ANGLICAN

St Paul’s: This Sunday is the 20th after Pentecost. In this weeks’ Gospel reading from Mark, a question is posed.

Do I own my possessions or do my possessions own me? In responding to the young man’s question of what he must do to inherit eternal life, Jesus strikes at the core of what separates this man of great wealth from experiencing fully the Kingdom of God. Not only is he unwilling to make the trade-off, he is unwilling to change his ways. What separates us from the love of God?

Services this Sunday are 8am – said Eucharist, 9.30 – choral Eucharist, 11am – intergenerational Eucharist. For more about St Paul’s please visit www.stpaul’sbendigo.org.au or find us on facebook.

South East: On Sunday 11th October, Tony McLennan, the CEO of Bible League, will be the guest speaker at Holy Trinity Church in Keck St. The Bible League is an organisation focussed on supporting persecuted Christians with a major support program supplying bibles to those who do not have access to them. Christians are persecuted in many countries around the world resulting in extreme situations with imprisonment and even death. All are welcome to come and hear Tony speak at the majority of services on that day. For more information call the office at Holy Trinity on 5443 3482.

OASIS OF LOVE CHRISTIAN CHURCH

Last Sunday Sue continued her message of God’s Glory.  How did Jesus reveal this Glory?  It is the manifest presence of God to His people.  When we think back to the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve were not given any covering like the animals.  Their covering was the Glory of God.  They were able to commune with God and walk with Him in the Garden.  (Genesis 2)  Can you imagine how wonderful that would be?  Adam and Eve lost that Glory not only for themselves but all of all mankind by their disobedience.  In the time of Moses, God’s plan was to return His Glory to a nation, dwelling in their midst to be a light to other nations showing them God.  However they rejected God, and we are confronted in Ezekiel 10 & 11 of the Glory of God being lifted up and leaving the temple by the East gate.   Through one man Jesus Christ the way was made to reconcile mankind to God the Father.  Jesus’ Glory was displayed through God’s divine character, truth, kindness, grace, power and authority seen in the miracles He performed.  So how do we get to walk in the presence of the Glory?   Seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul.  (Deuteronomy 4:29)

Oasis takes pleasure in welcoming Prophet Howard Willard from Boston, Massachusetts, USA.  He ministers the Word and God confirms it with healings, miracles, signs and wonders.  An awesome opportunity not to be missed.

Open to everyone, two meetings will be held on Saturday 24 October at 7.00 p.m. and Sunday 25 October at 10.00 a.m. at the Long Gully Community Centre, 27 Havilah Road, Bendigo.

Enquiries:    Ph: 5443 1468;  Mob:  0402 087 083  

PRESBYTERIAN

St John’s: Last Sunday at St John's, Rev Philip Burns preached from Matthew 5:14-16. In these verses, Jesus used the image of ‘light’ to illustrate what He expects His followers to be. God calls us in the Bible to come to the light, to receive the light and to live in His light. We can ever only be what He wants us to be as the light of the world, but reflecting the One who is the true light of the world – Jesus. While there are many reasons why we may want to hide our witness to Jesus (such as fear) this does not negate our responsibility. The gospel has brought us light and now we are called to share that light to a world in darkness. Combined Home Groups prayer meeting is on Thursday night at 7:30pm. Next Playgroup is on Friday October 23rd. On Sunday, Rev Philip Burns will resume his series on Matthew 5. Morning tea follows in the hall. All are welcome. For further information or to hear this week's message, visit http://bendigopc.org.au

Eaglehawk: “Zacharias in disbelief” Luke C1 V18-25 was Pastor Steven’s message last Sunday.

Pastor Steven commenced by asking two questions, 1. Can I recall a miracle from God? The believer has experienced at least one miracle, that is when God laid His hand on him and filled him with the Holy Spirit to believe.

2. How strong is my faith? We can be blinded by unbelief, doubts arise if we lose focus on how great God is, the one who can achieve whatever He has planned.

Zacharias was struck dumb for unbelief after God, through the angel Gabriel, revealed to him that Elizabeth would have a son. Zacharias said “How can this be so”? for Elizabeth was well advanced in years. After the child was born Zacharias was  able to speak again.

There are many instances in scripture where God used people to do amazing things, even though they doubted their ability to do what God wanted them to do.

Are we like Zacharias who doubted? We must live our life fully trusting God and His promises. Jesus Christ has made the way for the believer to enter heaven.

Satan is always at work trying to deceive us so we too will be like “Zacharias in disbelief”

Sunday 11th 10-00am Worship service.

Tuesday 13th 1-30 pm Ladies fellowship garden party.

Wednesday 14th 9-00am Weekly prayer meeting. No bible study as Pastor Steven will conduct a service at St Laurence Court at 11-00am

Sunday 18th 4-00pm The Eaglehawk combined churchs men’s tea will be held at the church.

All enquiries to Pastor Steven 0408990903

REFORMING

Do you stay for the closing credits of a movie? Sometimes that’s where the surprisingly good stuff happens. Yet we can approach the ending of New Testament letters with the thought that says: “the main showing is over, time to leave it and move to something else.” On Sunday we finished our discipleship series in 1st Corinthians by staying for the closing credits of chapter 16. It seems like the Apostle Paul is going through the motions of the closing credits of the letter, but what we see is how he ties up all that’s been said and done by answering the key question of: “what do we do now?” The answer - we do it all with love. That’s at the heart of everything that’s closed off with in chapter 16, right there in verse 14, but it’s also the heart of this book of the Bible and ought to be at the heart of a church. But here’s the problem, your problem, my problem - we. don’t. love. We have trouble doing this. We don’t love well. And when people say the heart of Christianity is to love God and love your neighbour then they have just given you an incomplete message. For that’s the trouble isn’t it? I don’t, I can’t love God and my neighbour well. I fail. I am a sinner. I am accursed. So here is the good news, gospel: Jesus became the accursed for us, so that we can do it all with love. The good news of Jesus changes everything.

This coming Sunday Steve Blyth is preaching from Luke 12 about the heart of giving: ‘Money: hazardous or helpful?’ And our church will enjoy it’s first seasonal celebration together this coming Friday night.

Find us at Bendigo South East College on Sundays, in the Theatre Auditorium on Ellis Street, all are welcome! We are online at reforming.org.au

SOUTHERN GATEWAY

We had a deeply touching service last Sunday when David Ratcliff spoke of his strategic role in helping missionary work. He will be returning to India next month.  He challenged us to hear the call God has for all of us. Jesus performed much of his ministry in the marketplace. We can do just that also.

His wife also spoke on how she was called into helping reduce the abortion problem overseas. Many moves of God we're taking place in India where Christians were being guided and encouraged in the real issues of life.

Linda Fraser led Communion with a blessed reflection on grace being given to change our lives. It is given as freely as Jesus gave his life for us.  Eph 1:2-7 and 2:4-9 exhort us to know grace is given freely. She was supported by Karolyn Webster on keyboard in praise and worship.

Our luncheon followed and we all shared much love and grace together .

The next Lady Day will be at Rachel's home. Men for a coffee chat next Saturday at 11 am at Hashtag.

An Hour of Power prayer is at two locations each month.

Prayer support and enquiries to Pastor Peter Pritchard on 0413682999.

UNITING

ELM Cluster: Eaglehawk: Everyone is welcome to come along to our Services this Sunday firstly at 10am for Cornerstone ( Sunday School) and the Service in the Church which will be led by the Rev Cynthia Page. Morning tea will follow the Service.  Everyone is invited to the BBQ in the grounds of the Marong Uniting Church from 12 noon onwards. Cost is $5 per person and $20 per family with proceeds going to Frontier Outback Services of the Uniting Church.

Playgroups meet on Fridays and Wednesdays at the Church from 9.30 am onwards.

Bible Study Groups on Tuesday at 10 am at the Church and Wednesday at 9.30 am at the Preston's home, will resume next week.

Nominations for Elders close on Sunday 1st November with Elections to take place on November 15th at both Services.

The annual Inter Church Men's Tea will be held on Sunday 18th October at 4 pm at the Eaglehawk Presbyterian Church.

Long Gully: The Service this Sunday will be at 9.30am and will be led by the Rev Dale Pascall. The Congregation are invited after the Service, to go to the BBQ at Marong Uniting Church in aid of Frontier Services.

Marong: Next Sunday at 9am the monthly Kid's Service will be held, followed by the BBQ in aid of Frontier Services.

Weeroona Uniting Church Bendigo:  You are invited to come along to a Garden Party on Saturday at 2 Stringybark Court, Strathdale from 10.00am - 4.00pm. Entry is by donation, with all proceeds going to Strath-Haven and UnitingCare Bendigo. There will be a plant and produce store, with morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea available for $6.00.  Be sure to mark this date in your diaries and come along. All are welcome.

This Sunday there will be two Weeroona Uniting Church Services, at 9.15am and 11.00am at Neale Street. Both services will be led by Rev. Susan Malthouse-Law. The 9.15am service is a family service which includes a Sunday School program for children from crèche to grade 6. The 11.00am is more traditional in its presentation, and also includes activities for the children.

We will be hosting a ‘Voices for Justice Prayer Vigil’ on Monday 12th October at 7:00pm at Neale Street to pray for the church, our nation, our leaders and our world. Our prayer vigil will coincide with a large night-time Prayer Vigil at Parliament House, Canberra, which will be hosted by Micah Challenge as part of their annual conference. Our voices and prayers can be added together to speak for justice. We hope you can join us.

Bendigo Central: Following a combined service recently of Forest St and St. Andrew’s Uniting Church congregations for Social Justice Sunday, an ecumenical and interfaith group met for lunch and conversation about the injustices that engage our passion for change and the hope, skills and networking that we need to gather to begin to make a difference.  Every one shared deep stories of issues locally, nationally and globally where they would like to make a difference and hopes that they could discover connection points in our Bendigo community to help begin making change happen.  We talked about issues of health and education, hospitality and welcome, food and housing, respect and tolerance … we discovered that every issue and theme we discussed were bound by the universal themes of relationships, humanity and justice.  We are planning to meet again for a learning and teaching event on Community Networking and Social Justice facilitated by Denisse Sonderval from the Justice in Mission Unit of the Victorian and Tasmanian Synod of the Uniting Church in Australia.  If you are interested in being part of the contact list for this event please email your details to foreststuca@bigpond.com or standrewsbdgo.axe@gmail.com.

Next Sunday Services will be at 9.30am at Forest Street with a Family Service led by Rev Di Esbensen. Baptismal Families have been invited to attend.  Would Forest St. members please bring Morning Tea appropriate to the young folk who will be attending.     AT St Andrew’s at the same time a Contemporary Service will be led by David Shield and Team.

Also on Sunday   after Worship at 11.45am at Forest Street Hall a Video ‘Stormy Waters’  will be shown.  This Video is a play about refugees and was filmed at Wesley Uniting Church Melbourne, earlier this year.  The DVD takes about 40 minutes, and will be followed by conversation over a “bring and share” lunch.  Come and share in the discussion of this very topical issue.

An Advance Notice of Uniting Threads Open House will be held on Wednesday 14th October, 10.30am to 12 noon in the St. Andrew’s small hall.  Please come along for a quilt display and morning tea.  A number of small items will also be on sale on the day to raise funds to support their work.  Entry: Gold coin donation.  More information: Jan Scott or Rosy Rogers.