One of you says, “I follow Paul”; another, “I follow Apollos”; another, “I follow Cephas”; still another, “I follow Christ”.

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These days, by the internet, we have an unparalleled access to many pastors’ sermons, thoughts, blogs, teachings, and resources. I just finished watching Collision (a slew of debates between Christopher Hitchens and Doug Wilson), after spending the morning watching short videos of John Piper, Matt Chandler, and reading my church’s blog. It’s fantastic – God has blessed us with so many faithful teachers, who help us to understand and know Him more fully.

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And this seems to be a pattern amongst Christians today – we’re commonly following RSS feeds and sermons of “renowned” bible teachers – which is both a great thing, and, much more subtly, a dangerous thing.

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Paul notices that it can be dangerous in his first letter to the Corinthians (1:12) because we can develop unhealthy allegiances to particular teachers.

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Don’t get me wrong – I love hearing Mark Driscoll explain, in his own unique way, the Christian’s freedom in Christ to call out to the creator of all things as a child calls out to dad. But I think there’s an almost subconscious undertone in a lot of our conversations… “oh, you listen to Driscoll? I listen to Piper”. Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Of course not! Paul continues – he [Paul] wasn’t sent to baptise people into his name, but to preach the gospel – not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. Paul doesn’t want the attention on himself. He wasn’t driven to excel as a great speaker and debater so that people would follow him. He preached clearly and plainly so that his listeners’ faith might rest on God’s power. It is entirely by God’s Spirit working in people’s hearts as they hear the gospel of Jesus Christ that they can come to have saving faith in him.

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There is no room in the gospel for elitism, or for raising one preacher over another. Sure, some may have more intricate and well thought out theologies, they may communicate more eloquently, be more godly; but these are gifts given to them, by God, for the sake of building up the body of Christ. We need to repeatedly recognise that the Bible is the bottom line: God’s word, and be grateful that He has given us faithful teachers.

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Images: Mark Driscoll jonvaala.files.wordpress.com, John Piper hardwords.files.wordpress.com

I was looking over some verses I tried to memorize last year, and I came across this gem.

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Let us consider how we may spur one another on towards love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one other – and all the more as you see the Day approaching

Heb 10:24-25

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It me what a great privilege this is.
NCS provides some great opportunities every week to meet together and spur one another on:

- The Bible Talks

- Prayer Breaky

- Small Groups

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Like the writer of Hebrews, let me encourage you to be like the bugs in the picture above! Keep on meeting together and encouraging one another!

photo credit: aroid

How do you imagine God? What is he like? A great Architect? A loving Father? A mathematician? The Great Cosmic Destroyer? Go on, picture him for a moment. How do you like to think of God?

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Today I was challenged about the mental picture I hold of God. Consider the second commandment God gave to Moses.

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Undeniably this is talking about visual images and statues, but it makes sense if you apply it to mental images as well. To create a mental image of how I like to think of God actually obscures who God is. To create a mental picture of how I’d like God to be encourages me to think falsely about him. If I think of God as just a loving Father, I obscure his justice. If I think of him as a Brilliant Architect, I obscure his mercy.

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God is much bigger than any picture I can imagine of him. I cannot use my powers of deduction or imagination to work out what he is like.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.

Isaiah 55:8 (ESV)

photo credit: kevindooley

Its 2am, I’m sitting in front of my laptop listening to some ol’ school DC Talk, and I have run out of ways to procrastinate from writing my first blog, so here goes:

I got to head along to another committee meeting Friday morning at Sammy Broadfoot’s, and despite our group being depleted due to illness, prac and a couple of member’s bizarre desire to travel interstate  to chase a piece of flying plastic, we had a great time. I learnt a number of things that morning; without Roger there, committee runs much quicker, Matthew Sheridan has skipped his cleaning duties 2 weeks in a row and I realised that we should so bring back ‘fire and brimstone’ preaching.

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After going through the usual formalities, like Emma Lovegrove’s reasoning behind running like a chicken out of the Brennan room during Wednesday’s epic flash mob, we got to read through one of Jonathan Edward’s sermons – Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. Edwards was one of the main preachers involved in the First Great Awaking (1730’s and 1740’s) and is widely acknowledged as America’s most important and original philosophical theologian. His sermon, which is primarily based on one verse of scripture: Their foot shall slide in due time. Deuteronomy 32:35 is 7,184 words long, and an incredibly eye-opening text, which is why I’ve decided to share it with you today.

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Edward’s sermon has 11 ‘considerations’, some being: God may cast wicked men into hell at any given moment, All that wicked men may do to save themselves from Hell’s pains afford them nothing if they continue to reject Christ and God has never promised to save us from Hell, except for those contained in Christ through the covenant of Grace.

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But that’s enough of my essay for now, if you’re interested, I’d encourage you to have a read through his sermon, it’s both eye opening and applicable: http://www.ccel.org/ccel/edwards/sermons.sinners.html

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Peace out,

Nathan Gallagher

photo credit: Markus Rödder