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Published on Leave a comment on Five youth talks on Christ from the Old Testament

I've been asked to give some talks to teenagers on Christ's "mission impossible" - that's the name of the camp they're on.  They suggested I do it from the OT.

I thought at some point in each talk I'll address a sneaking suspicion that Christians have deep down that eats away at our faith.  So, something like:

Jesus and Adam (Genesis 3) – "Jesus can’t be that important."

Christ is the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and End, the world's only hope.

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Jesus and Abraham (Genesis 22) – "The bible’s weird and sometimes shocking."

The bible is not a rule-book, but with Christ at the centre it makes sense.

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Jesus and Moses (Exodus 3) – "I can’t believe in God in a suffering world."

The LORD meets us in suffering to lead us out.

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Jesus and David (1 Samuel 17) – "I’m too weak for Jesus."

The gospel is not, do it for Jesus, it's: Jesus did it for you.

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Jesus and Isaiah (Isaiah 53) – "I’m too sinful for Jesus."

Jesus' mission is for sinners - He's for you!

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Anyone have any ideas for good youth-friendly video clips or jazzy stuff.  I'm not the youthiest, jazziest speaker ever!

 

Published on Leave a comment on Help with Assembly and Talk

Friday morning I've got an assembly for high school students on the topic "Anger Management."  I'm thinking of saying something based on James 4:1-3

1 What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? 2 You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. 3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

We think the problem's out there, the problem's in here.  The battles outside come from the battles inside.  What are your desires?  That kind of thing.  But I'm a bit stalled on a) How to teach it engagingly/visually and b) where to go with it.

Sunday evening I'm preaching evangelistically on "Why bother with the bible?"  My text is John 5:36-47.  Thoughts anyone?

Published on Leave a comment on Help with typesetting?

Does anyone feel particularly gifted at typesetting?

I'm writing an evangelistic booklet and about to send it to the printers.  But if someone out there could help me turn my 60 page Word document into a pdf and make sure it didn't look too stupid it would save me £100 and you'd get a sneak peak at the book.

Let me know:

glenscrivener at gmail dot com

Big thankyous.

Published on Leave a comment on Book Idea – Help Needed

Ok, what about this for a little cheapy evangelistic book.  Piggy-backing on the King James 400th anniversary, why not a short book going through some of the more famous phrases of the King James translation?  A short chapter on each, building up a gospel presentation as we go.

So far I've thought of...

 

Let us make man in our own image

Trinity, creation, us

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Adam knew Eve (nudge nudge)

The 'biblical sense' of know is very deep.  That's the kind of sense in which we're meant to know God

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Love thy neighbour

Love God and Love neighbour is the law.  It describes the life of the Son.  But it doesn't describe your life does it?  What's wrong with us...

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Money is the root of all evil

Slight misquote - the love of money is the problem.  And it's a root.  Money's not the only thing that captures our hearts.  But that's our problem.  What we love is all akimbo.

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Scapegoat

 

Explain importance of substitutionary sacrifice

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The sufferings of Job

Optional chapter on suffering

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The valley of the shadow of death

It starts with "the LORD is my shepherd" but it enters the valley.  This is the way of the LORD.  Maybe stuff on Psalms as prayers of Christ from the depths.  He enters the valley for us.

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The wisdom of Solomon

Son of David, portrait of Christ (some Psalm 72 stuff?)

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Thus sayeth the LORD

Bible, prophecy, all Christ-focused.

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Unto us a child is born

Incarnation

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A prophet hath no honour in his own country

They received Him not...

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Turn the other cheek

Stuff on Jesus' teaching as embodying His own life of other-centredness

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Do unto others...

So true, and yet, do we?

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Ye must be born again

You must be born again.

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Let him who is without sin cast the first stone

Just tell the story

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Jesus wept

Stuff on Jesus entering into our mess

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Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends

Christ's love as ultimate

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He gave up the ghost

Jesus death

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Our Father in heaven

The essence of prayer is Jesus bringing us to the Father...

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Faith, hope and love, and the greatest of these...

Gospel faith leads to gospel love.  Perhaps stuff on importance of church

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No rest for the wicked

Biblical portraits of judgement.  Not Dante.  God confirming us in and leaving us in our restlessness.

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The wolf shall dwell with the lamb / They will soar on wings like eagles / Hallelujah

New Creation

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God so loved the world...

Appeal to trust in Jesus

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What else?  Any thoughts?

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Published on Leave a comment on Blogging emergency, help needed

Have I ever mentioned how ramshackle the whole christthetruth enterprise is?  I'm sure you've noticed it's basicallly held together with bluetac and prayer.  I edit my website in miscrosoft word, I produce my videos in powerpoint and tape my songs on a little dictation recorder.  And, yes, I know that it shows.

So anyway, my technical know-how is zero!  This is where you come in.

For a new little (ramshackle) adventure I have purchased a domain name and I'd like to get a website up and running in the next three days.

It needs to:

  • Be a website with a blog section.  i.e. Not exactly a blog, but a website with a prominent blog section.
  • Be attractive - especially to teenage girls (all will be explained!)
  • Have a fixed homepage
  • Be easy to navigate in order to find informative papers.

So, something like a homepage with a tab at the top for the blog and a sidebar down the side for papers - something like that.

I've looked at a lot of wordpress templates but, while they'd be fine as blogs it seems difficult to have more than a few pages displayed on them.

I'm willing to spend a little bit of money.

Any suggestions?

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Published on 17 Comments on Good verses for the 5 solas?

I'm preaching through the five solas of the reformation in August.  We're beginning with Christ alone.

So it's

Christ alone

Grace alone

Faith alone

Scripture alone

God's glory alone

So for ten points and control of the next round - can you tell me what Scriptures I should use each week?

And any other things I should say?

Your time starts....

....

....

... now

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Published on Leave a comment on Who is the first horseman of the Apocalypse?

"I watched as the Lamb opened the first of the seven seals. Then I heard one of the four living creatures say in a voice like thunder, "Come!"  I looked, and there before me was a white horse! Its rider held a bow, and he was given a crown, and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest." (Revelation 6:1-2) 

Is the first horseman Jesus?

  1. He comes at the head of his own judgements
  2. He rides a white horse (Rev 19:11)
  3. He's given a crown (divine passive?)
  4. He conquers emphatically (overcoming, He overcomes) - cf esp Rev 2:26f; 3:21; 5:5 and 17:14

Or is he a counterfeit Jesus - conquering in a bad way?

  1. The beast also conquers (Rev 13:7)
  2. The beast also is 'given power' to do so (Rev 13:7)
  3. The powers of evil often mimic (and distort) the good (the beast speaks like the Lamb - 13:11; the dragon has a seven-fold crown - 12:3)
  4. Christ is not among the four horseman of Zech 1:7-11 - He is the Angel of the LORD to Whom they report (but that's for another post ;-))

 Or is he something else?

I am truly undecided on this.  So let me ask two questions:

1) Who the heck is the first horseman of the Apocalypse?

2) If I'm still asking this question on Sunday (not unlikely!) what should I say from the pulpit?

One thing I'm not keen on saying is 'It's not really important, people can get too hung up on biblical details, especially in Revelation, let me tell you a story about a missionary instead.' 

Anyway, any help gratefully received!

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