Belgrave South Baptist Church

Living and Sharing Jesus' Love

admin

Your Kingdom Come… in Belgrave South?

by

When Jesus taught the disciples to pray in what we call ‘The Lord’s Prayer’, he said to them – amongst other things – to pray for ‘Your kingdom to come’ with the phrase attached ‘…on earth as it is in heaven’. (The ‘on earth as it is in heaven’ should be attached to “Hallowed be Your Name’ & ‘Your kingdom come’ as well as ‘Your will be done’)

So, in effect, Jesus is calling us to ask his Father for his kingdom to come in Belgrave South as that is part of the earth! It is, of course, true for each suburb we might live in and our wider region.

So how would we know if God had answered that prayer? How would we recognise it if the kingdom had come? More Christians? More kindness? More justice? Less greed? Less corruption? Less violence? Keep praying!

Blessings
Mark Wilkinson
Interim Pastor

Getting to our destination

by

I love Google Maps!

Just punch in the destination and it shows me the way. Not only that; it speaks to me to guide me on the correct route!

Sometimes I think I know better than Google and I go my own way. And Google just re-calibrates and makes the necessary changes to get me to the destination (and usually points out that my change of direction has now added extra minutes to my journey). And if perchance, I accidentally stumble off the correct pathway, I am reminded of what I need to do – sometimes that involves a complete U-turn to get me where I should be going.

Now, it’s not a perfect illustration, but I reckon the Holy Spirit can act like Google maps helping us to get to our Heavenly Destination, even allowing for detours, both accidental and intentional.

Blessings,
Mark Wilson
Interim Pastor

“You can’t choose your family”

by

The old saying is, “you can choose your friends but you can’t choose your family!” It’s a recognition that family life can be tough and somewhere in your family there will be someone who is hard to get on with – and perhaps by extension we’d rather not relate to! But them but we have to relate to them from time to time because they are family!

When God’s grace met us in Jesus, we got the privilege of calling God our Father. What a blessing that we come to our Father in prayer any time we like; what a blessing that we have a new destiny. Equally, in being adopted into family, we gain a whole new family.

How do we do family as the people of God? That’s what we get to explore today.

Blessings
Mark Wilkinson
Interim Pastor

The Little Toe

by

Fred Titmus was an English cricketer who played for over 20 years from the mid-fifties to the mid-seventies. In the middle of his career he had a boating accident and lost 4 toes. He had to learn how to walk again let alone play cricket again!  The toes are incredibly important in learning to first stand and then walk. In the human body nothing is unimportant; God has made us the way that He wants to, with all of the parts of the body working together.

It is, of course, a brilliant metaphor for the “body of Christ” in the New Testament. In both 1 Corinthians 12 and Ephesians 4, Paul uses the metaphor to speak of diversity and unity within the church. We’ll make that our focus this week.

Blessings
Mark Wilkinson
Interim Pastor

Unsuccessful Member

by

A friend of mine wrote on his Facebook feed on Monday; “I am an unsuccessful member” alluding to him missing out on Grand Final tickets. He is an Adelaide Crows member and huge numbers of Richmond and Adelaide members missed out on tickets to yesterday’s game.

When I think about Jesus’ Church there are no such people! Every true ‘member’ gets an entry to the biggest game of all – surely heaven is the true Grand Final!

But more than just heaven, as members of Jesus’ Chruch we get to belong here on earth to the “chosen people, royal priesthood, holy nation, God’s special possession”. We’ll explore that today and in the next few weeks to come.

Blessings
Mark Wilkinson
Interim Pastor