Every Life Matters to Jesus

Every life, every individual, matters to Jesus. Every person bears the image of God, no matter how broken. No matter how sinful. Every person must turn to God on the basis of the forgiveness offered through Jesus Christ, or else be lost. No-one can do this for another. Everyone has their own journey, and no two journeys are the same. We wish to see our city transformed. But each life must be transformed, one life at a time…

What is needed for a person to be transformed? They must hear the Good News. And they must receive the gift of the Holy Spirit who enables us to believe that message. It follows that we must tell and pray. We tell people the good news, whether personally or through an invitation to church or with a letter or a book… And we pray for God’s Spirit to release them from bondage, to open their eyes and grant them faith.

Michele and I were hugely encouraged last week as we attended a wedding reception. The bride was brought up at St. John’s from the time she was about 6 years old. She then went with her brother to plant a new congregation in Chester Hill with Paul and Beth Webb who previously had oversight of our 5pm congregation. The bride now oversees their children’s ministry. What struck us so deeply was the natural way in which Scripture and faith found expression in their joy and in their speeches and in their prayers. We tell and we pray. Who knows the lives that were touched that evening.

In addition to this Michele and I sat next to a couple whose children have all grown up through St. John’s Kid’s Church and City Youth. They were full of joy and thanksgiving for the warm welcome their family received when they came to St. John’s. And for the way in which their children have been mentored and discipled in the faith, through their early years, by their lay leaders. This mentoring hasn’t just happened in the programs. It has taken place in genuine relationship and time spent together outside of those programs. But it has taken place with the Word and with prayer. We tell and we pray. And lives are transformed, one by one.

Bruce Morrison
Senior Minister