{"id":8548,"date":"2020-05-17T06:47:26","date_gmt":"2020-05-17T06:47:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cassowary.unitingchurch.org.au\/?p=8548"},"modified":"2020-05-17T06:47:32","modified_gmt":"2020-05-17T06:47:32","slug":"ccuc-weekly-pastoral-letter-16th-may-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cassowary.unitingchurch.org.au\/?p=8548","title":{"rendered":"CCUC weekly Pastoral Letter 16th May 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"

Drawing Strength from God\u2019s Promises<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

This title is taken directly from our TNT (Tuesday Night Teaching) material \u2018Strengthen Yourself in the Lord\u2019 Session 2. I have covered this material a number of times but this week it seems that God is trying highlight the reality that – we can draw strength from the promises of God.<\/b> Strength to overcome the weariness that many are feeling now, strength to overcome dejection, strength to stand strong in your faith when it feels like your faith has been a punching bag, and strength take the risk one more time to pray for another healing or share the Good News with someone who has never been interested.\u00a0 <\/span>Strength to live a life that brings glory to God.<\/p>\n

2 Peter 1:2-4<\/a> tells us that God by His grace through Jesus \u201chas given us his very great and precious promises<\/b>, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires\u201d. That is, as we ponder the promises, meditate on them, let them be the words and truth that speak into our lives we will live lives as they are meant to be lived.<\/p>\n

God\u2019s promises, His word, literally creates the means for us to get from where we are in our lives and relationship with God to our destiny. For me, God speaks His promises most profoundly through the Scriptures, but God is not limited to them. His word can come to us through another person, a dream or vision, by the still small voice of the Spirit or through an anointed prayer.<\/p>\n

Bill Johnson says \u201cLiving mindful of God\u2019s promises is essential nourishment for every believer because they serve constant notice that there is great destiny awaiting us.\u201d<\/b> \u201cEvery promise is a snapshot of God\u2019s intended future reality for your life.\u201d (p44)<\/p>\n

Now, if thats the case, I think I need to be taking more notice of His promises – what about you?<\/p>\n

I want to throw out a challenge to you, especially if you are feeling weary, frustrated and lonely to read through John 14<\/a> for starters and pick out every promise – write them down somewhere, commit them to memory, ponder them, and rest on them and I can assure you that – you will be strengthened, you will live by the divine nature imparted to you in and through Jesus and the gift of the Holy Spirit, and you will find yourself being drawn into your destiny.<\/p>\n

Here are just a sample from this Sunday\u2019s reading from John 14<\/a>, for those who love Jesus. Jesus promises the gift of the advocate the Spirit of truth who lives in us (16,17); that we are no longer orphans [but sons and daughters] (18); because he lives we live also [what is true for Jesus is true for us]; and \u201cThe one who loves me, says Jesus, will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.\u201d (21)<\/p>\n

My friends \u2018taste and see that the Lord is good\u2019 – His goodness is for you, to strengthen you and to give you a future, a destiny.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Drawing Strength from God\u2019s Promises This title is taken directly from our TNT (Tuesday Night Teaching) material \u2018Strengthen Yourself in the Lord\u2019 Session 2. I have covered this material a […]<\/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":[3,27,51,45],"tags":[86],"class_list":["post-8548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faith","category-good-news","category-identity","category-mindset","tag-promises"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cassowary.unitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8548","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=8548"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cassowary.unitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8548\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8549,"href":"https:\/\/cassowary.unitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8548\/revisions\/8549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cassowary.unitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cassowary.unitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cassowary.unitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}