Armadale Congregational Church in Armadale, Western Australia | Community organisation

Armadale Congregational Church

Locality: Armadale, Western Australia

Phone: +61 8 9497 1444

Address: 150 Forrest Road 6112 Armadale, WA, Australia

Website: http://www.armadalechurch.org/

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25.01.2022 God receives none but those who are forsaken, restores health to none but those who are sick, gives sight to none but the blind, and life to one but the dead. He does not give saintliness to any but sinners, nor wisdom to any but fools. In short: He has mercy on none but the wretched and gives grace to none but those who are in disgrace. Therefore no arrogant saint, or just or wise man can be material for God, neither can he do the work of God, but he remains confined within his own work and makes of himself a fictitious, ostensible, false, and deceitful saint, that is, a hypocrite. - Martin Luther W.A. 1.183ff

23.01.2022 Join us this Sunday morning as we catch up with the Hofstras and welcome the ladies of Shalom House to join our fellowship and share their stories.

22.01.2022 One Week to go, there is still time to register for Perth Men's Convention. Be part of the 20th Convention Next Saturday 14 August. No walk-ins register before the event.

21.01.2022 "Remember, therefore, it is not your hold of Christ that saves youit is Christ; it is not your joy in Christ that saves youit is Christ; it is not even faith ...in Christ, though that be the instrumentit is Christ’s blood and merits; therefore, look not so much to your hand with which you are grasping Christ, as to Christ; look not to your hope, but to Jesus, the source of your hope; look not to your faith, but to Jesus, the author and finisher of your faith. We shall never find happiness by looking at our prayers, our doings, or our feelings; it is what Jesus is, not what we are, that gives rest to the soul." - Spurgeon See more

21.01.2022 I moved house when I was 21, to a suburb in Brisbane. One of my new neighbours said that the other neighbours were religious fanatics. I knew I needed help, th...ough, and it was Easter Thursday, so I drove around my suburb looking for a church advertising their Easter services. I couldn’t find one, so I knocked on the door of the ‘religious fanatics’. I said, Excuse me, I don’t want to bother you, but could I come to church with you tomorrow? The woman was overjoyed! I didn’t know why she was so excited. We went the next day. I thought it was a little bit weird, but afterwards, everyone was friendly, so I went back on Easter Sunday. That’s when I heard the gospel preached. They sang that hymn, ‘Just as I am, without one plea.’ I wanted to go down the front for prayer. Other people were going down, but in those days, I wore short miniskirts and high heels and I didn’t want to walk down the aisle in my short skirt. But the guy kept speaking and I thought if what he says is true, and if God really does love me, and he sent his Son to die for me, and if I can know his peace, then I want this Jesus! I’m going down that aisle, short skirt or no short skirt! I went down and I prayed. I trusted in Jesus and I grew in my faith from then. It’s been a really long journey, but I know that God is faithful. In 2002, my daughter died. It was a hot December day. She was 29. I can’t describe it to you. My son saw it first on the TV. There had been a murder in Goondiwindi. The police rang and said the words every parent dreads to hear. I’m sorry to inform you that your daughter has been murdered. We found out later that five people were responsible. Three of them are still in gaol, including her ex-husband my son-in-law. There’s so much I could tell you so much pain. It’s a big, long, awful story. She left three children, aged 8,9,11. At first the children lived with me, and then they lived with my other daughter. The court case was a year or two later. We found out that drugs and alcohol were the fuel for it. Somehow, after the court case, I walked over to my son-in-law and I eyeballed him. I asked him how he was. Later, I took the kids to see him in jail. None of us knew what to say. But I kept going back to see him, regularly and slowly, he said sorry. He was repentant. He was on suicide watch. He asked me if I could forgive him. I can’t say when it happened, but from the first day I knew I wanted to forgive him. Over time, I did. I believe it was a gift from God. I could never do it myself. God did something in my heart and it’s been a release. It’s been healing. If I hadn’t been able to forgive, I know I would’ve been crippled by hatred and bitterness. It’s been a long journey over 20 years, and some of our family members are still wrestling with it. I tell them that forgiveness isn’t easy. It doesn’t mean you ever have to see the person again. You don’t have to come up with the strength yourself. You can say to God, I can’t do this. Sometimes I say to other people, especially mothers who are grieving their children, that I wish I had the answers. I don’t. I don’t know why God allows things. All I know is that he loves us, and that when hard things happen, God hurts as well. In those times, he wants us to press harder into him. Lately, we’ve been singing this song at church. ‘I've had many tears and sorrows but through it all, I've learned to trust in Jesus, I've learned to trust in God. I've learned to depend upon his word.’ That’s my testimony. I’m 74 and I’ve had many tears and sorrows, but I’ve learnt trust in God. Destiny's story is part of Eternity’s Faith Stories series, compiled by Naomi Reed. For more Faith Stories, go to: https://www.eternitynews.com.au/faith-stories/

19.01.2022 I was born in Singapore in 1975. My mother was a staunch Buddhist-Taoist. We had an altar in the living room and I’d walk past it and burn incense there. I res...pected the deity and I believed in the spirit world. It was part of our family tradition. In Singapore, there’s a feeling of uncertainty about life and the future, so we would go to the Buddhist temple and pray for protection, peace and wealth. We had a general idea of doing good, for the purpose of securing a place in heaven. Of course, in Buddhist thinking, there are 18 levels of hell. Humans are always reincarnating and coming back as something else. But if we do good things on earth, the higher chance we’ll have of reaching heaven, or at least of not being in such a bad level of hell. In Chinese culture, it’s the worst kind of curse to reach the 18th level of hell nobody wants to reincarnate as a cockroach everyone wants to come back at least as a human. But mostly when I was growing up I had questions about my purpose. What am I doing here? Where did I come from? I learnt about evolution in high school, which made me happy for a while, but then I started to question again. Where did the first amoeba come from, or the first particle? It seemed so random. The more I studied biology, the more I thought that there must be a designer. When I was 15, I had a close friend who had a really bad temper. He used to torture cats. He couldn’t control himself. Then one day he became a Christian. I was shocked. He came from a Buddhist-Taoist background like me. I noticed that after he became a Christian, his temper disappeared dramatically. Of course I wanted to know how he changed. I’d never seen power like that! So I asked my friend how he changed, and he told me about Jesus. He started by telling me there was a Creator God, a designer. He told me about Adam and Eve. It sounded like a fairy tale. At the same time, I noticed some other people doing Christian street evangelism. They were quite intrusive and I hated that, so I avoided them. I didn’t really understand it. Then in my late teens, I was at the beach with some friends, lying on the sand, and staring at the stars in the sky. I asked my friend, Where did the stars come from? Where did I come from? She said, God made you. So I said, Where did God come from? She said, God is God. It sounded like a simple answer. I pondered it for days. Then I said to my friend, I would like to know this God who made me. She led me in the sinner’s prayer. It was good, but I didn’t fully understand it, mainly because I didn’t think I was a sinner. I was aspiring to be a social worker! But I prayed the prayer with her, and afterwards, she gave me a Bible. I immediately devoured it. It was the new King James Version, so it wasn’t an easy read, but it was full of life! I started with the Gospels. I couldn’t stop reading. Jesus was not like anyone I’d ever met. But I still didn’t understand sin, or my need for a saviour. It took another few years. In that time, I gradually stopped praying to the Buddhist deity. My mum was very upset and she prohibited me from going to church. I really wanted to go, but I waited. And after about a year, she let me go to a Christian camp. The speaker explained the Gospel again and I understood it that time. I couldn’t be good enough and Jesus died for me. I responded and everything has changed since then. After another year, my mum let me go to church! It was the happiest day of my life! And when I was 21, I was baptized! Later, I married my husband and we went and served with a Christian mission in the Middle East, during the Arab Spring but that’s another story. Christy’s story is part of Eternity’s Faith Stories series. Click here for more Faith Stories: https://www.eternitynews.com.au/faith-stories/

18.01.2022 Mission Month continues with WEC and the McNultys this Sunday @9:30am

18.01.2022 This Sunday we celebrate Reformation Sunday!

18.01.2022 Next week and through the month of October Growth Groups are looking at a DVD series in the Reformation (October 31st is Reformation Day). Join us! Speak with Forrest about joining or starting a Growth group.

17.01.2022 Matthew 16:18 I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. In 1505, the Lord put the fear of God into a lowly law student named... Martin Luther. The Lord had met Luther scorching from the heavens with a lightning bolt sent directly into his path. In this light speed collision between heaven and earth, Luther was knocked off his feet, and being terrified for his life (as the legend goes) he called to Saint Anne saying, I will become a monk! For the duration of Luther’s studies, he was known to be a rather erratic man; even somewhat obsessive, not mention he had an excessive amount of flatulence. He would spend hours in confession; due to his deep convictions of sin. Most of his counterparts looked at him as a rather odd man. Luther was full of conviction and flatulence with a little dash of OCD; which seemed to spawn from his near-death experience. Twelve years later, on October 31, 1517, through deep study and repentance, Martin Luther wanting to spark local debate, nailed his 95 Thesis to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany. Little did Luther know that akin to his near-death experience, the Lord sent a Luther-bolt to knock the Roman Catholic Church off its feet. In this era of history the common man did not have access to the Scriptures; not to mention that most people were not able to read the widely used Latin Text. Thus the free association of Scripture was suppressed, and it was only through a controlled education that one could gain the ability to read and interpret Scripture. Therefore the Bible was interpreted through the lens of the Roman Catholic Church, which held society in an indoctrinating choke-hold; A choke-hold that stopped the flow of Scripture to the minds of men, making them dazed easier to be held captive to the Roman Catholic Church. Since Scripture was held captive by the hands of the Roman Catholic Church, the poverty of biblical illiteracy was a plague to the masses and society. The Roman Catholic Church was then able to manipulate doctrine through the traditions of men Sola Ecclesia, which brought about the dogmas of penance and indulgences without being challenged. Luther argued that the issues of penance and indulgences are that the traditions are not rooted in Scripture, and it makes justification by grace through faith non-existent. The idea was that after death there is a place in which the soul is transported, called purgatory. It is in purgatory where the soul is being purged from its remaining sin before being able to enter into heaven. To speed up this process for dead loved ones, people were able to buy indulgences. Indulgences would act as a form of monetary penance. Once purchased, they would either shorten the time their loved one would spend in purgatory or shorten the time they would spend in purgatory. The only way to obtain penance would have been from the Roman Catholic authority; thus a vicious circle of power kept the coins in the coffer full. Luther saw the practice of penance and indulgences as a man-made tradition that claimed to honor Scripture but instead fill the pockets of the Roman Catholic Church. Needless to say, the 95 Thesis nailed to the door of the Castle Church sent a Luther-bolt that sparked a wildfire. What was meant to just start a debate went all the way up to the big wigs. Luther was then excommunicated in 1521 by Pope Leo X and summoned to defend his position before the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V at the Diet of Worms. It was there where Luther’s life hung in the balance. The Diet of Worms was an imperial council meeting in which the quirky and rather erratic Luther was asked to renounce his books that were being paraded before the court. However, the quirky Luther asked for a day to think about it; the council rejoined the next day. Upon rejoining, the erratic Luther empowered by Scripture refused to recant his books and stated the famous phrase, I neither can nor will retract anything; for it cannot be either safe or honest for a Christian to speak against his conscience. Here I stand; I cannot do otherwise; God help me! After the council, Luther went into hiding for the better part of a year for the Edict of Worms determined that Luther’s writings were to be heresy. It was then that it was demanded that Luther was to be captured and handed over to the Emperor. This marked the beginning of the Reformation. The Lord used a quirky erratic man to send a shockwave through the Roman Catholic Church. This led to the translation of the Scriptures to the common man so that by the Holy Spirit the individual can be led to the truth. This is what is celebrated today, the fact is that throughout time, God has used simple men to preserve his word. There has been no Great Apostasy as the cults would like to state, this belief is simply contrary to actual Church History. Instead, we rest on the promise that Christ has established his Church on the rock that is His sacrifice. It is by standing on Christ's perfect sacrifice that the Church will never be destroyed. Instead, Christ proclaims that gates of Hell could never withstand the ever-expanding power of the Gospel. The King of the Universe has declared the end from the beginning. He has charged us Christians to earnestly contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. The Church was not built upon the foundations of fallen men, the Church was built upon the willing sacrifice of the God-Man, Jesus Christ. It is in His perfection, death, and resurrection that He is now seated at the right hand of God where the Father is placing all things under His feet, and He uses imperfect people to accomplish His goals - Martin Luther was one of them.

16.01.2022 One small way you can support those in Afghanistan - please take a minute to sign! Great to see a diverse range of Christians in a rare show of unity for this critical humanitarian issue.

15.01.2022 Join us as we start a new series in the 10 Commandments this Sunday: 10 Rules for Life: An antidote to chaos and beyond religion

14.01.2022 Deaf Ministries International. The Cameron family know many of these people personally.

13.01.2022 Tomorrow @9:30am we continue in the weird and wild world of Ezekiel!

13.01.2022 Our six-week Growth Group study on the Image of God starts this week. Join us!

11.01.2022 Great wisdom from Spurgeon.

09.01.2022 This Sunday Jason Fairclough brings us God's word, and updates us on how the Faircloughs are going on their journey to Italy for mission next year.

08.01.2022 Two Weeks to go until PMC 2021. There is still time to register

07.01.2022 Is the Exodus History? The latest episode of the undeceptions podcast with John Dickson explores this with Egyptologist and leading Exodus scholar Professor James Hoffmeier. https://undeceptions.com/

06.01.2022 One of the joys of PMC is 700 Blokes all singing. Get your vocals ready by listening to our 2021 PMC Playlist https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6VY7yW1NrYmqwqJ4GXhtzG

06.01.2022 A snapshot of what it means for one family to follow Jesus in China over the last two days. Pray for our brothers and sisters in China.

05.01.2022 A call for help! This Saturday we are aiming to blitz Bill Sampsons yard - as it needs a lot of work and is health is not good at all (he is on strict instuctions not to lift anything or do anything strenuous). Let me (Forrest) know if you can be there and show Bill how much we value this precious brother in Christ. Anytime this Saturday would work, but we're aiming to be there from 11am till sometime in the afternoon. Come along, even for a half-hour of weeding!

05.01.2022 Inktober Day 26: John Owen - 17th century English theologian and administrator at Oxford University. - Best known for his weighty thoughts and convicting writings on sin and sanctification. - "The Mortification of Sin" is one of his most well known works.

03.01.2022 Register Today!

02.01.2022 Our theme this week is "Taking God Seriously"