Category: Jesus

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Cherrybrook + Dural Combined Youth Camp

Cherrybrook Anglican and Dural Anglican are doing great work in their respective youth ministries. Last weekend I was able to join them both on their annual combined youth camp. This is a brilliant idea!! Rather than having 2 camps of 25 young punks each, they join forces to have a camp for 50 young punks.

Here are 3 benefits of two local youth groups joining up for a camp/special events: 1) Once a room has 50 peeps in it, there is enough of a critical mass to start creating a pretty sweet vibe; 2) 50+ people makes organisational sense, good for booking a camp site, good for sharing the leadership responsibility with both churches; 3) While it doesn’t make you any more or less the people of God, it’s a good thing to unite with brothers and sisters from your broader family.

If you help run a smaller group, why not share some of the love with another smaller and like-minded group of believers? Do it.

Here are the talks from the CH-URAL camp:

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God is our refuge and strength

Moore College has introduced a new preaching subject this year. We meet for an hour a week with 2 faculty and a group of 5-10 students. Each week someone gives a sermon, and the rest of us offer feedback. I’m only in one group, so can’t speak for all the other ones, but it’s been a really valuable time encouraging each other to preach well. This past week, Fiona gave a solid talk on Psalm 46. I like safety and security; I was challenged to find security not only in things of this world, but ultimately in the God who is described as “our strength and refuge”. See the text of Psalm 46 below.

Psalm 46 – NIV

For the director of music. Of the Sons of Korah. According to Alamoth. A song. [a]

 1 God is our refuge and strength,
       an ever-present help in trouble.
2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
       and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
3 though its waters roar and foam
       and the mountains quake with their surging.       Selah

4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
       the holy place where the Most High dwells.
5 God is within her, she will not fall;
       God will help her at break of day.
6 Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall;
       he lifts his voice, the earth melts.

Continue reading “God is our refuge and strength”

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Never Be Destroyed – Talk MP3’s from CMS Camp MMM

I’m not sure what MMM stands for, maybe it had something to do with Mission, Mountains and maybe Magpies? Not sure. Doesn’t matter. Camp MMM is run by Church Missionary Society (CMS). While it got down to zero degrees celsius in Katoomba during camp, it really was a smoking hot camp! Lots of the camps I speak on are very good camps. They all take the Bible seriously and seek to honour Jesus in everything. The thing that made this camp stand out from others was the 1-hour mission spot each day.

The 200 or so peeps on camp were challenged each day to be on board with God’s mission of taking the gospel to the ends of the earth. It was such an encouragement to hear from a bunch of different missionaries about the work they are part of in different corners of the world. Check out CMS website: click me.

I spoke from Daniel 1-7 on the topic Never Be Destroyed (read the blog posts here). God is very kind: 4 of the senior campers became Christian; and another 10 or so recommitted themselves to live with Jesus as their King. Yeeeeewww!! Here are the talk MP3’s, right click to download:

Find out more about Christianity here.

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An Open Letter from the Afghan Christian Community to the Body of Christ

Check out Hebrews 13:3 – “Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.” (NIV) Christians have a responsibility to know what is happening to our brothers and sisters around the world. Our brothers and sisters who are part of the Afghan Christian Community are currently copping lots of crap because they follow Jesus.

If you are a Christian, go read about our family who are suffering because they wear the name of Jesus. Then pray for them as if you were their fellow prisoner, as if you yourselves were suffering.

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The Joy of Knowing Christ

Cornerstone Youth probably have the most media rich youth group website in Sydney! It’s hot. I joined them for their super-encouraging Praise Night. They filmed the whole night, and have now made available all the content on their website! The talk I gave was from Philippians 3:1-10 on The Joy of Knowing Christ. I was a little dizzy on the night and probably waffled a bit more than normal! But from conversations afterwards, many were encouraged to treasure Jesus more than everything else.

Props to Mikey Nhieu and the incredible team of leaders making CY happen each week.

Check out: the CY website | all the media from the night | all the media from the talk

The Joy of Knowing Christ – Dave Miers – MP3 (right click to save)

The video of the talk is broken into chunks below the jump:

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Never Be Destroyed – Talk MP3’s from QLD Launch Camp

At the end of June/start of July, I enjoyed a week with some keen young leaders from South East Queensland. Youthsurge help to run the Launch Camps aimed at developing young leaders. The topic was Never Be Destroyed (read the blog series here) from Daniel 1-7. Along the way, we learnt some great things from Daniel the leader, but the best thing was working out what it will mean to be part of Jesus’ never ending kingdom.

It was great to hang out with old friend Danny Mitchell and new friend Stu Hoadley. They’re both doing a killer job championing youth ministry in Queensland.

Here are the talk MP3’s. Right click to download.

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      Never Be Destroyed Part 6 – Know Your History (Daniel 7)

      Life as a Christian in our world can be very good: enjoying God’s good creation; enjoying good gifts from God; enjoying warm fellowship with other Christian brothers and sisters. But as we saw in part 4, life as a Christian can be tough in a world often hostile to Jesus: living in a fallen world; struggling with sin; and persecution from those who hate Jesus. Sometimes life in our world can be overwhelming. When you feel overwhelmed, what will enable you to persevere in life?

      This is the final study in the Daniel 1-7 series. Daniel 7 will give us a bigger picture of history that will enable us to keep trusting Jesus until the end.

      Daniel 7 marks a shift in the form of literature from Dan 1-6. Daniel 7-12 belongs to a type of writing called ‘apocalyptic’. Basically apocalyptic writing includes a whole bunch of crazy things like beasts, dragons, angels, dreams, visions, numbers, colours and images. It’s a symbolic type of writing that began appearing around the time of Exile. It was to bring a private and hidden type of comfort to the People of God in times of trial. They were reminded that, regardless of the trials they were going through, God was still in control and that in the end everything would be okay.

      Continue reading “Never Be Destroyed Part 6 – Know Your History (Daniel 7)”