ANZAC day 2014

Today I wanted to write a brilliant post about contextualising the Gospel in Australian culture. But Melinda beat me to it (and did a better job than I ever could) so here is her post. : ).
enjoy!

http://melindacousins.com/2014/04/25/is-jesus-the-true-anzac/

Good Friday 2014

Another excellent Good Friday service on North Beach Wallaroo. What a blessing it is to celebrate the 2 sacraments that are held by the the Baptist belief (Communion and Baptism) on Good friday. Both sacraments are reminders and symbols of the death and resurrection of our Lord and saviour Jesus. The message on the cross reads " Iesu Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum" (Latin for, Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews) INRI. This was meant by Pilate as an insult deriding the claims of Jesus, as a sign to others to say "this is what we do to those who claim to be king". Instead of an insult this is now a title we are proud of when we identify as Christians. May you be richly blessed this Easter as you ponder the significance of Jesus as King!

Safe Christianity?

This is a photo that my older brother sent me the other day. He found it with some of Dad's stuff. It is of the three Schmid boys (ps. I'm the little one). He asked, are we still off on an adventure? Taking on the world? Yes we are! but will it be safe? Here is Todays sermon Safe Christianity.

Scripture Reading

I recently read an article about "5 verses that you need to stop misusing" (you can find it here). I agree with the basic premise of the article that we shouldn't use the bible to justify our own decision.

 However, It got me thinking how often do we actually apply the Bible to our everyday lives? (and how often do we or should we read the bible all the way through). I believe that "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,"(2 Timothy 3:16 NIV). My concern is that often we Christians ( particularly the very lucky western Christians in places like Australia) don't rely enough on scripture to help us maneuver through our lives, we rely on our dim memories of hearing someone that said "that the bible says ...." rather than our own experience of the scripture itself. 

So while I agree with the articles intent that we should not misuse the Bible, I advocate using IT regularly, often and wholeheartedly to deal with everything that the world throws at us. Please for the sake of the Kingdom READ YOUR BIBLES. (and Pray but that is a whole other post).