R10.9! Howdy unechurch, hope youre well and encouraged wherever you are this week. Lots to remind and encourage you about! 1. Once again the dates for the Bingara Mission are 21-26 October. The team is almost full - so dont be slack about getting your name in if youre keen. 2. NTE is Dec 6-10. nte.org.au/ Early bird is almost over (but has been extended). Give in, save cash, register now. Great crew already going, get yourself organised for a great week. Remember, seats in the Mighty Falcon are limited (Im looking at you Luke Franklin!!). 3. This week at unechurch were thinking being faithful stewards, not just of money but all God places in our hands to use for His purposes. This is a worthy topic in and of itself, but we are having a focus the week after on Compassion, where a representative from them will be speaking and there will be particular opportunity to sponsor a child. This weeks topuic will help you to be thinking well as you approach that possibility. As your pastor I want to encourage you to be generous to in a sustained way to ministries that are worth building a relationship with that will last well beyond your time with us (if youre a student). To that end check out the vid here: vimeo/69857217 I just love what Compassion do, you should as well:) 4. My thoughts from the notice sheet last week: I had a tearful conversation with someone recently about the pain of having people close to you not walk with the Lord. This is a dangerous pain - the more you are devoted to Christ and his kingdom, the more you see people as dead in their sins and destined for hell, the more it hurts when people you care about are in that situation, the more you might be tempted to water down your theology or devotion in order to lessen that pain. That is a track walked by many a christian, where the refuge of universalism (people are saved apart from the gospel) or ‘head in the sandism’ (I’ll live as though eternity is only marginally important, if at all) are often sought. Another form of this danger, which more accurately describes me, is that even though your theology and devotion might appear quite OK, you’re simply used to the idea of many of the people around you spending eternity in hell, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth and where the worm never dies. I still preach, I work hard at evangelism, but I’m just unmoved by people blithely waking into that eternity. I figure that must take the edge off my urgency. See Jesus in Luke 19. In vs 42-44 he makes very clear he understands what it means for Jerusalem to reject Him. They do not know the day of ‘their visitation’, and it means utter destruction for them. Jesus does not shy from this. Two things strike me. In vs 42, He weeps. Just as he does in various moments in his ministry when he confronts evil and suffering, he is deeply moved. It is no light thing to be aware of what will become of them. We know that He longs for all people to be saved (1 Tim 2:4), and it grieves him to tears that Jerusalem won’t be. Therefore the tears in the conversation I had were, in this way, refreshing and encouraging. They were right. May I have these more often. The second thing that strikes me is that in vs 45, as He enters the temple, he gets straight on with the Gospel agenda. He doesn’t throw his hands up and change course - he keeps on with the only course that will bring hope. In other words, when we feel this grief we don’t shy from it, we let it affect us. We weep, and we ‘gospel’. Live it, share it, defend it. The grief is good. The Gospel is hope.
Posted on: Wed, 03 Sep 2014 06:52:55 +0000
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