Update 7th April 2011

It's been a hectic week. I keep thinking all week that I'm sick. Whatever it is, I've been feeling drained and flat since Monday. I'm reminded as I write this of Paul's humbling portrayal of ourselves as gospel workers. "But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us" 2 Cor 4.7. The treasure of the gospel is carried in such ignoble, abject vessels and it is by God's good pleasure this is so; that he may show the greatness of his all-surpassing power. I am reminded that the work of the gospel is not done out of my own strength but by him who doesn't need sleep, doesn't have bad days, doesn't ever grow tired or weary or dull or listless, doesn't ever need to just sit and unwind, and doesn't ever fail.

News From GracePoint/Prayer Requests
Thank you to all who have been praying for the Burwood evening church. Some of you may know that we were recently going to be evicted from our current worship premises by this Sunday because the Club that we're renting from decided to renovate their function centre. However now we they are no longer beginning renovations until June the very earliest. In addition, the local Baptist church have agreed to house us temporarily while the renovations are taking place. This has relieved a lot of the stress and anxiety of finding a gathering place for a hundred people for three months this year. Please give thanks to God, who is our provider in every way!

The Burwood Easter Festival is coming up on Saturday. It is an event supported by the local council that seven churches in the area have had the privilege of organizing. On Saturday, in celebration of Easter, there will be a parade down the main road of our suburb, ending at the local park, where there will be a program with music, food, and other various attractions. It's a great opportunity for us to raise the profile of the church in our community, and to celebrate Jesus and declare that he is alive and the risen King! GracePoint will be there making balloon animals and doing face-painting while we hand out gospel tracts and flyers to our church.
Pray that God will use this to call people to him through faith in Jesus Christ. Pray that people will go to churches wanting to know more and Jesus and why he is Lord, and that they will hear the good news of his work on the cross, repent for their sins, and receive forgiveness in him.

Scripture Of The Week: 2 Cor 5.18-20
All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

What I've Been Learning
I meet up twice a month with Pastor Owen and one of the things we've been working through together is the theology of pastoral counseling and how to do it biblically. The book that we're reading through to help us is Instruments In The Redeemer's Hands and I highly recommend this work. It is not only an indispensable work for pastors; it is relevant to anybody who wants to understand more deeply what it means to be a friend or bf/gf or husband/wife, son/daughter, or what God's intentions are for our relationships. It grounds our relationships in God's work of gathering a people for himself in this sinful world to grow to become more holy and find joy in growing in Christ-likeness and helping people around to do the same.

These last few weeks, as we work through the book chapter by chapter and discuss how I can immediately apply those biblical principles in my relationships, have been an immensely stretching experience. It frightens me to think that my work as a pastor is to gently and with grace help people become aware of their sin and their need for Jesus. That is highly intrusive and not a comfortable thing to do.

I've had pages and pages of reflections based on this recent endeavor, and I'll share one that I wrote a few months ago, on the subject of pastoring and grace. It can be found on my other blog, HERE.