Monday A-musement

In honour of Sunday's message about Jonah.

"The Cup"

CJ Mahaney (the speaker in this video) is passionate about the Gospel. Being that he pastors a 'Charismatic' church I have my differences in doctrine with him but when it comes to the Gospel he knows how to preach it. This is a must listen!

Happy Australia Day!

I hope you all have a great long weekend.

I know I said I'd be posting again but the arrival of our beautiful daughter Anaya has re-ordered my schedule.

I do have some thoughts ready for this week so stay posted. In the mean time enjoy your day off.

Pastor Brian

Thoughts on the Olympic Opening Ceremony

Surprise, surprsie! It's been a while since I've added a post to my blog. There's been a lot going on in the past few months and I just haven't had the time to get my thoughts into some sort of order. But I'm back!

Like a lot of people (possibly a massive understatement) I sat down on Friday night 08/08/08 and watched the opening ceremony for the 2008 Olympic Games. As expected, it was quite an extraordinary spectacle. The stadium full of drummers at the beginning was for me the highlight. As you are probably aware, the ceremony basically traced the history and influence of China through the last 5000 years roughly. Highlighting their culture and the influence they have had on the world through inventions like paper and movable type.

As I watched this amazing display and saw the celebration of mankind's achievments in China I couldn't help but think of one glaring omission in the narritive of their history. I couldn't help but think of J. Hudson Taylor, missionary to China. In fact, during one of the ad breaks I went to my study and grabbed the biographies of him I have on my bookshelf and flicked through them.

I know Hudson Taylor wasn't the only missionary to China, nor was he the first Christian in China but I think most would agree he has been the most influential missionary to China.

Sitting there in front of the TV with these books in my hand I was inspired to read his biography again. So, over the next two weeks I'm going to press the pause button on much of my other reading and read as much as I can about Hudson Taylor. I'm doing this because I am always challenged by his devotion to God and his love for the people of China and I think I can learn a lot from him at this stage in my life. So, over the next few weeks I'll be sharing some of the things I learn with you and hopefully we'll be drawn closer to our Saviour through Hudson Taylor's godly example.

If you'd like to do some reading of your own about Hudson Taylor here's a couple of good places to start:

• Hudson Taylor's Spiritual Secrets by Howard Taylor (Available at Koorong)
• The Wholesome Words website has a number of links to various biographies of Hudson Taylor

For today, I'll leave you with the following quote:

If I had 1000 lives, I'd give them all for China -J. Hudson Taylor

Until next time,

Pastor Brian

Monday Morning A-Musement

Special Meetings: Confusion, Concern & Crisis! What is the answer?

This week we at Cambridge Baptist Church have the privilege of being able to host evangelist Glen Weeks. He will be speaking for us each evening from Sunday February 10th to Wednesday February 13th. You will find all of the details about where and when on our website here. I hope to see you there, I know you will be greatly encouraged by his ministry to us through the Word of God.

Click here for details

Pastor Brian

Bibles For A Buck!

I needed to go to the Christian bookstore the other day to pick up a few things for church. They usually have a 'bargain bin' near the front door and this day was no different so I did what I usually do and I looked for a bargain! This week they had a stack of New Testaments on sale so I picked one up to see how much they were and to my surprise I found they were selling them for $1. I grabbed 4 or 5 thinking we could give them away at church. As I was pulling them out of the 'bin' I was thinking "wow, a Bible for a dollar!" The most priceless book of all history and I'm buying it for a dollar! I began to think how much the Bible costs and I remembered how many people have died for the Bible. There were times in history when it could cost up to a year's wages just to have one page of the Bible and I'm standing there with a handful of New Testaments which cost less than the coffee I was carrying in the other hand.

My friends, I don't want to sound sappy or emotionalistic (I hope that's a real word) but how often do we treat God's Word like we paid a dollar for it. The value of God's Word is not based on how much you paid for it or whether it has a genuine leather cover with guilded page edges or even which "great Christian" has put their notes in it. The value of God's Word is in the words. It is through these words that God, Himself, speaks to us through His Holy Spirit. Men and women of the past, and even right now in parts of our world, believed the Bible was so valuable they would pay any price to have it and to make it available to others. Many showed that not even death was too high a price to pay.

I think that much of the weakness we see in Christianity in our country stems from the fact that we can buy a Bible for a dollar and we treat it as if it's only worth the dollar we paid for it.

I leave you with this thought: read your Bible more and find it's true worth!

Pastor Brian