Do you work in the Brisbane CBD? If so, you’re invited to the ‘In Search of the Good Life’ event that Eatons Hill & Mitchelton Presbyterian churches are hosting on Friday 5 December at ‘Berkley’s on Anne’, the corner of Anne & Edward Street. This is an after work drinks event (5-6pm) where you can come along, catch up with others who work in the city, and hear a short sharp thought provoking message about life, work, career, ambition, and how the person Jesus can make all the difference. Come along and invite others to come along! If you would like any more information or would like some hard copy invitations, just email me on garnet@freshchurch.net

Last Sunday was church at Everton Park High for the combined service. Thanks to all those who helped make it happen. It was a good morning to reflect on God’s goodness to us, as well as hear a great talk from Paul Harrington on ‘Forgiveness’. The complete sermon ‘Forgiveness’ series from the Bible Teaching Weekend will available soon on the website.

Recently, the men from freshchurch heard from Mark Driscoll, the pastor of Mars Hill Church, Seattle. Mark Driscoll is a guy who became a Christian during his time at uni and ever since then he’s had a passion for others to know Jesus. During his recent time in Australia, he was interviewed by the people at ‘The Public Centre of Christianity’.  Amongst other things, they asked him the question - ’What’s at the Heart of Christiantiy?’. For the next 7 minutes Mark then gives a brilliant explanation of what it means to be a Christian and why Jesus actually had to die on a cross.

This is an excellent video. The way he explains the gospel and the tone in which he speaks, make this worth recommending to any friend or family member. Have a watch yourself and then forward the link on! To watch the video click ‘here‘

                                                  
Earlier this year we looked at the first half of Mark’s gospel. The series was titled, ‘Jesus – Who Are You?’ and as we discovered, the events of these early chapters were all about Jesus’ identity.  It’s in these chapters that we have the record of Jesus in the northern region of Galilee doing amazing things like: healing the sick, forgiving sin, teaching in parables, doing miracles, driving out demons and gathering a group of disciples.  After all of this, Jesus poses a question to his disciple Peter,  “But what about you? Who do you say I am?” (8:29). At that moment the light bulb goes on for Peter and he responds. “You are the Christ”.

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On Sunday 19 October - church will be at the normal time, but at a different venue. It’s will be held at Everton Park High School Auditorium on Stafford Road. The new location for that Sunday is because we’re holding our 2nd annual combined service with Mitchelton Presbyterian Church. It’s a time to come together and give thanks to God for all the good things he’s been doing at mpc and freshchurch. For the morning, we will have a guest speaker - Paul Harrington from Holy Trinity Anglical Church, who will speak on the topic of Forgiveness. 

So for Sunday 19 October, remember not to come to our usual venue - OSH room at Eatons Hill State School. If you go there, you will be very lonely! Drive a bit further south than usual - Everton Park High, and be part of this great celebration event.

For the next couple of Sundays at church we’re going to be looking at one of the most beautiful verses in all of the bible. It comes from the New Testament book of Galatians, chapter 5 and it goes, “‘But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control“. These words are all about what should be the characteristics of a Christian person, someone who follows Jesus. But what’s so stunning about this verse is that it tells us of the source and motivation for the distinctive Christian life. It all comes from the Spirit. It seems there is alot of confusion about what why Christians are different and make certain life choose that might seem strange to others.  It’s not because we live by a code of conduct. It’s not becasue we live out of fear, guilt or obligation. It’s not even because we have some ancient law to keep. It’s because we have God’s own Spirit in us radically changing us - cutting out areas of sin and selfishness and ever more moulding us to be more like Jesus.

This coming Sunday I’ll be speaking on ’self-control’ but the results have come in on our church-poll for what I should speak on the following week. Coming in first place was………..drum roll please………. ’patience’! So ’patience’ is what we’ll be looking at on Sunday 5 October. Progressively over holidays breaks when we’re in between looking at books of the bible (our normal morning Sunday morning diet) we’ll aim to look at all of the fruits of the Spirit. As we get to know these fruit, we’ll be ever challenged with the sort of people God’s Spirit wants us to be.

8 weeks of music, craft, games, skits, building relationships and at the centre of it all - teaching the wonderful amazing truth - that all of the bible is about Jesus who came to save us. That was our ‘CHURH4KIDS’ program that came to an end on Sunday. Thanks to the team from ’latechurch’ who ran the program. Feedback from both kids and parents is that it was an excellent time. Now that Church4Kids is over, we’ll go back to our normal KidzBiz program to continue the ministry of nurturing the kids at freshchurch so they would grow as followers of Jesus. Again - thanks to the church4kidz team. See you next year!

On Sunday mornings we’ve been taking a scenic flight through the Old Testament. It really has been an overview or ‘big picture’ journey through the Old Testament with a numer of stopovers along the way. This is what we’ve covered so far:

1. Creation (Genesis 1)
2. When Sin Enters the World (Genesis 3)
3. God’s Promises to Abraham (Genesis 12)
4. God’s Rescue of His people from Egypt (Exodus)
5. King David and the Promise of a Kingdom (2 Samuel 7)
6. Solomon and the Demise of Israel (1 & 2 Kings)

This Sunday morning we will be looking at the period in Israel’s history known as ‘the Exile’.

The point of this series has been to help us to be clear thinking on what the Old Testament is about. Unlike what people might naturally think, the Old Testament is not a collection of random stories about old blokes with beards (they always have beards don’t they!), archaic law’s and weird genealogies. When you fit it all together, you see that it is one single story about God’s loving purpose to bring salvation so that a people will belong to him and he will be their God. Everything started with Creation and the Garden of Eden– God’s People in God’s Place, under God’s Rule. People stuffed it up through their sin, but ultimately, God will make things right again – God’s People in God’s Place, under God’s Rule – in the New Creation. And even though the Old Testament came many centuries before Jesus, what we’ve been discovering is that at every step along the way, it’s a story about Jesus. Every promise God made to his people in the Old Testament, finds its ‘yes’, it’s fulfilment in Jesus – 2 Corinthians 2:20.

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On Thursday Night, 945 men gathered to hear how being a Christian shapes you to be a better man - how to live as a husband and father in the way God wants. Of those 945 men, 13 of them were from Eatons Hill Presbyterian Church and we were all given some great challenges. The speaker was Mark Driscoll from Mars Hill in Seattle. He’s not a guy who pulls any punches and his central message was men need to step up and be the leaders they should be - leaders who cherish, protect and pro-actively teach their families. If you’d like to order a copy of the talk on CD or DVD go to www.300menforJesus.com .