What's ahead

After a few weeks of quiet, I suddenly have found myself in the middle of some hectic times and things that I really need to knuckle down and spend doing. It unfortunately means that I've got some long periods behind the desk rather than meeting people ahead of me.

Here's a couple of pictures of my dining table as I go about preparing my Judges talks.





Last Sunday, I preached on Jephthah from Judges (you can listen to it here!) - a guy who tries to bargain with God by using his mouth. Ultimately leads to him making a vow to the LORD which sees him sacrificing his daughter. It really challenged me with my words before God and whether they mirror the conviction of my own heart

This week, its Samson - so far, I've discovered that he's a guy with an extrordinary birth (he's declared a judge before he's even born) and death (he achieves more thru killing the Philistines with him in his death than when he was alive).

Other things that lie ahead which I'd appreciate your prayer for include:

- Leading service on 30 July
- Making further progress on the new well-being ministry with ECOM
- Maitland Alive Training Day 2
- English Houseparty planning meeting
- Brisbane Leadership Training (leading a workshop on 'Demystifying Worship' with Teresa
- Preaching on the parable of the rich fool from Luke

And then, there's a holiday as I spend a week with Teresa after Brisbane Leadership Training on a road trip making our way from Noosa to Byron Bay.......I'm really looking forward to it!!

Things to do on a day off

One of the challenges in ministry I'm learning is to take a day off. To take a rest and enjoy God's providence and creation. I've been reminded of this through two things:

1. Pete's talk on work at Workers InC the other week.

2. Karen Beilharz's Couldn't Help Noticing blurb in the June Briefing

So here's my wishlist of things to do on future days off (usually Monday). I'd write it on my whiteboard, but its just too cluttered at the moment! Especially with that "Do not erase until 2010" which is right in the middle of the whole thing!

a. Do a tour of Vinnies and Salvation Army stores like I did today with my brother and dad and pick up stacks of bargains!! First I was converted by Tree, then I converted Derek and I think Dad is starting to get converted! Especially after he came so close to buying some photo frames and we bought him a pretty David Jones nice tie for $2.

Meanwhile, Derek bought this for me...



Only $6 and it fitted perfectly!

And I bought this for Tree! Believe it or not 50c each for mint condition copies!



b. Hire a bike and cycle at the Bi-centennial Park at Homebush with their dedicated cycling paths

c. Go to an indoor rock climing centre and pretend to be a monkey for a day. This one is the closest to us

d. Watch a movie....(that one is pretty obvious) but even better when its the Greater Union $8 movie of the week!

e. Hire any 3 DVDs (new releases, weeklies...whatever!) for $9.95 from Video Ezy Chatswood

f. Have a onion and gruyere crouton soup at this place that we walked past last Monday.

g. Go for a scenic drive (difficult considering petrol keeps getting more and more expensive)

h. Do some exercise/go for a walk (eg. Bondi to Bronte, Manly to Spit)

i. Read a book at home

j. Clean the house :(

Anyone else got any suggestions/recommendations??

Strange coincidence

Over the last 48 hrs, I've asked two non-Christians over the course of a conversation "What's stopping you from becoming a Christian"

Funnily enough, both of them said something along the lines of:"I need more time to investigate it more. To understand it better.....I think I want to read the entire Bible first before I make a decision so that I know what I'm making a commitment about."

Both times I've heard this I've been amazed.....read the Bible cover to cover??!!

I must admit, I've never heard anyone testify that they read the entire Bible first before becoming a Christian, but maybe that is how God is working in the hearts of these two guys.

Maybe its also a sign of the way people choose to make decisions these days....cautiously, with a healthy degree of scepticism....after all, you don't sign on the dotted line of a contract to buy a car, or a house without dotting the 'i's and crossing the 't's first and reading it from start to finish. Maybe this is the equivalent format of someone deciding to becoming a Christian.

In response to hearing their answer, I re-iterated that you don’t have to read the whole bible first to become a Christian because Christianity ultimately depends on your answer to who Jesus is. Once you have understood why he needed to die and the reason why he rose again, that’s all you need.

But at the same time there is the need to heed the warning of judgment and your own frailty. Jesus may return before you make your decision and if you haven't asked for forgiveness and repented then you might be found on the wrong side of his judgment. Or you simply don't know how long you have left to live....you're life might continue for another 50, 60 more years, it could last another 50, 60 more minutes?


Having said all that, I'm learning to be patient, to trust in God's sovereignty and timing, to keep praying that the Spirit would turn their hearts from stone to flesh. It's a humbling experience for me as I learn that people won't just automatically become Christians as soon as they hear the gospel (though i don't doubt that they can't) - to not be frustrated at a lack of response is a valubale lesson to learn in ministry. After all, its not me and my 'wise' words that will convince people. Instead, it's up to God to water the seed that has been planted (1 Cor 3:6-9)

Anyone else want to make a suggestion/comment? Anyone else heard something similar? Post away!

Thanks Matthias Media

One of the things that I think we often take for granted in Christian ministry is a publishing house like Matthias Media.

Personally, I know that when I purchase a product from them, I have a high level of comfort of its quality - both in terms of its Biblical/evangelical outlook and perspective as well as value for money.

I can trust that the material is well researched and reliable.

Here's some recent experiences I've had:

1. Recently, I finished reading "Is it worth believing? The Spiritual Challenge of the Da Vinci Code" by Greg Clarke. A good read as it outlines in more depth some of the errors within the book. However, I would have liked it to have pushed the beliefs angle a bit more and maybe challenge people more on what it is they believe and how they come up with their beliefs.

2. The Genuine Imitation Interactive Bible Study on CD-ROM has been a great resource as I've looked at 1 Thessalonians for my Wed night bible study group as well as in preparation for Maitland Alive talks.

Pitched at the right level for someone who is not looking for something as technical as a commentary.

3. The recent Taste and See magazine contained a helpful extract by J.C Ryle on Sickness - especially in light of the flu that Teresa is currently enduring.

Ryle says that sickness has benefits! Namely:

i. It reminds us of death
ii. It helps to make us think seriously of God
iii. It helps to soften our hearts
iv. It helps to level and humble us
v. It helps to test our religion

To quote:

'We have no right to grumble against sickness, and complain at its presence in the world. We ought rather to thank God for it. It is God's witness. It is the soul's adviser. It is an awakener to the conscience. It is a purifier to the heart. Surely I have the right to tell you that sickness is a blessing and not a curse, a help and not an injury, a gain and not a loss, a friend and not a foe to mankind. So long as we have a world in which there is sin, it is a mercy that it is a world in which there is sickness.'

I think its done its job in tempting me to buy these resources to read more!



I'm just about to utilise the revised Just For Starters training manual.....stay tuned!

Its already July!!??

Happy New (Financial) Year!

Can't believe its July already...........already 6 mths in and there's been so much that's changed compared to last year, but at the same time its also starting to become routine.

Currently am thinking through two sermons that I need to give on Judges (11-12 then 13-16), Bible studies on Amos whilst trying to do a seminar on "Worship".

Its all systems go, but yet at the same time I'm also feeling a bit unmotivated and unproductive.

One of the things I overheard the other day was: "In ministry, you can get the things you need to get done, done (certain tasks, admin, teaching). Its no different to any other job.....the only thing you can't get done though is to change people's hearts. That is up to God."

It was a good reminder for me because I think I have a tendency to just do things for the sake of doing things. I'm very task-orientated. I love to keep to-do lists and quickly get rid of what's on them. But, I think what I've got to remember in PCT is to keep relying on God. To keep trusting in him.

As I was reminded last night at our monthly workers meeting, one of the results of the Fall on our work is that it becomes frustrating, futile, selfish, idolatrous and babylonian.

How tempting it is for these things in ministry too!

Preaching to the Heart

Last week, I was fortunate enough (along with Teresa) to attend the MTS/College of Preachers Preaching Conference held at Moore College

Here are some reflections:

- as a preacher, we are not lecturers, life coaches, entertainers only. Whilst there might be elements of those, our main job is to be a herald. To proclaim a message on behalf of the king of heaven!

- our aim is to move people forward spiritually. To do this, according to Murray Capill, you need to take people BACK to the Biblical text, UP to our glorious God and IN to the heart.

GOING BACKWARDS:

- the puritan style of preaching involved looking at the text/explaining what it means, then looking at how this truth applies to life by linking the text to various doctrines and proofs. Finally, the puritans would then talk about the uses of Scripture by asking the question, how do I USE this text - in relationships, in thinking, in approaching God's word, in work.

- a helpful reminder was how I need to not be so concerned with rehearsing my sermon, but rather pleading with God to impress the main point on people's heart. That I should be praying point by point for the hearers to heed the Word.

GOING UPWARDS:

- as we are engaged in the business of setting hearts and minds on things above, we are to lift people's eyes to God for that is where there is true joy and true peace.

- we are to take up great truths about God, Jesus and the Spirit and work those truths into people's affections. Not only do we address the mind, but also the yearnings of the soul.

- words are our tool - they can be sharp, blunet, insightful or pedestrian. Therefore use affective language - words that are different to what they would normally hear, analogies

- In the words of Richard Baxter: "The best matter will scarcely move people, less it be movingly delivered"

GOING INWARDS:

- The Bible is like a mirror - as preachers, we hold up the mirro to people and say this is what its really like - its not pretty, but its reality as we perform delicate heart surgery. When doing this, we need to help them to keep going upwards

- William Perkins defined 7 categories of people whom we preach to:
i. Hardened sinners
ii. Teachable sinners
iii. Informed sinners
iv. The humbled
v. The saved
vi. The backslidden
vii. The mixed mass

- The Puritans also divided people into spiritual categories too:
i. Going well and they know it
ii. Going well and they don't know it
iii. Not going well and they know it
iv. Not going well and they don't know it

Our job as preachers therefore is to try to speak to people with different heart conditions.

- As 2 Tim 3:16 says, there are varied applications to God's word. We are to teach, rebuke, correct, train and encourage

- we are to avoid that 'sameness' in application - eg. love more, serve more, give more.....a moreness in what you're saying

- as we deliver application, there is to be varied tone (like that of a father, mother, school teacher, lecturer, doctor, wife, investigator)

- we are to drawn upon our own life experience - this is the advantage of real pastoral work as we observe different heart conditions as we deal with different people.

- in preaching we draw upon two sources - the text and life's reservoir (ie. our life and what we've built up from reading, pastoring, being a husband, from evangelism, from watching movies). The larger the reservoir, the richer the preaching.


We also heard two great "model" sermons from Psalm 24 and 45 from David Jones. Heard about the life of Martyn Lloyd-Jones (a Welsh preachers affectionately known as "The Doctor") and two expositions from Acts 20:17-38 about the priority of preaching.

In closing, I think I'll be reminded by what's in store for the preacher (both as I start out preaching as well as for those I sit under)

- preachers need to put their hand up for first the suffering, to count today's cost in order to receive tomorrow's glory.

- the pain of being like Paul - a slave, a prisoner, a marathon runner and seeing people reject, oppose, wander and those we 'never' see again is hard, toilsome work. But we have the privilege of entering the Holy City where there will be eternal rewards as God gathers his people.