In the future, one thing is certain.

Someone’s going to drive it.

Someone’s going to collect it.

Someone’s going to lie on it. Sit on it. Sleep on it.

Drink too much German beer on it.

Someone will sit in front row seats, here, here and here.

Someone will land it. Someone will save it. Someone will find it. Then get happily lost in it.

Someone will sleep five stars, someone will sleep under the stars.

Someone will ski down it, fly over it, and scream across it.

Beautiful things will still be made in the future. Someone is going to buy them.

Someone’s going to walk it. Someone is going to ride it.

And at the end of the day, someone’s going to watch it.

And there’s no reason why that someone can’t be you.

Since 1849, AMP has helped more Australians own their tomorrows.

Own tomorrow. AMP.

Emotive as it was, it is also, of course, absolute hogwash — GFC or no!

Someone once told this story:

A rich man once thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’

He decided, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’

But God said to the man, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’

You don’t own your tomorrow. It’s not even yours today. The Bible says there is one good kind of storing up to be done — I can “store up God’s word in my heart, that I might not sin against Him.” (Ps 119:11) — yet I still fail and need to fall upon His mercy.

The man who told that story was Jesus. (Luke 12:16–20) He promises peace and a greater security than all the riches of the world.

Own eternal life. Jesus.

The teachings of Jesus were clearly divisive in the Gospels and continue to be so today. Light illuminates darkness. Christ reveals sin.

He also pays for it. And is worth following. The unsweetened reality of the end of Luke 9 is at once immensely painful and wholly true.

Our speaker, David Ould, faithfully preached Jesus’ words without coating them in false comfort or apologising for their truth and goodness. The hard truth of the gospel is such that, though we find great joy in the King who pays sin’s great price, we wept and prayed for those who do not yet acknowledge Him.

We fail as much as any fallen, sinful people do. Pray for us that we would love like Jesus, which rightly includes declaring the reality of division as sin is exposed by the gospel.

Tonight while driving me home, Josh and I stopped at Maccas and bought a chocolate sundae. He asked me whether there are McFlurries in China and I said yes. He was glad, and joked that this isn’t something he’d be willing to give up for Jesus. We laughed, because this isn’t true. We both would give up much more than McDonald’s icecreams for Jesus. I love this boy.

Friday was a pretty insane day, but I snapped this photo (cameraphone, dunno what happened top right!) arriving at our office in the morning before getting into it. We’ve got a pretty incredible view over Coogee, which is fantastic… except for when the sea and sky are such amazing colours and you know there’s not a chance of actually getting outside to it!

There were some sheets of light rain and these incredible clouds that cleared off to perfect skies and an ocean that even I, someone who doesn’t particularly rate swimming and has never learnt to surf despite living within 5km of the coast his whole life, wished I was free to head over to.

It is good to give thanks to the Lord,
to sing praises to your name, O Most High;
to declare your steadfast love in the morning,
and your faithfulness by night,
to the music of the lute and the harp,
to the melody of the lyre.
For you, O Lord, have made me glad by your work;
at the works of your hands I sing for joy.

– Psalm 92

We were made to work even before sin entered the world, but I reckon work/time-outside-on-a-beautiful-day balance would’ve been better then! For those trust Jesus, a future is coming where every day all are freed to give thanks to Him forever…  even those stuck in beige office towers!

The latest, however, has been remarked upon by various reviewers as taking a significantly darker turn — reflected both in (generally) well-done digital colour grading as well as thematically. The idea of “darkness” in this film is intriguing, particularly in light of the acknowledgement of Dumbledore as one of the greatest wizards of all time and the continuing struggle and dichotomy between forces of good and evil in the film.

The demise of Dumbledore (oh, yeah, spoiler alert — but you’ve already read the books, right?), that great force for good, represents a notable setback for this cause. I mention him particularly because he is, until this moment in the saga, the character with the most complete view of the situation. He is wisest and most powerful. However, as he enters the cave containing a horcrux with Harry, I was frustrated with their collective inability to illuminate the room.

Cry lumos as loudly as they may, even Dumbledore’s casting of beacons of light across the cave fails to significantly brighten the environment. I was reminded of the triumph over darkness that God has given us in Jesus, so absolute that fiction does not even approach its conquest. The Bible speaks of a future, renewed creation where God’s holy city has no need of a moon, or a sun, for it is so illuminated by the glory of His presence. (Revelation 21:23–24)

This is not fiction, and there is no battle that has not already been won by Jesus Christ the living king of all.

God has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
– Colossians 1:13–14

…that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.
– 1 Peter 2:9

This week I had the privilege of joining six hundred others from a Christian student group at Sydney University for part of a week-long conference. I was meant to be there the whole week, and was pretty disappointed to find myself stuck in bed for a couple of days after “flu-like symptoms” descended on me Sunday evening! Still, made it up on Wednesday in time for the second half of the week. Rowan Kemp gave some great talks, explaining from the Bible who God is & why the Trinity is essential for understanding Him, how Christians are given a “deposit” or guarantee from God now as a sure sign of what is to come, and what “Spiritual gifts” are and their usefulness not just to individuals, but for the whole of God’s church. And plenty of other stuff, I’m sure!

I’d originally been going to help out leading a Focus (International Student) small group but for obvious reasons (i.e. the whole not arriving til Wednesday thing) this didn’t work out. Yin and Michael led the review group (based around the talk content) until on Thursday Yin got sick and, as many of the students had gone home (they were only attending part time), we combined the two Focus review groups into one. Phil and Anna served this group by exploring some of Christianity’s promises and claims: pray that God will use the material this group went over to continue to stir thoughts and point people to Christ as King and Saviour.

On Thursday night, Rowan shared a vision for the next 50–70 years of the lives of Christian people in that room, where by sustained prayer for many different ministries God might take the lives of many there for His purposes and glory throughout the world. It’s an exciting dream and one I want to prayerfully pursue for the rest of my life, thanking God for those who are passionate about so many different ways He gives us to serve and asking that we could do so more completely because of the Spirit now in us, making us more like Jesus.

About to share some fun stuff from Chinese friends I collated with Tori last year (for a DVD resource for Aussie friends thinking about caring for China through prayer and other things) with the Jam kids this morning. Praying that Jesus would keep working to call people to Himself in China!

Yet, despite this, the Captain comes to a realisation that humanity has a duty to care for the earth, regardless of whether or not that is a pleasant proposition. It would, the ship’s computer says, be much easier to leave things as they are… but that, to the Captain, is not the point. Humanity’s duty to subdue the earth (Genesis 1:28–31) is almost in accord with this idea that it is our responsibility to care for the earth because that’s what God has given to us as our duty. That was in very-good creation before our world was even remotely sinful. However, we see the curse of sin at work as our rebellion against God leads to hard work: “By the sweat of your face will you eat bread, till you return to the ground” (Genesis 3:19)

“Return to the ground” there means death, by the way — it’s not talking about a return from intergalactic exile! Wikipedia informs us that, in 2007 screenings, “Stanton (lead writer) felt half the audience at the screening believed the humans would be unable to cope with living on Earth and died out after the film’s end.” Certainly the optimism at growing “pizza plants” is misguided and such illusions are likely to be quickly remedied! However, the right state of humanity, according to the the first instruction received, is to ‘subdue’ the earth and depend upon it for our sustenance. Even rebellion against God, the one who gives all life on earth, does not change this intrinsic human need for work.

It is not enough to exist as consumptive, passive beings. We are made for work. Indeed, we are made for worship, which is a kind of work (and all work, rightly enacted, serves also as worship of the Creator and King of the world). To suggest that utopia is personal transportation, liquid meals, rapidly changeable fashions, personal servants, and even the abolition of economic concerns, is to ignore an important part of our nature as humans. Sin has corrupted this, and we now idolize work to the detriment of other things more important, and embrace laziness (not rest) as a social norm and even an aspiration. The earth, upon which we were set as caretakers, groans under the curse of our rebellion (Genesis 3:17), and yet still the hunger of billions is not satisfied.

Thank God that because of Jesus we can hope for a future that is much greater than space travel, liquid lunches, freedom from financial concerns, and robotic assistants and personalities! Because of what Jesus has done on the Cross, we’re able to come freely to our creator, sustainer, and king, without fear and with a hope for eternity.

we forget.

sometimes not soon enough, painlessly enough, loudly enough. as though our protest will make it sooner, easier, clearer. clearing these clouds to what end? dispelling an illusion alone? concentrating precipitation at some other time, in some other place? seeding rainfall is an imprecise science, you know. beijing would like to think otherwise — will have the world think otherwise, but we will have to wait until the eighth hour of the eighth day to learn — or at least observe the culmination of many factors not totally understood.

our control is at best imprecise.

rumours of tesla weapons and unheeded seismologists and toads are one thing, but the burial of thousands and grief to families and subsequent suicides and infertilities and abandonments are quite another. as, too, are rescues and outpourings of compassion and global relief efforts and prayers of thousands, at least some of which are being heard.

the opportunists? the profiteers?

“no man has power to retain the spirit, or power over the day of death” (Ecc 8:8) — so let them lie and cheat. let the cheaters lie. they are digging their own pit.

why do good things happen to evil people?

it was not always like this. it will not remain like this.

“he [Jesus of Nazareth] is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead” (Acts 10:42)

but he, too, makes us at peace with him through paying the price for us on the cross. “[God] reconciles to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.” (Col 1:20)

“Surely I am coming soon.” (Rev 22:20)

come, Lord Jesus!

His disciples said, “Ah, now you are speaking plainly and not using figurative speech!”– John 16:29

Yay for clarity! You can find the fulltext of John 16 here. Apologies for the slight ramblingness of this post. It gains clarity towards the end… twas somewhat shaped off a Skype conversation that I haven’t the time nor energy to properly edit at this point :)

John 8:14 is pretty funny in its portrayal of the sheer incorrectness of the Pharisees’ assertion of the passage prior: It’s like… you can’t speak truth because you’re speaking truth about yourself (!!)… and then, fastforward back to 16:30 – “We know that you know all things and don’t need anyone to question you; this is why we believe that you came from God” – then, in verse 31, Jesus — “oh, so NOW you get it…”

Verse 32 — “But, seriously… yeah, right. Even if you say you do you’re all about to pissbolt… Oh, that’s now, btw.”

33 — “but I’ve said this stuff so that”… You’ll know after the resurrection what’s going on… The resurrection is the act that will make sense of all of this; there will be no figures of speech because it’s a concrete demonstration of what the Christ is achieving — “overcoming the world” and bringing peace for those who are in him — kinda like way the Father is with Him even when all others desert

Verse 23 is confusing… “You won’t ask me anything” vs. “My father will give you whatever you ask in my name”… are they both talking about prayer or is the first talking about information/knowing stuff about Christ’s identity and relationship to the Father and the second talking about prayer?’

Perhaps its about the perfect sufficiency of the cross — reading 22 AND 23 together:

(Paraphrase of Jesus:) You will be sorrowful til I’m back, and then I basically won life (literally! haha) and you have a joy that can’t be taken away from you and what you’re asking the Father will be asked in my name!

You’re not trying to ask it directly of Him (the Father) anymore. You won’t need to, because you have the Spirit of Christ once Jesus has conquered death and returned to His Father. What I think that means, in the context of the “Spirit of truth” from earlier in the passage, is that the things you ASK for are asked as Jesus would (i.e. you’re not standing alone before the father with an impaired relationship asking things for yourself once Jesus has conquered and we’ve received the spirit of truth that speaks what He hears from the Father and Son. Our hearts will desire different things, and we’ll have a complete joy that can’t be taken from us in Christ.

We don’t get the Spirit so we can ask for crap, but so that He can declare what he hears (from the Father) — AND — in verse 14–15, His purpose is to glorify the son, who is King over everything that is the Father’s; the Spirit will declare the things of Jesus to his people. So, asking of the Father “in my name” is about asking to receive joy in full…

“I am not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf” — Does this mean Jesus ISN’T an intermediary (as in Hebrews 7:25)? And Romans 8:26 says that the Holy Spirit intercedes for us when we don’t know what or how to pray. But this passage (John 16) says that the Holy Spirit will speak only what He hears from the Father and Son: therefore, His intercessory prayer for us will necessarily take the shape of prayer for things that God desires. And that should be our prayer always.

Christ needn’t ask the Father on our behalf because His act of death and resurrection/victory OVER death means that our sins have been paid for if we trust in Jesus and call him our Lord. When our sins are paid for, we can be in relationship with God the Father and pray to Him; the High Priest that Hebrews 7 talks about is presenting us blamelessly in unblemished relationship again with God, so we can approach Him. When Christ’s perfect sacrifice was made, we are able to and should do as the writer of Hebrews says we should in chapter 10 of that letter: Where there is forgiveness of sins and lawlessness, there is no longer any offering for sin. Therefore… let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

We are able to draw near to God. Right now this is in the form of prayer to Him and for His purposes; that He might achieve them and use His people to this end in His service. We don’t need to pray in a church or temple, we don’t need to burn incense or hear music to uplift us — though these things are not intrinsically bad. We have freedom as we are saved by Christ’s sacrifice for us; we have a new Spirit which He has put in His people to allow them to draw near to God without impediment or constriction. We needn’t pray to Christ, because He has opened a new way to the Father for us, having fulfilled the law of the scriptures and making perfect that which we (His people) could not.

God’s presence used to dwell in the holiest place of the Temple; now, He dwells in the hearts of His people as Christ has made us His own.

When Jesus says “It is to your advantage that I go away”, he means it. If Christ hadn’t gone away from His followers to the brutal Roman cross to pay for our sins, we would not have peace with God, and there’s no way He could say “I have overcome the world” without lying through his teeth unless He faced death and came out the other side, opening a new way to God for His people.

Our leaders were all fantastic, Andrew was used so powerfully by God to speak to people who follow Jesus and those who don’t alike, and there were more engaging discussions had than at… somewhere that would have a lot of them. So many people seeking something, and so many who seem close to finding, but that’s all outside of our power. To God alone be the glory.

The Resurrection

¹When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus’ body. ²Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb ³and they asked each other, “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?”

⁴But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away. ⁵As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed.

⁶“Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. ⁷But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.’ ”

Jesus Before Pilate

¹Very early in the morning, the chief priests, with the elders, the teachers of the law and the whole Sanhedrin, reached a decision. They bound Jesus, led him away and handed him over to Pilate.

²“Are you the king of the Jews?” asked Pilate.

“Yes, it is as you say,” Jesus replied.

³The chief priests accused him of many things. ⁴So again Pilate asked him, “Aren’t you going to answer? See how many things they are accusing you of.”

⁵But Jesus still made no reply, and Pilate was amazed.

⁶Now it was the custom at the Feast to release a prisoner whom the people requested. ⁷A man called Barabbas was in prison with the insurrectionists who had committed murder in the uprising. ⁸The crowd came up and asked Pilate to do for them what he usually did.

⁹“Do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews?” asked Pilate, ¹⁰knowing it was out of envy that the chief priests had handed Jesus over to him. ¹¹But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have Pilate release Barabbas instead.

¹²“What shall I do, then, with the one you call the king of the Jews?” Pilate asked them.

¹³“Crucify him!” they shouted.

¹⁴“Why? What crime has he committed?” asked Pilate.

But they shouted all the louder, “Crucify him!”

¹⁵Wanting to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. He had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified.

The Soldiers Mock Jesus

¹⁶The soldiers led Jesus away into the palace (that is, the Praetorium) and called together the whole company of soldiers. ¹⁷They put a purple robe on him, then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on him. ¹⁸And they began to call out to him, “Hail, king of the Jews!” ¹⁹Again and again they struck him on the head with a staff and spit on him. Falling on their knees, they paid homage to him. ²⁰And when they had mocked him, they took off the purple robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him out to crucify him.

The Crucifixion

²¹A certain man from Cyrene, Simon, the father of Alexander and Rufus, was passing by on his way in from the country, and they forced him to carry the cross. ²²They brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha (which means The Place of the Skull). ²³Then they offered him wine mixed with myrrh, but he did not take it. ²⁴And they crucified him. Dividing up his clothes, they cast lots to see what each would get.

²⁵It was the third hour when they crucified him. ²⁶The written notice of the charge against him read: THE KING OF THE JEWS. ²⁷They crucified two robbers with him, one on his right and one on his left. ²⁹Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, “So! You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, ³⁰come down from the cross and save yourself!”

³¹In the same way the chief priests and the teachers of the law mocked him among themselves. “He saved others,” they said, “but he can’t save himself! ³²Let this Christ, this King of Israel, come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe.” Those crucified with him also heaped insults on him.

The Death of Jesus

³³At the sixth hour darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour. ³⁴And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?”–which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

³⁵When some of those standing near heard this, they said, “Listen, he’s calling Elijah.”

³⁶One man ran, filled a sponge with wine vinegar, put it on a stick, and offered it to Jesus to drink. “Now leave him alone. Let’s see if Elijah comes to take him down,” he said.

³⁷With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last.

³⁸The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. ³⁹And when the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, heard his cry and saw how he died, he said, “Surely this man was the Son of God!”