What will you do?

Last night was the exiting students dinner. A great night to catch up with people before we all head off, if tinged with sadness - hard to believe that 4 years of college is really over.

John Woodhouse posed the question to us in the leaving address: When you leave this place, what will you do?

He reminded us that it was all to easy to answer that question really quickly, full of the tasks that are ahead of us in the exciting ministries we are heading into. But he challenged us to stop and think - for our time here at college had not been about learning the bible better or getting better equipped to serve God first and foremost. Rather, we had the privilege of growing in our love and knowledge of our great God- Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

He took us to Colossians 1:28 'Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ.' Knowing God, through His Son and by the Spirit is the only thing that will sustain us for life. Growing in our love and appreciation of Him is what should characterise us. Am I a person who is characterised by my proclamation of Jesus because of my relationship with Him?

I am so thankful for my time here at college, where I have been taught by godly men who have shared their lives with us as they have taught us to know more about our great and gracious God. I am thankful for the pastoral heart of the lecturers, not satisfied for us to know more but wanting us to live out what we know, radically transformed by the love that the Father has shown to us in His son.

I will miss college.

Today's lessons

Forgetting to return library books on time at MTC is expensive.

Studying in an air-conditioned room set to 22 degrees when it is 38 degrees outside means that you will boil when you go outside with a cardigan on.

Paying more attention in first and second year Greek would have been a good idea (nouns do not have tenses, verbs have tenses).

In Hebrews 1:10 the writer of Hebrews attributes the words of Psalm 102, which in their original context are about God, to God's lips in a declaration about His Son.

The writer of Hebrews likes to be descriptive about God's nature, so talks about him as 'the majesty on high' or 'the throne of grace'.

Jesus is the great high priest - who is qualified as one appointed by God and also as one who is also subject to weakness. However, Jesus was without sin, and is therefore superior to priests of Aaron's line, for he was able to offer the perfect sacrifice which brings salvation.

Off to learn a little more ...

What's in a name?

Byron noticed the name change. Safetygirl has become Mandy's Musings.

I've been thinking a bit recently about names and what they say about people, especially reflecting on names in the Bible. I love the way that God sometimes changes people's names to reflect the task he has for them (think Abraham). Jesus is Immanuel, God with us.

While safetygirl is a nickname that a few dear friends were responsible for coining and I have used it as an email address for the last few years, I've never really liked it when anyone apart from them called me 'safetygirl'.

So I thought I'd go back to the name my parents gave me (well, what they have always actually called me even if they put Amanda on the birth certificate). As an interesting aside, Amanda means worthy of love, while my brother Kevin's name means beloved - something Mum & Dad didn't realise when they named either of us.

So from now on when you encounter me in cyberspace, I'll be plain old Mandy, just as I am face to face. And if you read my blog, you'll find me musing about God, life and everything else.

So welcome to Mandy's Musings.

Giving thanks to the Father ...

who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. Col 1:12-15

God's word did not return empty - one woman indicated that she had placed her trust in Jesus last night, and a number of others expressed interest in attending a Simply Christianity follow up course.

Praise be to our great God!

A Fabulous Night!

Anyone want to guess where I was last night?



No, I wasn't at home studying hard (I did that during the day);


I wasn't speaking at an evangelistic event (that's tonight - thanks for your prayers)





So where was I you ask?



I was at the U2 concert!



It was fantastic. A phonecall on Sunday afternoon sealed the deal, with Emily inviting me to come along with her as Luke stayed at home with the baby (who was meant to attend the concert in April in utero!).

Lots of funny moments - Elevation turned into a parody of 'spining around' in the middle as a tribute to Kylie, who also featured as the angel in Angel of Harlem. Bono singing I Should Be So Lucky in falsetto towards the end was also memorable. Old favourites played a big part, with a good run of my favourites back to back. Highlight for me was Beautiful Day, with With or Without you in the first encore a close second. Only downside was that Emily's favourite - Yahweh didn't make the playlist for the final concert.

It was a great spectacle, the sound was fabulous and their was heaps of energy. I enjoyed the ad-libbing, with 'Sydney' and "Telstra stadium' making it into more than one song, as did 'Party Boy'.

A wonderful break in the middle of stuvac! Still plugging away slowly at Matthew and Hebrews - I'll get there by next Thursday.

For those who are interested, here's the play list:

City of Blinding LIghts
Vertigo
Elevation
I Will Follow
New Year's Day
Beautiful Day
Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
Angel of Harlem
Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own
Love and Peace
Sunday Bloody Sunday
Bullet The Blue Sky
Miss Sarajevo
Pride in the Name of Love
Where The Streets Have No Name
One

Until the End of the World
Mysterious Ways
With or Without You

The Saints Are Coming
Party Girl
Kite

Grasping at the wind

Taking a break from studying today to work on an evangelistic talk for next Tuesday night. Yes, I'm speaking at a Gingerbread House night!

I'm speaking on John 14:1-6. I've spoken evangelistically from the passage before, but am not really happy with that talk and am trying to rework it (and it's too late to change the passage). Wondering why I picked a section of discourse rather than a story, a passage that doesn't directly mention the cross and would be far too easy to use to promise 'pie in the sky when you die'???

Finding it difficult to work out what I'm going to say and how I'm going to say it - like I'm reaching for something that is just beyond me. Thankful that God's word never returns to him empty and that the Father will draw his people to himself through his Son in the power of the Spirit.

Audience of One?

I've been reading through Matthew of late, and was really struck when I got to the beatitudes about how much I really don't understand them!

One thing that stood out in chapter 6 was the whole idea of seeking to live a righteous life for God's approval alone. It made me think of an old song that I'm pretty sure was called 'Audience of One' where the chorus goes something like: 'when all is said and done, I want to hear well done, from the audience of One'.

I've realised that it is so much easier to seek the approval of those around me whose feedback is immediate than it is to do things for the glory of God. Given that it is His opinion alone that matters, it is a foolish thing to do. So I've been challenged to seek not man's approval but God's, knowing that it is Him alone who sees the heart and knows my true motives anyway.