From George and Sharmaine – April/May 2009 Congregational Newsletter

Well friends this is the time of the year associated with giggles of little children and merry screams of enjoyment of older children as they hunt for Easter Eggs. Parents and Grandparents fondly watch the merriment as the children’s faces are covered in chocolate and tummies ache with over indulgence.

However this is also the time that The Son of God willingly was led to the cross to die for us so that we would never ever have to not have HOPE. He died so we may live, He shed His Blood so that we can be set free.

He died for everyone, not just some, but everyone.

I love Christchurch. Learning to recycle properly has been an interesting experience.

But did you know God is in the recycling business as well? He recycles people!

Philippians 2:12b-13 says, “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure”.

We have become so judgmental and self-sufficient….but how can this be in times like these? Our hearts have been burdened by the cries of the unemployed, the children who are bewildered because the change of circumstances in their homes have effected them so radically. We have daily strengths through our struggles, we as Christians have conquests and challenges. WE ARE NOT THE FINISHED PRODUCT!

Why have we tried to box ourselves in and lift ourselves up as the epitome of sanctity? Yet beneath our stained glass windows and padded pews lie broken hearts and torn families.
We love what T.D. Jakes says, “Many choose to wait in the isle of
His Presence rather than die in the stables of our wretchedness!”

God blesses us in spite of ourselves.
Our testimonies in these precarious times have to change, we have to reach out to the hurting, reach out to the lost, reach out to those who daily cry to God, “Save me from myself”. Let us in this time give a thought to the journey of the Cross. The journey our Saviour so willingly took and while we are thinking on this let us, beneath the streaming tears of our grateful heart, realize that we have nothing to boast in save the precious Blood of Jesus – nothing but the Blood.

If you are experiencing hard times and difficulties please contact us so that we can help in whatever way we are able.

Remember we love you
Have a Blessed Easter!