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Fassifern Lutheran Parish, Boonah/Rathdowney Road, Boonah (2026)

01/10/2026

West Moreton Zone Ladies Fellowship Day at Boonah Lutheran Church - Bishop Ben Henschke addresses the group. 30th Sept.

28/09/2026

Pastor’s Pondering: SIN - no.1143
The greatest blessing any person can have in life is the forgiveness of their sins! Just think about what the forgiveness from God brings to you. Firstly, it brings you into a relationship with the Creator of the universe. It brings you a favourable relationship of peace rather than a relationship of wrath and rejection. It brings you into such an intimate relationship that you can actually call your Creator ‘Abba’, Father!
This relationship is one totally established for you by God. You did nothing to warrant God’s love, grace or mercy toward you. It wasn’t that you were just indifferent toward God, in fact you were the enemy of God. God adopted you into this family relationship despite your natural inclination of hostility and resentment towards God.
The relationship God established with you is an eternal relationship! It’s not just for this life that you have peace and blessing from God. You have an eternal destiny with your Creator and your Father.
It wasn’t that God just decided to forgive your sins or turn a blind eye to them. A holy and just God couldn’t do that! Your sin had to be dealt with and God knew that you could do nothing to fix the situation for yourself. So, “When the time was right, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law to redeem those under the law, that we might receive the full rights of sons”. (Galatians 4:4-5)
Jesus came into this world to be your substitute, and the substitute for all humanity, because he lived the life that you were intended to live free of sin, and then Jesus took the punishment that was due to you because of your sin!
If you think of the suffering and death of Jesus and think that this was so that your sins could be atoned for, then you are doing Jesus a great injustice! Yes, the suffering and death of Jesus was not the real punishment that Jesus endured in order to pay the penalty for your sin. “The wages of sin is death”, so the scripture says. The reason all people die is because “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God”. What comes after we die? When we die that’s not the end of us. Our death means we enter the eternity of God. Where do sinners go for eternity? Jesus describes it as a place where there’s weeping and gnashing of teeth, a place of burning sulphur, a lake of fire, and eternal punishment! That’s the punishment Jesus endured for you when he was punished in your place on the cross! Jesus endured hell so that you nor any other person need ever end up there!
Jesus cried out from the cross, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me”. In death we are not forsaken by God, but there is a place where sinners are forsaken, and that’s hell! That’s the true punishment that Jesus went through for you when he took your place on the cross.
In the Apostles’ Creed we confess, “I believe in the forgiveness of sins”! To be forgiven by God is what every person needs more than anything else in life. You have that forgiveness as you declare in the Nicene Creed, “one baptism for the forgiveness of sins”! Treasure the forgiveness that God imparts to you because of your faith in Jesus and never despise it or take it for granted. What God gives to you freely cost God greatly. God suffered hell so that you won’t!
Don’t belittle sin! Sin is our rebellion towards God. We might say that some sins are worse than others, but all sin deserves hell. Adam simply ate what he was forbidden.
Sin is what you do, what you say, what you think! Sin is not just those bad things, but sin includes the good things God wants us to do that we don’t do! What’s more, sin is who you are! You were a sinner from the time of your conception, having inherited a sinful nature that goes back to our very first parents. Sin is part of your DNA!
It’s no wonder Jesus said that you must be born again of water and the Spirit to enter the kingdom of heaven. God basically rebuilds us when we come to faith. We are baptized in a “washing of regeneration”.
Rejoice friend to know that you are forgiven. Even though you still live with sin, through faith in Jesus you’re at the same time in a forgiven state with God by your faith in Jesus.

27/09/2026

You are most welcome to join us for worship, and the other activities we hold as Church.
Our Son-day worship services are as follows -
Boonah 8 a.m.
Kalbar 9:45 a.m.
Harrisville 8 a.m. first Sunday of the month
10 a.m. third Sunday of the month
5 p.m. other Sundays
For further information
please contact Pr. Peter Geyer 5463 2050

27/09/2026

THANKSGIVING CELEBRATION at Boonah Lutheran ⚡️

27/09/2026

Poor Wally!
A flock of ducks were flying in formation, heading south for the winter. They formed a beautiful V in the sky and were admired by everyone who saw them from below.
One day, Wally, one of the wild ducks following in the formation spotted something on the ground that caught his eye. It was a shed where a flock of tame ducks lived on a farm. They were waddling around on the ground, quacking merrily and eating the grain that was given to them each day. Wally liked what he saw. “It would be nice to have some of that grain”, he thought to himself. “And all of this flying is very tiring. I think I’d like to stop and waddle around for a while.”
So, after thinking it over, Wally left the formation of wild ducks, made a sharp turn, and headed for that enclosure and the shed. He landed among the tame ducks and began to waddle around and quack merrily, eating the grain. The formation of wild ducks continued their journey but Wally didn’t care. “I’ll rejoin them in a few months’ time when they come this way again”, he thought to himself.
Several months went by and sure enough, Wally spotted the flock of wild ducks flying overhead in formation. They looked beautiful up there and so graceful! Wally was getting a bit tired of life in this enclosure and the same old food each day. It was muddy and everywhere he waddled there was duck poo! “It’s time to leave”, Wally decided!
He flapped his wings furiously and tried to get airborne, but he’d gained some weight from all of that grain and the lack of exercise. He finally got off the ground, but he couldn’t get any height and soon slammed into the fence. He fell to the ground and tried a couple more times but with the same result. “Oh well, I’ll just stay here and look after myself and rejoin the wild ducks next time they fly over”, he thought to himself.
Months down the track when the wild ducks flew over again in beautiful formation, Wally again tried to lift himself off the ground in an attempt to rejoin them, but he simply didn’t have the strength. Every year the wild ducks would fly over and some would call out to him to join them, but Wally had become a tame duck sharing the destiny of the other tame ducks.
Jesus calls all people to follow him. He wishes to lead them to peace, safety and everlasting life. Some times we get tired of following Jesus and think that we know what’s best for ourselves. It’s not easy to be a Christian and disciplining ourselves to go God’s way rather than our own. When we give up on God it’s really the devil tempting us to leave the formation and to join the rest of the tame ducks and share their fate.
When Wally gave up on what he instinctively knew in his heart, he thought he was making the right choice. Later when he came to his senses, he found he couldn’t break free of the lifestyle he had adapted to. Sin is like that! It traps us and changes us into people that we don’t even want to be! Eventually we succumb to the voices in the world around us to stay with them and despite the pleading of the ones flying overhead, we become sitting ducks!
Jesus said once long ago and again to us today, “Come, follow me”, as he desires all people to accept the forgiveness he has won for them, and to journey with him to life in all its fullest!

23/09/2026

Dear fellow siblings in the family of God,
We sing about it, but do we believe it!
“One family we’re together, Bind us together Lord, May we be one, Part of the family, Father welcomes…”
Do we live it!
Peace and presence in Jesus’ name,
Pr. Peter

Pastor’s Pondering: Love the family - no.1142

Someone once said that you can choose your friends, but you can’t choose your family. We can choose to love others but we’re stuck with our family, “for better and for worse”!
Think about growing up in your family if you had brothers and sisters. Did you always get along? Were their rivalries and jealousies at time? Did you fight? What about your relationship with mum and dad? Can you honestly say that you always had nothing but love for them, knowing that the decisions they made and the restrictions they imposed on you were for your safety and wellbeing? Maybe you despised them at times thinking they were a hindrance and wishing only to stop you having fun!
I’m reminded of a funny story! A mother came home with a brand-new fur coat that she’d just bought at the shop. When her daughter saw it she was horrified. “Mum, you should be ashamed of yourself wearing that fur coat. Don’t you know that some poor dumb animal suffered so that you could own that coat?” The mother looked at her daughter and angrily replied, “Don’t you dare speak about your father like that”!
Chances are that as you grew up and matured you started to appreciate mum and dad and the sacrifices they made to give you a good education and ground you in morality and a wholesome worldview. Chances are that as you grew you started to appreciate your siblings as well. “Blood is thicker than water”, as the saying goes.
The Bible tells us to love our neighbour as ourselves. A man once asked Jesus what he had to do to be saved. Jesus referred him to the scripture. “Love the Lord your God and love your neighbour”. He then told him a parable about a benevolent Samaritan who came to the aid of a needy Jew (Luke 10) to illustrate just who our neighbour is! My experience is that in the church we can be very welcoming to visitors. Maybe they’ll come back if we make the worship experience warm and friendly for them. I’ve seen congregation members gather around visitors before and after service wanting to get to know them and to ensure we are truly interested in them. At the same time, I’ve looked around to see other members of the church sitting on their own after service, seemingly ignored by others.
“You can choose your friends, but you can’t choose your family.” Visitors will come and go, but the members of your church will remain to faithfully be there each Sunday to support your church and to be there for you. Don’t ignore family – your church family! They are the ones you will be with for eternity. Your church family is more important than your biological family. The members of your church are the ones you will be with and love in heaven. Get to know them, befriend them. Learn to love them!
It’s easy to neglect the young teenager standing on his own after church with a coffee in his hand because it’s been a long time since you were a teenager and you feel you don’t have much in common.
It’s easy to shun old Mrs. Klumkermeir after church because she’s as deaf as a post or else she talks so much that you can’t get away. She’s probably very lonely!
“Love your neighbour”, the scripture reminds us, because in this way we are really showing and proving our love for God. The members of our church are our neighbour and more than that they’re our family.
Maybe you’ve had a falling out with a particular member of the church. What do you do? Do you ignore that person from then on and think that God justifies your attitude. Jesus was very explicit; “If you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive you”. (Matthew 6:15) If there are tensions in relationships between you and others at church, “blessed are the peacemakers”! Be the one to greet the other person after church, start a conversation, and offer to pass them the TimTams!
The early church grew not so much by persuasive arguments and sound theology, but simply by the love Christians showed to one another. “See how much they love each other”, pagans exclaimed when they saw the life of the Christian community. Can we regain that witness for our faith in the church again?
It all comes back to us as individuals when we commit to genuinely loving the Lord God for having loved us and proving that love for God by loving our neighbour and especially our family as ourselves.

09/09/2026

Pastor’s Pondering
Can I be a Christian and not go to church? - no.1140

My short answer is NO! From the beginning God gave us a 7-day week which tells us of his basic plan for regulating our lives. We have 6 days to work and do what’s needed, but the seventh day is a day for rest with the Lord and a break from our work. Ok, you might argue that the Ten Commandmrnts were given to Israel and not to us and that Jesus has freed us from the Law by fulfilling the Law on our behalf. That’s true, “For freedom Christ has set us free” (Galatians 5:1), but are we free now to murder, commit adultery, serve other gods? No, we’re not! We’re free from the obligation of the Law to live under the recommendation of the Law. The Commandments show us the will of God and what’s beneficial for how we live our lives. The Sabbath with its strict ceremonial regulations for the people of Israel also has a moral component which is abiding for Christians today.
The principle of a Sabbath rest goes back to Genesis and the 7-day week. The principle remains, but Christian freedom allows for variation, and that’s why most Christians choose to worship on Sunday which was the day of Jesus’ resurrection. “The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath”, said Jesus illustrating that we don’t keep the Sabbath because it’s a law, but because it’s a principal God put in place for our wellbeing. The New Testament states clearly, “Let us not hesitate to meet together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another, and all the more as you see the day of the Lord drawing near” (Hebrews 10:25).
In short, we worship one day a week because that’s the Sabbath rest God wants for us so we can connect with him and our fellow Christians and be refreshed and renewed by the gospel.
Can I be a Christian and not got to church? Can I go without food and still remain alive?
You can go without food for a while, but in the long term you will die. To stay away from God’s means of grace, which is his Word and Sacrament for an extended period will mean that faith will die. Paul says “Do not let sin rule in your body”, meaning that we should not let bad habits and the sin of disobeying God, lead us astray and eventually destroy our faith.
Going to worship regularly is normal practise for sincere Christians. Sure, there are some people who because of age, sickness, or circumstances such as hospital, cannot attend church, but this is the exception. If you’re away on holidays, go and find a reputable church! To be an ‘active communicant member’ of a Lutheran congregation means that you will attend Holy Communion at least 4 times a year, but who wants to be a minimalist!
Jesus himself said “Do this often in remembrance of me”, in regard to receiving his body and blood for the forgiveness of our sins!
Can I watch a worship service on tv or on YouTube instead? Firstly, not all churches are the same and some of the material preached is quite false and heretical, so attending a good Bible based church regularly keeps you grounded in the truth and comfort of God’s Word. Secondly, watching someone eat a meal is no substitute for eating a meal yourself. The church is the people of God and when you absent yourself from the congregation of believers you are cutting yourself off from the very family of God, and the body of Christ.
What about the objection that church is boring! If anyone says that, it’s saying more about them than the service, because what God is doing is never boring despite the human element in worship. Satan will throw every objection at you not to attend worship regularly, but “resist him, standing strong in the faith”. The more you go to worship, the more you will want to go to church. The more you hear God’s Word, the more you will want to hear God’s Word and receive his Supper.
What could possibly be more important than your relationship with God? Is it mowing the lawn, lunch with your family, playing golf? If everyone was paid a hundred dollars to come to church I guess churches would be full, but something worth more than money is given by God each Sunday!
Can I be a Christian and not got to church? It’s possible, at least for a while, but it’s not good and it’s not in compliance with God’s will for you.

01/09/2026

Pastor’s Pondering: Know Your Constitution - no.1139

If you’re like most Lutheran congregations, you’ll have quarterly Congregation meetings or something similar. Why is that? Well, probably because the constitution stipulates that we are to meet quarterly. The constitution and its bylaws set the rules for many of the activities and committees of the congregation. It also defines the job descriptions of the various office bearers.
The LCA has a ‘model constitution’ that most congregations are required to conform to.
I don’t know how familiar most church members are with their own constitution, or where they could even get their hands on a copy! I doubt if many know what’s in that document at all.
Included in that document is a job description for the pastor and also for the congregation.
Let me quote to you what that constitution says in that regard –
“The duties of the pastor shall be
a. to preach the Word of God and administer the Holy Sacraments according to the Confession of the congregation.
b. to exercise pastoral oversight over all organisations and activities of the congregation.
c. to live an exemplary life.
d. to visit the sick, the infirm, the destitute and the afflicted, and to exercise pastoral care among the members of the congregation.
e. to devote himself diligently to the instruction and training of the young.
f. to comfort, instruct, reprove, admonish and warn, both publicly and privately, the members of the congregation as the Word of God directs (2 Timothy 4:1-5).
g. to equip and help members to fulfil their Christian ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ.
h. to be mindful of his calling as a winner of souls, both within and without the congregation.
i. to be responsible for the keeping and preservation of accurate congregational records.
j. to exercise as much as possible his right to attend the meetings of all committees and organisations of the congregation.
k. to submit a written pastoral report to the annual meeting of the congregation.
The duties of members shall be
a. to strive to remain true to the baptismal covenant.
b. to make diligent use of the Means of Grace, joining regularly in hearing the Word of God and partaking of the Lord’s Supper.
c. to lead a Christian life in love, humility and peace, endeavouring through admonition, consolation and encouragement to edify one another.
d. to present their children for Holy Baptism in early infancy and diligently to nurture them in the Christian faith in the home and in the schools provided by the congregation.
e. to study the scriptures in private and family devotions in the home.
f. to promote the unity and welfare of the congregation as a family of God.
g. to express their gratitude to God for his material gifts and blessings by contributing regularly towards the financial support of the congregation and of the church as the Lord has prospered them.
h. to support the Pastor in his work in the congregation and community through prayer and personal concern for his spiritual and material welfare.
i. to avoid holding membership in antichristian societies.”
There you have it! Not as binding as scripture itself, but you could hardly deny that these things are all grounded in scripture and proceed from Christian love and a response to the gospel.
How did you fair as you read the duties assigned to you as a member of your congregation?
Can you put a tick next to all of those duties entrusted to you?
Can your pastor put a tick to all of the duties delegated to him?
We are all a work in progress! If we’re going to take seriously our regular congregation meetings, then we should also take serious these other responsibilities the constitute dictates. By the way, the constitution also states, “It shall be the duty of every member entitled to vote to attend the meetings of the congregation unless unable to do so”. How do you fair on that one?
Thank God we are saved by grace and not be our works! Amen.😊

29/08/2026

You are most welcome to join us for worship, and the other activities we hold as Church.
Our Son-day worship services are as follows -
Boonah 8 a.m.
Kalbar 9:45 a.m.
Harrisville 8 a.m. first Sunday of the month
10 a.m. third Sunday of the month
5 p.m. other Sundays
For further information
please contact Pr. Peter Geyer 5463 2050.

27/08/2026

Pr. Peter was at Hoya Lutheran cemetery.

Fassifern Lutheran Parish

01/10/2026

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