InFocus

The last day of a conference is always good because you can come late and still get a good seat—everyone else has slept in and is coming in late as well!

The morning started out with missionary Rob Booy who spoke with a refreshing reverence for the task of preaching. He spoke from 1 Samuel 13ff and began with some unabashed allegorisation, but soon moved on to make some very helpful points from the narrative of Jonathan and his armour bearer. He challenged us to be a person who takes action and steps out in faith. He also challenged us to remember that even though Saul had some weaknesses, Saul was not the enemy.

The next session—and one I particularly looked forward to—was by H. Richard Hester. After a few preliminary exhortations, brother Hester shared the testimony of God’s grace throughout his life. We saw the pre-eminence of God’s plan, God’s presence, God’s provision, God’s people, and God’s providence. A few highlights thoughts were:

-Don’t be pigheaded. Be teachable. Learn from others.
-Regarding talents, give God what you’ve got. Stop comparing and get your eyes on Christ.
-When we take a stand it’s easy to be mean. Don’t be. But you need to take your stand as well.
-Don’t feel sorry for yourself. Trust God’s providence and pray “Lord, I don’t have much, but it’s yours. No strings attached.”

Jeremy Pinero took the morning youth session speaking on “Why you should want my job” (as a missionary). Some highlights were:

-I get paid to do what I love to do!
-An illustration of a murderer who was saved. The next day she was in church and no one recognised her as the woman who had been saved because her countenance had been altered so drastically.
-God rejoices in even our baby steps. He is not angry and frustrated, but rejoices in each baby step that we take.
-Pastors and plumbers will hear the same “well done” when they get to heaven. We each play our part in the work and there are no stars in God’s kingdom.

All in all it was a very encouraging morning which was followed up by a barbeque on the grounds. We ducked out before the final youth session and headed to Wendy’s for some fellowship with family and friends. Until tonight, grace to you.

Roger Monosmith spoke for the first session. I ended up missing the second session. The third session was a split session. I’m told the men’s session with Buddy Smith was a profitable message on the idols of the heart. Chris Hustler spoke to the youth.

The evenings sessions were excellent, but I’ll let Alen give you the scoop on that. Tomorrow morning Jeremy Pinero speaks to the youth. We’ve also got a sausage sizzle for lunch tomorrow which should provide a good opportunity for fellowship. Today we did lunch with a friend before heading back for a bit of a rest.

Grace to you.

Alen and I are taking turns on this thing so tonight is my turn. This afternoon we ended up back at our lodging doing the usual solve-all-the-problems-of-the-world-in-a-single-sitting thing. One of the guys may have slept through most of it. (!)

In spite of a large crowd and a fairly late arrival we managed to get fairly good seats. Early on in the service there was a video presentation promoting the Biblical Builder which was followed by Robert Bakss preaching. His message was from Ruth 2 and was titled “Nothing Catches God By Surprise.” He asked the question “To what end were you born?” and then gave three points which came naturally from the narrative of the text.

Count your blessings where you are.
Choose who you will spend your life with.
Consider why God has brought you here.

Rob Booy then presented some photos from his ministry in PNG which were followed by the main speaker, Jim Alley. Alley took his text from Matthew 14 where he focused in on the role of storms in our lives. He pointed out that in the narrative, the disciples had:

A directive to follow (they were instructed to cross by sea)
A storm to go through (they were told they would make it to the other side)
A Saviour in the middle of the storm
And a lesson to be learned (“You are the son of God”)

One of the great blessings of conferences is the fellowship with other believers. Last night Maccas presented the venue. This morning we’re making out with coffee and random snacks for breakfast and it all starts again at 9am.

Hey everyone! We’ll be reporting again on the NBF this year down in Adelaide. The drive down was intense and long, but well worth it. This is my first time to Adelaide so it is kind of exciting. Our venue is quite splendid. The church is quite amazing from an architectural point of view.

This morning we had two main sessions and then a split session.

Session One: Ernie Veszely
The theme of the NBF this year is “for such a time as this” taken from the book of Esther. His message this morning was taken from Esther 4 and was titled “The hidden hand of God.”. His two main points were, 1) God’s hidden hand is guided by his providence and 2) God’s hidden hand is directed to his purpose. One excellent point that Read the rest of this entry »

It’s that time of year again. I’m heading out tomorrow morning for my annual pilgrimmage to wherever the NBF (National Baptist Fellowship) happens to be—Adelaide in this case. I’ve been out of town a bit and generally just busier than I should be so that’s why things have been a bit quiet here.

Once again we’re planning to live blog the NBF. That is if we can get all the plans together to do so. So stay tuned.

My friend Robert Apps has just launched a new website, Apps Ministries. Rob is a solicitor as well as Assistant Pastor at Trinity Baptist Church, Cairns. The Lord has really been opening doors for Rob to travel and speak for camps and legal seminars over the last year and I encourage you to check out his website and make yourself familiar with his ministry.

There are a lot of things we can learn from this situation. A lot of things…

If you read even one blog regularly, RSS is for you. It will save you time, I promise.

Some of you may be wondering, “Doesn’t everyone use RSS?” The answer is no; less than 6% of internet users take advantage of this extraordinarily helpful technology. Abraham Piper.

RSS is the single most helpful tool I’ve found in managing my time on the net. It allows me to do in 2-3 minutes what would have otherwise taken close to an hour.

If you think it could save you time, here’s a great guide to using it.

I don’t normally do movie reviews on InFocus, but I just watched a movie that I want to tell you about. If you’re not surprised that this major production was organised by Sony Pictures and a Baptist church, you probably won’t be surprised that it is well produced and well written. Of course it’s not a full-scale Hollywood production either, but then that’s old-hat anyway. Whatever the case, this movie definitely has heart.

To give you an idea of the plot, think small town America and high school Gridiron football. I know. “Been there. Seen that. Got the t-shirt.” But somehow this movie manages to pull something wonderful and God-glorifying out of the well-worn storyline. In one already-famous scene, a key leader on the team finds himself blindfolded and being pushed to understand that his God-given potential far outweighs his apathetic expectations. Even though this scene was described to me several times before I watched the movie, I was deeply impacted and spiritually rebuked as the scene climaxed in the end-zone.

I’m not the type of person who is moved to tears often, but I’ll admit that this movie brought me to tears repeatedly and found me openly weeping at the end. It also got more solid laughs out of me than a decent comedy could. One more amazing thing about this movie. You can hire it at most of the major video shops. Here. In Australia. I encourage you to get it and watch it. It has done an amazing job of making God look good.

We’re all comfortable with spiritual disciplines like prayer, fellowship, and Scripture reading, but rest?

This afternoon I faced a decision. Usually this only happens in hypothetical situations, but today it was real life. You see, I’m at a stage in my life where I am once again very busy. I have the care of managing two businesses and overseeing dozens of employees. Add a regular preaching schedule and ministry opportunities on top of that, and you have a fairly busy lifestyle. And there’s one more thing you need to understand. Wednesday is my day off. Like most people, I spend a lot of my day off catching up on little odds and ends, doing those things that just don’t get done during the week. But by late afternoon, I generally try to jump in the car and run down to the sea for some chips, coffee, and a few hours of rest.

Well, today, at four o’clock, I had just one more thing left on my “today” to do list: “Sermon prep.” A pretty spiritual thing to do, eh? After all, I have some preaching engagements coming up and this is a sacred calling. So that was my decision. Do I rest or do I do sermon prep. Doing both was not an option because I have a full evening scheduled.

…the chips were good. I found a shop that sells coffee for $3.50 on the Esplanade. Most of the other shops sell it for $4.00 down there. The weather was lovely and the ocean was beautiful.

Have you ever found yourself resenting God for His holiness?

The Apprising Ministries website is now officially offline. Rick Warren’s apologist, Abanes (pronounced Uh-bah-nez) threatened legal action against IPower (Apprising Ministries’ server) and the site was taken down.

It’s important to realise that this is not a legal precedent. Apprising Ministries agreed to the IPower conditions which basically give IPower the freedom to remove any website which causes them controversy or trouble. It is however a bad precendent and a case of bullying. As far as I understand the situation, there was nothing on the Apprising Ministries site which has been demonstrated to be legally libelous or defamatory. Apprising Ministries was not contacted directly by Abanes. It was all handled behind the scenes.

I encourage you to click through and read some of the details for two reasons: 1) to get a better idea of what has happened and why it’s important and 2) to support the protest by giving this story hits.

AFBC 2008: Pentecost Power

The evening started off with the Mayo family doing an item. They sang “This is The Day the Lord Hath Made” which was quite beautifully done. We then sang through several songs before the Kwok brothers did their special (Ben Kwok the Pastor of Rouse Hill Church, Mike Kwok one of the elders at Fellowship Baptist Church, and Jeremy Kwok a deacon at Fellowship Baptist). Just before Rev. Webb came up to preach we sang one song I wish to make mention of. It is a puritan prayer that was organized into a song called “O Great God” the lyrics were truly remarkable.

This evening the message was called “Pentecost Power” The text was Acts 2:36-47. The message was on on revival and viewed this passage on Acts as a ‘blueprint for spiritual revival.’ Through this passage there were five observations:

1. The soveriegnty of God.
Gods soveriegnty was displayed through His choosing of a day, time, and place which had a maximum effect on the people.

2. The spiritual preperation of the people.
A key statement he made was that Pentecost power must be preceded by Pentecost prayer. It’s prayer that releases the power.

3. The suddeness of the event.
The event occurred quickly. He also mentions the occurance of tongues and quickly clarifies the misconceptions many Charismatics and Pentecostals hold onto. He points out verses 6, 8, and 11 make mention of the fact that they all were speaking in known languages.

4. The striking power of the Apostolic preaching.
He points out that Christ is the central focus of the message and that our preaching today also needs to be Christ focused.

5. The superabundant blessings that followed.
The adding of people to the church, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit were some of the blessings.

The concluding thought of the message was that Pentecost is not just a day or an event, but a beginning of the work of God.

AFBC 2008: What’s right with the Church?

The evening started out with some singing and then moved onto a special by the Faith Baptist choir. They sung “Who Can Satisfy My Soul” which was very well done. After Alan Webb, the guest speaker, was introduced another special item was performed by Sarah from the Bob Jones University team. She sang “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus”. After this Rev. Alan Webb preached his sermon entitled “What’s Right With the Church?” He had 4 points:

1. The church is the biggest institution in the world.
He states that there are over 2 billion adherents and that over 80, 000 people profess faith in Christ a day. He mentions the work in China and that over 63 million people profess faith in Christ. Moreover Korea which for most of history had no believers now has over 30% of its population claim Christ.

2. The church is the smallest institution in the world.
In reference to the local church he mentions how the body of Christ works together and how if one is effected all are effected.

3. The church is the most radical institution in the world.
The church is radical because it forces change in people’s lives.

4. The church is the most triumphant institution in the world.

He concluded the message with the thought that we are taken out of death and darkness into life and light, and not only are we taken out of and into, but unto. We are taken unto eternal life.

This week, Wednesday to Friday, is the annual Australian Fellowship of Bible-Believing Churches Bible Conference in Sydney. I felt that it would be good for us to be aware of what’s going on there this week so I’m excited that Alen Basic has agreed to live blog the conference for us!