Truth or Lie?

Earlier on this year, I went on Katoomba Mens Convention (MKC). It was a great time with the men at our church. We had only been at the church for a few weeks, so it was a helpful time for me getting to know the men at our church.

The theme of the weekend was Temptation. The speakers were David Cook and Justin Mote. The teaching on the weekend was so good, that I’ve started listening to the talks again. You can get them here. One quote, or theme from the weekend has stood out to me time and time again. It is this.

“A half truth, told as a whole truth, is an untruth” – David Cook on Gen 3.

The quote comes from David Cook’s sermon on Genesis 3 and the fall. In Genesis 3 the serpent gets Eve to eat the fruit through many small half truths about God and what he had told Adam.

1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.'” 4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.

From this passage, I’ve been trying to reflect on how the serpent (satan) tells me half truths in order to tempt me. And also the times when I tell half truths, and how I can stop doing it.

Practising Hospitality, in style.

I don’t know about you, but my Wife and I love to have people over to our home. We often have our friends over to our house for dinner or afternoon tea. Being open and welcoming to others is something that both of our families exampled to both of us as we were growing up. So, to Kirsty and I it is just a normal thing that we do, and because we learnt heaps of stuff from our parents, we don’t find it that difficult.

You might fall into the category of not quite knowing what to do, or why you should even be hospitable to others.

If this is you, then I want to commend a great website to you. Its called Practising Hospitality, and it is run by two friends of ours, Calum and Alice Henderson. Kirsty and I met Calum and Alice a few years ago while we were all leading on Kiama Beach Mission. Ive found their website incredibly helpful in thinking about being hospitable to others. From how to cook a roast, to how you should approach food allergies, to what kind of music should you play when guests are over. (Salmon Hater might of made it into the 2002 hottest 100, but it is never a good option for dinner parties)

So check out their website, you might even enjoy it.

You can also follow them on twitter @practisinghosp

Reading: The Trellis and the Vine

At college we have a long list of books that we need to read. Ranging from really interesting to not so interesting, they include books on history, Bible commentaries and books to help us think critically about what ministry looks like in practice. We also read the Bible a bit.

Recently I’ve been reading a book called, ‘The Trellis and the Vine‘ by Colin Marshall and Tony Payne. I’ve actually owned it for ages, but never read it.

It really is a great book, and I would out it into the ‘really interesting’ category mentioned above. It says a lot about trainer/trainee relationships, and how trainees end up being imitators of their trainers. From this, it has helped me reflect on where I have been so far in my ministry, and why I now do things the way I do (mostly because my trainers taught me to do it that way).

The book speaks a lot about how to train Christian people for a lifetime of serving Jesus, and his people. The book suggests that just running endless courses for people is not enough, but training by your example is much better.

One bit in chapter 6 especially stood out to me.

“… to make real progress in helping the Christians in your congregation become ‘encouragers’, they need more than a six week course. They need the example of seeing it done; and they need the personal instruction and mentoring and prayer that addresses the spiritual issues at the heart of becoming an ‘encourager’. This takes time and personal attention – before, during and after the structured training opportunity.”

I’m still reading it. If you want a copy, Matthias Media sell it.

Do you have the right tools?

Because I’m training to be a Christian minister, I feel the need to have good tools to help me do my job. It sounds simple, a carpenter needs good tools that work. If it is not a good hammer (nail gun), his work might be compromised. This is the same for Christians, you need to have a good bible. A bible that you can trust in.

This year ive been trying to work out what I should do about bible software on my computer. Traditionally there have been two main programs that have served the Mac, Logos and Accordance. From what I have heard, they are both good pieces of software. Really helpful tools for studying the bible,and sharing it’s contents with others. Recently both programs unveiled versions for the iPhone and iPad, meaning that you can have all your tools available to you even when you don’t have your computer handy.

The problem sometimes lies in the price of these programs. The middle package from Logos is priced at $629.95, and the accordance pricing is so confusing that I ran out of patience.

This is where Glo Bible comes in. Glo Bible is a program that has been on the PC for the past year and a bit, and just quietly, I was a bit excited when I found out that they had released a version for Mac, iPad and soon to be iPhone. The interface is really easy to use, and the content is amazing. On a really simple level, it is a bible. And the aim of it, is to get you to read the bible. But it also offers timelines, photos, an atlas and heaps HD video content. And it only cost $50 US, because they are having a launch discount.

Ill probably end up getting Logos, because that has lots of stuff that I think ill need in the future years. But at the moment I couldn’t justify the $629 price tag, so the $50 Glo Bible got my vote. It’s a great tool, and ive already found it extremely helpful in my bible study.

Lets start at the very beginning…

The last couple of weeks at church we have kicked off a series in Genesis. Also at College, my Old Testament lectures have been on the book of Genesis. It has been great to have a rare opportunity to study this book in both contexts.

Often at college, subjects take an academic flavour. Simply a downloading of information, in the ambition that we will be able to synthesise what he have learnt and heard, into an essay or an exam. This isn’t what normally what happens, but it does sometimes. This can be frustrating, but it isn’t really a problem, College is a University after all.

But it has been great learning this book in two very different contexts. Mostly because is has allowed me to use this knowledge from College to help love and teach the people at church. I’m preaching again in a couple of weeks, and I’m looking forward to being able to continue to do this to a fuller extent.

I thought I would share some of the things that I have learnt from the first 2 chapters.

  • God creates with his word, or his speech.
  • Creating is not a by-product of some other event, it was created in it’s own right.
  • God created Man under himself, but above the animals.
  • God created Woman out of the side of man. (Implying that they are not above or below each other, but side-by-side)
  • Everything that God made was good.

The Beast File: Apple

I love stuff apple make. My MacBook and iPhone have made my communication much easier that it would of been without them. It also means that I’m on twitter and facebook more than I should. I love apple because they make software that is really easy to use, and they also make hardware that looks quite nice.

Hungry Beast recently did a Beast File on apple, and I found it to be interesting, so I thought I would share it with you. Enjoy.

Jesus’ Crucifixion | Matthew 27:27-44

As I mentioned in a previous post, I’ve been doing a little bit of preaching at our church. Most recently I did a sermon on Matthew 27:27-44 about Jesus’ Crucifixion. I’ve had a few people ask me where they can go to listen to it. Well you can just click below because I’ve worked out how to embed files into my webpage from a program called SoundCloud. Winner. If you don’t want to listen to it I’m not bothered, I wont even be offended.