For Sunday 31st August - 11.15am

This Sunday (31/8) we will be holding our service in Cobram, meeting at 11.15am at the Uniting Church hall in Hay Street, Cobram. A bus will be leaving St Paul's at 9.45am and if you would like a seat on the bus, you'll need to contact me by Wednesday (ankernator@gmail.com). Service will be followed by lunch together - please bring something to share. Please note that there will be NO service in Shepparton this week.

Last Sunday we heard Peter's bold confession, claiming without hesitation that Jesus is 'the Christ, the Son of the living God'. As we follow on from that reading this week (in Matthew 16:21-28) we hear Jesus saying he 'must’ go to Jerusalem to suffer and die. After the triumph of recent days these words leave the disciples bewildered. Their Messiah of God must fail? However, the Lord knows that the only way to glory for him and for us is through death. Both death and Satan must be conquered. So he went.

If we then need to pick up our cross to follow him, let it so be. That which may stand in the way of salvation needs to be sacrificed

God's peace to you all as you prepare for service this week,
Pastor Matt

For Sunday 17th August - 8.30am

This week we'll be hearing of an encounter Jesus had with a nagging Canaanite woman who's daughter was suffering demon possession. Although she wasn't a Jew, she'd obviously heard of Jesus and His ability to heal and drive out demons. So out of love for her daughter she took the bold step of approaching this Jewish rabbi for help.

Her first plea for help was met with silence from Jesus. It seemed unlikely He was going to answer her request. Unperturbed by this, and determined to gain Jesus’ help, the woman continued – nagging if you like! She prayed again, ‘Lord, help me!’

This time Jesus responds with a heavy rebuff declaring that it's not right to offer His blessing and help to the gentiles (non-Jews) before it has first been offered to God’s chosen people (the Jews). At this point even the most tenacious nagger would have been tempted to give up! But not this woman. She knew that Jesus had the power to free her daughter from bondage to the Devil, and she had faith that He would have mercy and do it. So again she calls for His help.

Jesus hears her persistent, determined prayer for help and understands that her ‘nagging’ reflects her absolute confidence that He will hear her prayer and answer it. Jesus honours her ‘nagging’ as a sign of great faith and grants healing for her daughter.

On Sunday we'll be thinking about how this encounter encourage us to prayerful 'nagging' as we seek the help and support of our Lord in daily life.

Divine Service will begin at 8.30am.

See you there!

God's peace,
Pastor Matt