Here’s the 2nd edition of SNAPSHOT. Live music last week. This week from another mate from Bible School: Nathan “Nate Dawg” Lowery. Water, sky + sun. Enjoy.
Sunrise @ Narrawallee Inlet, April 08: Waking up at 5:30am to cook brekky for Christian surfers has its good points as well – seeing the dawning of a New Day for me is another reminder of the blessings we constantly receive from our God. - Nathan Lowery
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BAPTISM – THIS RITE EXHIBITS UNION WITH CHRIST
by J. I. Packer
Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. ROMANS 6:3-4
Christian baptism, which has the form of a ceremonial washing (like John’s pre-Christian baptism), is a sign from God that signifies inward cleansing and remission of sins (Acts 22:16; 1 Cor. 6:11; Eph. 5:25-27), Spirit-wrought regeneration and new life (Titus 3:5), and the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit as God’s seal testifying and guaranteeing that one will be kept safe in Christ forever (1 Cor. 12:13; Eph. 1:13-14). Baptism carries these meanings because first and fundamentally it signifies union with Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection (Rom. 6:3-7; Col. 2:11-12); and this union with Christ is the source of every element in our salvation (1 John 5:11-12). Receiving the sign in faith assures the persons baptized that God’s gift of new life in Christ is freely given to them. At the same time, it commits them to live henceforth in a new way as committed disciples of Jesus. Baptism signifies a watershed point in a human life because it signifies a new-creational engrafting into Christ’s risen life.
Jesus did many things. He healed the sick, he calmed the storm, he told parables, he taught with authority. But out of everything that he did, it was his death on a bloody cross that is of first importance. Why did Jesus have to die? Was it really necessary?
At his crucifixion Jesus was mocked. They said that Jesus claimed to be someone special, yet he couldn’t even save himself from being killed! They put a sign above his head ridiculing him: JESUS KING OF THE JEWS (John 19:19). They didn’t really believe that he was the king. They were expecting their coming king to be powerful and mighty. Jesus looked too weak to be a mighty king.
I’m 28. Over the last 6 months, I’ve learned of an increasing number of my peers (+ or – 5 years) who have been separated or divorced. Some of them I know well, others I’ve known in the past, still others are acquaintances/facebook friends. Either way, it’s heartbreaking to learn about Christian marriages ending.
In most of the circumstances, I don’t know all the details, nor do I need to know, but as far as I can see there are 3 main causes of breakdown in these marriages:
I’m sure it’s much, much more complex than the 3 bullet points above may suggest! If you’ve recently separated or divorced, I sincerely hope you aren’t offended by this post. If your marriage is currently on rocky grounds – get help now (if you don’t know where to turn, contact me and I can hopefully point you in a helpful direction). Here’s the key questions I’m thinking through:
Any suggestions? Feel free to leave an anonymous comment.
Do you suck at getting things done? First step is to pray, because, if you’re like me, not getting things done is often a spiritual issue – laziness. Secondly, work out a system that will help you to get things done. I started reading ‘How to Get Things Done‘ by David Allen about 3 years ago – but ironically, I lost the book and I only just found it!
Getting Things Done (GTD) is a well-known system that aims for stress-free productivity. I kinda implement some of his strategies, but would do well to implement more! Ben Bathgate has done a great service by summarising GTD into 7 readable posts:
Check out these summaries, get the book and start getting stuff done! sxc pic
This Sunday, I’m leading the music at church. It’s the first time I’ve done it for years! I’m looking forward to it, but I’m a bit rusty on the guitar (and voice too)… But it’s not about me – it’s such a good thing to encourage others as together we sing praise to Jesus.
I’m going with 4 songs. 2 upfront and 2 at the end.
Dominic Steele from Christians in the Media – God’s word on the bushfires – Luke 13
Australian Heath Ledger has become only the second actor in Oscars history to win a posthumous Academy Award. Ledger, who died in New York in January last year aged 28, was the favourite to emulate fellow Australian Peter Finch – a winner for 1976 classic Network – for his performance as The Joker in Batman blockbuster The Dark Knight.
Jesus Life Culture Design finished last week. Good Riddance. In it’s place is something bigger, badder and bolder – BREAK IT DOWN! The aim is to do a weekly break down of stuff in the news, in culture and on this blog. It will have some similar gear that JLCD had, but a bit more in the way of culturey stuff, and a bit more variety too.
I’ve been listening to Nova 969 for the last couple of weeks, but think it’s time to switch back to Triple J. I like to listen to pop music and commercial stations to see what they’re playing, and hear what people are listening to, but can only ever do it for a limited amount of time! Below are the current top 10 singles on the ARIA Charts.
Friday Foto died. Say welcome to SNAPSHOT. Snapshot is different from Friday Foto. It has a different title. It’s not on Friday. The best thing? The photos are by people more talented at taking photos than me. Each week I will showcase a photo(s) taken by you. You got the goods? Then contact me and email the pic(s) with a 50 word description. First cab off the rank? A buddy from college, Mark Carpenter. Sweet sweet photos.
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See below for another pic and description.
Al Stewart, Andrew Heard and Steve Chong hosted an Australian Church Planting conference yesterday with the aim of turning talk into action. Al kicked off in the Bible and described the job description of a church planter: Soldier; Athlete; Farmer. He also spoke about the nature of the gospel and why it’s worth suffering. Solid and challenging stuff. Chong, 1 year into a church plant in Kogarah, shared some reflections as a rookie with things they got right and things they got wrong. Heardy, 13 years into a church plant on the Central Coast, spoke about thing he wish he knew when he first started.
Some common threads: how hard it is plant churches; the urgent need to plant churches around Australia that will proclaim Jesus; the desire to get out there and do it! There are a bunch of networks currently planting churches around Australia and so the question is: what type of network of networks could be formed to help plant more? And what would its relationship be to the Acts 29 Network?
A whale wakes up on a New Zealand beach. WARNING: The Seagull says the ‘s’ word.
For more Kiwi fun check out this episode from onthepoddy.com
The theme for the Moore College 2nd Year House Party was ‘Running the Race.’ I spoke from 2 Corinthians 4 on Saturday and Jacko spoke from Luke-Acts on Sunday.
Here’s my talk: Fix your eyes on Jesus - DOWNLOAD THE MP3
It’s just over a year since eternal weight of glory (old blog name) was magically transformed into davemiers.com. Happy Birthday DMDC!! Hits have gone up. In the 2 years of stat counting on eternal weight of glory there were about 25,000 and in the 1 year of DMDC there have been just over 50,000 (so roughly 1000 hits per week). 968 posts. 3464 comments. Thanks for reading + commenting.
In 2009 I’ll be continuing to design, write and speak (these pages have all been updated recently) from DMDC. Hook me up if you want to. Or not.
EXCITING NEW DMDC FEATURES COMING SOON…
dmdc RSS | delicious RSS | what the heck is RSS? | let’s fly together on twitter!
This is an encouraging lecture that Mark Driscoll gave at a recent Acts 29 Bootcamp. It’s interesting to hear the progression from Movement > Organisation > Institution > Museum. There are great insights into the vision of Acts 29 and how they are contending and contextualising the gospel.
Most exciting is seeing something of what God’s Spirit is currently doing around the world as Jesus is proclaimed. Recommended viewing if you’re thinking about planting a church.
This weekend we had a camp @ Attunga for our year from college. Really valuable time. It was good to hang out, read the Bible, eat food and spend too much time in the spa!
In today’s second session, we spoke about ‘organisational culture’ ie ‘how we do things around here’. It was helpful to think through what our year group looks like, how we will go about relating and studying and loving on each other. Very good times. (Kate has some more detailed thoughts)
Don’t miss it next year fool!
Yesterday was the last Friday Foto. Today I’m calling ‘game over’ on Jesus Life Culture Design. Sam thinks the name sucks too, so let’s say goodbye. Tot ziens. Adéu. Head aega. Sampai jumpa. Auf Wiedersehen. Rack off. Stay tuned for exciting new adventures next weekend! Are you a twit? Then hit me up on twitter.
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 20:
Game over for Friday Foto. This is the final one. Is it stupid to stop at 47? I don’t think so. I’ve run out of pictures – and I’m not inspired at the moment to try and take more.
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Warm fuzzy for the name of the cafe.
Stay tuned for exciting new adventures next week!
We went to Justin Moffatt’s Induction tonight. He’s now in charge (under Jesus) of the Anglican Church on York St in the city. It was a really good service and supper.
I’ve chatted with Justin online for the last couple of years, but this was the first time I’ve properly met him offline. It’s encouraging to hear of Justin’s enthusiasm to preach Jesus to the City of Sydney. Praying for revolution! Do you believe in Jesus?
At KYCK 1997 (then called KYCKSTART), during Ian Powell’s talk on Luke 18:9-14, I first understood that Christianity is not about what you do, but trusting in what Jesus has done. My world was rocked! This year I’m going to KYCK for the first time since 97. Vid:
I’m going with the crew from Willoughby, and I’m really looking forward to it. Scott Petty and Ross Ciano will be speaking. I think they’re the two best youth preachers going around. Bring it! You going?
