comfort O my people…

‘Comfort, comfort O my people’, says the Lord through Isaiah the prophet. The people have suffered much and are in need of release and a return to life. Into their world filled with pain the Lord speaks comfort and hope. He tells them firstly that they’ve served their term. The penalty for their sins against him has been paid in full and he will now release them from it. These words of comfort and hope are addressed generally to all God’s people who are suffering, and especially those in Jerusalem terrified by Sennacherib’s siege and the devastation he had wreaked on the surrounding towns on his way. The Lord has forgiven them and saved them from him because their King Hezekiah repented. Now the promises of God are given for a future far ahead, some 700 years away, a man to prepare the way of the Lord, and the Lord himself coming to his people. Enter John the Baptist. A man born of a promise, as Samuel and other great men had been before him. Related to Jesus and filled with the Holy Spirit from the womb, he began to prepare the way in the people’s hearts for the Messiah to come to them. The preparedness to receive Jesus needed the movement of the Holy Spirit. The people were looking for the King to come and bring peace to their lives. They didn’t know what sort of a King he was really, but they were ready. Repentance is the practice of being honest with ourselves and the Lord about what we do and the things we need to stop doing, the thought habits we need to break – the places in our lives we are not living up to the Lord’s standards – and in that honesty, speaking those out to the Lord, asking forgiveness and receiving it by faith in what Jesus our King has done for us. The things we confess he has already paid for; our part is in the confessing and the letting go of these things to Jesus so that they can be wiped off our record forever. Then we can go forward into life without them, choosing not to return to them. Sometimes that’s easier said than done, but this is what our Lord sent Holy Spirit to enable us to do and this is why we can repent as often as we need to, because we all have this struggle with ourselves. Jesus understands this struggle, he’s lived among us, and he will always be ready to listen in love and gentleness. As a daily habit repentance keeps our hearts free to follow Jesus more closely. Have you prepared the way of the Lord in your heart today?

Janice

This Week

Regular Worship Times

Parish Contact Details

Notices:

Carpark Supervision

Men, can you help? Commencing Sunday, 17th December 2023, we plan to have a roster of men from both services to oversee the carpark whenever there are church events. There will be a ‘sign-up” sheet in the foyer. For more information see Kevin (0438 234 857).

Help Needed…

Would those interested in helping with the 23rd December Family Christmas sausage sizzle & Carol service write their names on the sign-up sheet in the Narthex.

Christmas Hampers for local families…

As in previous years we will be sending food hampers to Dromana Primary School for distribution. There are 12 laundry baskets in the narthex to present the food and give the families a useful container. If you’d like to contribute to the hampers, please leave your gift in or beside the baskets. If you’d like to make a monetary gift which will be used for topping up as necessary and perhaps some seasonal festive additions, please place in the offertory or through the Bendigo Bank account clearly marked “Christmas Hampers”. Please leave your gift or make your donation by Wednesday 6th December so that the finished hampers can be wrapped and donated in the final weeks of term. Thank you.

Special Services 2023

This Week’s Prayer Focus

In our country and the world:

• For all grieving after accidents and disasters.
• For all in Israel, Gaza, and Ukraine.
• For all firefighters in Queensland and NSW, and all those suffering trauma and loss as a result of the fires.
• For those facing homelessness, hardship, anguish and despair amid rising costs.
• For families affected by violence.
• For those affected by natural disasters in around the world.
• For King Charles III, the UK and the Commonwealth.
• For peace and unity in countries around the World.
• For aid agencies such as “Save the Children”, Oxfam, CARE, UNICEF, World Vision.

In our community:

• For teachers and students.
• For doctors, nurses, paramedics, Coast Guard, the CFA & SES.
• For local community outreach groups such as the Dromana Community House and “Food for All”.

In our Diocese and beyond:

• For Archbishop Geoffrey Smith’s ministry as Primate of Australia.
• For Archbishop Philip Freier’s ministry in the Diocese of Melbourne.
• For the ministry of Bishop Paul Barker in the Jumbunna Region and for Archdeacon Helen Phillips in the Frankston Archdeaconry. Give thanks that Archdeacon Helen is now well and beginning to return to work.
• In our Deanery, we pray for the Parish of Mornington & Mount Martha Church, their Vicar, Ven. Helen Phillips, Assistant Priest Rev’d John Phillips, and Children & Families Minister, Rev’d Liz Rankin.
• For the work of the Church Missionary Society and Wei-Han the Victorian Director.
• For Anna Radkovic our CMS Link Missionary. Pray thanks for the progress of Anna’s residency visa.
• For Christian churches around the world to be free to worship and be witnesses of the love of God as shown through the coming of His Son.

In our Parish:

• For Keith & Jan Thomas and Mike & Vicki Brown as they are received into the Anglican Communion.
• For our leadership and ministry teams.
• For Rev’d Janice O’Gorman our Vicar.
• For the finances of our Parish.
• For our Parish, its people and those we reach out to every week.
• For the success of the new Family and Children’s Ministry.
• For the 9am at home prayer time for the Parish, Dromana & Mornington Peninsula.
• For: Christine, Backy, John R, Margie, Fred, Tahlia, Robert, Jan, David, Irene, Guy, Ruth.