One day, my sister and I were having a talking about the Good Samaritans’ donation centre. My 4-year old nephew then recounted a story he heard in his school. He started to tell us one of Jesus’ parables: about who is our neighbor. My nephew summed up the whole parable by saying “The good guys were bad, and the bad guy was good”. Wow… what a revelation.
Click here to subscribe to this blog.
Will You Answer His Call
September 6th, 2010Dealing With Me
August 24th, 2010
I have been greatly enjoying the Undercover series with John Bevere. One of the things that shows the quality of the teaching is the number of simple throw-away statements that are themselves life-changing principles. One of these statements is:
“God’s dealings with us are primarily corrective”
His full statement was something like “If we are going to be like Jesus, and He is without sin, then God’s dealings with us are primarily corrective.” This is a great reminder of one of the core principles of our walk with God – we are being transformed from how we are now, to how God wants us to be, in the image of Jesus. Large portions of the Old Testament are instructions on how to live, and then prophets correcting a nation that was not living in God’s ways. In the New Testament, most of the letters are written to bring correction to churches that are not fully living the way they should.
The reality of life is that most of our issues and problems are the result of us individually and collectively wandering from God’s ways and into sin. This leads directly to the repeated process of the Holy Spirit bringing correction to us, and it is as we repent that we move on into greater victory. Unfortunately this is not very spectacular, and we tend to be like Naaman the Syrian, who wanted a great miracle from the man of God to cure his leprosy. The wise prophet knew that pride was the real issue in Naaman’s life, and steadfastly refused to gratify Naaman’s self-centred desires. Like Naaman we would love to have a miraculous lightning bolt from heaven to heal us, or an unexpected financial gift to rescue us from debt. So when the Holy Spirit prompts us to change our ways, leading us to slowly rebuild our lives by disciplined walking in the light, like Naaman we turn away and look for a more exciting solution. Let’s press on to lay hold of the prize that God has for us, not missing the miraculous grace of God that is provided to us through the daily correction of the Holy Spirit.
One Church. Two Locations.
August 18th, 2010
Hi Church,
I hope you are doing well. I thought I would follow up our news on Sunday at Centrepoint Church with an email.
Most of you are aware that in 2008, the 3 Harvestnet Churches (Perth CLC, SouthCity Church and Centrepoint) decided to plant a church in the City of Gosnells. Rowland and Leanne Murphy and a team of faithful workers went out and started Arise Church. This church has approximately 50 people attending on a weekly basis.
Just recently, the Harvestnet Pastors met together to discuss the best course of action to ensure the future health of the church. Together we agreed that a change of leadership would be necessary in order for Arise to reach its mandate of transforming the City of Gosnells.
Rowland and Leanne have given it their very best and have had to balance leading a church (full time) as well as running their own business. The decision, though painful has their full support. Roland and Leanne will return to Centrepoint Church (Cockburn) and be a part of the church family there.
After a lot of prayer and discussion, the Harvestnet leadership team have decided it would be best to bring this Gosnells church under the covering of Centrepoint Church, to create a new campus.
The Good news is that as of September 5th , Centrepoint will be ONE Church in TWO locations.
This is a huge undertaking so I would like to ask you all to help us achieve this vision by doing one of three things:
1. Pray – Everyone can help us by praying for a smooth transition .
2. Serve - We are going to need Centrepoint Church fully activated. By serving you can release others to go to our new campus and build the House there. There are ministry booklets available for you to fill out and get involved in this vision.
3. Go – Some of you might feel the call to go and build that campus on a permanent basis. We need missionaries to the City of Gosnells! If God is speaking to you about this then let us know and we will empower you to make a difference.
Together we can make a huge difference. We love leading such an amazing church!
Regards
Ps Joel and Sharon Chelliah
P.S. For those of you who weren’t able to go to the weekend services please note that for the next two Sundays (Aug 22 and 29) we will be having a special combined service in our new auditorium (9/24 Discovery Drive in Bibra Lake) at 10am. This will give you an opportunity to catch up with the whole Centrepoint family (including our new siblings in Gosnells).
Half Time
August 13th, 2010
With 7 months down in the year already, 2010 proves to be a year that whizzes by. At least for me. It seems like there is a weird relationship between the perceived “speed” of the year and the amount of stuff that goes in. I’m sure you know what I am talking about. Even though the year has gone by so fast, there have been so many memories, so many stories, and so many lessons learnt.
As a church we have held the Easter Fair, probably the biggest event Cockburn has seen in a while. We have had a youth camp where God has moved mightily amongst the young people of this church. We have had the launch of the 1825 ministry (or is it 1830 now to include our “young-at-heart” Senior Pastor?) where young people have a place to meet and build relationships. We have embarked on the next phase of building our church by purchasing the current building and renting the unit next door. We are also extending our influence in Indonesia by building another orphanage.
Personally it has been a challenging start to the year for me, with many new responsibilities that I have not really been involved in before. I have seen much and experienced much, as I am sure many others have. With all that is going on and all that I’m DOING, I find it easy to forget about the most important thing in my life. And that is God. Without God all that I’ve done is meaningless, as the author of Ecclesiates writes. Ecc 12:1 says “Remember your Creator in the days of your youth”, and later in 12:13 “Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the duty of every human being.” Just as I take the time to “Remember my Creator”, and have a heart check of my priorities and where God is in my life, I invite you to do the same with yours as we look to an amazing second hald of the year.