One of the new features of dave miers dot com is the web watch widget in the left column. These are my bookmarks through del.icio.us. You can subscribe to them via RSS or just keep an eye out on the left column.
Here are the latest 10:
Archive - Jesus
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Be a Greek geek
Sex and Worship
Overcoming Sexual Sin, is a sermon by Mark Driscoll. It’s not just for young single Christian guys. It’s for old or young, male or female, Christian or non-Christian. In it Driscoll does more than just deal with the question of how to deal with sexual temptation. He helpfully shows how people are idolaters when they replace worship of the creator for worship of his creation. He then argues that sex is one of the key things that people worship. Check his notes or the sermon for more.
He finished with 11 points on how the Christian can replace the desire to worship sex with a deeper passion to worship the Creator: Jesus.
Lifetone music
I have a friend who has spammed me on facebook about his band: Lifetone. They describe themselves as “Word-infused praise and worship music”. They have a radiohead-esque deal where you decide what you will pay for their album: Who Hopes For What They Already Had?… sweet deal! I’ve listened to snippets of the tracks from their website and from what I’ve heard, it sounds good.
Similar sounds include: Coldplay, U2, Snow Patrol, Smashing Pumpkins, David Crowder Band, Leeland, United, Garage Hymnal.
Check it out and let me know me know how much you decide to pay!
(ps – free sheet music available on the site too…)
Sing Unto the Lord
Dan Godden is my brother-in-law, partner in proclaiming Jesus, and friend. He’s had a few goes at blogging over the past couple of years. It looks like he is now hitting it consistently! Most of his blog content is thinking through church music. Go check it out.
He’s spent the last week posting some content from some documents he’s preparing for the ccec music crew on the area of magnification:
The Christ Files
For many years our church has used a daggy old British video called ‘Message from the Memory Banks’ to illustrate the reliability of the Bible. It was a very convincing video, but soooo out of date! In a short time this video will be obsolete. Introducing… The Christ Files. John Dickson, author of a book by the same name, is getting ready to launch the new documentary in just over a month.
Check out the website, the video above and an excerpt from the video. I’ve got a few copies of The Christ Files book. If you live in Australia and don’t know Jesus, contact me and I’ll send you a copy for free.
It’s all about Jesus
If you require a speaker for your regular gathering or special event, I’m available to speak at: youth groups; youth camps; youth churches; churches; youth leaders training; and any other relevant events. Find out more about my availability
Ultimately, it’s all about Jesus. Do you know him?
The game they play in heaven
Football (also known as Soccer) and not Rugby Union is ‘the game they play in heaven’. This post has been prompted by some big matches about to be played (Australia vs Qatar, QLD Roar vs Sydney FC and Central Coast Mariners vs Newcastle Jets) and a proper understanding of the Bible.
Rugby Union is an ugly distortion of the ‘beautiful game‘. Based on Revelation 5:9-10, I believe that there won’t be a Tri-Nations Rugby Union tournament between the 3 Rugby playing countries in heaven, but rather a full-blown Football World Cup with participants from “every tribe and language and people and nation”. Soccer is for all nations. Jesus is for all nations.
However, the cheering at moments like these is but a soft whisper compared to the glorious cheering at this moment.
Joga Bonito.
Back to school
Today I started at Bible college. Today was mainly an orientation day. Still good. Caught up with some cool people. John Woodhouse (the boss of the show) gave a sweet talk to kick off our time at college. He spoke from Philippians 2:5-11 on the gospel. What’s the gospel? Go read the passage.
I got asked by a guy at church a couple of weeks ago why I was going to college. I said to him that I wasn’t really going to learn about ministry (I’m sure I’ll learn stuff about ministry), but that I wanted to know Jesus better so that I can more effectively encourage people to trust Him.
Cling to Jesus
We had our last night at CCEC tonight. The plan is to be back in a year, but we’ll see what happens. (See here and here for earlier reports and stay tuned for more about ’08).
I’ve been thinking tonight about what type of legacy I want left after 10 years of youth ministry. While there are lots of positive things that I hope we’ve left behind, there is one thing that I hope will be a legacy that will last for generations.
It’s been said by a number of different church and gospel analysts (it may have come from Phillip Jensen?) that the gospel is never far from being lost from one generation to the next.
- Step 1 – they preach the gospel (here’s one clear explanation of the gospel [the goodnews of Jesus])
- Step 2 – they assume the gospel
- Step 3 – they neglect the gospel
- Step 4 – they reject/deny the gospel
Each step may be only slight, but the implications for taking each step are massive. Those that assume and neglect the gospel, may well still believe it, but the great danger is that through their assumptions and neglect the gospel is in danger of not being passed onto the next generation.
I spoke with a number of leaders this afternoon about the need to keep preaching the gospel. Obviously we aim to preach the gospel to the 40,000 Central Coast teenagers who don’t know Jesus. BUT we need to preach to more people than just the lost who haven’t yet heard it.
My hope is that CCECYOUTH will be known for being a Jesus-Proclaiming, Cross-Centred, Gospel-Guarding youth group where the leaders preach the gospel:
- to themselves daily
- to each other
- to the Christian teens in our program
- to teenagers who don’t know Jesus
Paul in 1 Cor 15 was desperate for the Corinthian Christians to keep trusting in the gospel, that he reminded them once again what was of first importance.
Jesus died for our sins. He was buried.
Jesus rose. He appeared.
Don’t forget it! Keep clinging to Jesus. Are you in danger of assuming, neglecting or denying the goodnews of Jesus? Keep proclaiming Jesus dead, buried and risen to yourself and others.
Cafe Del Freeo
CCECNITECHURCH is hosting Cafe Del Freeo this Thursday (17Jan) and Friday (18Jan) night. From 7pm @ Bakehouse Cafe, Fountain Plaza, Erina.
Mike McCarthy will be playing on Thursday and a new Jazz crew on Friday. Bring ya friends!
good music. good food. good coffee. good times.
The hook, the book, the look, the took
Tim Hawkins (and others) has four elements of a good youth talk:
- The Hook – why ought people listen? The hook establishes, in the first minute or two of the talk, why the listener ought to keep listening. This is similar to what David Cook calls the Big or Dominant Question.
- The Book – what the Bible has to say about this situation.
- The Look – helping the listeners to dig deeper into the Bible and what it means.
- The Took – is the ‘so what?’ How this part of the Bible impacts on the life of the listener.
I have listened to and given many talks to teenagers during the past year. My observation is that we are strong on the book and the look. But we are weak on the hook which leads to weakness with the took.
The hook is important in drawing the listener into hearing from the text. And the hook helps to shape the take-home cash-value ‘took’ throughout the talk.
What do you think makes a good hook?
For a good look – see the picture above…
(I may have lost weight – but my head’s still big!)
Stephen vs. Saul/Paul
This arvo I was reading Acts 7. Stephen gives a cracker of a sermon in the court. He recounts the history of Israel and says that their forefathers were idiots for rejecting God and his prophets. He then completes the smack-down by calling them double-idiots for being doubly stupid for killing Jesus, THE Prophet.
They get cranky pants. Big time! They gnash their teeth at him and then proceed to play a massive game of stax-on with the nearest rocks they can find.
As they’re stoning him, Saul (now known as Paul) is there in the thick of the action. It was at that point that I started thinking about what Stephen and Paul’s relationship is like now in the presence of Jesus. Do they have some probs? Does Stephen joke about the time that he got ‘stoned’? Does Paul just keep saying “I’m sooo sorry about that…”?
Then I read the next verse: Stephen prays a very Jesus-esque prayer upon death. That prayer is answered in the conversion of Saul, the chief of all sinners.
What are they both doing now? Being stoked in Jesus.
Testify #1
saturdayEV kicked off their January series yesterday. Each week during the TESTIFY series Tim interviews a member of their crew and then preaches a shorter sermon on one of the themes from the testimony.
Check out the Kristy Galea interview
Check out the sermon ‘Got the wrong idea about God?‘
Subscribe with iTunes
Kristy’s interview was great and then Tim spoke against God being:
- boring
- uninterested
- mean
Good stuff.
Summerfest 2008
CCEC‘s January mission starts this week. The team arrive today. Summerfest will be launched tomorrow @ church. The program starts on Monday. Junior High program each morning @ Erina Fair Youth Centre. Senior High program each night @ EFYC.
My program: I’ll be MC tomorrow at ccecnitechurch; speaking in the adults tent on “Kids and the Internet” on Wednesday; doing the same talk at the Northern Lakes sfest on Thursday; speaking at the combined youth event on Friday night; and roaming around both of the teens programs throughout the week.
The following Sunday we begin our summer series’ in church. Morning: The Unique Challenge of Jesus. Nite: Wisdom for Life. saturdayEV begin a great series today called ‘Testify‘.
The following week nitechurch will be running Cafe Del Freeo on 17th & 18th Jan.
Good times ahead. Pray. Come. Rock on.
PS – I spoke at the Toowoon Bay Beach Mission Camper’s Concert last night. They have been doing a killer job at proclaiming Jesus!
Read, remember and pray
Tonight I spoke about New Year’s Resolutions. The most popular NYR for Christians is to read the Bible and pray more throughout the new year. What is it that will help you to follow through with this resolution?
In response to Psalm 119 it’s having a heart that treasures God, His Word and obeying it more than life itself. In order to treasure God and His Word, we need to plan to spend time with him to hide his word in our hearts.
Following are some practical tools to help you: Read it, Remember it and Pray it.
READ IT
- CCEC Daily Reading notes
- McCheyne reading plan (this looks like a great resource!)
- Free Don Carson Devotional through email – sample – based on McCheyne plan (Row and I do one of these columns each night)
- Search for “Bible” in iTunes – look under “Audiobooks” to find the whole Bible for a bargain price – listen to the Bible on your iPod.
- Click ‘listen’ at the top of any passage to listen for free online – I’ve just started using this – it’s great!
REMEMBER IT
- Navigators topical memory system (you can buy their cards or make your own based on their verses)
- Fighter Verses from John Piper
- Memory Verse Songs for Adults
- Remember whole books of the bible
- Free email-based Bible memory program
PRAY IT
- Pray in response to the verses you read
- Pray in response to the verses you remember
- Don’t close your Bible when you pray, but let the priorities of the Bible shape your priorities in prayer.
- A Call to Spiritual Reformation – a good book showing Paul’s priorities in prayer
Do you have any tools for reading and remembering God’s Word?
Share them in the comments…
Extreme Scripture Memory
Dr. Andrew Davis suggests that there are numerous advantages of memorising whole books of the Bible as opposed to individual verses. One of the key things that he says is that it’s easy to take verses out of context when remembering them in isolation. (I think there are verses in the Navigators system that do this.)
My memory is often elephant-like in it’s ability to retain and use individual Bible verses. I’m thinking that I might have a crack at remembering a 1 or 2 books of the Bible next year. There are some that I can already recite large slabs of such as Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians that might be good ones to start with.
Can you remember entire books of the Bible? Check out the following article for some good tips on how to do it well.
An Approach to the Extended Memorization of Scripture
(direct download)
(h/t JT)
Hiding God’s Word in your heart
I’m preaching on Psalm 119 this Sunday @ ccecnitechurch. In it the Psalmist is deeply passionate about the word of God. Rejoice, delight, recount, obedience, praise, understanding, wonder, zeal and love are some of his responses to the word.
I’ve been challenged to “not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Deut 8:3 and Matt 4:4).
The following is one way that the Psalmist seeks to feed upon the word of God:
“I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.” Psalm 119:11
Jerry Bridges says that one of the ways that the Holy Spirit guides is by recalling to our minds scriptures that we have memorised. Maybe he said that so Navigators could sell more memory verse cards! My guess is that it’s based more on Ephesians 6 and being armed with the Sword of the Spirit – which is the Word of God.
Here are 3 systems that might be helpful in arming yourself:
- Navigators Topical Memory System. I have completed the first set of these verses which is about 60 verses. There are a bunch of other sets that I haven’t completed. If you don’t buy their cards… just use the verses they have on the above page and make your own cards.
- Bethlehem Baptist Church (John Piper) – Fighter Verses. They do this system of over 500 verses as a church. Check the link above to find out more about how they do it, including subscribing to a Podcast with verse of the week. You can also buy the full set for super cheap from Desiring God.
- Forever Grateful Music – Scripture Memory Songs by Mark Altrogge. CraigS has started using these and says that they are gold. Check out some of their samples and then order some CD’s if all goes well.
Do you know more Bible verses or quotes from your favourite movies?
Do you read the newspaper or the Bible first thing in the morning?
Delight in the Word of God. Be passionate about it. Remember it. Hide it in your heart.
Do you use a system for remembering verses? Which one? What’s it like??
flickr pics
