From the

Coalface

NORTHLAKES—A church for everyone

31st July 2011

The NORTHLAKES Salvation Army Community Church

The Big Picture

Read Ruth 4:13-17 13 So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. When he made love to her, the LORD enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son. 14 The women said to Naomi: “Praise be to the LORD, who this day has not left you with-out a family guardian. May he become famous throughout Israel! 15 He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age. For your daughter-in-law, who loves you and who is better to you than seven sons, has given him birth.” 16 Then Naomi took the child in her arms and cared for him. 17 The women living there said, “Naomi has a son!”

And they named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David. (TNIV)

Ruth was once a widowed foreigner sticking loyally with her mother in law in a strange land. Without protection and seem-ingly without prospects. But this is never the bottom-line truth for any who look to God. This God came to Ruth’s aid by bringing her to her future husband, Boaz. He took her under his care, thus in a human way mirroring what God had been doing for Naomi and Ruth beforehand. So now Ruth is safely married to a good man. All live happily ever after. But this book isn’t in the Bible simply as an encouraging story of the journey from loneliness to love, from alienation to be-longing. It is here because it was just one small part of a much bigger picture. Ruth gives birth to Obed who is the grandfa-ther of David. And many generations later, Jesus is born from this same family line. Out of seemingly insignificant human adventures and misadventures, something of world-changing significance occurs. We may trust that this same God is weaving his supernatural tapestry out of the apparently mundane and even disturbing events of our own lives. We are part of a great purpose, a great plan, a great design.

PRAYER CHANGES EVERYTHING!

Come and join together to pray this week...

Monday 6.30am

Tuesday 6.30pm

Wednesday 6.30pm

Thursday 5.30pm

Friday 6.30am

Every day at the Church House

EXCEPT Tuesday—at Chadban’s home 5 Glider Court Charlestown

Before church next Sunday at 8.45am

Northlakes Salvos

are now on

Twitter

follow us

@NorthlakesSA

Noah's Ark : Everything I need to know, I learned from Noah's Ark . ONE : Don't miss the boat. TWO : Remember, we’re all in the same boat! THREE : Plan ahead. It wasn't raining when Noah built the Ark . FOUR : Stay fit. When you're 60 years old, someone may ask you to do something really big. FIVE : Don't listen to critics; just get on with the job that needs to be done. SIX: Build your future on high ground. SEVEN : For safety's sake, travel in pairs. EIGHT : Speed isn't always an advantage. The snails were on board with the cheetahs. NINE : When you're stressed, float awhile. TEN : Remember, the Ark was built by amateurs; the Titanic by professionals. ELEVEN : No matter the storm, when you are with God, there's always a rainbow waiting.

Men and Boys’ night

We are go-carting

Thurs 11th Aug - 6.15pm

Thornton Go-carts.

$60 plus $5 for licence..

See Greg Dimmock 0421 021 350

Need numbers ASAP.

Come along and you can be a cool

cat like me

Page 3 Northlakes Salvation Army

Fearful All Your Life

Do you remember the last time you were given a huge scare? Do you remember that feeling of a hot flush as you reacted to the fright? That sensation is adrenaline which physically prepares you to either fight or flee the danger. Adrenaline is a wonderful and life saving hormone but we can actually become too used to it. When you are stressed for long periods of time, you actually start living on elevated levels of adrenaline which starts to feel normal. American counsellor Al Turtle has written, "High levels of adrenaline in your blood stream, and no conscious aware-ness of it can be a big problem... People (often) say, 'I’m not scared or fearful,' but they have been fearful all of their lives." Is it possible that you are fearful constantly? It seems many people live with fear and its close cousin, stress. There is no easy answer to this but a significant change can be made if we learn to pray. Take your concerns to God and allow him to help you step away from fear and stress.

Familiar And Fresh

Read John 3:16-17 16 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. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. (TNIV) It is so easy for us to miss the radical wonder of this familiar text. To grasp it we need to understand just what the word 'world' means in this gospel. It does not mean cuddly koala bears, majestic waterfalls, cute babies, or spectacular sunsets. It means hu-man society in rebellion against God. When this writer tells us in another place to not love 'the world', he is telling us not to em-brace that which is hostile to God. He is not referring to the positive features of the natural world. So in effect, this text is telling us that God so loved those who hated him, he gave his Son to us to die in our place and open the door back into his forever family. He didn’t send Jesus to die for all the nice people who needed a bit of extra help to get to heav-en. He sent Jesus to die for people who had turned their back on him and by nature were rebellious. Which means all of us. God could easily and justly have condemned this world to its fate. He could have told us that if we wanted independence from him then we could have it and he could go on living in heavenly splendour without troublesome human beings to cause him pain. But his love would not let this happen. So Jesus bore the just penalty for our independence-seeking ways and God spares all who trust in what he has done. He loves those who hate him, he is for those who are against him, he wants to rescue those who have turned their back on him.

Shared Space Traffic System

Hans Monderman, a traffic planner, has built a new traffic system called Shared Space. Residents of the northern Dutch town of Drachten have already been used as guinea-pigs in an experiment which has seen nearly all the traf-fic lights removed from their streets. The idea is to take away most of the signs and traffic lights so that people become much more responsible for their own actions and aware of the people around them. The main junction in Drachten handles about 22,000 cars a day. Where once there were traffic lights, there is now a roundabout, an extended cycle path and a pedestrian area. For those who think that this would be a total disaster, the results are very positive with a reduction in accidents and improvements in driving standards. Monderman is suggesting that when you make people responsible for each other in the shared space they actually take responsibility for their actions and show concern for others. It is a Biblical idea – we are our brother's keeper.

SHARE A PRAYER

Check out our website

www.northlakessalvos.com.au

For Our Church Family at Northlakes Britt Lloyd—for continued strength and comfort

For people suffering with the flu—healing!

Dawn Park—surgery 3rd August

God’s dreams to be released in our church and for people in our church

Safety for Don Lyall as he continues his road trip and Meg Ber-toldi & family, Anna McKee, Clare & Ken travelling in US; Collins, Amos families in New Zealand; Val McLeish in Europe

Megan McKee; Meredith & Stephen; Reece& Mel; Stan; Ling

Elderly parents/grandparents of church family members

Northlakes Salvation Army

Newsletter entries and enquiries 0423 033 318 or fiona.stig@spcc.nsw.edu.au

Page 4

HAPPY

BIRTHDAY

Wishing you all a

fantastic day and a blessed

year ahead!

Love from all your

Northlakes Family

For the Salvo’s Noosa Corps, QLD—Captains Neville & Jenny Hall

Noosa Shire Crisis Housing Program, QLD—Carol Hilditch and Team

North Brisbane Corps, QLD—Majors Peter & Wendy Staines

North Ipswich Indigenous Ministries, QLD—Envoy Judith Nuriyn-Yumba

North N.S.W Division Rural Mission - Majors Peter & Jean Ridley and Envoys Lloyd & Vicki Graham

North NSW Divisional Headquarters—Majors Phillip & Nancy McLaren, Lieutenant Narelle Unicomb, Lieutenants Ged & Jeanie Oldfield, Major Carmen Cugley, Captain Grant Kingston-Kerr and Team

Calendar Dates:

1st—2nd: Newcastle & Central NSW Division Mission Forum

3rd-4th: DYSs Consultative Forum

5th-7th: South QLD Division Children Matter Conference

7th-14th: Suicide Prevention Week

Children & Youth Decision Week

Prayer is not so much an act as it is an attitude—

an attitude of dependency, dependency upon God.

Arthur W. Pink

JULY

Anna McKee 2

Kevin Deal 4

Tim Ward 6

Chris Deal 6

Zoe Williams 7

Victoria Twivey 10

Trevor Chisholm 11

Mia Stig 13

Dawn Park 13

Brad Campbell 15

Matthew Vile 16

Zac Hipwell 17

Xanthe Johnstone 17

Deborah Anderson 17

Brooke Rennie 18

Conor Dimmock 18

Lynda Hindle 21

Claire Simpson 22

Prudence Lines 23

Jessica Mitchell 24

Judy Anastopoulos 25

Stan Franklin 28

Melissa Gorman 30

Danai Aryue 15

Kittisak Tankul 24

Winai Naisu 2

Banthita Suthithamma 11

AUGUST

Anabel Smith 3

Carly Armstrong 7