Category: Jesus

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Youth Ministry Conference 08

The Youthworks Youth Ministry Conference for 2008 is fast-approaching. November 24-25, 2008. It’s always a good conference… so make sure you’re in on the action! The early bird special finishes next week. They have online rego + here’s the brochure (pdf). The conference is great in thinking through theology and practice of youth ministry.

If you are currently involved in youth ministry – or in the future may have oversight of a youth ministry – this is a great conference for you. If you have it all sorted with youth ministry, come along anyway and share some of the love over breaks + meals.

See below for full details:

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I almost punched a guy on Saturday night

Context: I have mixed feelings about The Way of the Master (I agree with what Mikey blogged on it today) evangelism technique. My concern is theological (using the 10 commandments as a yardstick with 21st Gentiles) and pragmatic (not sure if it puts more people off considering Jesus because of the manner). On Saturday night there were a couple of cowboys doing some open air preaching on the corner of George St and Park St (diagonally opposite Town Hall) in Sydney City.

I spent some time listening to the preachers, and thought I could try to get into a conversation nearby. An 18(ish) year old dude yelled out some terribly obscene comments about Jesus. I was offended. I begun thinking about how an extreme Muslim might respond in a similar situation. So I walked after this young fella and sized him up. As I followed, I couldn’t help but reflect on Jesus’ words from the cross, “Father forgive them, for they don’t know what they’re doing.” So instead of punching him, I prayed for him and then prayed God would forgive me for being a crackpot.

pic from here

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Don’t worry about your exams

Exams. I’m allergic to them. Seriously. I haven’t really done any since the HSC. My four year university degree involved lots of essay writing and some fun projects, but only 2 exams. No sweat. Sweat: I have 7 exams coming up very soon for Moore College! I don’t really do stress, but I’m starting to feel a little stressy-bessy about our Greek exam this Friday. I’ve been working hard but not sure if I’ll cut it…

Scott Petty’s sermon at Senior High tonight was particularly aimed at Year 12s getting ready for their HSC exams, but I felt that it was a timely word for my ears. He spoke from Matthew 6 and how Jesus says not to worry about your life (v25), your clothes (v28) or tomorrow (v34). His big question was: Why not worry?

  1. Your life is important to God (v26)
  2. Non-believers run after these things (v32)
  3. Worry about the Kingdom of God and his righteousness (v33)

Resolution: work hard – but keep it all in perspective…

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Know Jesus better through theological study

Theological study is good. Here is part of a prayer from Ephesians 1:17 “I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.” Paul prays that the crew in Ephesus would know God better. What a good prayer for each other!

This year I have been engaged in full-time study at Moore Theological College. I believe that through theological study I have been able to get to know Jesus better. This has happened through studying the scriptures and through greater insights into the faith of Christians throughout the last 2000 years of church history. If you are a dmdc reader – my prayer is for you that you would get to know Jesus better as you regularly gather around God’s word in your churches and bible study groups.

There are also many opportunities to dig deeper into the Bible than what you may normally do in your church. Moore College offers Full-time degree study, Evening course diploma study (Rowena has almost finished this – it is excellent), External correspondence certificate (I did many of these ‘PTC’ subjects as a young Christian = gold). Other colleges like SMBC offer similar programs + Part-time degree study. So… if you have the opportunity to do some theological study (full-time, part-time, evening lectures or external) do it!

Prayin’ you’d know Jesus better. (Click here if you don’t know Jesus at all!)

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Ryan Ferguson recites Psalm 22, 25 and 145

Two years ago I posted footage of Ryan Ferguson reciting Hebrews 9-10 from memory. He’s done a similiar thing again this year at the WorshipGod 08 Conference from the Psalms. It’s gold! Shane asks if this type of reading should be the standard or the summit… I think that Ryan’s reading is closer to the summit, but will hopefully lift the standard of public scripture reading. Here’s Psalm 22:

Psalm 25:

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