Registration costs $15 per person including a Relay For Life shirt.

To find out more, apply for the team, or offer your support, visit the Team APC page on the Border Relay For Life website.

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Saturday 19th September.
402 Wagga Rd, Lavington.
7pm for a 7:30pm start.

Gather tables of 8 and bring snacks to share.
Entrance is $20 donation ($10 for students).
RSVP to mike@alburychurch.org.au

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Find out more and to register here

(If the Marriage Course is not for you, but you know a married couple with young children, why not consider volunteering to babysit for them?!)

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As he told the Sydney Morning Herald, he could clearly hear a drowning man’s cry, ‘Help, help, help’ coming from the ocean. Andrew Grace is an experienced surfer and knows enough about life saving to pull a grown, floundering man from the dark sea. More than that, he’s brave. He’s the kind of man most Australians would like to identify with – concerned for others, clearly capable, a hero. To the man he rescued, he was, quite literally, a saviour.

In most communities and cultures self-reliance is a virtue. It’s okay to help others but we’re meant to be fine ourselves… to be able to fix our own problems.

However, there is one area where all of us – no matter how capable, strong, self-reliant, or wealthy – need help. A consistent message running through the Bible is that we cannot make our own way to God. We cannot, on our own, make everything all right between us and God. The Bible paints a sobering picture of us humans struggling and floundering as we attempt to please God with good things that we’ve done. But they don’t solve anything. Only Jesus can help. Only Jesus’s death on the cross can pay for the wrong things we’ve done to others and to God. Only Jesus’s love can rescue us from the judgment of God.

So, if you’d like to be rescued what should you do? The Bible doesn’t say, ‘For all who give 10% of their income to the poor will be saved.’ Nor does it say, ‘For all who attend church twice a week will be saved.’ It’s much simpler than that. The Bible tells us to call on the name of the Lord Jesus. Here is the clear promise of the Bible,

“For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved”

Calling on Jesus is like what that drowning man did in the ocean off Sydney. He believed someone could rescue him. Calling on Jesus means believing that Jesus is who he said he is – God in the flesh – the source of life – the one who came to bring you home to God. Everyone needs to be saved from God’s judgment. So please don’t drown when Jesus has done exactly what’s needed to save you. Call on the name of Jesus.

Prayer: Dear God, give me strength to call on the name of Jesus. Help me to trust him so that I might be saved. Amen

Verse: “For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” Romans 10:13.

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Recognising bias is fundamental to statistics. So, although I grew up in a Christian family, I could never have stayed Christian out of convenience. I could never live with that kind of faith. I’d like to share some of the ways in which my work in statistics relates to the way I think about my Christian faith.

At the theoretical end of statistics, mathematical laws testify to an orderly world and the mind of an orderly creator. Historically, it was a firm belief in an unchanging God that drove scientists to explore the world and its patterns.

At the practical end of statistics, where I work, the challenge is to find solutions that can help people. But in order to argue for a solution, you need a clear ethical framework and you can’t have one of those unless you have an objective source of truth and morality. You may be surprised to hear that the most influential source in the world is the Bible.

Is there any basis for trusting the Bible? Pierre-Simon Laplace, a highly influential mathematician and statistician, was known for encouraging caution when encountering unexpected data. His view has been summed up as: “extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence”. Certainly the claims of the Bible are extraordinary. It details a supernatural God, active in the natural world.

The most extraordinary claims revolve around Jesus. The Bible anticipated his arrival for more than a thousand years and then records how he exceeded all possible expectations. Jesus spoke with great authority and performed remarkable miracles. Eyewitnesses record that Jesus understood his death to be a payment for human rebellion against God. In his resurrection from the dead Jesus showed a way beyond death.

The most compelling data I have for the love of God are the death and resurrection of Jesus. Certainly not the kind of data that comes across my desk each day! But I teach my students that evidence takes different forms.

I’m grateful to God for the freedom to ask hard questions and for providing so many rich and reasonable answers. I hope and pray that my story encourages you to explore the data about Jesus for yourself.

Read more of Sandy’s thoughts at www.whyIbelieve.org.au

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From the Moore Distance website:

“Our primary aim is to equip people for ministry by exploring the great story of God’s faithfulness written for us in the Bible and grasping its meaning for all of life. In our experience, this course can help make an impact on your Church that will continue to shape its ministry and witness well into the future.”

1) Introduction to the Bible course – PTC Award – overview

Most of the segments of the Correspondence Course are concerned with the interpretation of various books of the Bible. It is important to have an overview of the message of the Bible as a whole before examining its parts in any detail. Introduction to the Bible shows how the message of the Bible unfolds from the beginning to end. It shows how the various books relate to one another historically and theologically. In this way, we come to understand the principles the Bible itself teaches as being central to the way we should interpret scripture.

Put another way, the aim of this introductory course is to teach the elements of Biblical Theology. The task of Biblical Theology is ‘to describe the process by which revelation unfolds and moves towards the goal which is God’s revelation of his purposes in Jesus Christ’

2) Enrol in this subject for the PTC Award online by May 22 here. 

Select the PTC Award option and to study with a book and online

3) Meeting dates – Mondays 7.30pm June 1, 15, 29, July 13, 27, August 10

4) Exam (paper not online) in the week of August 10-16

5) Cost is $90. (There is a concession rate of $65 for those who are eligible)

6) George May will be facilitating the course so please inform him when you have enrolled.

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The verses we considered together to help us understand our debt more clearly were these:-

John 13:34–35

Rom 12:9–10

1Cor 13:4–6

Gal 5:13–14

Eph 5:1–2

James 2:8

1Pet 1:22

1Pet 3:8

1Pet 4:8

1John 3:16–18

1John 4:7–12

1John 4:19–21

Imagine the possibilities if all of us prayed through those verses asking the God who first loved us , by his Holy Spirit , to enable us to walk in his way of love!

“Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law.”

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The service will be held at City Central Church, Albury at 7:30pm on Monday 16th February, 2015.

As well as working as our local High School Scripture worker, Luke is also leader of YOOP, Albury Presbyterian Churches high school ministry on Friday nights.

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The churches of APC are gathering to pray, sing & share as we give thanks to God for the launch of our newest church & pray for one another as we seek to grow followers of Jesus.

Please bring a small plate of finger food to share.

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