I just received the email below from Kate Wick’s as it’s O-day on Curtin Uni campus. Why don’t you stop and pray for the ministry of Curtin Christian Union now?
Mens Convention was fantastic over the weekend. Over 2000 blokes (not all were wearing check shirts) there to learn, grow, sing and build relationships. There were about 28 from HBC and I reckon we all made changes towards being more godly men, husbands and fathers.
Justin Mote from England preached from 2 Samuel about David and Bathsheba, and from 1 Corinthians 10 about temptation and ‘the way out’. David Cook (SMBC principal) preached from Gen 3 and Obadiah about sin and pride. A few quotes:
DC: ‘A half truth, told as it was a whole truth is an untruth’
DC: ‘If your sinful nature was a friend, what sort of friend would it be?’
DC: ‘Grab your hat and run’
DC: ‘Everything that humbles me is good for me’
JM: ‘It’s easier to stay out than get out’
JM: ‘When we cover up sin it leads to more sin’
Plenty of good laughs too from the speakers, videos and friends. Hope to see you along next year!
photo credit: Powerhouse Museum Collection
Dear friends at HBC,We are very thankful for your very generous gift to us last month. We continue to appreciate your support so much and recognise the degree of generosity you are showing - it’s no small amount that you send our way. Thank you!We would appreciate your prayers as we are trying to work extra hard to fit in the Irumu audio editing now. We have touched it here and there up till now but realise we have to get into it in a big way to get it finished. Makes the days long!! We are thankful for several people who have helped us by editing out the obvious mistakes which leaves us, who know the language to make the finer adjustments. The list of normal jobs doesn’t seem to get any less!
Today Serah (our ni-Vanuatu secretary) and I met together to decide on the programme for a 3 day ladies’ workshop planned for 8th - 11th March. It will be on Tanna island, for wives of local translators from 4 different languages where we have translation projects happening. Please pray for our continued preparations and that those who have to travel across the island to attend will be willing to and be able to find transport to do so.Ray and Glenda Leach have joined us to do Finance and Maintenance. You could pray that they settle in well and that we all work really well together.Thanks for your support in this way too,Sincerely Lyndal
I’ve just been uploading some of the newsletters from our missionary family. You can read some updates from the Boxes here and the Alley’s news here including some exciting news…
Are you a woman who’s been around churches a bit but you’re not really sure what Christians believe?
Or do you have a friend who’s interested in finding out what Christianity is all about?
If so, then we’re going to be running Simply Christianity at Women’s Bible Study again this year. Simply Christianity is a 5 week course, starting on March 3, looking at the basic message of Christianity. If you’d like to come along yourself or bring a friend, we’d love to see you there! If you’d like any more info please give me a call or email me.
Are you looking for a church to join?
Are you checking out Jesus?
Do you like ice-cream?
We would love to see you at Sundae Sunday!
This is what we are going to be saying to the 1000s of students we meet at O-week. We are inviting people to come to church at 6pm for free ice-cream, to meet people, and stay for the service.
So if you have moved to Newcastle for Uni and are looking for a church to join, we would love to see you there!
On Sunday we meditated together on the cross, including Jesus’ ‘cry of dereliction’: ‘My God, my God why have you forsaken me’ (Mark 15:34, quoting Psalm 22:1). We wondered at the pain of Jesus as he experienced spiritual forsakeness by God. But what was going on here at this moment? Was Jesus abandoned by God? How much of Psalm 22 did Jesus have in mind? Are these questions even important or helpful?
Later that night at the White Horse Inn a handful of us went deeper into the Word to grapple with these questions. Here are some observations from that discussion as well as some extra thoughts after reading part of The Cross of Christ (by John Stott).
photo credit: hour of the wolf
1. When we read the whole of Psalm 22 (which I think Jesus did have in mind, given verses such as 22:15-18) we realise there is a tension for the suffering one between temporary affliction, despair and death and permanent and eternal deliverance and rescue. Verse 24 even says God has ‘not hidden his face from him’. This is not to say that verse 34 is a ‘cry of victory’ which some have suggested. Just that the verse is not necessarily implying confused and permanent despair.
2. Other passages about the cross remind us of the helping, protecting and comforting role of the Father during the experience of Jesus. These include Psalm 34:19,20:
19 A righteous man may have many troubles, but the LORD delivers him from them all; 20 he protects all his bones, not one of them will be broken.
Matthew 22:41-43:
41 He withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed, 42 “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” 43 An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him.
1 Peter 2:23:
23 When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly.
(The Father was the one whom Jesus was trusting during the cross)
3. Nevertheless, Jesus was experiencing pain from God the Father. The various words for this include ‘stricken by God’, ‘smitten by him’, ‘afflicted’ (Isa 53:4), ‘crushed’ and ‘caused to suffer’ (Isa 53:10). It seems that at this point in time the Father’s attitude towards the Son is not one of favour or approval but condemnation and wrath. ‘Forsaken’ captures this experience. We must take Jesus at his word that he was at this point forsaken by his God.
4. With this discussion we are really struggling with understanding a unique event and our own limitations in understanding God. We may well be entering the areas of paradox, where two seemingly contradictory ideas must be held at the same time. C.E.B. Cranfield says that Jesus experienced ‘not merely a felt, but a real, abandonment by his Father’ and ‘the paradox that, while this God-forsakeness was utterly real, the unity of the Blessed Trinity was even then unbroken.’ (quoted by John Stott in The Cross of Christ page 82).
Despite (or because of) the diffculties and paradoxes, there are at least two fruitful conclusions we can draw that will help us spiritually.
1. Jesus did experience genuine suffering. The cross was not an act or a sham. He really did bear the weight of all our sin and punishment. If the cross was to be genuinely atoning he must have experienced the full punishment for our sin. The word ‘forsakeness’ somehow captures this. We must be in awe of Jesus and thankful to him for suffering what we deserved. You may even like to pray a prayer of thanksgiving after reading this post.
2. The Father did not betray the Son or (ultimately) abandon him. The Father proved trustworthy, perhaps even helping Jesus through the experience of the Cross. This helps us to remember the everlasting goodness and faithfulness of God the Father. This helps us avoid pitting the Father and the Son against each other. This helps us ourselves entrust our souls to the Father.
Hope that’s helpful and that you and I continue to humbly allow ourselves to be taught and corrected in our thinking by Scripture.
New unichurch t-shirts for sale at Last Minute Sunday and O-week. Only $11!
Buy a t-shirt to promote unichurch and help people meet us and Jesus 
Women’s style above. Men’s style below.
Do you know the chorus to Lola by the Kinks? (make sure you check out the dance moves at the end if you watch the clip)
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Lola
Lo lo lo lo Lola
Lo lo lo lo Lola…
That’s the tune for my O-week song (I don’t really know why, maybe because it’s about meeting someone you don’t know…?). It’s a pretty simple song.
O-week
Oh oh oh oh O-week
Oh oh oh oh O-week…
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O-week
Around 6000 students will be arriving at Newcastle Uni, and we’ll be there to invite them to church so they hear about Jesus.
It’s gonna be huge. O-week is gonna be a Unichurch Tsunami of events.
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Monday - Friday (21-25) we are leafletting, meeting students, and running a stall in the Brennan room expo. Each day from 2-3pm we’ll be hanging out with people we have met, having coffee and running Newish.
Saturday morning (26) we are having a massive beach party! Hanging out at the beach/park (venue TBA) with all the Unichurchers and people we’ve met.
Sunday (27) is Sundae Sunday! Free ice-cream at 6pm before church, so we can chill with all the visitors.
Oh oh oh oh O-week…
The thing is, when I say “we”, I mean me and you. Me and you Unichurcher reading this post. This is only gonna happen if “we” make it happen. Me and you, meeting people, leafletting, at the stall, coming to Newish, partying at the Beach, eating ice-cream…
So free your time for O-week. Get it off work. Move back early. Sign up for Last Minute Sunday. RSVP on facebook. Buy the new Unichurch T-shirt (did I just let that out…?). Above all pray.
We aren’t doing this for us. “We” are doing this because “we” pray that God would use us to bring glory to Jesus.
O-week
Oh oh oh oh O-week
Oh oh oh oh O-week…
photo credit: Stuck in Customs
How do you view non-believers? Do you look at people who don’t know God with pity, compassion, contempt, superiority? When was the last time your heart ached with the knowledge that hell was the eternal destination of a neighbour, friend or stranger?
The reality is that for many of us as Christians ‘contempt’ is the way we often view the non-believer. In the book Questioning Evangelism, Randy Newman describes contempt as coldness toward the outside world. Sharing his personal struggle with contempt and recalling conversations he had with non-believers in the past he says
If I put words to my caustic emotions, they might have sounded as bad as this:
‘Well, what do you expect turning your back on God? Peace and happiness? Your pride won’t let you accept answers even though they are logical and reasonable. Your unbelief has caused you to be irrational. Professing to become wise, you’ve become a fool! Sooner or later you’ll pay for this pride. And if you wait to long it’ll be too late. Then what?’
Strikes me that a lot of what he says may be true of people he had been talking to. But his contempt is certainly at odds with Jesus and Paul’s emotions for the lost.
When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. (Matt 9:36)
While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. (Acts 17:16)
Idolatry causes Paul distress. Lostness leads Jesus to compassion - not contempt! Where is your heart at?
