We as christians have to turn on the message of salvation be those bright shining stars in this dark world. So as a church as we journey in to 2009 may we begin to shine now to the people of Lismore and beyond lets knock down the four walls of the church and let the light shine out.

I can see so strongly that previous challenges of equipping us all to minister to each other is coming through now in equipping us to minister in to our circumstance. I praise God for your focus Steve and eagerly look forward to being further built up and equipped in the coming year that life may be given to a dieing generation.

I really appreciated the chance to listen to this talk again during the week so I could press the pause button and check the scripture references and their context and try and take more of the talk in. May I say again a big thank you to the sound guys for putting the Bible Talks up on our web site so quickly so people can do that sort of thing. Thanks again to David for effort he puts into making this web site not only work but be very user friendly.

One thing our small group guys have started to do more in response to this series on 1 Corinthians is to work together in spending time with new people at church when the service 1st finishes. It seems to make it easier to converse with new people if it is not just you and the new person talking. By having someone else from my small group with me it seems to make it more comfortable for all involved as we try and build relationships with new people. Hopefully by doing things this way everyone involved is more encouraged.

I reckon you just need to think of people like the Bali bombers surrendering themselves to the firing squad to die as “martyrs” and you get a bit of an insight into the sort of extreme yet loveless behaviour that Paul might have in mind.

President Elect Barack Obama is certainly a great orator and inspirer from what I saw in his acceptance speech. There is certainly a lot of people putting their hope in him and the Democrats. His slogan “Change you can believe in” was clever and inspiring, but as Steve says above, some things only God can change.

The President Elect will still have to deal with sinful people - in the House of Reps and the Senate, the people in stock market, the banking sector etc.

The other interesting thing is that Obama says he is a Christian. However some of the things he has said give me doubts about this claim. According to Truth or Fiction web site (see http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/o/obama.htm) Obama is quoted as saying “The difficult thing about any religion, including Christianity, is that at some level there is a call to evangelize and proselytize. There’s the belief, certainly in some quarters, that if people haven’t embraced Jesus Christ as their personal savior, they’re going to hell,” he told Falsini. She said Obama did not believe that he or anyone else was going to hell and that he wasn’t sure he was going to heaven either. “What I believe in is that if I live my life as well as I can, that I will be rewarded. I don’t presume to have knowledge of what happens after I die. But I feel very strongly that whether the reward is in the here and now or in the hereafter, aligning myself to my faith and values is a good thing.”

Obama is right in that as Christians we are called to evangalise. However, the Bible is clear that those who haven’t trusted in Jesus Christ as their personal saviour for their sin shall face judgement from God (see John 3:36). It would be good to ask God to give Obama and other world leaders wisdom in the policies they make, but it would also be good to pray that they would come to know Jesus Christ as their personal saviour, and to know the sure hope the Bible gives us for life beyond the grave.

If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames,[b] but have not love, I gain nothing. (1 cor 13:3).

Isn’t love about sacrifice and selflessness, and this being seen in the example of Jesus.
Then isn’t the act of giving all you have to the poor or giving up your body acts of love? how can you do these without love?

thanks for your help.

Let’s get out there and share Jesus with our friends, family and community.