Category: Identity

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Getting off the never-ending ride – CCUC Pastoral Letter

Grace and peace to you from our Lord Jesus Christ

Well, the rollercoaster that we call life continues to roll on. It sometimes feels like a never-ending-ride, one day blends or even collides with the next, one moment you are doing okay and then yet another twist or turn enters your life.

For some of us we have not yet found the off switch for our ‘fight or flight mode’ that was triggered by the traumatic season we are living in. Marie and I have the pleasure of being in on a webinar (seminar delivered via the web) on this very topic of trauma. It is very interesting because Sandra Sellmer-Kersten made this very point – “that some of us have had the part of our brain that protects us from danger, the amygdala, triggered in this season and its still firing”. So, she says, we will find ourselves in either fight, flight, freeze, or fawn (become ultra compliant) mode, or a mixture of all of the above, until we can find a way to ‘deal with’ the trauma that has triggered us. You might say this is some psychological mumbo-jumbo but I regret to say its a well attested ‘fact of life’, like death and taxes. Continue reading “Getting off the never-ending ride – CCUC Pastoral Letter”

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Weekly Pastoral Letter # 29th March 2020

To our friends, our brothers and sisters in Christ, the church

If I might borrow from Paul’s letter to the Thessalonian’s
We always thank God for you and continually mention you in our prayers. We remember you before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labour prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Thes 1:2-3)

This morning, as I was picturing your faces in church (thankfully you sit in the same places to make that easier) and praying as Paul prayed for you, I sensed a strengthening in my spirit and a compulsion share with you. Not that I have brilliant words like some, but rather just to say that I am glad we are in this time of trial (evil) together as a family as brothers. I know the concept of Australian mateship is a good thing and it is my prayer that it may triumph over the self-centred and self-serving behaviour of some. But let us not be condemning of people who are behaving ‘badly’ for if we were to condemn them then we must be prepared to have our behaviour judged similarly. Rather lets recognise that fear has a foothold in many lives and so as that happens the enemy has a place to land in the absence of love. Let’s pray for the presence of perfect love, Jesus, to find a home in every fearful heart.  Continue reading “Weekly Pastoral Letter # 29th March 2020”