World Youth Day

I was just reflecting on some feeling I've come across about World Youth Day held recently in sydney on July 20th. A number of folk were inspired by the united witness of the 220,000 young people who attended and the focus on Jesus and the cross and so on.
Frankly I found the whole thing depressing.

When I talk about the person and work of Christ and salvation I don't mean the same things as were being spoken during this festival even if some of the terms were the same. This was particularly borne out as I learned with interest of the granting of a 'plenary indulgence' for the complete removal of punishment by penance in this life or purgatory after it either for an individual or their loved one. This indulgence was granted as the WYD cross will tour through all Australia and beyond. I quote...

'For the newly granted WYD indulgence to be received, people should:
devotedly take part in a sacred ceremony carried out publicly in honour of WYD Cross, be solemnly exposed or at least be attentive in the presence of this cross by means of access in a public place either in a large crowd or alone;
celebrate Sacrament of Penance (10 days before or after);
receive Holy Communion (10 days before or after);
pray for the Pope's intentions;
recitation of Our Father, the Creed and prayerful invocation of the Blessed Virgin Mary (one Hail Mary).

All of this in the appropriate spirit of repentance. You can read more here.

It is striking, and worrying, that faithfulness to Christ and the testimony of all those martyrs of the reformation might be so easily sacrificed on the altar of 'being united as Christian's'. Of course we should long for unity but that unity can never be at the expense of the gospel.

'...Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God' (1 Peter 3v18)

Outstanding!

We're pretty busy as a family and so we love to make the most of our time off. It means that the time we have off is 'outstanding', but that then leaves a lot of projects 'outstanding'!
Outstanding projects at home include sorting out a back yard lawn... sorting out the back yard... getting a fence up along one side of our property so that we can call our back yard a back yard.
Finishing all this is currently outstanding and when its done it will be still be outstanding... which is the way i've argued it to myself, that whether finished or not... it's still outstanding! ...i haven't tried this out on Ali yet though.

The fine lines of feedback

Encouragement and criticism after preaching a sermon involve some very fine lines. We all need encouragement, especially preachers, but encouragement can cross a line from encouraging (which is good) to being put on a pedestal (which is terrible).
Criticism and/or negative feedback can also be both good and bad. It's essential for the continuing integrity of sound doctrine and pastoral sensitvity. It can also indicate when people have been stirred up (how much we need that!) - more than one great preacher has spoken of the need for any prophetic message to get under the skin of the hearers. But there's no doubt that criticism can be discouraging.
Then there's the temptation to prepare messages that I feel will produce encouragement rather than criticism or negative responses. My pride craves affirmation.
Then there's the manner of 'encouragement' or 'criticism'. Trite affirmations don't necessarily encourage. Trite criticisms tend to undermine the whole premise of preaching. When the first comment is 'it was too long' (I can't tell you how depressing that is) - it may well have been too long but the important question was 'did it matter?' or 'was it important?'
Some reflections...

• My motivation must come from the desire to be a workman approved by God (2 Tim 2).
• The effectiveness of my (and any) preaching only comes through the work of the Holy Spirit to challenge, rebuke and encourage. Any and all glory goes to God
• The standard by which to measure preaching must be truth.
• Truth is divisive.
• Opposition is not necessarily discouraging. It could be the most encouraging thing whereas affirmation might just be an indication that I've said what peoples itching ears want to hear 2Tim3.
• 'If anyone puts you up on a pedestal... get straight off it' - David Jackman. Glory to God alone.
• Conversations amongst the saints and testimonies resulting from the word preached are amongst the most encouraging things for a preacher to learn of. Glory to God alone.
• The preacher is always under the same word. 'For any issue I feel convicted to address in my ministry, I always check myself on it first' - Tim Hawkins

What do you think?

Family matters

At certain times we really feel the distance from our family in England. Ali speaking with her Dad about his dad's funeral was certainly one of those times, 'The only ones who weren't there were you'. It wasn't said with hurt... it was just the facts.
It reminds us of what we don't have any longer in those close, supportive family relationships that many take for granted. Seeing the kids with their grandparents and cousins and uncles and aunts on our recent trip to England crystalises it even further.
We have to look for those sorts of relationships in our church family in the absence of our physical family, but I'm not sure the two equate to each other. They certainly don't in practice. (although don't get me wrong, we have amazingly loving and supportive friends here who I'm sure would do anything for us)
But should they equate to each other?

User friendly...

Well, here I am at the crux stage of keeping a blog going... 1 month on and still going strong! Thank you for your interest and support and for your prayers. I am also continuing to learn about these things and have been tweaking the settings a bit to try and do some new things.
Hopefully this will make it easier for you to keep up with the 'constant updates'!

If you would like to know when this blog is updated feel free to ‘subscribe’ via RSS feed. It lets you know when the site has been updated. Most current web browsers now have RSS capability. It is simply a matter of going to my website and then pressing the button on your browser that looks something like this:




It will give you a list of ‘feeds’ that it found on that page for you to choose to subscribe to. Once subscribed, A link will appear in your ‘favourites’ list (in the feeds section) in the web browser and change to notify you each time a new post is added.
Thanks to Michael who shared this secret knowledge. His blog is a stimulating read, just click on his name there.