From the

Coalface

NORTHLAKES—A church for everyone

25th September 2011

The NORTHLAKES Salvation Army Community Church

Dear Friend,

How wonderful it is that the Lord, as the psalmist tells us, loves to load us daily with His benefits (Psalm

68:19)! That is how good our Saviour is. His mercies and His unmerited favour are new every morning.

There are so many wonderful benefits that we receive because of the finished work of Christ. Today, I want to

focus on two of them that will richly bless you and potentially change the way you live your life.

God wants you to receive the benefit of living both happy and healthy!

Now, in a lot of ways, as believers we've not experienced true happiness because so many of us tie our hap-

piness to our circumstances: If your circumstances are good, you are happy. If they are bad, then you are not happy.

But that's not the kind of happiness that lasts, or the real and deep happiness God wants you to experience.

Real, unshakable, deep-down happiness has to do with the revelation that you are the righteousness of God in

Christ! In Romans 4:5, the apostle Paul says, "But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the

ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness."

When we put our faith in Christ, God counts us righteous! In verses 6-8, Paul goes on to quote King David

describing the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works, "Blessed are those

whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute

sin."

This word "blessedness" literally means "happiness" (and it is used in the plural). So David was describing the

"happiness's": Happy are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Happy is the man to whom

the Lord shall not impute sin.

Friend, if you believe in the finished work of Christ on the cross, and that all your sins—

past, present and future—are forgiven, you are that "happy" person!

When you know that you have non-imputation of sins, you will end up blessed—happy—because good things

will begin to happen to you. Your circumstances will line up and the good you want to see will happen for you! Also,

the more you focus on the fact that God has forgiven your sins and does not hold them against you, the more you

will walk in health. Proverbs 14:30, NASB, says, "A tranquil heart is life to the body..."

When you live with the ongoing awareness that your sins are NOT imputed to you, it will cause your heart to

be at peace (or tranquil). And as you walk in peace, you open yourself up to receiving the divine health of God. God

doesn't want you worried about your finances, health, relationships or any other thing. He wants you to live worry-

free and have a tranquil heart.

If you've been carrying burdens around with you, I want to encourage you to let them go. Because you know

that God fully accepts you IN CHRIST, you can confidently know that He will never leave you nor forsake you, even if

you have made mistakes in your life. See yourself surrounded by the Lord's constant presence and help and allow

Him to do all the heavy lifting for you.

As you renew your mind with the finished work of Jesus, you WILL experience the benefits of a

happy AND healthy life.

My heart's desire is that you will continue to experience God's blessings in your life. The benefits of God are freely

given to us, so choose to receive them today and lead an abundant life overflowing with His blessings!

The Ikea catalogue may be of great interest. but if you want to make sense of life, read the

Bible.

Page 2 Northlakes Salvation Army

PRAYER CHANGES

EVERYTHING!

Come and join together to pray this week...

Monday 6.30am

Tuesday 6.30pm

Wednesday 6.30pm

Thursday 5.30pm

6.30am

Every day at the Church House

EXCEPT Tuesday—at Chadban’s home 5 Glider Court Charlestown &

Before church next Sunday at 8.45am

Northlakes Salvos

are now on

Twitter

follow us @NorthlakesSA

Newsletter entries

and enquiries

0423 033 318 or

fiona.stig@spcc.nsw.edu.au

Can you help? Wanted: Volunteer/s

Pushing a trolley for an older lady on a scooter, helping her with the shopping. Once a fortnight, Tues or Weds approx. 1 and 1/2 hours

At: Jesmond Woolworths Fortnightly =1x a month for 2 volunteers, 1x every 3 months for 6 volunteers

Please see or contact Cameron Smith to help 0400 531 434

Ladies!!!!!!

Looking to the SON -

Leave the shadows

behind!

Meet at Church House

(46 Reservoir Rd

Glendale)

2—3pm

Saturdays

Share life’s journey with other

ladies

as we look at what God says in His

Word and see how that can make a

difference

in our lives.

Buzz Cut If the clean-shaven look is too severe or you don’t feel like you could pull it off, but you still want something simple and sleek, the buzz cut is a great option. This is a good way to go if your hair is starting to thin on your crown or near your hairline. The buzz cut gives you a clean, yet edgy look. Short Caesar Cut Inspired by Roman Emperor Julius Caesar and made famous by George Clooney, the Caesar cut is a stylish way to conceal a receding hairline and a thinning top. The bangs are cut with a horizontal fringe and styled forward. The Power Donut Instead of keeping your remaining hair close to your head, you can just say, “screw it,” and let it grow out au naturel. What’s nice about the Power Donut is that it doesn’t require much work except for an occasional trim so you avoid growing a skullet. Grow facial hair A lot of celebrities with thinning hair rock some sort of facial hair. The facial hair directs attention from your balding head to your face. Moustaches and goatees work best. Never under any circumstances should you attempt the comb-over No matter what style you go with, never, ever use a comb-over. Do not fall under the delusion that having a ponytail in the back will compensate for baldness on top either. Hair math just doesn’t work that way.

Men's Conference --- accepting of all men, regardless of your hair status

Ikea Outstrips the Bible The Bible has always been the most widely distributed book in the world. Recently it has been surpassed. The Ikea catalogue, which arrived recently in our mailbox, is now the world's most distributed book. This glossy catalogue of furniture, space-

saving devices and a myriad of other home wares now has a distribution of over 145 million copies each year. It seems that you couldn’t find two publi-cations that are further apart in style and content! Yet the Bible and the Ikea catalogue do have some-thing in common. Everyone reads them to improve life. Ikea can improve our homes - it improves our financial situation with cheaper merchandise and it improves our ability to save the space around our homes with the most ingenious designs. The Bible seeks to improve our lives by helping us understand that our lives are more significant than our homes, improved finances are not as important as a deeper faith and that saving space counts for little against a personal relationship with God.

Hair loss can still be a big psychological blow to men. For many, it’s likely the first sign they’re getting old. It affects hundreds of millions worldwide, so here is some help on how to deal with baldness like a man. The General Rule Keep your hair short. Short hair minimizes the appear-ance of balding and also gives your hair some lift which makes it look like you have more hair. Clean-shaven The completely bald look is a great option for men who have very large bald spots that cover a good portion of their heads. The clean-shaven look has a host of bene-fits. For starters, you free yourself from the effort of ever having to style your hair again. And you can wash your chrome dome with the same bar of soap you use on your body.

Page 3 Northlakes Salvation Army

This is just a friendly reminder about Compassion’s annual Christmas Appeal. If you recently received a Christmas card in the mail to write a message to your sponsored child, please don’t forget to return it to us by next Friday, 23 September, to ensure it reaches its destination in time. If you don’t sponsor a child through Compassion, please still consider giving a gift to this year’s Christmas Appeal. You can help provide Christmas gifts to all Compassion assisted children this year, as well as to parents in the Child Survival Program. If you have already sent in your Christmas card and/or gift, THANK YOU! The love and support of children living in poverty from supporters like you is truly inspirational.

Stand-In Best Friend Ryuichi Ichinokawa has launched a new busi-ness in Japan. He is paid to be peoples' stand-in best friend. He acts as a stand-in husband at events, even as a best man at weddings where the groom can't find one. He now has a booming business with thirty employees who offer the service of being peo-ples' fake spouse, friend, colleague, boyfriend or girlfriend at social functions. This is an extreme example of the problem of friendship and connection in modern western societies. We live close to thousands of people, we have social networking sites like Facebook and can communicate with hundreds via Twitter, we have more means of communication such as mobiles and email than ever before. Yet we still find ourselves lonely and in desperate need of good friends. True community is beyond social networking and electronic communication. It’s marked by open-ness, trust and the thing we all lack most – time. God created us with a longing for spiritual con-nection and personal love and friendship. Our need for relationships reminds us again of God's creative work and our need for spiritual connection with Him.

Read Romans 8:28 28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. (TNIV)

This is one of the more comforting verses of the Bible. We turn to it as we look around us and see mere chaos and sadness and mystery. We cling to this verse as a speck of light in the midst of the darkness. Somehow, somewhere, sometime, God is going to work good out of what is anything but good. And we are quite right to draw such conclusions. God is always good, his purposes are always good, his purposes will not ultimately be thwarted. So we place our individual troubles in this comforting con-text. But we need to be aware of the wider, deeper implications of this verse. It is couched in the plural. God works good for his people collectively as well as individually. We might even say that the 'good' God works out might not be experienced by a particular struggling individual but might be experienced by God’s people as a whole. One martyr cruelly put to death might lead to blessing for others for example. We must also let God define what is good, and what is to be the tim-ing and the shape of this goodness. We want this verse to mean that after a bit of nasty suffering we will get some quick and pleasant blessing. And this may happen. But we dare not confine God’s 'good' to our immediate blessing. God has wider, deeper purposes than our material comfort. We must trust him to be good, but trust him enough to let him determine what is good

God’s Good Purposes

SHARE A PRAYER

Check out our website

www.northlakessalvos.com.au

For Our Church Family

at Northlakes & Beyond

HSC students in their final weeks leading up to their examinations

Safety for people travelling interstate & overseas

Healing for Matisse; Kiah-Rose

New small groups—Ladies’ Bible Study

Northlakes Salvation Army Page 4

HAPPY

BIRTHDAY

Wishing you all a fantastic day and

a blessed year ahead!

Love from all your Northlakes Family

For the Salvo’s Salvo care line Sydney, NSW

Salvos legal, THQ—Luke Geary and Team

Salvos stores, THQ—Neville Barrett, Major Brian Unicomb, Major Amanda Choy-Show, Major Robert Sneller, Majors Peter & Eileen Holley, Majors Ron & Ellen McMellon,, Captain Bev Kingston and Team

Samaritan House, Mackay, QLD

Samaritan Services—Major Raewyn Grigg (Director)

Foster House complex & Waterloo Community Ministries, NSW—Majors Russel & Lorraine McLeod, Major Lyall Reese, Majors Peter & Ruth Dollin and Team

Samaritan Services/Orana Women & childrens services, NSW—Captain Patsy Shadbolt, Captain Karen Flemming and team

Calendar Dates:

26th-27th: Social Justice Working Party—Geelong

1st-2nd: Evangelist Network Conference

To pray in Jesus’ name means to pray in his spirit, in his c

compassion, in his love, in his outrage, in his concern. In other words,

it means to pray a prayer that Jesus himself might pray Kenneth L. Wilson

SEPTEMBER Noami Ryan 2

Cody Cutting 3

Sam Hawkins 4

Ross Hughes 5

Natalie Baker 6

Zane Hubbard 6

Ethan Crump 7

Simeon Price 8

Stephen Hannaford 8

Elisha McCabe 10

Mark Resevsky 10

Lorelle Chapman 10

Megan Vile 10

Tina Price 10

Matisse Elliott 11

Jane Evans 12

Melinda Baker 12

Errol Maclachlan 13

Lauren Hubbard-Green 13

Kerrie Burnett 15

Michelle McCabe 16

Jason Roberts 16

Wendy Vile 18

Rita McDermott 22

Lachlan Robertson 24

Cody Chapman 26

Don Lyall 30

October Series

The Royal Rollercoaster

Looking at 4 kings from the Old Testament

Saul David Solomon Jeroboam

Don’t miss what God wants to say to you

through this teaching series.