Saturday, December 13

Holidays cont...

Well still on holidays. Cept at the moment I'm in Wingham with Meg and her family. Having a jolly good ol' time. Going to her work Christmans party tonight. Should be fun.

Still listening to Driscoll sermons and playing freecell but also enjoying Winterbirth and Romans. Read through the first half of the book and now reading a chapter at a time and then going through it more slowly and taking notes. Tis worthwhile because I'm now understanding what Paul is getting at. It also means that I am remembering what I am reading and it has a greater impact on me. So Romans up to chapter 4 can be summarised as follows (keep in mind this is my amateurish attempt) God shows no favoritism and so all people will be judged according to their deeds, First the Jew then the Gentile, the promises will be inherited by those who have faith in God for it will be credited to them as righteousness with Abraham as our example First the Jew then also for the Gentile. Faith in Jesus Christ alone saves, He is our Good News.

Oh and it's hot and humid here. Still haven't seen Australia but pleased that Mr. Jackman is hosting the Oscars and that Heath got nominated for Best Supporting Actor in The Dark Night. Go Heath.

Tuesday, December 2

Shift in Lifestyle

Well I've been on holidays for over a week now.

Last week involved writing material for Ernie's Big Night for a talk that went well. Only positive feedback so far and will debrief with Tom later this week about it. As for the night itself it was a good night. Fun was had, Jesus was preached, and people were encouraged as a result. The way the talk worked exactly was me and Tom doing a tag-team with me essentially giving my testimony in my first three segments while Tom assumed the role of Zaccheus and spoke about who Zaccheus was to develop the character and then bring him to the point where he meets Jesus. From that point we spoke about their encounter - me narrating inc. talking about Jesus and what happened in their encounter and what this means for the audience.

As for this week. Well I have managed to land myself to a couple of jobs. The first one is holiday work. Just working for my old boss at another cafe he owns in the area. Good people to work with. Thoroughly enjoyed their company, and this place is better than the last cafe for a place to be working at at least because of the aesthetics of the place. Simply an easier working space. But also me being me I get excited about the prospect of being amongst non-Christians and getting to preach Jesus. I have to place a serious leash on myself so I don't go hammer-n-tong and try to convert everyone there. Managed that yesterday. Had a great time just chatting to one of the girls there and got to make coffee all day. It was a good day. And helpful money made too.

The other job is the Student Minister position I now have at my church of the past 7 years where I will be working at the high school I attended for six years. It'll be good. I am excited about it and I thoroughly look forward to working with many good and godly and talented people next year as I step into paid ministry for the first time. Evangelism. Hmmm... Lord make me a better evangelist.

Been listening to Mark Driscoll lately. He's got some fantastic material. Such a talented speaker and uncompromisingly honest. I listened to his sermon on Jesus' prayer in the garden of Gethsemane. Man that was hard. Went for an hour and fifteen minutes and was just heavy as can be for the whole time. It was tough. But good. God does not get you around problems, He gets you through them. Punctuate all prayers and requests with "Your will be done".

Last night was brilliant. Went from work stinking of coffee at 5:45 to the leaders meeting at 6 for ernie, and didn't get home till 11. It was fantastic. Had the leaders meeting that went till 8 I think. Washed up in which time I managed to get Nathan a couple time with the t-towel tied with the special knot I learned in Canada. We then sat down in the comfy chairs again some of us epuipped with cups of tea where I did I very cheeky thing by drinking tea out of Stephen's Fuller Seminary mug. Bad form really. But then again I've always been a pot stirrer. Sometimes paid the price. Got beat up once for calling Jack Johnson crap. Then after this we all gathered around Tom's computer and went through 41 pages of the fail blog. www.failblog.org

Looking forward to community lunch tomorrow, the debrief and more work.