Fearing God is not about being scared of God but it means being in reverent awe of God which results in paying the appropriate respect and honour to God and so we will be happy to faithfully obey God. If we live like that, we need not be frightened by anything (that could paralyse with fear of simply make us miserable). That is a powerful message, and it comes from Psalm 112. This forms a pair with Psalm 111 which praises God for God’s character and marvellous works. Psalm 112 describes the blessing and happiness of those who mirror God’s nature. Those who do this may well receive both material and spiritual blessings. Further our families will benefit from the example of our life and commending to our children the protection of God. If we cannot impact on our family, we have less chance of impacting the community. Our lives will also be a blessing to the church congregation, since the Bible shows that we are not meant to be isolated believers but a worshipping community. This is not saying that a Godly character protects us from life’s pain or guarantees health, wealth or success. These are not part of the new covenant where in Jesus Christ we have every blessing that we will need. Even under the first covenant the Psalm itself mentions dark times, receiving bad news and being opposed by enemies. What happens when we are faced with adverse circumstances? Believers with a confident heart and clear conscience know that God is in control and they have to wait for the light. This is an important message for our current world where we can become despondent about the dark times in our community and the poor behaviour of many world leaders. What can we do? The Godly, themselves are a witness in the darkness and can be a source of light. Furthermore, the wicked who have seen these lights and yet opposed them will have no excuse when they face God’s judgement. Ian Olver

What an occasion!This Sunday we are commissioning two new elders, Ben Price and Helen Waldoc, as well as praying for the rest of our eldership team and giving thanks for the many different leaders who are part of what makes BCUC. The church has always been led by those who are called by God and empowered by the Holy Spirit. Right back from the first chapters of Acts, we see the church appointing people to lead.The discipline of leadership is not unique to the church. There have been leaders throughout human history; it seems that whenever groups of people come together, leadership emerges — both good and bad. One of the unique contributions Christianity has brought to leadership is the value of humility (see John Dickson’s book Humilitas). Paul expresses this most clearly in his letter to the Philippians when he challenges believers to have the same mindset as Jesus, who “humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross!” (Philippians 2:8).As we reflect on church leadership, let us also reflect on the value of Christian humility. It may sound counter-intuitive, but to discover humility requires a good deal of self-confidence — or at least security in your identity as a child of God — something I like to call confident humility. C. S. Lewis is well quoted as saying, “True humility is not thinking less of yourself; it’s thinking of yourself less.” Humility is an attitude that can help unlock not just world-shaping leadership, but transformed relationships with yourself, others, and God.Come along or tune in this Sunday as we explore this wonderful Christian value and give thanks for, and support to, the many leaders of BCUC.Other readings:Philippians 2:1–111 Corinthians 1:18–311 Peter 5:1–6Your brother in Christ,Benji

Dear friends of BCUC,There’s been a lot happening in the world lately. As I write this, it is an official Day of Mourning for the victims of the Bondi shootings. There is great concern, and much commentary, about whether we are living through the collapse of the current rules-based world order. It seems that today’s Western society is becoming even more polarised, to the point of violence. We need to rediscover the art of having loving disagreement.Then we have the annual, and often confused, observance of Australia Day. The Uniting Church Assembly asks churches to remember the Sunday prior as a Day of Mourning, to stand in solidarity with Australia’s First Peoples whose pain is real. Are we to see 26 January through the lens of celebration—giving thanks for the many blessings we have in contemporary Australia—or through the lens of colonial invasion and the ongoing oppression of First Peoples? As a follower of Jesus, my heart is predisposed to find joy and give thanks in all circumstances, while also seeking justice and compassion for those who are oppressed and hurting.It’s also the last weekend before children return to school, which brings its own mix of emotions and preparations.Through all that is going on, I find the closing words of the second letter of Peter helpful. He is writing in the context of Jesus’ second coming and the day of the Lord, when the heavens will be set on fire and the elements will melt away. How are we to live until then? Peter draws us back to living out of our values, focusing not so much on the wider problems of the world, but on how we behave in the here and now: “Make every effort to be found living peaceful lives that are pure and blameless in his sight.” And finally, “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18).This Sunday, despite all that is happening in the world, I’d like us to focus on what it means to “grow in grace.” That certainly sounds like something I’d like to do—and it might even change the world along the way.See you Sunday.Your brother in Christ,Benji

Dear friends of BCUC,Happy New Year to you all, and welcome to the wonderful blank page of 2026, ready for God’s Holy Spirit to work amongst us.If your life were a musical or a song, what type of song would you be singing?Would it be a sad song, a love song, or a song of triumph and joy?If you could describe the type of song your life sang in 2025, what would it be? Is it possible that the song you sang wasn’t the same as the song others heard?As we begin 2026, I wonder what sort of song you want your life to be singing this year.Mother Teresa of Calcutta is quoted as saying, “Life is a song—sing it.”The book of Psalms contains 150 songs. This Sunday, we will examine Psalm 40, which joyfully exclaims that the Lord has “given me a new song to sing, a hymn of praise to our God.”What new song will you sing?We may have songs of lament, praise, hope, despair, love, joy, justice, or cries for sympathy. My hope is that this year, no matter what may happen, people will hear my life sing a song of praise to our God. I’m sure I won’t get it right all the time—my rhythm will be off, and the tune of my life will sometimes clash with a melody of praise. However, by the wonderful grace of God found in the work of Jesus, I pray that the great conductor of the universe will correct me and bring me back in to join the chorus once again.What about you?I look forward to seeing you all soon.Your brother in Christ,

The effect of sin in our world is pervasive and deadly, hardening our hearts towards God and numbing us to the concerns of others. Failure to recognise the corrosive damage sin inflicts on our minds and in our world leaves us unable to interpret much of what goes on within and around us. We will be looking at the book of Esther and the decisions of King Xerxes, ruler of the enormous Persian empire, to see how they illustrate this for us. What does this mean for us? Thankfully, God delights to redeem all that sin has corrupted if we choose to turn to him. We are encouraged by Paul in his letter to the Romans not to be conformed to the pattern of this world but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. It is in the light of God’s word and under the influence of the Holy Spirit that God is able to renew us, he does not act without our consent. It is imperative that we recognise our need for renewal in order to be the salt and light that we have been commanded to be for the world around us, pointing to our Father the source of hope for the world.

Happy New Year!The Christmas season celebrating the birth of Jesus - Emmanuel, God with us is coming to a close with Epiphany.  The date for Epiphany is 6 January, but this will be our focus in worship on Sunday.We celebrate the day Jesus was revealed as the king of the world by the magi’s visit to the Christ child.  According to the gospel of Matthew, sages from the East came to Jerusalem seeking the child.  They had observed a new star rising and followed it to find the newborn king of the Jews. An ‘Epiphany’ is a revealing, appearing or manifesting of something or someone.  We sometimes use the phrase, ‘I had an epiphany’, to express something we have suddenly understood or a great idea that has come to us.What is God revealing to you this Epiphany?  How are we as church revealing the light and love of Jesus to others? BlessingsRev. Sue Page

Revelation and indeed the whole bible finishes at Chapter 21 and 22 with a vision of a new heaven and new earth. God says in a loud voice from the throne that tears, sorrow, death, pain and crying will be “gone forever”. Then we see this glorious picture of what the holy city, the new Jerusalem will look like. I remember when our oldest son Jake was about to be born, people kept telling Nicole and me that “when kids come, everything changes”. Aside from a bit of lack of sleep, I couldn’t see then how EVERYTHING would change. Surely not! Besides no-one could explain to me exactly how everything would change. Then when Jake was born… everything changed. New life and a new family, the old life BC (before children) had passed away. It was wonderful and new and it was very different. In some ways I see these chapters about the life to come a bit like trying to explain to my BC self, just how different everything will be. I could try but I wouldn’t really understand until I got there. As with much of the other chapters of Revelation there are layers and layers of imagery and symbolism and wonderful connections to the rest of scripture. It’s like all the loose threads of ideas in the bible from the previous 65 books finally come together to make a truly glorious picture. You finally realise that the main story of the bible that began in Genesis and has been played out through every book since is unchanged, there is remarkable consistency, despite the constant change in author. “I will be their God, and they will be my people”. It’s about God dwelling with us, loving us, wanting to be close. It has always been about relationship not religion. In the end there is a beautiful picture of this finally happening, God with us.As we get to the end of Revelation, I wonder what new things have you learnt about God, about Jesus (remember this is the revelation of Jesus the Messiah) about the world and yourself? What has God been saying to you? Why not spend some time in reflection thinking about these questions.I look forward to seeing you this Sunday, we will have Holy Communion also.Your brother in Christ,Benji

Dear friends of BCUC,  The wisdom of ِEcclesiates says “There is a time for a war and a time for peace” On Tuesday 11th November people paused for a minutes silence to remember the time when the guns of World War 1 stopped firing over Europe after 4 years of conflict caused 40 million casualties. Revelation chapters 17-20 is about the final battle. It's a description of the final battles between the Messiah and Satan which eventually ends with Satan being defeated for all time. This is a great source of hope for us. If we are faithful to Christ we can achieve life with the eternal God. It does not mean that we cannot be tempted by evil, so we should be vigilant. It does mean that Satan cannot overpower us if we remain true to Christ who wins the battle over evil for all time.  We should not be put off by the imagery in Revelation since much of it comes from the Old Testament and would be familiar to the Jews, but what we must take from it is our great source of hope though Christ that we can gain eternal life. We look forward to you joining us this Sunday and afterwards for the AGM. Your brothers in ChristIan Olver and Benji Callen

Cultures throughout the world have long traditions of some form of Harvest Thanksgiving festival from the Moon Festival in China, Chuseok in Korea, Pongal in South India, Thanksgiving in the US, and even Pentecost in Jesus time. There’s much celebration and grateful thanks when the first harvest comes in and then when the final fruits are brought into the storehouses to prepare for a long winter. It means survival, the hope of being fed and not going hungry, life into the future is possible. I noticed living in the Eyre Peninsula that when the harvest is good (and the grain prices are too), spirits are high and lifted up.Throughout the bible the image of great and final harvest has been used as a metaphor for the final “Day of the Lord”. Jesus talked about this final day of judgment when the harvest would come, the grain kept while the separated chaff is burnt. In the second half of Revelation Chapter 14 we see this metaphor of the Day of the Lord coming like 2 harvests. One of grain and the other grapes that are then pressed into blood in the winepress of wrath. This echoes the same message of the prophet Joel Chapter 3: 13-14Swing the sickle,    for the harvest is ripe.Come, trample the grapes,    for the winepress is full    and the vats overflow—so great is their wickedness!”Multitudes, multitudes    in the valley of decision!For the day of the Lord is near    in the valley of decision.We are then left in the “valley of decision”. God is slow to judge and will give us every opportunity. To follow Jesus in our actions and beliefs or to ignore God and go our own way. As Jesus said the harvest is plentiful and cause of festival celebrations throughout the world. When the harvest comes people celebrate at the promise of life.Your brother in ChristBenji

Again, we see a piece full of signs and symbols. There is a pregnant woman who is about to give birth to a child who will rule all the nations with an iron sceptre. That child is Jesus. The woman, however, rather than representing Mary represents the chosen people, the Church, from which the lineage of Jesus comes. The next image is Satan. In the Old Testament Satan is part of the complement of heaven. Satan means ‘adversary’ and for example when Satan states that Job is faithful to God only because he has had such a good life, Satan is sent by God to earth to challenge Job and make him suffer. However since then Satan has changed and through pride wants to challenge God. Satan is now depicted as a 7 headed dragon, with complete power over a Kingdom of chaos opposed to God. He goes to earth to destroy the child, but Jesus is snatched back to heaven, and the mother is transported by God to the desert for safety. Satan pursues the Messiah to heaven but the archangel Michael, who is the defender of mankind, defeats Satan and banishes him from heaven forever.Satan returns to earth full of vengeance to punish the child by attacking the mother, the church. He does this by delegating to 2 entities represented by beasts. The first, the beast of the sea, is the Roman Empire and all it offers. The second, the beast of the land, is the requirement for Romans to declare Ceasar as Lord once each year under pain of death. However, if Christians remain faithful to Jesus, even if the consequence is martyrdom, then they cannot be harmed because Satan has been defeated by Jesus on the cross.What does it mean for the church today? The adversary has been defeated by Jesus on the cross for all time and we need no longer fear being challenged by the accuser as long as we remain true to Christ. Or as Charles Wesley so elegantly put it, “No condemnation now I dread, Jesus and all in Him is mine”.(Revelation 12-14) Ian Olver