Evangelistic opportunity in Melbourne

Clare surprised me with a quick trip down to Melbourne last week. We had such a great time there (so much so, that I actually prayer walked the city of Melbourne and would LOVE to work down there!).

At the beginning of our time in Melbourne, I had a great evangelistic opportunity to talk about all things religious with our taxi driver. He was a great guy - we'll call him Steve. He's a Muslim from Pakistan.

We got chatting, I asked him if he was a Muslim, and then the conversation just rolled from there. It started out by talking about the Taliban and his Muslim background. Then he wanted to speak about the similarities between Muslims and Christians - for instance, similarities between the Quran and the Hadiths, and the Bible. I was really interested to hear his thoughts about these issues.

However, as the conversation progressed, it seemed to me that we didn't share many similarities. And if there were similarities, it was more about things that were trivial rather than the important matters.

But one thing that stuck me was just how uncertain he was about gaining entrance into heaven and being with God. He was convinced that the Taliban and their suicide bombers were not going to heaven because the Quran and the Hadiths forbid the killing of innocent people. So I asked him if he was certain he was going to heaven - his answer was that it depends. It depends on whether he had done enough good works or not.

At this point, I tried to explain to him that a Christian, who believes in the Lordship and saving work of Jesus, only then can they get into heaven. And only then, can we get into heaven. I had to repeat this many times before he finally got it.

Please pray for Steve. Please pray that God would guide him to repentance and salvation in Jesus.

Reading the Bible Regularly

I have been very inconsistent with Bible Reading lately. As a matter of fact, it's an issue that I have been trying to address for a while.

To address this issue, I have subscribed to a Daily Bible Reading Programs found at Bible Gateway. I get daily RSS feeds through my reader and I read through 4 chapters of the Bible daily.

You can go with various plans - the one I have gone with is called "Beginning". For information on other reading plans, see here.

Why am I doing it this way? Well, I found myself reading all the articles I have downloaded on my RSS reader (which is quite alot!) and not reading the Bible. I thought there was something quite perverse in this. So by doing it this way, I get to read the Bible, and hopefully, this time next year, I will have read it through cover to cover.

Motivation

Just some motivation...

Day 3: North West Bible Conference

The final day of the conference was full of challenging talks and some farewells. It was great to hear from John Patterson's talk about the local church from the book of Ephesians. In it, he spoke about being actively cross cultural and gave some what I thought was helpful advice, but to also be counter cultural against the world.

If you would like to listen to the talks, they can be downloaded from here.

Clare and I had a wonderful time in Tamworth. We are absolutely astounded by the way they welcomed us into their homes - the true definition of hospitality. God willing - we will be back!

Day 2: North West Bible Conference

Day 2 was filled with more challenging talks from Chappo from the book of Jonah. It was a more intense day for some reason. But still a good day.

That Sunday could have been seen as a day to catch up with old friends. A crew from where I did MTS (Christ Church St George) came and it was great to chat and spend some time with them. It was also great to see a recent graduate from college who we use to go to church with, but now works in Armidale. It was such a great time!

Later that night, we were invited to dinner with one of the families that go to Trinity. We had such a good time, I think I almost (and did) cry from the amount of laughter we shared with them! Unfortunately, I had an Old Testament essay to write and had to leave early. But what a great night!

The hospitality in Tamworth puts the rest of us to shame! Well done Tamworth! I love your love of strangers like Clare and I!

Day 1: North West Bible Conference

After a long drive from Sydney to Scone on Friday night (about 5 hours!), we finally arrived in Tamworth for the North West Bible Conference where Chappo and the Senior Pastor of Trinity Church, John Patterson were speaking on the bigness of God. Chappo preached from Jonah, while Patto preached from the book of Job and from the book of Ephesians. The talks on Day 1 were very challenging and thought provoking. They were talks that really challenged me to think about how I view God and the implications of that in my life.

Later that night, Clare and I were invited to have dinner at the Patterson's, whom Chappo was staying with. It was great to get to know the Patterson's and to Chappo. I found it really helpful, just after dinner to just sit and listen to the wisdom of John Patterson and Chappo. I think it's something that I've always missed in my life - so it was great to listen and to learn from their wisdom.

What I was particularly challenged about was my Bible Reading and how I viewed it. I was particularly challenged to think of Bible, not just as a manual to live the Christian life, but to also remember that when we do read the Bible, the very words of God himself, we are in his presence with him speaking to us rather than us just us speaking to him.

Amen!

Prayer Point: Walk Up in Newtown

A mate from college and I have been doing walk up evangelism (almost) every week in Newtown. We felt that we needed to do more evangelism whilst we are at college (and also, I'm not a great evangelist, so I'm more compelled to practice it more by doing it).

Last week, we met met an international student, called Mikey*. He is a really friendly guy. He was chatty and we spoke about religion and life in general. We asked if he wanted to read the Bible with us, and he agreed to do so.

We met up with him this week. This time, he brings a friend along, who is just a curious friend of his.

We had a great time reading the Bible with them.

We tried to present the Bible in clear terms. We also tried to be as transparent as possible, making sure that they are aware that we ARE NOT forcing Christianity on them, but we tried to show them what the Bible says, with a Bible in their hand, so they can see if they agree with us or not. We have always urged them to come up with their own conclusions about Jesus, based on what the Bible says.

Please pray for these guys. Pray that God works in them through his word, and will come to know and love Jesus as their King and Saviour.

*Not their real name

Five Things A Single Dude NEEDS To Know…

Five Things A Single Dude NEEDS To Know (h/t Jamie)

For my boys who want a girl...

Maybe in future, I'll do one for the ladies.

Then maybe some thoughts on marriage, etc.

Thank You!

Just a quick post to say a BIG thank you to everyone who has been so prayerful and supportive of me over the last couple of weeks. Thank you! Thank you to those who have taken the time out to help me as well. I am indebted to God for you.

Just a quick update on what's happening.

Clare is loving her new job. It's flexible, the workplace seems to be a great environment for her to work in. All in all - very positive! She's still praying with people during the week and organising women's events for College girls. Gee I love her!

Me? After the shocker of the dreaded "three-in-a-row" (failing Hebrew test at the beginning of the year, failing the New Testament exegetical and my Doctrine book review), things seem to be on the up now. I managed to re-submit my book review on Piper's The Future of Justification, and got a Distinction for my formative Old Testament Hebrew exegetical and I think I did OK in the Greek exam last week (I think I should have passed, even though I did have a brain explosion during the exam about participles and identifying them [sorry Con]).

Some prayer points:

- My grandma is in hospital. Please pray for her health.

- Keep praying for our own godliness and your own relationship with the LORD and if you have some time, for Clare's and myself as well.

- Thank God for your prayers for us!