded that Jesus is fully God and through him all things were made. We learn that he has rescued us from the powers of darkness and given us the forgiveness of sins. We discover that through him, God is restoring and reconciling all things to

REFLECTION: LUKE 21:5-19 “STAND FIRM” What is your view of our world? Will it always exist or will it one day be destroyed? Should we be worried about it ending or should we just go on living, knowing that there is nothing we can do about it? How should we approach this theme of the end of the world? Jesus addresses the theme in today’s reading as Jesus announces that not a single one of the stones of the Jerusalem temple would be left on another. The disciples with filled wi

REFLECTION: Luke 20:27-40 The God of the Living Today’s reading has a group of religious leaders called the Sadducees ask Jesus a question about life after death. They tell him an absurd story about seven brothers who all die one after the other and in between they all marry the same woman. Finally, the woman dies too and they all meet up again after the resurrection, staring at each other. Who is the woman married to now? It’s a deliberately absurd story with a twisted quest

REFLECTION: Ephesians 1: 11-23 “Do you know how blessed you really are?” Do you remember your parents or perhaps even your employer telling you: “You don’t know how good you’ve got it!?” The truth is that many of us live our lives ignorant of just how lucky we are and of how many blessings we have. Too often we find little things to complain about when we have so much to be grateful for. Just as we sometimes forget how blessed we are in this lucky country, sometimes, we don’

REFLECTION: Welcome everyone to the Dedication of our new St James’ Parish Centre. HYMNS: TIS 678 How firm a foundation. O how good it is. TIS 154 Great is your faithfulness. TIS 147 To God be the glory. DEDICATION: Our service this morning will be a service of thanksgiving to the Lord for his rich provision and his many mercies in enabling this new Parish Centre to come into being. Our prayer is that this Centre would be a place where people are nurture

REFLECTION: Luke 18:1-14. How should we approach God in Prayer? Have you ever found yourself in the situation of meeting someone really important and at the same time have a huge favour that you would love to ask them, but you’re not sure how to go about it? In biblical times, to appear before a king without an invitation, or to make a request of the king could have you beheaded instantly. If this is the case with the rulers of earthly kingdoms, how hard must it be to approac

REFLECTION: Luke 17:11-19 “Only One Returned” Jesus healed thousands of people in his time. John writes at the end of his Gospel “But...

REFLECTION: Luke 17:1-10 “Faithfulness in Service” In today’s Gospel reading from Luke 17, we get a glimpse into God’s own heart on what...