Answering tough questions in Canberra

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Yesterday was a great start to mission in Canberra. Both morning services went well with Crossroads South having their biggest service yet.

Much of the day was spent meeting and getting to know the families we will be living with this week.

Kate and Cameron were lucky enough to be able to join a family who, in light of neighbour day, had invited their whole street over to the house for lunch. They have 8 neighbours visit, most of whom didn’t know each and yet stayed for over 3 hours. Thank God for the new friendships that were formed, and pray that Ken & Jo (hosts) would continue to work on those relationships, and embrace opportunities to share Jesus’ words of eternal life with their neighbours.

The whole team was together for the first time yesterday at Crossroads in the City, a night congregation that meets at the ANU.

The lecture theatre was just about packed out, and Con preached on the Invention of Dying (for sins) from Isaiah 53. After church, we had areas set up where people could come and speak to members of the team to get answers to tough questions such as

  • Are science and Christianity against each other?
  • Can we believe the Bible?
  • Does God really punish people who don’t trust in him?
  • Is Jesus the only way?

No-one was sure how or if this would work, but it was a great success! Most the discussion groups had a lot of interest – in fact the science and Christianity discussion have to split into 3 groups.

We also had some areas where people could go for prayer and to talk about how to become a Christian. Last night a guy who the church has contact with though ADFA finally made the decision to follow Jesus! Praise God for him and those who have been sharing, & will continue to share, God’s word with him.

Praise God for a great first day and please keep praying for the team’s preparation for various events, interactions with church members (especially our billets) and those doing work with the ANU team.

 

(republished from here)

Behind the scenes: Canberra

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Today was our final team meeting before we all arrive at Crossroads Church, Canberra, on Sunday morning.

We’re all really excited about the chance to partner with Crossroads for the week and we would love your prayers as we do so. Please pray for us as we prepare talks, kids programs, for door knocking, walk up evangelism and to answer difficult questions. Pray that we would always be prepared to give an answer for the reason for the hope that we have and that we would answer with gentleness and respect (1 Peter 3:15-16).

Here is a snapshot of our calendar for the week

It’s going to be busy so please pray for the team as we navigate events in multiple locations. Pray that we would work well together, and with the team at Crossroads. Above all pray that we would be worthy ambassadors of Christ and that people would be compelled to consider who Jesus is.

(reposted from here)

 

Mission in the nation’s capital

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Once again the time has come for Moore College to send us out into the world (literally) to partner with churches for a week of mission. While many of our teams will be Sydney based, there are a few teams heading a little further.

This year my mission team is heading to Canberra to work with Crossroads Church for 8 days, starting Sunday. Much excitement!

But we’re not the team going the furthest. One team will be on planes this weekend, heading to Hong Kong for the week.

If you want to know a little about what we do on mission read about my last 2 years here.

It’s always a busy week and of course we’d love your prayerful support as we head out. If you’d like to pray for us, or if you would just like to know what’s happening, you can read updates from all the teams on the moore college mission blog. I’ll be over there, keeping you updated on behalf of the Canberra team.

You can also follow the #mooremissions tweets.

Identity & Sexuality: Part 1

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Issues of human sexuality and how it relates to our identity are more and more becoming crucial and much talked about issues in our culture. It’s hard, if not impossible, for Christians to shy away from these discussions. And while they are complex issues, shying away from them is one of the worst things we can do. We need to be prepared to engage at some level.

It makes sense that if we what to start to answer the question of who we are we should look at where we started. The beginning of humanity – the 6th day of creation.

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” [Genesis 1:26]

Humanity stands out here as the only thing to have been created in the image of its creator. We bear the image of a trinitarian God, who is eternally in relationship with himself. So to be human is to be relational.

It’s this that differentiates us from the animals that we are to rule over. But that’s not all that is different between Adam and Eve and the animals. Here’s what we’re told about the animals

And God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals, each according to its kind.” And it was so.  God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. [Genesis 1:24-25]

The animals are produced and arranged according to kind. And there are many kinds. Humans are their own kind – there’s a reason we call it called humankind. But what we do see, which we don’t for the animals, is gender. Part of being made in God’s image is being made male and female. We are different, and yet of one kind and together image bearers of God.

In the last few weeks, as part of some sermon prep. I’ve been reading some writing of several Queer Theorists who would like to convince us that gender is fluid. It’s not set in stone and it can be changed easily because it’s not based on our physiology but on some transitory feeling within us. But Genesis shows us a very different picture than the one they are trying to sell us. Gender is there in the very first description of humanity. Before we’ve heard a word from either of them, we’re told they are created male and female. Their gender isn’t fluid because their male and femaleness isn’t based on how they feel. They are male and female simply because God made them that way.

You’ll also note that they are described as male and female rather than man and woman. This is because the Hebrew words for male and female are intended to express sexuality. To be human is to be a sexual person. So gender has played a role in the first introduction to both humanity and sexuality.  The sexual bond of the man and the woman are part of God’s good creation and integral in his purpose for them to fill and subdue the earth.

Genesis doesn’t leave room for the confusion of gender or sexuality. Being male and female is fundamental to both our identity and our sexuality. And it’s part of the creation that God declared was very good.

Death is not the worst thing

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Today was kind of a strange day for me. Instead of spending it hanging out with my fellow MTC 4th year buddies I spent it with my sisters, trying to work out what contribution we wanted to make to our grandmother’s funeral on Tuesday. We were very close to my grandparents on mum’s side, and the 4 of us were their only grandchildren. When Grandad died I felt like I had tonnes of memories I wanted to share with people – so many good times to look back on. The memories were so fresh then. But not so with Grandma.

I feel like I’ve actually had two grandmothers in one. The first – the one I love so much, is the Grandma whose house we spent every school holidays at because mum & dad both worked. The Grandma whose house my older sister and I were quarantined to when we had the chicken pox. The Grandma who, along with my Grandad, turned up at our house 6 weeks into their 6 months camper van trip around the country, because they missed us too much. Instead they packed up me and my sisters (I was 10, my sisters 13, 7 & 5) and took us on a 4 week trip to Cairns. Probably the greatest holiday of my life and only 1 of many they took us on over the years.

The other Grandma only appeared 6 years ago. The Alzheimer’s started long before that, but 6 years ago Grandma became an old woman who didn’t know who I was anymore. By the time she died there wasn’t a single person in this world that she recognised.

I’ve heard it said that death is not the worst thing that can happen to a person. For Grandma this is certainly true. She was a woman who loved Jesus and served him with her whole life. Death was the best thing for her.

On Thursday she had surgery to pin a broken femur, and on Tuesday she died from post operative multi-system organ failure. Alzheimer’s may not have killed her, but it took her life from her years ago. It was back then I grieved the loss of my wonderful grandmother. For that reason I don’t feel sad that she died. We lost her 6 years ago and we have grieved for all those years. I do feel sad that the last 6 years are the freshest memories right now. I hope they fade and I start to remember the 24 amazing years before that. But I also don’t want to forget the last 6 years completely, because they remind me of this truth

Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed – in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.  For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” [1 Corinthians 15:51-54]

When I think about that I feel indescribable joy – because God is good and faithful to his promise. Death is defeated and my Grandma lives! She is raised imperishable with a body and mind that work. Praise Jesus that she is home with him. I look forward to joining them one day.

Are Christians our own worst enemy??

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Today I had the privilege of being a part of a Q & A session at a high school Christian lunch time group. On any given week the group is usually about 30 kids. Today it was 45. It’s an unusual group because about half of the 30 regulars are not Christians. Obviously the Christian were out numbered today.

A few months ago the group set up a board in the school asking students to complete the following – “My biggest problem with Christianity is…”

Over the last few months the leader of the lunch time group has set out to address the issues people have. Today’s challenge was to answer the question of what Christianity has to say about homosexuality. It was a tough gig but very worth while I think.

Something that really hit me as I was listening to their objections, was the way they were very quick to attack what the Bible says, without actually knowing what the Bible says. Of course Leviticus was mentioned more times than I could count, but there was a complete ignorance to anything else the Bible has to say about homosexuality, or in fact, any kind of sexuality. There were some genuinely shocked faces when I said the Bible has lots to say about sex.

But I don’t really blame them. I suspect they are repeating the only info they’ve ever heard about the Bible and homosexuality. A week ago I meet with a teenaged Christian girl to think about these same issues. When I asked her “why does the Bible say homosexuality is wrong” she had a hard time answering. Eventually she said “I don’t know, all I know is that the Bible says its wrong”.

I’ll admit I’m kinda thinking out loud, but I feel like this is our fault, for having the wrong conversation for so many years. We need to not talk about the fact that the Bible says its wrong (cause everyone knows that anyway) and instead talk about the presuppositions that sit behind the conversation. For example, some things I noticed that all the students today assumed are – all desire is good, sex is a right for every person, and sexuality is integral to identity. The Bible has a lot to say about these 3 assumptions and without addressing them, anything the Bible says about homosexuality makes no sense.

I think unless we start moving the conversation we are our own worst enemy. What do you think?

“tomorrow will worry about itself”

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Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. [Matthew 6:25-34]