Well much has happen which is often the case after a few months.
Therefore here is the updates.
Church
One of the main things that encourage me about St Paul's Emu plains, is the people's faithfulness and willingness to grow in their knowledge of God. People are generally interested in how your week was, and especially the leaders are interested in how you can further grow and be equipped in the knowledge of God.
We have been going through the book of Exodus over the past few weeks, and the exposition of scripture that have been given are both encouraging and challenging because they are Christ centred and are faithful to the text. God's word penetrates our hearts and minds to shape our will to do God's will and that's excellent!
In terms of ministry their, I've been helping with year 5 scripture at Emu Heights. That has been going well, It is a great encouragement to see kids who want to know more about Christ even though their ideas are strange at times. Me and the assistant minister at Emu Plains Anglican have been dividing the scripture teaching up into two parts which has provided a good training aspect to teaching as well. I've also had a privilege to meet up with him and be discipled and he has encouraged me to think about how he can continue training me in ministry, and particular word ministry. Other things that i have taken up is leading singing from time to time, and generally things that come naturally as a Christian, helping packing up chairs, etc.
Also I'm very excited that in term 3, i might be on the preaching roster, to preach on John, so theirs something to think about for praying. It's exciting and a great privilege to continue being trained up in Word ministries and do prayer that i may do it out of service and love and not out of pride.
I've also been getting to know congregation members slowly, found it helpful to stand where the welcomer's stand each week and say hello to everyone. I noticed that some of the members work at the university, and i would love to find a time to meet up with them at uni with some of our cbm members. In particular I've been getting to know the student minister well, and he is someone i can talked to about ministry issues and tough tough questions. I am also trying to get him and me praying for each other regularly.
I also went up to Easter convention and got time to spend with him and some of his Moore collage mates. Was a brilliant time with excellent talks that were very encouraging and challenging. We looked at the issue of suffering, which is an action pack tough issue. I was also surprised that they keep a name tag for me up at katoomba when i went to visit, i deeply do miss katoomba, however i am joyful and a sense of peace come in knowing that their are faithful people their to continue proclaiming the Gospel in katoomba, please do, remember 10%
CBM
CBM (Campus Bible Ministries) has been good as usual. We have been slightly struggling this year with the finishing up of two of our staff members, and the arrival of a baby for our current staff member. My friend who started mts has really helped and has a heart to see the lost come to Christ. Mission week was great, a bunch of Moore collage students came to help us with mission apart of their mission, and we had a bunch of stuff happening throughout that week. Barbecues, loads of walk up, a band, etc. Student Leader (President) work has been tough and challenging however i decided to write too small talks to encourage both the student leaders and the staff in the ministry we do their. CBM has a great emphasis on training people up as well as training them up for evangelising. I've also been involved in Co-leading Doctrine course, to train up other Christians, that has been going well as well. It seems the past uni years, its been other's training and disciple me up however this year, its turned around. I've been meeting up one on one with a guy, and its been both very encouraging and edifying. Therefore please do continue praying for the work on campus, that many more seeds will be planted in people's hearts, and that many more young leaders will be trained. I've include at the bottom of this message, both devotions/talks.
Uni
Uni work has been challenging and i feel i should spend more time doing them. Thesis work has been tough however I've just recently finished a initial pre draft and handed in last week. A whole 30 pages, 4400 words. The most I've ever written for an engineer. The title of thesis is as such, DNA microarray image enhancement for grid ding using conditional convolution histogram equalization. Still a lot of work to do for it, so do pray that i may be diligent in my studies. It has also been good to learn about computer architecture over this semester however the work has proven difficult.
Personal Godliness
This area all ways needs growth. With the lesser travel time and the use of the car, finding time for reading the bible and praying has lessened. Please do pray i might find time, and make it a high priority to do so. It terms of the normal struggle for most christian, singleness, I've been much more appreciative of being single and using the most of my energy in ministry. Therefore my contentment defiantly has improved. It still is unnatural for us to be alone, and i still would love to have someone to encourage, train and love in Christ however I am not so worried, for ministry is first priority as a single man. I some what miss having two of my katoomba friends around who were all ways around to challenge and grow me in my understand of God. I do miss them greatly however i know we have been sent out onto different parts for the proclamation of the Gospel. One of them recently got engaged and it is a great blessing, and he has started working at cms (Church Missionary Society). The other has started collage, apparently he has a reputation of asking many questions and changeling the lectures hehe. I do continue to pray that they may continue to grow in their knowledge of God and that their desire for the proclamation of God may also continue to grow.
You would also be happy to know that i was convicted of pirated software i had, so i bought vista home premium & Office 2007 for my computer.
Other:
I have done a number of interesting things in my spare time. Built a router and wireless server. Ran 5 Operating systems at onces, and many more geeky things. I also was lent a brilliant Christian manga, which includes the Gospel. They are only available in Japan, so hopefully will get some sent over.
final note. Please do continue praying for the things above. If your a katoombaite reading this, I do miss you, and my prayers for the ministry up there are with you.
These are the two deviation/small talks i gave for our cbm committee
1 Peter 2:4-10 Tell
As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in Script “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.” So the honour is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, “The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,” and “A stone of stumbling and a rock of offence.” They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the Excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
What are we trying to do here at CBM?
Well you might remember at our weekend away, we came up with four different things that we as a Christian group should be doing.
Firstly, we should tell/evangelise people who Jesus is and what he has done.
Secondly, we should teach people to understand and act on God’s word.
Thirdly, we should equip/train God’s people to lovingly serve each other.
And finally, we should nurture people. This comes from teaching and equipping God’s people.
So today lets start of by looking at the first one, telling people. But before we can understand why we need to tell people, we need to understand who we are.
1 Peter 2:4-5 tells us that “you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” We are God’s building project, pictured as living stones joined to the living stone, Jesus.
Verse 9 tells us that we are God’s people, God’s nation, who are being joined and united together.
However we ourselves were not always like this. And we see this in verse 10 which tells us that once we were not a people who received mercy and because we had rejected his rule, we deserved punishment.
It is now only because of God’s mercy and grace in Christ Jesus that, verse 5, we are a holy priesthood.
So if this is who we are, why should we tell people about Jesus?
Well Jesus is our great high priest (Hebrews 5) and he has made us his go-between between him and the rest of the world. Verse 9, “you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God so that you may proclaim the Excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.”
This is where we get to be a part of what God is doing in the world, apart of his mission. We get to share in the proclamation of his saving message that Jesus has come, that he has lived, that he has died and that, he is risen, to save his people.
As God’s people it is our first responsibility and what a privilege it is, and even more, we can do it together.
Therefore friends, let us continue to tell people who Jesus is and what he has done.
As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in Script “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.” So the honour is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, “The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,” and “A stone of stumbling and a rock of offence.” They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the Excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
What are we trying to do here at CBM?
Well you might remember at our weekend away, we came up with four different things that we as a Christian group should be doing.
Firstly, we should tell/evangelise people who Jesus is and what he has done.
Secondly, we should teach people to understand and act on God’s word.
Thirdly, we should equip/train God’s people to lovingly serve each other.
And finally, we should nurture people. This comes from teaching and equipping God’s people.
So today lets start of by looking at the first one, telling people. But before we can understand why we need to tell people, we need to understand who we are.
1 Peter 2:4-5 tells us that “you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” We are God’s building project, pictured as living stones joined to the living stone, Jesus.
Verse 9 tells us that we are God’s people, God’s nation, who are being joined and united together.
However we ourselves were not always like this. And we see this in verse 10 which tells us that once we were not a people who received mercy and because we had rejected his rule, we deserved punishment.
It is now only because of God’s mercy and grace in Christ Jesus that, verse 5, we are a holy priesthood.
So if this is who we are, why should we tell people about Jesus?
Well Jesus is our great high priest (Hebrews 5) and he has made us his go-between between him and the rest of the world. Verse 9, “you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God so that you may proclaim the Excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.”
This is where we get to be a part of what God is doing in the world, apart of his mission. We get to share in the proclamation of his saving message that Jesus has come, that he has lived, that he has died and that, he is risen, to save his people.
As God’s people it is our first responsibility and what a privilege it is, and even more, we can do it together.
Therefore friends, let us continue to tell people who Jesus is and what he has done.
Equipped in the Knowledge of God
You might remember that last time we had a meeting I talked about the importance of telling people about the Gospel. Well another important thing that we should also be actively doing is growing in our knowledge of God.
So we see in Ephesians 4, that we are all united in one body1 and all of us share the most important thing in common, which is life, through the death and resurrection of Jesus. However 1 Corinthians 12 tells us that God has also given each of us gifts2, which are to be used in service, and if we are going to serve one another, we need to be properly equipped. Therefore how do we get equipped to serve?
As I mentioned before, we need to grow in our knowledge of God and as we grow in our knowledge of God, so we grow in Christlike ness of character, for true knowledge of God affects our whole personalty. It not only shapes our thoughts but fires out emotions and stirs our will to do God’s will.
Therefore it is not surprising that Paul often prayed for his converts to grow in knowledge, such as the start of Ephesians 13. Nor is it suppressing that Paul prayed for knowledge, because God must be our teacher.
God teaches us through his spirit challenging and convicting us as we hear or read God’s word.
Therefore In terms of the knowledge of God, we first need to know what God’s will is with regards to our actions and attitudes in our life from day to day. This does not come naturally for us to realise that God wishes us to have a forgiving Spirit, or to be humble, or to be meek, or to be content with the things we have. We need to be taught these things and reminded again and again through God’s word.
Secondly we also need to know God’s intentions for the future; for it is through this that we find the strongest motive for Christian living. For example, knowledge of Christ’s second as judge and king provides a very strong motive for seeking first God’s kingdom.
So back in Ephesians in chapter 4, Christ has given ministers to the church, men who have received the gift of teaching for helping their fellow Christians grow in knowledge4. Indeed we all play our part in this helping one another and Christian fellowship is a vital instrument under God in helping us all to grow in knowledge of him. Therefore we must continue to meet in service, to build each other up by contributing to the fellowship.
So my first application today is to those who are in the position of expounding God’s word, In particular those who give talks and sermons. These people must explain and apply God’s word so that the hearers may grow in their knowledge of God and in their Christian faith. This means that they must give time to the study of the bible and theology and in particular, they must give a reasonable amount of time in preparation of their talk.
Secondly, it is the duty of all of us as Christians that when an opportunity comes, to build up his fellow Christians and to testify to the outside. God has called us and given us each gifts for the purpose of building up God’s church. We are God’s body building project.
So let’s take the matter of equipping and growing in the knowledge of God seriously. Not only pray that God’s Spirits will teach us but also use the means God has provided. Read the bible regularly and prayerfully and be active in Christian fellowship where the word of God is preached, for this is one of God’s primary means for our growth in Christ likeness.
So we see in Ephesians 4, that we are all united in one body1 and all of us share the most important thing in common, which is life, through the death and resurrection of Jesus. However 1 Corinthians 12 tells us that God has also given each of us gifts2, which are to be used in service, and if we are going to serve one another, we need to be properly equipped. Therefore how do we get equipped to serve?
As I mentioned before, we need to grow in our knowledge of God and as we grow in our knowledge of God, so we grow in Christlike ness of character, for true knowledge of God affects our whole personalty. It not only shapes our thoughts but fires out emotions and stirs our will to do God’s will.
Therefore it is not surprising that Paul often prayed for his converts to grow in knowledge, such as the start of Ephesians 13. Nor is it suppressing that Paul prayed for knowledge, because God must be our teacher.
God teaches us through his spirit challenging and convicting us as we hear or read God’s word.
Therefore In terms of the knowledge of God, we first need to know what God’s will is with regards to our actions and attitudes in our life from day to day. This does not come naturally for us to realise that God wishes us to have a forgiving Spirit, or to be humble, or to be meek, or to be content with the things we have. We need to be taught these things and reminded again and again through God’s word.
Secondly we also need to know God’s intentions for the future; for it is through this that we find the strongest motive for Christian living. For example, knowledge of Christ’s second as judge and king provides a very strong motive for seeking first God’s kingdom.
So back in Ephesians in chapter 4, Christ has given ministers to the church, men who have received the gift of teaching for helping their fellow Christians grow in knowledge4. Indeed we all play our part in this helping one another and Christian fellowship is a vital instrument under God in helping us all to grow in knowledge of him. Therefore we must continue to meet in service, to build each other up by contributing to the fellowship.
So my first application today is to those who are in the position of expounding God’s word, In particular those who give talks and sermons. These people must explain and apply God’s word so that the hearers may grow in their knowledge of God and in their Christian faith. This means that they must give time to the study of the bible and theology and in particular, they must give a reasonable amount of time in preparation of their talk.
Secondly, it is the duty of all of us as Christians that when an opportunity comes, to build up his fellow Christians and to testify to the outside. God has called us and given us each gifts for the purpose of building up God’s church. We are God’s body building project.
So let’s take the matter of equipping and growing in the knowledge of God seriously. Not only pray that God’s Spirits will teach us but also use the means God has provided. Read the bible regularly and prayerfully and be active in Christian fellowship where the word of God is preached, for this is one of God’s primary means for our growth in Christ likeness.
In Christ,
Laurence.
