Kariong Community Baptist Church

10/06/2026

Domestic and family violence affects people across all ages and backgrounds. More than 1,910 assaults were recorded in 2025 on the Central Coast alone.

We are proud to be partnering with the Central Coast Domestic Violence Committee (CCDVC) to strengthen prevention, education and community leadership.

A free two‑day community forum will be held at Gosford Regional Library to help locals recognise early signs of domestic and family violence, respond safely and connect people to support.

If you are able and interested in attending, see details below:
🗓️Day 1: Building awareness and understanding - 22 June 2026
🗓️Day 2: Taking action and putting it into practice - 27 July 2026

These sessions are practical, inclusive and designed for anyone who wants to help create a safer Central Coast.

Register here for the two‑day community forum: https://www.centralcoast.nsw.gov.au/whats-on/council/free-two-day-community-forum-recognise-respond-prevent-domestic-and-family

To learn more or access resources visit the CCDVC website: https://www.ccdvc.org.au/

06/05/2026

In the darkest of nights…

Some years ago a candle was lit in a heart overwhelmed in inky darkness. The Light of the world burned warm and bright, touching a candle wick that never knew such delight. Light to see true beauty. Warmth to share. A heart now pulsating with love and hope never known. The world changed.

The winds of time might blow. The delicate flame might bend and flicker. Yet is never extinguished. A flame of faith. A light deep within. Unseen. No matter the pain. Or the chaos. Or suffering. Sometimes even doubt. The Light of the world lit in a heart endures. It always will.

The darkness? Does it push in? Is it trying to overwhelm? Surrounding? Smothering? Smothering the breath? The air so desperately needed? Is the flame struggling? All that remains is a glow? An ember of warmth, but little light? Faith all but gone?

All but gone. But not gone. A smouldering wick he will not s***f out (Isa 42:3). A breath of his Spirit and the ember bursts into light and warmth again. Have courage. Have hope. Have faith. In him is life, and that life is the light of all humanity. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness will not overcome it (John 1:4-5).

21/04/2026

Retired Colonel Arthur Burke OAM reflects on Gallipoli like this; “On 25 April 1915 a new world was born. A new side of man's character was revealed. The Spirit of ANZAC was kindled. It flared with a previously unknown, almost superhuman strength. There was a determination, a zest, a drive which swept up from the beaches on Gallipoli Peninsula as the ANZACs thrust forward with their torch of freedom. As they fell, they threw those following the torch so their quest would maintain its momentum. That Torch of Freedom has continually been thrown from falling hands, has kindled in the catchers' souls a zeal and desire for both our individual liberty and our countries' liberty. That desire has been handed down with the memory and burns as brightly as the flame which first kindled it."

Sometimes, not unlike the ANZACs at Gallipoli we might find ourselves in the trenches under constant enemy fire. We might find ourselves oppressed and suppressed. We might find ourselves in a hole that requires superhuman courage to climb out of.

Yet our Spirit is the Spirit of God. Our torch is the Light of the world.

We look up and down the trenches to see our sisters and brothers “hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed”. 2Corinthians 4:8

Yet we declare, “Victory is ours!” because of what the Lord has done. And we leap from the trenches with our banner raised high and charge forward without fear or trepidation. For His sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered, because we know that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.

16/04/2026

Anyone who has any insight into my agricultural ability would laugh at the notion of my part time employment on a farm when I was studying to become a pastor. However, while my natural ability was questionable my ability to learn wasn’t.

One thing I learned was that horses need water. When the farm owner and I walked past the horse’s automated water trough he was horrified to see it was bone dry. The fellow responsible for maintenance had assumed the water was automatically flowing into the trough. He hadn’t even taken the time to check. As far as he was concerned, the horses were still upright so everything must be alright! Fortunately, some quick adjustments to the ‘tap’ allowed the water to flow again.

Maintenance becomes multi-faceted. Maintaining something requires keeping an eye on things. Perhaps the first thing to look at: “Is there water in the trough?” No? The second thing to look at might be the tap: “Why is there no water flowing through?”

Jesus said, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink, and rivers of living water will flow from within them.” Our maintenance questions? Is our ‘trough’ full? Is the water flowing? In this case the water would be flowing out of the trough, so I guess another place we might want to look is the ‘tap’ that fills it up.

Right near the end of the Good Book there’s a beautiful picture the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God. Maintenance question? How’s the flow going today? Perhaps it’s worth staying connected with the throne room every day?

08/04/2026

I recall the sense of complete devastation when I realised I had accidentally bought skim milk. Why would anyone do that in the first place? Why would they deliberately remove the ‘cream’? So, I looked around the house. Yep. No one there. A stealthy walk to the fridge. Yep again. A small container of fresh cream. Another quick scan. Yep. No one there. In it goes and the beauty of milk restored to its former glory.

Follow me for more tips. No added sugar? Easily rectified. “Salt Reduced” on the label? I can fix that too. Imagine your Maccas fries without salt. Definitely not a yep. Salt reduced? Whack it back in again.

I hope my doctor doesn’t read this! After all, healthy choices are actually the real deal. But back in the day before fridges salt wasn’t a bad choice. Sure, salt added flavour, but it was an extremely valuable preservative too. Things lasted when preserved with salt.

In our chaotic world one of the most difficult things to preserve is peace. My favourite book tells me that if I take on the flavour of Jesus my flavour will be peace. “Have salt among yourselves, and be at peace with each other” (Mark 9:50). Things last when preserved with salt.

My bible has no suggestions for skim milk. What about salt reduced? “Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can you make it salty again?” Whack it back in. Let Jesus be your flavour. Personal peace. Peace with one another. Tastes good.

02/04/2026

Ancient Jerusalem really was a dry and dusty place, both in the natural and in the spiritual. It was the kind of place that even if you did wash well it didn’t take too long to be dirty again. This happened in the natural and in the spiritual, because in the spiritual they relied on a sacrifice system that required constantly returning to be cleansed again. Get yourself clean, next thing you know you’re dirty again, so back for another sacrifice.

The Bible says, “On that day a fountain will be opened to the house of David and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and impurity.” (Zechariah 13:1)

The ‘day’ would come when every person could be cleansed. Every person. A fountain for kings and paupers, for presidents and junkies, for executives and the unemployed, for the rich and the poor, for the well fed and the starving, for the fortunate and the downtrodden, for the winners and the losers, for the healthy and the afflicted. But the fountain Zechariah referred to flowed not with water, but with the grace of God.

On Friday we hung Him on the cross. Our rejection drove in the nails. On Friday His body was broken, because we thought we could live without Him. On Friday His blood poured out and flowed down His body dripping to the ground, because we didn’t believe He loved us. On Friday He was entombed in the ground, given over to death.

Then that day came. The Bible tells us the angels who moved the stone were bright and shining like lightning. They were brilliantly white. I can imagine as they moved the stone the first crack of even more brilliant light appeared. An amazingly bright light squeezing through, just like in a Spielberg movie. Then as the stone moved further the crack of light became a flood. A flood of light. A flood of grace. The stone was moved. The fountain was opened.

31/03/2026

25/03/2026

The good book says: "He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver." This verse puzzled some women in a Bible study and they wondered what this statement meant about the character and nature of God. One of the women offered to find out the process of refining silver and get back to the group at their next Bible Study. That week, the woman called a silversmith and made an appointment to watch him at work. She didn't mention anything about the reason for her interest beyond her curiosity about the process of refining silver.

As she watched the silversmith, he held a piece of silver over the fire and let it heat up. He explained that in refining silver, one needed to hold the silver in the middle of the fire where the flames were hottest so as to burn away all the impurities.

The woman thought about God holding us in such a hot spot; then she thought again about the verse that says: "He sits as a refiner and purifier of silver." She asked the silversmith if it was true that he had to sit there in front of the fire the whole time the silver was being refined. The man answered that he not only had to sit there holding the silver, but he had to keep his eyes on the silver the entire time it was in the fire. If the silver was left a moment too long in the flames, it would be destroyed.

The woman was silent for a moment. Then she asked the silversmith, "How do you know when the silver is fully refined?" He smiled at her and answered, "Oh, that's easy, when I see my image in it."

If today you are feeling the heat of the fire, remember that God has his eye on you and will keep watching and refining you as His image emerges in you.

12/03/2026

Hey Google, what does generous mean? An expected answer: “Larger or more plentiful than is usual or necessary.” An unexpected answer? One who is “free from pettiness in character and mind.”

I like that. “Free from pettiness in character and mind.” Many who know me also know my eagerness to find freedom in a world that all too often dictates captivity. What might happen when generosity kicks in? We might worry less about what we want and consider what we actually need. There’s freedom in that. We might realise we actually have enough – enough for us and enough to share. There’s freedom in that. A popular concept these days is FOMO (fear of missing out). How about freedom from fear?

And, with a good dose of gratitude for what we have, we may see the plight of others. Here we find freedom for the giver and the receiver. The Good Book says, “A generous person will prosper; whoever refreshes others will be refreshed. “Proverbs 11:25 Freedom and blessings. It keeps getting better.

Free from pettiness in character and mind. Same Good Book: “Who Jesus sets free is free indeed.” Free to share generously. Free to love generously.

04/03/2026

I can see clearly now, the rain is gone, I can see all obstacles in my way. Gone are the dark clouds that had me blind. It's gonna be a bright, bright sun-shiny day.

Some of you are humming already. Not you? Try YouTube.

The songs continues… “I think I can make it now, the pain is gone. All of the bad feelings have disappeared. Here is the rainbow I've been prayin' for.” In the midst of the early 1970s music scene was a certain optimism. A hope for a bright and clear future. Perhaps, with the benefit if hindsight, we might be left wondering. Wondering how those who embraced the optimism might be feeling now.

Some millennium ago a learned man wrote to his protégé. “You weren’t given a spirit of fear and uncertainty. You were given a spirit of power, love and a clear mind.” You can see clearly now. You can see all obstacles in your way. Gone are the dark clouds that had you blind.

How so? In the original language “power” and “love” become dynamic, unstoppable and unconditional love that changes things. Changes things forever. Allow this love to embrace and encompass you, and you will be able to see clearly.

Go on. You know you want to. Do the YouTube thing. While you’re at it, check out 2Timothy 1:7 in the Good Book. This love of God is dynamic and unstoppable. Even the darkest moments can become a bright, bright sun-shiny day.