Jesus is Lord
Weekly Worship
Joining in Prayer
Father of Light and Love we draw together at your footstool with our Worship and Praise, always remembering the gift of your only Son Jesus. His sacrifice on our behalf leaves us in the greatest of awe, and including the gift of the Holy Spirit, Father, that you sent us, through your Son to guide us and understand our feelings thoughts and deeds to present to you.
Although some normality is being encouraged now, help us to be aware and remember our social distancing and continued hand care etc. We pray for those people still in lockdown for various reasons, give them a heart of acceptance knowing that they are caring about others as well as themselves.
Continue Lord to protect all the personal involved in caring, nursing, admin, tracing cases to find and warn people possibly at risk. For our volunteers who have put themselves in the front line again by going to help Victoria in their time of crisis.
We are mindful of all the issues our politicians have had to, and are still, making to keep us safe. Theirs has been a heavy load to carry continue to give them wisdom.
For all the things on our hearts that have happened to us individually, throughout these months, things we have never done before, time to do unusual things to help us fill in time. Having time for extended daily devotions and what we have learned from them to share.
Guide us Lord as we seek to understand your reasoning for this Pandemic. We pray for those grieving not only for those lost due to this virus but for other reasons where a loved one has died. Give them peace as they travel through the processes of grief.
We pray for all the people of our town with the many issues that they have had to work through in their lives, loss of jobs, putting food on the table, paying bills. For those who suffer from depression and claustrophobia, panic attacks. May they find help and peace through your believers sharing and caring.
As we look forward to opening our church doors all be it within the legal requirements bring in new folk and give us the wisdom to welcome them as though they have just arrived home to be with family.
So many things on our hearts, we pray for each part of the world that is suffering from mixed messages about the virus and how it keeps on destroying, may we all work towards its end.
All that we offer and ask in our prayers to you Lord we ask through the name of the Lord Jesus, Amen.
Jenny Fahlbusch
Heart of God
Romans 9: 1-5
Matthew 14: 13-21
The heart of God is the most beautiful thing. It is from it which all things that we know flows, His word, his creation and all things which lead to good flow from his heart. In these two passages we see the how compassionate and self-giving the heart of God is towards his creation in the response and actions of Jesus to the people seeking him.
Matthew 14: 14
So, when Jesus landed, he had a huge crowd waiting for him. Seeing so many people, his heart was deeply moved with compassion toward them, so he healed all the sick who were in the crowd.
Now we need to take a step back and acknowledge that previous to this verse John the Baptist has been killed by Herod and Jesus has gone away to seek solitude, to grieve the death of his cousin. Knowing this makes Jesus compassion all the more powerful and special, feeling loss and grief he still showed compassion to others and their struggles.
This is our God. The sacrificial lamb who has a heart for humanity and desperately wants all people to experience what it means to be loved by God.
In Romans we see God’s spirit in Paul as he writes to his fellow Jewish countrymen, pleading them to turn to Jesus the savior prophesied by to the Jewish people for generations. Here he pours his heart out, pleading for his people to acknowledge God as Lord in their lives.
Romans 9: 2-3
My heart is broken and I am in great sorrow. 3 I would gladly be placed under God’s curse and be separated from Christ for the good of my own people.
The only possible way to feel this strongly about people finding themselves in Christ, is by allowing God’s heart and passion for people to work through your life. This is the heart of God, pleading, sacrificing all to see His creation be restored back to him. Too choose to love and long to be with Him. He is God over everything the stars he hung in their place, he knows the depths and the heights yet his longs for humanity to come and rest in his arms.
Now you may have heard of a movie called Forrest Gump, where a man has only eyes for one woman his whole life, a pure innocent love which he always offers this woman no matter what she has done or what she is doing. Yet she goes out and lives a life of pure brokenness, trying to find love in all the wrong places, it is only when she stops and reflects, she realises that the only real love she has ever felt has been pursuing her the entire story.
This picture of is an example of what God does for us, pursing and loving through all circumstances because he cares for you and, he wants us to experience, pure and fulfilling love and he wants this so much that he will walk into the valley of death to be with his creation.
There are times no doubt however when we don’t feel like we are loved by God, we a facing more closed doors than open. We may be hurt and broken, feel like prayer and living a Godly life is difficult. We may see people who seem to be doing better than we are and wish we were like them. But truly I tell you God wants what is best for you and that will never be the same as what he is doing for someone else. God loves us by closing doors as well as opening them, a good father has boundaries for his children, because he wants us to grow and learn so that we can help others and learn more about Gods heart.
Today, I want you will turn to Christ and see his love which has been pursing you, then may you let his heart heal you, acknowledge him as your creator and savior and rest in your love.
Shift your thinking, God provides what we need not what we want, praise the Lord in all situations and trust in him always.
And when you have been radically transformed by the heart of God and you proclaim Jesus as lord, my plea for you today is that your will continue to grow closer and know the heart of God so that when you see people in the street, in the world or even in your own house that your heart will be filled with compassionate love. May your heart love them. A quote that I will always remember from God is not dead where a young man is challenged to speak Gods truth into a lecture theater.
“You may be the only experience of Jesus Love that people ever see.”
Is your witness showing the accepting, loving heart of God?
When you profess Jesus as Lord you commit to a life which pursues Gods heart and if you want to know what Gods heart is like, read his word. Today passage we have Jesus grieving, yet taking the time to listen to what people want, and respond by giving what they want so that he can also give them what they need.
So bring Gods heart out into the world because they need to know his heart of compassion and love. A heart which takes the time to listen and to love.