Its very exciting when one of our brothers gets to do something like record an album. And an album launch is a great opportunity to rejoice in God’s gifts with one another.

There’s going to be a special opportunity to do that on Saturday June 5th at the Grainery Christian Centre! It will be a great night with special guests “Planet of the Stereos” and our own Hugh Jonas will be speaking. Definitely the type of thing to come along and invite friends to.

Doors Open 6:30pm
Entry $10 for singles and $25 for families
for more info check out www.myspace.com/jonokirkmusic

How sweet are your words to my taste,
sweeter than honey to my mouth!

Whoever wrote Psalm 119 knew how to fall grow in love for God. Two repeated truths are:

God’s word, laws, precepts, decrees or commands are wonderful
²⁴ Your statutes are my delight; they are my counselors.
¹¹¹ Your statutes are the joy of my heart.
¹²⁹ Your statutes are wonderful; therefore I obey them.
¹⁶⁷ I obey your statutes, for I love them greatly.

God alone can teach us to love Him
¹⁸ Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law.
²⁷ Let me understand the teaching of your precepts; then I will meditate on your wonders.
³³ Teach me, O LORD, to follow your decrees; then I will keep them to the end.
³⁵ Direct me in the path of your commands, for there I find delight.
¹³³ Direct my footsteps according to your word; let no sin rule over me

It’s worth taking the time to read the whole Psalm and look at all the reasons the writer loves God. Then make it your prayer and your song.

photo credit: ( Torsten )

Every day, I drive past a ridiculously good-looking church. It’s in a nice suburb. The gardens are beautiful with lush flowers and beautifully maintained lawns. The best feature by far is the huge, circular stained-glass window above the entryway. Man, I love that church! (see pic below)

Most days when I drive past the ridiculously good-looking church, I wonder what it must be like to go to church there. I think, “If only HBC owned that church.” Never mind that it would be really expensive and effortful to keep the grounds. Ignore the fact it is too small for each of our congregations. Forget that the mortgage would be huge because of the suburb it is located in. I easily dismiss the fact that it would be very impractical for our youth and kids ministries. I just want that church building because it’s ridiculously good-looking!

Perhaps I need to put aside my superficial ideals? Perhaps I need to learn what kind of building would be best for meeting HBC’s needs in spreading the gospel to Newcastle?

Our HBC Building Feasibility Committee has put good thought into what kind of building will meet HBC’s needs now and over the next 10 years. Next Wednesday night, after the HBC AGM, there will be a Q&A session about all things to do with the HBC building plans. I think that we (who care about where HBC is heading) should go along– it’s sure to be interesting and informative. Who knows, perhaps I’ll start looking around for other buildings that aren’t necessarily ridiculously good-looking but ridiculously purposeful for the gospel?!

The HBC AGM and Building Q&A sesh:

When: 7pm, Wednesday 31^st March, 2010

Where: 30 Warabrook Boulevard, WARABROOK (the Compassion Building)

Who: Everyone!

Why are you downcast, O my soul?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and my God.

These are the words that are repeated in Psalm 42 and 43. It’s saying something that’s so different to how our world thinks that we might just miss it. It’s saying that when I feel like my life’s falling apart and nothing going right, the best thing I can do is praise God. The writer looks forward to going to the Jewish Temple and there being able to praise God, that’s what he hopes for; it’s what he looks forward to. More than that… it’s what he knows will help settle his “downcast soul”.

That’s a very different thing than we’d expect isn’t it… for most people in the midst of their life falling apart, we’d think they need to be reminded that God will “work things out for their good”. But the Psalmist doesn’t say that. He says that best thing for your soul is to reflect on your great, saving, awesome God… and praise him.

I hope you take the opportunity to do that today in prayer, and at church on Sunday.

photo credit: suburbanbloke

As we spend more time and energy serving our neighbours, as our church gets bigger and our meetings, growth groups, youth group and kids ministries are better organised, we put more pressure on ourselves and one another to keep on giving to the growing beast that is “our church”.

Although often exhausting, we do what we do because we know it’s right. I know the gospel must go out. I know that my brothers and sisters need to understand the bible. I know I must be involved in making these things happen. Jesus demands it.

I don’t have pure motives.

Being involved in ministry at HBC is a great way to gain the respect of some very gifted, intelligent, popular and friendly people. Being on staff means I can sleep well at night knowing that I’m using my time in a noble way. The better I perform in my ministries, the greater the respect that comes my way. But living like that is just falling for the lie of the world. “The respect of your peers is the greatest reward you can have.”

If you ever wonder what the staff learn at their conferences and training days - in Sydney yesterday we were all taught the gospel. You know that thing you understood as you first became a Christian? Yeah well it appears that we need to be holding on to that even though we’re all big and grown up years later.

I love that it’s the gospel that teaches me how to not lie - I don’t need to fear people having negative opinions of me because God has accepted me, won’t reject me, and will hold me up in glory for all eternity. I don’t need to lie to protect another person’s opinion of me. I can tell people the truth and not need to hide anything from them!

I love that it’s the gospel that teaches me how to submit to speed limits - I don’t need to break laws to get somewhere sooner, the God who is sovereignly bringing all things into conformity with his will will get me there at the exact time that is best for me and for his plans. I can just cruise around guilt free.

I love that it’s the simple gospel, which children can understand, that shows me how to be generous with my money - Knowing that I have Jesus’ Spirit which has changed me and continues to change me so that I’ll love making sacrifices for the sake of other people and the Kingdom. I always forget that I love being generous!

Am I going to achieve perfect motives this side of Heaven? Nope. But I know where they come from.

Anyway, the gospel’s pretty mad. I’ve just got to stop forgetting it.

photo credit: kyz

Check out the preaching plan for 2010… here.

During 2010 six of our MTS apprentices will be preaching at UniChurch on Paul’s letter to the Philippians which speaks clearly on the centrality of Christ in every part of life.

This series will be spread out over the year, but make sure you get along and hear these young men opening the word of God. Also the second year apprentices (Ben, Geoff, Steve & James) will take questions from the floor after their talks.

So get along to UniChurch in 2010, it’s going to be a great year of opening God’s word and worshiping together.

By the way, if you’re wondering about the jumble of words in the graphic… It’s a word cloud made from the text of Philippians. The bigger the word the more times it occurs in the book. Pretty cool huh? Check out www.wordle.net if you’d like to mess around with this yourself.

Around this time of year, many of you will be ‘heading home’ over the summer break, or just changing your routine over the summer uni break. I’ve asked our own Matty Varcoe to give you some tips to make sure you don’t waste your summer:

I could write page after page trying to convince you to be praying and reading your Bible more. But I don’t think I need to because I know that you already believe these are good things. I am assuming that you want to read God’s word, pray and grow in your relationship with him. I am also assuming that over the holidays you want to get stuck into doing this with more free time. So as someone who has had this attitude every holiday and has experienced failing many times, can a humbly suggest some practical ways to start. Like with most things, ’starting’ is the hardest part.

1. Set yourself a time each day. A time that you can keep and a time in which you can focus without distractions. For me this is the morning. (It is also a great way to start the day.) But I do know that for some the evening is much better for them. You know how you function and what works best for you.
   Get a friend to keep you accountable everyday with a text message or a phone call and do the same for them.
2. Start by praying for God to help you focus and that His Spirit will be revealing his word to you.
3. Choose a book in the bible to read through a bit each day. (Maybe even just a few verses.) If you are not sure of what to read, one of the Gospels is a good place to start. “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly…” Colossians 3:16.
   You could ask yourself;
   1. What does the passage say about God/Jesus?
   2. What does it say about others/me?
   3. How do I need to change to be more like Jesus in my actions and the way I think about his world?
4. Pray about what you have read. Thank God for his mercy and grace to you. Pray for yourself that your heart and mind would grow in a deeper affection for Christ Jesus. Pray about the things you need to change. Pray for family and friends that God’s Spirit will be working in their lives to regenerate them through the Spirit. “Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful”. Colossians 4:2

At first it will take discipline to do this every day and may even be a chore. But over time this will become something you long to do and even something that you get rid of other distractions so that you have more time to spend with your Heavenly Father. I love the way that King David talks about his relationship with God in Psalm 42:1-2.

“As the deer pants for the water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?”

David longs for the times when he can be in close communion with God. He needs them like a deer who is panting for water. My prayer is that we to will have this same longing and deep affection for our God and be asking, “when can I go and meet with God?”

http://www.flickr.com/photos/markedyer/

Come and be part of the team of people who read the Bible in our meetings and/or lead our congregations in Prayer.

Wed Nov 4th : Training in Public Prayer
Wed Nov 11th: Training in Bible Reading
7:30pm Dave and Julie Moore’s place,
48 seventh St, North Lambton, 2299

One of the most important things we do at our Sunday meetings is simply hearing God’s word–the Bible, and responding to him in faith by praying. Because these things are so important, we want to put appropriate effort into doing helpfully and well.

I’m running two training nights on the first two Wednesdays in November. If you’d like to serve your congregation by praying or reading the bible at the meetings, please come along and be part of the team.

Please let me know if you’re coming via the contact us page.

Have you thought much about why you sing at church? I mean, have you thought personally about why you sing?

‘Cause its easy, I think, to come to church and just go along with the flow… so when the band gets up, and the words appear on the screen, you just do what everyone else is doing, and join in. But its never really a personal choice. Do you “choose” to sing along with everyone else?

I’d love us to be a fellowship of Christians who all “choose” to sing to God for each others benefit each and every week. I’d love you to make that choice this Sunday. I’d love to see you speak and sing every word that comes up on the screen to God with your whole heart. This is something I’ve personally been trying to do more and more. So I thought I might share a tip that’s helped me.

Stop looking at the words. Look at the screen as little as you can, even if it means singing with your eyes closed.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t sing the words! Please sing the words on the screen along with everyone else! But I personally find that if I keep looking at the words, I end up only making the sounds, and I forget to “mean” them (a bit like 1 Cor 14:14-17 ). However, when I try to look away from the screen, and try remember the line, or the whole verse, I (strangely) find that I “mean it” so much more. I find myself singing with more authenticity when I sing them from memory.

It might not work for you, but trying to sing with my eyes off the words has helped me mean what I sing more. And I pray that helps my brothers and sisters around me to sing with more meaning too.