CRU Update

At CRU group last Friday, we continued our journey through the Old Testament book of Isaiah as we considered our attitude towards God. Following Isaac Lanham’s reading of Isaiah 38:10-20, Nathanael Robertson guided us through this section of the book with some helpful reflections. Beginning with some context, Nathanael told us about how just before this, God delivered His people through an angel who struck down 185,000 Assyrians at once. Following that, King Hezekiah became sick and was close to death.

However, Hezekiah prayed to God, and God promised him another 15 years of life, and it was so. Hezekiah’s prayer in response showed his change in mood from anguish to thankfulness. 

After his recovery though, representatives from Babylon came with gifts and a letter, and Hezekiah showed off his possessions and his palace proudly. When Isaiah found out, he reported to Hezekiah that God promised to give all of Hezekiah’s treasures to Babylon and take away his descendants. Instead of being scared, Hezekiah was selfish, thinking everything would remain okay in his lifetime. Nathanael noted how this should make us reconsider whether Hezekiah really meant what he said in that earlier prayer.

This passage shows us that God keeps his promises. One promise he has made is that Jesus will return to judge. Knowing that God keeps his promises, we could say the two certainties in life are death and judgment. So we should not be like Hezekiah, making promises to God that we will not keep in exchange for His mercy. Our obedience should not be dependent on any particular mercy or reward from God, or any specific act from anyone else. Instead, we should fear His judgement with reverence, and trust and obey Jesus, who has taken the judgement we deserve on Himself for us, so we may have eternal life with God. We look forward to continuing to explore Isaiah next Friday lunchtime in the Christian Studies building.

Shore-Roseville CRU Catch Up

I wonder what you think your greatest need in life is? Maybe you want to make the top sports team or top your class in your next exam. We saw at the Shore-Roseville CRU gathering last Friday what our greatest need really is.

After School on Friday afternoon, Shore hosted Roseville College for our termly Shore-Roseville CRU gathering. We began with some icebreakers and food before studying God’s Word in Mark 2, considering the story of the paralysed man who was lowered through the roof by his friends since there was no other way to take him to Jesus. Reverend Benn challenged us to consider what we thought our greatest need in life was. From the passage, we saw how Jesus, instead of immediately healing the man, demonstrated that He can forgive sins, and that this is a greater need than anything. After forgiving the man’s sins, he told him to rise and walk, and the man was able to walk. This showed us that Jesus is God, so He does have the authority to forgive sins on earth.

While most of the crowds were amazed, the religious leaders were not impressed, considering this to be blasphemy. From what they knew, only God could forgive sins, but they did not realise who Jesus really was. Instead of being hard-hearted like the Jewish leaders, we should have faith like the man’s friends. It is our faith that saves us, because Jesus has died in our place, the death we deserve, so we can also have our sins forgiven.

After this, we briefly heard from both schools about how their CRU group was going, and we had the opportunity to pray for each other in groups. We look forward to our next Shore-Roseville catch up next Term.

Daniel Becker
Year 11