Surge Conference 2011

Surge Conference 2011, run by RICE, is on in a couple of weeks. It’s a great conference for Christians aged 16 and above to help them think through how they can serve in their local church. They have an emphasis on helping people to find their gifts and how they can be used among the People of God.

Justin Moffatt and Steve Chong will be the main speakers. Jonathan Pratt, Tim Adeney, Greg Clarke, Murray Smith and Dave Miers will each be running electives.

It’s is on 4-6 February. Go check out the website for more info and to register!

See below for the blurb on my elective:

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Leap like calves released from the stall

Spent some quality time with Duke today getting ready for leading together next week on Next Gen. The set text we’ll be working through in Strand 2 is from Malachi 4:1-6. Verse two has some cool imagery of an exuberant dancing cow: “But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. And you will go out and leap like calves released from the stall.(NIV 1984)

Duke showed me the above graphic. It’s from Jim Lepage’s Word Bible Designs project. Captures Malachi 4:2 perfectly! Cool project. Check it.

The Jesus Revolution – New Zealand Style

Last week I spoke on the Summer Youth Camp of the Grace Presbyterian Church of New Zealand. It’s a young denomination and involved in valuable work across both Islands. Lots of fun. Great food. Dedicated leaders. Beautiful weather. I preached on ‘The Jesus Revolution’, a series I’ve done many times, but this time added 3 new talks. The talks went well. I was really encouraged by the young kiwi’s and their hunger to spend time in the Word and God was very kind in the way he worked during the week. During talk 5 there were many who responded to the good news of Jesus, such a joyful night!

Here are the mp3s from the 8 talks (right click to download):

Enjoy.

Operation World – Praying For Every Nation

I recently picked up the latest edition of Operation World – The Definitive Prayer Guide to Every Nation. After reading David Platt’s Radical last year, I was convicted to spend 2011 praying for the whole world using Operation World as a guide.

I’ve started. It’s a big task. But I’m praying to a big God who can do “immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine” (Ephesians 3:20). The book is set out with dates to be able to use as a year long prayer journal, or you can just read and pray about random countries (I’ve used it to pray during the past 2 soccer World Cups).

The official Operation World website has a stack of useful pages to help fuel your prayer if you don’t own the book (click here to buy it).

If you join me praying through the world this year, use the hashtag #OperationWorld if you plan on tweeting what you learn to help others pray with you.

And they sang a new song, saying,
“Worthy are you to take the scroll

and to open its seals,
for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God
from every tribe and language and people and nation,
and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God,
and they shall reign on the earth.”

(Revelation 5:9-10 ESV)

Bus-Driving Evangelist Strikes Again!

Every second vehicle cruising the streets of Vanuatu’s capital, Port Vila, is some form of public transport. T for Taxi or B for Bus. The taxis are small cars, the buses are 12-seat mini vans. We had two buses that we contacted each time we needed a ride during our November visit. I found particular encouragement from continuing a friendship with Kendrick from a previous visit and establishing a new friendship with Reginald. Both of these men, like many of the bus drivers in Vanuatu, are followers of Jesus.

I tried to encourage them both in the way that they interact with the typical white tourist from Australia. I wanted them to know that most of the Australians that they carry around are not Christians, and that they have an opportunity to share the gospel each time they have new passengers.

The cool thing is, I think they are already doing this. I pray they’ll do it all the more!

Reginald in particular seeks to tell tourists why Ni-Vans are a joyful people. He said that often tourists will say to him: “The people of Vanuatu are so happy, why is that?”

Reggie responds: “We are a joyful people because of Jesus. Jesus brings us joy. Jesus has changed us as a people.” And with reference to the initial response that the gospel had in Vanuatu, “Before Jesus came to this island… I eat you!”

Gold!

Both bus drivers had insights into the way that God has continued to work in their country. What an encouragement to hear and see the way that the gospel of Jesus has reconciled different tribes and islands within the nation of Vanuatu.

I’m praying for boldness for bus drivers with tourists and praying that Vanuatu would keep living out that reconciliation and not lose the gospel.

25 years is a long time to wait!

I’ve been reading Genesis as part of my OT bible reading plan for 2011 (you got a plan yet???). In Genesis 11 we’re introduced to Abraham, and by Gen 12 God has made some massive promises to him. It was interesting to note the different ages of Abraham throughout the unfolding of God’s promises. Here are the references I noticed:

  • Gen 12:4 – 75 years old when he leaves Haran to set out for Canaan
  • Gen 16:3 – 85 years old as he’d been in Canaan for 10 years
  • Gen 16:16 – 86 years old when he tried to speed up God’s promises by having Ishmael with Hagar
  • Gen 17:1, 17, 24 – 99 years old when he was circumcised
  • Gen 21:5 – 100 years old when Isaac is born to Sarah

God makes promises to Abraham that through his family all peoples on earth will be blessed. This was at age 75. He didn’t yet have any children. After 10 years, he got itchy feet and with an old barren wife, figured he had to make it happen. God says that he has it under control and that Sarah will be the one who will bear the child through whom God’s promises will continue to unfold. It’s then another 14 years before baby Isaac rocks up on the scene!!

Even though they tried to speed things up, I think you see something of Abraham and Sarah’s trust in God while they wait for 25 years before his promised is fulfilled through them. However the biggest thing is that God shows himself to be a promise keeper, and he will do things in his time.

Pretty handy to know when we think we’re in control!

Worth Losing Everything

My favourite book of 2010 was Radical: Taking back your faith from the American Dream by David Platt from Brook Hills. I tweeted about it during 2010 (“Just finished @RADICALbook by @PlattDavid. Maybe best book on discipleship since Bonhoeffer’s ‘Discipleship’? Check it: http://bit.ly/cX9xNC“), but don’t think I’ve blogged on it. At it’s heart, it’s a challenge to take Jesus seriously! I’ll return to it again in 2011, look out for some blog posts. In the meantime, here’s a solid quote that Of First Importance blogged today:

“This is the picture of Jesus in the gospel. He is something — someone — worth losing everything for. And if we walk away from the Jesus of the gospel, we walk away from eternal riches. The cost of nondiscipleship is profoundly greater for us than the cost of discipleship. For when we abandon the trinkets of this world and respond to the radical invitation of Jesus, we discover the infinite treasure of knowing and experiencing him.”

From here