Fast for Food

Compassion Australia is beginning their 'Fast for Food' month tomorrow, 1st November.

The aim of Fast for Food is to raise money to help people in poverty survive the current financial and food crisis - according to Compassion, 1 child is dying every 7 seconds from hunger related causes.

One way that we can help is to pray! Compassion have created a fantastic 'Fast for Food prayer calendar' which you can download here:

http://www.compassion.com.au/pdfs/Fast_For_Food_Prayer_Calendar.pdf

If you are in a position to donate money to this great cause, you can do so through visiting

http://www.compassion.com.au/

God Bless,

Sal

Preach to yourself

"If there's anything in life that we should be passionate about, it's the
gospel. And I don't mean passionate only about sharing it with others. I mean
passionate about thinking about it, dwelling on it, rejoicing in it, allowing it
to colour the way we look at the world. Only one thing can be of first
importance to each of us. And only the
gospel ought to be."
C.J. Mahaney, The Cross Centered Life.

Pastor Ralph reiterated on Sunday night how important it is to be consistent; to be devoted to the 'discipline' aspects of our faith.

Follow this link, and you can download (for free & legally!) The Gospel Primer. This is a (really) little book that helps us to preach the gospel to ourselves daily. Why is this so important? Well, as the author states,

"...if Christians would do more preaching of the gospel to themselves,
non-Christians might have less trouble comprehending its message, for they would
see its truth and power exuding from believers in indisputable ways."
Milton Vincent, The Gospel Primer.

When God speaks about relationships

by Carolyn McCulley (of Solo Femininity)

QUESTION: I am a single woman and I read an interesting testimony where a single man said that during his personal devotions, God told him to pursue a certain woman. This man wasn’t praying about her or even considering her, but he was sure it was God’s voice. But then he continued to pray about it, sought counsel from others, and over time came to believe he had truly heard from God. So he did ask this woman out and they eventually married. But I don’t get this. If God is speaking clearly, why are counsel and prayer necessary? Isn’t that relying on men and not on God? Does God really speak clearly to mankind today apart from His written word?

ANSWER: This is a great question to ask, because when it comes to discerning God’s leading in the area of romance, our emotions often cloud our subjective evaluation. Some people lean very heavily on their own interpretation of signs and impressions. Others lean very heavily on their own desires and understanding, without seeking God in prayer. It’s easy for us to live in the extremes—but it’s always a mistake to do so.

Does God Still Speak?

Let me start with your last question first: Does God still speak to mankind today apart from His written word? Scripture is full of references to God leading and guiding His people (Ps. 16:7; 25:9; 32:8), but I think one of the most helpful passages about God’s voice is found in the gospel of John...

To read the whole article, click here to go to Crosswalk.com.

Evangelism is a big word

It's probably safe to say we all struggle with personal evangelism (at least from time to time) ... even knowing what to say to those nearest and dearest to us can sometimes be a challenge. Yet, we can't ignore our responsibility to share the gospel. As Peter says:

"In your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect."
1 Peter 3:15, NIV (emphasis mine)

So today we link to an interesting, short interview with Josh Harris centering around the challenges of personal evangelism, and what our focus should really be - sharing Jesus, not just trying to sell the message in a way that appeals to our culture.

Click here to read "Getting Uncomfortable".

We also encourage you to check out the presentation of the gospel here: Two Ways To Live.

Free online books

The Desiring God blog this week linked to John Piper's online resource library. There are nearly thirty books now available for download. Whilst reading a book on my computer isn't my first preference, this is a pretty good way to get your head into some new reading!
Click here to go to the library.

Some titles we recommend:
Desiring God
When I Don't Desire God: How to Fight for Joy
Amazing Grace in the Life of William Wilberforce
Don't Waste Your Life
God is the Gospel

Links for your Quiet Times

From the handout we used last night on Quiet Times, here are the links to a couple of helpful sites:

Yearly Bible Reading Plan (change the date at the end of the web address to start whenever you like): click here.

'Morning & Evening' daily devotional by Charles Spurgeon is available here.

And the books we used excerpts from:


The Cross Centered Life (C.J. Mahaney)






When I Don't Desire God (John Piper)

UPDATE: This book is available for download here.

"The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul."
Psalm 19:7

“Even on days when every cinder in our soul feels cold, if we crawl to the Word of God and cry out for ears to hear, the cold ashes will be lifted and the tiny spark of life will be fanned. For ‘the law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul.’”

John Piper

Praying for the hostages

For those of you who want to know a little more, click here for some background to the hostage situation. This longer list of prayer points were posted on Josh Harris' blog last week:

• Join our Korean brothers and sisters in asking that above all, God will be honored and glorified through what has already happened and all that will take place over the coming days. Ask for a revival in this land as well as in Korea. (Phil 1:18-21)
• Pray for strength, perseverance, and faith for those in captivity. Pray that their faith may not waver. Pray for boldness, joy, and patience. (Ephesians 3:14-20)
• Many, if not all, of those being held are suffering from health problems. Two of the young ladies are very sick and will likely die soon if they don't get medical treatment. Pray that God will heal them and sustain them. Those of you who have visited Afghanistan before know how easy it is to get sick even when you drink clean water and eat good food. Knowing that these brothers and sisters have likely not had clean drinking water at all and likely don't have much food or any medicine, I imagine most of them are suffering greatly.
• These hostages have unexpected access to a very dark group of people that have likely never been around true believers. I'm sure they are praying, singing, and worshiping as often as possible. Ask that their testimony will soften the hearts and touch the lives of their captors. May they know that there is something incredibly different about the people they are holding.
• Pray that the Holy Spirit will protect each captive's mind and spirit during this ordeal. As they are faced with day after day of fear, uncertainty, and death, pray that this won't have a lasting effect on their hearts and minds.

More on William

Inspired by the movie? Here's a few extras available at Koorong if you wanna know more about Mr Wilberforce:



Real Christianity (William Wilberforce)







Amazing Grace in the Life of William Wilberforce (John Piper)







Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce (Eric Metaxas)

A good book

It's that time of year where the cold weather (the coldest weather ever, apparently!) and the warmth of indoors means curling up on the couch with a good book and a good cup of coffee... doesn't it?

Well, if you're in need of some encouragement in the reading area, we're here to provide some inspiration. Below is a list of some books we've been reading over the past few months that we've enjoyed (other than the bible of course!). If you want to add one to the list, leave a comment & we'll add the link!

George Muller: Delighted in God (Roger Steer)






Sex God (Rob Bell a.k.a "the Nooma guy")







The 5 Love Languages (Gary Chapman)






The Cross Centered Life (C.J. Mahaney)







The Story (TNIV)
a retelling of the bible stories - this is a great option if you need something to refresh you in your quiet times.




A Spiritual Field Guide (Bernard Brady & Mark Neuzil)







The Power of a Praying Wife (Stormie Omartian)





Suffering and the Sovereignty of God (John Piper & Justin Taylor)






And on our to-read-next list:


Velvet Elvis (Rob Bell)





When I Don't Desire God (John Piper)






Twelve Ordinary Men (John Macarthur)






Driven by Eternity (John Bevere)

The Big Questions

Take the time this couple of weeks to check out some new resource. Read a book in the Bible you've never read before. Open up that book you've been meaning to check out. Listen to something new.

Here's a link to a great message from Na07 by Eric Simmons. It's called 'Discerning the Graymatters' and it's free to download from here. He asks questions like these:

What does God think about the music I listen to?
Can I gamble as a Christian?
Should I buy the expensive (fill in the blank)?
What does God think about going into debt to expand my wardrobe?
What does He think about TV / MySpace / Facebook?

Getting published & the whole binding and loosing thing

For all you budding authors (*cough* Andy!)... check out Lulu.com for your printing needs!

And on a more spiritual note, here's the reference we discussed heavily last night:

"I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven."
Matthew 16:19 (NIV)

I looked up my bible commentary this morning (which, by the way, is super helpful at times like this, and you can get your own here), and John MacArthur writes this about the passage we discussed:

"the keys of the kingdom of heaven" - these represent authority, and here Christ gives Peter (and by extension all other believers) authority to declare what is bound or loosed in heaven ... Christ's actions mean that any duly constituted body of believers, acting in accord with God's Word, has the authority to declare if someone is forgiven or not ... When churches make such judgments on the basis of God's Word, they can be sure heaven is in accord. In other words, whatever they "bind" or "loose" on earth is already "bound" or "loosed" in heaven...
The Macarthur Bible Commentary, p.1155

Please jump on the comments below and continue the conversation. Pose your questions and I'm sure you'll find Pastor Ralph joins in on the comments to help us out. Let's not leave this topic in the "too-hard" basket!

Noise & discernment

We watched Nooma #5 last night at Life Group, entitled 'Noise'. How much noise do you have in your everyday life? It was thought-provoking. So here are some of the quotes and questions we looked at, they are sure worth some further meditation!

"If I'm not still, and if I don't listen, how is Jesus going to give me rest?"

"Have you spent the same amount of time worrying and talking about your difficult, confusing situations as you have spent in silence, listening to what God might say?"

"Does my schedule, my time, my life, look like that of a person who wants to hear God's voice?"

So much of the 'noise' we are bombarded with is from the media. God calls us to be wise and to discern what we put before our eyes. Click here to see a list of helpful things to think about when choosing what movies, TV, etc to watch.

• What makes silence so hard to deal with?
• Do you surround yourself with noise intentionally?
• Do you wish God's voice would be louder in your life? Does all the noise make it hard to hear Him?
• What are some of the things in your daily life you could change to eliminate some of the noise?

"A great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart, and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper."
(1 Kings 19:11-12, NIV)

(all quotations and questions courtesy of Nooma)

Prayer

A big shout out to Pastor Ralph for all the conclusion options we got at Life Group last night - thanks! (and Happy Birthday!)

On that topic, we want to link today to another blog, encouraging us to pray for our pastors. You can visit the page here, but you'll find the points worth noting down below. Let's continue to pray for Ralph & Narelle as we transition to Hornsby over the next couple of weeks. What a great way to practice "eating solid food".

As we pray for them, let's also give thanks for our pastors, remembering that our faithfulness in our own walk with God blesses them.

Pray that he will be a true success: that he will be faithful, true to God's Word and hardworking; that he will be a servant, following the example of our foot-washing Lord; that he will love God with all his heart, soul, mind, and strength; that he will truly believe what he believes about Christ; that he will lead a holy life, and not succumb to the sensuality of our culture; that he will lead a life of deep prayer, following Jesus' example; that he will have a positive attitude free from jealousy.

Pray for his ministry--for his preaching, for time to prepare, for understanding the Word, for application, for the power of the Holy Spirit in delivery, for Sunday's services, for his leadership, for immediate problems he is facing.

Pray for his marriage--for time for each other, for communication, for a deepening love, for fidelity.

Pray for his children by name. Perhaps you might ask the pastor or his wife how they would like you to pray for their children.

(from Kent and Barbara Hughes's book, Liberating Ministry from the Success Syndrome, via Theologica)

God's good plan for sex

Today we want to encourage you to follow this link to the New Attitude blog, where you'll find a post by Joshua Harris titled "Open your Bible and turn with me to... sex".

He recently finished a six-part series on purity, which you can download from the blog post. The series covers topics such as 'God's good plan for sex', 'resisting lust', 'marital intimacy' and 'pursuing holiness'. Interested yet? Go download Part 1, have a listen, and then start a discussion...

A lamp to my feet

From this week's church newsletter:

"We need to be really careful when it comes to planning out our lives and following the call that God has placed upon us. The Lord has provided us with clear instructions to follow: He provides His Word as a guide and His Spirit as a constant companion..."

Pastor Ralph went on to encourage us during the sermon on Sunday morning to be in the Word, reading the Word, and doers of the Word - and he suggested that planned, daily reading of the Bible is necessary so we are armed and ready for everyday life.

Need encouragement with daily reading? Click here to choose a bible reading plan, and have it emailed to your inbox every day. In one year you'll have read the entire bible, and it only takes about fifteen minutes a day. How easy is that?!

Food for thought

We're going to attempt to post links to articles & websites each Wednesday that we hope will inspire thought and conversation, and which relate to being a young adult and glorifying God. If you come across something worth sharing on the web, please email us and we'll link to it the following week.

Today we bring you three links from Boundless with a slight Valentine's theme. Boundless is an online magazine that discusses "living intentionally with purpose by bringing your gifts, talents and Christian worldview to bear on your whole life" during the young adults years.

There's something for the guys, something for the girls, and one for anyone who is currently, or will one day be in a relationship (have we covered everyone?!). Feel free to jump back on here to let us know what you think.

Happy Valentine's Day - see you tonight!