A few years ago when I was working at Trinity Hills Church, I witnessed a reacquaintance in the foyer of the hall. One of our regulars had bumped into a man who was visiting from one of the other Trinity Churches. When they realised that they had known each other previously, both were shocked. They had been school classmates in Adelaide some years previously, before either of them came to faith in Jesus.
Both men expressed to me afterwards that they thought the other man’s shock would have been greater, with each one saying, “Knowing what I was like back then, I would have been the very last person he would ever have expected to become a Christian!”
I’m a fan of the TV series The West Wing. As with lots of other TV shows, at the beginning of each episode, one of the actors does a voice-over; “Previously on The West Wing” and then we’re shown a handful of clips from previous episodes. Of course it’s not a random collection of clips, but scenes and dialogue from earlier episodes that form part of the storyline for the episode we’re about to watch. The idea is that we get a glimpse of the issues and stories that are about to unfold.
This Sunday we start the second part of our journey through the book of Acts. Acts was our first teaching series when we started our church in 2010, so many of us weren’t here when we last looked at this book and even for those of us who were here, a lot has happened since then to cloud our memory of what went on in the first 7 chapters of the book.
It would be great if in the next week or so you can find the time to read the first 7 chapters of Acts. So much happens in that first part of the book, that it would be a shame to go into the second section without being clear on what’s happened previously. You could do it in 2 sittings; Read through to the end of chapter 3 one day, and then another time, read from 4:1 – 8:25.
We also need to remember that even Acts 1 isn’t the beginning of the story. While in our Bibles Acts is a separate book, it is really Volume two of a two volume set, with Luke’s gospel as Volume 1. Acts is Volume 2. Luke’s introduction to Acts gives a brief overview of what’s happened in the story so far. In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen.
So Acts is about Jesus’ work and teaching. He began these during his earthly ministry, and he continues to do these through the church in Acts. I hope you’re able to be with each week for this series.
In a few weeks I'm giving a talk on "Technology, Connectedness and the Christian Life." In preparation, I've been doing some reading on how different people use various aspects of technology to communicate the gospel of Jesus.
On the website of Global Recordings Network, I came across something that I saw first-hand more than 20 years ago and which ever since I've struggled to convince people actually exists!
It's the "Card Talk" cardboard record player, pictured at right. Back around 1989 we discovered one out the back of our school library. Initially we couldn't work out what this strange piece of folded carboard was and why it had a needle attached to one end, but the fact that there was a vinyl record with the cardboard suggested this was in fact a record player!
Sure enough, we placed the record on the eyelet on the cardboard, folded the end of the carboard so that the needle rested on the record and when we spun the record, we could hear the sound! The vibrations of the needle were amplified by the 'baffle' of cardboard and we could clearly understand the spoken word recording.
In two weeks time we have the opportunity to benefit from a terrific training resource, the Equip training weekend. Equip runs from Friday evening, 25th March and Saturday 26thMarch at Concordia College, Highgate. The aim of equip is to train Christians both in skills and also in understanding and thinking about the Christian faith.
In recent weeks we have been highlighting three of the Equip subjects as being particularly beneficial or interesting; Church, Baptism & The Lord’s Supper with Peter Adam, principal of Ridley College, Melbourne, aims to help us see ourselves more as God sees us, not just as individuals, but as members of God’s people, Christ’s church. Peter is one of Australia’s leading Bible teachers and theologians and over the weekend, will take participants through what the Bible says about baptism and the Lord’s Supper.
When I was a university student I was quite enthusiastic when it came to discussing (or maybe arguing!) with people about the Christian faith.If there was an argument to be had about the nature of God, justification by faith, Scripture, guidance or baptism, I’d be there!Jumping in with both feet.Probably both feet in my mouth a lot of the time but I was always keen for what I felt was a rigorous theological debate.
One of the people I used to debate with a lot was a young man named Scott.And my debates with Scott were usually about the person of Jesus Christ, especially about his deity.You see Scott was a member of a common, but non-Christian sect, and he didn’t believe that Jesus Christ was God. Unfortunately, I think that perhaps the harder I tried to convince him, the more firmly he resisted the truth.
This Sunday we're starting a brief teaching series from the Apostle Paul’s second letter to the Christians in Thessalonica. Over the next three weeks Mick Hyam from Trinity City will take us through this letter, explaining Paul’s teaching on how Christians ought to live, looking forward to the return of Christ.
This morning when you got out of bed, what did you expect was going to happen today? What are you expecting to happen this week? Whatever it is that we’re expecting or looking forward to will shape our lives and decision making, won’t it? Today another tragedy unfolded on the South Eastern Freeway and some we know were mildly inconvenienced by the traffic chaos that ensued. But for those caught up in the tragedy, surely if they had expected something like this to happen, they would have made different choices and different decisions, in order that they might be spared the horror and difficulty. Conversely, when we’re expecting something good to happen, we live in the light of that expectation and make decisions accordingly.
Back around 1989 we discovered one out the back of our school library. Initially we couldn't work out what this strange piece of folded carboard was and why it had a needle attached to one end, but the fact that there was a vinyl record with the cardboard suggested this was in fact a record player! 
