It has been a gift from God to be able to still gather in such a personal and relatable way during this isolation season. Thank you all for the way you have participated by joining in each week, camera on, ready for fellowship, worship, prayer, and a message. I know it is not ideal but it is still a gift that we ought to thank God for!

I want to encourage you as the fatigue sets in, as the Zoom gets old, as the it becomes more tempting to leave things to the last minute, to multi-task, etc. etc. to:

“…consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” (Heb. 10;24-25)

Let’s make the most of our allotted Zoom gatherings, come ready by preparing your heart to engage joyfully and actively in singing, to come early and stay late (where possible) for the fellowship times, be praying and asking the Lord for prophetic impressions, have your video on, be prepared technologically etc. So that we can make the most of our time.

The reality is, we need these Zoom meetings but the other reality is, they are a lot harder, more draining and more distracting, so it takes more work to prepared for Zoom than a normal Sunday or LG. (You can read an interesting article about the draining affects of Zoom here). But here is what we know for sure: God will meet us as we humbly and hungrily seek Him! So pray for a fresh filling of the Spirit and step out in faith and click that ‘Join Meeting” button, and be prepared for God to move!

Abigail has been doing a truly fantastic job of making epic SG Kids Parramatta TV episodes and so she is going to take a break to rest, catch up on Uni, and plan for future weeks.

Here are some resources you can use to help you fulfill your calling from God, Ephesians 6:4 “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.” It is our privilege, and our responsibility alone to train our children the gospel and how to live in God’s world.

1) Read the bible and pray with your kids for five minutes.

Plain and simple. Pull out the kids bible or even the real deal and choose a story, read it, ask 1 or 2 questions, pray. Done. We all know that we need daily feeding of the word to live, well, so do our kids! Let’s not deprive them of the Word of God! Here is a good challenge put out by Youthworks, the 5-5-5 challenge.

If this is something you don’t yet do everyday, now is the time to start, not tomorrow, not when they are older, start now. Sow the seed and in years to come you will reap the fruit. Don’t wait until they are old enough to understand, or still enough to listen, or mature enough to engage in discussion. This is what God says in Deuteronomy 6:6-9

6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

2) Watch good stuff.

There is lots of stuff to watch. Watch good stuff.

• Rewatch old SG Kids Parramatta episodes!

• City on a Hill have their own online kids show, City Kids TV, just like ours, but not as good ;)

• Kids Talks with Colin Buchanan

3) Listen to Good Stuff

Keep listening to awesome kids music that is biblically true and engaging. Here a few recommendations

• Colin Buchanan, this is a good album to start with.

• Sovereign Grace Kids Music

• Seeds Family Worship

4) Read other good stuff

Buy or borrow good kids books that teach a christian worldview

• https://reformers.com.au/collections/children-early-years

• https://reformers.com.au/collections/children-lower-primary

• I recently bought this book on prayer and have been going through it with the kids, it is short, simple and helpful: ‘What every child should know about prayer’ - Nancy Guthrie

• Other ideas: RC Sproul has kids books, Kevin DeYoung, Chronicles of Narnia, etc.

5) Find out how other parents do stuff.

We aren’t alone in the joy and privilege of parenting. Let’s keep working together as a community of parents helping our kids to know and treasure Jesus. We don’t have to copy each other and we can’t make rules about THE way to parent…but we also need to realise we all need help and can learn from each other.

Here is an example of what we try and do as a family, again, i only share this as ONE example not THE example! It doesn’t have to look like this…but it has to look like something.

• We aim to do a 5 minute family devotion in the morning before i start work, with bible reading and prayer.

• Before starting homeschool Maddie will often do another bible time with the kids

• At dinner we sing grace (e.g. Doxology), and talk about our days, trying to bring God into it.

• Before bed we read a bible story from the kids bible.

• While putting them down we get each kids to pray TSP prayers, (Thankyou, Sorry, Please)

• We pray for them and sing them a hymn/song.

I hope all this helps you! Let’s saturate our kids in God from morning to evening and as we do that, we will find ourselves encouraged and refreshed as well! It ain’t easy, but by the power of the Holy Spirit, we can do it, and me must do it!

Much love,

Riley

A combined SG Churches Australia event for all the men to jump on and think seriously and soberly about our purity.

When: May 8th - 8pm

Where: Online via Zoom or Youtube - details to come

What: a session of worship followed by a Q + A panel: Riley, Brendan, Patrick.

Who: the men!

We had a great night on Sunday discussing how do we battle and fight for sexual purity during our isolation season. Brendan has written a great post here with heaps more resources and ideas if you need help in this area.

https://www.sovgrace.org.au/blog/all/resources-to-fight-for-purity

We have another special guest joining us this weekend for our online service! I can’t wait for you all to meet him, if you haven’t yet already!

A number of us have been gathering on Fridays on Zoom at 12pm to pray for our church and the world during COVID-19. This is open to all. You can fast or not. You can stay for the whole hour…or not. You can just sit in and listen to others praying. Or you can pray and not be on the Zoom at all! But please be praying! See you then: https://zoom.us/j/199220859

Prayer this week will be for our church in particular.

On Sunday we looked at an overview of the ‘Household Code’ in Ephesians 5:21-6:9 and I gave an overview of what the big picture of the jigsaw looks like. I hope that God has inspired us all with a vision for our households. That we are an ordered, fruitful, force for the global glory of Jesus!

Listen to the message here: https://sgparra.org.au/sermons/eph52169-riley-spring

If you have any more questions or want any extra resources on this topic, I would love to talk with you about it!

Abigail has been doing a truly fantastic job of making epic SG Kids Parramatta TV episodes and so she is going to take a break to rest, catch up on Uni, and plan for future weeks.

Here are some resources you can use to help you fulfill your calling from God, Ephesians 6:4 “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.” It is our privilege, and our responsibility alone to train our children the gospel and how to live in God’s world.

1) Read the bible and pray with your kids for five minutes.

Plain and simple. Pull out the kids bible or even the real deal and choose a story, read it, ask 1 or 2 questions, pray. Done. We all know that we need daily feeding of the word to live, well, so do our kids! Let’s not deprive them of the Word of God! Here is a good challenge put out by Youthworks, the 5-5-5 challenge.

If this is something you don’t yet do everyday, now is the time to start, not tomorrow, not when they are older, start now. Sow the seed and in years to come you will reap the fruit. Don’t wait until they are old enough to understand, or still enough to listen, or mature enough to engage in discussion. This is what God says in Deuteronomy 6:6-9

6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

2) Watch good stuff.

There is lots of stuff to watch. Watch good stuff.

• Rewatch old SG Kids Parramatta episodes!

• City on a Hill have their own online kids show, City Kids TV, just like ours, but not as good ;)

• Kids Talks with Colin Buchanan

3) Listen to Good Stuff

Keep listening to awesome kids music that is biblically true and engaging. Here a few recommendations

• Colin Buchanan, this is a good album to start with.

• Sovereign Grace Kids Music

• Seeds Family Worship

4) Read other good stuff

Buy or borrow good kids books that teach a christian worldview

• https://reformers.com.au/collections/children-early-years

• https://reformers.com.au/collections/children-lower-primary

• I recently bought this book on prayer and have been going through it with the kids, it is short, simple and helpful: ‘What every child should know about prayer’ - Nancy Guthrie

• Other ideas: RC Sproul has kids books, Kevin DeYoung, Chronicles of Narnia, etc.

5) Find out how other parents do stuff.

We aren’t alone in the joy and privilege of parenting. Let’s keep working together as a community of parents helping our kids to know and treasure Jesus. We don’t have to copy each other and we can’t make rules about THE way to parent…but we also need to realise we all need help and can learn from each other.

Here is an example of what we try and do as a family, again, i only share this as ONE example not THE example! It doesn’t have to look like this…but it has to look like something.

• We aim to do a 5 minute family devotion in the morning before i start work, with bible reading and prayer.

• Before starting homeschool Maddie will often do another bible time with the kids

• At dinner we sing grace (e.g. Doxology), and talk about our days, trying to bring God into it.

• Before bed we read a bible story from the kids bible.

• While putting them down we get each kids to pray TSP prayers, (Thankyou, Sorry, Please)

• We pray for them and sing them a hymn/song.

I hope all this helps you! Let’s saturate our kids in God from morning to evening and as we do that, we will find ourselves encouraged and refreshed as well! It ain’t easy, but by the power of the Holy Spirit, we can do it, and me must do it!

Much love,

Riley

If you are able to help, the City of Parramatta Council is helping organise an extra collection of non-perishable items for charities which are running low due to the panic buying etc.

Head to https://www.cityofparramatta.nsw.gov.au/living-community/covid-19-donations to find out more information and to see how you can help.

Recently, the Gospel Coalition Aus published an article on the biblical role of Government. It is short, thoughtful and balanced and may help you. Read it here.