Jesus

A video from Unearthed Pictures.

I’m back. Exams are done. First year of college is done. Time to get back to posing. I have a fair bit of stuff to share over the next 2 weeks. I’m looking forward to it.

 

Firstly, I wanted to share this video with you from Unearthed pictures. It is about Unearthing sexual exploitation of women. Before you watch the video, here are some quotes from The Resurgence blog.

When Unearthed was formed, we had our hearts set on producing a documentary that would expose the mechanics of the global sex trade. For a solid year, we traveled, filmed, raided brothels, rescued victims, and had our hearts crushed by the magnitude of sexual brokenness that surrounded us. You can watch some of that work here.

We all have responsibility to the victims of this injustice, and we’re thrilled that 85% of the money that comes into our doors goes right back out to some of the best organizations in the world that rescue, rehabilitate, and reintegrate the women & children that live in this hell.

Jacob’s story in the video [below] isn’t an isolated incident. Jesus is continually transforming abusers into protectors; addicts into free men and traffickers into rescuers. Over the next year, we’re creating a film called The Hearts of Men. It’s a raw, unfiltered examination of how sin distorts sex, who’s affected, and how the Gospel changes all of it. We know that to win this war, we need to engage men and right now they aren’t just asleep on the battlefield, they’re fornicating on it. A generation of God’s sons need to be reminded who they are in Christ: chosen, washed, sanctified, and justified.

Now watch the video.

From thirteen three: Pray for Youcef Nadarkhani

I am a Christian, and therefore I care deeply when fellow believers stand up for their faith in Jesus. I care all the more when they are persecuted for doing so. This is a story that I saw yesterday.

This post originally appeared on the blog of thirteen three. It has been reproduced with permission. Thirteen three is the youth arm of voice of the martyrs.

Iranian pastor Youcef Nadarkhani is facing execution after refusing to renounce his faith during court hearings held this week.

In July, the Supreme Court instructed the Revolutionary Tribunal of Gilan Province to review his case to verify whether he was previously a practising Muslim. At the recent hearings, the court in Rasht ruled that Pastor Youcef was not a practising Muslim before becoming a Christian. However, he remains guilty of apostasy because of his Muslim ancestry.

According to sources, when Pastor Youcef was asked to repent in court, he said:

“Repent means to return. What should I return to? To the blasphemy that I had before my faith in Christ?”

When judges told him to return to “the religion of your ancestors, Islam,” Pastor Youcef responded, “I cannot.”

Nadarkhani has used up all his chances in the court. “We hear some rumors that he could be executed literally this week – that he’s had now three days which is called for in Islamic law to reconsider his decision, and he could be executed at any time,” reports Todd Nettleton with Voice of the Martyrs USA.

MORE INFORMATION

Check out this news report for more information about Youcef’s case.

 

URGENT PRAYER NEEDED

Please share this story with your friends and family and ask them to pray for Youcef Nadarkhani and his family.

  • Please pray that Youcef will be faithful even to death so that he will receive the crown of life (Revelation 2:10).
  • Pray that Christians around the world will take swift and decisive action on Youcef’s behalf.
  • Pray that all charges against him will be dropped.
  • Pray for all Christians in Iran, that they will keep their eyes on Jesus and not be fearful. Pray that persecution will only increase their passion for Christ and their willingness to share their faith.
This post originally appeared on the blog of thirteen three. It has been reproduced with permission. Thirteen three is the youth arm of voice of the martyrs.

Suffering and the Sovereignty of God

A couple of weeks ago Kirsty and I had the pleasure of heading away with our Church for a weekend away in Galston. It was a great time of fellowship, and time around the bible.

The weekend was themed around the topic of “Suffering and the Sovereignty of God”. Our speaker was Steve Covetz, Steve is the lead pastor at The Point Community Church.

Everyone will suffer at some point in their life. Suffering can take almost any form that you can think of, you could experience physical suffering, like a long term illness or something more short term. You can also experience persecution from others, which is also a form of suffering, and that persecution might even incorporate some kind of physical suffering. You can download all of the talks for free here.

I took a great amount away form the weekend, some of my notes are summarised below. (you can download my full notes here)

  • Because God is Sovereign, suffering does not surprise him.
  • Suffering is a by-product of sin entering the world. Jesus dying on the cross was a one in history event to deal with that sin, but we still wait to enter heaven, where suffering will be abolished.
  • Just like in the exodus. Being a Christian is about being in the desert with 2 million people, with no food and no water, with impending danger, and being able to say to God, ‘I trust you’.
  • If sin wasn’t a problem for God, then he wouldn’t be God worth following. A perfect holy, just, righteous God.
  • In Matthew 28:19-20, Jesus says that he will always be with us. This gives us confidence that we do not endure suffering without his knowledge.
  • We can’t lie that our suffering is better or sufficient over Jesus Christ.

1 Timothy 2:1-7 – Edwin Ngubane

Last weekend at church we had the pleasure of having a brother from Africa come and preach. His name is Edwin Ngubane, and he is a bishop in the Anglican Church in South Africa.

He has a truly amazing life story, and an even more amazing story of how he came to believe in Christ. You can learn more about him in this video.

From ancestors to Jesus from Sydneyanglicans.net on Vimeo.

He preached the second sermon in our series on prayer from Paul’s first letter to Timothy, the specific section was chapter 2, verses 1 to 7. He was challenging us to think about how, People in the household of God, should act. I found it to be a really helpful sermon, so I thought I would share it.

He also challenged Kirsty and I to think about going to work with him in ministry to students in South Africa. He told me that Moore really should set up an exchange program with GWC. Cheeky.

Moore Mission: six weeks on

Today we had the privilege of meeting with the senior minister from St George North Anglican. This was the church that I did mission with a little while ago.

It was great time of hearing back about what kind of impact our mission had in St George North. I didn’t know what to think about mission while we were doing it. We were so busy all the time that we just powered on, not really having time to properly debrief. So it was great to be able to hear about all the great things that have been happening because of our week on mission. The last little while has been exciting for the church, and ive written them in point form.

  • 21 people are involved in Christianity Explained directly because of mission. An additional 14 are in this course external to our mission, bringing the number up to 35.
  • One woman about to finish Christianity explained, and wants to be a Christian.
  • One man became a Christian, directly because of a sermon he heard on Luke 24 at Bexley North.
  • A new youth group is about to be planted at Bexely North.
  • 10 new people coming to church for the first time.
  • A new congregation has been planted, with another 15 new people. They are already having the problem of reaching capacity, and might need to find a larger place to meet.

I’m so thankful for the impact that the gospel is having in St George North, and that we were able to be a part of it. Ill keep praying for them.

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.

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.

Introducing – Albert Midlane

For the last 2 weeks I have had the privilege of preaching to the people at our church. I’ve loved doing back to back sermons over two weeks, it has given me a rare opportunity as a student minister to prepare two sermons in short succession. Over the two weeks, I worked through Matthew 27, as part of a wider series on the last 24 hours of Jesus life. A series we are doing specifically in the run up to easter.

Matthew 27 can be summed up pretty well by a poem that I discovered by a dude called Albert Midlane. He lived from 1825 to 1909. He wrote heaps of good stuff over the course of his life. But this short verse caught my attention as I was preparing.

Himself He could not save,
He on the cross must die,
Or mercy cannot come
To ruined sinners nigh;
Yes, Christ the Son of God must bleed,
That sinners might from sin be freed.

My main job in preaching these two weeks was to make sense of what Jesus was going to the cross to do, and why he didn’t just pull out and save himself when the beatings and the verbal abuse got too hard. This poem helped me articulate that well.