First Sermon

First what?!

Yeah, after lots of coaxing and some sly tricks, Cpt. Chris Radburn finally got me to do a sermon. Of course I tried to find excuses, and up until then I'd managed to find plenty.

But I had holidays, so I had time to plan... and the Radburns needed a holiday, so us laypeople volunteered to fill in so they could have that holiday.

So I wrote my own sermon on a topic that I find very applicable in the current culture climate. I titled it Truth Revealed: Is the Bible really the Word of God?

The good thing about this exercise is that it made me study the history of the Bible and the content of the Bible itself, and in doing so, I really answered a lot of my own questions.

The message examined three categories of proof to answer skepticism on whether the Bible is accurate and divinely inspired. I won't re-write the sermon here, but the transcript (which varied a bit from my spoken sermon, since I did adlib a bit rather than read word for word) can be found here: Brett's First Sermon (note, because I refuse to buy M$ Office at insane prices, I created this file in )

So the sermon was held in a Cafe style. Instead of pulpits in rows, we held the meeting in the Youth Hall and had cafe tables with baskets of cakes etc. Lindsay brought the coffee machine from the Salvo store and set it up so people could make cappuccinos, lattes, hot chocolates etc.

Despite feeling nervous to start with, I felt very comfortable once I got started. Knowing and BELIEVING what I spoke about is what helped, as well as strength through the Holy Spirit.

After the meeting, there was a good response. I had a number of people come up to me with a big smile, saying how the sermon helped their understanding and their belief. I thought that, due to the response, it makes way for running a bible study on Christian apologetics.

Mum came along and did the Bible reading for me. She was very impressed by the message and told me how it answered all the doubts she'd been having. I believe God sent her along that day, and her spiritual needs were met. It makes me happy that I could do that for me lil ol' mum.

Dad couldn't make it because of work (he had to irrigate), but I gave him those notes from the meeting and he read them. I also lent him one of my books/resources. Paul Little's "Know Why You Believe".

There were a lot of young people that I wish could have been there on the day.

Mothers, fathers, brothers, neighbours etc... If we're Christians, we need to be ready to give an answer when people throw darts at our faith. I've come to realise that's why society is rejecting Christian faith, because there's a lack of smart Christians defending it and strongly convicted Christians presenting it... only "dabblers", such as me. I am keen to get into some apologetics and teach it.

Perhaps that's my new years resolution?

HIDDEN MESSAGE

Can you see a hidden message within this text? You need to really concentrate and wonder what it might be. Although, c'mon, stop kidding yourself. Maybe if you sit back and use your eyes, you might just realise it was staring you in the face!

Happy 2006

Well Christmas and New Year came and went pretty fast! I didn't even write about them. Here's the brief of it:

Christmas Day
We spent Christmas morning together, just the four of us. We opened all our presents and had a Christmas breakfast together. Eli got a bike, Clayton got a big table with trainset and other things. I gave Janene some hubcaps (cos I ordered some beading stuff for her from ebay but it never came on time).

Janene actually loves her new hubcaps! She'd told people at work "all I want for Christmas is a new hubcap", since she had lost one of them one day and the car lost it's appeal.

I was thrilled with my cordless drill, and soon got busy doing lots of little jobs with it, like hanging some curtain rods.

Of course we all got other pressies to play with, but those were the big ones.

Afterwards we went to Aunty Di's house and had a Christmas lunch there with all the cousins, aunties and Pop. The cuzes played some "backyard cricket". I got sunburnt, but the fact I clean bowled Michael and Craig made it worth it.

Boxing Day
I took the boys out to the farm, and along with Juanita, Ted, her boys and his two kids, we all went crayfishing with Pa. We got a couple of buckets full, we threw back the small ones and cooked the rest. There were actually more yabbies than we felt like eating.

I got more sunburnt.

New Years Eve
The regular event again, we had dinner at the Radburn's house with other church folk. It was a good time to catch up, eat lotsa food and watch illegal fireworks over the back fence.

There were lots of good little discussions going on as the night progressed, and Patty Arnis sat glued to Napoleon Dynamite. I'm not sure how much a guy from Papua New Guinea with limited english skills would get from that movie, but he sure watched it right through!

As usual too, Flo Sunderland saw the new year in. She may be the oldest church member, but she's really a stayer... or a goer... or whatever.

Well at midnight we watched the display of fireworks on TV... and imagined what else those millions of dollars could have be used for. Oh well.

We saw the new year in with a prayer led by Cpt. Chris Radburn.

RESOLUTIONS?
So, I didn't bother making any New Years Resolutions, because I still have last year's to keep. I know what they are... they're private.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!