coalface 25 september 2011
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Coalface 25 September 2011TRANSCRIPT
From the
Coalface
NORTHLAKES—A church for everyone
25th September 2011
The NORTHLAKES Salvation Army Community Church
Dear Friend,
How wonderful it is that the Lord, as the psalmist tells us, loves to load us daily with His benefits (Psalm
68:19)! That is how good our Saviour is. His mercies and His unmerited favour are new every morning.
There are so many wonderful benefits that we receive because of the finished work of Christ. Today, I want to
focus on two of them that will richly bless you and potentially change the way you live your life.
God wants you to receive the benefit of living both happy and healthy!
Now, in a lot of ways, as believers we've not experienced true happiness because so many of us tie our hap-
piness to our circumstances: If your circumstances are good, you are happy. If they are bad, then you are not happy.
But that's not the kind of happiness that lasts, or the real and deep happiness God wants you to experience.
Real, unshakable, deep-down happiness has to do with the revelation that you are the righteousness of God in
Christ! In Romans 4:5, the apostle Paul says, "But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the
ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness."
When we put our faith in Christ, God counts us righteous! In verses 6-8, Paul goes on to quote King David
describing the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works, "Blessed are those
whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute
sin."
This word "blessedness" literally means "happiness" (and it is used in the plural). So David was describing the
"happiness's": Happy are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Happy is the man to whom
the Lord shall not impute sin.
Friend, if you believe in the finished work of Christ on the cross, and that all your sins—
past, present and future—are forgiven, you are that "happy" person!
When you know that you have non-imputation of sins, you will end up blessed—happy—because good things
will begin to happen to you. Your circumstances will line up and the good you want to see will happen for you! Also,
the more you focus on the fact that God has forgiven your sins and does not hold them against you, the more you
will walk in health. Proverbs 14:30, NASB, says, "A tranquil heart is life to the body..."
When you live with the ongoing awareness that your sins are NOT imputed to you, it will cause your heart to
be at peace (or tranquil). And as you walk in peace, you open yourself up to receiving the divine health of God. God
doesn't want you worried about your finances, health, relationships or any other thing. He wants you to live worry-
free and have a tranquil heart.
If you've been carrying burdens around with you, I want to encourage you to let them go. Because you know
that God fully accepts you IN CHRIST, you can confidently know that He will never leave you nor forsake you, even if
you have made mistakes in your life. See yourself surrounded by the Lord's constant presence and help and allow
Him to do all the heavy lifting for you.
As you renew your mind with the finished work of Jesus, you WILL experience the benefits of a
happy AND healthy life.
My heart's desire is that you will continue to experience God's blessings in your life. The benefits of God are freely
given to us, so choose to receive them today and lead an abundant life overflowing with His blessings!
The Ikea catalogue may be of great interest. but if you want to make sense of life, read the
Bible.
Page 2 Northlakes Salvation Army
PRAYER CHANGES
EVERYTHING!
Come and join together to pray this week...
Monday 6.30am
Tuesday 6.30pm
Wednesday 6.30pm
Thursday 5.30pm
6.30am
Every day at the Church House
EXCEPT Tuesday—at Chadban’s home 5 Glider Court Charlestown &
Before church next Sunday at 8.45am
Northlakes Salvos
are now on
follow us @NorthlakesSA
Newsletter entries
and enquiries
0423 033 318 or
Can you help? Wanted: Volunteer/s
Pushing a trolley for an older lady on a scooter, helping her with the shopping. Once a fortnight, Tues or Weds approx. 1 and 1/2 hours
At: Jesmond Woolworths Fortnightly =1x a month for 2 volunteers, 1x every 3 months for 6 volunteers
Please see or contact Cameron Smith to help 0400 531 434
Ladies!!!!!!
Looking to the SON -
Leave the shadows
behind!
Meet at Church House
(46 Reservoir Rd
Glendale)
2—3pm
Saturdays
Share life’s journey with other
ladies
as we look at what God says in His
Word and see how that can make a
difference
in our lives.
Buzz Cut If the clean-shaven look is too severe or you don’t feel like you could pull it off, but you still want something simple and sleek, the buzz cut is a great option. This is a good way to go if your hair is starting to thin on your crown or near your hairline. The buzz cut gives you a clean, yet edgy look. Short Caesar Cut Inspired by Roman Emperor Julius Caesar and made famous by George Clooney, the Caesar cut is a stylish way to conceal a receding hairline and a thinning top. The bangs are cut with a horizontal fringe and styled forward. The Power Donut Instead of keeping your remaining hair close to your head, you can just say, “screw it,” and let it grow out au naturel. What’s nice about the Power Donut is that it doesn’t require much work except for an occasional trim so you avoid growing a skullet. Grow facial hair A lot of celebrities with thinning hair rock some sort of facial hair. The facial hair directs attention from your balding head to your face. Moustaches and goatees work best. Never under any circumstances should you attempt the comb-over No matter what style you go with, never, ever use a comb-over. Do not fall under the delusion that having a ponytail in the back will compensate for baldness on top either. Hair math just doesn’t work that way.
Men's Conference --- accepting of all men, regardless of your hair status
Ikea Outstrips the Bible The Bible has always been the most widely distributed book in the world. Recently it has been surpassed. The Ikea catalogue, which arrived recently in our mailbox, is now the world's most distributed book. This glossy catalogue of furniture, space-
saving devices and a myriad of other home wares now has a distribution of over 145 million copies each year. It seems that you couldn’t find two publi-cations that are further apart in style and content! Yet the Bible and the Ikea catalogue do have some-thing in common. Everyone reads them to improve life. Ikea can improve our homes - it improves our financial situation with cheaper merchandise and it improves our ability to save the space around our homes with the most ingenious designs. The Bible seeks to improve our lives by helping us understand that our lives are more significant than our homes, improved finances are not as important as a deeper faith and that saving space counts for little against a personal relationship with God.
Hair loss can still be a big psychological blow to men. For many, it’s likely the first sign they’re getting old. It affects hundreds of millions worldwide, so here is some help on how to deal with baldness like a man. The General Rule Keep your hair short. Short hair minimizes the appear-ance of balding and also gives your hair some lift which makes it look like you have more hair. Clean-shaven The completely bald look is a great option for men who have very large bald spots that cover a good portion of their heads. The clean-shaven look has a host of bene-fits. For starters, you free yourself from the effort of ever having to style your hair again. And you can wash your chrome dome with the same bar of soap you use on your body.
Page 3 Northlakes Salvation Army
This is just a friendly reminder about Compassion’s annual Christmas Appeal. If you recently received a Christmas card in the mail to write a message to your sponsored child, please don’t forget to return it to us by next Friday, 23 September, to ensure it reaches its destination in time. If you don’t sponsor a child through Compassion, please still consider giving a gift to this year’s Christmas Appeal. You can help provide Christmas gifts to all Compassion assisted children this year, as well as to parents in the Child Survival Program. If you have already sent in your Christmas card and/or gift, THANK YOU! The love and support of children living in poverty from supporters like you is truly inspirational.
Stand-In Best Friend Ryuichi Ichinokawa has launched a new busi-ness in Japan. He is paid to be peoples' stand-in best friend. He acts as a stand-in husband at events, even as a best man at weddings where the groom can't find one. He now has a booming business with thirty employees who offer the service of being peo-ples' fake spouse, friend, colleague, boyfriend or girlfriend at social functions. This is an extreme example of the problem of friendship and connection in modern western societies. We live close to thousands of people, we have social networking sites like Facebook and can communicate with hundreds via Twitter, we have more means of communication such as mobiles and email than ever before. Yet we still find ourselves lonely and in desperate need of good friends. True community is beyond social networking and electronic communication. It’s marked by open-ness, trust and the thing we all lack most – time. God created us with a longing for spiritual con-nection and personal love and friendship. Our need for relationships reminds us again of God's creative work and our need for spiritual connection with Him.
Read Romans 8:28 28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. (TNIV)
This is one of the more comforting verses of the Bible. We turn to it as we look around us and see mere chaos and sadness and mystery. We cling to this verse as a speck of light in the midst of the darkness. Somehow, somewhere, sometime, God is going to work good out of what is anything but good. And we are quite right to draw such conclusions. God is always good, his purposes are always good, his purposes will not ultimately be thwarted. So we place our individual troubles in this comforting con-text. But we need to be aware of the wider, deeper implications of this verse. It is couched in the plural. God works good for his people collectively as well as individually. We might even say that the 'good' God works out might not be experienced by a particular struggling individual but might be experienced by God’s people as a whole. One martyr cruelly put to death might lead to blessing for others for example. We must also let God define what is good, and what is to be the tim-ing and the shape of this goodness. We want this verse to mean that after a bit of nasty suffering we will get some quick and pleasant blessing. And this may happen. But we dare not confine God’s 'good' to our immediate blessing. God has wider, deeper purposes than our material comfort. We must trust him to be good, but trust him enough to let him determine what is good
God’s Good Purposes
SHARE A PRAYER
Check out our website
www.northlakessalvos.com.au
For Our Church Family
at Northlakes & Beyond
HSC students in their final weeks leading up to their examinations
Safety for people travelling interstate & overseas
Healing for Matisse; Kiah-Rose
New small groups—Ladies’ Bible Study
Northlakes Salvation Army Page 4
HAPPY
BIRTHDAY
Wishing you all a fantastic day and
a blessed year ahead!
Love from all your Northlakes Family
For the Salvo’s Salvo care line Sydney, NSW
Salvos legal, THQ—Luke Geary and Team
Salvos stores, THQ—Neville Barrett, Major Brian Unicomb, Major Amanda Choy-Show, Major Robert Sneller, Majors Peter & Eileen Holley, Majors Ron & Ellen McMellon,, Captain Bev Kingston and Team
Samaritan House, Mackay, QLD
Samaritan Services—Major Raewyn Grigg (Director)
Foster House complex & Waterloo Community Ministries, NSW—Majors Russel & Lorraine McLeod, Major Lyall Reese, Majors Peter & Ruth Dollin and Team
Samaritan Services/Orana Women & childrens services, NSW—Captain Patsy Shadbolt, Captain Karen Flemming and team
Calendar Dates:
26th-27th: Social Justice Working Party—Geelong
1st-2nd: Evangelist Network Conference
To pray in Jesus’ name means to pray in his spirit, in his c
compassion, in his love, in his outrage, in his concern. In other words,
it means to pray a prayer that Jesus himself might pray Kenneth L. Wilson
SEPTEMBER Noami Ryan 2
Cody Cutting 3
Sam Hawkins 4
Ross Hughes 5
Natalie Baker 6
Zane Hubbard 6
Ethan Crump 7
Simeon Price 8
Stephen Hannaford 8
Elisha McCabe 10
Mark Resevsky 10
Lorelle Chapman 10
Megan Vile 10
Tina Price 10
Matisse Elliott 11
Jane Evans 12
Melinda Baker 12
Errol Maclachlan 13
Lauren Hubbard-Green 13
Kerrie Burnett 15
Michelle McCabe 16
Jason Roberts 16
Wendy Vile 18
Rita McDermott 22
Lachlan Robertson 24
Cody Chapman 26
Don Lyall 30
October Series
The Royal Rollercoaster
Looking at 4 kings from the Old Testament
Saul David Solomon Jeroboam
Don’t miss what God wants to say to you
through this teaching series.