Month: April 2012

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TRINITY GRAMMAR EASTER MISSION

Over the past 2 days I preached 7 times at Trinity Grammar (in Sydney’s Inner-West) for their Easter Mission. Tiring but worth it. I spoke on the Rich Ruler from Luke 18:18-30, it was impossible for him to do anything to inherit eternal life. How is it possible for anyone to inherit eternal life? Through trusting in what Jesus has done to make the impossible possible, Luke 18:31-34. Peeps were challenged and heard the truth of Jesus.

I was really impressed with the chaplains at the school and the way in which staff in general supported the mission. It was compulsory for all high school students to attend the program. But we also had a good number of new students come along voluntarily to the lunch time Christian group. I spoke on Luke 18:9-14 and urged people to respond to Jesus by saying “have mercy on me, a sinner”. There are some solid Christian students in the school, and I’m praying that they will keep reaching out to their often hard-hearted peers with the good news of Jesus.

Here is the runsheet:

Student leader welcomes
Chasing Light played 2 songs
Speaker interview
Spoken Word vid: Why I hate religion, but love Jesus
Student bible reader
Talk
Film Clip: ‘My Prayer’ by Chasing Light
Chasing Light played 3 songs
Student leader outro and invitation to lunch group

Chasing Light were loud, energetic, engaging and good at pointing young crew to Jesus. It was great to work with them. Their film clip ‘My Prayer’ (above) tied in really well off the back of the talk.

See below for another song of theirs and the Jeff Bethke ‘Jesus>Religion’ vid.
Continue reading “TRINITY GRAMMAR EASTER MISSION”

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ONE.LIFE. What’s It All About?

ONE.LIFE. is a new Christianity course that we have just begun at St Faith’s Narrabeen. It is a combination of Christianity Explored (weeks 1, 3, 4, 5) and some of John Dickson’s work on the reliability of the bible (week 2). Mark’s gospel is the main focus.

WEEK 1 // WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT?
WEEK 2 // CAN WE TRUST THE BIBLE?
WEEK 3 // WHY DID JESUS COME?
WEEK 4 // WHY DID JESUS DIE + RISE?
WEEK 5 // WHAT IS A CHRISTIAN?

We’ve just completed the final week of the course. We’ll be running it again in May and October, with the possibility of course during the day in July. The format: arrive, dinner at tables, talk, dessert discussion at tables, Q+A from the front. The content was good, but could be tighter, particularly week 2.

I think that there are too many Bible investigation questions in the official CE material. I’m all for encouraging people to dig into the bible for themselves, but think that lots of the interpretation and bible digging is lead by the speaker. So the discussion question over dinner was fairly open ended and non-threatening. The dessert discussion question was also fairly non-threatening. There were lots of good questions.

If you’re a Christian – can you take 30 seconds to pray and ask that God would use ONE.LIFE. to reach many Northern Beaches peeps with the good news of Jesus? Thanks :)

If you’re not a Christian. I love you. Thanks for reading. Check out this website. Contact me if you want to chat further about Jesus.

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John Piper on The Lottery + Gambling

There was some massive lottery draw that happened this week in the USA. John Piper has written 7 reasons that Christians shouldn’t gamble their money in this way. I think his reasons are applicable more generally for any gambling. Read the article.

Here are the 7 reasons:

1. It is spiritually suicidal.
2. It is a kind of embezzlement.
3. It’s a fool’s errand.
4. The system is built on the necessity of most people losing.
5. It preys on the poor.
6. There is a better alternative.
7. For the sake of quick money, government is undermining the virtue without which it cannot survive.

Read it in more detail here.