I really enjoyed Anthony's exposition of 1 Timothy 2:8-15 at church tonight. I thought he handled a difficult passage with both sensitivity and clarity. I particularly enjoyed his explanation of verses 8-10. When I distil it down in my own head, I think what Paul was saying to Timothy (and Anthony was saying to us) was blokes, don't let your 'blokeyness' get in the way of your Godliness, and ladies, don't let your femininity get in the way of your Godliness.

Perhaps I'm simplifying it too much, but if that's essentially right, I wonder in our day, what are the things that blokes and ladies should be on the look out for, in terms of blokeyness and femininity that might hinder Godliness generally and good order in the church more specifically.

Any ideas?

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During my daily facebook check... I noticed that the 'Jesus All About Life' (JAAL) fanpage had posted as its status:

"Jesus. All About Life = Easter. All about life... Jesus stall not allowed at this year's Sydney Royal Easter Show. But the good news is we have purchased over 30,000 resources and will be giving them away to ministries and Churches to get the message out there, more information will be released soon..."

At first I was a tad frustrated... why would Christians not be allowed to tell people about Christ and specifically the significance of Easter? Why have the 'Easter' show named the 'Easter Show'? Why give the go ahead for the JAAL stall to be setup, then pull out now. It really has nothing to do with the Easter message and has essentially turned into another year ritual.

As a Christian in this sin filled world, it is easy to look at the negatives of anything really. As Christ calls us to do we are to shine as lights to those around us. 

"In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven." - Matthew 5:16

It is so easy to get frustrated with minor things.. frustrated with the world around us, with what we think is lack of progress. God gives us so many opportunities to tell those around us about what Jesus has done for us - yet we fail to do so. As a Christian, now is the time for us to tell those around us the true meaning of Easter. If you visit the Easter Show this year, tell those you go with the true meaning of Easter. 

Let us not get bogged down in the frustration of this world, rather share the amazing story of life and hope. Christ came to die for you, so that you might have life - definitely something worth sharing. Will you?

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Allan Quee preached a great semon last Sunday morning on 1 Corinthians 12:1-11 as part of the series on the Holy Spirit.  Here are a few quotes from his sermon that stood out for me:-

"The special gifts God has given me  make me a conduit for His grace."

"Spiritual gifts transform the things that are mundane."

"The essence of the gift is in the free will of the giver."

I thought the last comment was particularly interesting because so often we hear the term "claiming the gift (of this or that)" and I realise that, although we should and can pray for certain gifts, to try to "claim" one is ridiculous.  We are at the mercy of the One who gives generously.

Liz

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Welcome to our new website. There is some additional content here that some may not have seen. Hopefully you'll find the whole site better presented and a more pleasant experience to use.

A new site, a new blog. Users will now be able to create blog entries of their own. To do that, you need to become a registered user. In turn, to do that, you need to email me at simon@gerringonganglican.org.au. Hopefully, enabling this change might generate some further discussion and comments that might be stimulating and uplifting to all that choose to follow along. If you want to have your picture automatically appear when you blog (it's nice for people to put a face with a name), create an account at www.gravatar.com and it will happen automatically.

You don't have to be a registered user to comment on blog entries. Click the comment link at the bottom of the blog to read existing comments or if you wish to make a comment of your own.

Happy posting!

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