For Sunday 26th October - 11.00am

It seems to be a natural inclination of ours to try to get God to specify just how much 'we have to do.' Not wanting to go beyond the letter of the Law, we join with the Pharisee who asked Jesus, "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?"

Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'

Jesus' answer simply reveals that the whole law of God, as well as each individual law, is dead without 'love to God and neighbour' lying behind it and within it. Confronted with this simple, yet profound reality, we must realise our inability to live up to this great commandment. Even the bare minimum is too much for us to do ourselves.

This recognition leads us to our Saviour, who loved us and God perfectly by giving up His life for our salvation.

How do we then love God and neighbour? We'll be thinking this through this coming Sunday.

God's peace,
Pastor Matt

Upcoming services

Service times for the next few weeks are as follows:

Sunday 21st September: 8.30am

Sunday 28th September: 11.00am

Sunday 5th October: 8.30am (please note Daylight Savings begins this weekend)

God's peace,
Pastor Matt

They're here!!!

At 5.55am today Moses' four brothers and his sister touched down in Melbourne to join their brother for a new life in Asutralia. After one hiccup after another there was much rejoicing and thanksgiving as we met these amazing young people. The weary travellers were supposed to arrive at 12.30am but at about 2.30am we discovered they had been stranded in Dubai. Unable to contact anyone at that hour we had a nervous wait for the next flight and thank God for answering our prayers and delivering them!

What a day! Forty-five minutes sleep in 48 hours and a family expanding from 4 to 9 in the blink of an eye! (It'll be 10 in a few weeks!)

The entourage of supportive friends couldn't contain themselves - declaring that God is indeed great!

Enjoy these couple of photos - hopefully there'll be more in the Shepp News on Monday.

For Sunday 14th September - 11.00am

Our Service will begin at 11.00am this Sunday (14/9) and will be a time of great rejoicing as we celebrate God's work among our congregation. We will witness the baptism of Jack Donaldson, receive quite a number of people into membership, and praise God for finally uniting Moses with his siblings. Our thanksgiving will be followed by lunch together.

With respect to Moses' siblings, here's the most up to date news:

IOM have confirmed that after the hiccup of last week, Moses' siblings will be boarding a plane at 4.15pm in Kampala today (11/9) and God willing, will arrive in Melbourne at 12.30am on the 13th September. Please keep them in your prayers as they make this final leg of what has been a long journey.

God's peace,
Pastor Matt

For Sunday 7th September - 8.30am

As we remember our earthly fathers this Sunday we will also have a chance to consider how it is that we are blessed to have a heavenly Father.

While we all clearly fail to live up to the 'rules of the family', we who have 'put on Christ' in holy baptism (Romans 13:8-14) have also received adoption and acceptance into the family of God. As those who have been forgiven in Jesus we are therefore freed to come before God with the confidence of children who come to their Father for all they need.

Divine service will begin at 8.30am.

God's peace,
Pastor Matt

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