Beautiful Outlaw

For the past month we have been using the material by John Eldredge called "Beautiful Outlaw" to explore Jesus as we know Him through the gospels. John Eldredge helps us to put aside "religion" and come to grips with the complex personality of Jesus so that we can better draw close to Him and understand that he is fully human and fully God. This is a tension that is difficult for us to hold onto. In introducing the series, Eldredge uses a wonderful quote from the 19th century theologian George MacDonald "How have we learnt Christ? It ought to be a startling thought that perhaps we have learnt Him wrong". Each week we are using the video clips where John Eldredge brings some of the different facets of Jesus together with images that help us think more clearly about who He is. You can find out more by clicking on the link below

Beautiful Outlaw

Boloco Christmas Pageant

There was great excitement on Christmas Eve at Boloco Church as the church filled with visitors for our first Christmas Pageant. Emily Shumack organised the event and Michelle Hansen did a wonderful job in preparing costumes for angels, shepherds, wise men and then Mary and Joseph. Some hay in the fireplace and a baby topped off the scene. It was a great way for us to experience the extraordinary story of Christmas and God coming into the world in this unique way. A few photos of the event follow.

What Prayer Can Do For You

We are a little over the half way mark in our studies of prayer through the resource of God's Word and Shirley Andrews as a guide with "Lord Teach us to Pray". We have jumped around a bit through the first 6 chapters of Shirley Andrews' book and Sue Moore spoke on 18 December from Week 2 "What Prayer Can Do For You". Sue provided a great summary of the other 6 weeks of talks and brought the various bible passages together to focus on the great provision that God has for us in prayer.

Over the New Year we will probably take a break from our studies on prayer because people are away on holidays. In the meantime, we all need to make a commitment n 2012 to a stronger focus on prayer in our personal lives and life together as His church.

Sue's talk can be heard by clicking on the Listen tab on this website and scrolling down to 2011-12-18 - Sue Moore.

Confession and Prayer - and Prayer Brings Victory

Over the past 2 Sundays we have continued our journey with Shirley Andrews and the messages have focused on Week 6 - Confession and Supplication, and Week 4 - Prayer Brings Victory. Ken Hansen gave a message on confession and we all engaged with the Word of God to understand better what He requires as we come to Him in prayer. On December 11, Gill Wilson spoke on Prayer Brings Victory. Gill used the passage from 2 Chronicles 20 which had been given to her 20 years ago by a lady in a prayer group as a significant passage for her. She didn't really understand it at the time but the passage has become increasingly important. The passage concerns King Jehoshaphat and the battle that the Lord won for the children of Israel because the king "set himself to seek the Lord". We have all been encouraged in our prayer journey and Gill also focused on the power of speaking out the Word of God.

Ken and Gill's talks can be listened to or downloaded from the website - click on the Listen tab and scroll down to 2011-12-04 for Ken's talk and 2011-12-11 for Gill's talk.

On Sunday 18th December, Sue Moore will be speaking on "What Prayer Can Do for You". The next service at Boloco will be on December 24th at 7:30pm which will be a Christmas Pageant. It promises to be exciting and Emily Shumack is overseeing the telling of the Christmas Story with music and bible passages. 

The Challenges of Prayer

At our church meeting on Sunday 27th November, Emily Shumack brought us a wonderful message on the ups and downs of prayer from her own journey as she looked back at her prayer journal. She quoted George Croley (1854): Spirit of God, descend upon my heart;

Wean it from earth, through all its pulses move;

Stoop to my weakness, mighty as thou art,

And make me love Thee as I ought to love.

Teach me to feel that Thou art always nigh;

Teach me the struggles of the soul to bear,

To check the rising doubt, the rebel sigh;

Teach me the patience of unanswered prayer.

Spirit of God, descend upon my heart.

In looking back at her journal, Em noted that for her the journey of faith and prayer had mostly been a hard, long learning process requiring faith and persistence. One of the key things as Em looked back at some of the most personally challenging issues was the need for obedience to what God has called us to do. Em's message can be heard by clicking on the Listen tab on the website and then going to the date - 2011-11-27. Thanks Em for helping us all by sharing your own journey of faith.

The Privilege of Prayer

Last week at Boloco Church we considered the first week of Shirley Andrews' material on "Lord Teach us to Pray". The focus was on the privilege of prayer and that prayer is a conversation with God. As we worked through the verses together we were reminded of the faithfulness of God and His character. There were stories of the impact of God speaking in different people's lives and a reminder that we simply had to "draw near to God and He will draw near to us" (James 4:8). The audio of the message can be heard by clicking on Listen and then going to 2011-11-20.

Lord Teach us to Pray - Owen's Message

Sunday 13 November we had Owen Davies with us as we continued with our series from Shirley Andrews' book "Lord Teach us to Pray". Owen focused on the story of God's amazing feast spread before us but in prayer we can often not enter into the intimacy of what God has provided. Owen focused on what it is that God wants to do in us and also what God wants to do with us.

We all tend to rush around busy with various activities and fail to just be quiet and have a conversation with God. There is clearly opposition to this happening but also in a sense, lack of faith on our part.

You can hear Owen's message by clicking on the Listen tab and then scrolling down to the date of the message which was 2011-11-13.