23 Then he got into the boat and his disciples followed him. 24 Suddenly a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. 25 The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!”26 He replied, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm.27 The men were amazed and asked, “What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!”REFLECTIONSWritten by Monica LyIn reading this well-known Gospel story, I still find myself puzzled by the interaction between the disciples and Jesus. At first glance, I can certainly empathise with the disciples’ fear of the storm. I also find Jesus’ response to their plea for help quite odd; rather than comfort them, he points to their lack of faith and says that they shouldn’t have been afraid in this situation.However, as I ponder further the ease and the authority with which Jesus calms the storm simply by His word, I begin to see that this can only be the same authority and power of the one God who rules over the seas. God is the one who has the power to still the waves and control the frightening chaos of the storm (Ps 65:7, 89:9; 107:29). This act points to Jesus’ divine nature: Jesus is God-become-flesh. The disciples simply didn’t understand that, so they had no idea of his true authority and sovereignty.The irony by the end of the passage is that their fear of the storm is redirected; they no longer fear the storm, instead they look at Jesus with fear and amazement (see Luke 8:25). But that is a step forward, since God is the only One we should fear with a reverent fear.My original empathy with the disciples’ reaction makes me wonder if I, like them, hold onto a similar small view of Jesus? I know that Jesus is God, but how deep is that conviction – especially when I face storms in my own life? Perhaps like the disciples I need my fear and reverence redirected towards the one who has sovereignty over all the chaos in this universe; the one who has authority to judge the living and the dead; the only one who can shield us from the ultimate storm of God’s wrath. Only then, in the calm and stillness of my own heart, will the praise, adoration and worship of “our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ” flourish (Titus 2:13).QUESTIONWhat things are you afraid of? Why can you trust Jesus with those things?ABOUT THE AUTHORMonica is a member of our Fairfield morning congregation.

18 When Jesus saw the crowd around him, he gave orders to cross to the other side of the lake. 19 Then a teacher of the law came to him and said, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.”20 Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”21 Another disciple said to him, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”22 But Jesus told him, “Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.”REFLECTIONSWritten by Eric Zhou“Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”What a weird response to a seemingly keen recruit! One might think Jesus is trying to scare people away! But what I think Jesus is doing is simply being upfront about the commitment and sacrifice required to follow him. He wants us to know what we're getting into when we choose to follow him. Following Jesus will require giving up many earthly comforts. He doesn't want us to get into the race thinking it's a 100m sprint when it's a 40km marathon.So now that we know it's going to be hard, why bother? Is it worth it?Something that struck me was the way Jesus referred to himself here – “the Son of Man”, which comes from Daniel 7:13-14 (read it if you’re not familiar with it). In Daniel, “the Son of Man” is the one who would be given dominion, glory and a kingdom – yet during his time on earth, he didn’t even have a pillow, let alone a home!Why?Because the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many (Matt 20:28).He did that to reconcile all things to God, by making peace through his blood (Col 1:20)so that we might have life and have it to the full. (John 10:10)So is following Jesus worth it? Absolutely!Which nuggets of biblical truths do you turn to, to remind yourself that following Jesus is very much worth the cost? Is there a friend you can share this with? – that it is costly but worth it to follow Jesus.QUESTIONWhat do you think is the hardest thing about following Jesus?ABOUT THE AUTHOREric is a member of our Bossley Park morning congregation.

14 When Jesus came into Peter’s house, he saw Peter’s mother-in-law lying in bed with a fever. 15 He touched her hand and the fever left her, and she got up and began to wait on him.16 When evening came, many who were demon-possessed were brought to him, and he drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick.17 This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah:“He took up our infirmities     and bore our diseases.”REFLECTIONSWritten by Brian MacgeorgeIn these verses Matthew records two healing events. First, he heals Peter’s mother-in-law, and then many people are brought to him and he casts out spirits or heals them. We are not told whether any of these people had faith and or whether they responded with transformed lives. So why does Matthew mention them?It might be partly because these were some of Jesus’ earliest healing miracles. But there is something else about these events that Matthew wants us to know. In verse 17, he tells us that they were to fulfill Isaiah 53:4, which says: “He took up our infirmities and bore our diseases”. Matthew is reminding us that a long time before Jesus came, God had promised through Isaiah to send a Servant-Messiah who would relieve their pain and suffering. So the big deal here is that Jesus is doing the things that God had promised the Messiah would do! Matthew is not saying that this COULD be the Messiah, but that Jesus IS FULFILLING that promise; he IS the Messiah! In fact, when we look back at the whole of Isaiah 53, it shows without a doubt that this man Jesus is the one God promised to send. Isaiah 53 points not just to Jesus’ healing miracles, but to how he took up and dealt with our sin through his suffering, crucifixion, burial, resurrection and ascension.These healings are important to me because they are proof that God keeps his promises, and sometimes I need to be reminded of that.Only this morning, two of our grandchildren suffered grave disappointment from a failed promise. The promise, which they found online, was a method to create a ‘bouncing egg’ by soaking a raw egg in vinegar. The resulting egg burst open upon first impact with the kitchen floor! The children were very sad that the promise had not been fulfilled. I pointed out that this was a reminder that life comes with many unfulfilled promises, but we know that in Jesus, all God’s promises ARE fulfilled!“For no matter how many promises God has made, they are ‘Yes’ in Christ.” (2 Corinthians 1:20)QUESTIONWhat kind of healing can Jesus give us that is even better than being healed when we are sick? (You could look up Isaiah 53:5.)ABOUT THE AUTHORBrian is a member of our Fairfield early and morning congregations.

5 When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help. 6 “Lord,” he said, “my servant lies at home paralyzed, suffering terribly.”7 Jesus said to him, “Shall I come and heal him?”8 The centurion replied, “Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. 9 For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”10 When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him, “Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. 11 I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. 12 But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”13 Then Jesus said to the centurion, “Go! Let it be done just as you believed it would.” And his servant was healed at that moment.REFLECTIONSWritten by Chris MacgeorgeBrian and I have been to Capernaum. These days it’s a beautifully serene lakeside town where visitors can wander amongst the ruins and contemplate the magnificence of the Son of God actually performing miracles here ... and up those mountains ... and out on that water.But go back to the 1st century and imagine the shock of watching Jesus being approached by a Roman army officer. A centurion in the Roman army had 100 soldiers at his command. He was a powerful man, probably extremely busy in the management of this rough and rebellious corner of the Roman Empire. How extraordinary that he addressed a humble teacher of the oppressed nation as “Lord”. How extraordinary that this powerful man knew and cared that one of his servants was sick. How extraordinary that he recognised Jesus’ authority and that he counted himself, with all his own authority, as unworthy for Jesus to visit.Jesus commends this “great faith” and grants his request to “just say the word” and heal his servant. So we learn that “great faith” comes from recognising two things: that Jesus has absolute power over all of creation and that we are totally unworthy to approach him. Easy to say – but do our lives reflect that? I’m very good at firing off requests for God to help in this or that situation. But I’m still learning to submit humbly and bring my life, all of it, under his authority.What about the Jewish people who were watching on? Jesus didn’t only heal the foreigner’s servant. He also delivered a further shock by saying that foreigners would enter the kingdom of heaven and, even worse, that Jewish people would be thrown out!At church we have been learning from Paul’s letter to the Christians in Rome that entry to God’s kingdom is open to all, Jews and Gentiles, because Jesus died for us. Jesus’ onlookers that day didn’t yet know what he would ultimately do for them. As we travel with Jesus in this devotions series, will you join me in praying that we can grow in humble gratitude to the Lord who secured our salvation?QUESTIONWhat does it mean that Jesus has authority over everything?ABOUT THE AUTHORChris likes taking advantage of any opportunity to relive past travel experiences while in this season of staying at home.

1 When Jesus came down from the mountainside, large crowds followed him. 2 A man with leprosy came and knelt before him and said, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.”3 Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” Immediately he was cleansed of his leprosy. 4 Then Jesus said to him, “See that you don’t tell anyone. But go, show yourself to the priestand offer the gift Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”REFLECTIONSWritten by Stephen SheadThis month in our daily devotions, we will work through Matthew chapters 8 to 11. Jesus has just finished his famous “Sermon on the Mount” (June’s devotions), where he showed that he is the great Teacher who has come to bring God’s kingdom.I love today’s verses. I spent my early childhood in India where my parents were missionaries. We lived near a Christian rehabilitation centre for lepers, and we saw first-hand how leprosy isn’t just an illness, it also turns people into outcasts. Lepers in India are not allowed to touch anything belonging to someone else – if they do, whatever they touched has to be destroyed.In Israel in Jesus’ timne, lepers and people with skin diseases were also outcasts. In fact, in the Old Testament Law, any disease affecting the skin made you ceremonially “unclean”. Skin diseases symbolised the way sin cuts us off from God and also tends to “spread” to those around us, so lepers could not go into the temple to worship God and could not touch or go near anybody else.This leper somehow knows that Jesus can heal him, though he doesn’t just ask to be healed. He asks Jesus to make him “clean” – not just physically better, but also to take away his sin and guilt and shame.I find verse 3 so moving. It’s a beautiful picture of the tender love of Jesus for people like this outcast. Jesus could have healed and cleansed him just with a word. But instead, he chooses to touch him as well. A normal person would have become defiled by doing that, but in this case, the leper is healed and made clean before God as well. Jesus’ cleansing power is more infectious than the leper’s disease!All of us are like this leper spiritually, until we turn to Jesus, ask him to take away our sin and shame and make us clean before God. Do you know his cleansing touch? Thank him today!QUESTIONIf you asked Jesus to forgive your sins, do you think he would be willing to?ABOUT THE AUTHORStephen is our Senior Minister and leads our Bossley Park Congregation. He is a bit sad that the footy and AFL seasons are over, but is trying to make up for it by keeping up with the American NFL season.

18 The sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham and Japheth. (Ham was the father of Canaan.) 19 These were the three sons of Noah, and from them came the people who were scattered over the whole earth.20 Noah, a man of the soil, proceeded to plant a vineyard. 21 When he drank some of its wine, he became drunk and lay uncovered inside his tent. 22 Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father naked and told his two brothers outside. 23 But Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it across their shoulders; then they walked in backward and covered their father’s naked body. Their faces were turned the other way so that they would not see their father naked.24 When Noah awoke from his wine and found out what his youngest son had done to him, 25 he said,“Cursed be Canaan!     The lowest of slaves     will he be to his brothers.”26 He also said,“Praise be to the Lord, the God of Shem!     May Canaan be the slave of Shem. 27 May God extend Japheth’s territory;     may Japheth live in the tents of Shem,     and may Canaan be the slave of Japheth.”28 After the flood Noah lived 350 years. 29 Noah lived a total of 950 years, and then he died.REFLECTIONSWritten by Sam DarmoOh, come on Noah, are you serious – you too? I thought you were a righteous man and someone who obeyed God’s words and faithfully followed His commandments. What happened?What happened is that Noah got drunk and made a fool of himself before his own sons. Instead of being a role model to his own children and leading by example, he got drunk.His youngest son, like the snake in the garden, was going to cause his brothers to stumble, but unlike Adam and Eve, Shem and Japheth didn’t listen to him. Instead, they covered the shame of their beloved father and would not dare to see his nakedness (1 Peter 4:8). Adam and Eve knew they were naked before God and they hid from Him (Gen 3:10), Noah was so drunk he didn’t even realise the stumbling block he had become.Noah’s error revealed the hearts of his own children. How we react in bad situations reveals our hearts too.Like Noah, we all have fallen short of God’s glory. But God in His abundant mercy, grace and love dealt with our sinfulness once and for all time and Has declared us righteous in His sight through His Son Jesus, who covered our nakedness by His own blood (Romans 3:21-26)QUESTIONAre you ever tempted to make someone else feel ashamed – maybe when other people are making fun of them? How can you be a good example for Christ in that situation?ABOUT THE AUTHORSam Darmo is an Assistant Minister with our Assyrian and Arabic churches, as well as our Fairfield English Morning Church.

1 Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. 2 The fear and dread of you will fall on all the beasts of the earth, and on all the birds in the sky, on every creature that moves along the ground, and on all the fish in the sea; they are given into your hands. 3 Everything that lives and moves about will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.4 “But you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it. 5 And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. And from each human being, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of another human being.6 “Whoever sheds human blood,     by humans shall their blood be shed; for in the image of God     has God made mankind.7 As for you, be fruitful and increase in number; multiply on the earth and increase upon it.”8 Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him: 9 “I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you 10 and with every living creature that was with you—the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you—every living creature on earth. 11 I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.”12 And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: 13 I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth.14 Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, 15 I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. 16 Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.”17 So God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and all life on the earth.”REFLECTIONSWritten by Sam DarmoIn verse 1, after God saved Noah’s family through the ark, he blessed them with the same words he said to Adam and Eve in Genesis 1:28: “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth.” Like Adam and Eve, God gave Noah’s family some simple rules to follow in the rebooted creation after the flood. He warned them not to commit murder like Cain did to Abel his own brother.And God made a covenant with all life on the earth not to destroy it again through a flood like He did with Noah’s generation. Every time we see a rainbow, we can remember that God set it in the sky as a sign to remind all people of His mercy in not destroying us as we deserve.This covenant did not depend on Noah’s descendants obeying his commands. It was a covenant that God made to preserve people until Jesus came and paid the price to reconcile us back to God and bring us into his family for all time (Col 1.22).QUESTIONKids, ask your parents or guardians: What does it mean for God to make a promise (covenant) with us? And what can we remember when we see a rainbow?ABOUT THE AUTHORSam Darmo is an Assistant Minister with our Assyrian and Arabic churches, as well as our Fairfield English Morning Church.

20 Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it.21 The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.22 “As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.”REFLECTIONSWritten by Sam DarmoNoah’s response to God saving him and his family was to offer a sacrifice. Although it pleased God because it came from a man of faith, God still reminded Noah that the human heart was still evil, including the hearts of Noah and his family members (as we’ll see in a couple of days).But God offered His Son Jesus Christ as a once-for-all-time sacrifice (Heb 7:27) and with it came the gift of our hearts being made new (Ezek. 36:26) and conformed to the image of His Son (Rom 8:29).God will not flood the earth again to punish humanity in the same way He did during the times of Noah. Even though people are still evil, he promised that they would enjoy the blessing of regular days and seasons. But the day of the Lord is coming (2 Peter 3:10) and with it the final judgement.Respond by thanking God that he causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, even today (Matthew 5:45). And thank him even more that he has dealt with our sins through His own precious and beloved Son Jesus Christ.QUESTIONWhat do you thank God for today?ABOUT THE AUTHORSam Darmo is an Assistant Minister with our Assyrian and Arabic churches, as well as our Fairfield English Morning Church.

But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark, and he sent a wind over the earth, and the waters receded. 2 Now the springs of the deep and the floodgates of the heavens had been closed, and the rain had stopped falling from the sky. 3 The water receded steadily from the earth. At the end of the hundred and fifty days the water had gone down, 4 and on the seventeenth day of the seventh month the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. 5 The waters continued to recede until the tenth month, and on the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains became visible.6 After forty days Noah opened a window he had made in the ark 7 and sent out a raven, and it kept flying back and forth until the water had dried up from the earth. 8 Then he sent out a dove to see if the water had receded from the surface of the ground. 9 But the dove could find nowhere to perch because there was water over all the surface of the earth; so it returned to Noah in the ark. He reached out his hand and took the dove and brought it back to himself in the ark. 10 He waited seven more days and again sent out the dove from the ark. 11 When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf! Then Noah knew that the water had receded from the earth. 12 He waited seven more days and sent the dove out again, but this time it did not return to him.13 By the first day of the first month of Noah’s six hundred and first year, the water had dried up from the earth. Noah then removed the covering from the ark and saw that the surface of the ground was dry.14 By the twenty-seventh day of the second month the earth was completely dry.15 Then God said to Noah, 16 “Come out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and their wives. 17 Bring out every kind of living creature that is with you—the birds, the animals, and all the creatures that move along the ground—so they can multiply on the earth and be fruitful and increase in number on it.”18 So Noah came out, together with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives. 19 All the animals and all the creatures that move along the ground and all the birds—everything that moves on land—came out of the ark, one kind after another.REFLECTIONSWritten by Sam Darmo“But God remembered Noah”. What comforting words! We may sometimes feel like we are forgotten by God, but God always remembers his people. Jesus said that we are in his Father’s hands, and no one will snatch us out (John 10:28-29).A dove with an olive leaf gave Noah the message that the flood waters had receded. There was now no one else around, just a washed earth and a new start. There was no more violence, trouble, stealing, killing, abuse or anything bad. Everyone who could bring grief to God and trouble to His righteous people were gone, at least for the moment.In the New Testament, The Holy Spirit descended onto Jesus Christ like a dove at His baptism. This dove didn’t just bring an olive leaf as a sign of hope as it was for Noah, He brought us the announcement of the arrival of the Son of God, who came from God our Father to bring us assured salvation.QUESTIONImagine if you were one of Noah’s sons or daughters-in-law. How would you have felt when you came off the boat to a land where there was no one else around?ABOUT THE AUTHORSam Darmo is an Assistant Minister with our Assyrian and Arabic churches, as well as our Fairfield English Morning Church.

Today’s passage is again a bit longer than normal.1 The Lord then said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and your whole family, because I have found you righteous in this generation. 2 Take with you seven pairs of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and one pair of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate, 3 and also seven pairs of every kind of bird, male and female, to keep their various kinds alive throughout the earth. 4 Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living creature I have made.”5 And Noah did all that the Lord commanded him.6 Noah was six hundred years old when the floodwaters came on the earth. 7 And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives entered the ark to escape the waters of the flood. 8 Pairs of clean and unclean animals, of birds and of all creatures that move along the ground, 9 male and female, came to Noah and entered the ark, as God had commanded Noah. 10 And after the seven days the floodwaters came on the earth.11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, on the seventeenth day of the second month—on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened. 12 And rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights.13 On that very day Noah and his sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth, together with his wife and the wives of his three sons, entered the ark.14 They had with them every wild animal according to its kind, all livestock according to their kinds, every creature that moves along the ground according to its kind and every bird according to its kind,everything with wings. 15 Pairs of all creatures that have the breath of life in them came to Noah and entered the ark. 16 The animals going in were male and female of every living thing, as God had commanded Noah. Then the Lord shut him in.17 For forty days the flood kept coming on the earth, and as the waters increased they lifted the ark high above the earth. 18 The waters rose and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the water. 19 They rose greatly on the earth, and all the high mountains under the entire heavens were covered. 20 The waters rose and covered the mountains to a depth of more than fifteen cubits. 21 Every living thing that moved on land perished—birds, livestock, wild animals, all the creatures that swarm over the earth, and all mankind. 22 Everything on dry land that had the breath of life in its nostrils died. 23 Every living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out; people and animals and the creatures that move along the ground and the birds were wiped from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those with him in the ark.24 The waters flooded the earth for a hundred and fifty days.REFLECTIONSWritten by Sam DarmoIn creation, God formed the land by separating the water above from the water below (Genesis 1:7-9). Today, we see how God reversed that process to judge the world, as he caused the water to burst from the “great deep” and pour down from the sky (verse 11). But the lives of Noah and his family were saved because God shut them in the ark (verse 16). Outside the ark, the whole world died.Colossians 3:3-4 says this about us as Christians: “For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.” Jesus is hidden from the world’s sight now at the right hand of God, but he will be revealed, and our lives will be safe in him despite the chaos outside.QUESTIONWhen Jesus returns, God will destroy everything in the world again. How can you