{"id":8434,"date":"2020-05-10T23:32:29","date_gmt":"2020-05-10T23:32:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cassowary.unitingchurch.org.au\/?p=8434"},"modified":"2020-05-10T23:33:30","modified_gmt":"2020-05-10T23:33:30","slug":"8434","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cassowary.unitingchurch.org.au\/?p=8434","title":{"rendered":"CCUC weekly Pastoral Letter 9th May 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"

THANK\u00a0 <\/span>YOU\u00a0<\/b><\/span>I just wanted to start this weeks letter by expressing our gratitude to you for your generosity.
\n<\/span>Thank you<\/strong> for blessing our little part of the body of Christ\u00a0<\/span>through your giving.\u00a0<\/span>
\nThank you<\/strong> for making sure your offering made its way to the bank.
\nThank you<\/strong> for the checks that have been mailed.\u00a0<\/span>
\nThank you<\/strong> for the direct deposits, for changing the way you give so we can continue to function as a church.\u00a0<\/span>
\nThank you<\/strong> for your gifts that came via our online giving capacity.\u00a0<\/span>
\nThank you<\/strong> to our Presbytery, that in collaboration with the Synod is making sure we can pay our bills.<\/p>\n

Reminds me a little of the early church as it is recorded in the Acts of the Apostles Acts 4:32<\/a> \u201cAll the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had \u2026 there were no needy persons among them\u201d.<\/p>\n

Everyone could have easily withdrawn and kept what they had for themselves\u00a0 <\/span>(for its yours anyway) – but what I have witnessed\u00a0 <\/span>is the fruit of the spirit – love in action, making sure those who were hurting and struggling; those who needed hand if just for a time got it; key moments in people\u2019s lives recognised; and a real ongoing generosity to our work in God\u2019s kingdom here in our patch. As I reflect on that, and so much more, it becomes clear to me that this heart is not driven by duty – the thing we should do. Rather it is lead by an attitude of gratitude, in response to the love of God expressed through Jesus. Its lead and fuelled by the Holy Spirit who lives with us.<\/p>\n

I see some another similarity between us and the early church. They were gathered together in their houses – waiting. Waiting for whatever it was that Jesus had promised them. They were tucked away praying, not sure of what was to come, but confident in a risen Lord. Like them, we have encountered a risen Lord, for he came to us, even when we denied Him.<\/p>\n

Jesus came and found us and through His grace restored us with interest and poured out Holy Spirit – resurrection power into our lives – a guarantee of our inheritance.<\/p>\n

Like the early church we have much to be thankful for. We live in tenuous times but how much more they – but they were thankful. It seems to me in this season that \u2018thankfulness\u2019 is a key to; our well-being; our fruitfulness; our life in Him; and life in its overflowing fulness (Jn 10:10<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Of this I am sure \u2026\u2026
\nWe are blessed – we are blessed to be a blessing!<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

THANK\u00a0 YOU\u00a0I just wanted to start this weeks letter by expressing our gratitude to you for your generosity. Thank you for blessing our little part of the body of Christ\u00a0through […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[57,3,84,80,20,85,13,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community","category-faith","category-giving","category-gospel","category-love","category-offering","category-prayer","category-unity"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cassowary.unitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cassowary.unitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cassowary.unitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cassowary.unitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cassowary.unitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8434"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/cassowary.unitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8434\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8436,"href":"https:\/\/cassowary.unitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8434\/revisions\/8436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cassowary.unitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cassowary.unitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cassowary.unitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}