• Sunday – That the Gospel would be boldly and unashamedly proclaimed in our churches today. That our churches would be places for the broken, unwanted and hurting. That Jesus will be offered as the only solution for the very thing we can’t do on our own –  make our selves better or save ourselves.
• Monday – Pray that Romans 8:35-39 would become a reality. Pray for yourself, for your family, and for our church. Pray that our hope would be found in Christ alone.
• Tuesday – Pray Matthew 6:10 over our island. Spend today replacing the word “earth” with Norfolk Island (“on Norfolk Island as it is in heaven”).
• Wednesday – Pray that the Spirit would weed out the sin in your life that has kept you from living a life on mission. Ask that He would open up opportunities for you to be share your hope with your family and friends. Pray for them by name.
• Thursday – Pray boldly Psalm 33:8 over Norfolk Island. The people would stand in awe before Him.
• Friday – Pray Habakkuk 3:2 over Norfolk Island. That the Lord’s love, wrath, justice and mercy would be made known.
• Saturday: Pray that the Lord would increase our love for Norfolk. That our love and growth in Jesus would produce a desire to see others saved, and grow in their love and understanding of who God is, what He has done and what He is doing.

Every kingdom crumbles… except the kingdom of God.

The book of Daniel opens with King Nebuchadnezzar laying siege to Jerusalem and overpowering Israel. God’s people are defeated, humiliated, and taken away into exile. But the big message of Daniel is that how things seem is not how things are. God is still in control. God reigns over all cultures, all kingdoms, all peoples. Across all of history God has been working to set up his everlasting kingdom – the kingdom where King Jesus reigns forever. All kingdoms crumble, except the Kingdom of God.

I’m looking forward to working through the book of Daniel and learning more about the Most High God and His kingdom that lasts forever.

John Steinbeck – East of Eden

“I remember clearly the deaths of three men. One was the richest man of the century, who, having clawed his way to wealth through the souls and bodies of men, spent many years trying to buy back the love he had forfeited and by that process performed great service to the world and, perhaps, had much more than balanced the evils of his rise. I was on a ship when he died. The news was posted on the bulletin board, and nearly everyone recieved the news with pleasure. Several said, “Thank God that son of a bitch is dead.”

Then there was a man, smart as Satan, who, lacking some perception of human dignity and knowing all too well every aspect of human weakness and wickedness, used his special knowledge to warp men, to buy men, to bribe and threaten and seduce until he found himself in a position of great power. He clothed his motives in the names of virtue, and I have wondered whether he ever knew that no gift will ever buy back a man’s love when you have removed his self-love. A bribed man can only hate his briber. When this man died the nation rang with praise…

There was a third man, who perhaps made many errors in performance but whose effective life was devoted to making men brave and dignified and good in a time when they were poor and frightened and when ugly forces were loose in the world to utilize their fears. This man was hated by few. When he died the people burst into tears in the streets and their minds wailed, “What can we do now?” How can we go on without him?”

In uncertainty I am certain that underneath their topmost layers of frailty men want to be good and want to be loved. Indeed, most of their vices are attempted short cuts to love. When a man comes to die, mo matter what his talents and influence and genius, if he dies unloved his life must be a failure to him and his dying a cold horror….we should remember our dying and try so to live that our death brings no pleasure to the world.”

What does it mean in Romans 8:37 when Paul says that followers of Christ are “more than conquerors” (ESV)?

D. A. Carson gives some good answers to this question based on the context of Romans 8:

First, the “us” to whom the apostle refers includes all Christians. AllChristians are the ones whom God has foreknown, “predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son,” called, justified, glorified (8:29–30). The people referred to are not the elite of the elect; they are ordinary Christians, all genuine Christians.

Second, the actual evidence that they are “more than conquerors” is that they persevere regardless of all opposition. That opposition may take the form of horrible persecution, of the kind that Scripture describes (8:35–38). It may be some other hardship, all the way to famine. The glories of life will not finally seduce them; the terrors of death will not finally sway them; neither the pressures of the present nor the frustrations of the future will destroy them (8:38). Neither human powers nor anything else in all creation, not even all the powers of hell unleashed, can “separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (8:39).

Third, as the last sentence already makes clear, that from which Christians cannot be finally separated is the “love of Christ” (8:35) or the love of God in Christ (8:39). At one level, of course, that is simply saying that no power can stop Christians from being Christians. That is why we are “more than conquerors.” But that point could have been made a lot of different ways. To make it this way, with an emphasis on the love of Christ as that from which we cannot be separated, reminds us of the sheer glory and pleasure that is ours, both now and in eternity, to be in such a relationship. We are not simply acquitted; we are loved. We are loved not simply by a peer, but by God himself. Nor is this a reference to the general love that God has for his entire creation. What is at stake here is that special love that attaches to “all who have been called according to his purpose” (8:28).

Fourth, the guarantee that we shall prevail and persevere, and prove to be “more than conquerors” in this sense, is nothing other than the sovereign purposes of God (8:29–30), manifest in the death of his Son on our behalf (8:31–35). “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (8:32). No greater security is imaginable.

D. A. Carson, For the Love of God: A Daily Companion for Discovering the Riches of God’s Word., vol. 1 (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1998).

Over the next month or so we’ll enjoy the ministry of three visiting preachers.

First to visit will be Rev. Bruce Clarke of St. Matthews Manly in Sydney. Bruce will be preaching in our Big Questions series on There Can’t Be Just One True Religion Can There? 

In September, Rev. Andy Clark will be visiting. Andy is the Assistant Minister at Sylvania Anglican Church in Sydney, a church that has committed to praying regularly for David and Crystal. Andy is married to Nicole and they have three little boys. Before theological study, Andy worked as a Physiotherapist at Nepean hospital.

In October, Rev. Canon Bruce and Heather Ballantine-Jones returns as locum Chaplain while David and Crystal and family attend that Bush Church Aid bi-annual conference in Victoria. Bush Church Aid partners with Anglican Dioceses around Australia to reach people for Christ.

Everybody has questions. But not all questions are created equal. Some questions are really big… and they can become sticking points to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. In this series we will boldly tackle life’s Big Questions to help believers and unbelievers alike better understand the firm foundation of Christianity.

You can catch up on the first two sermons online: