The depths of despair

Some days I am so conscious of my own brokeness, weakness and sinfulness - such that it is eary to be overwhelmed and as Anne would say: 'In the depths of despair'. Yet it is so great to be reminded of the goodness and kindness of God and his mercy shown to us in Christ.

Very thankful to have some good friends who have reminded me in the last few weeks that everything I do in service of the Lord is in his strength; it is his work, not mine; and he has chosen to work in and through this broken vessel to proclaim his Son here in Sydney - my weaknesses do not necessarily hinder his work; rather my weaknesses point to his awesome power.

2 Cor 4:5-14:

5 For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants [1] for Jesus' sake. 6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. 8 We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10 always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. 11 For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. 12 So death is at work in us, but life in you.

13 Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, “I believed, and so I spoke,” we also believe, and so we also speak, 14 knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence.

My Mum and Dad

Mum just sent through one of their holiday snaps from Singapore.

I miss my Mum and Dad. While it is lovely to chat to Mum every week and catch up on what's going on for them, it's not the same as being able to randomly drop in and see how they are. We average about 4 visits a year - I try and go up to Qld a couple of times a year and they try and come down to Sydney a few times as well.

I'm excited because I booked my next trip to see them today. With all the conjestion and confusion expected for APEC I thought the best way to avoid it would be to get out of Sydney- so I'll head up to Qld on the Thursday afternoon and come back on the Saturday night.

Tricky women's passages

The title of a seminar I'm presenting tomorrow for the MTS women from the Cathedral and ECOM.

I love the ambiguity ... is it the women who are tricky or the passages?

The plan is largely to raise some issues for the MTS'rs to think about about what the bible says about women and appropriate roles and responsibilities, drawing on some of the work I did on my project last year, and Claire Smith's EQUIP talks - available as a set of 6 from Matthias Media here.

I think it is a tricky issue that has the potential to be confronting and challenging ... please pray that I am wise in what I say, that we have productive and helpful discussion and are willing to submit our lives to the instruction of our loving heavenly Father.

It's good to remember ...

Last Sunday night Phillip preached on Romans 12:1-8.

He said many good and helpful things, but about 2/3 of the way through he said something like this:

To all you workaholics out there, I want to remind you that you are not indispensable

As you can see from the photo of my notes (above) it seemed pretty important to me at the time (even if I can't quite spell)! So easy to get caught up in the busy-ness of life that you begin to think that things won't happen unless you do them ... yet sobering and humbling to be reminded that it is God who is at work in the world, and he will bring about his purposes. It really isn't all about me!