Some people at the beach. Warm fuzzy for the name of the beach.
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Archive - October, 2008
Reformation Day – Don’t Steal God’s Glory
Happy Reformation Day! Tim Challies is running The Third Annual Reformation Day Symposium. Here are my last two entries. This year’s entry: Don’t Steal God’s Glory.
What was at stake in the Protestant Reformation of 500 years ago? Nothing less than the Glory of God. Following are a number of posts, biographies and bible talks explaining how the truths of the Reformed Theology are all about giving God the glory he deserves.
Isaiah 40
Isaiah 40 would be in my greatest hits of 2008. Song from Brothers of the Empty Tomb:
“
Here are the last few verses from the passage:
27 Why do you say, O Jacob,
and complain, O Israel,
“My way is hidden from the LORD;
my cause is disregarded by my God”?28 Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The LORD is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
and his understanding no one can fathom.29 He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.30 Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;31 but those who hope in the LORD
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.
RSS 100+ club
Today set a new record for RSS readers of davemiers.com – 102. What the heck is RSS? Glad you asked. Thanks for reading. Exam Tip #2: blog content that will help exam prep.
Free money for New Lives
The Australian Government is handing out cash for Christmas. Rowan and a bunch of others at college have a brilliant idea on how to use this money. Watch this appeal from the Moore College Student body to give to women struggling with abortion.
More info coming…
EDIT: here is the website
Exam Tips 101
Exams are coming. I’m after some tips. Got any? For starters: Don’t worry about exams.
pic from Avoca
Where the Hell is Matt?
(h/t Tim)
Jesus Life Culture Design #20
What a sweet day! I had a birthday party (actual birthday was 2 weeks ago) this morning @ Avoca Beach with family and a couple of friends. Good times. I have 8 more exams coming up soon. I will keep preaching this sermon to myself… any more tips? Have a good weekend.
If you haven’t noticed before, I have a page called “Moore Bloggers“. It’s got links to the latest posts from Moore College 1st Year 2008 crew. Here’s a list of them:
Subject to a better offer
Generation Y are the STABO Generation. STABO = Subject To A Better Offer. What does this mean? It means that Gen Y are only willing to commit to something providing they can’t find anything better to do. This means Gen Y suck at RSVPing to parties; they’re slow at registering for events (unless it’s an event that will sell out early); and employers find it difficult to hold onto young workers.
How do you minister to STABO Christians? The way it’s normally done is their discipleship is called into question, and they are told to grow up and get on board with the program. This is dumb. I think a better way to minister to STABO’s is to show them the best offer!! And then, in time, they will understand more of what it means to grow up and be counter-cultural in this area. Rather than twisting someone’s arm to convince them to go to a prayer night, show them why prayer matters and how there is no better place to be on that night than to be praying with Jesus’ people.
If you’re not a Christian and you’re reading this… no matter what the world offers you… there is no better offer than what Jesus offers in his death and resurrection.
Passion Sydney – Jesus
The Passion World Tour has come and gone. Their journey ended in Sydney last night at the Entertainment Centre with 8000 people gathering to make the name of Jesus famous. Louie Giglio spoke. Chris Tomlin and David Crowder Band played music. Sweet.
Key Verse: “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21). We were challenged to enlarge our view of Jesus. The night was all about Jesus.
Other Coverage: Louie @ the 268 Blog (with some sweet pics); Dan makes some observations on ministering to Gen Y – Cause, Music, Preaching.
Plato – The Cave
“For Plato the realm of ideas is the realm of true knowledge. The realm of material objects is the realm of mere opinon. His famous ananlogy of the cave illustrates this. In The Republic Plato tells an imaginary story of men who have lived in a cave as prisoners since childhood. They are chained and immobile. Their field of vision is restricted to a wall directly in front of them. Behind them is an elevate area where people are walking, carrying objects made of wood, stone, and other materials. The glow from a fire casts shadows of the people on the wall that the prisoners can see. The prisoners hear the voice of those people and assume that the voice come from the shadows. Indeed, their only perception of reality comes from the shadows.
Plato then asks what would happn if one of the prisoners were to be released and allowed to walk toward the fire. Having been cramped for so many years he would find walking painful. The glowing fire would hurt his eyes. Because looking at real objects is more painful than gazing at shadows, he would be inclined to return to his customary position and confine his glance to the familiar shadows.
Economic Crisis and The Prosperity Gospel
What impact will the current global economic crisis have on the prosperity gospel? As far as I can tell, the prosperity gospel wasn’t around during the great depression. Will proponents of this doctrine tell their people whose businesses crumble that they don’t have enough faith? Will pushers of this false gospel tell their people whose mortgages foreclose that they need to rid sin from their life?
I’m hoping that through these uncertain economic times, that these false teachers will be shown to be false and that those who have been tricked by lies will have a more biblical view on God: “The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised.” (Job 1:21) See here and here for more.
Warm fuzzy for the name of the caves in the pic…
Gabriella Cilmi ‘Sweet About Me’ + ‘Sanctuary’
Gabriella Cilmi just smashed it at the ARIA’s. Some of her tunes have an Amy Winehouse-esque, very cool for a 17 year-old. Hoping her life doesn’t pan out the same way as Amy’s. Here is the youtube vid of Gabriella Cilmi ‘Sweet About Me‘ [EDIT: they've just disabled embedding, click here to watch]. Here’s a different song, Sanctuary, instead:
“Melbourne’s 17-year-old Cilmi blitzed her competitors, as Australia’s music industry turned out to celebrate its best at Sydney’s Acer Arena. Cilmi took out all six of the awards she was nominated for, including best female artist, best pop release and breakthrough artist: album for her debut record Lessons to be Learned. Her smash hit Sweet About Me clinched highest-selling single, breakthrough artist: single, and single of the year.” (Read the rest)
Rice Regenerate 2008
We went to Rice Regenerate last night with 500 other 20-somethings. It’s the next phase of the Rice Movement growing out of the large Rice youth rallies. “RICERegenerate is a movement aimed to see a generation of lay leaders in our churches revived, renewed, and re-ignited in their passion to serve our great God and Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Mike Raiter spoke on the Parable of the Ten Minas (Luke 19:11-27). He smashed it! He spoke with great passion + soul-searching conviction from the Bible. I was challenged to be greedy to use my gifts to produce fruit for the Kingdom of God; not for the praise of men, but for the praise of God. An illustration on Adoniram Judson encouraged me to taste and see that the Lord is good even in the hard times.
Jesus Life Culture Design #19
Do you do Facebook? Let’s hook up. Have a good weekend Amigo.
Latest delicious.com bookmarks. You can subscribe to them via RSS or just keep an eye out on the left sidebar. Here are the latest 10:
Friday Foto #34
Greek Exam has happened… I think I may have just scraped through! We’ll wait and see. Here is a waterfall and some leaves from the North Coast of NSW.
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Believe in Jesus Christ
If you are reading this blog, I love you. No joke. I know that not everyone who reads this blog believes in Jesus. There is nothing more important. Do you want to know more? 1) Watch this video. 2) Check out www.christianity.net.au 3) Read this Biography of Jesus. 4) Contact me – if you are in Sydney/Central Coast – let’s do coffee – my shout.
(h/t Josh Harris)
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