Love actually!

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Love actually!

Walk in Love said 2 John 6 – a key theme of his ‘Little John’ letters.

But How? By walking in obedience silly! It is difficult to think of ways to be loving in disobedience. That is because truly loving someone is actually about putting them before ourselves. If they ask you to do something that you don’t want to do, then being obedient to them would mean putting their will before our own. That is a demonstration of love.

But hold on, what if they ask you to do something that is wrong? Well, doing something wrong is hardly loving?!

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And your mission should you choose to accept it…

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5 AWAY was fantastic. What a terrific encouragement.

Great Talks. Great Fellowship. Great Laughs. Great dress-ups! Great time of prayer. Great 5 AWAY. Can I commend the talks for download – they are worth a listen. [Office – please insert the hyperlink to the talks on the website]

Friends on the weekend we ‘launched’ the Hello Neighbour 5pm Church mission.

What a privilege to be a new creation in Jesus. And what an opportunity to help others know him as well.

Our mission is called ‘Hello Neighbour’ – because we all have neighbours and so we can all be involved in big or small ways with this mission. The aim: Reach to love and serve those who don’t know Jesus yet.

There are a few key areas to this mission:

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Gospel Growth

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I am perplexed!

The Acts of the Apostles provides us as readers with an account of the development of the early church – the first Christian church. Acts 1 sets the context following the resurrection of Jesus and then gloriously recounts his ascension to the right hand of God. Acts 2 logically follows with the coming of the Holy Spirit as the apostles led by Peter start doing what they were called to do – proclaim Jesus.

Then Chapter 3 through to 6:7 hit us, and at first, seem to be a random assortment of events stuffed all together presumable for the readers benefit. Where is the logic that we have become so accustomed to from Luke?

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Gospel Facts and Gospel Response

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Dear 5pm Church Family,

What is the gospel?

This seems like a basic question to ask such a learned group that we are at 5pm Church! I ask, not because I fear that we have got it wrong, but because I fear we are a risk of putting the cart before the horse!

Acts of the Apostles

We have started this ministry year with the Acts of the Apostles. There appears to me to be four overlapping themes underpinning the first section from Chapter 1 through to 6:7 – they are:

  1. The ascension of Christ – now ruling at the right hand of God.
  2. The coming of the Holy Spirit – enabling the apostles to proclaim Christ.
  3. The witness of the Apostles – continuing on the ministry of salvation.
  4. The growth of the Church – as many respond to the gospel.

The 5pm Church sermons over the last two weeks (and the next two) have/will touched on the sermons of the Apostle Peter – Chapter 2:14-39; 3:12-26; 4:8-12; 5:30-32. Allow me to make two quick observations.

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Gospel Bite: The Problem of Pain and Suffering

A ‘Gospel Bite’ – a short answer to a commonly raised objection to the gospel.

The question of suffering looms large in the modern mind, particularly in light of disasters such as the 2004 tsanami in Asia, or the earthquakes in Christchurch, or the tsunami and nuclear disaster in Japan in 2011. Many of the issues need to be dealt with philosophically (does suffering disprove God’s existence?) or theologically (is God powerless to do anything?).

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Gospel Bite: ‘All Religions are the same!’

A ‘Gospel Bite’ –  a short answer to a commonly raised objection to the gospel.

Pluralism – the belief that all religions point to God – is one of the major challenges put to modern Christians. It appears in so many forms: ‘You Christians are so arrogant as to think you alone have the truth!’ or ‘My own view is more open: I like to think of all religions as containing their own truth’, or ‘What makes your religion so special when there are so many Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists in the world?’

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Gospel Bite: ‘I haven’t got much time for religion; it often seems so judgmental and self-righteous.’

Gospel Bite: A Criticism of Self Righteousness

Last ‘Gospel Bite’ we looked at how we could use Luke 7:36-50 to answer a question about sin and forgiveness. To demonstrate how flexible a ‘gospel bite’ may be, this week we are going to use the same passage to respond to a different criticism. Please read the passage before reading on.

How might you respond to a friend who declares:

‘I haven’t got much time for religion; it often seems so judgmental and self-righteous.’?

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