No.33 - Redeemed by God

Praise the lord for the joys of his grace.

Verse of the Week

'In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us.'

Ephesians 1:7-8

Praise the Lord, by Christ's precious blood we can be redeemed. We are no longer facing God's wrath. Our sins are forgiven, and we have peace with God. Hallelujah! I love the word 'lavished' in v8. God didn't just show us grace, he lavished the riches of his grace upon us. Our God is a God who loves to bless us. In him are pleasures forevermore.

Father God, help us to keep our eyes fixed on the joys that you have blessed us with, no matter the struggles we may face in this life. Thank you that you have redeemed us.

Encouragements

I got to lead a very encouraging bible study earlier this week. It was wonderful to see people start to realise that sharing God's word with others was not something out of their reach, but something that they could already be a part of.

I also really enjoyed getting to join a Christian book study group. We had the privilege of spending some time thinking about how God is transforming us by his spirit to reflect his glory. It reminded me of something we learned in my bible course. When we open the bible, we get to learn about God, and have our hearts transformed to reflect his glory.

Working on my sermon has continued to be an encouragement. Though it has been challenging, I think by God's grace I am getting closer to understanding my passage and how best to communicate it. It has been a real blessing to have godly friends to share my ideas with. Hopefully God will us it to help his people come to delight in him more and more.

A Little Update

Here are a few of the things we've been up to and some of what we've got coming up. Praise the Lord for his kindness!

The Last Week

• Prepared for - Preaching (1 Corinthians 15:1-11), Bible study prep

• Wednesday - TEAM Bible Course

• Thursday - Attended our Life group meal and bible study

• Friday - Led a midday bible study

• Saturday - Attended a Christian book study group

• Sunday - Led the sung worship at church

The Next Few Weeks

• Mid-day bible study, Life group, Cambridge bible course

• 29th May-1st June - Attending the St Helen's 10am weekend away

• 8th June - Preaching at Grace Church on 1 Corinthians 15:1-11

• 10th-11th June - Attending a Presbyterian Christian Conference (Catalyst)

• 12th June - Leading sung worship at my Grandma's funeral

• 13th July - Leading our Church meeting for the first time

Prayer Requests

We are very much looking forward to attending a St Helen's weekend away next week. We would love prayer that we could learn lots and start to build good relationships.

I would also love prayer that God would give me wisdom in working out how best to communicate what he has to say in my upcoming sermon

Thank you so much for all your support.

Love and prayers,

Joshua & Luci.

P.S. - If you want to hear more about how I've been delighted by Christ over the last week, feel free to listen to the video below. I hope you may find it encouraging :)

TEAM Study Notes

Cross cultural ministry

1. God is the great communicator, always concerned about revealing Himself to mankind.

E.g. Nature, Prophets, Jesus Christ, the Word. John 1:1-4; Romans 5;8

2. God is concerned about the foreigner, alien, sojourner, international visitor. Deut.10:17-19; Lev.19:33,34.

3. God promises that there will be people from every tribe, language, people and nation in heaven. Rev.5:9, 7:9.

4. God has given us the commission to help see this purpose come about. Matthew 28:18-20; Acts 1:8.

5. God made man and cultures. He understands them. Genesis 1 & 11.

Humans are relational beings

Jesus sent us to share the gospel with the whole world

Culture - the view of the world that governs a society

Roughly - Our actions show our values which show beliefs

We initially only see a small part of someone’s culture

God will affirm aspects of Culture that reflect his image

God will challenge aspects of Culture that are sinful

We want to avoid thinking other cultures are bad because they are not our culture

You want to explain all aspect of the gospel

But it may be helpful to start with the aspect of the gospel

the culture you’re trying to reach might best engage with

The transforming power of the gospel

• Shame to Honour

• Guilt to Innocence

• Fear to Power

Sex Gender and Relationships

Complementarian

• Men and women are Equal in value

• Men and women have differing in roles in Church

• The Roles of Authoritative leadership are for men (1 Timothy 2-3)

• Men and women not interchangeable but both indispensable

There are a huge range of active roles for women in the Bible including

Prophesying, Praising, Instructing, Teaching to younger women, Deacons

There is no mention of women being priests, kings, apostles or elders

God is a very good communicator

God is always right

The church is God’s household

Relationships should be like a family

Reflecting God’s created order

Shepherding is a combative and nurturing role

Great roles for women in the church

• Bible Studies

• Preaching to women

• Training up godly women

• Lead services and prayer meetings

• Teach seminars on e.g. church history

• Teach in mixed youth groups

Ethics and Discipleship

3 categories of deciding right and wrong

1. Duties – Kant - What is the right thing to do

2. Virtues – Aristotle – What would a good person do

3. Consequences – John Lil - What will lead to the best outcome

The bible is God’s Word about God’s Work for God’s Glory

The bible is both

• Telling us about the story of God enabling his people to reflect his glory

• And the way in which God is actively transforming his people to reflect his glory

As we see what God has done - We see what God is like - Which causes us to reflect his glory

The bible follows this structure

• Creation - We are designed to reflect God

• De-Creation - Our sin damaged our ability to reflect God’s glory

• Re-Creation - God is acting to restore our ability to reflect God’s glory

• New-Creation - We will fully reflect God’s glory

We have a responsibility to glorify God

We want to be someone who glorifies God

We have a goal of glorifying God

The more we are delighted by Christ

the more we will make Christ like decisions

All of God’s people have the spirit like Moses did when he was judging God’s people

Trust the holy spirit will take you in the right direction

Speak to Christians - they have the holy spirit and trying to love God

Sometimes God just lets us choose