Coming up this Sunday 21st October 2018
This Sunday we begin the next part of our series on ‘Romans: The Heart of Truth’, with Simon speaking on the topic ‘Truly transformed service’ from Romans chapter 12 verses 1 to 8.
We will hear from Jodie a special update about our annual get-together of all the churches in Sydney and the Illawarra (called the ‘Synod’) at both our services.
We will have our popular weekly question and answer time, and Jodie will be answering these questions:
- Is it blasphemous for modern Bibles to change the original English translation?
- Why do English Bibles differ from each other? For example, Psalm 22:15 says “my strength is dried up” but another says “my mouth is dried up”?
- Do you have to celebrate the Lord’s Supper at church, or can it be done at home?
This week also sees the return of our Children and Youth programs. Refuge, our youth group, meets at 4pm in the Neighbourhood Centre, and then head over to join us for church. Kids’ Club and Andy’s Club meets at our 5pm evening service for their program, followed by a great dinner together for the whole family.
As always, we’d love you to join us this Sunday at 10am or 5pm, or check us out online at www.oakflats.tv for live streaming of our two services.
Life in the Valley of Vision
CREDIT: Photo Brian Kelly, via Flickr.
One of the great treasures of the Christian faith is the collection of prayers found in ‘The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions’.
It contains two hundred or so prayers written nearly five hundred years ago, and their timeless words capture some deep reflections on the Bible’s teaching.
I first became aware of these prayers when an album was released by Sovereign Grace called ‘The Valley of Vision’, where several of these prayers were put to song, including ‘Let Your Kingdom Come’ and ‘O Great God’.
Yet it is the first song of the album, which is based on the first prayer of the book, that has been a great blessing to me in my Christian walk.
Here are the first two stanzas:
Lord, high and holy, meek and lowly,
Thou hast brought me to the valley of vision,
where I live in the depths but see thee in the heights;
hemmed in by mountains of sin I behold thy glory.Let me learn by paradox
that the way down is the way up,
that to be low is to be high,
that the broken heart is the healed heart,
that the contrite spirit is the rejoicing spirit,
that the repenting soul is the victorious soul,
that to have nothing is to possess all,
that to bear the cross is to wear the crown,
that to give is to receive,
that the valley is the place of vision.
Let us pray that we will find God’s glory in our valley.
JODIE McNEILL
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