Category Archives: Jesus

What I want to say to my single friends…

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Your singleness is not for your sake

Back here I talked about 1 Corinthians 7 and Paul’s description of singleness as a gift.

He talks further about this at the end of the chapter

I would like you to be free from concern. An unmarried man is concerned about the Lord’s affairs – how he can please the Lord. But a married man is concerned about the affairs of this world – how he can please his wife – and his interests are divided. An unmarried woman or virgin is concerned about the Lord’s affairs: her aim is to be devoted to the Lord in both body and spirit. But a married women is concerned about the affairs of this world – how she can please her husband. I am saying this for your own good, not to restrict you, but that you may live in the right way in undivided devotion to the Lord. 1 Corinthians 7:32-35

Singleness is not a chance to make life all about us. God has given us singleness as a gift to serve him in ‘undivided devotion’. There’s nothing that will stop this from happening more than wallowing in self pity.

I understand that singleness is lonely – I get it. I also get that, while the truth is that singleness is a gift, it rarely feels like one. I pray and I hope that in those times of loneliness you would turn to God for satisfaction. I pray that God would bless you with wonderful and understanding friends.

BUT… I also pray that you don’t get so caught up in that loneliness that you forget the point of your singleness. It is not a gift for you. It’s a gift for the Lord and for the church. Like the spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians 12, it is given ‘for the common good’. My experience has been that once you realise that being single is a gift, and (whether you feel it or not) start exploiting it as a gift and serving God with it, you will get joy from it.

So my advice is to use your gift as it was intended – undivided devotion to your Lord.

Don’t wallow. Get up and serve!

The upside of regret

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I’m having a moment of regret.

Looking back on a moment in time of my ministry experience and wishing, not that I had done it better but that I had done it completely different. And if I’d known back then what I know now I probably would have.

While I feel distress about that moment, I also feel encouraged by the fact that I want a do-over. Because it means that in the last year I have learnt more about God, about myself and about the people I seek to minister to. And it’s amazing how knowledge changes you. I like it.

Engage 09

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I’ve been hearing (reading) a buzz around the blogosphere re: Matt Chandler and his speaking events while he is in Australia, which makes me pretty excited about Engage so I though I would try and share my excitement with you!

If you want to check out the program for the weekend you can see it here – http://engage.kcc.org.au/#

These is the topics he is speaking on

  • Engage09 – Topic: Lead with humility. Friday, Aug. 28
  • Engage09 – Topic: Love with fidelity. Saturday, Aug. 29
  • Engage09 – Topic: Give with generosity. Sunday, Aug. 30

It’s going to be a great weekend. And the best news is it’s not too late to get your ticket!

Visit the Engage website to find out more. Hope to see you there!

Candidates Conference

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I have spent the last 2 and a half days at Port Hacking hanging out with a bunch of other Sydney candidates and the team from Ministry Training and Development, learning how to be better teachers of God’s word.

The program included 3 talks from Phillip Jensen on 2 Timothy 3 & 4, a few hours of praying for Sydney, Question time with Peter Jensen (which turned out to be him asking us questions!) plus 4 other sessions in year groups with Rob Smith, Mark Charleston and Ken Noakes.

The 2nd year sessions were – the minister as trainer (Ken Noakes), Applying Theology pastorally: 1 Tim 2 (Phillip Jensen), Reformed Doctrine of Salvation (Rob Smith) and Small Group Ministry (Mark Charleston).

It was a great 3 days filled with lots of things to think seriously about. One of the most important for me was raised in Phillip’s talks on 2 Timothy 3 & 4. These talks highlighted the nature of the world we live, particularly that people are so ready to believe lies – to go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived – and the difficulty we face in sharing the truth in this world. This morning he spoke about the Christian life and what its about – not finishing or starting but finishing the same way we start…. believing the gospel.

Two highlights for me would have to be the 2 sessions that deal with an issue that, though controversial, seems in my mind to be relatively clear.

First was an hour and a half that 2nd years spent with Phillip Jensen looking at 1 Timothy 2. Being a key passage on the issue of women in ministry, this is a passage that I have read and re-read and listened to talk after talk on. So what Phillip said was not complete new to me, although he did give me reason to think a little further about it. My basic summary on this passage is that it calls for men to men, and women to be women and its appeal to creation and the fall shows that these commands are not stuck in the first century, but relevant for us now. As hard as it can be to understand, I love this passage.

Second was on a similar topic. Peter Jensen gave a lecture he used to use at MTC, which was the first in a series on relationships between men and women, and then asked us to help him update it, by commenting on the issues raised and their relevance today. One thing that these 2 sessions raised for me was the difference between how much men have thought about these issues to how much women have thought about it. I had comments from guys afterwards who had no idea that this was such a big issue, and yet for us girls its there – its reality and there’s no avoiding it.

I have too many thoughts on this to put them all here now – maybe one day – but suffice it to say this was an excellent time of learning not just from the guys out the front but from one another.

Hopefully that gives you a small insight to how I have spent the last few days. Feel free to ask more questions :-)

It is finished

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Well exams for this semester are done and I have to say even though this time I only had 3 exams – compared to 6 at the end of last year – I feel much more exhausted this time around. I’m not sure why but stress really got the better of me at the end of last week and despite going into hiding at my folks place on the weekend I am having a hard time getting back to being myself again.

But here is something that never ceases to amaze me and that has brought me a lot of comfort over the last few days. In the process of studying for my New Testament exam I had the pleasure of working with 2 brillo friends and translating and chatting about this –

Later, knowing that all was now completed, and so that the Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips. When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

Now it was the day of Preparation, and the next day was to be a special Sabbath. Because the Jews did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath, they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken down. The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, and then those of the other. But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water. The man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth, and he testifies so that you also may believe. These things happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken,” and, as another scripture says, “They will look on the one they have pierced”.

What an amazing display of Jesus’ sovereignty and therefore willingness in his own death. Without even talking about the fact that everything that happened fullfilled scripture written AGES before that, I am always blown away by this line –

With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

In this day and age we are some determined that ‘its my life and i’ll do what I want’ and yet as hard as we try we can never just decide to give up our spirit and die. But Jesus can! Because as much as we want to be god, Jesus IS God and, in what might be seen as his darkest hour, he showed that in a way that I find astounding.

And he was not just in control of his life but he is control in all things. I’m so glad that he is cause if it was up to me what a mess I would make – especially now.

What not to say to your single friends… #7

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#7 – I’ll find you a husband/wife!

I had an interesting conversation after church tonight about singleness and how a church that is mostly families should be serving the few single people they have.

Towards the end of the conversation my minister asked me and another girl if we thought that it is his job as our pastor to find us a husband.  I’ll admit that I thought about it a minute before replying with a less than confident no. But the more I think about it the more confident I am about that answer.

His job is not to find me a husband (and for the record he doesn’t think thats his job). His job is to teach me. Teach me the bible, teach me how to make wise, godly decisions, teach me how to love and trust God, teach me to find satisfaction in God no matter what my marital status. He is to teach me how to live a life that glorifies God in whatever stage I’m at.

But that’s not just his job. Its yours too. And mine.

Isn’t that what we should be wanting for our friends? Shouldn’t we be encouraging them all to keep trusting Jesus with everything?

I’m not saying you can’t ever try and set people up (if you can find a way that isn’t really awkward!) I’m just saying that a change of martial status is not always the answer. Trusting God, on the other hand, IS always the answer. So lets point our friends to that instead.

What I love about college…

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I’m sure it will come as no surprise if I tell you that college is really hard! And stressful. And a lot of the time I feel like I have no idea what’s going on.

But there are somethings that are uber encouraging for me. Here is just 2 examples.

Stu Vac – I hate exams, but the time we get to concentrate on study is so fruitful for me in terms of consolidating the things I have learnt over the semester (and to verify I have learnt something!)

Moore blogs – I love that so many of my class mates blog about college work. It’s such a great reminder that the things we learn are meant to change us and mould us to be like Jesus. I love reading about how what we do in class, or read for class, really resonates with people and does change them and encourage them. Thanks fellow bloggers for your encouragement to me. I pray that you will always keep following Jesus.

And here is my short contribution. I read this last night in Martin Luther’s ‘Appeal to the ruling class of German Nationality’

‘it is the duty of every Xn to accept the implictions of the faith, understand it and defend it, and denounce everything false’

I think defending the faith and denouncing everything false are often forgotten (at least by me). What a great reminder that they go had in hand with accepting and understanding. I pray that God would help us all in humility and wisdom, to defend the faith and denounce everything false.