Belgrave South Baptist Church

Living and Sharing Jesus' Love

Jesus

The Greatest Story Ever Told

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Dear Church Family, greateststory

The Christmas season has kicked into gear. We are only 9 days out from the Carols and on Sunday we are starting our new Christmas sermon series called He Made Us Family.

For the next few weeks, we will be diving into the first chapters of the book of Matthew, which records the early years of Jesus’ life and family. Matthew is the very first book of the New Testament, and it opens with the genealogy of Jesus, tracing his heritage back thousands of years.

In other words, the Bible introduces Jesus in the context of a human family—a family with an amazingly history.

God entered into human history through a family in order to make us his family: the church. But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. They are reborn—not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God. John 1:12-13 Through Jesus, followers of his are meant to live life together like brothers and sisters. We’re a family, with God as our Father.

This Sunday we will also be celebrating communion.

I pray you can join us as we spend some time in the midst of all of our busyness reflecting what it means to be a part of God’s family.

Andrew

PS – Don’t forget Sunday is the FINAL OPPORTUNITY for you to place your gifts under the Christmas Tree to support the Dandenong Ranges Emergency Relief Service Empty Christmas Tree. Thanks for giving to those in need.

 

What the Bible says about hell

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BibleandhellThe subject of today’s message is one of those things that we don’t really know what to believe about it, so very often we don’t talk about it. Every single person will most likely have very different thoughts about the topic of Hell. It is important to sift through the ideas to see what the Bible tells us.

I like the story that is told of a chaplain who reported to a new position during WW2. Upon arrival some of the men came to see him and asked him this question; Do you believe in a literal hell? When he replied that he did not. The men asked him to resign and he asked them why. Their response to him was: If there is no Hell then we don’t need you and if there is a Hell we don’t want you to lead us astray. I think the point is well made.

People don’t like to talk about hell, and we don’t hear many sermons on the topic. But even Jesus spent time talking about this subject.

He spoke of Heaven only once but on the topic of Hell he spoke about it eleven times. So, we should not avoid the topic but instead understand what Jesus is telling us because as we said last week what we believe about death and eternity should determine how we live now.

Pastor Andrew

Grace

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graceOne Thursday night I was walking through Lysterfield Park. It was almost dark, wet and muddy. I habitually walk with my head down, eyes always peeling the track for wildlife and to secure my footing.

By the time I left the park, it was completely dark, cold, and the car park was empty. That night progressed to become a particularly upsetting and unpleasant night at home for me, and I subsequently returned to the park at 5.15am the next morning, partially to leave the house and partially to walk away my anxieties.

In the grey of morning, and quite alone, I found I couldn’t pray. I didn’t know what to pray. I felt like I’d prayed enough. I couldn’t cry. I had cried enough. So I asked questions. I walked for a few minutes asking things like, “why am I going through this?” before I started to ask something different. I began to ask God how I could get through. Instead of asking Him why, I started to ask Him to show me how.

At that very moment, a word appeared right at my feet on the track. It was scratched deeply into the gravel. It simply said ‘Grace’. I was quite certain that it had not been there the night before. I was also certain that I was the only person in the park on this morning. I believe the word was there just for me. I took pictures of it, barely visible at that time of morning, and allowed the warmth of the message to fill me up.

It could have been any word that appeared on the track. It could have been ‘faith’ or ‘hope’ or ‘love’ or ‘patience’. It wasn’t a word telling me what I needed to survive the turmoil in my life. It was a word reminding me of something I already had, something I have always had, and will always have, in Jesus: Grace.
Ros Keighery