Check out what the youth got up to at Surge in January by taking a look at this video…click here.

Knowing God: A free book you can listen too.

A lifelong pursuit of knowing God should embody the Christian’s existence. According to eminent theologian J.I. Packer, however, Christians have become enchanted by modern skepticism and have joined the “gigantic conspiracy of misdirection” by failing to put first things first. Knowing God aims to redirect our attention to the simple, deep truth that to know God is to love His Word.

As we heard today in the sermon the Explore Bible reading material is really good.  You can get it as an app. The info for apps is here

The links for the apps are:   Android        iphone

Explore is good for the following reasons:

1. It works through books of the Bible, so each day i just continue on from the day before.  It means i am not jumping all over the place. Also it means i get some NT and some OT.

2. It is not too long.  They recommend about 15 mins, but you can do more.

3. It has questions, which make me think. But it also has a blurb which helps, especially if you find questions tricky.  The application is always practical.

4. Those who write it are biblically sound.  Other daily notes i have used are not as theologically on track as this.

Have a look at the website: http://www.thegoodbook.com.au/bible/daily-bible-reading/explore

Also you can buy paper copies too. A single book ($7 + postage) which covers 3 months or get a yearly subscription ($28 total).  Also, you don’t have to do it everyday if you can’t.

Last Friday night we had the first night of Crux (youth group) at our new location. It’s a great place with heaps of space for fun and games.

It’s a church property in Gorokan owned by Coastlands Christian Community Church. If you know of any youth who are in year 6-10 at school, let them know! You can find more about things for youth at Northern Lakes here.

We had an awesome time at Surge this year. Surge is the youth section of our Summerfest program. Here’s a few photos to give you an idea of some of the things we got up to…

On the 4th December we baptised 4 people at the Norah Head Swim School.  It’s exciting to see God at work saving people.

Those baptised were Caitlin Barlow, Ashleigh Barlow, Jana Hobourn and Damien van der Meulen.

Thanks to those who came along to rejoice with them.

St Andrew’s Cathedral Sydney, on ABC 1 Christmas Eve 6pm. 
This year the ABC’s national broadcast is St Andrew’s Christmas Eve Celebration. Philip Jensen and Peter Bolt will explain the historical significance of Christmas and why Jesus came (ie he came for Easter).  The broadcast gives all of us a great evangelistic opportunity to share the gospel with our friends, colleagues and neighbours. Tell them not to miss it. Gather the family to watch it together. If you are going out, don’t forget to record it, then write to the ABC after Christmas thanking them for showing it.

Dear Friends, today I received very sad news. Dave McDonald has been diagnosed with cancer – either of the lung or the lung lining. He is talking with specialists about next steps. As you can imagine this is a great shock.

He was in the process of moving from Crossroads church Canberra (an Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Church) which he planted about 17 years ago, to move to the Northern Territory to plant another church beginning 2012.

Providentially they are still in Canberra so they are surrounded by great support.

Please be in prayer for them.

This Thursday Rowan and Sarah Hilsden are going to Auckland to find a place to rent to live in next year.  Please pray for wisdom as they search for a place.

At Growth Group this week we were chatting about our reading the Bible ourselves.  We discussed the great resource (in fact the best resource i have found in 20 years of being a Christian) for our own bible reading. It’s called Explore.  I use it for 4 reasons

1. It works through books of the Bible, so each day i just continue on from the day before.  It means i am not jumping all over the place. Also it means i get some NT and some OT.

2. It is not too long.  They recommend about 15 mins, but you can do more.

3. It has questions, which make me think. But it also has a blurb which helps, especially if you find questions tricky.  The application is always practical.

4. Those who write it are biblically sound.  Other daily notes i have used are not as theologically on track as this.

Have a look at the website: http://www.thegoodbook.com.au/bible/daily-bible-reading/explore

You can a single book ($7 + postage) or get subscription ($28 total).  Also, you don’t have to do it everyday if you can’t.

This is what they say: First published in July 1998, Explore is a quarterly publication, designed to help people to get to grips with reading the Bible on a daily basis. It encourages a devotional routine of Bible study and prayer, each issue looking at selected readings from Old and New Testament books.

Explore has daily readings that are:
- Reliable; clearly applied Bible teaching covering Old and New Testaments
- Manageable; a suggested 15 minutes per study with optional cross references for further reading
- Flexible; dated and numbered readings so you can go at your own pace
- Incisive; not a ‘thought for the day’ approach, but clear and careful teaching within the context of the whole of the Bible’s revelation.