Month: February 2012

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Persecution in Iran | Youcef Nadarkhani Execution Imminent

This blog post is written by Brad Konemann from Thirteen Three.

Iranian authorities have made their decision: Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani will be executed for his Christian faith.

Nadarkhani was arrested in October 2009 and sentenced to death for apostasy. Despite widespread international media coverage and concern, it appears the execution will go ahead.

The White House released this statement concerning Pastor Youcef on Thursday 23 February:

The United States condemns in the strongest possible terms reports that Iranian authorities reaffirmed a death sentence for Iranian Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani for the sole reason of his refusal to recant his Christian faith…The United States renews its calls for people of conscience and governments around the world to reach out to Iranian authorities and demand Pastor Nadarkhani’s immediate release.

The execution could be carried out at any time without prior notice.

Please pray for our brother in Christ who continues to stand boldly for the Lord.

Prayer Points

  • Please pray that God will intervene in this case and bring justice.
  • Ask the Lord to strengthen Youcef and his family.
  • Thank the Lord for Youcef’s faithfulness to Christ.
  • Pray that Youcef’s testimony will be an encouragement to other believers in Iran to speak the Word of God boldly and fearlessly.
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MATT CORBY // BROTHER // SIN IS SERIOUS

Matt Corby’s song, Brother, has been buzzing around my head for the last couple of weeks. Serious themes; powerful performance. Here is a live version filmed at a recent Secret Garden Show in Rooty Hill (filmed by a young fella I know). Language Warning MA15+

My friend Jeremiah has a good blog post reflecting on how the song helps to demonstrate the nature of sin. Here’s a snippet:

We like to think of sin as minor, technical and inconsequential. In fact the whole notion of sin often as regarded as old fashioned and prudish. But Corby shows us that sin is just the opposite. It’s serious. It’s relational. It has real, painful consequences that we cannot escape. Consider the most painful moments of your life. Have they not involved others wronging you in some way? Or perhaps you were the perpetrator?

Read the rest of the article here.

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5 Ideas for One Verse Evangelistic Preaching

For the final week of Mission Month at SOULIES we have each year group running a BREAK IT DOWN event (your year group, your friends, doing your thing). Here are some ideas I’m passing on to leaders for preaching short evangelistic talks to their crew.

While it’s not the only approach, preaching from one verse can be a memorable way to give a short talk encouraging people to consider Jesus. It’s worth spending time understanding the verse in its context first and then working hard to explain the ideas that the verse presents.

Here is a useful method for preparing Bible talks

See below for 5 verses packed with gospel punch. I’ve got a few ideas under each passage on possible ways you could package a talk. I don’t have any illustration ideas, or intro/hooks. If you’re preparing a talk, let me know if you need any further ideas or feedback. Preach Jesus.

See below for verses and ideas:
Continue reading “5 Ideas for One Verse Evangelistic Preaching”

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Mission Month: It’s All About Jesus

This year in SOULIES Youth Community we are kicking off term 1 and term 3 with a ‘Mission Month’. My hope is that the young punks in our community are happy to invite friends along any week of Soulies, and they do. But the thinking with the Mission Month is to give some explicit opportunities to bring friends to hear about Jesus. Hopefully that will then create some momentum that will continue on. Here’s the promo postcard:

I think it has been well received. Praise God for those who have responded to the gospel over the first 3 weeks!!

Here’s the promo vid for Feb.

Involved in youth ministry? In what ways are you seeking to encourage young punks to share Jesus this year?

1000 bonus points if you can name the beach in the photo…

Click here for other youth ministry posts.

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6 Reasons Jesus Came Down to Earth

Below are the sermon MP3s from our Christmas and January Preaching Series at St Faith’s. (Read a little bit about the rational behind the series here.)

[right-click etc to download]

Dec 24 – To Reveal God – Dave Miers
Jan 1 – To Give Life – Ben Molyneux
Jan 8 – To Defeat Satan – Trent McGrath
Jan 15 – To Bring Justice – Dave Miers
Jan 22 – To Reconcile Enemies – Neil Souter
Jan 29 – To Gather People – Kerry Nagel