No condemnation

I love how honest the bible is. Take Paul for example- one of the great leaders in the early church, a master theologian who wrote a good deal of the new testament. But take a look at some of what he wrote concerning his struggles

I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. (Romans 7:15-23 NIV)

I think we can all relate to him there- i know i can. At this time of year many of us are making new years resolutions that involve getting rid of a particular sin out of our lives.You can promise yourself you will never go back to your old ways but way too often it ends up happening, often quicker than you'd ever expect too. Temptations have a nasty habit of coming back again (and again and again...) and giving in can be all too easy. And then there's the resolutions about doing something positive that the bible teaches you that you should do. I think all of us have failed at our commitments to do what we should. I don't know how many times i have started an "i will get up early and pray" plan. This can all get pretty discouraging at times and if this was the end of the story we would all be in big trouble....but it is not. Look at what Paul goes on to write.

What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. (Romans 7:24-8:2 NIV)

Here's the good news- as a believer in Christ you do not live condemned for your failings that will inevitably come. Jesus has already paid the price for them so you don't have to. That doesn't mean that you deliberately sin or not try to do what is right (see  Romans 6) It does mean that in those times that you do mess things up the grace of God extends to you because of what Jesus has done. When you fail at the commitments you make to God this new years, don't give up. Repent, ask for his help and keep moving forward.

Resource roundup: Reading and books

I've done posts featuring various useful and interesting websites before however i now plan to make it a regular feature under the label of resource roundup. I will be doing posts of online resources to do with a particular topic that are helpful for Christians. I'm starting today with Reading and Books as the theme. If you have any suggestions for sites and resources on this or any other topic of relevance to Christians please do leave me a comment to let me know

Christian book summaries
christianbooksummaries.com/
Christian book Summaries provides roughly 8 page long summaries of new and classic Christian books. Obviously summaries aren't a substitute for actually reading full books. They are however very useful for getting an overview of a books contents to see if it is one you'd like to read or to revise the main points of a book you'd read previously.

Discerning Reader
discerningreader.com
Just because a book is in a Christian book store or published by a Christian publisher it doesn't necessarily mean that the book is going to be biblically sound. Unfortunately some of the most questionable ones actually sell the best. Discerning Reader seeks to examine the theology of popular Christian books to help people make an informed decision on whether they should read and take on board the advise the books contain.

Desiring God Resource library
desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/OnlineBooks/ByTitle/
The Desiring God resource library provides pdf format downloads of the full text of heaps of books by author John Piper. The books cover a variety of topics so everyone should be able to find something of interest. I particularly recommend Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die and The Supremacy of Christ in a Postmodern World. As well as books, the site has a lot of audio content.

Christian Audio
christianaudio.com/free_download.php 
Every month Christian audio makes available for free download the audiobook version of a classic Christian book. I think you may need to register with the site (which doesn't cost) to be able to download it.


Revolution in world missions
gfa.org/freebook 
Get a completely free copy of K.P. Yohannan's book Revolution in World Missions. It is a very impacting and challenging book.

My new favourite album

I've been really enjoying the album A Prelude by Jenny & Tyler. They sound kinda like Norah Jones. You can download the album for whatever you'd like to pay for it through the widget below. You can also get their acoustic EP for free by signing up for the mailing list at their website.

Book review: Nigel Beynon & Andrew Sach- Dig deeper

Dig deeper!: Tools to unearth the bible's treasure
Nigel Beynon & Andrew Sach
Published by Inter-Varsity Press UK 2005

It is so important that Christians regularly be studying the bible for themselves. Unfortunately many passages are not clear and take some effort to work out the meaning of. Knowing how to go about studying the bible for themselves is difficult for many people which causes too many people to give up on reading the bible beyond a few isolated bits and pieces. Not being able to study the bible well also puts people at risk of coming up with wrong ideas about Christianity or falling for other peoples iffy doctrine.

Dig deeper is an excellent attempt at remedying that problem. It explains different interpretive skills or "tools" that will help the reader work out the correct meaning and application of the text they are reading. A fully worked example and questions to try it out yourself with are provided for each tool. While the book teaches study skills, it does not read at all like an academic text as the authors write in an engaging & sometimes humorous style and because since the chapters are short it maintains your attention. Because it is so easily accessible you should benefit from it whether you are new Christian or have been reading the bible for a long time.

This book would be ideal for use in a bible study group. I first encountered this material when it was used in a study group i participated in and i found it greatly beneficial. One of the advantages of covering this material in a group setting is that participants can discuss what they have worked out about the text and learn from each other. It also teaches group members skills that will be very valuable in future bible study series.

I highly recommend this book to all Christians.

Song of the week- Shackles (Praise You)

MaryMary- Shackles (Praise You)

An older track this week but a great one. I think this song may have been the first CD i ever brought.

Dwelt among us

The book of John opens in epic style proclaiming that The Word (Jesus) existed from the beginning, was God and that all things were made through him. That is some pretty impressive credentials! It is not so much those that amaze me as what we read in verse 14 of the first chapter

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (ESV)

The Message paraphrase of the same verse puts it as "The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood." Think about that, the same Jesus talked about in such lofty majestic terms stepping down from heaven, taking on human flesh and dwelling amongst us. It is the God that created the world walking its dusty streets, the creator of all life being born as a baby. The gap between perfect heaven and sin-ridden earth was huge and yet Jesus who is worthy of all glory and honour humbled himself and came to our world as the child of probably teenage peasants, born in a dirty stable in a small insignificant town. He didn't have to, he would have been quite justified in keeping his distance from a planet deep in rebellion to him. The good news of Christmas is that Jesus didn't stay in heaven, he came to live amongst us humans on the earth. In his life and death he showed us what God is like and make a way for us to be made right with God. That is certainly something worth celebrating and marveling at this Christmas season.

Song of the week- Call my name

The Lads- Call my name

Mark Driscoll examines the cross

I've been doing a bit of study on the topic of the cross. I'll probably review some of the books i've been reading later but for the moment i'll post a sermon by Mark Driscoll that i found helpful. It is called Cross: God Dies.




Download audio or video

Scriptures and notes

Song of the week- beautiful saviour

Planetshakers- Beautiful Saviour

SPRTE reflections

I've recently been at the SPRTE (South pacific regional training event) conference which was held by the Australian Fellowship of Evangelical Students at the Australian National University campus in Canberra, Australia. I think there was about 1100 students in attendance, mostly from Australia, New Zealand, PNG, Fiji and Vanuatu.

The teaching was really challenging. Phillip Jensen spent several sessions on the problem of sin and our need for the redemption that is available through Jesus alone. These things are so fundamental to the Christianity and our presentation of the gospel and yet it is easy to misunderstand them or underestimate their significance so it was wonderful to hear such truths presented with such clarity and conviction. Nigel Pollock gave some excellent talks dealing with the events of Jesus' death on the cross and how that should motivate us to respond. Richard Chin's talks on treasuring Jesus and What Jesus treasures were greatly challenging & moving and have left me with a lot to think about!

As well as the main sessions, there was strand groups and electives held in small groups to allow for discussion. I completed the 1st strand which was on how to interpret bible texts correctly using a few verses from Romans 3 to practice on. I don't think i've ever spend so long on so few verses before but it was a really helpful thing to do. The people in my group were really nice so it was also a great chance to get to know them. I did the elective on Reaching Out Without Selling Out. The group leader did a great job at dealing with some very tricky topics like post-modernism and there was some very interesting and productive conversation on topics like how Christians should engage with secular media.

It was really amazing to be able to worship God in song alongside people who although they came from many different countries, churches and walks of life were united in their love for Christ. It was truly a beautiful sound to hear, maybe a bit like what heaven will be like. We were lead very well by a great worship band. I was very impressed by the depth of the songs they chose to use, including a number of great hymns.

Interacting with people from other countries was a real joy. They taught us songs of praise in their native languages. It was so very moving to hear everyone sing How Great Thou Art in Maori (the native language of New Zealand). Some of the students from Fiji even held a special workshop to teach us songs from their culture. It was also great to be able to spend time with them, talking to people from other places about what God is doing and the struggles they face where they come from. It is amazing how much we really are the same despite our differences. I found hearing about the work of the gospel in some difficult places around the world directly from the people involved very challenging and convicting. It was also great to hear from former International Fellowship of Evangelical Students general secretary Lindsay Brown about God at work amongst students around the world.

It was such a challenging, convicting, encouraging and ultimately lifechanging event. If you are a student, i encourage you to do everything you can to get to the conference next time.

Song of the week- tears of the saints

My apologies that last weeks Song Of The Week was non existent and this ones is running a bit late. I just got back from an amazing conference and mission project which has kept me away from the internet for a while. I'll be talking more about that soon. In the meantime, here's this weeks song


Leeland- tears of the saints