Wake up!

The more that I get together with people from the South-West to discuss ministry in the South-West, I become more excited and, paradoxically, more appalled. There is so much potential here. It's insane. The South-West of Sydney is the most multicultural region of one of the most multicultural nations on Earth. I don't think you could number the different people groups, languages, nations that are represented here, it is a truly unique demographic. More than that, it's a mission field. Ok, everywhere is a mission field but, oh my goodness, why can't people see it? The South-West is the back door to the rest of the world! People have come from their closed countries and are just walking around waiting to hear about Jesus! There are whole churches in the South-West of people who used to be Muslim and now they are saved by grace! It is them that we need - because they then can go back to their countries, to their own people, whom they know best, and do God's saving work. It's ridiculous. How are we just letting these opportunities fly by? You don't need to go to Yemen, go to Fairfield! You will find someone from Yemen! Strategy. I flipping hate that word. Here's a strategy for you: preach Jesus to the South-West of Sydney and I'm telling you that you will reach the nations. Thank you Lord for opening my eyes!

Latest thoughts on women preachers.

Believe me, I have many, but I just know that I'm going to come across as completely ungracious, as I'm sure so often happens when I blog. Also, I don't even know where to start.

In a nutshell, right now, I'm quite happy with complementarian theology (no surprises there), although I do think there might be a case for women preaching under the authority of men. Yet my concessions on this only exist because of inconsistencies I've heard that are so ridiculous I think that they might as well. The other day I also had another thought - female missionaries who have taught God's Word to men and it seems as though He truly used them for that purpose as opposed to smiting them because they dared to teach the opposite sex.

Two other thoughts I'll mention (why does everything come to me in two's?).

I guess when I think of the women who I look to as godly examples, I'm looking to women who strongly adhere to comp-ism. None of the women I look to (Isobel Lin, Carmelina Read, Tara Thornley, Nicole Starling, Di Warren, Ainsley Poulos...) feel the need to teach men nor is it something that they feel the need to 'fight' for. I believe that God made men and women fundamentally different and therefore our roles in ministry will be different. Being a woman is not easy. Teaching women to be godly in this day and age has got to be an incredibly difficult task. There is so much to battle against. On top of this, women are responsible for their families, for their homes and for supporting their husbands. It takes a lot of strength, integrity and security in your God-given role to accept this and as opposed to lamenting the fact that women are apparently 'oppressed' by the church because they can't get up and preach, I'd rather do a damn good job of fulfilling the roles that I know without a shred of a doubt are mine. On top of this - there seems to be fewer and fewer men going into ministry. What's needed now is a focus on men and I think women should be encouraging them to take leadership. But this should not be at the expense of limiting women's roles or diminishing them - womens ministry is so important, there is so much for us to do and to lead in...

Why must women want to teach men? Are their other roles not as important? Are they lesser? Women have so many opportunities for ministry, that's been my experience anyway. I have my hands quite full without wanting to preach to a congregation at some stage. I get the whole 'gift-based' view, but where does that end? If you follow the thoughts through to its logical conclusion then... anyone should be able to use that argument to get up and teach.

I think that's all I feel like sharing for now.

The ultimate guy filtering system.

1. Ask God (then ask Him again, and once more...)
2. Must be screened by Peter Lin
3. Must ask my father's permission
4. Ask God

Some say that the thought of this gruelling process will have all potential suitors running 100 miles in the opposite direction and will result in my being single for the rest of my earthly existence. What? Like that's a bad thing?

I say that it shall sort the men from the boys.

Forgiveness.

I had an epiphany today. I finally understood something. Properly. I was not doing anything particularly spectacular, just ironing lots of clothes, but I suppose the good thing about such a mundane task is that it leaves you free to think. I'm not entirely sure how I got on to pondering the nature of forgiveness but as I was doing so, something suddenly hit me. It's probably something that a lot of other people know, in fact it's probably something that I've always known but I maintain that there's a difference between knowing something and actually getting it. I think I finally get forgiveness.

This is going to sound painfully obvious but honestly, it was incredibly profound for me. Forgiveness means: not holding the hurtful actions of another person against them. It means, you don't use their past against them as a weapon. It means that they have a clean slate with you. You let it go. You love and serve that person as though nothing had ever happened.

But isn't that insane? How difficult is forgiveness? As soon as I understood this, I thought of people in my life whom I thought I had forgiven. Yet, so often, even if it is in my own mind, I dwell on past hurts and disappointments and try to justify my bitterness. That is not the attitude of someone who claims to have forgiven!

I try to rationalise my anger. Some hurts are too deep. The offence was unforgivable. They haven't learnt...

Then later today I read the story of ten-year-old Namrata. She is a little girl who lives in Orissa, in India. Christians in Orissa are currently under intense persecution from Hindu radicals. Namrata's family came under attack and a bomb was left in a bedroom cupboard. Once the intruders had left, all emerged from their hiding places and left the home - all except for Namrata who stayed inside to inspect the damage. The bomb exploded; shrapnel and flames wounded her face, hands and back. This is what she had to say:

"... we forgive the Hindu radicals who attacked us, who burned our homes. They were out of their minds, they do not know the love of Jesus. For this reason, I now want to study so that when I am older I can tell everyone how much Jesus loves us. This is my future. I want to dedicate my life to spreading the Gospel."

Words cannot express how great is the faith of this little girl or the grace of the amazing God who gave it to her. A ten-year-old girl, who has lived a bare existence and has suffered in ways that I can't even dream of, understands forgiveness better than I. She understands the nature of forgiveness because she understands the love of Christ and the pain he suffered that we might have forgiveness from God.

And therein lies my true understanding. I have offended God in every way possible. Over and over again. I cannot stop. Yet does he hold even one action against me? I crucify my Lord every day and he forgives me every day.

I don't have the right to bear a grudge. There is nothing that anyone could ever possibly do to me that would justify my withholding forgiveness, and I should offer that forgiveness not just with words, but from the bottom of my heart. If I understand the forgiveness of sins granted to me, I can joyfully and sincerely say, to anybody, for anything - I forgive you.

The Soup Ark plug.

The more 'God-related' stuff I post on Facebook, the less Facebook friends I seem to have. Maybe it's coincidence. Maybe I'm still an arsehole. Haha.

Anyway, for some thoughts that are actually worth reading go visit Sue.

I'm an arsehole.

Ok that may be quite a confronting title and well, go figure, because it was inspired by those crazy kids over at Tharunka.

Dear Tharunks,

Most of us have, at some point in our lives, been arseholes. For some this is a fleeting, transitory stage; for others, not. Either way, why not memorialise your arseholiness in Tharunka? We are looking for people to send us a brief paragraph about a period in their lives during which they were an arsehole...

I was reading an old diary a few days ago. Year 9. O, the angst! I couldn't believe what I was reading. Surely that wasn't me? Surely I was never that catty, selfish and so utterly blind to the goodness of God? Frankly, I was an arsehole.

Here is what I am musing over. Do I reply to Tharunka? Do I dare express my transition from arsehole to follower of Jesus? I can hear it already, though. So being a Christian makes you perfect, then? Is everyone who is not a Christian automatically an arsehole?

Answer: We're all arseholes. The difference is that a Christian is willing to admit it, is willing to concede that the world is messed up because of it and Jesus died on the cross to redeem us from it.

How to not come across as holier-than-thou or as though I'm desperately trying to evangelise - that's my issue. I suppose I'd just tell the truth. I didn't want to be an arsehole anymore. Once I understood what Jesus did I started to live out the life I was born for. Yeah. I believe I actually became less of an arsehole.

So what about people who are just really... nice and great and who aren't arseholes or Christians? Good for them. But when God's standard is perfection, who can stand tall? And how to deal with the injustices caused by the rest of the arseholes whom you are apparently 'better than?' Good luck in trying to find a reason for getting along with the world when you don't have Jesus to motivate you. Without God, it's a free for all. But here we get into the murky waters of whether or not morals exist without God and by this time I'm pretty sure I've already exceeded the limit of a brief paragraph.

Argh! There's so much I feel I need to explain or justify. I'll see what I can come up with. I've put Tharunka to one side for quite a while now...

Think, Christine, think!

Life update.

Because I've been inspired by Caroline.

Here are some things I have been up to lately.

Firstly and most significantly, I still don't have a job. Truthfully, I haven't been trying all that hard but secondly, opportunities seem very limited. I've been to Parramatta, downtown Fairfield, applied to office and even cafe jobs in the city and nothing. God clearly has something else for me.

In the meantime, I have been doing domestic things and spending time with my family and actually serving them. I realised that I haven't been home to spend time with my family really since the end of high school. Being home three nights in a row to cook dinner has been weird but obviously it has been nice to actually be around to be a daughter. Normally I'd be home late from uni or whatever, if I got to have dinner with my family that was a once a week occurrence. Anyway. It's nice.

I visited uni this week because I wanted to catch the UNSW presentation of the Global Poverty Project. I was excited to see some Oaktree friends, but disappointed that Hugh Evans didn't actually present. Simon is awesome but I've already met him! I bet Hugh will be at USyd. Grrr. The presentation was inspiring, but having done development studies myself it was quite idealistic. I guess it served its purpose though.

I spent most of my time on campus catching up with people which was nice but strangely, I kind of removed myself from the mission events. I guess I couldn't do two things at once but anyway.

I've started visiting youth group this term because I'll finally, finally be a leader come term 4. I'm really excited about this. I'm still taking the lunchtime group at my old high school on Fridays with Kate and some new kids are coming along which has been very encouraging. We're reading through Acts. 6UP on Sunday is also still a lot of fun and I really love getting to know better the girls who I will be leading at youth group.

Pete's on long service leave ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

And one of my most favourite people in the world has been accepted by CMS and will be going to St Andrews Hall next year. Barely anyone reads this anyway so I'm going to announced to nobody in particular that this person is Kate.

I don't like my new cookbook. Too many obscure ingredients...

I'm currently reading God's Politics by Jim Wallis which is quite interesting and addresses the fact that the Republicans and Democrats totally get it wrong when it comes to issues of church and state and although it focuses on American politics it has given me something to think about when I go to vote as a Christian. I'll blog about it later because it's been helpful. I saw Jim Wallis speak at USyd last year but I don't think I took very much away from it. I guess that's my latest 'research project', as it were. I didn't get very far with bioethics. All I found was an article in a copy of Kategoria. But I'll keep an eye out.

And this has been another boring life update :)

I can't really title my thoughts.

This whole Reformed Charismatic thing. Perhaps it is reactionary. Perhaps it is an attempt to breathe some life into the purely intellectual understanding of faith that many seem to have. Or rather, it just seems that way. Dry, boring, conservative Sydney Anglicans. I remember looking around from the first few front rows at EQUIP and wondering why the women around me weren't singing with joy. Or at least with a smile on their face. Or at least like they meant the words they were singing. So many young people now want to see revival. That seems to be a popular word right now. We want passion and action and for people to maybe put their faith into practise. Faith is certainly personal but it is never private. The world should know.

I think that the Reformed Charismatic movement should wake up the Sydney Anglicans. The Connect09 initiative has been brilliant but what is it about us that makes us seem so... er, boring? We don't preach a prosperity gospel. We don't overwhelm with pop music and smoke machines. We teach the Word. And for me, that should be enough. That should be all it takes. Knowing and understanding the Gospel should be all it takes to get a response from people. I'll be bold enough to say that my faith hasn't been lying dormant. I want to tell people. I want people to know. I'll do whatever it takes. And I know lots of people like that too. Why are people looking for certain experiences, emotions... Decent teaching of the word should provoke a deep and sincere response. Jesus died for you, what more do you want? If this in itself doesn't make you see your own sinfulness, feel desperately grateful and joyful, you're starting off on the wrong foot. I don't know. I don't know what people are looking for. But obviously there is something lacking in the expression of faith amongst Sydney Anglicans. I think the next generation is more vocal and excited about their faith and I can't wait to see what God will do in the next ten years or so but right now... It seems like some peoples have gotta step up their game.