Our first ever double plugger camp is officially over and I am still sore from trying to pretend that I’m not getting old and crusty. As many of you may already be aware the camp had a Saviour and Lord focus.

On the Friday night we listened to a talk by Tim Kellar on the Prodigal Sons (Luke 15:11-32) and we learnt that all of us (it doesn’t matter if we are drug dealers or goodie two shoes) need a Saviour. All of us are guilty of trying to control God and are therefore guilty of rejecting him. We also learnt about God’s merciful and loving character, that even though we try to control him - he still really loves us and wants us to be in a relationship with him.

On the Saturday morning we read Luke 14:25-35 and thought about what it means to really follow Jesus and we saw that it means that Jesus needs to be number 1 (even above their mothers and fathers). It was a chance for the youth to think about whether they really want Jesus to be both their Saviour and Lord.

We finished off the teaching component of the weekend by listening to a talk by David Jones on Mark 8:27-9:1. The talk was about Jesus and his cross and us and our cross. The youth were challenged to take up their cross, to give up their lives to love and serve Jesus as Lord, in response to Jesus giving up his life for them.

We finished off the weekend with the ‘double plugger challenge’, a bush walk and a session at the Kyogle Skate Park. Unfortunately the leaders lost the challenge but we definitely won the boat races.

Please pray that the youth and leaders who attended the camp would take up the challenge to live with Jesus as Saviour and Lord.

Pete Thompson spoke to us from Luke 23:33-46. Jesus’ death is the heart of God’s eternal plan to love the world and to create a world of love.

Bible Readings:  Luke 23:33-46

Outline:

1.    The end of the story
2.    The heart of the story
3.    your place in the story
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I often get asked for advice on good resources for growing stronger marriages. I also often find myself involved with husbands & wives who’ve been too embarrassed to ask for advice but should have! Anyway, if you fit into either of these categories, here are my top 5 current tips for useful resources:

1. The Bible - I’m not kidding. There is no better resource for your marriage than to read God’s word together as a husband & wife and then talk about what you’ve read and pray together.

2. Fireproof - for those who struggle to pick up a book, this is a really good Christian movie that deals with a lot of issues that challenge many marriages. As an added bonus for those in their 30s, the main character is played by Kirk Cameron - remember him from the 80s sitcom ‘Growing Pains’!?

3. The Love Dare - this is actually a book that features in the storyline of the movie ‘Fireproof’. Without ruining the movie for you, the book is a 40 day challenge intended for a husband or wife to secretly take on in order to grow their marriage. Each day includes a Bible verse/passage, reflection and application and space to journal your response.

4. The seven Principles for Making Marriage Work - This is a very good book even though it’s written from a non-Christian perspective. The author, John Gottman, is famous for his scientific approach to discovering what makes good marriage succeed and bad marriages fail. Ideal to be read and discussed as a couple.

5. The Marriage Course - a 7-week DVD-based course that we’ve run at Southern Cross for the last 3 years. While we’re taking a break this year, the Marriage Course will be run again in 2010 as we focus on the ‘Grow’ aspect of our mission statement. Stay tuned.

Steve Cree spoke to us from Matthew 6:1-18. No-one slammed hypocrisy, religious pride, and ‘keeping up appearances’ more than Jesus. But perhaps the person asking the question “why are Christians such hypocrites?” also has a pride problem (“they’re no better than me!” or “I’m better than them!”). When we really understand Jesus’ call to the heart we stop comparing ourselves to others… we become humble people who certainly dare not look down on anyone but only look up to the cross of Jesus to be accepted by God as hopeless sinners.

Bible Readings:  Matthew 6:1-18

Outline:

1.    religion and hypocrisy
2.    Jesus and humility
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Many of you would be aware that I went to Presbyterian Youth’s winter camp. It was a great camp and we will be thinking about how it can tie in with what we have been doing up here on the north coast. But while I was at the camp I picked up the book ‘The Prodigal God’, which is written by Tim Keller (the guy who also wrote ‘The Reason for God: Belief in the Age of Scepticism’, which Steve has been plugging of late in his sermons). I’ve heard Steve and Pete Yock mention this book so when I saw that I could get it at a reduced rate (25% off), I did the only reasonable thing a man could do – steal it… nar, I bought it.
If ya the type ‘the prodigal God’ into the search engine ‘Google’ you will get some much better reviews than I can do, but I just wanted to say that as a person who would rather watch almost anything on TV than read a book (yes, even including Oprah and Ellen) I managed to finish this book in less than a week and I didn’t even need to read the book for an assignment or anything.
The Book digs into the ‘Parable of the lost son’ found in Luke chapter 15. The book pretty much destroys any teaching you might have heard about the parable before and sets the cultural setting very well. I won’t give it away but the book suggests that there is not one lost son but two. The older brother is just as lost as the younger brother, only it’s the older brother’s good works that are separating him from the father.
The book goes onto talk about how churches are full of older brothers – people who are trying to get right with God by their good works and not through trust in Jesus. I found the book very challenging as I quickly identified the older brother characteristics in my life.
Below is one of the more challenging paragraphs that I read.
‘Elder brothers may be disciplined in observing regular times of prayer, but their prayers are almost wholly taken up with a recitation of needs and petitions, not spontaneous, joyful praise. In fact, many elder brothers, for all their religiosity, do not have much of a private prayer life at all unless things are not going well in their lives. Then they may devote themselves to a great deal of it, until things get better again. This reveals that their main goal in prayer is to control their environment rather than to delve into an intimate relationship with a God who loves them’. Page 65.
I would recommend the book to anyone who wants to grow in their relationship with their heavenly father.

http://www.theprodigalgod.com/

SAFARI is a weeklong camp were the youth leaders take the youth away to learn more about Jesus and to build relationships. Most of the youth love SAFARI and it has grown to be a real highlight in the youth calendar.
This year we will be looking at the book of 1 Peter and the idea that we are Aliens and Strangers in this world, hence the freaky looking aliens you can see on all the SAFARI advertising.
Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. 1 Peter 2:10-11
This year SAFARI starts on a Saturday and finishes on a Sunday. Now that may sound a bit strange but it works like this. The camp starts on Saturday the 18th of July and finishes on Wednesday the 22nd of July. But that is not the end of SAFARI, on the Friday the 24th of July we have a dress rehearsal from 5:30-7:00pm at the park ave hall and then on Sunday the 26th of July the youth will be running both am and pm church.
This year we will be spending half of our time at Afterlee and the other half at Burleigh Heads on the Gold Coast. Please pray that SAFARI will help the young people of our church to grow in their relationship with Jesus.
If ya want to know more about SAFARI please give me a call at the church office.

Last weekend, Katharine, Ryan and myself ventured down to the cold of Stanwell Tops to attend the AFES (Australian Fellowship of Evangelical Students) apprentice conference. Over the weekend, we looked into God’s character and how we can see through the bible his emotions and his affections towards the world. We looked at questions such as:

What aspects of God’s character do we see in the bible?
What are emotions and what are affections?
What emotions and affections does God show in the bible?
How can we have godly emotions and affections?

We learnt the difference between emotions and affections (emotions being a response to external circumstances and affections being the powerful inclinations that influences how we think and act) as well as looking at how these impact our ministry and relationships.

We see throughout the bible that God has shown people grace and mercy, even when their sin has grieved him. His “affection” was to show us such mercy by NOT ignoring our sin but giving an answer for our sin and that was Jesus. We learnt that the good news of Jesus influences how we think and act, not only towards God but to those around us. To express our emotions and affections in a good way, this would mean lining up our hearts with God’s.

This has been helpful for me thinking through how to do uni ministry. I’ve realised how important meeting one to one with students and discussing how they understand the gospel and whether it is transforming how they respond to things, particularly with regards to emotion. Also through hearing about God’s affections (i.e. that is for people to accept his mercy and be in relationship with him), it was a reminder that the vision for the bible talks (TBT) is to live for God’s affections. We serve at Southern Cross Uni to tell people about Jesus and encourage the TBT students to live as Jesus did, having compassion for those around them and sharing the good news of eternal life.

Steve Cree spoke to us from Luke 6:17-36.The gospel is all about God’s mercy to us in Jesus. When this gospel has been believed and contended for great acts of mercy have resulted (e.g. 1st Century Christians, during the Plagues, Wilberforce, Martin Luther King). Conversely, when this gospel has been ignored great damage results – yet not just through ‘the church’ but even more so through many institutions and governments driven by an atheistic worldview (Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot…) . A world without the gospel – without Jesus – is incredibly horrifying.

Bible Readings:  Luke 6:17-36

Outline:

1.    Jesus came to show mercy
2.    when Jesus is honoured…
3.    when Jesus is ignored…

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I picked up the wishing well this morning and there has already been some exciting/frustrating challenges. As you might be aware there has been a change to the normal route for the parade, due to the recent flood event.

The parade will now probably start at the Lismore Rowing Club and will finish at Jolly Playing Fields. It would be great if you come and support the youth of our church as they carry a wishing well, a pink elephant and handout balloon animals.

The youth who have got the courage to march will need to meet at the Rowing Club at about 5pm. The parade officially starts at 5:30pm and the fiery finale is at 6:45pm. If ya want to know more check out the Lantern Parade’s website http://www.lanternparade.com/stop-press.php

The youth will be given more details at youth next Friday and if ya want to know more please call the church office.

Steve Cree spoke to us from 1 Corinthians 1:18-2:5. Science has its roots in Christianity as Christians took delight in discovering the order woven into creation by our Creator. Human pride however has used (especially in recent strident attacks) our growing knowledge of the creation as a new way to reject our Creator. Bu this is not the necessary conclusion of scientific endeavour - it’s just that we are committed to unbelief and our pre-supposition ‘there is no God’ feeds the claims of some scientists rather than establishes them. In any case, too much is claimed for science: as if our only knowledge is scientific knowledge. In Jesus Christ we meet someone who both controls reality and makes sense of it in totality. So start with Jesus and the science question will fall into place.

Bible Readings:  1 Corinthians 1:18-2:5

Outline:

1.    the claims of science
2.    the claims of Jesus

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