Am I “nuts” believing Jesus rose again?

Sceptics and atheists assert that the resurrection of Jesus is impossible. Dead people don’t come back to life again.  End of story. 

So what do they make of Paul’s story - of how he encountered Jesus on a road to Damascus?

Or the dramatic change in Paul telling others the Good News of Jesus – for the rest of his life?!

Years later, when Paul tells his story to governor Festus and King Herod Agrippa II, he concludes:

“I am saying nothing beyond what the prophets and Moses said would happen — that the Messiah would suffer and, as the first to rise from the dead, would bring the message of light to his own people and to the Gentiles.”

At this point Festus interrupted Paul’s defense. “You are out of your mind, Paul!” he shouted. “Your great learning is driving you insane.” Acts 26:22-24 NIV

Labelling Christians as “deluded” or “nuts” is nothing new!  

Paul didn’t change his tune – and neither should we.

It’s one thing to dismiss Christians as “nutters”.  It’s another to give a plausible account of what happened in light of the historical evidence: the empty tomb, Jesus’ dead body never produced, eyewitness claims that the risen Jesus kept appearing to lots of people, and radically changed lives of millions of believers since – including you and me!

Pr Rolly Stahl

This Sunday at Good Shepherd

This week’s message is “Emptiness: When more feels less” as we continue the series “Is this all there is?” 

Podcasts of weekly messages are available at www.paravista.org.au

Bible Readings: Luke 12:13-21

Kingdom Kids is back this week! The topics each zone will be looking at are:

Baby Zone: People at Church Help Me

Kindy Zone: Breakfast on the beach (John 21:1-19)

Kids Zone: Jesus' Promise (Acts 1:1-11)

Kool Zone: Telling the world about Jesus (Acts1:1-11)

Baby Zone

Thank you so much to everyone who donated items, toys and money to the new Baby Zone room. Praise God! There are just a few items left that we need for the whole year's program which is fantastic!  If you have these items or can donate them, please leave them in the Baby Zone room:

• Doll blankets
• Stuffed toy animal sheep, cow, donkey and camel
• Variety of plastic or washable play/dress up hats

Calling All Creative People

Are you interested in sharing ideas, vision and creativity, or would you like to help with planning and pulling together events for the Children and Family Ministry? We would love to get together a team of people who can help provide this support for the ministry. If God has gifted you with creativity, drama, ideas and vision, or you have a passion for the ministry and enjoy working with kids then we need and want you! Please have a chat with me, or just contact me with your interest via email, phone or in person! 

Kindy Zone Team Leader

We are still praying for someone who would love to lead Kindy Zone and be part of the team! Please consider if this might be you and get in touch with me (beth.einthal@paravista.org.au) for a chat!

Beth Einthal - Children and Family Team Leader

Prayer Requests:

Prayer requests are not included in the weekly news. If you would like to view the current requests refer to the email that alerted you to this weekly news. If you have a prayer request please email churchequiries@paravista.org.au with your request.

Good Shepherd Lutheran Women’s Fellowship

45^th Anniversary Luncheon on Tuesday 3^rd June 2014 @12pm. GSPV Church Hall. Donation $12

RSVP by 27^th May to Ruth Oster Ph. 8265 0221

AGM’s of the Church, School and Village

The AGM’s of the church, school and village will be held on Sunday May 25^th commencing at 12:30 pm. More information will be available by Sunday May 18^th.

There will a lunch available in the hall prior to the meeting.

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Car parking available on football match days

IMMANUEL LUTHERAN CHURCH - 139 ARCHER STREET, NORTH ADELAIDE

With the football now at Adelaide Oval, parking is at a premium. We can take the hassle out of finding a park with approximately 20 car parks available at the rear of the Church for $10 per game. Season passes are also available.

Funds raised will go to our Ministry and Mission Projects.

Contact Chairperson – Gary Boyce on 0413 553 770

New Lutheran Media website

Check out the new www.lutheranmedia.org.au website.  Easy access to resources and our outreach ministries, including a new blog called the “Hub”. You’ll also discover easy ways to support this vital outreach ministry.

Chronic – Episode 3 of 5
'I want to be healed; why aren't I?' Go to facetoface.org.au or youtube.com/luthmedia to see a short clip about making sense of why sometimes people aren't healed as we want. There are resources for you too, such as the free booklet Chronic Pain.

Contact Lutheran Media on 1800 353 350 or luthmedia@lca.org.au for your copy.

Emerge Leadership Conference

Emerge is a one day leadership conference for youth, young adult & camping leaders aged 16 years and above. ONLY $10 registration plus $8 for lunch (or BYO)

Keynote Speaker Chris Mann and excellent workshops to choose from!

Register at https://events.blueprintministries.org.au/

“Live so that when people get to know you,

they will want to get to know Christ”

Connect with God

Inviting God to be present in your life every day is important to deepening your relationship with Him, your understanding of His love and to feel the comfort, strength and freedom that this relationship brings.

If I worry or feel stressed about something, I can pray about it and hand it over to God. If I am happy or joyous about something, I can thank God and share that joy with Him. If I am sad or depressed, I can ask for help and comfort. Whatever the situation, I can take it to Him or share it with Him and He always helps, forgives, comforts and loves me.

I want my child to also experience this amazing relationship. How important then is it for us to share our lives and grow in our faith alongside our kids and grandkids? Joel 1:3 says "Tell it to your children, and have your children tell their children, and their children tell their children".

• What then can you do in your home during the week, to strengthen your relationship with God and your family's relationship with Him too? Some ideas I have recently been trying out and found helpful include:
• Each member of your family sharing a high and a low from their day.
• Praying together each taking turns to say "Dear God I thank you for..........I praise you for.............I am sorry for...............and in the spirit of forgiveness I ask you for.............
• Read something from a devotion book together.
• Read a Bible verse or story together.
• Stop to pray together out loud throughout your day when you, your child or someone you know is struggling. Ask God to help them with their struggle.
• When you are out somewhere or even at home and can see someone is sad, alone, unhappy or cross, quietly say a prayer for them.
• Use car travel time to pray for things happening that day in your family.
• Say Grace together at shared meal times.
• Bless each other at bed time and put the sign of the cross on them.
• Keep a gratefulness journal for your family. Write three things you are grateful for and thank God for these things.

All of these are simple things but they all help to direct your thinking constantly to God. Gradually you will find Him at the centre of everything in your life, where He wants and needs to be. You don't have to do it all every day, just keep trying to make an effort to do at least one thing each day to connect with God for you and your family. Be consistent and it will make an amazing difference!

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give to you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on your door frames of your houses and on your gates.

 “Deuteronomy 6:5-9”

Beth Einthal

This Sunday at Good Shepherd

This week’s message is “Disillusionment: when life’s going nowhere” as we start a new series Is this all there is?

Podcasts of weekly messages are available at www.paravista.org.au

Bible Readings: Luke 24:13-35

Kingdom Kids (including Baby Zone) will not be running during the school holidays.

Kindy Zone Team Leader

We are still praying for someone who would love to lead Kindy Zone and be part of a passionate and fun team! Please consider if this might be you and get in touch with me (beth.einthal@paravista.org.au) for a chat!

Step Up

Is running again this year in May for children now in Year 5 at school. The Step Up program helps to prepare children for admission to Holy Communion. The first session will be a shared lunch held on Sunday 4th May with four sessions on Fridays May 9, 16, 23 and 30, all held in the school library. Please contact the church office on 8263 5087 or email Beth (beth.einthal@paravista.org.au) for further information, or to register your child.

Beth Einthal - Children and Family Team Leader

Prayer Requests:

Prayer requests are not included in the weekly news. If you would like to view the current requests refer to the email that alerted you to this weekly news. If you have a prayer request please email churchequiries@paravista.org.au with your request.

Good Shepherd Lutheran Women’s Fellowship

45^th Anniversary Luncheon on Tuesday 3^rd June 2014 @12pm. GSPV Church Hall. Donation $12

RSVP by 27^th May to Ruth Oster Ph. 8265 0221

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LCA Mission International

Visit the website http://www.lcamission.org.au and listen to some exciting stories of God at work in Cambodia.

All together all right - Launch Sunday 27^th April @ 7 pm

Concordia College Chapel (45 Cheltenham St. Highgate) Books & CDs available

“A hug is the body's battery re-charger”

What story are you telling yourself?

If we were to compile all the things you have thought about yourself over the last week, what kind of story would they tell about you? Would you want this story told, or would you prefer to keep it secret?

I imagine we would want to keep our internal story secret. There is no way we want others seeing the kind of thoughts we wrestle with about ourselves. What would people think if they knew how insecure we really are and how unsure we are of ourselves?

However, can we really keep what we think of ourselves secret from those around us? Dan Rockwell a leadership consultant recently tweeted, ‘The story in your head always finds expression in your life.’ What we’re telling ourselves always works its way out into our lives. The way we act and react is shaped by our inner story. Sometimes the two are similar. Other times we cover up our thoughts and feelings by acting in the opposite way. 

Where do the thoughts that form our inner stories come from? They come from the words and actions of others towards us. They come through the barrage of messages we receive each day in the media. They come through the accusing voice of the devil. As we process all these messages and interpret their meaning for us our thoughts are formed and our internal story composed.

The problem is that our internal stories are corrupted by a much bigger story written by sin. Sin corrupts what is said and done to us. Sin distorts the way we think so our thoughts and the stories we write with them are often negative and point to an unhappy ending. Is there a way to transform our thoughts so that the story in our head is far less negative and points towards a happy ending?

The answer is “Yes” and it is found in Jesus. When Jesus hung on the cross and cried “It is finished” he was declaring the end of sin’s sad story in our lives. When Jesus rose from the dead he was declaring that a new story is now being written for us to live in. We enter this story as we give Jesus our old sin stained story in repentance and receive his new story written through forgiveness.

Our new story in Jesus is not a one off event, but a daily journey of renouncing the old story through confession and forgiveness and a writing of the new story through faith filled life following Jesus.

Our Good Friday service will provide an opportunity to hand over the old story together with the words of others that have formed it. You will also hear Jesus declare again that “It is finished!” On Easter Sunday we will celebrate how Jesus’ resurrection changes everything. The old story of sin and death has been replaced by a new story of life and hope in Jesus.

I pray you can join us this Easter.

Pastor Noel

This Easter Sunday at Good Shepherd

This week’s message is “This changes everything”

Podcasts of weekly messages are available at www.paravista.org.au

Bible Readings: Matthew 26:36-46

Easter Service Times

Maundy Thursday - 7.30pm Service with Holy Communion

Good Friday - 8.45am & 10.30am Good Friday Experience

Easter Sunday - 8.45am & 10.30am Celebration service with Holy Communion

Please take a look at the presentation on the wall in the church hall to see how Kingdom Kids recently celebrated Easter! It was a God filled morning filled with fun, faith and community, and it was amazing to see so many children, youth, parents and grandparents doing the stations with the children, with around 90 children and adults learning together; Praise God!

Kingdom Kids (including Baby Zone) will not be running during the school holidays. There will be lots for kids to see, do and be involved with in church over Easter so come and enjoy church together as a family!  

Baby Zone
The new Baby Zone room was painted on Sunday and looks nice and fresh! Many thanks to Kathy and Mia Liebig and Aaron, Ruby and Helen Einthal for their amazing help with this! Thanks also to Tanya Harrison for moving the furniture away from the walls. It was a great team effort!   

Over the next few weeks we will be fully decorating the room! There are still some things that we could use for our program below. If you have any of these things and can spare them, our little ones will make good use of them!

• Packets of seeds of herbs or flowers and small pots - “God Makes Growing Things” is the theme for April.
• Dolls (babies only, i.e. not Barbies)
• Doll blankets and other baby doll accessories
• Toy people (too large to swallow, i.e. “Little People”)
• Toy cash register
• Toy picnic basket and toy picnic set
• 2 small torches
• Stuffed toy animal sheep, cow, donkey and camel
• Variety of plastic or washable play/dress up hats

If you have any of these items that you would be happy to donate to the room, or are happy to purchase them for the room, please leave them in the Baby Zone room by the shelves or pass onto Beth Einthal or Tanya Harrison, Baby Zone Team Leader.

Kindy Zone Team Leader

We are still praying for someone who would love to lead Kindy Zone and be part of a passionate and fun team! Please consider if this might be you and get in touch with me (beth.einthal@paravista.org.au) for a chat!

Step Up

Is running again this year in May for children now in Year 5 at school. The Step Up program helps to prepare children for admission to Holy Communion. The first session will be a shared lunch held on Sunday 4^th May with four sessions on Fridays May 9, 16, 23 and 30, all held in the school library. Please contact the church office on 8263 5087 or email Beth (beth.einthal@paravista.org.au) for further information, or to register your child.

Beth Einthal

Children and Family Team Leader

Prayer Requests:

Prayer requests are not included in the weekly news. If you would like to view the current requests refer to the email that alerted you to this weekly news. If you have a prayer request please email churchequiries@paravista.org.au with your request.

Cebu Fundraising Event
Sausage Sizzle and Steak Sandwich Day, Sun 25th May. There will be sausages available after the first service and sausages and Steak Sandwiches available after the second service.  Come and enjoy some lunch and then attend the AGM for the School, The Village and the Church at 12.30pm. There will also be freshly baked Cupcakes for sale.

All monies raised will go to the 'Inayawan Project' in Cebu, Philippines.

Wishing Well

The fundraising team have available a Wishing Well for hire, which can be used for Weddings, Engagements, Christenings, 18th or 21st Birthday parties, etc. It is a secure locked box and the $50 hire fee goes to Cebu Mission. For more information or to make a booking, contact the Church office or Linda Dulay on 0423067398

Chocolate Sellers

We would like one more person to sell chocolates please. If you work in an office, kindy, etc and have a suitable area to display a box of chocolates, then please contact Joan McCarthy or other team member.

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Grace conference 2014

LWSA/NT encourages women of all ages to attend the Grace conference 2014 at Concordia College. The theme for the conference this year is Evangelism for Everyone, * guilt not included.

Spend a day with Christian women from all walks of life and explore what God does and doesn't want us to do when it comes to evangelism from the book of 1 Peter.

Register online at www.graceconference.org.au

Or phone Carol Black on 82663007 /0418834150 for more information.

“Faith grows best in the winter of trial”