Praise God that the church in India is growing at an amazing rate. But with this the church faces unique challenges. One challenge is having pastors who are trained well in the bible. This is made more complicated with the poverty that many pastors experience in India, they cannot afford to go to bible college for a year and they are certainly not funded by the Government to do so. (Praise God for how Australians are supported by our Government).
India Gospel League has recognised the need for pastors to be trained and has partnered with Moore College to see pastors be trained in correspondence courses by teams of Aussies who will travel to India. One such group is leaving in 3 days.
The team is lead by my sister and her husband. They would love your support – in prayer and in your generous gifts. To find out more visit newcastlechristianstudents.org where you will find out more about the team and more about how you can support them.
They leave in a few days, have already raised over $10K, and have only $3000 to go… what do you reckon?
At St Faith’s we begun a new 6-part summer preaching series on Christmas Eve/Day. 6 REASONS JESUS CAME DOWN TO EARTH will continue throughout January. Our hope is that it will be a good series to bring non-church going friends and family to hear.
I thought that Christmas was a good time to launch a series rather than inviting people to a new series starting the following week. Hopefully visitors will have heard the series kick-off over Christmas and their interest will have been piqued to continue finding out more reasons why Jesus came down to earth.
It’s been good to leverage the same artwork and signage from Christmas. It means our public banners (one of which was stolen!!) are relevant for 6 weeks instead of just 1 event. However, I think that the artwork is probably a little bit too Christmassy. So if we were to do it again in a year’s time, the advertising could be a bit more generic.
What’s your church preaching on throughout January?
Don’t go to a church? Consider checking one out so you can consider Jesus.
(Contact me if you need help finding one in your area.)
Perhaps you think or feel that God is distant and doesn’t understand our world and our struggles? Yet in Jesus, we have a God who has walked in human flesh and dwelt among people. The first Christmas reminds us that God has come. As we meet Jesus, we meet God.
Check out this line from my favourite Christmas Carol – O Holy Night – “He knows our need, to our weakness is no stranger”. Sometimes Christmas isn’t a joyful time for people as they reflect on the brokenness of our world. But Jesus gets it. He has been there. Check out Hebrews 4:14-16
“Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”
Christmas morning is an opportunity to hope again in our God who came into our world 2000 years ago. Keep trusting in Jesus. Or find out more. Have a read of this. Find a church.
How do you become a Christian? What are the basics of the Christian faith? Here are 3 simple words of faith. They aren’t magical words. But saying these 3 words to God are a good first step in becoming a Christian.
I preached up at Coast Evangelical Church this past weekend. Reading Genesis 23-25, Abraham seems to be deliberate in his actions as he nears the end of his life. He dies well.
Check out the following two vids from my mate Matt Sparks and MBM Youth. They’ve started producing video Bible readings. The public reading of scripture ought to be central to our Christian gatherings. Some might argue differently, but I think that the videos actually help to show the significance of the Bible. What do you think?
Next week is International Day of Prayer (IDOP). It’s more than just one day of prayer but a week (6th – 13th November 2011) of Christians around the world committing to praying for Persecuted Christians. You can find out more on the IDOP website or on Thirteen Three’s website. We’ve got a report form Open Doors at church this Sunday night and I’m planning on having a spot on Friday night at Soulies for thoughtful prayer and reflection. We’ll also have a blog series on Soulies.net for the week. If you haven’t already, have a think about how you can commit to praying this week at home and in Christian gatherings.
One of the things I’m surprised by as I read of the first persecuted Christians in the Bible and then read of contemporary persecuted Christians (through books like Radical and the VOM newsletter) is that so often persecution is faced with unrelenting joy!
His speech persuaded them. They called the apostles in and had them flogged. Then they ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name. Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ. (Acts 5:40-42)
The Apostles keep getting told to shut up about Jesus, they don’t. They get beaten up and told to stop, they don’t! Instead they rejoice that they were considered worthy to suffer for Jesus and then keep telling people about Jesus!!
Our new teaching series at St Faith’s is called The Powerful, The Poisonous & The Personal. In it we’re looking at some potentially controversial teachings within the church. This past weekend I spoke on the book of Ephesians and what it means to be a Spirit-Filled church.
The following quote is from the end of John Stott’s commentary on Ephesians 5:18-21 (I think it’s also in his book Baptism and Fullness). Most of it is on the cutting room floor for my sermon on “Filled with the Holy Spirit”. Still worth a read.
We need now to return to the imperative on which these four participles depend, that is, to the Christian duty and privilege from which these four Christian attitudes result. It is the command Be filled with the Spirit. The exact form of the verb pl?rousthe is suggestive.
First, it is in the imperative mood. ‘Be filled’ is not a tentative proposal, but an authoritative command. We have no more liberty to avoid this responsibility than the many others which surround it in Ephesians. To be filled with the Spirit is obligatory, not optional.
“WHAT’S IN THE BRIEFING? 1) Articles to help every Christian in their walk with God. 2) Ideas and thoughts to encourage all to be getting on with ‘everyday’ service and witnessing. 3) A Christian perspective on the actions and events of the world around us. 4) Resources for pastors and lay leaders that provide encouragement and ideas for ministers of God’s Word.”
