On the last weekend of October there will be special service times due to the Noosa Triathlon (instead of the normal morning services). Please note the following times:
- Sunshine Beach: Saturday (29 October) Holy Communion at 5.00pm.
- Sunshine Beach: Sunday (30 October) Family Church at 4.30pm (as per normal).
- Tewantin: Sunday (30 October) Holy Communion at 6.30pm.
You’re invited to celebrate Christmas with the Anglican Church of Noosa at any of our services and at either of our locations. We’ll be celebrating together on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and on December 14 for our Christmas Spectacular. For more information, including our Christmas Flyer, keep reading.
Service Times
Or, you can also download the Christmas Flyer in PDF.
You’re invited to join us for a great night of Christmas fun for the whole family on Wednesday 14th December. Starting at 7.00pm at St Andrew’s Sunshine Beach, you can sing all your favourite carols with special treats for the children. Children are also welcome to come dressed up as angels or shepherds. Afterwards some delicious Christmas refreshments will be served.
For more information please contact the Rev’d Mark Calder by phone 5449 8009 or email. The Christmas Spectacular will take place at St Andrew’s, Sunshine Beach (Bicentennial Drive, Sunshine Beach, QLD 4567). To get directions, click on the map marker.
From the 6th to the 10th of May, I had the great privilege of participating in an Arrow Leadership residential in Melbourne – part of a two-year leadership programme (consisting of: a guided reading program, coaching, four residentials, peer learning, and leadership assessment). Joined by 29 other young leaders from all over Australia (Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, and Alice Springs) and a variety of denominations (Anglican, Baptist, Catholic, Church of Christ, Salvation Army, Uniting, and other independent churches), it was inspiring to hear about the setting in which each person ministers.
Each day began with a time of teaching and worship, followed by sessions on a range of topics including the theology of leadership, our individual leadership strengths, and spiritual disciplines. The teaching sessions – which focused on the Old Testament book of Judges – were incredibly encouraging as we were reminded that it is often through weak people that God is glorified. How amazing that God chooses to work through us as we trust in him! Our night sessions included talks and Q&A with Christian leaders such as George Savvides (Managing Director of MediBank) and Jossy Chacko (founder of Empart).
I’m incredibly thankful for this opportunity and look forward to the next residential in October. I’m also thankful for the reminder that God is indeed alive and at work throughout our entire nation. What a privilege and blessing we have as disciples in Noosa as part of a global body – following our Lord – transforming and being transformed. I give thanks for each and everyone of you and praise God that he gave it all for us. You can find out more about Arrow Australia, by visiting their website arrowaustralia.com.au.
As we pause our Colossians’ readings for three weeks, we will supply some reading ideas around the theme of the next week’s celebration, with just a few thoughts for reflection. Notes for this week are below, with a PDF version available here.
Day 1: Read Acts 1:1-11
What must it have been like to see Jesus ascend in the way described here? The disciples must have been so delighted and enthralled when they first saw him resurrected. But now, 40 days later, he has been taken from them again.
In that 40 days, Jesus has no doubt been preparing them for this moment. And even though taken from them in this way, Jesus in Matthew 28:16-20 assured his disciples he would actually be with them until the end of the age. So for us: Jesus not physically with us, but no less real to us because by his Holy Spirit, he lives within us! And note – Jesus will be back! Are you ready?
Day 2: Read Luke 24:45-53
Note that repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in Jesus’ name. We do the repenting; he does the forgiving!
And note that when Jesus had ascended the disciples aren’t devastated once again – they worshipped Jesus and returned to Jerusalem with great joy. They stayed at the temple praising God. They have a new vision and excitement compared to when Jesus died! They now wait for Jesus to send his Holy Spirit – ‘power from on high’.
Day 3: Read John 17:6-19
This passage – next Sunday’s gospel reading – finds us with Jesus in prayer. He speaks of his ascension – v11 – I will remain in the world no longer and I am coming to you. He prays for the protection for believers – especially because he will be physically absent from them. He knows the world will hate us believers – even as it hated him. And yet the answer for us is not that we be taken out of the world, but protected from the evil one while still in it. And note that given he will be physically absent, believers (we!) are sent in to the world to live for him, to honour him, to promote him!
Day 4: Read Psalm 1
The challenge from this Psalm is under whose influence will we come? Will it be the counsel of the wicked, the way of sinners or the seat of mockers? Or will it be the law of God? Will that be our delight over and above all other spheres of influence? If the law is our true delight and we meditate on it – really ‘chew’ it over – then the consequences are vast. We will be planted and immoveable; we will yield fruit i.e. it will change us and we will prosper – not in worldly riches – but in everything we set our heart to do which is pleasing and honouring to God. The alternative is unthinkable.
A pastor from Canberra (who came and spoke at the Sunshine Coast Bible convention a couple of years back) is not very well at present (to say the least!) and would love to swap Canberra’s cold for Queensland’s warmth somewhere around 15-29 July. He’d love a house to stay at with his wife and two (grown up) kids. Please email or speak to Mark if you can help give this guy and his family some much needed time out.
Notes and readings (for the week commencing 7th May, 2012) are shown below, with a PDF version available here. The sermon passage for this Sunday (13/05/2012) will be Colossians 2:16-23.
Would you begin the week by reading next Sunday’s passage: Chapter 2:16-23?
Day 1: Now re-read Colossians 2:16-19
Because Jesus is supreme, there is nothing else to know and nothing else to do!
So now Paul lays out some implications. First, they are not to let anyone (read – the false teachers) judge them by what they eat or drink or with regard to religious festivals or a new moon celebration or Sabbath day. That is, they are not to listen to any one says ‘because you don’t observe or follow these days or rituals or rites, you are not the real deal’. Sadly this happens today! Sometimes in subtle ways; sometimes in not so subtle ways. One Christian will accuse another of falling short somehow in their Christian life because they don’t keep a strict Sabbath, or because they drink alcohol, or eat meat. But friends, there is nothing else to know, and nothing else to do, other than knowing Jesus and that he has done everything for us.
Paul points out that the days and regulations of the Old Testament, were a shadow of things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ. So the Passover, was a shadow of the reality of Jesus, our true Passover Lamb. The Sabbath was a shadow of Jesus in whom is our perfect Sabbath rest. The food regulations were a shadow (a sign of Israel’s distinctiveness), until Jesus came and declared all food clean. So Jesus is supreme and his life, teaching, death, resurrection, ascension and the gift of his Holy Spirit, changed everything.
False humility and the worship of angels – these people claimed some additional level of spirituality. Have you known people who go on about their special spiritual experiences and who almost imply you’re inferior because you’re just not on the same level as them? Don’t listen to them! If you know Jesus and what he’s done for you, you have all you need! And people who go on about their experience compared to yours have missed the point and are often sadly deluded or blinded to the reality which is in Jesus. Paul says they’ve lost connection with the Head – that is, lost connection with Jesus in whom alone is our life and growth.
There was a time when I looked for some additional Christian experience and I was disappointed when it didn’t come my way. Or indeed I wondered if there was something else I needed to be doing – some ritual or discipline – to be a ‘real’ or an ‘authentic’ Christian. But what I really needed, was to go deeper with Jesus and grow closer to him. Because there is nothing else to know and nothing else to do! Friends, as the children of the Watoto choir made so wonderfully clear last Friday night, Jesus is our everything and we have all we need in him. Make him your passion, your joy, your delight and don’t let anyone make you feel bad or inferior because they claim some superior knowledge or experience!
Day 2: Read Colossians 2:20-23
You died with Christ. Allow that to sink in a little today. We saw this last week – that you were buried with him in baptism but you are now made alive in Christ.
Specifically Paul says you died to the basic principles of this world. We first read this phrase in 2:8. It means all that is false and worldly; man-made principles. So, why would you go back to something from which you’ve been rescued and released?
There are many religious groups today which insist on following certain rules. The Jehovah’s Witnesses are very strict about how you can live your life. The Seventh Day Adventists teach you mustn’t eat meat or drink alcohol and they follow a strict Sabbath rule every Saturday. Southern Baptists in the USA had strict rules against dancing and drinking. Some Pentecostal churches insist and check up on strict tithing of all your income. The Roman Catholic Church follows strict rules on attending Mass and reconciliation.
Paul bluntly says in v22 that these are all destined to perish with use, because they are based on human commands and teachings. Why do people like such rules? Paul says they have an appearance of wisdom. They sound like a good idea. Like they might help you in following Jesus and living the Christian life. The reality however is very different. They lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence. For example, not all dance is associated with sexual indulgence and people who never dance, face no less sexual temptation than anyone else!
And all these added on rules undermine all that we’ve been called to in the Lord Jesus. They make us think we are contributing to our salvation, or that they are making us worthy as believers. But Jesus has done it all. There is nothing else to know and nothing else to do but the Lord Jesus and what he has done for us. We have been released from the slavish following of rules and regulations and ought never allow ourselves to be trapped there again. What a great freedom we have been granted! Freedom to follow and serve Jesus with all our heart, soul, strength and mind. Give thanks today!
Day 3: Read Psalm 103
Make a list of all you have to be thankful for today and pray for a constantly grateful, thankful heart.
Day 4: Read Psalm 139
Note the following from this great Psalm:
- The Lord knows everything that is on our heart and knows exactly all that we are doing each day of our lives.
- There is no way we can escape God’s presence even if we tried. There is nowhere to go where God is not!
- He has known us and loved us when he saw us being put together in our mothers’ womb. And all our days are written up – already planned by Him. Including our last day! How wonderful that we can trust God’s perfect plans and timing for us.
- Note now David feels about those who hate God? He hates them! Strong words. Appropriate? Perhaps David himself questions what he has written when he asks immediately afterwards ‘Search me O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.’
Thank the Lord for his wonderful and intimate knowledge of us. Pray that he might show you too if there be any offensive way in you, so you may be continually transformed in to his likeness.
Do you give to God 10% of your regular income? In the Old Testament, God’s people were to give 10% of all their crops and livestock and income for the work of the temple and the poor. In the New Testament, 10% is never commanded of Christians. Rather we are urged to give sacrificially and generously in line with Jesus’ sacrifice and generosity to us. So it may just be that 10% is only a good starting point and that if we give sacrificially and generously we will actually give a lot more!
While some churches actually expect this and check up on their members, in the Anglican church, freewill offerings have always been just that—freewill! It’s all of grace, so no one checks up and envelopes are not numbered. As Rector I never know how much any one has pledged or gives and that’s just the way I like it. Giving is between you and God.
Some people will assume they cannot afford more than 10%. But the best way to ensure you are giving generously (and cheerfully!) is to carve off your pre-determined percentage, give that away and then budget accordingly and carefully with whatever is left over.
Ever gone on a shopping spree and spent more than you planned? What fun when you come home with your purchases. I’m not recommending irresponsibility, but it can be just as fun to go on a “giving spree” and give to God’s work more than you had first planned. What a thrill to bring blessing and joy to others by our generosity. May God grant to us the grace and joy of giving.
We were so blessed to enjoy a visit from the Watoto children’s choir from Uganda Friday night 4th May. The children were beautiful and the tour so well organised. The concert was moving and uplifting with many children sharing their stories of how they had once been abandoned but had found hope and a new life in the care of the Watoto mission project. Above all the singing and testimonies stood their joy because of Jesus and their overwhelming thankfulness for his goodness to them. Thank you Watoto. We hope to arrange another visit next year. (Read more of the work here.) Click more so see our photos.
Notes and readings (for the week commencing 30th April, 2012) are shown below, with a PDF version available here. The sermon passage for this Sunday (06/05/2012) will be Colossians 2:6-15.
Would you begin the week by reading the whole of next Sunday’s passage: Chapter 2:6-15?
Day 1: Now re-read Colossians 2:6-7
These two verses are an excellent summary of the teaching of the whole letter. Here we are reminded of Jesus’ supremacy which we explored in Week 2 – Christ Jesus is Lord. We are reminded to continue in him as we were in week 2. We’re reminded to be strengthened in our trust as we were in week 1 and overflow with thankfulness as we were in week 1.
Yet there is more here than an exhortation to faithfulness and perseverance. Remember that the very reason for the letter is that, as was so often the case in the early church, false teachers were leading people way from the truth. The false teaching – which we’ll see in the coming verses and in next week’s passage – tapped in to a hunger for God but sought to fill it by human philosophy associated with human tradition and a reversion to rites, rituals, rules and regulations. There is something within people that loves all this – order, predictability, boundaries, certainty, ceremony, doing things by rote. (It’s one of the attractions of Islam.) Even today, some Christians want something more than Jesus.
So in these two verses Paul begins to argue that going forward in Christ is a matter of continuing in the same vein in which you started. There isn’t something bigger or better or different around the corner. So continue as you began – with Christ as Lord. And allow him to rule in every facet of your life.
And as you were once rooted in him, now continue to be built up in him. The foundation in Christ was laid, now build on it. There is no other platform to find and no other building to build. If our life is in Christ, than it is in him (as we saw on Sunday) that all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are found – nowhere else. If you get these fundamentals right, then you will overflow with thankfulness (v7), because you’ll be reminded that this is all about Jesus.
Pray asking the Lord to help you continue in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith and overflowing with thankfulness.
Day 2: Read Colossians 2:8-10
When or where are you most vulnerable to attack as a Christian? It seems that if there was ever a time when a believer could be taken ‘captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy’ it is in 2012! The radical new atheists are challenging many. Many people want Christian chaplains out of schools. Islam is on the rise. The church is largely in decline (at least in the west). And yet people pay attention to their ‘stars’, to psychics, to their friends who seem to know what they’re talking about. However, the danger for Colossae was those inside the church! And we have to watch out for those dangers too.
The philosophers Paul has in mind are those who are offering to the Christians in Colossae a spiritual experience of deeper enlightenment – which would satisfy those who had ‘outgrown’ the simplicities of the gospel! But Paul claims such teaching is empty of content. See also Ephesians 5:6. I wonder what sort of dangers from inside church circles, you are most vulnerable to?
His answer is to take the readers back to Jesus. Everything they need is found in him – because God himself is found in him! God’s ‘fullness’ – everything God is – is found in Jesus the man.
Then Paul says ‘and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority’. So we enter in to the fullness of God which is in Christ because of our relationship with Jesus. God in Christ and Christ in us by his Holy Spirit. This is wonderful and staggering! Why would we allow ourselves then to be diverted away from this to deceptive philosophy based on human tradition? God grant us all we need to keep our eyes on Jesus alone!
Day 3: Read Colossians 2:11-12
Circumcision was of course the sign of the Old Covenant. Many early Jewish Christians insisted that circumcision be continued. Now however, Paul uses the term metaphorically. The metaphorical circumcision is actually more significant than the literal! It is a cutting out of the sinful nature and it is done by Christ. And note the past tense – it has already been done. Note from the start of v11 – this is ‘in Christ’; it is by Christ, through Christ and for Christ.
How and when did this circumcision come about? When you were buried! More metaphor! Paul is arguing that Christians already live a new life. The old life where we ruled has been buried ‘with Christ’. Then we were raised ‘with Christ’ though our trust in the power of God. Raised to a new life when Christ rules supreme. This doesn’t mean we don’t sin any more, but we’ve changed sides or allegiances. Jesus rules. No longer do we rule or run our lives. This happened when we first trusted Jesus and is brilliantly symbolised in baptism.
Simply understood, the old life where you ruled, was dead and buried with Christ. You were then raised to the new life where Christ rules and in so doing the sinful nature was cut away and robbed of its power. No wonder we are called to a life of thankfulness!! (Until Christ returns, we still do battle with our old self, but its power and reign are broken and we need to bully it in to submission.)
Day 4: Read Colossians 2:13-15
Paul is setting up for a huge ‘therefore’ in v16. There’s purpose in him explaining this so fully. It is to show up the foolishness of the false teaching. He is making the point God through Jesus has done absolutely everything needed to reconcile us to himself. And he did this, not once we had shown some promise or potential, but when we ‘were dead in your sins’. He is the one who made us alive Christ and won our forgiveness.
The written code is the law. It condemned us thoroughly. It was ‘against us’ in the sense that it nailed us, so to speak! It shows us up. We see our failings, our sin. But it was (metaphorically) nailed to the cross with Jesus. He took its condemnation for us. It can condemn us no more.
In so doing, we read that Jesus ‘disarmed the powers and authorities.’ This is Paul’s way of describing the evil one and all those with him who would lead us away from God. The language of ‘made a public spectacle of them’ is like that of general leading captives through a city for everyone to celebrate the conquering of the enemy. Through Jesus’ death and resurrection, Jesus was victorious over all evil and evil beings. They cannot possibly recapture us. They were completely humiliated. We have been freed therefore both from the law of the old covenant and all evil powers and authorities. Neither can now condemn us nor hold us! How good is that! Praise God!
