Tag Archives: 5:17 life - Page 3

Gospel OUT!

Posted by on May 14, 2010 Comments Off

This Sunday, we’ll be starting a new sermon series called “Gospel OUT! Living out the gospel: sermons from the letter of James.” The purpose for this series is as follows: for the last two months or so, we’ve been looking at nine of the key Christian doctrines (“The Contenders” sermon series): the deity of Jesus, total depravity, justification by faith alone, regeneration, substitutionary atonement, the authority of Scripture etc. This was what one could call “Gospel IN” – what is the gospel, what do Bible-believing Christians believe, why we should believe it, and what we should fight and die for (and what we shouldn’t).

Following Gospel IN, the next big questions is: what does it mean to live these great truths out? That’s what Gospel OUT is all about. Following is the week by week programming of Gospel OUT. It’d be great if you could read the Bible passages before they are preached, so you get more out of the sermons.

16/5 Introducing ‘Gospel OUT’: where faith and culture meet (James 1:1)

23/5 Gospel OUT: Pursuing wholeness through trials (James 1:2-18)

30/5 Gospel OUT: Walking the Word part 1 (James 1:19-25)

6/6 Gospel OUT: Walking the Word part 2 (James 1:26-2:26)

13/6 Gospel OUT: Words and Wisdom (James 3:1-4:3, 11-12)

20/6 Gospel OUT: Taking sides (James 4:1-10)

27/6 Gospel OUT: Grasping time and eternity (James 4:13-5:11)

4/7 Gospel OUT: Final Words (James 5:12-20)

Walking the Talk – getting busy doing good!

Posted by on March 26, 2010 3 comments

A few events coming up…

Event #1 – Teen Challenge’s “Live Free Walk”

Saturday 17th April 2010

Registration: Early Bird registration now extended to 28 March. Early Bird Registration (includes a t-shirt) closes 28 March 2010 -

Registration after the 28 March 2010 (excludes t-shirt) – $20

It’d be good to get a t-shirt, but we’ve only got until this Sunday to register. So, let’s get in quickly. If you do register, make sure you post a comment on this post so everyone knows who is walking.

Purpose of the ‘Live Free Walk’: To make a statement – “we want to see our young women living free of alcohol and drug dependence”. To raise funds for the Teen Challenge Young Women’s Residential Treatment Centre based in Toowoomba, Queensland.
Fundraising: It is expected that each walker will actively fundraise by seeking sponsorship from their family, friends and business associates. The goal for each walker is to raise $100 in sponsorship from 10 sponsors at $10 per sponsor. Very achievable!!! Booklets to record sponsorship will be available in the sponsorship kit which will be mailed upon registration.

To register, click here.

Event #2 – Homeless Connect


Here’s a short video on what this day looks like:

Homeless Connect

To volunteer for the next Homeless Connect, May 11, 2010, view the role descriptions below and fill in the application form.

Role Descriptions

Homeless Connect Application May 10

We’ll be announcing these events at church over the coming weeks. Expect me (Steve) to come and approach you personally about them. More details to come on the blogs too.

For more information on Homeless Connect and to register your interest in future events please email homeless@volqld.org.au or call 3002 7600

CG Schedule

Posted by on March 4, 2010 Comments Off

Our 3 Community Groups (CG-South, CG-Indooroopilly, CG-St Lucia) are following this schedule for the course of this Contenders sermon series.

As 5:17′s leaders have decided, we want to make sure we’re getting a ‘balanced diet’ in our CGs – of Bible study (the staple), special prayer nights, socials to grow in depth and breadth of relationship with each other, and serving nights – to make sure we exist not merely for ourselves as a church/CGs, but to serve others with both the words and actions of God’s saving Gospel. If there’s anything you think we should be covering but aren’t, let us know!

For week starting:

  • Jan 31 – Intro / Social
  • Feb 07 – Jude review
  • Feb 14 – BS: Contenders 1
  • Feb 21 – BS: Contenders 2
  • Feb 28 – Prayer (Centrals switched Feb 21 and 28 around)
  • Mar 07 – BS: Contenders 4
  • Mar 14 – BS: Contenders 5
  • Mar 21 – Social
  • Mar 28 – BS: Contenders 7
  • Apr 04 – Service
  • Apr 11 – BS: Contenders 8
  • Apr 18 – BS: Contenders 9

Jesus is Lord over 5:17 church!

Posted by on February 10, 2010 3 comments

I love seeing the gracious gifts of God used to bless His church. To help us celebrate the 1st birthday of 5:17 church, Eilen made us a cake. It was a very tasty cake. But even more important than its taste was its declaration – Jesus is Lord over 5:17 church!

Sometimes when we look at 5:17 church, we might be tempted to see us as small and insignificant. From a numerical perspective, this could be valid. But let’s not forget who we are. This is who we are: Jesus bought us at the cost of His own precious blood (Acts 20:28). We are the group of (broken yet redeemed) people through whom God is declaring His manifold wisdom to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places (Ephesians 3:10). We are the bride of Christ, cleansed by the washing of water with the Word (Ephesians 5:22), being prepared for the time when we will meet our bridegroom (our great love – Jesus) face to face (Revelation 21:2). And we aren’t alone. We are a local outcrop of the vast universal church. The universal church includes not just all Christians alive today, but all Christians past and present. Many have gone before us and are with Jesus in paradise (Luke 23:43).

The church is bigger than you think! Let’s remember that! And Jesus is Lord over it all. This is why we celebrated 5:17′s anniversary.

To the only God, our Saviour, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen (Jude 25)

Upcoming…

Posted by on January 26, 2010 Comments Off

We’re turning our service leaders’ training session into a BC3 event – this Sunday afternoon at 2.30pm. If you’re not a service leader you don’t really need to worry about this but feel free to come if you’re interested! Otherwise please pray for it and everyone coming.

As announced, it will be 5:17 church’s 1 year anniversary in 2 weeks’ time! The big day is Feb 7 so invite your friends to our special anniversary service which will be incorporating 2 baptisms (wahoo!). Obviously there isn’t a large body of water in or outside of our church building so we are moving church that Sunday to Pastor Ben and Faith’s home at 48 Boundary Rd, Indooroopilly, and we’ll start at the special time of 5pm. PLUS we’ll be having a BBQ anniversary party after the service so that’s triple reason to invite your friends (1. anniversary 2. baptisms 3. food)!

The Women of Purpose annual Bible teaching day is fandiddlytastic and I personally think this year’s (Sat March 13) is looking like the best yet. See the City North Baptist Church website here for all the convincing details and register yourself straightaway or if you must, let me know by comment, email, or at church and I’ll add you to the group rego count. If you’re a 5:17 female you have to come!!! If money is an issue please don’t be embarassed to say so and we’ll see if we can arrange subsidies.

5:17 excursion – Lifeline Bookfest (Jan 16)

Posted by on January 7, 2010 1 comment
One of Keiyeng and my favourite things is finding quality but cheap books in second hand bookstores. It’s like a treasure hunt. And there’s no better place for this than the Lifeline Bookfest (see below for all the details on the event). So, because we love you guys, love hanging out with you, and love buying cheap books, we thought we’d organise an excursion for us 5:17ers. So, let’s hit the bookfest on its opening day – January 16. We’ll meet there at 10:30am (or if you want help with transport, talk to Muz), then have lunch nearby (most likely at one of the cheap places in West End).


Here’s some details for the Bookfest from their website:
What: The universe’s largest second-hand booksale, now in its 20th year.


Why: The Lifeline Bookfest raises much-needed funds for Lifeline Brisbane’s free 24-hour Crisis Counselling Telephone Line, free face-to-face counselling services, and support programs for women, children and families.


When: January 16-24


Where: Exhibition Halls 3 and 4 of The Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre, Merivale St, South Brisbane


Where the funds go: Apart from giving people the opportunity to grab a great book from as little as 20 cents, the Lifeline Bookfest also raises much-needed funds for Lifeline Brisbane’s free counselling services.
From humble beginnings, the event now brings in around one-third of Lifeline Brisbane’s self-funded income (the majority of profits coming from the sale of second-hand clothes in Lifeline Shops).
These funds help Lifeline Brisbane enhance the lives of children, families and individuals in our community by delivering relevant, accessible counselling and support programs. Some of the support services we provide are:
Telephone Counselling – 24 Hour Crisis Line, 13 11 14, Free face-to-face Counselling, School-based Counselling, Financial Counselling, Suicide Bereavement Programs, Child Therapy, Refugee support through the Refugee, Claimant Support Centre, Domestic Violence groups for women and children.


How it works:
The Lifeline Bookfest is divided into three sections – High Quality, Priced and Unpriced.
  • High Quality contains near new and quality stock, as well as rare and collectable books. All books are priced inside the cover.
  • The Priced section contains a fantastic range of books of medium quality. These books are also priced inside the cover.
  • The Unpriced section contains more of the ‘well-thumbed’ books and is where some of the best bargains can be found! The books in this section are not priced individually but will be priced at the checkouts.


Categories:
Within each section, books are divided into over 20 categories: Children’s; Australiana; History; Reference; Humour and Oddities; Biography; Literature and Classics; Textbooks; Travel; Health; Science Fiction; Hardback Fiction; Art and Music; Paperback Fiction; Cooking; Computers; Religion; Foreign Language; Vehicles and War Craft; Hobbies; Sport; Gardening; Animals; Penguins and Pelicans; Economics; Sociology; Philosophy; and Science.
In addition to books, each section carries a range of magazines, stationary, videos, CDs, cassettes and records.

Love on Legs

Posted by on December 5, 2009 2 comments

Last Friday night Steve and I enjoyed a special birthday present – tickets to the Australian Outback Spectacular, given to us by friends from our parent church, SLE. We had a great time but no, I’m not going to put up a photo of us in our new cowboy hats – you can close your eyes and picture it yourselves. ;)

AOS

Anyway, I was mulling about how significant it is for us (and maybe me especially) when church friends give us gifts – this one in particular made me feel very loved and affirmed and ‘thought of’ and we were really touched when we first got the email about it. It made me remember my birthday last year when S gave me a basil plant, and the year before that when the C’s gave us both Crocs (shoes, not animals).

Now I don’t actually think that ‘Giving Gifts’ is one of my top Love Languages and yet, receiving these gifts from church friends has been very significant and memorable for me. I guess gifts are a great way to bless people in ministry given how gifts can so tangibly convey thoughtfulness or thankfulness.

So being on the receiving end of gifts as well as having conversations about this with 5:17ers has made me consider how well we actually know and love each other in our church in specific, thoughtFUL ways – such as knowing each other’s Love Languages and considering carefully how we can ‘speak’ these languages to each other.

In my experience it takes a good deal of time and careful attention to get to know someone’s love language(s) – unless you directly ask which is perfectly fine too. I know that I haven’t gone around and done a survey of fellow 5:17ers though, even while it is our aim and hope that 5:17ers know we love them! (though the primary ways we are able to express this across the board are through prayer and pastoral care and conversation – which I think are forms of acts of service, quality time, and giving gifts)

It’s all made me wonder ultimately, how well we are all going at loving and showing love to our brothers and sisters. I’m encouraged that it has been happening recently as we’ve prayed together over various trials 5:17ers have experienced. But are we leaving some people and some needs and some love languages out? Can we be more careful and considerate about this as individuals and as a church family? Do we have a disposition to love without putting ‘legs’ on that love? Would outsiders look in and see by our love that we are Jesus’ disciples?

What do you think? Please do comment… but I hope you’ll also catch the ‘mulling bug’ and consider with me who you can show love to, by putting your love for them (and God) on legs.

love on legs

Respectable Sins

Posted by on December 5, 2009 Comments Off

Last Sunday’s sermon application took in a list of sins taken from Jerry Bridges’ book, Respectable Sins (see a review of it here). Steve challenged us to not tolerate in our lives the sins that Jesus died for, and Bridges’ list is a list of sins that we tend to excuse more easily than others even though they’re no less sinful.

We looked at this list again at our Community Group on Thursday night which was a really fruitful exercise, not to mention humbling, encouraging, and bonding as we basically confessed our sins to each other and prayed for each other. But of course we can’t stop there – we need to fight our sin by acknowledging it, hating it, confessing it to God, and ultimately repenting of (or turning completely away from) it, and turning towards the Christlike attitudes and actions that replace it. We’re reproducing Jerry Bridges’ list below to this end.

anxieties and frustrations
discontentment
unthankfulness
pridefulness revealed specifically in self-righteousness, even in a pursuit of theological accuracy, in prideful motives behind our achievements and revealed in a spirit of independence
selfishness with our interests, time, money and inconsiderateness
lack of self-control in eating, drinking and temperament, finances, entertainment and shopping
impatience and irritability
anger, even anger towards God, and the underlying roots of anger in resentment, bitterness, enmity, hostility and holding grudges
judgmentalism and a critical spirit over differing convictions and doctrinal disagreements
envy, jealousy, competitiveness and being controlling
the sins of the tongue like gossip, slander, lying, harsh words, sarcasm, insults and ridicule
worldliness shown financially, by our idolatry and in “vicarious immorality,” that is, the enjoyment of watching or reading the sinfulness of others.
  • ungodliness
  • anxieties and frustrations
  • discontentment
  • unthankfulness
  • pride(fulness, revealed specifically in self-righteousness, even in a pursuit of theological accuracy, in prideful motives behind our achievements and revealed in a spirit of independence)
  • selfishness (with our interests, time, money and inconsiderateness)
  • lack of self-control (in eating, drinking and temperament, finances, entertainment and shopping)
  • impatience and irritability
  • anger (even anger towards God) and
  • the weeds of anger (underlying roots of anger in resentment, bitterness, enmity, hostility and holding grudges)
  • judgmentalism (and a critical spirit over differing convictions and doctrinal disagreements)
  • envy, jealousy, competitiveness and being controlling
  • sins of the tongue (like gossip, slander, lying, harsh words, sarcasm, insults and ridicule)
  • worldliness (shown financially, by our idolatry and in “vicarious immorality,” that is, the enjoyment of watching or reading the sinfulness of others)

As we tackle our ‘respectable sins’ and seek to expose them to the light, don’t forget this wonderful promise -

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9

interactive-ity

Posted by on November 7, 2009 5 comments

Following on from the last post and assuming a healthy readership (!), here’s an invitation to respond with more than just a number.

If you could put in a request for what you’d like to be taught about or interact with in a sermon or a seminar, what would you ask for?

Unfortunately we can’t make any promises, but it’d be great to have your input as we plan for next year…

for the sake of ten righteous

Posted by on November 7, 2009 9 comments

Remember how God promised Abraham that He would not destroy Sodom if 10 righteous men could be found there?

I’ve been wondering how many readers this blog has – and whether for the sake of 10 righteous (?!) readers we won’t destroy it. Not that we are planning to, but sometimes we wonder who’s out there.

Will the 10 of you make yourselves known?! We’d love you to leave a comment, even anonymously, just to say you’re out there. You could even just number off 1 to 10, but if you wanted to say something more meaningful we wouldn’t object. ;)