Enjoying the First Commandment
While fulfilling the Great Commission
Tarneit International Fellowship is launching soon !!!!!
Church planting team required. Please send in your Expressions of Interest.
If you live around the Tarneit area and are looking for a church to be involved in, we would love to hear from you. Please click on the contacts tab and send us a message, with your contact details.
THE JOURNEY BEGINS
My wife and I, and our two young children moved to Tarneit almost three years ago. All this time we have served as a part of the leadership team at Melbourne International Fellowship, a vibrant, inner city church.
But as we have seen the suburb of Tarneit rapidly grow around us, we have increasingly felt the need for more churches to be established in the area. The more churches there are, the more opportunity there will be for people to connect into the Kingdom of God, as our Lord Jesus Christ often referred to.
One of the purposes of a church is to be salt and light in the community (Matthew 5:13-15), to bring a flavour and spice that will prevent decay in our community (bringing love and peace into lives that might be hurting and broken) and to be a shining light to lead the way.
So, under the guidance and leadership of our Pastor Michael Morris, we agree that it is time prepare to establish a new church community 'Tarneit International Fellowship'. We are currrently in a recruiting phase.
There are two types of people that we are particularly looking for.
1) people who share our vision, and want to be a part of the long term church plant
2) people that want to encourage our vision, and are willing to commit to a short term support to see us through to an official launch.
If this is you we would love to hear from you !!!
We look forward to the adventure ahead.
Mark & Irene Strother
Tuesday, November 15, 2011 at 11:22PM I read a blog post today that I have to share, given we are recruiting a team for a church plant right here in Tarneit.
So here you have it...the top 10 reasons to join us and join our church plant.
1. If you want to see Jesus do something new and are sick of the status quo.
2. If you dream of being part of something bigger than yourself
3. Read reasons 3 to 10 here*
Thursday, September 29, 2011 at 12:38AM When we read Zechariah Chapter 8, we can get prophetic insight if we understand that references to Jerusalem and Zion are also speaking of the church of Jesus Christ. Some things to consider from this passage.
1. Jesus is passionate for his church. vs 2 'I am very Jealous fo Zion, I am burning with jealousy for her'
Jesus wants us to share his passion, because he lives in us.
He is a part of us, and so we are also a part of each other in Christ. We need to see each other, as the most important thing in our lives.
Church is not a Sunday Club. The church needs to be the center of our lives.
“Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and alien, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, built on the foundation, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit. Ephesians 2:19-22
2 Jesus wants Truth to be manifest in the church vs3 'The Jerusalem will be called the City of Truth'
Until we are walking in truth, Jesus finds a hard time to dwell.
We can’t entertain rumors, and second hand gossip. We can’t take the truth of God’s word out of context to justify our own ideas.
There is the word of truth and also the spirit of truth. They have to align so we can rightly divide the word of Truth. We need to have a living relationship with Jesus, the Truth.
Without the Holy Spirit, and constant feeding of the word, we will not be able to rightly divide the word of truth.
in 1 Timothy 3:15 Paul talks about ‘ God’s household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth’
3. Jesus wants the church to be Holy vs 3 '..the mountain of the Lord Almighty will be called the Holy Mountain.'
Holy means to be set apart. Set apart for what? Set apart to be a holy temple in which the very God who created the universe will dwell.
Jesus is alive. Jesus is real. Jesus is Lord. Jesus is King. Jesus is Almighty, the name above every name.
Therefore, we can only surrender our lives to him.
We are in the world but not of the world. A common misconception about holiness is to separate yourself from the world, like a monastery. We can be holy like Jesus, and still be a friend sinners, like Jesus. ' ..you say, "Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and 'sinners'. Luke 7:34
4. Jesus wants the church full of all age groupsvs 4-5 'Once again men and women of ripe old age will sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each with can in hand because of his age. The city streets will be filled with boys and girls playing there'
A church is blessed when there is a community of all types of people.
- The blessing of the seniors
- The blessing of the children
- The blessing of the middle aged
- The blessing of the young adults
- The blessing of the youth.
5. Jesus plans for the church are more than what you can imagine.vs 6 'It may seem marvelous to the remnant of this people at that time, but will it seem marvelous to me?' declares the LORD Almighty.
Whatever you can imagine, God can do so much more.
I imagine leading a missions team of 7000 people to nations in the world, , filling a stadium with worship 24/7 for a week, and then hitting the streets, and going door to door. I imagine nationwide revival with literally a hundred million people coming to Christ.
Why do I imagine this, because whatever I imagine, it won’t seem marvelous to God. It won’t seem too outrageous to God. He is able to do more than what I can imagine.
6 Jesus plans for the church to be filled with people from all nations.vs7,23 'I will save my people from the east and the west... ten men from all languages and nations...'
7. Jesus wants the church to be a blessing to the nations. vs 12-13 'The seed will grow well, the vine will yield its fruit, the ground will produce its crops, and the heavens will drop their dew.....and you will be a blessing.'
Tuesday, September 13, 2011 at 11:35PM We are excited with the expectation of what is going to happen in the months and years ahead. At the same time, we are humbled knowing the gravity of the calling to plant a church.
We believe that the most important question for us at the moment is not when we will launch, or where will we meet, or how do we go about it, or what will our mission statement will be. But the most important question for us, is who will answer the call to join us in this mission, and be a part of the launch team, or a part of the long term team?
It is the question of who, that is on our minds, our hearts and our prayers.
So far, we have been encouraged by some who are considering the calling, and we know it is only a matter of time before the team is formed.
It is such an opportunity for people who realise they were born for such a time as this. That this is how they can find a place that their giftings and passion to serve can be fully mobilised. To be a part of building something that willl last forever and have eternal value.
Thankyou for your prayers.
Mark& Irene
Wednesday, September 7, 2011 at 11:34PM Famous surfing brand Billabong, had a catch phrase in their marketing ‘Only a surfer knows the feeling.
You see, you can watch movies about surfing, and hear stories, and read about it, but there is no comparison to experiencing the real thing.
Likewise postcards or holiday snapshots from someone else’s holiday have no comparison to actually travelling yourself and meeting the locals, eating the food, the new smells, the sunsets.
When it comes to God...Jesus.. and the kingdom of God, intellectual knowledge is not enough.
There is a certain understanding, and knowledge of God, that goes beyond the mind. To receive spiritual revelation brings us a whole new level of knowing God, and knowing about God.
We need to have a divine revelation of Jesus.
For example, if you read in scripture that says ‘ We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God’ , it is not too hard to understand this with our mind, and have an intellectual knowledge of what these words mean.
But if we were to have a supernatural knowledge, given to us by God, about what the glory of God is, and we begin to put our hope in it, then we will begin to rejoice. Truely rejoice.
It is so important that we have more than head knowledge of God, but we have heart knowledge, we have spiritual knowledge.
Otherwise we end up just being religious.
If you read Matthew 16:13-18 Jesus asks his disciples who do they think he is. Peter answered with ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’ and Jesus said to Peter that his answer was revealed to him by his Father in Heaven.
Now don’t forget Peter has already seen Jesus turn water into wine, and healing every disease know to man. He watched Jesus turn cast out demons, calm a storm with words, walk on water, and feed 4000 people with a boys lunch.
But his knowledge of Jesus being the Son of God was separate to all that experience. It was something given to him directly from God the father.
That’s what I am talking about ; our need for information about God, about Jesus Christ the Son of God, the Lord of Lords, the King of King, the one with the name above every name. We need this information, this knowledge given to us from heaven, from God the father.
God is not a cardboard cut-out. Our image of God has to be more than two dimensional.
If the only image and understanding we have of God is one or two dimensional, eg, that he is a God of grace and peace, and we leave it at that, then we will end up with the wrong image of God. Yes of course he is a God of grace and peace but he is much more than that.
If we only have the revelation that God is a God who gives grace and peace, and we sit on that knowledge and don’t grow in our understanding of him, we may tend to exploit the character of God to our own benifit.
We also need a revelation of the Holiness of God, the Righteousness of God, The Majesty of God, the Goodness of God, the Compassion of God, the Power of God, the Glory of God, The Authority of God so that we can continue to grow and be transformed in our lives through this knowledge.
Knowlege by itself puffs up pride, but divine knowledge of God humbles us as we realise just who he really is. Seek after God for divine knowledge today!
Friday, September 2, 2011 at 10:41PM An interesting thing happened the other day. Justin Bieber gave an acceptance speach at an awards night, and at the end he thanked God, and Jesus. This caused a huge trend on twitter called ‘God and Jesus’ . (it was trending just below 'Beyonce pregnant'). It was clear from reading the flood of tweets of how little the average person understands about the mystery of the Trinity.
A lot of people were making fun of Justin, saying God and Jesus are the same person.
Yes, Jesus did say that he was one with his Father, but at the same time, they are two separate persons.
The world needs to be introduced to God the Father. Sometimes, we stop at introducing people to Jesus the Saviour, but Jesus is opening the door to know the Father, and even to sit with Jesus at the right hand of the Father.
Fathers day is a very special day for me. It is my Son’s birthday. Fathers day, is literally the day that I became a Father.
While fathers day is a day to honor our Fathers, and bless them, and tell them that we love them (although we shouldn’t limit this to one day a year) , it is also a day of celebration for me, because it is the day I became a Father.
And the Fathers day message that I have to share is simple, yet profound.
‘Grace and peace to you from God our Father...’ Romans 1:7
How can we know more about the Father God? who is he, and what is he like? One of the keys to understanding the Father, is knowing that he gives grace and peace. As I wrote about in my last post, that the apostle Paul started all his letters off with these words - 'Grace and peace from God our Father.'
We know God is Love. And his love causes him to give grace and peace.
Some things we can learn about God the Father from reading what Jesus taught. Firstly the famous parable of the prodigal son. What a picture of grace and peace!
Peace has to do with reconcilliaiton. The father not only graciously forgave his son, but through giving him his robe, and ring, and having a feast to celebrate his son's return, he was reconciled back in his relationship with his son.
2 Samuel 14:14 is one of my favorite verses. 'Like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be recovered, so we must die. But God does not take away life; instead, he devises ways so that a banished person may not remain estranged from him.' We were once enemies with God, but through Jesus Christ's sacrifice, God has found a way to make peace with us.
Jesus also said ‘ Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. ‘ John 15:16 Sounds pretty gracious.
Jesus also said 'For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life' ..... Or in Summary ‘Grace and peace to you from God our Father.’.
So as we try to understand our Father God, keep these words in your heart and mind. Grace and peace to me from God my Father.
And as we relate to our own children, and as we express our love for them, always remember those words, grace and peace I give to you.
Fathers Day, God the Father, Grace, Peace