In this week's devotion, we have a special guest Sijin! After the sermon last week, let's continue thinking about God who is the one who restores, forgives and keeps his promises to us. What are some areas of your life that God has been healing or revealing to you? Or maybe there's been some areas of sweetness in your life lately. Let's lift all these up to God and give thanks!
#DevotionsFromSijin
We are so used to being blessed by God but how often do we think about 'bless(ing) the Lord'?
We will dive into this when we look at the book of Psalms this week, where the psalmist does exactly that! Bless The Lord.
How do we exactly do it? We can start by recognising who He is and living a life according to His pleasure. Let's continue to be prayerful for the words of wisdom that God gives to us through this sermon series.
Good evening HCC! This week, PJ encourages us to continue praying for the church, especially as we look for a venue to return to. We are encouraged to be the church to one another, as demonstrated by the early churches in Acts. It's a good reminder that our sense of identity is not tied to a physical location so let's make ourselves known to our brothers and sisters and be praying for each other in this time.
Good afternoon HCC! Here’s a mid-week update from Pastor Jim.
We’ve now finished up our Genesis and Foundations series this past week and about to begin our next sermon series on The Way Of Wisdom. This series will cover the 5 wisdom books: Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Eccelesiates and Song of Solomon. Look out this coming Sunday for a deep dive into the concept of loss, starting with the book of Job.
Happy Wednesday, HCC! We hope you are doing well this week and staying safe.
We are on a 6-part sermon series called “Genesis & Foundation”. These critical “origin stories” are foundational for forming consistent biblical world view which have practical implications for today’s living. PJ gives us a quick recap on what we've been covering over the past few weeks and also what's to come.
Image of God & Human Race
Divine Economy & Human Politics
Marriage, Family, Church & Society
Suffering and Sorrow in Christian Life
Joy and Thriving in Christian Life
Divine Sovereignty & Human Responsibility
This week, we hope that you can be encouraged by the truth that His grace is sufficient for us. Although we are mere humans with limited capacity, we can be comforted by God's guidance and sovereignty at all times.
Racism and other dehumanising sins affect people all around the globe, including us here in Australia. Let us look to God’s Word this Lord’s Day as we consider the Genesis Foundation for our humanity endowed with the IMAGE OF GOD.
Resources
(1) A Liturgy for Those Flooded by Too Much Information - https://rabbitroom.com/2020/03/a-liturgy-for-those-flooded-by-too-much-information/
2) “A Night of Lament for Racial Justice” by The Gospel Coalition. We invite you to participate, though not in real-time, in an hour of prayer solidarity before God with brothers and sisters from around the world. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=medv4x3uUQo&feature=youtu.be
(3) Accompanying prayer guide available on this webpage: https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/prayer-guide-lament-for-racial-justice/
In this week's devotional, PJ shares from 1 Thessalonians 2:1-8 where Paul reminds us that he continued gospel life and ministry in the midst of conflict. With much conflict around us lately, how can we be living out the gospel to the people around us? We can live with a gentle and humble spirit, continuing to demonstrate the love of Christ that has been given to us.
In this week's devotion, PJ shares from 1 Thessalonians 4 and encourages us to pursue the greater things worth pursuing. Building on this message, we hear a quote from Thomas Watson who once said he faced two great difficulties in is ministry: to make the unbeliever sad without grace and to make the believer glad with grace.
So how can we be glad with grace? At times when we feel unmotivated or spiritually dry, it's the Word and the truth that we have been shown grace from God that can fuel our spirit to keep going.
This week PJ reminds us of the dramatic turnaround that grace achieves for us. From a hopeless situation while we were “dead in our trespasses” by grace through faith we are brought into the fullness of life in Christ. We hope despite whatever season you may be travelling, this is the truth you anchor your soul in this week.
This week PJ reminds us of the dramatic turnaround that grace achieves for us. From a hopeless situation while we were “dead in our trespasses” by grace through faith we are brought into the fullness of life in Christ. We hope despite whatever season you may be travelling, this is the truth you anchor your soul in this week.
This week PJ reminds us that Christ's intercessory prayer for us, "to sanctify them in the truth and keep them from the evil one" is still with us today.
Reminders for this week:
Use this unprecedented time to serve one another and build up God's church
Remain anchored in the one thing that guides us in this time, that is the truth of God's Word
Sometimes we can get confused between prayer and meditation so PJ shares a devotional from Psalm 119.
Prayer is a one-on-one dialogue with God where we can converse with him.
Meditation is remembrance, contemplation and "soaking" all things into our system. It's allowing the Word of God to apply, shape and guide our orientation.
In this week's devotion, we reflect on the different ways of responding to grief. As believers in our fallen world, we may feel a deeper sense of loss as we long for a time when things can be restored, just the way God intended.
We hope you enjoy the rest of your week and look out for our upcoming sermon this Sunday which will look into the second half of 1 Corinthians 11.
To view the devotional video that PJ refers to click here.
Pastor Jim shares about the comfort that comes from Christ. We are encouraged to reach out to those who may be hurting right now so that we too can share the grace and peace that was first shared with us. Who comes to your mind?
In this week’s #DevotionsFromPJ, join us in meditating on the sweet comfort we have in the nearness of God in this time of physical isolation.
Five truths about God to dwell on this week:
God has always been remote
God is transcendent
God is imminent
God is intimate
God is real
Hear Pastor Jim's mid-week devotion on prayer and fellowship from the book of Acts. We encourage you to pray not only as individuals but also through community prayer at 3PM this Sunday. Stay tuned for more details.
In this episode of #DevotionsFromPJ, we look at a parable in Matthew 22. Similar to the great invitation that comes from the king to join his banquet, it is such a privilege to receive an invitation from our Lord. But we don't just stop there! We are called to share the great invitation with others so that eventually, the message can reach all the corners of the world.
"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction." Proverbs 1:7
On a weekly basis, we're excited to start sharing a devotional series from Pastor Jim. To kick off, we hope you can be encouraged by this message from Proverbs, to lean in and ponder on God's word. What are you meditating on this week?
