Laurence's Blogspot

Sermon Updates

2010-09-08T13:58:00.001+10:00

Listen to Sermon on Daniel 8
Listen to Sermon on Galatians 4:12-5:12

The Love of Jesus - John 13

2010-01-15T09:01:00.002+11:00

Listen to Sermon on John 13

Judgment upon the King (1 Samuel 28-31)

2009-07-02T11:24:00.001+10:00

Listen to Sermon on 1 Samuel 28-31

Sermons Podcast

2009-01-21T10:06:00.004+11:00

Hey, I've uploaded three of my sermons that I could find in audio format.

or direct links

Christian Godliness in the World - Titus 3

A God you can depend on - Joel 2:18-27

True Life - John 11

you can also go here to view the main page.

Laurence.

Christian Godliness in the World

2009-01-11T21:00:00.003+11:00

Hi, My latest sermon to give you food for thought!

Titus 3 – Christian Godliness in the World
(Second reading 1 Timothy 4)

How would you feel,
if your regular doctor,
who was cardiac sergeant,
was living a lifestyle which would lead you to question if he was really a doctor.

Every time you go to see him,
he assures you that you are in good health,
yet you notice that he is always coughing,
his always smoking, and is always eating mac'as.
Every time you ring up for advice, he is always at the local bar drinking.

Now, I don’t about you, but that would make me question,
it would make me question his claims about me being in good health and even his claim about being a doctor.

Christian sometimes fall into this problem as well, they claim to have the knowledge of truth,
yet their speech and their lives do not show it.

Point 1 - Truth leads to Godliness (v3-8)

Now, the knowledge of the truth has been a common theme throughout the book of Titus
and we have seen that knowledge of truth and Godliness cannot be separated,
they go together.

So when the truth is taught faithfully,
ungodliness is renounced
but when the truth is not taught,
for those who deny God like the Cretans,
they actually turn to myths and they are liars and are detestable and disobedient.

So what is this knowledge of truth?
Well Paul helps us out in verse 8,
he says this is a trustworthy saying, this is the truth.

What is this trustworthy saying that he is talking about,
well we need to go back to verse 4 where he gives us an explanation of what God has done for us.

But before we start looking at verse 4 together, let’s turn our attention to God in prayer.
Heavenly father, we give you great thanks that you have revealed yourself through your word and we ask you now to help us, to help us understand your word and to grow in Christ-likeness, We ask this through Jesus’ name, Amen.

So, let’s pick it up from verse 4,
“When the kindness and love of God our saviour appeared, he saved us”.

What did God saved us from?

Well verse 3, “At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another”.

This image of human life that we see in verse 3 is an unpleasant image
and it’s an image of human life without the grace of God.

It’s a life where we were foolish and disobedient,
were we lacked any sense or knowledge of what is right,
where we were both mentally and morally deprived.

We were deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures.

Most Australian’, while they might muck from time to time, would say that they are generally a good person,
however this verse tells us that we weren’t good people
because we were deceived and enslaved to evil desire,
we were enslaved to sin and there was nothing we could do,
to not live this way.

And as a result we lived in malice and envy,
being hated and hating one another.
We resented each other and we were hostile towards one another.

It is because of this reason that we could not know God
and that we need someone to save us,
someone to rescue us from our bondage to sin
and to change us into new people who know and live for God.

So when the kindness and love of God our saviour appeared,
he saved us,
and he saved us not because of any righteous things we had done,
but because of his mercy.

Now if we are truly deprived and enslaved to sin,
then really,
there is nothing we can do to save ourselves.

Yet, our world seems to think this is not the case,
our world tells us that true happiness,
fulfilment,
salvation is found from within.

Even those who claim to be religious,
they think that they can earn God’s favour,
God’s salvation from within by good works.

However this isn’t the salvation Paul is talking about,
notice in verse 4 that we have been saved from depravity by the appearing of God our saviour.

The Lord Jesus our saviour is our source of salvation,
he is the one who has rescued us,
he is the one who has revealed God to us
and this salvation is entirely from God’s own heart,
from his kindness, from his love, his grace and his mercy in sending Jesus.

How does God’s mercy in sending Jesus save us?

Well Verse 5, “God saves us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Saviour” And who verse 7, has justified by his grace.

God in his mercy has justified us
which means that he has declared right,
he has declared us forgiven,
by the death of Jesus on the cross
and by his grace.

And at the same time God has also changed our hearts,
he has made us into a new creation,
giving us new birth
which basically means that he has changed us to know and follow him,
to be like Christ,
and his done this through the Holy Spirit.

Now I wonder if you have noticed that the only reason you are saved,
that you know God,
is because God has saved you himself.

He has done this through Jesus,
by the justification that came by his blood,
he has done it through the Holy Spirit,
by whom he gave you new birth and a renewed heart
and it is motivated by his kindness and he love.

God the father, the son and the Holy Spirit work together in an amazing way to bring salvation to you.

So, why have you been saved,
what is you purpose?

Verse 7, you have been saved, “so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.”

Did you know that your purpose for your Christian life is to become an heir,
an heir of God and a co-heir with Christ?

God has saved us for this purpose,
he saved us to become an heir of God,
and because we are heirs,
we now have a great hope and great assurance of fullness of life with God forever,
the hope of eternal life.

Now, this salvation that we have just heard,
Paul is telling us in verse 8,
that it is trustworthy,
that it is the truth and that it must be trusted.

And Paul wants timothy to stress these things, to insist these things,
“so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good” or literally, devoted to do good works.

If you have trust in God,
then you know this truth of salvation,
you have the knowledge of truth,
however this trust in God,
isn’t just head knowledge,
but it’s a trust which leads to good works,
which leads to Godliness.

Paul isn’t saying that we are saved by good work,
he already established that we are saved by grace,
but he is actually saying that good works is the necessary fruit and evidence that we have been saved.

Now, if we are saved people,
if we are renewed people,
then a true knowledge of the truth will actually shape the way you think and the way you act,
to do God’s will,
to be like Christ,
to be devoted to good works.

It like we heard last week,
where you can’t have knowledge of truth without Godliness, without a response which expresses our relationship with God.

Let me encourage you
and urge to grow in knowledge of the truth,
to be reminded of the salvation God has given you,
to know God,
to listen to his voice,
to read your bibles and study his word
so that you may know how to be devoted to doing good works because good works is excellent and it’s profitable for everyone.

Point 2 – Duty for life in the world (v1-2, 9-11)

Now in Titus so far,
we have seen what it looks like to be an heir of God,
we have seen what it looks like to be Christian who is devoted to good works in different roles and situations.

In chapter 1,
we saw Christian duty in the church,
how elders and leaders of the church are meant to live and what they are to teach.

In chapter 2 we saw Christian duty in the home,
how men, women and slaves are to live
and what they are to teach.

Now in chapter 3 Paul goes on to talk about Christian duty in the world,
how Christians who are devoted to good works are meant to respond to the world,
to the community around us.

So firstly, how are Christian meant to respond to rulers and authorities?

Well verse 1, “Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good”.

We are commanded to be obedient,
to be obedient to those in the world who have rulership and authority over us.

Does this mean that we obey and do everything they tell us?

Well no,
because that would be idolatry,
it would be worshiping them rather then worshiping God.

Peter in Acts 5 tells us that we must obey God rather then men.
So our first allegiance is to God,
however if a ruler or those in authority
command us to do something which is not in collision with God’s commands,
then our duty is to obey them.

We are called to obey them because as Paul tells us in Romans 13, those in authority have actually been delegated to it by God for the duties of punishing evil and promoting good.

Notice that this verse also tells us to be ready to do whatever is good
because it’s not enough just to be obedient to rulers and authority
but we actually need to be ready to cooperate with them
and help them to complete their duties.

Now what about everyone else in the world,
what about non-Christians,
how are we to relate to them?

Verse 2, we are to “slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and to show true humility toward all men.”

Friends, we are being watched,
make sure that your speech and your behaviour reflects your devotion to doing good works,
make sure you are pointing people to Jesus by your Christ-likeness of character.
Don’t slander anyone,
don’t be argumentative but be considerate,
show gentleness and graciousness,
show humility,
courtesy
and meekness towards all men just as Jesus did.

Are you considered,
gentle
and gracious towards all people?

What about the people who get on your nerves and really annoy you?
Do you show humility and courtesy to them?
Or do you get angry and prideful?

Remember that you too, verse 3,
where once foolish,
disobedient and deceived,
you too once where once anti-social.

But God has changed you,
he has saved you and has renewed you heart,
with the knowledge of the truth,
with the news about salvation.

It is not enough to just affirm that the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men.
We must be able to say that he saves us,
he saved me
and he can save you.

And you see by being obedient to the authorities,
by being humble,
gentle
and showing courtesy towards all men,
in doing this,
we have the opportunity to point people to the knowledge of truth,
to point people to Jesus.
People will ask why, why are we different.

Now if good works is excellent and profitable for everyone as we have just seen,
then what isn’t profitable?
What is it that we are meant to avoid?

Well verse 9, “but avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and arguments and quarrels about the law, because these are unprofitable and useless”.

Is this verse saying that we should not debate and disagree with people?
No, because Jesus himself was a controversialist,
he was always in constant debate with the religious leader of his day.
We heard last week that God expects us to be intolerant,
to have discernment when it comes to knowing the truth.
And we saw in chapter 1 that false teachers need to be silenced and rebuked.

No, Paul isn’t saying that we shouldn’t debate with people
but he is saying that we need to avoid speech which is foolish.

One thing I’ve noticed talking to non-Christian over the years on university campus
is that people love talking about evolution,
about the big bang,
about church corruption,
even Christian’s love talking about them.

Now there is nothing wrong about debating over these issues,
but the thing I noticed was that,
just talking about these issues without actually getting to the truth,
getting to the gospel was,
like this verse says,
unprofitable and useless.

Having clever arguments isn’t going to bring people into a relationship with God,
it’s the knowledge of the truth,
it’s the Gospel,
it’s Jesus that bring people into relationship with God.

What about if someone amongst us is divisive and not teaching the truth?

Well verse 10, “Warn a divisive person once, and then warn him a second time. After that, have nothing to do with him. You may be sure that such a man is warped and sinful; he is self condemned.”

Paul commands Titus to discipline them,
to warn them once,
and if they continue,
warn them again,
and if they refuse to repent after the second warning,
have nothing to do with them because they are warped and are sinful.

In the 1 timothy passage that we read earlier this evening,
like Titus chapter 3,
we are told to remember the truth,
to grow in Godliness,

to command and teach the truth,
to watch your life and doctrine closely,
and if you do this,
you will save both yourself and your hearers.

This implies that the danger with a person who is divisive
and who doesn’t repent is that they will condemn not only themselves but their hearers’ as well. They need to be disciplined.

Do you watch your life and doctrine closely?
Are you devoted to doing good works?

And if you are,
are you making the most of the opportunity which come before you, whatever the place is,
if it’s at work,
or at home,
or with friends,
do you point others to the truth,
do you point others to Jesus?

Well let me encourage you to start talking to people about Jesus.

As you might of heard,
this year we have the connect 09 campaign,
a Sydney wide mission to reach the lost in our community.

Make sure that you are gracious,
gentle,
showing humility,
courtesy to all men,
and do start praying for opportunities and you know God will give those opportunities to you. So start praying now!

Point 3 – Final Personal Messages (v12-15)

Finally in verses 12-15,
Paul makes some final remarks to Titus.

Titus was originally left in Crete to set things right
and soon he is going to be replaced by either Artemas or Tychicus.
In the mean time he is to do his best to meet Paul in Nicopolis
and when Zenas and Apollos arrive in crete,
he is to make sure their needs are met.

Paul reminds us again in verse 13,
that all Christians “must learn to devote themselves to doing what is good, in order that they may provide for daily necessities and not live unproductive lives”.

Again we see Paul emphasising the need for Christians to do good works and especially to provide for people with pressing needs.
Good works must be the logical and the natural expression of our trust in God, and if this is the case, we won't be fruitless.

finally, in verse 15,
we see that faith is the thing that unites all Paul’s companions together
and all Christians together in love,
faith in the grace of God,
faith that God has justified us,
faith that he has renewed us,

for the purposes of being an heir of God and the having the hope of eternal life.

Friends, let me remind you again that this salvation that God offers,
which is totally at God own expense,
is trustworthy,
it is the truth.

Therefore make every effort to know the truth,
to keep reading your bibles
and be reminded of the salvation that God offers,
so that you may know how to be devoted to doing what is good
because it is excellent and profitable for all people.

Grace be with you all, Amen.

The True Gospel Recieved by Faith

2008-12-09T11:17:00.002+11:00

Hi fellow readers, I have just come back from an excellent christian conference called SPRTE and mission in Nowra. When I get a chance, I will write a review. However, I preached on mission at Nowra Baptist, Greenwell Point and Culburra Baptist on Sin and God's Solution. So I'll thought I'll share it with you.

Point 1 – Our Human Problem
We have all heard the saying, “If you want to get it done right... you have to do it yourself.”
Or perhaps you have heard the saying “If you want something good in your life... you must get it yourself.”

Now, these sayings, which are focused on us and our abilities to make things right and good, are actually a reflection on the way our world thinks and acts.
Sadly, this kind of thinking, has also distorted people’s understanding of how we get right with God.
So instead of getting right with God through faith, people have actually added works, where good works is required to be in the right with God.

Now a few months ago back home on my university campus, I went around asking people that if they were to die and come before God, and God was to say “Why should I let you into heaven”, what would their response be?
And you know almost all of them said to me, Yeah, God should let me in because I’m a good person, I mean, I haven’t murdered anyone, I haven’t really stolen anything, there is a couple of times when I have lied, but really, lying isn’t that bad, doesn’t everyone do it?

Now, how might you respond to someone who thinks this way?
Would you agree with them?
Should they be allowed to enter heaven and be in the right with God?

Well, the book of Romans actually highlights a major problem with this type of thinking. The problem is that people, people like you and I, have rejected God and because of our rejection, we run away from God, not living his way but living for our own desires.
We see this in chapter 3 where it says that no one is righteous, no one is good, doesn’t matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile, doesn’t matter if you’re from Sydney or from Nowra, no, not even one, there is no one who understands God, no one who seeks God for all have turned away.

If God was to put the entire human race into his court room right now, would there be anyone who would be good enough to be right with God?
Would there be anyone who is not wicked?
Anyone who is not evil?
Have you ever lied?
Have you ever been greedy?
Have you ever been full of envy, or slanderous, or arrogant and boastful?

Well let me tell you that God’s sentence for rejecting him and not living his way is facing his judgment and his wrath and eternal condemnation.
Therefore our only response should be one of silence because we have nothing to say to our defence.

In the beginning of our passage that we read earlier in verse 20, we see this exact problem,
we see that when we compare our lives to the law, to God’s commands,
it shows us that we don’t actually deserve to be in the right with God because we don’t actually live for him, we have a problem with our hearts, a problem called sin.

Now, if this is the case, if indeed we are sinful, then how can we be right with God?
Well God has actually provided a solution for us and it’s a solution which is done completely at his own expense.

Point 2 – God’s Solution to our Problem

This brings us to our passage today/tonight,
now before we begin; let’s turn our attention to God in prayer asking that he will help us to understand the passage as we look at it together.
So let’s prayer,
Heavenly father, we give you thanks for making yourself know to us through your word and we ask you now to clear our minds of any distractions and we ask you to change us by your spirit to live for you. We ask this through Jesus Christ, Amen.
Now I hope you have your bibles open and let’s pick it up from verse 21. This is God’s solution to our problem,
“But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and are justified freely by his grace”

Now last week, I want down at a conference in Canberra.
And one thing I noticed was that there were some blokes who actually wore the same shirt every day.
And by the end of the conference, these blokes actually had a number of interesting stains on their shirt,
they had pasta stains on one side, they had tomato source on the other and they had pen marks as far as the eye could see.

In a similar way, our sin is like a filthy shirt that just never wants to get cleaned.
Even when we try to wash it with good works, it just doesn’t want to become spotless.
But you know God has actually provided a solution,
he has justified us which means that he has declared us right before him and he does this by removing our filthy shirt and replacing it with a spotless one.

Now if God’s a holy God who is angry at sin,
how is it even fair or just that he could forgive a sinner like you and I and declare us right before him?
Wouldn’t that make God immoral?
Wouldn’t it make sin seem like it’s not that bad?

Well if we read verse 24 again, it says that,
God has “justified us freely by his grace, as a free gift, through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement through faith in his blood.”
God did through Jesus what we could not do,
because of God’s mercy he wills to forgive sinful people, to forgive you and me and to declare us right before him,
but to do this, God had to deal with our human problem,
he had to deal with our sin,
and he dealt with it through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

Now the word redemption is actually a commercial term borrowed from the slave marketplace.
It was used when talking about slaves who were purchased at a price in order to be set free.
So how does God rescue you and redeem you?
Well it’s because God has payed a price,
the price was his son who came to give his life as a random for many.
And he did this in order to set you free from your bondage to sin so that you may be free to live for God.

How did God do this,
well, God presented Jesus on the cross as a sacrifice of atonement for our sins.
Now, in the Old Testament God introduced a sacrificial system where God’s people needed to make sacrifices regularly so that their sins would be atoned for,
however the sacrifice could never really atone for the sins of those people,
rather God introduced the sacrificial system to teach the seriousness of sins and that a payment had to be made.
However, Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross has fully payed the penalty for our sins because Jesus took the full anger of God that we deserved for our rebellion against him.

The NIV footnote for v25 also had more dept into what this means, that Jesus has turned away God’s wrath,
that he has pleased God’s wrath,
taking away sins so that we may be forgiven.

Now we have just talked about three big ideas, these being,
that we are justified, that we redeemed and that Jesus atoned for our sins.
But to make it easier for us to understand these ideas and particularly if you’re a person like me who likes pictures,
I want you to imagine three different locations. These being a law court room, a slave master place and a temple.
So, in a law court, we have a man who is declared guilty and a man named Jesus steps up.
He shouts out “I will pay his punishment for him”.
Jesus then takes his place and the person is let out justified, he is let out innocent and is reconcilled.

Secondly, in a slave market place, there is a man who is chained and is taken off to serve bondage to slavery.
Then a man named Jesus steps up again, he shouts out “I will pay his debt for him” The person is then ransomed, he debt is payed for and his is blessed by Jesus.

And thirdly, at a temple, where they make sacrifices, there is a man who is offering a sacrifice to God, he says “God, here is a cow; I know I don’t deserve it but here it is anyways.”
Jesus then steps up and say “You know, the cow doesn’t really cut it with God, the sacrifice isn't sufficent for your sins, but I can.”
So Jesus takes the punishment the man deserves and the man is filled with assurance that Jesus’ sacrifice fully pay for his sins.

So how do we get right with God?
Well it’s because God at the cross justifies us, he declares us right,
this is possible because God has redeemed us,
he has paid the price and the penalty for our sins by atoning for us by the shedding of his blood.

Now why did God do this, verse 25, “he did it to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished. He did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.”
God in his forbearance left the sins of formal generation unpunished to show the seriousness of sin and in God’s own timing he sent Jesus to finally pay the penalty of sin,
the sins of the past, of the present and of the future,
why?,
well God did it to show his justice. That God is just when he forgives a sinner because he paid the penalty himself.

Point 3 – The call for faith in Jesus

So how do we receive this righteousness from God?
Do we receive it by being a good person?
The people on university campus that I spoke to certainly thought this way.
But you know, three times in our passage, we see that this righteousness from God is made available through faith in Jesus.
Verse 22, “through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe”, Verse 25, “through faith in his blood” and verse 26, “God justifies those who have faith in Jesus”.
It is only by faith in Jesus, faith in his death and resurrection,
Faith that his death was sufficient enough to take the penalty for our sins, that we can be declared right with God.

Faith is the eye that looks to Jesus, it is the hand that receives this free gift of righteousness and the heart that receives his word and follows it.

So let me ask you.
How do you stand before God?
What is your plea?
Because if you do not have faith in Jesus, if you have not received this righteousness from God through faith,
then you’re actually much worse of then you probably think you are,
because there is no one who is good, there is no one who is right with God for we all have rejected God.
But as we have heard, God has provided a solution for us and he does offer this solution to you if you receive it by faith.

Now God is patient and he continues to wait patiently for you to trust in Jesus, for you to put your faith in him.
But be warned that there will be a day when Jesus will return to judge the world separating the wicked from the good and on that day it will be too late to turn to him in faith.
So how will you respond?
Do you have faith in Jesus Christ?
If not, why not? Why don’t you put your faith in him today...

If you do have faith in Jesus Christ, that’s great, because you’re actually much better off then you probably think you are since you stand before God declared right,
you stand before God as being good where no wrath can come near you, where no guilt can endanger you and you look forward to the day when Jesus will return to judge the world and to show his final justice.
Friends, it’s great that we are right with God,
so let’s not be ashamed of this great news,
but lets us go out to the world and tell others God’s solution to our problem and let’s remember that the Gospel, this great news,
is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes
Let’s pray,

Heavenly father, we give you thanks that while we were sinners, you sent your son to die for us so that we can be in the right with you, so that we can be redeemed. And that the penalty for our sins was paid by Jesus’ blood on the cross. Lord, we ask you that if we have not put our faith in Jesus, help us to do so and help us to do so knowing that when we put our faith in Jesus, we can be in the right with you because of what Christ did on the cross. Lord, we also pray that you might spur us to pass to message on to others. And we ask this through Jesus’ name.

Amen.

Love of the Body

2008-09-08T09:23:00.000+10:00

1 Corinthians 13 - Love

Today, we come to one of the most well known passage in the whole entire bible. Even people who only attend church for weddings and funerals have probably had it read to them. However 1 Corinthians 13 has got nothing to do with wedding or funerals.

When you think about, the only mention of weddings in the whole letter of 1 Corinthians is some six chapters earlier, where Paul says very ‘romantic things’ such as “those who marry will face many troubles in this life, and I want to spare you this”. And the only mention of funeral occurs several chapters later and it’s the funeral that never really happened, because Jesus rose to life again.

So If 1 Corinthians 13 is not about weddings and funerals, then what is it about?

Well, as we have been reading through 1 Corinthians, we have come to see that the Corinth church was a much divided church with a whole bunch of issues.

The Corinthian’s were a proud church, they thought they had arrived spiritually, back in chapter 4, and they were very big in spiritual gifts. Now in Chapters 12-14, Paul is teaching them what it means to be spiritual.

As we heard last week, anyone who is in Christ is already spiritual and they are to be exercising there gifts that is from the same spirit for the common good.

And at the end of chapter 12 we were left with Paul telling the Corinthians that he will show them a more excellent way, something that is even better then gifts, that is, the way of love.

Now to help us to understand what Paul means by this more excellent way, the way of love, we are firstly going to look at the fruitlessness of gifts without love.
Then we are going to look at the characteristics of love, what love is.
And then finally, we are going to look at the lasting nature of love.

But before we do that, let’s bow our heads in prayer asking God to help us to understand his word.

Heavenly father, we thank you that we can know you through your word and we ask you now to clear our minds of any distraction and to teach us through your word so that we may be equipped to serve you, to the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

The Fruitlessness of Gifts without Love

13:1-3 “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I posses to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.”

Now, there are four amazing actions here, of which the Corinthians thought highly of.
Would you be impressed of any of these things?
Would you say that these are truly spiritual moments, where God is at work?

Now, if you ever go or have been to the Orchestra, one thing you notice is how well all the different type of instruments go together.

Even if one of the instruments, like a triangle, only has one note in the entire piece, it still sounds really good, because it is accompanied by other instruments. However if you can imagine everyone just playing cymbals, could you image how noisy and unintelligent it would be!

In the same way, I may use impressive words, they may be very loud or intelligent or very passionate, but unless they are accompanied by love, It doesn’t do any good to neither the speaker nor the listener.

God may have enabled me to speak in different languages, to preach with great power, even to pray in angelic tongues, but if I have I’ve not loved you enough to bring you the truth, and to do it in a manner which you can comprehend, then I’ve really said nothing.

Again, in verse 2, If I can fathom the deep things of God, if I’m a prophet or if I’m a bible college graduate, or if I have a faith that enable me to do the miraculous, then surely I’d be something!, but again if it is done without love, then I am nothing!

Likewise, if I give my all, if I even give my body to the flames but do so in a selfish, reckless, suicidal way, then I have gain nothing.

Now, Is Paul saying that spiritual gifts aren’t important? Well In none of these instances does Paul depreciate spiritual gifts.

We have just spent a whole chapter last week looking at the importance of spiritual gifts, but what Paul is saying is that spiritual gifts need to be accompanied by love.

So, while we have seen that a loving attitude is the key to unlocking “the most excellent way”, what is the love that is mentioned here? Is it more then a feeling?

Well friends, while real love may begin with an attitude, it’s never really complete without the accompanying actions.

Characteristics of Love

So verse 4, love in patient, love is kind. What does it mean to be patient and kind? It means its willing to endure sufferings, injuries, without retaliation.
It is a kind love which is concerned to help those who are in need.

Perhaps you yourself have stuck by someone who has been in a bad place or they have been unable to give back, that’s an example of patient, kind love.

Love does not envy, it’s not jealous, it’s happy to see others do well.
Love does not boast, it’s humble,
Love is not proud; it is not self-asserting but is self giving.

Love is not rude; it’s not indecent or unseemly,
Love is not self-seeking, it always seeks the good of other,
Love is not easily angered, it’s not looking to take offence or to point the finger.

Love keeps no record of wrongs, I’ve always appreciated the fact that my parents haven’t use past sins against me
Love does not delight in evil but rejoices in the truth, when honesty is treasured and the truth of the gospel is declared, then love celebrates.

Love always protects, it seeks to safe guard others, not harm them,
Love always trusts, Love is eager to see the best in others. An example would be when someone might say something hurtful, I should ask for clarification rather then assuming the worst, love gives others the benefit of the doubt.

Love always hopes, It refuses to accept failure as final,
Love preservers, it’s active and not given to resignation.

No wonder in verse 8 it tells us that Love never fails!

Now, when you relate these descriptions of Love to our lives, to your life, to my life, does it have a humbling effect?

Well, if you were to imagine your name in this passage, for example Tom is patient, Tom is kind, Tom does not boast, Tom is not proud, Tom is not rude, Tom rejoices in the truth … Now if your name is Tom or whatever it is, at the point you would say no, that can’t possible be me. There is a humbling effect.

However if you were to put the name of Jesus Christ in there, it fits perfectly, and it helps us to see that in Christ we have a great hope and a great saviour.

In our second reading that we read tonight, we see this great Love which comes from God, In verse 10 of 1 John 4, “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”

God’s love is not an airy-fairy love, friends, but its real love, it’s a love that while we were his enemies, even though we didn’t love God, he loved us so much that he sent his Son to die, to take our punishment, so that we could be reconciled back to him by his resurrection.

And it is for this reason, this love, that we as Christians are commanded in verse 11 of 1 John 4 to “love one another”

So we have seen that real love is accompanied by action, and it is an action which is motivated by the love God has demonstrated to us and is motivated by who you are, part of the body, in Christ. This love which has been demonstrated is a complete other person centeredness.

In fact, the more and more you look at God’s character, you notice that God’s other-person-centeredness is complete within himself. The Holy Spirit does not seek his own glory but the son glory, just as the son does not seek his glory but the fathers glory.

It is this other-person-centeredness, which enables us to know him as we saw in 1 John 4 and is the basis of our love too.

The Permanence of Love

Well, Pick it up with me from Verse 8, Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears.

Now the Corinthians thought they had already arrived and the proof was their spiritual gifts.

But Paul says no, you have not arrived yet, the gifts don’t prove that you have arrived but rather that you haven’t arrived, because notice the gifts are for this world.

For example our little knowledge will be replaced by something far, far greater. And the words we use, which are so limited, will be replaced by a language that perfectly expresses praise to God.

There will be some things on earth, like gifts, which will be put away and have no need for once we get to heaven.

It’s like a child, says Paul in verse 11, who puts away childish thoughts and childish ways and takes up the more mature ways of adulthood.

Even faith, hope will have used up their value for God’s promises as they will be completely fulfilled and all our hopes will have been met.

On the other hand, Love will last forever; love will be right at home in heaven. This is why in verse 13; love is the greatest, as it is the perfect expression of faith and hope.

Application

So, what things can we conclude from this passage?

Firstly I want you to see that the love that is being taught in God’s word is the love that God has already demonstrated for us.

The father has given his son up and of course has given us all good gifts.

The Lord Jesus has given his life up to the cross which the greatest sacrifice every made, the creator dieing for the creatures, telling us to be like him to love people.

The Holy Spirit too, has given us all its fruits and gifts and graces, genuinely spreading out what we need for the Christian life and telling us through the inspired scripture how to be like Jesus.

We can be confident in this love of God.

Secondly, Paul too, also practiced this love. Even though the Corinthians had so many problems, he loved them.

He gave up his rights for them, his freedom for them and his time for them to proclaim the word of God to them because he loved them.

It is because love is central to Paul’s arguments in 1 Corinthians; it is the centre to his relationship with them.

Therefore we need to ask ourselves, is love central to our relationship?

Is love central to our serving at church? Do we serve to build the other person up?

Is it complete other-person-centeredness?

Or is it something that only appears now and then?

Well let me encourage you, that the central motivating fuel for the way we live our lives, the way we treat each other, the way we serve each other is Love.

In some ways it’s a great taste of heaven as love transforms us here and now but also will be made perfect in all its glory in heaven.

So friends, let us remember who we are in Christ, and let us love one another and follow the example of love God has demonstrated to us while we were his enemies to save us from our lovelessness, from our sins, Amen.

Resurrection Age

2008-08-05T10:51:00.000+10:00

This is the start of my article/essay on the resurrection which covers the things that were taught during mid year conference 2 weeks ago. I have just started my Phd so time is limited in writing this but i will complete it eventually. Please look back to this post as I will update it over time. Hope this post gives you a better understanding of the resurrection and that God continues to sanctify you more into christlikeness through a true knowledge of God. :)

Resurrection

The importance of Jesus’ resurrection and its implications for living in the resurrection age

It is all too easy to focus and over emphasis our thinking and proclamation of the gospel to the death of Christ. It is true that death of Christ is essential to understanding God and our salvation because in the cross we see God fully satisfying his character, by dying and taking the full punishment of our sins so that we can enter into his presence, into his holiness.

However the death of Christ is not the whole story, for if Jesus died and did not rise, then our preaching and faith would be in vain, 1 Corinthians 15:14. It is through the resurrection that we see the perfect son of man, Daniel 7:13-14, Jesus, being crowned with all glory and honour, Psalm 8:6, Hebrews 2:7. He is seated at the right hand of God and is anointed by God to be king over all. And as a result of his rulership, he is the perfect advocate who is interceding for us, Hebrews 7:14-25.
When reading through the book of acts, we see again and again the message of the apostles was the resurrection of Christ from the dead, Acts 1:22, 2:31, 4:2, 4:33, 17:18, etc.

Christ’s resurrection also has implications for us, for we have been raised with Christ, seating with him in the heavenly realms, Ephesians 2:6, and through him, as Christians, we share in his reign, 2 Timothy 2:12. Indeed the resurrection of Christ is just as important as the death of Christ and it is helpful to think of the resurrection/ascension of Christ and the death of Christ as one package which cannot be separated.

Therefore since we have been raised with Christ in the heavenly realms, we now live in a clash of two ages. We have been spiritually liberated through Christ now through his resurrection, yet we wait for his return when our physical bodies will be liberated as well. This age we live in now is called the resurrection age.

So as Christians, how do we live in this resurrection age as await Jesus’ return? To answer this we need to look at five aspects of living in the resurrection age. These are, living as lords over time, living as lords over creation, living as lords over sin, living as lords of the nations and preaching the resurrection gospel.

Firstly, how do we live as Lords over time? To come to understanding of how to live as lords over time we first need to develop a biblical understanding of time. And to help us understand time we need to come to an understanding of Lordship.

At which point does Christ receive his Lordship? His rule and reign over God’s kingdom? In Acts 2:36 we read that Jesus was made both Lord and Christ. The context to his Lordship in this passage is his resurrection, Acts 2:32, this Jesus God raised up. Therefore Jesus in his resurrection is exalted in a new profound way, he is the Lord who is reigning and who has established the Kingdom of God. However his Lordship also extends to the sons of God. 1 Corinthians 15 states that all in Christ shall be made alive and Ephesians 2 tells us that Christians have been raised up through Jesus’ resurrection, We have already been raised up with Christ spiritually in the heavenly realms now, spiritually liberated from the now. And, because we have been raised up in Christ, It is for this reason that Jesus Lordship means our Lordship as well. We read in 1 Corinthians 6:1 that the saints, Christians, those who are in Christ, will share in the judgment of the world. Therefore, we are to be Lord’s as God intended us to be under his authority as we see in Genesis 1, created in the image of God to have dominion and to subdue the earth.

How do we then define time and how is the concept of time and Lordship linked? A worldly view of time in the context of death is meaningless because it is limited and futile as we see in the book of ecclesiastics. However biblically as we see in ecclesiastics 3, there is a time for everything and the context to time is meaningfulness. Meaningfulness is found in the timing. God has placed in humans a sense of timing, verses 10-11 of ecclesiastics 3, but we do not have a full concept of it. We are the only creatures in creation who have a sense of time in us yet we do not understand its full meaning because it is God who gives its meaning.

Therefore how does God give time meaning? We find meaningfulness in the Lordship of Christ, in creation and in judgment. This is how the concept of time and Lordship is connected.

So firstly, creation…..

To be continued......

A God you can depend upon

2008-06-08T21:29:00.003+10:00

Joel 2:18-27

What are the things that you depend upon?

Well for starters I know that when I catch the train, I depend on the train driver to get me to the destination, I also rely on the engineers who built the train and that they knew what they were doing so that the train would stay on track.

Well, what are some other things do we depend upon? How about our water or our electricity? Or what about the truthfulness of what products claim?

And are these things dependable? How did you survive the last time when the power went out? Or when was the last time you bought a product and it didn’t work?

Well, tonight we come to the second halve of chapter 2 in the book of Joel. And if you remember last week, we saw that God was faithful to his promises to bring judgment upon his people for their disobedience in the form of the locust invasion.

Now just as God was faithful to his promises of judgment, we will see that tonight, he is also faithful in his promise to restore and to save; he is a God who you can depend upon.

And will we also see how we too, can benefit from that faithfulness, from that promise keeping.

So before we being looking at the second half of Joel 2, let’s begin by praying.
Heavenly Father, we thank you for making yourself know to us and showing us the way of salvation through faith in your son. We ask yow now to clear our minds of any distractions and to teach us through your word, so that we can be ready to serve you, for the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Point 1 - God’s faithful character which leads to his abundant restoration

Well, I don’t know about you, but I really don’t like silence, I get agitated and feel really awkward.

For example, in the midst of a group of friends, after a long meaningful conversation, the conversation suddenly goes quiet and at its moments like these where my body just wants to scream out with noise.

Or what about waiting for that job interview, you have just sent off the application and the silence you hear before they get back to you is so loud that you can almost hear it.

Well it’s kind of like this for God’s people here in Joel. The priests, the spiritual leaders of the community, the nation cry out to God to spare his people from the locust army, to save them from the judgment that coming from God’s own hand, we can see this in v17, they cry out to God “Spare your people, O LORD. Do not make your inheritance an object of scorn, a byword among the nations’.Here is a nation that is eagerly waiting for a response from God.

Well God remains true this character and does hears their call of repentance, and we start to see the turning point of the book Joel, from judgment to restoration.

So read with me from verse 18, “then the LORD will be jealous for his land and take pity on his people” We see that Gods great reversal of the previous chapters is underway

Now does it surprise you that LORD became jealous? We generally tend to associate jealousy with something bad, don’t we? Like feeling resentment or being envious of others.

But God’s jealousy describes God’s passionate concern, his zeal, for his land, for his people and for his name. It is a precise attribute in God’s character which leads the priest, the nation in verse 17, urged by Joel to appeal in prayer and through their repentance, God’s love is stirred and he has pity on them, his people.
Now, the Israelites knew that God was a jealous God and that he was concerned about his land, his people and his name.

And this is why they cry out in verse 17 because the special relationship between God and his people was under threat, God name was being mocked among the nations and God’s honour and faithfulness was being questioned.

Well, we finally see the answer that God’s people were waiting for, in verse 19. God says “Behold. I am sending to you grain, new wine, and oil, enough to satisfy you fully; never again will I make you an object of scorn to the nations”God is reversing the sorry state of these three traditional products of the land.
In chapter 1 verse 10, we read that “the ground had dried up, the grain had been destroyed, the new wine had also dried up and the oil failed.”

But now, the Israelite nation will once again be able to enjoy the blessings of their covenantal relationship as God will restore, pay back what the locust army had taken away.

However, this isn’t just a simple restoration and reversal, but notice what God says in verse 19, he says that “you will be satisfied” and again in verse 26, “you will have plenty to eat, until you are full.”

Now, I don’t know if you ever been to a European family get-together, but I remember when I was growing up; there would always be an enormous amount of food to eat from, I was never left un-satisfied.

In the same way here we see that God’s restoration is abundant, the Israelites will have all that they need, and they will be satisfied fully.

Now, back all the way in Deuteronomy 11, we read that God promised his people, that if they faithfully obey his commands, by loving God and serving him with all their hearts and soul, he would send rain on the land in its season, both autumn and spring rains, so that they may gather in grain, new wine and oil. God will provide grass in the fields for the cattle, and God’s people will eat and be satisfied.
Indeed it is what we see here, God’s faithfulness to his promises and the nation’s repentance leads to God’s abundant restoration.

God does send the rain, in verse 23; he sends the abundant showers, both the autumn and spring rains, so that they may have new grain, wine and oil.

He does provide open pastures that are green for the wild animals of the field in verse 22, and once again the Israelite nation will be able to eat and be satisfied.
However, what good are new grain, wine and oil, if the locust, the Lord’s devastating army, who took these things away from them, is still around?

Well, read with me from verse 20, God says “I will drive the northern army far from you, pushing it into a parched and barren land, with its front columns going into the eastern sea and those in the rear into the western sea, And its stench will go up; its smell will rise. Surely he has done great things.”

The same commander who gave the locust army their orders to bring destruction upon the land is now issuing orders for their destruction.
The invaders which have caused such devastating destruction are removed far from them, they are exiled; they are then split apart defeated, and are finally drowned in the eastern and western sea to their destruction.

These three curses of exile, defeat and destruction, which were promised if Israel was disobedient in Deuteronomy 28 will now be reversed and turned upon their enemy, the locust army.

All that will remain of the army, that had ravished the land, is rotting flesh and his people will be saved because God is faithful.

Point 2 – The response to God’s faithfulness and its implications

How then should they respond? How then are they to react to this God, who is doing all these things for them?

Well, the Locust army had done great things, but this is certainly not a reason for further fear because as it says in verse 21, “the Lord had done great things”, indeed, we only need to turn to the first few pages of the bible, in creation, to see know this, and what about God continuing faithfulness to save his people in Israel’s history, it certainly a time to be glad and rejoice.

So firstly, the land is to respond as we read in Verse 21, “Be not afraid, O Land; be glad and rejoice. Surely the Lord has done great things. Be not afraid, O wild animals, for the open pastures are becoming green. The trees are bearing their fruit; the fig tree and the vine yield their riches.”

The animals of the land should not fear when such a God is at work to restore the land, they are to fix their eyes on the Lord’s activity, of his faithfulness and restoration as the open pastures are becoming green, as trees are bearing their fruits and as the fig tree and vine yield their riches.

Secondly, what about God’s people, how are they to respond?
Well verse 23, “Be glad, O people of Zion, rejoice in the LORD your God, for he has given you the autumn rains in righteousness. He sends you abundant showers, both autumn and spring rains, as before.” Verse 24, “the threshing floors will be filled with grain; the vats will overflow with new wine and oil.”

Just like the land, we see that the people too, are to be glad and rejoice.
Why? Because by sending the rain God is demonstrating his righteousness, that he can be trusted to keep his promise of restoration to his people.

Now, living in Sydney, I don’t think we count every rain drop that falls from the sky as say a farmer would out west.

We don’t wonder if the rain is going to be enough, or if it’s going to come at the right time. But unlike us, the Israelite nation was a nation that was totally dependent on rain for not only their finances but also the very food they ate.
So you can imagine what a promise of abundant shower was like for them.

However Israel is to respond because of what God has done for them, they are to be glad and rejoice because the Lord is a jealous God who took pity on his people to save them.

Well, so far we have seen that God was a God who Israel could depend on because he was a faithful God who kept his promises to bring restoration and to save them from his judgment.

In verses 25-27, we see that God now makes three promises to his people, the Israelites.

So pick it up with me from verse 25, God says “I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten – the great locust and the young locust, the other locusts and the locust swarm, my great army that I sent among you.”

What does God promise them? Well we see that the truth about the locust army is finally made apparent to the Israelites that God sent the locust army. And they are assured that the devastation brought by the army over such a lengthy period of time will be repaid to them, will be restored.

Secondly, God promises in verse 26, that “they shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the name of the LORD their God, who has dealt wondrously with them. And God’s people shall never again be put to shame.”
No longer will Israel be put to shame. No longer will God’s name be mocked among the nations as it was in verse 17.

And finally, in verse 27, God says “You shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the LORD your God and there is none else.”

The Israelites will once again know God and never be put to shame because God will be in the midst of his people.

Now, one of the blessings of the covenantal relationship between God and his people if they lived under his rule was that God’s presence would be amongst his people and God’s promise here is that they will once again be able to enjoy the blessing of God’s presence amongst his people.

Now, next week, we will see that there is also a greater promise in the next few verses, one that involves God pouring out his spirit upon his people, but we will leave that to next week.

Point 3 - The Implications for us in light of the coming day of the Lord

Well we have just looked at Joel chapter 2, and we have seen that God was faithful in his promises to bring restoration, but what about Joel today, Is God still a God who is faithful and is he still a God who we can depend upon.
Well, the big theme that we seen being developed in the book of Joel is the day of the Lord.

We saw in the last two weeks that that the day of the Lord was a day of judgment, a day of condemnation, of punishment, of destruction and devastation.

However we can also see as we saw tonight, that the day of the Lord is also a day of salvation, a day of rescue, as God’s wrath and judgment of Israel was turned upon the locust army. It is also a day of replenishment and a day of abundant restoration.

Now the day of the Lord wasn’t just an event which occurred during the time Joel was written but as Joel 2 verse 31 also hints, there will also be a final day of the Lord where “the sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood”.
The New Testament describes this day as when Jesus will return to judge the living and the dead.

Now, even after God’s demonstrated his faithfulness in Joel, Israel continued to rebel against God.

In fact by nature all of man-kind has rebelled, even you and I have rebelled against God, trying to live our lives our own way.

However, the punishment of Israel’s continued rebellion and our rebellion has been dealt with in one man, Jesus Christ, who took the full judgment and wrath of God to save us from our rebellion, from our sin.

The wonderful thing for Christians, those who have trust in Jesus as Lord, is that we are able to stand bold today.

It is because of Jesus we are able to stand fully absolved of the guilt and judgment we deserve for our sins.

And it is because of God’s faithfulness to restore us, to save us, which the whole Old Testament promises pointed to and which find their yes in Jesus as we read in 2 Corinthians 1:20.

Now, God hasn’t just saved us from his judgment but he has also abundantly restored us into a relationship with him.

Therefore, we read in Romans 5 that he has reconciled us by the blood of his son and in Ephesians 1 that he has given us every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.

Also, as Christians we have a great hope, we read in Revelations 21, that there will be a new heaven and new earth where God’s dwelling place will be with man, he will dwell with them, and they will be his people.
We read that he will wipe away every tear from our eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former thing will have passed away.

However we are not there yet, Jesus hasn’t returned yet and we still live in a fallen world, a world which is effected by sin and suffering.

So, as Christians who have a great hope but currently live in this fallen age, let me ask you
Do you trust that God will continue to be faithful, that he will save you on the last day in the same way he was faithful to his promises in Joel? Do you depend entirely on God for your salvation? What about when you are faced with hard ship and trials, do you still depend entirely on God?

Well, turn with me to our second reading Romans chapter 8 and let’s pick it up from verse 31
“What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all – how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died – more than that, who was raised to life – is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.”

If God is for us, who can be against us when we have such a great God, a God who has done great things as we read in Joel 2, a God who was faithful in his promises to abundantly restore and to save his people from the locust invasion, a God who has saved us and justified us through his son who died for us, who was raised to life and who is interceding for us.

Our God indeed is a God who you can depend upon because he is a faithful God who has done great things, so let us rejoice and be glad in the Lord.

So let me ask you again, do you depend entirely on God? If you do, then let me ask you, do you listen to his voice in his word? Do you thank him for all things through pray, do you rejoice and be glad in the Lord and are you concerned about the salvation of your non-Christian friends from the coming judgment?

Well, let me encourage you to depend on God, because as we have seen tonight, God is a faithful God who has kept his promises. And he will continue to keep his promises.

So let me finish with this great assurance that we have in Christ Jesus as we wait for his return in Romans 8:38-40.

“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord”
Amen.

The time is short

2008-05-09T17:59:00.006+10:00

So finally, I've come to updating my blog. The delay has been a case of both busyness and laziness, but nonetheless here I am updating it.

What's been happening, well a lot has actually been happened and I can't remember every detail. However it has been a time of testing and perseverance. As my uni degree is closing to a end many issues have come up like, where am i going to live after uni? what am i going to do? PhD or job? in which situation will i be able to serve God the best? what about work placement, can't graduate till i complete 5 more weeks?, How will getting a job or PhD effect my longer term vision of full time ministry? Well in one sense these issues still remain as I am limited to skills in planning, but am slowly working to deal with those struggles.

However, I am persevering and serving the Lord, and hope to do so with the power of prayer and with God's help. Emu Plains Church has been going well, I am encouraged that the clergy are pushing towards mission minded and being a welcoming church. The preaching is faithful to God's word and is provocative in a good way. We recently got a new student minister, and his faithfulness and zeal has been an encouragement. It is truly amazing and thank God that we have partnerships in the Gospel.

Uni ministry has been going good, lots of committed first year student which once again is just great. The staff workers as well have been putting all there energy to growing, training and telling people the Gospel, which is another thing to praise God for. Let they continue is all i can say. Our training time has also been good, we have been looking at the reformation history period, some followup training and biblical theology. I've been really excited to teach biblical theology this semester, and even though the numbers are low, it brings great joy to see those guys developing a better grasp of the bible as whole, the kingdom of God. It has also been really encouraging to meet up with two guys one-to-one to encourage each other and disciple.

Scripture and Youth group have been going well. We started up a Youth group this year and it has been going well. The core group that is there is really keen and excited to look at God's word, we looked at biblical theology last week and the kids were really excited to see God's faithfulness in God's big picture that is found in the bible. I've also been going along to one of the bible studies at church, which has been really good to get to know some people from Church as we fellowship around God's word. God has been faithful this year in giving me opportunities to serve using God given gifts to build the church up in love. I have been really enjoying leading church, in particularly focusing people's on God's word. I also have another opportunity to preach in a few weeks on Joel 2 which i will have to start preparing this Sunday, so come and join me for it.

Now from the different things I do, one might ask, how do i get any uni work done, and besides that fact, i actually do get quiet alot done. I finished last year with first class honours, a GPA of 6, and in the to 10% of uni. However study as never been a real joy for me, and it is a struggle as it gives me a limited time to take all the opportunity for ministry. Nonetheless a balance is life under Christ is wise.

To those who have been reading my blog, know the struggles i had last year, such as the breakup, family situation and etc. However these small struggles are nullified when i think of God's grace and love. Oh i also got a ps3, its great fun. I hope someone still reads this blog.

Anyways, If you would like to pray for me, please pray for continued growth in Christ and trust in Jesus as Lord and pray for the different struggles that i mentioned in the Blog.

There is so much more that i can write down, however much time and many pages would be used to which will most defiantly weary your body reading it. So please do say hello next time you see me, and we can share some time encouraging and praying for each other.

"For me to live is Christ, and to die is Gain." Phil 1:21
God Bless,
Laurence

There is a time to laught and there is a time to weep

2007-12-15T22:57:00.000+11:00

It has felt like it has been a while since last time i posted, yet i write in the hope that someone is reading my blog entries and praying with me in the many challenges that living in the fallen world brings.

As Ecclesiastes 3 tells us there is a time for every matter under heaven. I realise that i often put on a smiling face and at times to cover up sadness and sorrows however there is a time to be sad and express it through weeping, it is right to do so.

I've been away at National training event and mission at nowra for the past two weeks and it has been great. It is great to be reminded of God's grace, purpose, love, judgment and to be challenge to delight to God's word.

God's word written for God's people written by his Holy Spirit about his Son. God has spoken to us through his word even though our sinful nature cannot co-exist with God's Holiness, he choice to make himself known and to call us and make us his own people. God came down to our level and spoke to us in human words, he wants us to know him by reading his word. God has spoken covenant words, powerful words, true words, perfect and eternal words, let us delight and receive his word with faith, obedience and love. It's interesting to note the relationship in the trinitarian Godhead in the revelation of the word and in our own salvation. God's word written for God's people written by his Holy Spirit about his Son. The Gospel of Jesus is the heart of the Revelation of the spirit. The father has given the son everything, the son seeks the father's glory and the spirit seeks the son's glory. This mature self-giving in the trinitarian Godhead make possible knowledge of him through his word and make possible our salvation in Jesus Christ. God's word also changes us, it conforms us into the likeness of his son, it transforms us so effectively to do God's will even without us realising. Therefore continue reading God's word the bible, delight in it, love his word, listen to his voice.

We were also encouraged to preserver. We are greatly encourage in Romans chapter 8 that we are secure, God has called us into his kingdom and nothing can snatch us away from his hands. However the warning are real in Hebrews, The Hebrew Christians were struggling in this issue of falling away. Make sure your faith is genuine. The mark of a Christian is not that you have faith now, but if you die as a Christian, therefore make sure again that you delight in God's words, love his word, listen to his voice. And as God's people, let us encourage, challenge each other to do so, let us be accountable to each other, let us prayer about it.

I've also been challenge about the doctrine of work in the bible. I did strand 4 which was using the tools learnt previously, biblical theology and systematic theology to derive doctrine and ethics from the bible. Work is our participation in God's purposes, either for creation, or in redemption. We are God's fellow workers as we see in creation, Man was created to subdue and have dominion over the earth, work was good. Now we may ask, how does the fall effect work? well we see in Chapter 3 that work is much harder, tainted by the effects of the fall. In Ecclesiastes chapter 2 that work is futile, it's vanity for there is nothing to be gained under the sun. However we need see how that fits into the full framework of the bible and when we do that we see that work is still good. The Psalms reminds us that the blessings of work is the enjoyment of the fruits of that labour and we are reminded again and again in the New Testament not to be lazy but obey our heavenly masters. Let us not also forget in John's gospel that Jesus came to do the fathers works, the father is still working. He is calling people into his rest, into his kingdom. Also in the resurrection of Christ creation is restored and the kingdom of God dawns. We see the reversal of the fall however we are in the not yet period. Therefore Ethics which starts from the resurrection of Christ may sometimes emphasize the newness, sometimes the primitiveness of the order that is there affirmed. But it will not be tempted to overthrow or deny either the name of the other. There is both continuity and discontinuity in our fallen world and the new creation to come. There will be work in the new creation, however secular work will be burnt away on the last day. Gospel work on the other has eternal consequences for God's people will be in the new creation.

It was also encouraging to talk to people and challenge the new guys in our campus Christian group during the free times at the conference. Next we went to mission at Nowra Baptist which was really good. I'm am encouraged that many took on new roles and ministry opportunity's during the mission. We helped with the primary and high school scriptures, youth group, Sunday services, door knocking and nursing home. Each ministry having its own challenges and opportunities to grow. It was also great to spend time getting to know each other on the mission team and working in partnership to proclaim the Gospel. I was also very encouraged by the host I was staying with. They were a lovely couple who offered their house freely to us and really loved God and his word.

Now back to my introduction, I’m very sad but persevering in my bad start to the holidays. Due to partly my own sinfulness and the nature of relationships, my girlfriend has decided to part ways in our journey. I hoped that things would not end this way but all things are in God's purposes, I need to trust in him. However I am really sad still and do need prayer. I also need prayer just persevering. One of the hard factors about living in a non-Christian European home that I am finding is just to negativity against Christianity. I get constant threats of cutting connections and disowning if I move into the possibility of full time ministry. This worries and scares me, and adds to me being sad, however honouring your parents includes first giving glory to God. This can be a hard. So please do prayer for me in these struggles.

1 Peter 4:12 Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. 13 But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.

Anyways it is getting late, and my words are starting to mumble up. Do continue strong in the Lord, persevering, delighting in God's word. Not sure when I’ll post next, seems that facebook has been more popular these days.

God Bless
Laurence.

Jesus is the Life of God

2007-10-08T09:23:00.000+10:00

Finally an update, Yes Laurence is still alive. And a lot has happened over the past 2 months.

Church:

Emu plain Anglican has really been pushing people to think mission, to think 10%, to think connect 09, after the great presidential address by Peter Jensen this past synod. If you have not read it, go and read it now.

Emu plain's Anglican has also been actively involved in telling people the Gospel, such as men's dinner event where men can invite their non-Christian friends along to hear a talk on success. They have been involved in teaching God's word and also involved in equipping people to serve.

Scripture has been going well, the kids thanked us for our lessons before the holidays, that was nice, and its amazing how much they remember from our lessons. I pray and trust God will convict them to know him.

Sunday school has been going well. It's amazing how much energy those kids have, and wow, they are amazing prayers. It’s been encouraging to see them having a heart to open God's word; they love to bring their bibles.

I've also been actively involved in the evening service. Serving in ways as prayer, bible reading, leading and i preached yesterday on John 11. I've included the sermon on the bottom of this post.

CBM (Campus Bible Ministries):

CBM has been going well. We have been quiet busy in the past 2 months with mission week and various other things. Mission week was great, we looked at the book of Ecclesiastes, Highlighting the two main ideas, Vanity and Eternity. We made crosses with those two words on them and placed them around uni. We wrote up on a big chalk board 4 chapters of Ecclesiastes. Most of all, almost everyone did walk up and we had a few good conversations with people. It was interesting to see student's views on vanity, eternity and life.

The other big thing we did was the atheist debate, which went okay. We create a website, with discussion boards and the debate downloadable here. It was a bit uncertain if the actual debate was a worth while thing to do, however it is encouraging that they continued coming to our next meeting which was a normal meeting and spent most of the afternoon talking to us. Please pray for that, as it seems like a great opportunity.

CBM has been training Christians up in our training hour looking at the Cross of Christ, Why did Jesus have to die? What actually happened at the Cross? Etc, and also the students have been trained up in apologetics. These following four weeks CBM has been encouraging student to write their own bible studies on Colossians, providing they have done the growth group course. We also have the ball coming up in the distant future as well as NTE.

Uni

Uni has been going okay. Submitted my thesis draft, got a paper published in IEEE, going to a Engineering conference to present the thesis paper. All the fun! My supervisor and parents have been pushing me to do post-grad, but I think I will decline the offer. My course work has been going okay, having put much effort into them, but seem to be doing fine.

Other Parts of My Life

Well, my exciting news! I've have a lovely girlfriend, who has a heart to grow in her knowledge of God and telling her friends about Jesus. She is a shinning light in my heart :) And i thank God that she knows Christ as Lord!

I also went to challenge conference a few weeks ago. It was a great encouragement to seek God's kingdom first. We looked at the theme of the kingdom throughout the bible, we looked at the Lord's prayers, which the kingdom should characterise our prayers, we looked at what a productive person in the Lord should be doing and we looked at the full time ministry option. It was also encouraging to have a few of my friends come along. We had great conversations over food times and night sessions. One encouragement was to encourage our local ministers, as Ministry is not an easy thing to do. So Challenge was great.

Please pray for my Quiet times and prayer life, as usual its a rollercoaster. I think i need to plan to have a reading plan. Please also pray for my witness and perserverance with my parents.

John 11 – True Life Sermon

We all have hopes and dreams and expectations in life.
We all have a view of what life should be like.
I remember when I was growing up; I always wanted to be a scientist, because that’s what I thought life was about, I thought life was about being successful, about doing something that people might be proud of.
And I remember doing just about anything, to make that dream come true.
For example, as a 12 year old, I remember trying to make some sort of new fertilizer using a coke bottle, different types of minerals and even went into the effort of using some of the neighbour’s flowers.
Now that example might be a little childish, however where do you put your hopes and dreams and expectations into, what do you see as true life?
Well to help to us to understand what true life is and in particularly what God tells us true life is, we are going to turn to John chapter 11.
And to give you an idea about what I am going to talk about, I’ll be covering four main points in my talk.
Firstly the prologue of the Lazarus story
Then the Two meeting Jesus has
Followed by the account of the miracle itself
And then finally what does Jesus offer.
So before we being looking at John 11, let’s begin by praying.
Heavenly Father, we thank you for making yourself know to us and showing us the way of salvation through faith in your son. We ask yow now to clear our minds of any distractions and to teach us through your word, so that we can be ready to serve you, for the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Point 1 – Prologue 11:1-16

Verse 1 – ‘Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair.’
Verse 3 - ‘So the sisters sent word to Jesus saying “Lord, the one you love is sick.”.

We see here that a great need is portrayed by the sisters. A family circle is threatened by the possibility of a death and a desperate request is made to Jesus.
If you ever had a serious illness in your own family or even in a close friend, in these situations you do tend to get desperate.
And you can see here people, who are friends with Jesus, in fact we are told specifically in verse 5, that Jesus loved them. It was a desperate request.

Now, when you send a request to a friend, what sort of reply would you expect to receive?
Well I suppose it would depend on the seriousness of that request.
If you needed to borrow your friend’s lawnmower, would you expect them to come right away? Well not really.
However if you lived on a farm and someone in your family couldn’t breathe properly, Say you had a friend who was a doctor and only lived 10 minutes away. It would be fair to think that the friend would come immediately to help, wouldn’t it.
Now Mary and Martha had this kind of hope, they hoped that Jesus would come quickly.

However, what does Jesus do?
Verse 6 – ‘When Jesus heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was’. He deliberately delayed going to their help.
Now you can imagine how puzzling this must have been for the sisters, I’m mean, they had been terribly worried and all they can do now is watch their brother deteriorate to the brink of death.
A long, devastating day goes by and then the next day Lazarus flat-lines. Is Jesus all of a sudden being selfish and unloving? If Jesus had the power to heal Lazarus, why doesn’t he reply instantly?

Now Lazarus’ death might have taken place before the messenger reached him, or perhaps Jesus deliberately waited for Lazarus illness to be unrecoverable so that he could perform his miracle.
However, regardless of the reason, we are reminded that Jesus is not moved by external forces; he does everything in God’s time and according to God’s will.
Jesus had divine foreknowledge and wisdom in the reason why he delayed his help, even though this may not fit our human expectation or view of suffering.
However we are told in verse 4 that this whole situation with Lazarus is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified.

Therefore verse 7, Jesus announces his decision to go into Judea again.
However, the disciples in verse 8 make it quiet plain to Jesus that the Jews would not let him get away again.
We saw in the previous chapter that the Jews ever tried to stone him. You can see why the disciples were concerned.

Now the disciples were quiet ignorant of the situation and John shows their ignorance. And we can see this firstly in their misunderstanding of what Jesus meant by sleep in verse 11.
Jesus was speaking of Lazarus’ death but the disciples did not understand, they though he meant that Lazarus was just sleeping.
In the New Testament, the death of Christians is often spoken as sleep.
Now death is horrible thing and just by looking at the world around us, we can see that people fear death.
But for Christians, the mention of death as sleep reveals our hope, that death is no longer a foe we should fear. We will see why this is the case later.

Secondly, Jesus tells his disciples plainly in verse 15 that – ‘For their sake, he is glad he was not there, so that they may believe’.
Now again Jesus had divine foreknowledge of what he was going to do, he was going to perform the seventh and most climactic sign in the gospel to reveal his glory.
His joy for the disciples is that they may believe in him.

Well, let see what happens when Jesus finally arrives at Lazarus tomb, we are told in verse 17, that already four days had past and Martha in verse 39, comments that the body would have an odour by now.
Now before we see Jesus actually acting out his great miracle, we see the two meetings.

Point 2 – The Two Meetings

These meetings happen when the two women, Mary and Martha come running to meet Jesus and these two meetings help us to understand who Jesus is, and they reveal him in a remarkable way.

So verse 20 – ‘When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home. “Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “If you had been here, my brother would not have died”.
How did Martha feel? Well she was upset, perhaps even disappointed at Jesus.
But Jesus respond, verse 23 –‘your brother will rise again’.
Was Jesus speaking about the general resurrection at the last day as Martha thought?
Well if Jesus was merely a prophet or rabbi, he would have agreed with Martha’s word.
However let’s see what Jesus says about himself.
Verse 25 – ‘I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?’

Jesus is more than a mere prophet, he is the Son sent by the father into the world.
Jesus began with ‘I am’, this statement being the same statement God revealed to Moses in the Exodus, he is claiming to be God, and therefore he is the creator and redeemer of your life, both your spiritual life and your physical life.

Martha responds to Jesus, verse 27 - “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world.”
What does Jesus reveal about himself to Martha? Well he reveals himself as the long-awaited deliverer, the One sent by God to accomplish his will perfectly,
He has also reveals his deity, his divine power, that he is the resurrection and the life, that he has the keys of life and death, the power to call the dead to life and that he is God.
This is what Jesus is showing us from his first meeting with Martha.

What about Mary, what happens when she meets Jesus?
Verse 31 – ‘When the Jews who had been with Mary in her house, comforting her, noticed how quickly she got up and went out, they followed her, supposing she was going to the tomb to mourn there. When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died”’.
We see that her response is similar to Martha’s response. Indeed both the women were upset. Jesus, seeing her weeping and also the Jews weeping, is deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled.
Jesus sees the family’s grief; he understands the bitterness of death and is deeply moved by the wages of sin.
Jesus has come into the world to conquer the last enemy, the sting of death. And verse 35 - “Jesus wept”.
Jesus is indignant at sin, illness and death which are the results of our fallen world, yet the world that is at enmity with God is also the object of God’s love. And therefore it is not surprising that Jesus wept.

Well the Jews respond in verse 36 saying, ‘See how he loved him’, ‘could not he who opened the eyes of a blind man have kept this man from dying?’
Well the Jews just don’t get it, all they seem to see in Jesus’ tears, is a mark of love that he bore to Lazarus.
However what does Jesus reveal about himself to Mary and the Jews around her? Does he reveal his divine power as he had revealed to Martha?
Well it’s not so much a revelation of his divine power, but a revelation of his humanity. Jesus is God in flash, and if he is God, he must have the power to do something about the grave, but he is also fully man.

Point 3 – The Account of the Miracle (11:33-44)

So Jesus gets to the tomb, he tells them to take the stone away in verse 39, we see Martha commenting that there would be an odour by now as Lazarus is truly dead.
Jesus tells the sisters “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” Jesus then lifts up his eyes to his father and says “Father, I thank you that you have heard me.
I know that you always hear me, but I said this on the account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.”
Jesus is speaking to his father, showing the crowd around him, that he does nothing on his own accord, but does everything in accordance with his father, the one who sent him so that they may believe.
Verse 43, Jesus summoned the dead man. He cries out a loud voice, he addresses Lazarus directly by name and calls him out of the tomb. Lazarus is alive!

The only person who can speak to the dead and give them life is God. Jesus is the resurrection and the life; he is the life giver, the one who has power over the dead.

Point 4 – What Does Jesus Offer?

So what is true life? Where do you put your dreams and hopes and expectations into?
Is it success, or is it fame, or is it wealth, or is it simple just having a house, a car, being married and having kids?
Well the preacher in the book of Ecclesiastes had experienced all his desires yet he tells us in Chapter 2 of Ecclesiastes that ‘I have become greater by far than anyone in Jerusalem before me. In all this my wisdom has stayed with me.
I denied my self nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my labour.
Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun’
The preacher had it all, yet he struggles because he fails to see what the point of it all was.
We can pursue all our pleasures like he did, yet we all share a common destiny, that we are all going to die one day.
Death is the great robber of life, as we saw in Lazarus family. It brings great grief in family members.
We need to take death seriously because death in the bible has to do with judgment; it has to do with us, facing the consequences of our rebellion against God.
Well if Jesus is the God man, the life giver, the one who has power over death, what does he offer to us?

Well verse 51 – ‘Jesus came to die for the Jewish nation and not only for the nation but also for the scattered children of God, to bring them together and make them one.’
Jesus had come to die to take upon himself the penalty of our sin so that he can gather Christians, that he can gather the church.
Jesus has conquered death in his own death and resurrection and unlike Lazarus, who ended up dieing again; Jesus will raise us up from the dead to live with him forever. This is why as Christian; death is no longer a foe we should fear.

Now Jesus wasn’t just the resurrected one, but he himself was the life of God, the resurrection and the life. And when he died for our sins, nothing could hold him down, he has been raised up in the glory of God, having paid for our sins, and he is alive now.
Do you believe that Jesus is going to raise you from the dead? Do you believe he is going to give you the resurrection life that he talked about, the true life, the life of God, the life of heaven, which is eternal life?

John also tells us in 1 John 5:11 – ‘God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his son. He who has the son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.’
This is where our hope as a Christian lies, to know that we have life beyond the grave, a life with God, where God will not abandon you to the grave because the grave will not have a final say in you.
Therefore do you live for Christ, Today? Do you believe in the one whom God has sent? Well let me close with Jesus’ words.
“I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

Well to next time, God Bless, Keeping Trusting That Jesus is Lord.
Laurence.

I will Rejoice in the Lord!

2007-08-08T22:48:00.000+10:00

'Though the fig tree should not blossom,
nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold
and there be no herd in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the Lord;
I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
God, the Lord, is my strength;
he makes my feet like the deer's;
he makes me tread on my high places.' - Habakkuk 3:17-19

This week has been a difficult and good week for me. The constant struggles of the flesh, the feelings of failures in ministries and the laziness to remain productive in work. However, I find utmost joy, that we can be part of God's work in the world, the building of the church under the Lordship of Christ. I thank God, most utterly, Its such a encouragement to see him working in people's lives, growing them in Christ likeness of Character as they actively have a zeal for growing in their knowledge of God. It's even more of a Joy, when God's elect is called out, God reconciling them back into relationship with him. I thank God for the strong friends i have, that have encouraged me so much, you know who you are!
Anyways (Thanks Jase), I have been reminded of Habakkuk 3:17-19, No matter what happens, where i end up in life, The Lord is our strength, in him do we rejoice!

Laurence.

Ekklesia

2007-07-27T11:19:00.000+10:00

Time for an update :),
really i have nothing better to do, the joys of the life of a single man.

Two week ago i went to MYC (Mid year conference or Meet your companion) , and we looked at Ekklesia (Church). This is really testing my memory, here's what the conference had to say.

The End of our life is church, in the meantime we are building the church because Christ empowered us to build the church, He builds the church through us, by giving us gifts. We have many gifts from God, not for self purpose but so that we can build his church. Therefore we should not waste them rather, we should use them for the common good, for its original purpose.
We need people in whatever gifts they have to build the church. Thus is fundamental to our Christian living. The Church is eternal and it is what God is doing in the world. Therefore it is a great privilege for us to participate in building his church.
How does the kingdom of God grow? It grows by Christians using their gifts in love for the building of the church. Therefore the preaching of the Gospel must continue because the gathering of Christians listening to God’s word is what the church is about.
Some have the gift of expounding God's word, however all Christians should be ministers, to live in a way that maximizes the preaching of the Gospel. Therefore make decisions on the basis of Jesus’ Lordship not worldly materialism. Base everything to the building of the church. This is the mindset we need!

I think one of the main things that was really emphasised was the importance's of the public reading of scripture in Church. Over the past few years, i speak of the denomination I'm familiar with, Sydney Anglicans, the public reading of scripture in the church meeting has declined. The old prayer book used to start off with Psalm 95, every Sunday. Today, if you would only hear the word of God, do not harden your hearts as Israel did in the wilderness. Today, when you hear the word of God, what are you doing? what is your response to the word of God?

Theirs a lot more that was said, but that is basically the summary of it. I also went to an elective called "Working in the church" which was very good and made me rethink my future. If you imagine a triangle with three pieces in it. Purpose at the top, industry in the middle and existences at the bottom. Someone ones defined three types of works. Job, career and calling (not the biblical sense of the word). A job is what a person merely does to support their family and they are moderately happy. A career is where a person strives for nothing except advancement and they are profoundly unhappy. A calling is where the person is not interested in money or advancement but loves the job. Having a job keeps the three pieces of the triangle evenly spaced while a career minimizes purpose and existence. The dangers of uni students and careerism is that the advancements and bigger salaries become so appealing to the point where purpose gets smaller and smaller, and eventually God is out of the picture or only a small part of life. Christians should be aiming to increase the purpose in life while minimizing industry and existence. That means organising life in a way that maximises the preaching of the Gospel. What about full time paid ministry then? Well there is three main things Christians should have in teaching roles. Conviction, character and competency. trained theologically and absolutely convicted in the truths of the Gospel. Your christian living should reflex your convictions. We must be committed to living to what we preach. Last of all we should be able to teach. We need Men in public mission today to willingly sacrifice their lives to take leadership. I think this really made me think, am i fully convicted in the truths of the Gospel, is it changing my character, i know like all of us, I struggle at working on my own Godliness. Am i able to teach? Do i take lead? Am i clear? Things i defiantly need to continue working on however why do anything else in life then devote my life to the preaching of the Gospel!

Another thing i went to was an elective on mission. They made a very good point which challenged me. One of the big things missionaries face in the first year of mission work is their personal bible reading and prayer. Unlike here they don't have that constant encouragement and bible teaching from fellow Christians because they don't understand the language. So personal Godliness is very important, i know it something i have to really continue working hard on. The other things we had during MYC was seminars where we looked at the elements of church such as order and what needs to be in a church meeting. We looked at the idea of Ekklesia and the development of covenants throughout the scriptures. We also had bible studies where we wrestled with 1 John.

It was very encouraging to see so many first years come this year. It was even more encouraging to see first year being challenged by the word of God and willing to get more involved in CBM this coming semester. The classic quote, I released their just so much i don't know about God, their so much i need to continue learning. It was very encouraging to hear people say that.

Therefore MYC was a great time to share in fellowship with each other, real fellowship lol, hearing God's word together and challenging each other even during lunch, supper and even compulsory fun time :)

My ministries for the rest of this year have exponentially increased. I am now on two CBM committees, the penrith and cross-campus committee. Last week, i lead my first service at Emu plains Anglican, got some positive feedback. I was apparently too wordy, even started the service with Psalm 95. But from thinking over the questions from MYC, i was very encouraged to get feedback from people telling me i was very clear. I've also taken up to help with Sunday school. I'll be continuing in the scripture ministry. I'm down to preach on the 7th of October on John chapter 11. I'll be beginning my exegesis on Monday hopefully. Hopefully Mike can challenge me with all sorts of questions :) At CBM so far it looks like I'll be leading a biblical theology training strand on Mondays which i'm very excited about :). So I ask for prayer to be effective in those ministries, and that i might do all those ministries for the glory of the Gospel, for the glory of the kingdom.

I've ran out of places to explore Emu Plains. Some nice spots around the plains and at the foot of the mountains. Haven't done really any work over the holidays on Thesis, so i have to get back into it next week. Last semester i ended getting a HD and a D and i passed my Old Testament exam. What else? I saw the movie Amazing Grace yesterday. Was good, i would of liked it if they explored the struggles of William Wilberforce with God's word. However it was still a good movie. I've also been blessed to have some close friends nearby where i can meet up with them, and encourage each other in God's word.

Heres the latest conundrum to think about, the first question may be obvious.
The church is for the Christian, God’s gathered people listening to the word of God. This raises the question, then what about the non-Christian? 1 Corinthians 14:24 tells us that if all prophecy, and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all, the secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so, falling on his face, he will worship and declare that God is really among you. Therefore if we faithfully proclaim the Gospel, the power of Gospel will convict the unbeliever or outsider if it’s in God’s will.
However we should not neglect to welcome unbelievers or outsiders during and after the church meeting. In my old church, we changed some of the pews to chairs, so that the service would be much more loving to de-churched (generation who have not been bought up in church) people.

My questions is then, is there a fine-line in how much we can change our church meeting to make it more appealing to outsiders before it hinders the preaching of the Gospel. The Gospel still might be preached faithfully, but may hinder the churched people, particularly the older congregation members. And finally what is that line.

My next questions is, which in some way relates to the first, should we be using words such as fellowship, sin and service in a church meeting, When even the Christians may have a misunderstanding of these words. For example sin, should we be using sin in our meetings, when most non-Christians see sin as breaking the law, rather than rebellion against God, trying to live lives our way.

How can we then be loving and welcoming to outsiders and preaching the Gospel faithfully while not being a stumbling block to the congregation, to the church?

Till next time,
May you continue to give all glory to him who called you out of Darkness into light.
Laurence.

At Long Last, An Update!

2007-05-21T13:12:00.000+10:00

Well i finally got around to updating my blog and write a post.
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.

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.

In Christ,

Laurence.

An Update of Laurence's World!

2007-03-08T10:28:00.000+11:00

I've not posted in ages!! Busyness of life, and lack of interest perhaps.
However here is it! The million dollar question, Whats been happening with Laurence Because I haven't heard from him for such a long time!

Well last post was in January so let me see. Firstly our new minister at Emu Plains started his commission. Our new assistant minister has also started last week and it is exciting to have them both their to teach, equip and tell people in the parish and outside the parish about Jesus the Lord!.
I also finished my work placement for this year and that went well :).
We also had our away committee meeting for this year, where we discussed our goal's, our mission, events and our roles for the year. Lol I'm officially the student leader now yey :)
CBM has been busy but great as always to collectively proclaim the Gospel. One of my friends started MTS, and it's exciting to work with him in partnership for the Gospel!
Oh Also started helping with scripture at emu plains, and they are a very behaved school, compared to katoomba anyways.
Okay so that's the ministry side of things. In uni news, i started my Thesis on lol rather long name "DNA Image Enhancement for Microarray Griding". So far finding it hard to get motivated and to do something about it lol.

Anyways i hope things are going well for u readers (if anyone actually reads this blog), and continue keeping strong in the Lord!

Yours Faithfully
Laurence.

The Emu "Plains" is tooooo hot!!

2007-01-18T08:54:00.000+11:00

It's been a while since my last post. So what has happen since then.
Well i'm moved to emu plains with my parents and slowly settling in. The weather is way tooo hot, like sleeping on some piles of hot rocks from a vocano. Don't know much people, except a friend who lives lol 7 houses away from my house :).
I have gone to Emu Plains Anglican in last 2 weeks. The sermon's have been excellent, great exergesis of the passages in Ephesians. I will when get more time, update you on whats been said. The people are very welcoming their and it is joyful to get to know them. Though why is their no my age? lol their is people a little older, or people a little younger, ahwell. At the moment they are without a full time minister, however a new minister is getting commisioned the end of this month. The rector from Blackheath has been filling in for the time been.
I've also started Work placement (12 weeks, 6 this year & 6 next year) at lithgow at an ISP place. They have put me into the deep end the first day i got their, and am working on a project to shape people's bandwiths on wireless. The people i work with are very nice and easy going. Please pray that i may be a good withness to them, and that i might get opptunities and takes them to tell them about the Gospel. I've also had to drive to work, lithgow trains are ridiculous, and so pray that i make the most of the oppunities i get driving to work with my friend in the car.
Summer CBM is comming up, can't wait, Bible study at last!!! lol. Anyways please pray for patients for me with settling into new church and for more friends. If your going to Men's convention, i Hope to see you their :)

Keep Strong & Rooted up in Christ!
Laurence.

The Year of The Lord AD 2007

2006-12-31T23:42:00.000+11:00

Yes it is the start of the new year. Been a while since i last posted so here is the latest news and prayer points. Firstly i am moving to emu plains the starting of this new year, where i will be finding a new church to go to and setting in. Secondly i also went to the snowy mountains since the last post and climbed the highest mountain Mnt Kosciuszko, it was great to see God's Creation. Thirdly my Homepage seems like it is no longer, so therefore my old sermons and reviews of conferences have been wiped. The pictures can still be found on my bebo page, find the link in my links. Fifthly me and my friend went to the central coast as well to visit a friend, who we got to know well on mission.

I have been personally encourage by St Hilda's Anglican Church Katoomba over the 5 years i have been there. Their faithfulness to God, their service, their Love, and their willingness to listen to the creators and redeemers voice. It brings me grieve to part with that family, and i hope they will continue to grow in Christ. We should be prepared to Go whether God wants us to be doing whatever God wants us to do. Please pray for this new year, and the big changes i am making.
Lastly it so happens i got to preach on my last day their at all three services. And so here is the full thing :)

Jesus the Life Giver – Sermon (John 5:1-30)

It always amazes me to watch super hero movies. Take for example batman; we know fairly close to the start of the movie that Batman’s secret identity is Bruce Wayne. However to the other characters in the movie, there is a mystery surrounding Batman’s real identity. We also see at times in the movie when people almost get it. The gospels are almost like this as well. Take for example

Point 1: Context of John 5

Both in John’s and Mark’s gospel we have a statement about who Jesus is. So John 1 – In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.
At the end of gospels we have someone who gets it. In John’s gospel it’s Thomas. He answers Jesus “My Lord and God!” after witnessing Jesus’ resurrection. In Mark’s gospel it’s the centurion. He response to Jesus “Truly this man was the Son of God” after witnessing Jesus’ death.

And in between there is a confusion to who Jesus is. For example Mark 8, Jesus ask his disciples “Who do the people say I am”, they answer “some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah and others, one of the prophets”
In John 5 things get painfully clear to whom Jesus is and he show who he is through an action and through word. However before we start looking at John 5 lets begin by praying.

Thank you, Father, for making yourself know to us, showing us the way of salvation through faith in your Son. We ask you now to teach us through your word, so that we may be ready to serve you, for the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Point 2: Jesus’ Power and Authority

John 5, starting from verse 2 – Now there is in Jerusalem by the sheep gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which had five roofed colonnades. In these lays a multitude of invalids – blind, lame and paralysed.

The place mentioned here is not the main focus; rather it is that there are invalids here and particularly verse 5, there is one invalid who most likely was crippled for thirty-eight years. When verse 6 – Jesus saw him lying their and knew he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” Jesus knew the man’s situation and knowing how long he had suffered he asked him “Do you want to be healed?” Now there is a number of reason’s why he could have asked this question however this question does heighten the expectation that something miraculous is going to happen.

How does this man respond? Well verse 7 – “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me” Their was a belief that only the first person who entered the water after it had been stirred would be healed. This being the case, you can imagine how many were waiting around for the water to be stirred. Due to this man’s disability, he could not get into the water and perhaps hoped that Jesus would help him into the water.

However Jesus tells this man “Get up! Take up your bed and walk” and at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked. Jesus reveals his glory, which you could not see by looking at him, he reveals his power and his purpose, which is to restore.
A friend once told me that even if you repair in some sense the electrical cables in your body while being crippled for a long time you would not get better. The muscles in your leg, due to being crippled, do no longer work and those muscles which have slowly developed as a child just do not grow back instantly. Therefore this man walking again was clearly the finger prints of the power of God.

It’s a cause for joy and excitement, but some people miss it, verse 9 – Now that day was the Sabbath, “It is not lawful for you to take up your bed.” The Jews which being the religious leaders of the time, all they could see was a man carrying his bed. One of the laws they had on the Sabbath was not removing furniture which meant not carrying a bed. They asked the man who was this person that healed him, verse 13 – The man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn. It’s interesting to note that there is no link between Jesus’ kind acts of healing and some sort of explicit demand so therefore you follow. He will pour out his good gift on the wicked and good, like his father does on the rain and the sunshine. He heals the man, and the man doesn’t even know his name.

Now the story could of ended their, however Verse 14 – Afterwards Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.” Jesus says stop sinning; cease sinning, or something more then being a cripple for 38 years will happen. By reading the gospel, as far as Jesus is concerned, far more serious and far more tragic then being disabled and crippled for 38 years is to have your sins undealt with. That is by far the most dangerous problem any of us confront, so Jesus warns this man to stop sinning.
In John’s gospel, sin is not defined so much in terms of moral character but it is our response to Jesus. Jesus himself in John 16 defines sin as “not believing in the one whom God sent”. To remain inactive and unresponsive to this great act of God in Jesus is the heart and essences of evil.

How does this man respond? Verse 15 – The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. What does this man do? He runs off and dobs on Jesus. Therefore Verse 16 – And this is why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath.

The Jews at that time were very serious about breaking the Sabbath, It was one of the things that defined their people, some of the religious Jews were willing to die for this issue, and it was not a small thing to break the Sabbath in their world, Jesus response by answering Verse 17 – “My Father is working until now, and I am working.” The only person who was allowed to work regularly on the Sabbath was God. The Israelites knew as some have forgotten that God holds the universe together, he sustains it, he doesn’t just wind up an old clock and let it be, but holds it together, he works on every Sabbath day and Jesus is saying “My father is working, and I am working too.”

The Jews were quick to recognise the implications of Jesus’ response in Verse 18 – For he is calling God his own father making himself equal with God. Jesus continues to show that he is equal with God from verse 19 onwards, however we will see this in next week’s sermon. For the time been though, if Jesus is equal with God, what are the implications of this?

Point 3: Implications of Jesus being Equal with the Father

If you remember in the Old Testament, God is described as the creator. He is also described as the redeemer. In genesis 12 God made a covenant with his people and gave them the law to set them apart, for them to be a holy nation. However due to Israel’s disobedience they were sent into exile. The Jews being the religious leaders of the time of John 5 believed they could still get right with God by obeying the law and particularly keeping the Sabbath holy. However if Jesus is God, he is also the creator and redeemer and the Jews failed to notice that Jesus was setting up a new covenant, a new creation, which we see in Jesus’ death and resurrection.

Therefore if Jesus is God, if he is creator and redeemer, what does he offer? Verse 21 – The son gives life to whom he will. The immediate offer is to give life, to give you life. What is Jesus’ ultimate work? V22, The ultimate work is that Jesus has been entrusted with all judgement. So why did Jesus come? Well Jesus came to give you life, not a physical life, although he gave you your physical life, no, his come to give u new life, a new life which he calls eternal life and which is unbreakable and comes to us as a gift not a trophy. Why is he serious about it? V22, He is serious because he has the job of all judgment. When we die we will all face judgment, we will meet Jesus and when we meet him, he will announce in a public way where we will go for the rest of eternity.

This week I had the privilege to go down to the snowy mountains, and climb to the top of the highest mountain in Australia, mount Kosciuszko. Since it was the middle of summer, the snow had melted and the flowers had began to blossom. I was filled with amazement of the beauty of God’s creation. However as nice as it is, it is only temporary, even when the creation falls, the issue of facing judgment still stands and it is very serious and important.

Now you see why Jesus went over to this man, it is because Jesus is the life giver. Now you see why he warns this man, it is because Jesus is the judge. He says to this man, don’t walk away from me; I want you to follow me because I am judge. Something worse then being crippled for thirty-eight years, is to end up in hell. So Jesus offers to us eternal life and the escape from judgment.

Who does Jesus call? Well John 5 is interesting because essentially Jesus is saying that he has called out, he will call out, and he does call out. He has called out in the past; he will call out in the future, and is calling out in the present. Firstly who does Jesus call out in the past? Well he has called out a man who was crippled, and who had a great need with no special reason to help. That really described the world doesn’t it? The world has a very real need, the problem of sin and death and they have no special reason to be helped. When Jesus called out this man, “Get up, take up your bed and walk’, did this call work, was it a waste of breath? No it was not waste of breath, he said get up and he got up. The man was made well when Jesus spoke. In the Old Testament, God was a God who done things by speaking let there be and then there is; Jesus is doing things by speaking as well. The man heard the word of Jesus, he responded to the call. He got up and has new physical life, this is because Jesus is the life giver; he gives the physical life and also gives the eternal life. Here we proof, that when Jesus speaks, it is worth listening to.

Secondly who does Jesus call in the future? Verse 28 – An hour is coming when all will hear his voice. One day he will call out and the whole world will stand in front of him. Just like the crippled man, Jesus is going to speak to everyone; they will hear his word and will stand face to face with him. And with perfect justice v30, he will judge and decide where people will spend eternity. There is not anyone who will not hear his call to be before him, he has called a man in the past and he will call the world in the future.

Thirdly who does Jesus call in the present? He calls everyone, verse 24 – whoever believes him who sent me has eternal life. What does Jesus want you to do? He wants you to hear his word and believe him. When does eternal life begin? Eternal life begins when you hear and believe, when does judgement get lifted off your shoulders according to Jesus? When you hear and believe. This is all possible because Jesus died for you and has risen from the dead.

Are you willing to hear and believe, are you willing to get up. If you still haven’t yet responded to Jesus’ call to get up, then let me encourage you to do so. However be warned that there is a day when all will get up and stand before the creator and redeemer, both those who believe and don’t believe will be judged. If you have all ready responded to the call, then are you willing to listen, do you pray and read your bible regularly, if not let me encourage you to do so. Do you share the news of the life giver Jesus with your non-Christian friends? Do you share it with the world? As Ray mentioned last week, the only reason why the judgment has not yet come, is so that as many people as possible would respond to Jesus’ call. So let me encourage you to share this news to the ends of the earth.

As you may know, this is my last day at St Hilda’s. And the time I have been here I have been personally encouraged by your faithfulness to God, your service and your willingness to listen to God’s voice. Let me encourage you to continue staying strong in Christ, to continue to be rooted up in Christ, to continue running the race and to continue listening to the Jesus’ voice who is creator, redeemer, judge and Lord.

Let us pray.
Heavenly father, we thank you for Jesus, we thank you that he is the life giver, the judge, the creator and the redeemer. And we thank you for working out your purpose through him so that we may have eternal life. Help us to respond to Jesus’ call, to get up and to follow him. In everything we do help us to trust and obey you by listening to your voice. We ask this through Jesus’ name. Amen.

I hope it is clear and encourages and challenges you. Please dont mind the grammar mistakes, i have not yet had time to correct my computer copy of it.

Anyways i will see you next post :). God bless and i hope you continue remaining strong in the year of the Lord AD 2007.

Laurence.

NTE was a Blast!

2006-12-14T12:07:00.000+11:00

Well, I am back from NTE/Mission. It was a great and life changing time like always :)

For NTE (National Training Event) we went down to Canberra. The topic this year was last things first. Both Richard Chin and Phillip Jensen spoke to us on the topic. The talks were great and faithful to God’s word. Richard’s talks came from Colossians and including the topics delivered from darkness, the pre eminent Jesus, fullness in Christ and the heavenly life. Theses talks helped us to get our minds focused back onto God and to live a heavenly life, which gives glory to God. Phillip’s talk were focused on Eschatology and his topics included living in God’s time, living BC and AD (OT & NT), living in the light of the past and living in the light of the future. These talks challenged us to remember that we are in AD (year of the risen Lord) and that our God is also a God of history, the OT does matter, and to get to us from OT we have to go through NT then to us. The talks also encouraged us to go out and proclaim God’s word boldly and faithfully because it is the year of the risen Lord and God has given a delay of the last day so that as much people as possible will come to know him. Here are some quotes from the talk that I for some reason put boxes around during the talk :P

“Gospeling is when we are telling someone about Jesus, Not the Gospel it self”
“Fruitfulness should flow from Gospel”
“God’s will is what God delights in, what he wants for his people and it is plainly seen in the Bible”
“What can we thank God for? We should thank him for dealing our greatest need, the forgiveness of sins”
“Jesus is in the image of the invisible God”
“Reconciliation means bringing out true order where Jesus is Lord!”
“Put to death early things”
“We have already been blessed, every blessing through Christ”
“These blessing are election, predestined, adoption and redemption”
“OT promises find their fulfilment in Christ”
“We are in the year of the Lord 2006. Important thing is AD not 2006. This transition between BC and AD can happen because Jesus died for you. Learn to put last things first”
“We are a creation and covenant religion, History matters”
“We put our faith in the faithfulness of God”
“Build our lives on the faithfulness of the promises of God”
“Our God is the sovereign God of History as well”
“Our task in not to interrupt the bible but to understand it’s interpretation of us”
“Reason that God promises have not reach completion is because God is holding back the judgement to give time for repentance”
“Preach the Gospel to bring his elect under his throne, use the gifts God has given you to do the work of God”
“Those given much, much will be required”

And many more, but that would require lots and lots of pages. We also had a few strand groups which looked at Biblical theology, Systematic theology & ethics. I and group of old friends did the third strand which was systematic theology. We looked at the resurrection which was a really beneficially. We looked at stuff like the resurrection of Jesus, resurrection of the dead, the return of Jesus, and much more. As soon as we thought we had it all covered, one of us would ask a questions, and we were back to the drawing board but was good.The pictures are of the findings we found, the diagrams we had come up with and also a picture of the stand group.
NTE was also a great place to get to know each other better, and after the conferences it felt like we all knew each other for years. It is very joyful to run the race together with our fellow brothers and sisters, and to be both challenged as we wrestled with God’s word.
After we got back from NTE we were off to Port Macquarie Presbyterian church. In Mission we got involved with scripture, youth group, nursing homes, church, Sunday school, walk up, door knocking and carols.

I personal got involved with scripture, Sunday school, walk up and carols so I’ll review them mostly. Scripture was great, we did 3 schools with two sessions each which were about 40 minutes each. We did a play based on Jesus rising Lazarus, had a song and a talk. I was privileged to have to do the talk at two of the schools. The talk established the link between Christmas, Easter and the story of Lazarus. That the baby born in a manger was just not a little small baby but the King, the King who defeated death by dyeing on a cross and raising up as Lord and through whom we will also be raised up. My friend did the talk at the last school, and I was encouraged from the likenesses and differences in the talk he gave. For Sunday school, I had to write another talk. I got the kids to act out the story of the little girl (Talitha) and then explained to them that we will also be raised up but unlike the little girl, we will be raised up eternal with the King who is Jesus. Walk up was great, I went out with a friend and we ran into a guy who was really interested. He was up for a holidays to get away from work. We shared two ways to live with him, and he wanted to live God’s way but never had the time to look further into it. So we encouraged him to think about it and gave him our contact details. I also managed to get along to the early church service, and the team did a wonderful job to proclaim Jesus at the church service. The sermon was really solid and encouraging as well. I also heard that the sermon at the nursing home went well, and even though some of the old people their, were really hard to talk to, they did a great job. Lastly the carols they gave me the job of setting up the sound equipment and mixing/singing. To be honest I have no idea how to set up sound equipment even though I’ve done it a number of times. Most normal professionals know what things are called and how they plug in together. However I don’t know any of the technical names, but I somehow managed to plug things together and get them working, and all the instruments working smoothly together, thank God :). The carols went well; the sermon went well even through kids running around during it. I head about 300 people came through the service, Christian and non Christian.

But other then the formal things we had to get done. We also did a lot of social things together. We had dinner all together, went to the beach. I was personally really encouraged and had bought me joy that the team was faithful to God’s word and worked together. Also for the care and love for each other, even when things seemed down or hard. Keep strong guys & girls!
The hosts I stayed with were the loveliest couple I ever met. They were a missionary couple with an outward focused. They took us in as their own children and looked after us and their prayers have encouraged me. I also stayed with a friend their and it was great, we got to sing most nights, pray together and encourage each other. The location was in the bush, on a dirt road with plenty of wild life. We saw lots of birds, kangaroos and spiders. Each night we had to fight our way through a few spider webs and spiders to get to the door, was great fun :).
Below is a photo of the team that went to mission and NTE.

On a funny note, we finally went to Telstra/Telecom tower after years of suggesting it. We boys went up at night time to the top. When we got to top, one of the leaders suggested that we just bush wack through the bush to get to the bottom. So we started heading down the bush, a little further we found a sign that told us to turn back, that the road was under repair. But since it was knocked down we choice to kindly ignore it. Anyways on the way down we had to jump a few fences, one with barb wire on it and we came up to this sign. The sign read “Caution Venomous snakes traps in progress” It has to be the funniest thing I’ve ever seen. We continued down the track and came up to a gate. The gate had about 8 pad locks on it; clearly someone didn’t want people to go through it. However right beside the gate, there was a rather large hole were people could fit through it, so we continued on. We ended up inside the CSIRO science laboratories, not sure how we could just freely enter the place, but we ended up getting through them and back to the university where we were staying.

On a sad note, two of the leaders and a few students are leaving this year, so it was great to be in partnership in the Gospel at mission. I will miss them greatly and it does grieve me that they are grieving, but they are going into something bigger. One of the leaders is going to bible collage next year, and I’m really glad to see him furthering in his knowledge of God. Anyways where ever they are, I hope they will be able to continue strong and serving God, giving him glory where ever they are.

One big thing I need prayer for is during NTE, our home got sold. Over the past two weeks I have been making a decision to if I would stay with my parents or live away from them. I have come up with conclusion that living away would be the most wise but most hard option but will be greatly beneficial to my ministry. At the moment the place doesn’t concern me too much however I would like to stay in Katoomba, my heart still lies in the ministry their, and to that family. The big prayer point I need is that my parents are doing everything they can to get me away from doing ministry, and not leaving any thoughts on my behalf to what I will be doing for the rest of my life. Although this is only a little thing, house being sold, it actually sparks off the thing of doing full time ministry. So please pray that I will have the courage and strength (in Christ strength) to tell them that I am considering full time ministry in the future, and that I would like to live away from them for a while. I’ve actually only got to Saturday to tell them, so please do pray because I am weak.

Anyways didn’t realise that I’ve already wrote 1,882 words, woops sorry guys, please do continue to pray and thank God that NTE/Mission went well. Pictures are finally up, you can find them by clicking on this link http://PapL.bebo.com. God Bless.

Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Saviour, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.

Laurence

NTE 2006 at long last!

2006-11-30T13:10:00.000+11:00

Yeap Its NTE time again. I'll be heading off to it tonight. Just packing up all the cloths, so slow lol, keep getting distracted.
Should be a great time. Anyways i'll post a full review and hope to post more after NTE. For the mean time i found some youtube videos which are my favourite. so here are the links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xax2n5MRH_s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oRfpW_hduY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4DC2Zxhmgg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hw_PG0WA2j4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8Vxkop2nfo

Just a collection of Final fantasy, kingdom hearts, star ocean & shadow hearts made into music videos. I've been playing through Final Fantasy XII, brilliant game, nice and long, couldnt find a good music video of that lol.
Anyways see you in two weeks.

El Shaddai is whom i Believe!
Laurence.

Holidays at long last

2006-11-22T10:56:00.000+11:00

Yeap, I finally finished my exams. They went well i think. I always find it difficult to know for certain if i passed them, but i think i did okay.
I got Final Fantasy XII yesterday and boy is it great :). Its taken 4 years to complete, but it was worth the wait. The story is magnificent, graphics are the best for ps2, battles are new and take a while to get use to but it is great. Also got Dragon quest III to finish as well. But best of all their is two weeks to NTE. NTE is a national Christian training event, where we look at God's word, and be challenged and trained to proclaim Jesus as Lord. Hooray :). And then go on mission after wards to Port Maquire and proclaim the Gospel :)
Anyways see you next post.

The Lord is the king who rules over all things, the universe is in his power and there is no one who can oppose him. He has made heaven and earth and he is Lord of all. (Esther 13:9-11)

Laurence

For what we proclaim is Jesus Christ as Lord!

2006-11-04T09:28:00.000+11:00

Ahh, finally i have time to post. This week was the busiest uni week ever. 2 Major assignments due, one worth 60%. And a bunch of laboratories.
I got to lead our cbm main meeting on thursday, it was nice. We even had a song and ate cake :). It's finally the day of our ball, which is tonight. I decided i will bring a suit :P. It isen't me to ware a suit lol.
Anyways During the week i red through the Archbishop's presidential Address. It was on leadership, and has some good interesting points, for good old unchangeable anglican's lol. Here is some interesting things he said.

"The fourth policy of the Mission calls upon us 'To reform the Life of the Dioceses (including our culture, ordinances, customs, use of resources, and depolyment of ministry) to encourage and enable the fulfilment of the fundamental aim.' We have made reforms; so far we have not gone far enough in the changes we need to make. Much of what we do is still shaped by the nineteenth and twentieth century experience of church life. We are functioning well for a 1970s social context. We are ready to fight the last war. How do we so advance as to meet our missionary challenge, while remaining firmly committed to the gospel and the scriptures? The key to fruitful change is godly leadership and trained mission partners. I know that i am calling for something that is very demanding. It is especially difficult to lead in times of challenge and change. It is harder to be a Moses tehn a Solomon. The life of the people in Egypt was unpleasant. They groaned under their harsh servitud; they were the victims of a genocidal plan; their hopes were eaten up by the fears. Under God, Moses became their saviour. He defeated Pharaoh. He led them across the Read Sea. He brought them virtually to the Promised Land. And yet, again and again, the same people became unwilling and rebellious; again and again they contrasted their present plight with their days in Egypt, and they said that they longed to go back. 'We remeber the fish we ate in Egyot at no cost - also the cucumbers, meolons, leeks, onions and garlic. But now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!' (Num 11:5,6) The condition of the people in slavery was intolerable; and yet some of the people preferred to tolerate the intolerable rather than to dare the unknown. The challenge for Moses throughout his long ministry both before and after Sinai was a twofold one.
He had to get the people to accept and live by the word of God. He had to ensure that the word of God was believed and preserved. Indeed it was only because they had the word that they saw themselves as a people. Change that is worth accomplishing has within it the unchanging core of who we are, what we stand for, what we purpose to do with persistence and endurance. We must say, as the people did, 'We will do everything the Lord has said' (Ex 19:8). 'Sydney-anglicans' must allways be a Bible people, a gospel people. That's our inner corse."

"Without abandoning any of the five cheif features of our churches - conversion, preaching, training, fellowship and reform, we also need a leadership which will help to turn outward, to re-engage with the world in which we find ourselves - to study and be committed to the community onces again. I am not suggesting a huge problem. Just to ask about the missing men may be a good start. This time, however, it is not that we see the parish as a mission field made up of dormant Christians, but rather as a mission field of those for whom faith itself is a vague memory, who knows little or nothing about Christ and his kingdom. We need to ask ourselves, In God's name and for the sake of the Lord who died for us, and for his sheep scattered in all the world - how are we going to reach these people for Christ and his gospel?
That of course, is the real point behind the 10% goal. It is not a 10% increase in congregations but 10% of the population. It is intended to makue us look outward, to take responsibility not merely for our church, but for our community, our parish and indeed the world beyond."

You can read the full presidential address here

Anyways i must get ready for the ball :P.
Christ Jesus, triumphant King and our only hope: grant to us and to those for whom we pray, forgivness of our sins, deliverance from all that afflicts us, and entrance into your enternal kingdom; that we may praise you with the Father and the Holy Spirit now and for ever. Amen.

Laurence.

Sacrificial Obedient Love

2006-10-29T21:18:00.001+11:00

Another day, another post, yesterday (Saturday) was interesting because I went to a friend’s engagement party. It was a taste of good old bush dance. Totally embracing and uncomfortable lol, but I it was good. I was especially encourage during the speeches to see that my friend, in that companionship, quiet early into it, established that Christ should be the focus of it. It was also good to get the 4 CBM presidents together, Ironical how we were all their.
I Love church, church was awesome, because it is built up and rooted in Christ!
My friend spoke on treasures that we might gain on earth. They are worthless & seem to hurt us more then the gain. So do not peruse worldly treasures, but peruse God’s Kingdom, the true treasure, Christ living within us, and do this with Love.
Exercise this love with a sacrificial obedient love, in loving God with all your heart, mind, sole and strength. Also show this love to one another in the way we do relate to one another, and in our evangelism.
My Friend from uni which came up to bush dance, I managed to get him to come along to the church service. And afterwards went down to echo point.
I also met up with a friend of mine, who I’ve been going through mark with him. I am very encouraged that he has a great zeal to know more and more about God. And I am happy to see that he is really improving in his reading, and reading the bible. Please pray that he might continue to grow in Christ and be bold in telling his friends about Jesus as Lord As well.
Anyways continue praying for my loneliness, for me to be content and trust in the sovereignty of God. I hope someone actually reads this blog lol.

Martin Luther - “O how great a thing, how marvellous, a godly Christian’s prayer is! How powerful with God; that a poor human creature should speak with God’s high Majesty in heaven, and not be affrighted, but on the contrary, know that God smiles upon him for Christ sake, his clearly beloved Son.”

Laurence.

The Implications of the Trinity

2006-10-26T18:22:00.000+10:00

Onces again, i am posting lol. This is short talk i did for our committee meeting today, which went well by the way. Here it is:

The trinity, God himself is an awesome subject. God is the high and lofty one who inhabits eternity and whose name is holy. The doctrine of the trinity is the glory of the Christian faith. It is drawn entirely from revelation. And it depends on the absolute truth of the sentences through which the scriptures teach us about God and his nature, his character, his purpose, his actions and promises. It was also believe by the Christians church from the beginning, for from the beginning believers acknowledge Jesus as their Lord and their God and prayed to him, though he had prayer to the father. Perhaps Matthew 28:19 best sums up the doctrine of the trinity. Go therefore and make disciple of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son and of the Holy Spirit.
The name of the Lord remains one name, yet now God is to be known as father, Son and Holy Spirit, Being distinct, personal and equal.
Now what are the implications of this in our personal relationship?
Well firstly personal relationship in ultimately reality and the basic requirement for establishment and maintenance of true personal relationship is other-person-centeredness. That is a genuine interest in the other person and his or hers welfare and the forwarding of that welfare by every appropriate means at one’s disposal. We see this in the trinity; God’s other-person-centeredness is complete, and active in conferring benefits on the other person all the time.
For example the father always gives the son everything, the son responds to the father; his response springs from his other-person-centeredness. The spirit too, is also other-person-centeredness within the trinity. He does not glorify himself but glorifies the son, just as the son does not seek his own glory but the fathers. This complete other-person-centeredness and mutual self-giving one to the other makes personal knowledge to each other possible.
Thus God’s centre of his activity is in the welfare of the other. It is also not just confined to the relations between the persons of trinity, but being basic to his nature of relationships, it also extends to his creation as we read in Psalm 145:9, “The lord is good to all and his tender mercies are over all that he has made”.
This absolute other-person-centeredness is also the ground of our salvation, as we read Romans 5:8, “God commended his love towards us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
Therefore it is a great assurance to know that God is infinitely concerned with our welfare and with advancing it. His whole infinite being is absolutely and always centred on each of us, and he is always engaged in advancing our benefit.
Now since God is in personal relationships within himself it follows that true personal relationships is blissful and is the basis of happiness. This truth is confirmed in human experience. We find enjoyment is deepened when it is shared. We are to imitate God in being absolutely other-person-centeredness or another way of saying this, is LOVE, love in its biblical meaning.
While preparing this talk, personally it has rebuked me, and I grieve of my own sinfulness to be self-centred. But Friends lets make sure we are other-person-centred. And while this being the ground for our salvation; let’s make sure we show this love to our non-Christian friends.
Well, stayed tuned for our next exciting episode of the implications of the trinity in our next meeting.

We also had a guest speaker come in today who was a refugee from Iran, and became a Christian in villawood detention centre. It was really amazing how God work in people, in order for them to know him. He had a magnificant story which involved, going through jungles, crossing rivers of crocidiles, and converting from Islam to Christianity. It bring me Joy to see God working through people to bring about his promises, for the gospel to be proclaimed to the ends of the earth.
Also been encouraged at church on sunday. We are really blessed to have faithful men and women in sydney who faithfully proclaim the Gospel. Prayers were really good, very scriptual and Christ focused :). Sermon was on stewardship, And it reminded us to serve :).
Please continue praying for my loneliness. It something i do struggle with..

May we delight in your purpose, and work to bring all things to their true end;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Laurence.

The Battle of the Flesh

2006-10-23T20:59:00.000+10:00

I’ve been thinking about a lot of things over the past few months. And so many things have grieved me, especially sin. The battle of the flesh, is really hard, and I don’t know if it’s me growing as a Christian, or I am just getting more sinful, but I seem to notice that I do sin a lot, and it grieves me. How I long for the day when every tear will be wiped away, and the glory of God might be revealed to its full.
Some of the things I have noticed are that I am self-centred which in other words does not love, God is completely other person centred, and we can see this in the trinity in relationship with the father, son and Holy Spirit. Sometimes I guess it is done not intentionally and other times it is, but it does grieve me that I am such and it does break relationships. I also know that I am not quick to listen but quick to speak, and this kinda does fall into the self-centeredness.

Please do pray that I can be more loving to people in everything I do.
The other thing I do struggle with is loneliness. I’m not sure if this has to do with most of my friends being married or in a relationship or if it has to do with my situation at home, lacking Christian love to one another, and my sin towards that, or if it has to do with me being alone a lot of the time. Sometimes I wonder if I will ever find someone to be other-person centeredness to in the context of companionship, and it grieves me, because every time there is hope for a relationship, I get hurt. And I guess my self-centeredness hinders friendships. If I am wrong, please do pray for a change of my heart, for contentment in my singleness. It grieves me seeing the world’s view of companionship, and how it even invades our Christian circles. How guys have to be men of fists and looks (which I am not), and how girls have to dress immodestly in the context of companionship. It breaks my hearts reading statistics of failed marriages and relationships. Men, make sure you are men of prayer and are faithful to God. Women make sure you dress modestly and love your husbands and are also faithful to God. And if you are in companionship or not, make sure the central part of your lives is Christ, who is Lord over all.

Why do I and we Christian continue fighting this good fight of faith?
Well, I just can find the words in me to explain the joy, and peace that is in Christ Jesus. To know that In Christ, we can come back into a relationship with God, and live under his rule. How great is his love, grace and mercy, that while we were sinners, He sent his son to die, so that we might have forgiveness. And it brings me great joy that Jesus has rightly dealt with the punishment that I deserve, the sinful rebellious nature that I am. And it brings me joy that God is a personal God, who loves us, which we as Christian should imitate in our interactions with one another, serving one another in Love.
I find it that every time that I have an opportunity to proclaim the gospel and serve others in love, from either something up front like preaching or even encouraging someone in the pews, it brings me joy and tears to see someone growing in Christ. We should also remember it is God, who out of his mercy and grace reveals himself to people.
And this should be our focus, pointing to Christ, in everything we do.
If this is your first time hearing about Jesus, or have not made a decision to trust and obey him, then I encourage you to please do. And visit your local church or chaplaincy and find out more. Again it is not easy, but the hope that is in Christ Jesus, out weights the struggles.

Eternal God and Father, by whose power we are created and by whose love we are redeemed: guide and strengthen us by your Spirit, that we may give ourselves to your service, and live this day in love to one another and to you; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Laurence.

Jézus a Úr!

2006-10-18T19:49:00.000+10:00

A new day, a new post :). Not much to post really. Had lots of uni work, and things due in, but i managed to get them done.

Church on Sunday was interesting, had a missionary talk to us about Islam. Was good, gave a great incite into what they believe, referred to Romans 9:30-10:21 where Paul mentions Israel, and his heart goes out to them because they have zeal without Knowledge. Without knowledge that righteousness comes from faith in Jesus Christ as Lord (Jézus a Úr!) - Jesus is Lord!).

Monday, looked at Hinduism, again it was a great incite into what they believe. Had a couple who lived in India who were very nice, and gave us some incite into what Hinduism is like. Interesting how they believe that we are in a cycle of death-rebirth, and if we managed to get enough karma, we will eventually be released out of this cycle and return to a greater source, the Brahman. It is interesting contrasting it back to Christianity. The Christian faith, God takes the initiative and reaches down to us. so 1 John 1:3 - In his great mercy, he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Through God's mercy & Love, God has given us new life, and reconciliation through his son. But looking at other Ideas of religions, It seems we have to work for our salvation, work for life, which because of our rebellious nature, we can't achieve.

From Reading Knox's book, one of chapters remind us that God's power in creation also extends to Judgement. Jesus will come back to judge the living and the dead. Peter reminds us that those who suffer righteously for God's sake should commit their cause to God, the faithful creator and the one who judges righteously, and we will be vindicated as we serve him and bring this eternal gospel to every tribe, nation, tongue and people. So lets continue to proclaim faithfully Jesus as Lord

Tomorrow we are having a talk on boy/girl relationships, which is going to be interesting. Growth groups have been going well this semester. Most groups are finishing up learning two ways to live and moving on to looking at the book of Malachi. I'm really looking forward to NTE this year, Uni gets tiring and stressful after a while, and NTE is a highlight of the year. This year we are looking at Eschatology (Looking at the end times), lol probably a hobby horse of mine for a while :). Continue praying for our uni group, that we can be bold in proclaiming Jesus as Lord & that we can continue to grow in the likeness of Jesus.

God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.
Laurence.

Jesus is Lord, Lord of the future, present & past

2006-10-11T19:23:00.000+10:00

Finally my next post. This one is exciting, Below is a short talk, actually to start off our committee meeting. I was going to post it tommorrow, but its really exciting, so i decided to post it today. It is on the dominion and kingdom of God.

In the beginning, God purposed that the dominion should be given to mankind. However, since mankind has rebelled, man has lost this dominion.
In the New Testament, we see this purpose of God being fulfilled in Jesus, in the dominion that he had received through the cross and at his ascension.
So some passages such as 1 Corinthians 15, Ephesians 1 and Hebrews 2, make it clear that the narrative of Genesis 1 which also is taken up in Psalm 8, is fulfilled in Jesus. He is the one to whom all things have been subjected, and God’s purposes for mankind have been fulfilled in him and in those who are in him.
He is the image of God, and he is the one to whom dominion has been given and so the words of Genesis 1 are fulfilled. “Let us make man in our own image after our likeness and let them have dominion”.

Now salvation comes to sinners by the acknowledgement of this dominion of Jesus. To acknowledge Jesus as Lord is the touchstone of being a Christian (Romans 10:9). Therefore in the New Testament, when it is said that salvation comes from faith in Jesus, it means faith in Jesus as Lord. Our acknowledgement of this dominion of Christ, should not only look back to the cross, though it is our basis, but it takes in its scope the present and future as well. As Paul puts it in 1 Corinthians 15, Jesus is reigning and must reign until every enemy is put under his feat.
This dominion of God is also a very different sort of dominion from what we understand by the word in ordinary human relationships. We exercise dominion over one another by force, but this dominion of God is a dominion which flows from righteousness and love. This is how God exercises his dominion in Heaven, and therefore also on earth. Christ in his earthly life followed and expressed this kingdom or dominion of God. Christians also share the dominion of Christ. Therefore this reign upon the earth is a present reality, and we share in the victory that Jesus had won over sin.

So as we have heard, The Lordship of Christ is manifested not only in the past at Calvary and in the present through the victory that his servants win by suffering righteously in the world of sin, but it will also be manifested at the last day.
Consequently the acknowledgement of Jesus as Lord comprises not only the past and present, but also looks forward to the future. Our way of thinking should be an Eschatological way of thinking, which is looking to future, and this way of thinking characterised the Christians of the New Testament. They were awaiting their Lord to return, and they lived by hope, as we should too.
1 Thessalonians 1 also makes it clear that Jesus is Lord, Lord of the future, as well as the Lord of the present and the past.
Friends, I am very encouraged that you would give up your time, and go out of your way to come to this meeting, and contribute to the proclamation of the Gospel. We should remember however that Jesus will eventually return. We don’t know the date, but we do know God has delayed that day, so that as much people as possible will come to know him. We have a big mission field here, so let us continue to proclaim Jesus as Lord, and remember that, we are in it together, to Glory.

The talk is based from Knox's book, and challenge Conference. I recommend the book to anyone who hasen't red it, Doctrine is such a cool thing to discuss. Anyways please pray, that the meeting will go well tommorrow.
Church on sunday was great :). We looked at how God speaks to us. Through his word, his living and God breathed word. The spirit carried the writers, and God Breathed & inspired the words which they wrote.
Anyways Lots of uni work, lots of stress, so please continue praying, & thank God that we can pray and read his word, and out of his own mercy and grace we can be reconiled back to him :)

Glory to God; Father, Son, & Holy Spirit: as in the beginning, so now, and for ever. Amen.

Laurence.

Keep it up guys, In Christ!

2006-10-07T15:55:00.000+10:00

Hey. My friend continuely posts on a journal, and i think they are doing a great job in proclaming Christ. It is the Australian Christian Cartoonists Community's Journal, and talented Christians are using their gifts in art to proclaim Jesus as Lord!
I've added it as a Link, or u can just simple click here
Check it out.
I've also added a link, to a quiz, which tells you what kind of Theologian you are.
This week has been long, lots of work. I have a semi assignment due on monday, and i'm struggeling with it as we speak. I'm also struggeling with other matters which are resulting in feelings of fustration and sadness, so please continue to pray for me guys :).
I must get back to work, so see you next post.

God Bless
Laurence

Doctrine of God insight by D.B Knox

2006-10-03T20:11:00.000+10:00

Gold, Gold, Gold!, A recommended Book. Doctrine of God, selected works of D.B Knox. I've only red a few chapters, however it is really Good. Heavy, but good. So far it has explained Deity, Infallibility of Scriptures, and a touch on the Trinitarian God.
I've been really encourage and Joyful, lately, We are so privilege here in Australia, to have faithful men and women who faithfully teach the Gospel.
The Word being central to all teachings. I think sometimes we take it for granted, and we need to be praying for places where Gospel teaching is not clearly proclaimed!
We are in it together, to Glory, Keep at it, keep running the race, and continue to faithfully proclaim God's word!
In other news Uni was okay, Got some work done which was nice lol. Also put up some pictures of Challenge Conference and Bushwalking yesterday on bebo Site, Here!

Anyways Go in peace to love and serve the Lord!
Laurence

Minni Ha Ha, Delightfulness in God's creation

2006-10-02T19:54:00.000+10:00

Today was sadly last day of KC+ (October Convention). We finally tied up everything. Be ambassadors of Christ, we are in it together to Glory. Also looked at the fall in Genesis 3, That the punishments given to us, are meaningful and not random. However, even due to the bad things that happened in the fall, God gives us hope, Eve's womb was not in curse, Descendents could go on. Just as through one man, the fall happened, one man, who was Jesus, brought Life. And this life is better then the first Eden, It even has a city :P.
Anyways after that, friends came up from Sydney, and we went bushwalking. Visited Leura Cascades and Minni Ha Ha falls in Nth Katoomba. Was good to time to catch up, we even had pizza later together :P.
Anyways Uni Tomorrow, Tired...., and lots of uni work that i'm not looking forward to and am struggling in.

Good Night, God Bless
Laurence

Delight in Prayer!

2006-10-01T22:03:00.000+10:00

Today was a long day, preached at 2 services, did the rest of my ministries at night service, and went to October convention. However enough of me, because it’s not about Me, It’s about wanting to see Glory and Sovereignty of God proclaimed to the ends of the earth. I put it up on my website, I hope it challenges you in prayer, to bring out thoughts away from ourselves and focus on God and his promises, as much as it has challenged me. Anyways here it is:
http://dabible.webtized.com/Prayer.htm
The comments I got are that, It was great that I started off with the Sovereignty of God, and that I really wrestled with the scriptures, and remained faithful to the text. Some things I noted was that, I looked too much at notes, however having the short amount of time didn’t help, but I need to improve in this, and that my nervousness can mess up my sentences. My friend for night service, also preached faithfully and preached the Gospel :). KC++ (October convention) was good, I could only make it to the night session only. But it encouraged me that we are saved by grace and how mission is to proclaim the Gospel faithfully, and actually live in it. Have an obsession for the Gospel.
Anyways, I am off to sleep, final day of Convention tomorrow, and friends are coming up to visit :)

The peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God, and of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord; and the blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, be amongst you, and remain with you always. Amen

Laurence.

Interesting Day.........

2006-09-30T21:27:00.000+10:00

Well today was an interesting day. Finished my sermon early hours of this morning (1am). Then woke up in the morning to wait for some real estate agents. Anyways i wanted to goto october convention or as they call it now KC++, but had to wait for the real estate. Anyways i could go at 9:10, which was 10 minutes after the convention has started. So i magically made it by running lol, to the convention site at 9:35 which is 10k away lol.
Then when i got their, i went to pay, i only wanted to go today. However when i got their, they told me i didn't have to pay, because they knew me (From previous car parking). Thats was wird but cool. Then throughout the day, random people came up to me, and they knew me, i had no idea who they were, but they certainly knew me lol. I think it has to do with a prayer letter that gets sent out by one of our staff members at cbm.
Then i got fed, but KCC land keepers, friends from church. And even gave me a lift home lol. I think God wanted me to goto this conference lol.
The First talk was interesting. That God created us, and the world, so that we can play around with it. To work it. Also might seem strange, 7th day of rest, however work?, but work before fall was good work. Like a 5 year olds execitment to work. And the source of everything was from God, The rivers that flowed to Eden, flow also into all the world, Eden was like a channel for the rivers that flowed. Alot more was said, however i am tired lol.
Anyways I've finished my sermon, Please pray for me tommorrow, when i present it, that i may be clear and faithful to the text. I'm preaching at 2 services. Also pray for my friend, as he is preaching at the night service. I will also put it up tommorrow on website.

Go in peace to love and serve the Lord..Amen!
Laurence.

Precious Memories, Some in Black & White

2006-09-26T17:33:00.000+10:00

I scanned some of our old photos onto the computer. I forgot i had them.
Anyways Have a look.
http://djlpap.bebo.com

Then click on the Laurence Photos.
In other news, i Got alot of sermon done, however still not finished yet.

God Bless
Laurence.

Eschatological Thinking....

2006-09-25T16:31:00.000+10:00

Went to Challenge (Club 5) conference on the weekend. Was great!
We looked at Eschatological Thinking, Thinking about the end, and how things fit into God’s promises and our purpose in life, is to share to gospel to the ends of the earth, that why there is a delay of the last day. We are in AD, the time of the Lord, The time is at hand, the time is now, proclaim God’s word faithfully to the ends of the earth. We also look at the kingdom of God, The resurrection and ministry. I was also really encouraged of the faithful teaching, and the amount of faithful people around. Was really changelled to think about full time ministry seriously and to consider doing MTS and collage in the future, and i think now for me, its not a question of will i go, but a question of when. Why Not? We have such a privlage of sharing God's word to all nations, Why not!. Anyways was good to go with the 4 boys, catch up, and encourage one another in full time ministry. Hey we even went on a bush walk at midnight, led off the path, lead astray by a staff member :P.
I would really encourage anyone that is thinking of full time ministry, paid or unpaid to goto a challenge conference.
Anyways Please pray for my sermon prep this week, this have a long way to finish.

May the peace of God be with you, forever more. Amen.
Laurence.

Joy - Jesus Others Yourself

2006-09-21T20:42:00.000+10:00

This week, was okay. A few assignments, etc and work on sermon. Anyways going to Challenge conference tommorrow (Used to be called club 5). However before i do that, i will share my exergesis of Philippians 4 which i used for our committee meeting today.

Philippians 4:4-9
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say Rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your request be know to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Finally brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy or praise, think about these things. Whatever you have learned and received and heard and seen in me – practice these things and the God of peace will be with you.

Paul in verse 4, tells us to rejoice, rejoice in the Lord all ways, joy is to be commended everyday. Paul conclusion to rejoicing comes in verse 7. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Here is a great promise, God will bring us peace. This peace is also a peace God possesses; it is not just peacefulness or settled feelings. It actually comes from the Jewish word ‘Shalom’ which mean’s wholeness, and it is in our relationship with God and with others and is given to us when we trust in Jesus. It is a peace which is beyond our thoughts, considerations or plans, and it guards us so that we can press on. Why do we need this peace? It is because we have a real need for a transformation and keeping of our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, and notice it is only possible through faith in Jesus.
So how do we receive this peace? Well verse 7 starts of by the word ‘and’, therefore God’s peace is dependent upon the commands which come before verse 7.

First command is a command for our relationships. Verse 4, Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say Rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone.
Glorifying God in Christ Jesus is central in our Christian lives as God’s people, and this is how we rejoice in the Lord. Jesus is our Joy, and naturally we cannot hope to enjoy the peace of God if we give less than first place to him who is our peace. Paul also sums up Jesus’ attitude towards others in the loving word which we have translated as reasonableness or gentle forbearance. It is the uncomplaining readiness to accept others as they are and to submit oneself to their demands. This is what Jesus was like and likewise we should be as well.

Second command is a command for our circumstances, the antidote of prayer. Verse 6, do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your request be known to God. The prelude to the enjoyment of peace is to be found in linked exercise of prayer and thanksgiving. In prayer, anxiety is resolved by trusting in the promises of God. In otherworlds it is trusting that God is totally competent and in whose hands the matter may be left. In thanksgiving, anxiety is resolved by accepting that the worrying circumstances have been appointed by the all-wise, all-loving and all sovereign God. In a time of anxiety, it is easier to retreat into a corner complaining to ourselves, but it’s when we bring the matter to God that we find release, therefore our minds should be so constantly upward that all of life is reflected to the throne of God. And this is done through prayer.

Third command is a command for our thoughts, discipline for our thoughts. We must ponder, to give proper weight and value to, and be allowed to be influenced by all that is true, all that merits serious thought and encourages serious-mindedness, all that accords with justice and moral purity, all that is fragrant and lovely, all that brings with it a good word, that speaks well and whatever has genuine worth.

Finally, the forth command is a command for our behaviour, the authority of the Word of God. This command requires us to submit to the apostolic word and the continuing teaching of God’s word in the Christian church. If we are to know the presence of the God of peace, then for certain, we must seek the life of which he approves.

The peace of God can properly be summed up in this. JOY.
J – Jesus
O – Others
Y - Yourself

First submit yourself to Jesus in obedience, and trust in the promises of God. Second imitate Christ, in the uncomplaining readiness to accept others and submit yourself to their demands. And lastly if we, as God’s people, are to stand fast in the face of the world, then we must attend to our personal sanctification and make sure we pray, and practices the things taught in God’s word.

Please continue to pray for me, particularly my sermon prep, i have to presented it next sunday and i am still far away from finishing and other matters i am struggeling with.

Anyways Goodnight, God bless
Laurence.

2 Ways 2 Live!

2006-09-18T11:02:00.000+10:00

This is our Big poster of 2 Ways 2 Live that we had for our Evanglistic Week at uni.

Anyways the Pictures are:
God is the loving ruler, he created the world, and he created us to rule under him. Revelation 4:11 - Your are worthy our Lord and God to recieve glory, honour and power, for you created all things, and by your will they where created and have their bean.
But is this how the world is today?
No, what has happen is that we reject God, and try to live our lives our own way, Rulers of our lives.
Romans 3:10-12 - Their is no one righteous, not even one, their is no won who understands God, no one who seeks God, all have turned away.
But God can't let this rebellion go on. God is a just God, and he has to do something about it. So when we died we will face judgement.
Hebrews 9:27 - Man is destined to die onces, and then after face judgement
Now if we were to leave it thier, then what hope do we have, it seems like a sad story. However God has done something about this.
He sent his only son, into the world. Jesus lived under God's rule, and never disobayed God, but by dieing on the cross, he has taken the punshiment we deserve.
1 John 3:18 - Christ died for sins onces and for all, the righteous for the unrighteous to bring you to God.
But thats not all. God also raised up Jesus, defeating death, so that we might have life in Christ.
1 John 1:3 - In his great mercy, God has given us a new birth into a living hope through the ressurection of Jesus from the death.
Therefore we have 2 ways we can live, we can either reject God, live life our own way, and suffer the consequences or we can live under God's rule, trust and obay him, and have life.
John 3:36 - Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him.
So Where do u stand ?

God bless
Laurence.

Long, but Great week :)

2006-09-15T23:08:00.000+10:00

As you may or may have not know it was our evangelistic week. We had a number of people ask questions throughout the week at our stall. Was good, even thought they not straight away come to trust in Jesus, a seed was planted :).
Day before yesterday, i found out that i have to do a sermon in 2 weeks, well i volentered because our minister is away, and can't do it. I love doing sermon's anyways, a chance to see people encouraged and challenged by scripture, why wouldn't i. However two weeks is short time, and fitting it in with other work such as uni can get a little hectic, so please pray for that.
I'm going to challenge conference next friday, should be action packed and great.
Okay a interesting thing, in one of my lecturs today, we got a case study on project management. It had a list of proverbs infact 35 one them, and next two each proverb u had to mark how u would typically act in a conflict situation with someone. Anyways i'll share it with you.

5 = Very typical of the way I ack in a conflict
4 = Frequently typical of the way I act in a conflict
3 = Sometimes typical of the way I act in a conflict
2 = Seldom typical of the way I act in a conflict
1 = Never typical of the way I act in a conflict

1. It is easier to refrain from quarreling than to retreat from a quarrel
2. If you cannot make a person think as you do, make him or her do as you think
3. Soft words win hard hearts
4. You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours
5. Come now and let us reason together
6. Worth two quarrel, the person who keeps silent first is the most praise-worthy
7. Might overcome right
8. Smooth words make smooth ways
9. Better half a loaf thean no bread at all
10. Truth lies in knowledge, not in majority option
11. He who fights and runs away lives to fight another day
12. He hath conquered well that hath made his enemies flee
13. Kill your enemies with kindness
14. A fair exchange brings no quarrel
15. No person has the final answer but every person has a piece to contribute
16. Stay away from people who disagree with you
17. Fields are won by those who believe in winning
18. Kind words are worth much and cost little
19. Tit for tat is fair play
20. Only the person who is willing to give up his or her monopoly on truth can ever profit from the truths that others hold
21. Avoid quarrelsome people as they will only make your life miserable
22. A person who will not flee will make others flee
23. Soft words ensure harmony
24. One gift for another makes good friends
25. Bring your conflicts into the open and face them directly; only then will the best solution be discovered
26. The best way of handing conflicts is to avoid them
27. Put your foot down where you mean to stand
28. Gentleness will triumph over anger
29. Getting part of what you want is better than not getting anything at all
30. Frankness, honesty, and trust will move mountains
31. There is nothing so important that you have to fight for it
32. There are two kinds of people in the world, the winners and the losers
33. When someone hits you with a stone, hit back with a piece of cotton
34. When both people give in halfway, a fair settlement is achieved
35. By digging and digging, the trust is discovered

Withdrawal
Q1+Q6+Q11+Q16+Q21+Q26+Q31=Total
Forcing
Q2+Q7+Q12+Q17+Q22+Q27+Q32=Total
Smoothing
Q3+Q8+Q13+Q18+Q23+Q28+Q33=Total
Compromise
Q4+Q9+Q14+Q19+Q24+Q29+Q34=Total
Confrontation
Q5+Q10+Q15+Q20+Q25+Q30+Q35=Total

You are the one with the highest Total. I'm a smoothing kind of guy :P.
Anyways, please pray for me that i can start this sermon prep really soon and get it done, and that it's faithful to the text, Christ centered and bring glory to God. Oh that i can finish my uni work aswell, lots of stuff due.

God Bless
Laurence.

Unlimited sufficient atonement, Limited effective atonement

2006-09-11T22:16:00.000+10:00

Blog Time :P.
Yesterday was good, but hectic, had to lead both services, and goto a 21st aswell. Was pouring rain aswell. Sermon was on depression, heavy topic, however was good, i wont goto the details of it.
Today was great, it is our evangelist week this week, so had a store, and talked to people about Jesus.
We also thought that A4 was just not big enought to show two ways to live, so we stuck up a home made poster (stencil art) of two ways to live on a message board. However lets see, a message board is pretty big, but this thing was the size of a Church pue, massive. Well they say if u want to do something, go all the way lol.
Also while i was comming home, i was reading the latest salt magazine (produced by the Afes guys), and red an article on 'Who did Jesus die for', Was good, i'll share it with you.

Theirs been many thoughts and arguments in history on what kind of atonement Jesus's death was. Was it a 'unlimited atonement' (That Jesus' death is enought to pay for all humanity's sin) or is it a 'limited atonement' (That Jesus' death was only to save the elect. Both arguments have biblical bases, so for limited atonement, Romans 8:1 tells us that 'there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus' or Ephasians 5:25 tells us that 'Christ also loved the church, and gave himself up for it, that he might sanctify it'. For unlimited atonement, 2 Corithians 5:14 tells us that 'Christ died for all, therefore we all have died, and he died for all that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised'.
So when you look at these passages, just what kind of atonement is it. Well even though Jesus' death is able to save all humanity, it only actually saves those who have faith in Jesus. Therefore Jesus' death is sufficent to save all humanity, however it only effectively saves those who trust in Jesus. And faith is not from ourselves, it's not our own doing, it's a gift from God.
So knowing this, it drives us to praise God for his mercy to us in giving us faith, and plead to God for his mercy on others, that he would give them faith aswell.

Anyways I have got uni tommorrow, so i should be getting to bed.

Go in peace to love and serve the Lord! In the name of Christ.
Laurence.

Enriched Uranium is good for you

2006-09-07T18:42:00.000+10:00

Well Can't say i've had the best week this week, Ive been findind it real hard this week, to get motivated and been finding my self generally sad. A few things have been happening which just haven't gone the right way.
However apart from that, On monday, went to macuther Anglican school, to their iscf group, was good. Also was introduced their to a hungarian staff worker. He gave me a long history on the hungarian church, and encouraged me to pray for it. It was good to finally find someone else who is a christian and speaks hungarian lol. However i did some more reading up on the reformed church of hungary, and they seem quiet solid and theologically sound, and few differneces in terms of minor beliefs but generally they seem sound.
Had a few meetings this week, they were allright. Also finished my research on Uranium enrichement and did a small bit of a group essay on the risks of a new Uranium enrichement plant being built in NT. Uranium is clean, safe (apart from the risk of military use and radiation accidents), has a lot more energy then coal, alot more and most of Planet earth has it, even found where ocean is present :).
Anyways please continue praying for me, that i may glorify God in everything i do, everything!.

Our gracious God, help us to proclaim our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, so that everyone around us will hear his call to repent, trust him, serve him in Love, and be established in the fellowship of his disciples while we await his return. Strengthen us to pray, to depend on your holy spirit, and to glorify you. Amen

Laurence.

Youth surge was good

2006-09-01T23:18:00.000+10:00

We went to youth surge today with our youth group. Yeah, i've been encouraged that youth surge has been getting better over the years. Still some things could be improved, but nether the less it has been getting good. The bible teaching was excellent, Contrasting Pharaoh and the plagues of Egypt with Matthew 7 reference to the goat and sheep.
That God is a God of love, compasion and he is also a God of judgement. and Through Jesus, and him taking that punishment of our sin's, allows us to come into relationship with God and it is by his Love and Jesus's blood that it has been made possible to us. Jesus is Lord of all, and may we continue to live in a way that pleases him and gives him glory :). Ran into a few friends their was good.
Was a little bit depressing at uni, worked on a assignment/lab thing, and i misinterpretted a question, and i lost alot of marks for it :(. however i think i did everything else right, so made up for it. I also have to start an essay on Uranium Enrichment this weekend, i think i'm going to find it difficult, so please pray for me, for that. Anyways I am off to bed, good night.

Eternal God and Father, by whose power we are created and by whose love we are redeemed: guide and strengthen us by your spirit that we may give ourselves to your service and live this day in love to one another and to you; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

Laurence.

Pure Sex, Simply Embarrassing

2006-08-31T19:18:00.000+10:00

Today was good. We had a geust speaker come in and talk on the topic of Sex, and particular pure Sex. We looked at songs of solomon and Genesis chapter 2. We discussed that Sex is good, and we are commanded to do it in marrage. However our attitudes for it should be to glorify God, not just a another entertaiment thing we do. I get really embarrased when talks are given on the topic of Sex, Marrage, Dating, etc lol, im not sure why. However nether the less it was good, some new people came aswell to hear the talk.
We also had our second committee meeting, It went well again, and we discussed important matters. I also did another devoation thing, after one of my EU friends showed me an article on Christian Unity. I decided to investigate it future and came up with a short 5 min talk. Here it is:

Ephesians 4:1
I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.

So what is Christian unity? Well first of all, Christian unity is founded in the Trinitarian unity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Jesus also tells us this in John’s Gospel chapter 17. In the Ephesians passage, Paul also puts forward 2 additional directions.
So firstly the fact that there is One Father, One Lord, and One Spirit means that there is likewise only one ‘operation’ of God. One body of Christ which is made up of all who are in him, one hope of our calling, one faith, one baptism by which we enter into Christ.
Secondly this means that Christian unity is a divine creation and gift of grace to us, which we are called on to maintain, not a goal which we are to seek to achieve. As in all gospel matters, it is something that God has done, not something that we can do.
Therefore in Christ we are being brought into a particular kind of relationship with God, and we are also being brought into a particular kind of relationship with all other Christians. Our unity is a unity in the Gospel, and therefore also a unity in the truth, in which we are sanctified (Jn 17:17).
Having an understanding of the gospel basis of Christian unity helps us to grasp with greater clarity the significances of the repeated biblical idea of Love.
So Col 3:14: And above all put on Love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. Let the peace of Christ rule in your heart.
In other words, since Christians have all been lumped together and unified in an act of divine grace and love, so we have no other option than to seek also to treat each other with divinely inspired grace and love.
In terms of our day to day conversations on campus, it means relating to one another with “all humility and gentleness, with patients, bearing with one another with love (Eph 4:2). It means we will be “quick” to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger; for anger does not produce God’s righteousness” (James 1:19-20). And it means that we will “not be quarrelsome but kindly to everyone, patient, able to teach and correcting opponents with gentleness” (2 Tim 2:24-25).

Tommorrow we are going to youth serge in Emu plains, should be great. Anyways i got alot of work to do for tommorrow, and i don't understand it, so i am going to get into it.

May our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, comfort our hearts and establish them in every good works and word. Amen.
Laurence.

Day out at Moore

2006-08-26T18:15:00.000+10:00

Went down to moore open day today, was really good. Day started off with a few words from the presidents about what the collage is their for, Then a senimar on what is included when you study their. Wow it so Academic and Bible based, and which then also flows out into doctrine, and into telling the Gospel to our non-christian friends. I think the day fuel'd my willingness to goto collage in the future, and has got me excited even more lol. The question is not am i going to go? but when?.
Some other cool things have happened.
Yesterday we got a chance to roast the rector, well ask question to the rector with our youth group. Lol he roasted us, got us thinking about how we could make our services more welcomming and how we can reach the community better. It was only the leaders their, if you were wondering lol.
Our main meeting at uni was good. The night of thursday, we started our men's dinner nights. We are looking on the topic of marrage. Was very encouraging to talk to mostly men that are married about how to to be a christian man and lead in a marrage, to be a point man. We had some sitistic, which were worrying, however it is good to learn about marrage.
Lecture on friday was interesting, About 2-3 hours this lecture put up slides about how the world is going to end if we coninue our ways of living, without doing something about it. Sustainablity was the topic he was speaking on, and particulary the effects on the enviroment.

Anyways God Bless
Laurence

Look up at the heavens and count the stars

2006-08-21T22:48:00.000+10:00

As i was walking home today, looking up at stars, i remebered that verse in Genesis chapter 15. Where Aberham looks up, and God assures him that the number of stars will be his desendents. I thought to my self, wow, God gives us so much blessings, each day he blesses us and he is in control of everything. Every star in the sky, he is in control of, his soverignty is in everything. And i thought to my self, God blesses me each day, even though i am still a sinner. The ministries i am involved in, the friends i have, the family i have, everything, all comes from God!. And to be honest brings me great Joy!, And i have come to reliase more and more each day, that i am fully dependent of God, sermon on sunday helped me to see that aswell, and i should and will continue to Trust in him, and no matter how small or big problem i have, i should give it to God in full trust. For God works for the good of thoes who love him. This is the reason why we need to tell other people about Jesus, Because God uses us, to bring people to him, his spirit convicts them of the truth. Not discarding suffering however, suffering and the gospel go together, if we preach Christ faitfully, suffering will come, however nothing is worth watering down the glory and grace of God. So Proclaim it faithfully!.

I finished my review of myc 2006. Here it is:
MYC. One word. Awesome. I am 2 months late on this review, so I’ll try to write as much as I remember. It was really depressing coming back to reality, the world’s view of life is just so opposite. So what things have I personally learnt this year? Firstly I was encouraged to improve my personal time in prayer and reading. I was encouraged to take the role of a man, to lead in prayer, and to continue finding more and more about the knowledge of truth. God has done so much for us, he has given us his grace, and life through his son, however we still sin, and is sad at times. Another interesting thing I have learnt is this: JOY – Jesus Others Yourself, Jesus is Lord and is the highest priority, with putting others above your self, you can’t be joyful in the work of the Lord if we aren’t concerned for others, and the lost. The other thing I have learnt is the sovereignty of God in all things, His purpose is being worked out in all things, the good times and the bad times, is being worked out for the good of those who love him. Oh, I nearly forgot the topic for MYC this year was the revelation of God; How God has and will reveal himself, mainly he reveals himself through his word and through us. I was also greatly encouraged my friends, and as I hit a number of obstacles at the conference, actually some rather big ones, they where there to help and encourage me and to remind me of God’s word. It has certainly given us incredible fun and challenging memories. In our small groups we were epically looking at 2 Timothy, it was great prep for my sermon. As we looked at 2 timothy, we saw that Paul endured everything for the sake of the elect, for their salvation in Christ Jesus. As a result of Paul’s calling to imitate him as he imitates Jesus, three questions came to us. What am I doing for the work of the Gospel? What can I be doing for the work of the Gospel? And how can I evangelise the world if I cannot evangelise my family?. A friend of mine, who also went, was encouraged that God has planned everything, even the fall, and the death and resurrection of Jesus was all according to God’s definite plan. Our hope rests in the Kingship and Eternal Reign of Jesus Christ! Jesus Christ is Lord of all. Anyways if you haven’t gone before, I highly recommend you to come, it is very edifying and changeling, and trains us up, so that when we you do go home after the conference, you are fired up for the gospel, and not just fired up, but fired up with the Knowledge of truth.
Some picture of the event and this review can be found here
http://dabible.webtized.com/MYC2006.htm

May the God of all grace, who has called us to his eternal glory in Christ, himself restore, establish, strengthen us. To him be the dominion for ever and ever
Amen.
God bless
Laurence.

A few words from our sponsor, God :P

2006-08-17T19:05:00.000+10:00

Today was a good day :). Had a committee meeting, first meeting i chaired. was really nervous but was good. Had a few words from our sponsor, otherwise know as devoation before the meeting, just summed up my sermon i did, and directed the application more to the uni enviroment.
Main meeting was good aswell, some new people, Robs talk was great, even though their wasen't much time to prepare it. He tackled the myth, that we are the master of our desteny. Bustered! lol. Just read Genesis chapter 2 for the conclusion.
Oh i got a new game, Dragon quest 8 today, havne't had chance to play it yet, but hopefully its good, it had good reviews so im looking forward to playing it.

Anyways, Our Lord is worthy to recieve Glory, Honour and power.
Laurence.

Perserver, in the midst of Trails!

2006-08-14T21:01:00.000+10:00

I know u are sick of hearing this millions of times, however i am still struggeling.
It's so anyoing how, in the midst of my trials, i dont look to Jesus, i dont look to the good and purpose that is being work out in me, i tend to focus on my self, letting it tear me apart. Sin, result of our fallen world, it is so hard.
However I must stand Firm, finish the race, and look for the good in suffering and trials. For God works for the good of thoes who love him, he is working his purposes out, and i should be joyful. I know i am sad, and i am hopeless at it, i tend to cry it out, however, I can do all things in Christ who strengthens me.
Please continue to pray for me in this. Pray that i may be content in singlessness and to continue faithfully serving and proclaiming Jesus as LORD over all!.

Laurence.

Sermon was like umeboshi, Delicious!

2006-08-13T20:36:00.000+10:00

Finally, it was presented to two services. I think it went well, was nervous, however not as nervous as i used to be. people were encouraged and challenged. Got some good comments. Minister made comment that he could see the influences of cbm, conferences, philip jensen and ect in the sermon. And he said its the best exerjesus (sorry can't spell it) his seen from me so that was encouraging.
Anyways i posted it up on my site. the link is:
http://dabible.webtized.com/MisplacedShame.htm
My friend did the night service with same passage, although our look at the passage was the same which is a good thing, he took a different prespective on it. Was really good.
Oh umeboshi, is a yummy, japanese type of food, its like dryed apricot, but made heaps sour lol. And sermons are a form of spiritual 'food' lol, so it was delicious :)

Anyways God Bless
Laurence.

Sermonelicious!

2006-08-12T20:01:00.000+10:00

Finally, Got sermon to do tommorrow. I'll post it up on my site, and link it tommorrow. Thanks be to God! that its done, and pray that i may be clear tommorrow, and might be christ centered in doing it, and not really nervous, as i tend to get nervous alot. :)
Anyways my friend found this, and i like it, so i'll share it with you.

Have a good night. God bless
Laurence

Spaced Out!

2006-08-11T22:55:00.000+10:00

Long week it has been, lots of things happened, bible studies, main meetings and little things here and their. However has been a good week in some ways. Ive been having alot of time, when i'll would be alone this week.
In some ways its good because i've been able to use that time for Prayer, prayer has improved alot in my life, and bible reading/prep sermon.
However i have been lonely in that sense, so please pray for contempment for my lonelyness. And lonelyness does bring grief and saddness :(
I think i've got my sermon done, so pray for me for sunday as i deliever it to two services.
Youth group was good, lol 4 older guys, still playing games, singing songs, and look at God's word :).
Oh i found a cool flash site with fan made anime. I like Shoo fly, animation in it, is quiet impressive.
The site is:
http://www.newgrounds.com/collection/anime.html

Anyways God Bless, and Good night
Laurence

Djlpap Returns to Na Pali, totally Unreal!

2006-08-07T20:47:00.000+10:00

Lol so to catch up. Yesterday at church was great. Had geust speaker come up from chatswood, our minister used to be rector their before he came up here, they use to be buddies at school :P. Talked on patients, and enduring in suffering, God works for the good of thoes who love him, all though sometimes the good is hard to see at present, looking back, we can see Gods purpose and grace in it :).
Today was ok day. Long long day, with emotional level up and down. I don't know why i get upset for the littleless of things, and i shouldn't. In Christ alone, i find my strength not in my petty self focused strenght. However in the midst of my trial, i reliase that God is in it working his purpose out, and i am convinced that he is able to guard me to that day(2 Timothy 1). I Should! trust God in the midst of my trials, and so therefore please continue praying for me for that.
In the training hours of our campus bible ministries, i'm doing a course on followup, also Doctrine and Growth groups are offers. In our main hour we are looking at how to evangelise to Muslims. Should be good to learn.
I've been getting back into retro gamming, especially unreal, such a great game, with quality that just dosn't exist today. And the Nali, lol such great concept of characters :). also been getting into Jazz Jackrabbit and Hocus Pocus. Lol great classics. I got a draft of my sermon done :) I have to delieve it on Sunday this week, for both morning services, pray for me in that. Hopefully i got it right now, being the fourth sermon that i have presented.

To God be the glory forever and ever! Amen
Laurence.

Jesus is Lord! (The Gospel)

2006-08-04T23:40:00.000+10:00

I got some work done on sermon today :). Getting closer to having something ready, which is good, continue in prayer for that :).
With our youth group, we were invited to a concert thing with another youth group. A Christian concert of course, with a few youth groups today. It was allright. Personally i am going to be anyoing and argue.
I was disapointed that Jesus was mentioned about 2 times, and his reference to him was that he was a good person, he helped alot of people. The Music was overally too loud and distorted which over powered the lyrics of the songs. Christian music is not Christian music when u can't hear what the words are or the words are not Christ centered. Jesus is LORD, Lord of all, By God mercy, he has given us a new birth, into a living hope through the resurection of Jesus from the dead. Gods Kingship rules for eternity, and is one that is out of Grace, even though we did not deserve it, we completely rebel against God yet God still Loved us!. It is a Soverignt Ellection.
Anyways i properlly have my own faults of my self, Log out of my own eye, so i shouldn't judge so easilier, however. 2 Timothy 1 - Keep to the pattern of sound teachings, It is So important! not to water down the Scriptures, because we have been entrusted the word of God, God himselve revealed to Mankind. so Do not be ashamed of it!, Guard the good deposit (Gospel), finish the race!

Enough of my babble, God Bless.
Laurence

Hook Up into CBM

2006-08-03T19:32:00.000+10:00

I've been fired up for the gospel this week for some bezar reason lol. been at CBM stall all days, Main meeting today was good, Talk about if we are an accident of nature. Lol Bustered. Genesis 1 remindes us that it is About God, He created us, even in his own image to rule over the world. Which is first box in Two ways to live.
Revelations 4:11 "You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being."
Its great to see a few new people have signed up :). Thanks be to God
Prayer for my sermon prep, have another week, but am finding this one difficult. Yeah if you know me personally, theirs some other stuff continue praying for me for them thanks :)
The fellowship of the father, the son and the holyspirit be with you, evermore.
Amen.
Laurence.

Long Long Day In a Galaxy Far Far Away

2006-07-31T20:39:00.000+10:00

Yeap First Day of uni, although had nothing on today, went in early, to help out with the CBM stall. We managed to win a usb diskdrive, raffle tickets from the student union. We got a few timetables and etc. After that at Staff members place, we had a preparation for this years bible studies. Two Ways to Live :).
All and all today was a good day, pretty fun.
Thanks for ur prayers Guys.

God Bless

Back to uni, time for being lazy, ahh i mean studing

2006-07-30T21:41:00.000+10:00

Well been okay week i geuss. Parents lol got angry at me, for that failed uni subject, and for house not getting sold, so all churches fault apparently, but ahwell.
Today was good, Church great as usual, Night service was more of a informal goodbye services for a great friend from Church. His going to do EU grad Thing with EU (kinda like MTS but some differences). Ahh yes i remember the times i said something, and he would lift an eyebrowe and correct me, thoes where the days lol. Anyways its great his doing that, if anyone would like to support him in it, lol, talk to me. Met up with another friend from church again to look At what being a christian is like. Really encouraging to see him wanting to find more about God and wanting to serve more and more :). Keep it up.
Sermon work wasen't so productive this week, but this week i'll try to be more productive. Uni starts tomorrow, all though for me , being first week, it dosnt really start untill wedneday, but theirs always campus bible ministries that needs a few helpers :). So Pray.... For My Friend as he heads off into a new mission field, my other friend, as we go through the bible ideas and themes, me, for parents situation, for sermon prep and as i think through what im going to do after uni (either MTS or straight to collage), oh and CBM, for the work we do on Campus.

God Bless :)
Laurence

We Need More Garlic, Second That, Third That, Fourth That

2006-07-24T19:59:00.000+10:00

Had our committee meeting today :). We Made a lot of decisions, and discussed things, that really needed to be discuss. We got rid of the offical titles finally. Got a few roles dropped to me, Comp Tech Stuff, Timtable Small Groups, Main Meeting Leading, Treasurer (Hard to spell) and get to chair some of our meetings. Lol Committment, Comittment. Ahwell.
Afterwards met up with one of staff member with friend, and talked about how things were going, and after hanged out with friend, watched an episodes of red drawf :).
Church Yesterday was good. What Faith is, and What grace is.
A Friend has been ranting Theology, theology this week to me, Good stuff! well worth discussing Ideas in the bible. This is a taste of one of them he asked a friend and me: Does the law keeping in Romans represent a post-exilic jewish attempt to reestablish the kingdom outside of the Eschatological redeeming action of God announced in the prophets? Thus the jews place themselves outside of salvation history, just as the gentiles are. Taking the covenental Nomism of Sinai to apply to 2nd Temple seems to ignore covenant curses and the seriousness of the exile, the works of the law kind of are about trying to secure salvation, Ie restoration.
Heavy Heavy stuff, but good stuff to discuss. Loads of fun.
I've slowly recovered but am still a bit sad, and i fear it may last for a while, lol problem is i just can't let go. Please Continue to pray for me.

Anyways God Bless
Laurence

Priates of the Blue Mountains

2006-07-20T22:23:00.000+10:00

Pirates of the Blue Mountians, lol i don't know if that would work, you see the thing about the Mountains is, their is no water, and the thing about Pirates is that they sail on water, so u see my Point. Anyways Reason why that is the title of this blog entry is, because i saw Pirates of the Carabean 2 today. Was really good, i liked it.
Been Not to bad week i geuss, still in the stage of being sad, but ahwell.
Monday met up with friend, went through some ideas about who God is and Is the bible true. On tuesday went up to Lithgow, met up with an old friend. Went bike riding, had coffee and lunch, got to catch up. Yesterday, Wednesday, Got alot of sermon prep done, and went to bible study at night, and today Thursday, hanged out with friend, discussing interesting Theological issues at his cafe and saw pirates with a mate. I couldn't manage to get a pushi toy, out of thoes machines, at the cinema, i was very upset lol.

Anyways May the peace of God with you
Laurence

Tears of Saddness, Tears of Joy

2006-07-17T09:51:00.000+10:00

Well i dont know what to say. This year for me has been an Emotional Rollercoaster. Some bad things have happened and so much good has happen. I know i've grown from it however i still am sad. I managed to pass one of the hardest subjects in my course, yet i failed an easier subject. I'm a bit sad from that, And i know i will have a semester fo pesercutions from parents about it.
However i am still perservering, for my Tears of Joy outweight my tears of Saddness, and no matter what, i want to serve the Truth and Living God!. Please continue praying for my saddness and lonyness.

Anyways God Bless
Laurence

AhhThankyouuuu

2006-07-16T20:27:00.000+10:00

Well kinda settling down into reality. i am still fired up and spent most of the day, reading, studing, and reflecting apon God's Word. So far i've been resisting The two major sins that i have been finding difficult, and That is good.

I've had a great time to prayer today with my friend. I've been really joyful because of MYC, but i have been also very sad, I gave my all, as honest as i could, but it didn't work out. It is nothing effecting my faith however, in fact its strengening it, but nether the less, i'm sad, Relationships are really hard, Even harder then preaching sermons lol. Anyways as we where praying, man i feel in to tears, and tears of Joy, their are some many Christian in my life, that have done so much for me, me a sinner, that im affraid to loose them, but the day will come when i must and im worried in one sense about it. I geuss thats a good reason for companionship, in that you have someone to encourage u for most of your life, and help u in your ministry. Anyways im so greatful for your prayers, and please continue praying for my comfort and lonlyness.

Church was good as well, Looking at judges 12, and bits of timothy, To perserver in Sufferings. I geuss tommorrow i should start preparing my Sermon, and Im worried, uni Results come tommorrow. My friend is off to ancon, which is Sydney uni's equivalent, Hope that goes well. Oh and i also passed my PTC course Early Church histroy :)

Anyways God Bless, Go in Peace to love and Serve the LORD! The one and try Living GOD!

Laurence

I is back, Back to reality, The reality of suffering

2006-07-15T17:56:00.000+10:00

Well. I am back, home sweet home. MYC was awesome. Main thrust was about How God has revealed himself, Through people, Word, Jesus, ect. Encouraged me personally to listen to Gods word in everything, Consider fulltime ministry and to change especially in my private bible and prayer time.

It is really depressing comming back to reality, The worlds view is just so opposite. Even in my parents, lol kinda paraphasing what they said, but to them, it seem stupid, what i am doing, why would i give up the pleasure of life, for something, that pays low, no money, ect. Well God is worth it. So i personally am erging to change, to lead in prayer, to read God's Word and find more about the knowledge of Truth!, and to stop my stupid sinning. well i can't fully stop, because i am still human, but i will try to make an effort to be holy. God has done so much for us yet we sin, its sad :(. JOY - Jesus Others Yourself! Jesus is Lord and IS highest priority, with putting others above yourself, you can't be joyful in the work of the LORD!, if we arn't concern for the lost, well we arn't in Christ. And finally we must have self control!

Well i accomplish one of the most difficulty things i ever found in life. A barreir which has been in me, Even harder then preaching and leading. I am too shy and scared, even to goto centerlink, it takes me alot of boldness. It took my friends all week, and even set it up, sorry changed what i was writing here, i wont tell you what it was, but i think God had a purpose in it, which took much boldness. Oh and fellowship, i kinda cryed silently going home, cause i really do miss my christian friends, who have encouraged me so much, to serve the one and true living God.

Anyways Peace be with you all
God bless
Laurence

MYC (Meet Your Companion) Finally

2006-07-10T11:57:00.000+10:00

Yeap u geussed it, its finally myc (Mid Year Conference) tommorrow. The joy of packing cloths. I can't wait, should be good :), bringing my friend along from church aswell. Ive done some work on comic, fixed up characters, made a good storyboard, funny aswell. Penciled the first page, friend inked it. I havent scaned anything yet, though after myc i'll put some scan of it up for viewing.

Anyways God bless
Laurence

Comic Idea

2006-07-03T17:56:00.000+10:00

Friend suggested i should make a comic. so i came up with some ideas. These a some rought scetches so dont expect them to be all in proportion

Winter, Winter, Winter, MYC, MYC

2006-07-01T11:19:00.000+10:00

Well i finally finished up my exams, and boy were they hard. Well can't say i've had rest yet, been having to renavate the house non stop, stupid selling house. Not much has happened really, just friday night we had a thing called caffe manna, was good, eat togehter, talk to people christian and non-christian and have a short talk. Well its the 1st of July which means its getting colder, maybe snow, that would be cool, MYC is soooooon, hardly can wait. Anyways Thats all for now

God Bless
Laurence

Just what kind of strange creature is Roger Bacon

2006-06-22T13:59:00.000+10:00

Well i had my first exam. Man it was so hard, not sure if i'll pass but i hope. Strangly enough on the way down to it, a random person came up to me on the train and prayed for me lol. However it was a bit of mumballing, a bit of tounghs, and he even gave me a paper with a few saints on it. I just hope he finds out soon whos the real boss, Jesus.

I have an exam tommorrow (Friday) and monday, i think i need some serious prayer for them. I reliesed this semester is properlly the hardest semester i have done :(. The monday one is the hardest for me. I would also like to request pray, for some rest. I've overly worked my self out this semester, and i have too much worries and thoughts.

Anyways u are properlly wondering why i have such strange titles. This perticular one is from a game. Actually this character is in the series of the game, all three games that is. His very old, but very funny. Ive recently finished the 3rd one, gota be my favourite series on ps2 at the momment. In the game They mistakely take this old man, to be an alien, and lock him up in Area 51. Later in the game their is a quiz, and one of the question in it is? whats the name of the strange creater :P, thus henceforth where the title comes from. Excuse my bad english. I've added two pictures of this wonderful game. The first one is of the main character and the second of Roger Bacon. His actually something like 800 years old :P Took me ages to find a screenshot of him lol.

Anyways I should get back to study.
God Bless
Laurence

Well A bit more relieved, happy as one would say

2006-06-17T11:17:00.000+10:00

I finally handed my project in. Got a new student card, that was a pain, had to print off a internet order form, goto the post office pay it, go to uni, and get the new card lol.

Our youth group lol 4 people decided to visit another youth group. The one in blacheath we went to, to our good old baptist friends :). I was encouraged by the sermon, The minister their does such a great job at keeping things biblical :). Since being a youthy kinda nights, the topic was on dating lol. A little bit embaraced i was but thats allright. Though after i got home, i though about my situation with the girl i like. i though yeah maybe its worth being patient. i also though why am i so negative, i take every situation as something that seem like ignorance. But it brings me a smile, when i see a smile on her. Now i wont say if she was their or not, but it didnt matter i geuss. I think it re reminded me that God's allways in control, i think i really dont get when people say, God hasn't picked someone for u, no such thing, if that was so, then how would he be in control. And im thankful i have met this girl, well gathering some kind of feeling, cause i find it, through these time i even grow more, i get constantly reminded of how good God's grace is, not to mention that it is hard times aswell, but God does work for the good of thoes who love him.
I think i would love it if she had the same feelings, but i geuss thats kind of self centered, and if she does or not, it dosn't matter, Cause Jesus is allways our first date and will last for eternity. I should trust God more

Anyways enought of my blaba (if thats even a word), i got big big exams on next week, so i really really should study lol, oh my friend did a amazing christian art for Winter magic, it kicks butt, you should see it. Anyways

To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy, to the only God our Saviour be glory, majesty, power and authorithy, through Jesus Christ our Lord; and hte blessing of God Almighty, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, be amongst you and remain with you always. Go in peace to love and serve the Lord
Amen.

Yo Project is Almost Due, Tommorrow it's due

2006-06-15T14:20:00.000+10:00

Well may i say all this week, all i've done is this project. A little study of my other subjects here and their. Its finally due, looks like all my prayers are paying off :P. Its almost finished. I've compeleted all the tasks. For one of the task i didn't fully satify the requirement, but i just couldn't figure it out. And a few bugs here and their, like it doen't have a bottom :P.
Anyways heres a picture of the differnet phases in programming this thing.

Oh i also watched this cool CGI anime called Hanare Toride no Yonna. Gave me ideas for my project :)

God Bless
Laurence

Yeah Productive Week

2006-06-12T10:33:00.000+10:00

Yeah, Got some of my Project done this week, no texture mapping or beizer Meshing :(. Yakitate Japan finally ended :(, sad but cool, thats an bread making anime series, loads of laughter :P. Watched a cool Japanese movie called Azumi, Recommond it heaps :). Church was cool Yesterday, lol Church is good every day, as it should be lol, well their is hard times, but the over all glory is worth it. Had Child protection training yesterday, lol was okay, bad presentation, but was good. yey like the 5th certificate of child protection.

Anyways Seeya
God bless
Laurence

Seems to be just one of thoes bad months

2006-06-03T22:16:00.000+10:00

Why do i suggest its a bad month. Well today i ended up lossing my wallet, appears some one stole it while i was on the train, and day dreaming/dozeing off. Ahwell, Should of put a note into my wallet saying something like, you have done the wrong thing, but i forgive you, because God forgave me, oh theirs also spare $100 under the sticting, or something like that.

Went to my staff member's Ordination today in paramatta. Was really good, great to see Friends Boldly steping into the field of Full time ministry with an apointed parish :).

Oh, i also got a manga, Bleach Vol 11 Today, must say its the best quality manga i've seen. Not just a great story line, but every picture drawn is so nice and detailed :) 10/10, Its the first Bleach manga i got, they only had vol 10,11 and 12 at the shop only :(.

Thats from the anime series of Bleah, wow they are up to 82 and still kicking :)

Anyways, I should be off to sleep Good night
God Bless
Laurence

Smoke me a kibba, i'll be back for breakfast

2006-06-02T22:06:00.000+10:00

Yeah, i passed one of my hard assignments the last one, im still passing so far in the subjects so thats good :).
Today Rushed to finish a Lab report, but got it done in the end. Bible study was mainly prayer today. Youth group, only me and another person turned up this week :( a little bit sad.

Thursday, was not to bad day, did no work at all, really tired, how ever had a missionary come into our main meeting. Its encouraging to see how Christianity is really growing in the poor parts of the world :).

Anyways, i'm making it quick, my friend has a ordination, tommorrow, so i must get to sleep soon.

God bless, Ja ne
Laurence

Only if one could invent a catchy Title

2006-05-31T22:09:00.000+10:00

Well, i geuss today i recovered a little bit lol, good thing.

On the train home, i talked to a uni friend of mine, helped me to reliase that, really i was worrying about things too much, and that i shouldn't fully put my all into my matter, incase the unexpected does happen. well kinda in a way expected lol. Nether the less, even if that makes no sense, what i'm trying to get to, is that i should trust God with everything, and actually doing it then just words. Also had a committe meeting today, went well, and discussed some complication issues. I also relised, that some of my good friends will leave or have leftd the end of the year, because it is their final year of uni. Its sad :( when i think about it, but ahwell ghot all eternity right ?.

Heres another cool animation i found. This one is a parody of Final fantasy. I really like it :)
http://www.flashplayer.com/animation/finalfantasy.html

anyways to anyone who is actually reading this, please pray for me, and especially the issues that where mentioned in previous posts.

P.S, the anime Yakitate Japan!! is still going lol, Ep 66, crazy anime. I also been watching the Lupin III ova's, Good old Lupin, brings back all my memmories from childhood well year 7. Especially when Lupin finally goes to save the princess in Castle of Cagliostro, and he gets to her, and says, I pledge to be your Knight in shinning Armor, brought tears to my eye when i first saw that bit :P

God bless
Laurence

The Lovly Smell of Uni Computers

2006-05-31T12:59:00.001+10:00

Yeap. Uni is boring :P

Just about to start class. Nearly everyone ended up failing the assignment for one of my classes. Ahwell.

Anyways i found this cool animation, check it out its really cool http://www.flashplayer.com/animation/resanctification.html

Nothing much to report, still a bit sad from the events that have been happening, but ahwell.

Go in peace to love and serve the Lord
Laurence

Well, Could of been better

2006-05-29T21:36:00.000+10:00

Well what can i report of my day. Nothing that i hoped actually happened :(.
The lab in the morning, i did not finish. We got through the lab we where behind. Started the project and couldn't get it finished, so we lost a large amount of marks for that reason.

I've been really stressed today, more then i should be, even though i relise the main cause of stressed is becauses of one's focus on self, so it's because of my weekness and sinfulness, that i'm properlly stressed. I handed in my assignement, hopefully that goes okay.

Other matters, i finally did the early church history exam. I supprisenly finished first, but i kinda feel bad, looking around the room i've noticed people wrote double what i wrote, and i really hope i pass, but i know i didn't put enough effort into it. I tryed studing before the exam, but i felt burnt out and sad a little.

The girl i hoped to study with, did not turn up, i geuss thats okay cause i didn't really ask her too. I really wanted to tell her how i feel, and i prayed about it, constantly told my self to be honest with her, but she didn't turn up. So i decided to goto the church where the exam was getting held, a good hour and a half after i gave up waiting. And did a little study their.

I know i shouldn't be winging, but i got the feeling that she was avoided me today, and it made me sad a little. She said about 5 words to me i tryed smiling at her, but she turned away. All through the exam, i was worried, but i still had hope that i could tell her, but she rushed off before i had a chance. I don't know, i really like her, but i'm hopeless at this kinda stuff. Ahwell, i was thinking on the way home, i hide my feelings too much, when im sad, i see someone, and i smile. i want to tell them that im sad, but i continue to smile and unable to do so. But just thinking about it, why am i even upset, i know better then this. I can also find comfort in the Lord, and just thinking about the grace he offers, brings a smile to my face, but i've just been geting more and more worried lately, and stressed. Maybe i need a rest.

I really can't wait for MYC, i really enjoy and getting encouraged when im together with alot of christians, learning about God, and continuly spuring one another along, Its awesome to be in God's Kingdom, i relise it even more with these situations, We are just pefectic week sinful human beens, but in Christ we are made alive with him for eternity (Iesu-san wa Seisei wo motte) as Lord of all :). Praise God.

Anyways thats enough of that, expressing too much in a blog, lol nowons ever gonna read it. Thanks be to God Forever and ever.
Laurence

Yo First Blog

2006-05-28T23:13:00.000+10:00

Well i geuss this is my first blog. Not much of a blog fan, but it thought to my self why not, my friends are doing it, could be a way to share my thoughts :).

Well Today has been an interesting day. Im quiet stressed and at the edge of nearly going into burn out. So much assements for uni, so much late night, its hard work :(.
Church was great today, its allways great :). Their was a baptism in the morning, lots of people came to church, and lots of kids, exciting, i was on for leading in the morning, so i got a little nervous from the amount of people. But people said i did good, so i am encouraged that others were encouraged. It is great to be God's kingdom, under God's rule, and it is great to encourage one another to continue growing in Christ. Of course, sorry, It's not our own doing, but God's doing, a duel partnership with man, Under the supreme Authroity of Scripture :). Long sentence, hope that made sense. I'm glad i got to squeenze in a quick version of two ways to live before the words of confession :).

Though an interesting thing, actually not long ago , i was online, and a friend of mine (i wont mention names, this is the internet after all lol) saw my struggles i was going through uni, and he told me, well i should spend less time with church and more time with uni (His a non-christian). Wow, i mean what an excellent oppuntiunity. I said, well i said that i find God the most important thing, and he then later asked, wodering just why i find God important, it wasn't a long reply, he had to go, but yeah i told him its my hope. Its glad to see his thinking through it, and im glad i can be a witness to him.

Anyways other matters, i have a Early church histroy exam tommorrow :). Its been great that this semester we could look at Early church histroy, especially when herecis like Da Vinci code have been out. I've also been learning Doctrine this semester and i loved it :). Learning about God is so fun :).

One thing that is on my mind is that. well how can i put it, theirs this girl i really like, and i really want to tell her how i feel tommorrow, but im terrrified, and scared, rejection a feeling so familar. Like i know that it shouldnt worry me, and its okay if she says no, but i am terrified. Nether the less i must be bold, and honest as my freinds have been reminding me. I hope it turns out okay, and i hope i dont chicken off, as im really tempted to do. She been studing early church history aswell, i really want her to pass, i've been trying to encourage her to study :).

Well tommorrow is going to be a hard day. im behind 3 labs in a class for tommorrow, and the last part is worth like 60%, and i can't do the last part to i do the other 2. So im heaps worried aobut that, then theirs the whole telling this girl how i feel, and then after that a early church history exam. But u know what, I can do all things in Christ who strengtens me. I Want to live for him , and thus put my full trust in him, in anything i do :).

Been watching Cowboy Beebop, wonderful anime, i recomend it to all. Well i just relised its is my bed time, so i must get to sleep, oh my friends sermon was great today, i think he though it wasn't that good, but it really was good, We may be weak in proclaiming christ, but it Is God who convicts people, and changes people.

Anyways God Bless (I wrote more then i thought i would for a first blog lol)
Laurence