THE GREATEST COMMAND
AND SPARROWS

I thought it timely to remind you of two great truths. We need reminding of them because we so often, readily, and easily, forget them. Worse still, we tend to disorder them. I will commence by looking at the lesser of the two great truths which has to do with sparrows. I hazard a guess that you haven’t thought much about sparrows yet today – but my writing to you is not intended to shame you about this neglect. Rather, it is meant to prod you to be wonderful about why Christ would draw our attention to these incredible birds. 

Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God. Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows.
Luke 12:6-7

Jesus said that in His day, two sparrows could be purchased for ‘a penny’ (Matt. 10:29). These seemingly common and very cheap birds were considered to be of very little worth – yet, He goes on to say, And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your (Heavenly) Father (knowing about it). This is how much God cares and sees. But, and it’s a significant but, “But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows” (Matt. 10:30). 

Whenever you feel insignificant, unnoticed, uncared for, consider what Christ has just taught us about our Heavenly Father: He knows you; He notices you; He cares for you; He knows what you need!

This is the second great truth I felt that I need to remind you of now. Ponder this truth well. Let it fill you with wonder so that you become wonderful about your Heavenly Father. This pondering may sound like, as many people have twisted it to be so, that this is about how great you must be. But it isn’t. It is about how great our Heavenly Father is. It is about how loving, caring, generous, and protective Heavenly Father is! 

¶ See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know Him.
First John 3:1

THE GREATEST COMMAND 

When Jesus was challenged by the religious elites of His day, He was asked by a religious lawyer, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” (Matt. 22:36) 

And He said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment.”
Matthew 22:37-38

The very thing we need – the very thing we want most; Christ said was the greatest commandment: love! Deprive a person of love and it will cripple them. Deny someone the opportunity to love and it will ruin them. Convince someone that love is determined by their feelings – or even more wicked still – convince them that they cannot choose or control these feelings, and it will seduce them into a trap so deep and so dark that the result can ever be the kind of confusion and disappointment that makes experiencing real love near impossible!

Loving God is so important that He has designed for us to experience facsimiles of it from the moment we are born. When our mothers embraced us to their breasts in those first few moments of touch when air had just rushed into our lungs, we were experiencing love. When they whispered to us in our first seconds of embrace what to everyone else was like mere sounds) we understood perfectly and knew we were loved. When our fathers picked us up and wrapped us in a blanket and cuddled us, we felt his protective strength and knew that we were loved. These experiences of love are designed by Father God to be a sample of, and to introduce us to, His love. It should be the most natural thing in the world then for us to love Him in return, except for the introduction of sin into the hearts of every member of the human race. This is why we need to learn how to love – and especially so when it comes to obeying the greatest command.

HOW WE LOVE WHEN COMMANDED

Love makes the command to love our delight! Because I love my wife, if she commanded me to love her, I would be delighted to do so. When we have a heart to love God, His command to love Him is our delight! The loving relationships we enjoy, or at least observe, here on earth, are the training ground for loving God. I know how my wife would feel if I never spoke to her. Because I love her, I speak with her warmly and politely. To love God similarly involves sharing our hearts with Him in prayer. Because I love my wife, I make it my priority to come home for dinner each night. Because I love God, I make it my priority to be in His House when it’s dinner time to be seated at the family dining table to feast on His preached and taught Word and be reminded of the power of His body and blood as I participate in the Communion. This is what I feel to remind you of especially at this time in your life that the God who sees sparrows sees you and loves you and gives us our greatest command which as it turns out is our greatest need and delight anyway – to love Him.

We love because He first loved us.
First John 4:19

In love,

Pastor Andrew

WHAT IT TAKES FOR A LOCAL CHURCH TO BE A COMMUNITY OF BELIEVERS

OUR COMMUNITY

And all who believed were together and had all things in common.
Acts 2:44

The local church is called by Christ and His Word to be a community. A community of believers is where people are known, needs are shared, prayers are offered, victories are celebrated and losses are comforted. This takes time, trust, humility, and commitment, to develop. Many experts, such as Phil Cooke and Jonathan Bock, are deeply concerned that the community within local churches has disintegrated so low that it is now in jeopardy! Their new book, The Way Back, makes a strong case that churches have lost their sense of community which has led to a loss of attraction to those in the world looking for soul healing. They state that when the average American church goer now only attends their local church less than 3 Sundays in every 8, the church’s ability to foster its community is rendered near impossible – and worse still, its collective witness is undermined. Rod Dreher makes a similar point in his book, The Benedict Option. But it’s not too late for us here to maintain and build our church’s sense of community. Here’s why.

A PLACE OF LOVE      

¶ Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common.
Acts 4:32

None of us go to church on Sunday because we are the church. The former is a consumer mentality, the latter is a Biblical mentality. Each Sunday our church comes together. To maintain and build our sense of community as a church requires work, sacrifice, and commitment. This is why parents have a duty to model to their children what being a member of a church community is all about. Children should see the times when their parents are sacrificing in order to come together as the church with their church community. We live in such an individualistic culture that is built around ‘my’ happiness and what ‘I’ want. But God’s design for people is for them to become a part of a church which is an ‘us’ culture where our focus is beyond ourselves rather than on ourselves. 

In the world love is thought of as what brings me pleasure, but in the Kingdom of God love is what brings others their highest good. The kind of community we are called by God to be and become is a community where we learn to love each other. 

SUNDAY IS FAMILY DAY!

So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.
Galatians 6:10

Your church community is your family. Parents bring their children to church each Sunday to demonstrate to their children that their family is much bigger than just their nuclear family. Thus, when their children one day move out of home and possibly even relocate to another city, they will have a Biblical truth planted deep in their soul: that the local church is also my family wherever I am!

Because Sunday is family day as a church, we intentionally do those things which strengthen our community bonds. We worship together. We pray together. We give our attention to God’s Word together. We share conversation together. We share our burdens together. We listen to one another. We confess to one another.

Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.
James 5:16

NOT JUST A SUNDAY COMMUNITY

And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts,
Acts 2:46

A church community is just maintained and built on our Sunday gatherings. We are an Acts 2 church. This doesn’t mean that we are trying to be either nostalgic (dwelling on the past) or romantic (idealising the past), rather, we observe that from the outset of the Church’s establishment by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost that there were principles upon which the Church was founded and then built upon. These are most obvious in Acts 2. It is here that we see the Church met in the Temple precinct and in homes. The larger attractional gathering plus the more intimate home meetings were the key environments for fostering the church’s community. This is why our small group meetings held in homes around our Valley are so pivotal to us developing our bonds of community. This too requires work, sacrifice, and commitment. The Home Group that I lead is comprised of busy (and often tired) people. We share together, occasionally cry together, laugh together, eat and drink together, pray together, confess to each other, and ponder God’s Word together.

I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.
John 17:23

We are being very intentional about developing our church community. This is why each of our Home Groups have been undertaking a study of Romans 12:9-21. It’s why each of the Home Group leaders meet together every month for breakfast. It’s why we roster each of our Home Groups on a particular Sunday to work together to show hospitality to the broader church family. It’s why we need everyone on board with this mission to be a covenant community of believers. 

Pastor Andrew

ABOUT GENUINE MIRACLES

Miracles have become increasingly heard of in our culture. Our team is getting thrashed yet somehow in the final throes of the game they manage to win! The commentators describe their win as ‘a miracle‘. Twelve young soccer players and their young coach end up trapped in a Thai cave system due to the rising waters of monsoonal rains. A team of 90 rescuers were able to rescue them over three days before the cave completely filled with water. Every reporter I heard described the rescue as ‘a miracle‘. While these commentators and reporters may be correct, these are not the ‘miracles’ we are now dealing with. And while the ability of spiders to spin a web is also, according to Dr. Dorian, ‘a miracle’, neither is this what we are dealing with.  

“Do you understand how there could be any writing in a spider’s web?”
“Oh, no,” said Dr. Dorian. “I don’t understand it. But for that matter I don’t understand how a spider learned to spin a web in the first place. When the words appeared, everyone said they were a miracle. But nobody pointed out that the web itself is a miracle.”
“What’s miraculous about a spider’s web?” said Mrs. Arable. “I don’t see why you say a web is a miracle-it’s just a web.”
“Ever try to spin one?” asked Dr. Dorian.”
― E.B. White, Charlotte’s Web

¶ But there was a man named Simon, who had previously practiced magic in the city and amazed the people of Samaria, saying that he himself was somebody great. Acts 8:10  They all paid attention to him, from the least to the greatest, saying, “This man is the power of God that is called Great.”
Acts 8:9-10

Simon was a conjurer had learned how to manipulate people. People who saw him perform his conjuring referred to him as, “The Great One”, and some even referred to him as “God”. Then one day, two apostles arrived in his Samaritan village and began performing miracles as ‘sign’ and ‘wonders’ for the message they were bringing about a resurrected Saviour. Simon the Sorcerer, as it appears he called himself, was gobsmacked. He couldn’t see how these former fishermen were doing it. They must have paid a lot of money to have learned how to manipulate people like this, he may have thought. Perhaps he wondered whether he had to baptised to be initiated into this secret society of magicians? 

¶ Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent to them Peter and John, who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, for he had not yet fallen on any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit. Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money, saying, “Give me this power also, so that anyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.” But Peter said to him, “May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money! You have neither part nor lot in this matter, for your heart is not right before God. Repent, therefore, of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord that, if possible, the intent of your heart may be forgiven you. For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity.” And Simon answered, “Pray for me to the Lord, that nothing of what you have said may come upon me.”
Acts 8:14-23

 The experienced conjurer and manipulator could not replicate the miraculous acts of the apostles. By his own preparedness to attempt to ‘buy’ the power of the Holy Spirit, he was admitting that what these apostles were doing was not the same as what he had done. 

It’s worth noting though, that the Samaritans who believed the Gospel he preached and had their faith confirmed by the signs he did (not the other way around).

Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed to them the Christ.  And the crowds with one accord paid attention to what was being said by Philip, when they heard him and saw the signs that he did.  For unclean spirits, crying out with a loud voice, came out of many who had them, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed.  So there was much joy in that city.
Acts 8:5-8

 

When Moses and Aaron stood before Pharaoh, they threatened to announce certain plagues upon Egypt if Pharaoh would not free the captive Israelite slaves. Eventually Egypt would suffer ten plagues due to their king’s stubborn heart. What made Pharaoh’s heart initially harden was the ability of Pharaoh’s magicians to seemingly replicate each of the first two plagues declared by Moses and Aaron. (I’ve always wondered why they didn’t use their alleged magic powers to purify the water which had been turned to blood or remove a few million of the frogs which were now plaguing Egypt?) But when it came to conjuring gnats in a similar way that Moses and Aaron had done by the power of God, they were unable to do so.

¶ Then the LORD said to Moses, “Say to Aaron, ‘Stretch out your staff and strike the dust of the earth, so that it may become gnats in all the land of Egypt.’” And they did so. Aaron stretched out his hand with his staff and struck the dust of the earth, and there were gnats on man and beast. All the dust of the earth became gnats in all the land of Egypt. The magicians tried by their secret arts to produce gnats, but they could not. So there were gnats on man and beast.
Exodus 8:16-18

This led them to declare to their King – 

Then the magicians said to Pharaoh, “This is the finger of God.” But Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the LORD had said.
Exodus 8:19

Truth be told, these charlatans probably knew that it was the power of God behind the extraordinary deeds of Moses and Aaron from their very first miraculous plague! Even today there are those who have made it their mission to debunk the genuine power of God by using mentalism and trickery to imitate the miraculous gifts of the Spirit. For example, Derren Brown in his 2015 stage show, MIRACLES, now available on Netflix as a TV show, admits from the outset that – “I happily admit cheating, as it’s all part of the game.  I hope some of the fun for the viewer comes from not knowing what’s real and what isn’t.  I am an entertainer first and foremost.” [Source] With this in mind, most viewers are immediately disarmed by the opening claim: “No stooges or actors are used in this show.” Yeah right! 

“A miracle is an event brought about by the power of God that is a temporary exception to the ordinary course of nature, for the purpose of showing that God has acted in history.”
Prof. Emeritus Richard L. Purtill, Western Washington University

Professor Craig Keener is a sceptic by training and upbringing. He states, “I began my own quite young philosophical explorations as an atheist, at which I denied the possibility of miracles” (p. 733). This former self-confessed atheist later found good reasons for believing that the claims of the Christian Gospel were true which led to his conversion to Christ. When writing a commentary on the Book of Acts he was dealing with the objections by liberal theologians that the accounts of miracles in the Book of Acts are legendary and mythological. He reasoned that if he could footnote the evidence for some modern miracles it would validate the possibility that the Biblical accounts of miracles were more likely to true rather than legendary. The result of this quest to find a couple of verifiable footnote miracles was astounding. He was able to document over two thousand miracles which could be verified by before and after medical reports, or personal testimonies, or direct eye-witnesses. These accounts were published in two volumes

He writes, “Miracle claims, especially regarding healings, are by Western standards surprisingly common (though by no means universal) in regions of the world where such events are expected. These claims include, as in the Gospels and Acts, the healing of the blind, those unable to walk, and the raising of the dead, among many others” (Keener, 2011, Vol. 2, p.761). In his tome on the subject of miracles he analyses the argument used by atheists that miracles do not happen. It was the Scottish Philosopher David Hume who defined miracles as a violation of the laws of nature. Hume went on to say that miracles cannot happen because there is no such thing as a miracle. This is called ‘Circular Reasoning’ because it presumes the very thing it is trying to disprove – that miracles do not happen. Keener gives thousands of examples (literally) where the best explanation for what appears to be a miraculous occurrence is that it is a miracle.

The author of the recently released book, THE CASE FOR MIRACLES, Lee Strobel, says about miracles, “Some of what we casually classify as “miracles” really seem closer to fortunate “coincidences,” or God at work through routine processes. How can we tell them apart? For me, when I see something extraordinary that has spiritual overtones and is validated by an independent source or event, that’s when the “miracle” bell goes off in my mind.” [Source] While investigating testimonies for this book, Strobel says that it was the story of Barbara Snyder which “blew his mind”.

“Barbara Snyder was diagnosed at the Mayo Clinic with multiple sclerosis. She deteriorated over a period of many years, several operations, many hospitalizations,” Strobel explained. “It got to the point where she was dying. And, in fact, one doctor described her as being one of the most hopelessly ill patients he’d ever encountered.” Synder ended up in hospice care with a no resuscitation order; she was nearly blind, her hands and body were curled and she had a tube in her throat to help her breath as well as a tube in her stomach to ensure proper nourishment. Meanwhile, her muscles were atrophied. The situation was pretty hopeless — until something quite shocking happened. 

“One day, one of her friends called WMBI, which is the radio station in Chicago run by the Moody Bible Institute, and said, ‘Pray for Barbara. She’s on her deathbed,’” Strobel explained. “So, we know that at least 450 Christians began praying for her, because they wrote letters saying, ‘We’re praying for you.’”

Then, on Pentecost Sunday, two of Synder’s friends read her letters from those praying for her. As she listened, she said that she heard a male voice coming from the corner of the room — a voice she now believes was God. “This male voice coming from the corner of the room where nobody was said, ‘Get up my child and walk,’” Strobel recounted. “So she basically pulls the tube out of her throat, says, ‘Go find my parents’ [and] jumps out of bed.”

Bizarrely, her calves were inflated and her once-atrophied muscles worked again — and that’s not all. Her feet and fingers were suddenly straight and normal again. Her blindness, too, had been instantaneously healed. “This was an instantaneous healing of all of her symptoms and all of her illness to the point where … 31 years later she’s completely healthy,” Strobel said. “To this day.”*

Our faith in Christ is not grounded in any minor miracle – such as any that we (or anyone else) may have experienced. Our faith in Christ as our Saviour from eternal condemnation unto adoption as God’s child, is grounded in the greatest miracle: the conception, life, ministry, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ of Nazareth – but particularly, the resurrection of Christ. The evidence for the resurrection is based on reliable eye-witness accounts, the dramatic change in many of these eye-witnesses (who each refused to recant their testimonies of what they had seen even under threat of death), and the failure of those opposing Christ to produce His corpse (because there was none). 

Naturally, we might wonder why God doesn’t always grant miracles. So did Lee Strobel as he wrote his book. His own wife battles daily pain from her incurable fibromyalgia. He concluded his book with this question in mind. 

To bring my research full circle, I wrote a chapter called, “When Miracles Don’t Happen.” Often, people pray for supernatural healings that never occur the way they want them to. I interviewed Dr. Douglas Groothuis, a Christian philosopher whose wife is suffering from debilitating dementia at a young age. Despite their fervent prayers, God has not chosen to heal her at this point. This may be the most powerful chapter of any book I’ve ever written, as Dr. Groothuis speaks from his heart as well as from his vast reservoir of philosophical experience.
-Lee Strobel, author of THE CASE FOR MIRACLES

Your Pastor,

Andrew 

IT’S TRUE. IT’S GOOD. IT’S BEAUTIFUL.

Christianity is true, good, and beautiful. We can know that it’s true; experience that it’s good; and observe that it’s beautiful. We can do this because we have all been designed to seek truth and accept it. We have been created to be agents of good and to celebrate it when we are the recipients of it. We are made to admire the beautiful and to beautify. These statements are so because the world is the creation of the God who is true, good and beautiful and we are created in the image of this God. Yet there are now people who are now attacking Christianity as evil because they don’t like God or His Laws.

¶ Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good!
Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!
Psalm 34:8

IT’S TRUE.

There is no evidence that Goldilocks and the three bears ever existed. But if someone should claim that it was a true story we could apply certain truth-tests to its claims to conclude that it is a fictional fable. Do bears make porridge? Do bears build cabins in the woods? Do bears insist on sleeping on mattresses? The answers to these questions would lead us to the conclusion that the story of Goldilocks and The Three Bears is simply a delightful children’s story that someone invented. 

¶ In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. And all went to be registered, each to his own town.
Luke 2:1-3

But the historical accounts of Jesus of Nazareth are completely different. In Luke’s Gospel he gives precise historical details such as the names of the particular Roman Emperors and officials who were reigning at the time. He gave even more verifiable historical details in his account of the early church, Acts. The Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthian believers in 54AD in which many scholars recognise that he quotes from Luke’s Gospel. This indicates that Luke’s Gospel account of the life and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth was in circulation by 54AD which meant that if his historical accounts were false they could have been refuted by any number of his contemporaries.

¶ For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.
First Corinthians 15:1-8

The accounts of the life and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth are attested to by the sheer number of ancient manuscripts dating back to the first few centuries AD. Most recently a fragment of the Gospel of Mark was found in Egypt in what archaeologists describe as a first-century rubbish dump. It is a copy of a copy of a copy. (That demonstrates how widely the original copies were in wide circulation.) This Gospel fragment is conservatively dated to 150AD but some experts are dating it as early as 80AD [Source]. The significance of this fragment is enormous. It adds to the growing body of evidence that puts pay to the claim that the Gospels didn’t originate until the late second century and beyond. It also proves how reliable our modern manuscripts are compared with the oldest known manuscripts which confirms just how carefully the original copyists undertook their sacred task. 

The claims of Christianity centring on the historical truthfulness of the life, teaching, miracles, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth are verifiable and therefore valid. As sufficient as this is for religious conversion and devotion, it is not the only thing appealing about Christianity. Christianity is good.

IT’S GOOD.

Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor.
First Corinthians 10:24

The impact for good of Christ and His followers on the world is virtually inestimable. This doesn’t just include the history of care for the ostracised and diseased, the education and housing relief for the poor and under-privileged, the establishment of refuges and orphanages, and the crisis relief agencies such as Red Cross and World Vision, it also includes the spontaneous acts of good that have gone on largely unnoticed. For the early Second Century, Christians were going into the town squares, forests, and by-ways where unwanted baby girls were dumped in the middle of the night to suffer the ravages of freezing nights (known as “exposure”) and ravenous wolves. These baby girls were raised by these Christian families as if they were their own children. Eventually their kindness toward these unwanted baby girls changed the Roman cultural view of the practice of exposure to regarding it as a Barbaric practice! 

¶ Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.
Romans 12:9

Billy Graham asked Dawson Trotman to oversee the follow-up of new believers at his crusades

This tradition of Christian goodness still lives on today in both public and unnoticed ways. Following Christ has inspired some of the greatest acts of supererogatory behaviour the world has ever seen. If you have never heard of Dawson Trotman (who founded the Navigators) do yourself a favour and read a biography of his very short life and marvel at why it was so short. 

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Romans 12:21

All of these supererogatory acts were inspired by the selfless goodness of Jesus the Christ. Of course there have been people who identified as Christians do some bad things, but in order to do so they had to violate the teaching and example of our Lord! Christianity is demonstrably good. But this is not the only appeal it has. It is also beautiful.

IT’S BEAUTIFUL.

In C.S. Lewis’s book, The Abolition of Man, he argues against those who claim that there is no such thing as beauty. A beautiful waterfall in a rainforest, he argues, is not merely a collection of hydrogen and oxygen molecules being subject to gravity. It actually is beautiful. Beauty evokes a sense of pleasure. It causes us to admire. We are created to find beauty appealing and satisfying. Things can be beautiful. People can be beautiful. Stories can be beautiful. Acts of sacrifice can be beautiful especially when motivated by selfless love – and there is no greater example of this than the story that lies at the heart of Christianity.

Liffey Falls, Tasmania. https://www.discovertasmania.com.au/about/insider-guides/waterfalls-of-tasmania

¶ One thing have I asked of the LORD,
that will I seek after:
that I may dwell in the house of the LORD
all the days of my life,
to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD
and to inquire in His temple.
Psalm 27:4

The word ‘beauty’ occurs 18 times in one of the most mysterious books of the Bible. In many respects, the story within The Song of Songs, is a microcosm of the Bible’s whole story. It is a love story. It commences with a beautiful garden scene of idyllic intimacy which is then interrupted by an unwelcome intruder who, in the absence of her protector-betrothed, enslaves her and takes her captive. What ensues is a selfless rescue plan which culminates in a glorious reunion and a magnificent marriage [watch]. This account is a shadow of the larger metanarrative in the Bible which describes the beautiful idyllic Garden of Eden setting where God, Adam and Eve, celebrated their mutual love. But then the Intruder came and drove a wedge between the lovers. The Bible then unfolds the patient rescue plan of God culminating in Him becoming a human who gave His life as a substitute for those condemned to death, climaxing in a magnificent reunion and marriage in an eternal paradise. It’s a beautiful story that lies at the heart of the Christian story.  

Because beauty is so integral to Christianity, traditional church buildings were built to be beautiful inside and out. Little wonder then that some of the world’s great art has been inspired by the beauty of the Christian story. But perhaps the most beautiful aspect of the Christian story is not merely in its telling, but in how magnificently it has transformed the lives of those whom Christ has rescued and redeemed. And I should know because I am one of them.

Pastor Andrew.