HCC Camp

This weekend our church is having a camp in Foxton.

Whilst I am not a great fan of camps and the concept is not generally as popular as it once was, I consider them quite valuable for a couple of reasons.

1) It gives me the opportunity to get to know people in the congregation that I don't often mix with.
Like most social groups, people tend to stay within groups that they feel most comfortable in. It is often hard for people (including myself) to break out and befriend others that are not well-known to you, despite the best of intentions to do this time and time again.

It can only be a good thing to use the camp as an opportunity to break down some of these social cliques that develop in churches (often unintentionally).

2) Develop friendships that will encourage my faith.

I often get frustrated with the light-weight and passing chit-chat that so often ensues a Sunday morning service. Often people are in a hurry to get around others and do the obligatory meet-and-greet before they depart for the afternoon. They are not normally interested in discussing to any depth such things as what they are reading at the moment, what struggles they faced during the week, or to even discuss the sermon heard just moments earlier.
In other words, outside the home group, it can be very hard to get to know others more intimately for the purpose of encouraging them in their faith (and me in mine).
The camp gives me the perfect opportunity (and the time) to strike up another friendship or two that could be built upon over the next year or so for this purpose.

Who knows, this weekend, I might be able to generate enough interest to start up another home group for next year, and the camp has been worthwhile for me.
That can only be a good thing.

RefTagger - Bible verses into hyperlinks

While enjoying a cup of coffee today with Darryl, he suggested that I look at using refTagger for my blogs (in fact, he has probably already blogged about this, I should have checked...Doh!).

If you don't know much about it, refTagger is a free tool that automatically turns any bible verses into hyperlinks.
Now, if you hover your mouse over a verse, such as Rom 12:1, you will see that the passage appears within the current window. Nice.
If you have Libronix installed on your PC, the small 'L' symbol will also open the passage there. Very cool.

I was very impressed at how incredibly simple refTagger is to configure and get up and running.

The only issue I had is when I customized the code to open passages in the NASB version, it was NIV instead! You could imagine my, well... disappointment.
I have since changed it to an equally reliable translation, the ESV.

Testimony - Craig Coles

Here is another testimony that was shared last Sunday night.
Craig Coles is a member of the same homegroup as myself and also attends the same church.

I am originally from a small farming community in South Canterbury called Maungati.

I attended Maungati primary school, a small rural school with a role at the time of only 30 or so. That didn’t mean it was too small for God to care about. He arranged for a bible-in-schools teacher to visit us weekly to share the word of God with us. I used to enjoy hearing the stories about Jesus and the characters of the Old Testament. While I did believe the message that the bible-in-schools teacher brought to our school, I didn’t make any commitments to God or accept His gift of salvation.

Years later, I was in another educational institute, the University of Otago. In my first year, I became friends with a fellow first-year student, her name was Jane.

I still have a very vivid memory of an occasion that soon after lead to a life-changing event. And that was, an unintentional, but undoubtedly God-inspired, meeting of my friend, Jane, with one of her friends. She introduced me to her friend, Cheli, and had a brief word with him before he went on his merry way.

I asked Jane "Jane, who is that guy?". She responded by saying that he was the leader of her cell group. I was amazed! I didn’t realise that some people were so into Biology that they had groups where they only studied cells. I seriously did have this thought in my mind which I shared with Jane. As you are probably aware, "cell groups", also known as "home groups" are in fact a place to study God’s word, the bible, among a small group of people. The way she explained it was as follows: Our cell group is a place where we meet to sing songs to God, study the bible, eat some food and enjoy each other’s company. I asked her where and when they met and whether I could come along too. I believe part of the reason for my keenness to attend this meeting was due to what I learnt from my bible-in-schools teacher about God and the bible.

I attended the next cell group meeting and joined in on the singing, the studying and the eating. During the week between that cell group meeting and the next, I started to think about my future. I seemed to be able to imagine what things would be like until death but no matter how much I thought about it, I couldn’t work out what was next. This was a question I brought with me to the second cell group meeting. I shared this with Jane and she said I should talk to Cheli, the leader of the cell group, about this. And so I did. He guided me through a bunch of bible verses which very quickly and clearly brought a series of important truths to my attention.

Moments later I repented of my sins, asked Jesus to be Lord of my life and received his gift of salvation.

Months later, I was able to encourage my former bible-in-schools teacher with my exciting news. He was very pleased.

There are three points I want to highlight from my testimony:

1) The man who freely gave his time to visit our school and shared the word of God with us was fortunate in my case to get some encouragement that his work had made a real difference.

I’d like to encourage you by reading the following verses from Isaiah 55:10-11

"As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it flourish, so that is yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it".

Therefore, rest assured, that it is beneficial, even eternally so, that we should spread God’s word.

2) My friend, Jane, could have taken the initiative to ask me whether I would be interested in learning about God by attending her cell group. I encourage you to be more open with your friends about your faith. Be ready to proclaim the truth at all times.

3) This is the last and most significant point, from my perspective. In fact, it’s all about perspective - the perspective of people who believe in God’s promise of eternal life versus those who don’t have an eternal hope.

Phil 3:19-21 says "Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, whom by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.

In this passage, it said "Their mind is on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven". My desire is to focus on the eternal rather than the temporal; the unseen rather than the seen; doing God’s will rather than sinning.

I don’t always succeed in all these areas. I fall short of the Glory of God but am justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

And for that I am truly thankful.

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God's story

I was asked to share my testimony tonight at a small local church, alongside three of my friends that go to the same homegroup as myself.
It was a great and encouraging night and I never cease to be amazed at how God uses very ordinary people, transforms them into extra-ordinary people using extra-ordinary means and situations which all combine to tell a wonderful, unfolding story. A story that is essentially God's story.

So, here is God's story:

I grew up in a Christian home. Whilst I consider my childhood to have been a great experience, filled with fond memories that I will always treasure, I was a very unremarkable boy.
Growing up, I had always considered myself a christian. Well, why wouldn't I? Our family went to church every Sunday and we spent Christmas at christian holiday camps. Kiwi ranch in Rotorua was a particular favourite of mine. Sadly, that has long since closed.

My teen years were steady, but uneventful. Because of my regular attendance of church and the youth events, I had always believed in the existence of God. I had never believed in false theories such as evolution and the big bang.
I developed a reverence for Christ, I knew that He was the son of God and that He sacrificed Himself for the sins of the world.
I developed a reasonable head knowledge of what I heard, but that was as far as it went. I remember looking around the church and seeing people, who exhibited a real joy. A joy that I knew I didn't have.
What I never learnt, or was taught, was the majesty and holiness of God and my true position before a holy God.
I was about sixteen when I concluded that this christian life was just not for me. I stopped going to church and would not set foot in another church for twenty years.

My twenties, for the most part, was a meandering blur. I had a job that I was happy in, but didn't stretch me, I met Denise who was to become my wife and I hung out with people about whom I didn't really care much for. I wasn't desperately unhappy, but the life I led was certainly meaningless and directionless.

Denise and I married in 1996 and in December 1997, our first child, Victoria was born. Maddy followed 2 years later in 2000. I had a house, a steady job and 2 healthy girls and nothing to be ungrateful about. On the outside, you could say I had everything.
The truth is, I was living a life without true purpose, a life that was self-centered and directionless. Unbeknownst to me, even though I was alive, I was actually dead, spiritually dead.
Ephesians 2:1 describes my condition at the time. I was dead in my trespasses and sin.

And the thing is, there was actually nothing I could do about it. I was a natural man in my natural state and nothing I could have done or said could have changed this situation. In the previous couple of years, I had spurned numerous gospel attempts from one of my brothers.
So, with anyone in this state, anything could happen. And inevitably, anything did happen.

2001 was both the worst year of my life and the best year of my life. To quote Dickens, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times".
I fell further into sin that jeopardised everything that I currently had. I stood to lose my house and my family.

In this moment, as I reached my lowest point, I remember falling to my knees in my backyard and literally screamed out to God to help me. Suddenly, a thought was placed in my head to get up and go and visit my brother who lived in a town that was a four hour drive away.

With no time to waste, my wife and I left immediately where we spent the weekend talking and reading scripture with my brother and his wife. He gave me a book that, along with the Holy Spirit working through His Word changed my life. That book was "Transforming Grace" by Jerry Bridges.
I read the book cover to cover several times over the next few weeks and over this time, armed with that book and a borrowed bible, I came to realize my true position.
I came to realize that I was a sinful man, I was spiritually bankrupt and doomed. I came to realize that I was living a life that was contrary to a holy and sovereign God. I came to realize that I had nothing to offer a holy and sovereign God and that there was essentially no hope for me. But I came to realize that God initiates a way of escape for people in my situation. This way of escape was by His grace, His unmerited favour on undeserving individuals.

Ephesians 2:8-9 says "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.'

Not long after, I was on the train making my way to work one wet and cold morning in October. The thoughts of God and His grace were swirling around in my head. Suddenly tears streamed down my face and the people that was crammed into the train that morning seemed to fade away. There was only me in that train before a holy and a righteous God. Right then, I declared before God that I was sinful man who deserved death, I confessed my sin and acknowledged that Christ was Lord and saviour and that through Him alone, I could be saved.

I believed! At last I believed and I was thrilled. I was elated. I was a new person and I could scarcely wait to get to work that morning to ring my wife and share with her my incredibly fantastic news. Miraculously, my wife was also saved. There was hope for us after all.

I was once selfish and self-centered, but I have become Christ-centered. I once desired the things of the world, but now I desire Christ. I was once a slave to sin, but now I am a slave to Christ, my Lord and my saviour. For the next few months, I experienced an insatiable appetite for Gods Word and other solid christian literature. God put before us a godly man who began to mentor us through our initial stages.

Nearly 7 years on, I am by no means a perfect man. Because of my human-ness, I still possess a sinful nature that I battle with every day of my life. This battle, I know will never cease until the Lord calls me home.

I am eternally grateful to a gracious and merciful God. A God who, despite my sin and problems, has shown me mercy and grace. Grace that I know has saved me and grace that continues to be lavished on me, by Him, every day.
I will never understand or fully comprehend Gods election of me. But that is God's grace, His unmerited favour on a undeserving man like me.

Because now of Gods grace, for the grace that I have undeservedly and freely received, I have an obligation to declare this grace to others. I have an obligation to declare the electing, saving and transforming grace I have received from a Holy and gracious God.

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