Karen B had an article in today's new issue of the briefing on Christians and blogging. In the article she said that eternal weight of glory was easily the best blog** run by a Christian in Australia! This is fantastic because it coincides with my 10,000th hit!!! (Not quite as many as Craig and only just beaten by Sam and Soph)

Yep - that's right - 10thousand hits in less than six months. The first website I made was for a University Christian group I started called: OCS (it will now redirect to an ugly site). I remember sitting in the computer lab at uni clicking refresh repeatedly to try and boost the hits for the site... let me say there's been none of that here!! Here are some of my personal favourites from the past 6months:

>Youth Ministry: Emo Evangelism I and II - ripe for the pickin'
>The Wisdom of Solomon - I heart the dentist
>Elizabeth Bennet is Hot! - yep
>17 - demonstrates my ability to manipulate readers (50 comments)
>Katie Noonan, Aron Ottignon and communication - I sound like I know what I'm talking about!
>Youth Ministry: Don't drag dead possums - my favourite youth ministry post
>Gaurdian Angel-cat - meowww
>The cat is out of the bag! - I think I'm sticking to these aims?!?

It's been a while since I commented with fake comments to make it look like people were commenting... so thanks for reading... and thanks for commenting!

1) What's your favourite post(s) from eternal weight of glory?
2) Why do you keep reading this blog? (...like seriously???)


**This is quite simply untrue... but it got your attention!

This is probably one of the most fun On the Poddy episodes we have done! We recorded 'On Location' at a wedding 2 weeks ago. It was a great wedding. If you read my blog and aren't a Christian check out this passage. It talks about what Jesus has done for his bride - and is ultimately the wedding that all other weddings are to point to. Christians - likewise - go be encouraged.

Podcast page is here
This Episode is here
Download directly here
Subscribe in iTunes here

The plan is to go to different locations during summer for recording. If you have any ideas on where we could record this summer - let me know in the comments...

The Real Thing is a Youthworks Holiday Camp (formerly known as Camp Howard) that I lead on for 5 years or so. It's the sister camp to Swing into Action - another Youthworks camp that Row and I direct during the July Holidays.

They have a blog set up counting down to the camp this year. I think it's a great idea. Check it out here. I'm not sure who is running the blog - but I found the link on James and Anita's blog.

Youthworks Holiday Camps are great for Christian teenagers and for their non-Christian friends. They are great for Christian teenagers in that they can hear the gospel clearly proclaimed and be certain of their stance before God. They are fantastic for non-Christians to hear the glorious news of Jesus death and resurrection in a super-fun context. Youthworks Holiday Camps work hard at seeing teenagers followed-up into local youth groups.

For more info click here. Download the rego form here. And encourage any teens in your youth groups to think of friends they can take along.

Have you been on a Holiday Camp before? What's your fondest memory?


Congrats Matt & Tash on the engagement!!

Gluttony is a sin. I'm prone to losing self-control and being a glutton. I need to repent of this sin. I do love food... but sometimes my love of food takes over!! But I do think that you can love food without being gluttonous.

So what have I done?

I set a target at the start of November to lose 15kgs by Christmas - I have already lost 7 with 8 to go over the next month. I am doing more exercise and praying that I would be reminded of what holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.

Thanks for praying. I would love to know how I can pray for you (do it in the comments or by email).

Praise:
>Rowena - my bride. She's gold and I dig her lots
>Day off on Tuesday

Prayer:
>summerfest meeting tomorrow and prep over next month
>high school scripture plans for 2007

Because no-one can guess the competition from last week or the week before - here's a new one: At which ski resort was the above photo taken? (Prize = some ice from my freezer)

The above reading is from WorshipGod06. I've only watched the first couple of minutes (because my dodgy-dial-up cut out!) - but it's fantastic! It is easy to understand and the Word of God is clearly heard. I think that by nature the passage is visual - but Ryan does a marvellous job of reciting it.

What do you think? (If someone has a better internet connection - let me know how it finishes!)

For those waiting for the Thursday post announced on Tuesday - you'll have to wait until next week.

Are you sick of life??? Are you EMO??? If you've stumbled here via google and have no idea what 'evangelism' is... go and check out THIS SITE to find out what Jesus has done to fix this sucky world...

Last week in Youth Ministry: Emo Evangelism I shared some thoughts on why Emo's are ripe for the picking when it comes to evangelism. The mantra of the EMO could almost be summed in this: "The world’s bad, my life is bad, pretty much everything is bad!" At church on Sunday night I spoke on Romans 12:1-2 as part of our Romans series. During the talk I did a brief overview of Romans 1-11. Romans 1-3 are the 'EMO' chapters! The picture is dark, terrible and without hope.

Romans 1:21-23

"21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles."

The Gentiles have not treated God as God. Therefore, further on in the chapter (v24,26,28) God gave them over to their sin.
Gentiles are bad.

Romans 2:5

5 But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed.

The Jews are stubborn, unrepentant and deserving of God’s wrath because of their wickedness.
Jews are bad.

Romans 3:10-12

10 as it is written:
“None is righteous, no, not one;
11 no one understands;
no one seeks for God.
12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
no one does good,
not even one.”

THERE IS NO-ONE GOOD. All of us have sinned (Romans 3:23)
ALL of us are bad!

"Jews are bad, Gentiles are bad, ALL of us are bad." Sounds pretty similar to the EMO mantra...

I would love the opportunity to read these chapters with some EMO's and then read on to the beautiful big BUT verses here (and maybe even to the end of the book).

I think I'm on to something...

My brother pretty much blogs once a month. Here is his latest post. It's about buying 4 U2 albums on iTunes with a voucher that Row and I gave to him for his birthday. Go check his blog out... you could maybe even comment and say that you think he should post more often!

-----------

I had today off. I have piles of stuff to do at the moment... but thought it would be good to have a break. I worked out that over a two month period from mid-October to mid-December I would only have 2 Saturdays off. So... in order not to die - today was wonderful! Here's a quick summary: read Mark 6-8; prayed; ate food; went to my dentist for the 3rd time in 8 days (I really enjoy going to the dentist... I look forward to going again in 6 months time!!); read David Wells' Above All Earthly Pow'rs in Gloria Jeans; went for a 1 hour walk and listened to Songs for the Cross-Centred Life; bought a whipper-snipper (or weed-whacker for the kiwi's); mowed the lawn; went to the beach with Row; and now about to have growth group. Great day! Praise God.

------------

The week ahead on eternal weight of glory:

>Wednesday: EMO Evangelism II
>Thursday: Review of Revive's latest album
>Friday: Prayer Friday #12

Very exciting...

Super-brief this week, thanks for praying:

Praise:
>Adrian and Kelly getting married today
>Romans 3:21-26

Prayer:
>Sermon this Sunday night - Romans 12
>Emo Evangelism

Last week's competition still hasn't been won... Any takers?? (There's big money on the line.) Have a good weekend.

Are you sick of life??? Are you EMO??? If you've stumbled here via google and have no idea what 'evangelism' is... go and check out THIS SITE to find out what Jesus has done to fix this sucky world...
--------------------
Recently, Rowena and I have been thinking a bit about evangelism to teenagers that belong to the EMO subculture. One of my conclusions for any subculture is that Christians who are from that subculture go back into it to reach their friends. Surfers. Skaters. Emos. Goths. (Here's a long list). Whoever. Why? The reasons are obvious enough: they understand the culture and will therefore be able to relate to peers in that culture better than someone external to the culture.

Today in year 9 scripture I had a great time talking to some self-confessed Emo's and had the opportunity to ask them about the characteristics of their subculture. It was a fantastic time. They spoke of the roots in emo punk music but also the culture that goes with that. At one point one of them spoke about how the wearing of tight black jeans might lead to emo guys not being able to have children. Astutely, one of the others said that emo's don't really want to bring children into such a messed up world! We had a great time talking and their questions seemed genuine.

This arvo I did a bit of web-surfing to read more about EMO. I found this great site where (presumably) teenagers write the definitions for different words. It's called Urban Dictionary. The entry on EMO (mild language warning) is hilarious! (There's also 400+ photos such as the Emo-Nemo one). Each entry has a definition and a made up emo-quote. Here's a few:

>>>Like a Goth, only much less dark and much more Harry Potter. "My life sucks, I want to cry."
>>>Emu spelled incorrectly. "That emo sure is fast!"
>>>If scenes were soda, Emo could be Diet Goth. "Emo: I'm so sad. I'm going to cut myself... Goth: I'm nothing. I'm going to cut everyone."
(These are some of the shorter ones - go to the site to read the longer ones.)

The EMO subculture is traced back (by one of the emo's in class today, wikipedia and here) to the EMOtional Punk-rock of the 1980s. Today in a blog post, Chris Mayes described Albert Camus as: "the patron saint of depressed youths". So we can probably trace the EMO culture back to him and other big-question-asking thinkers throughout the 20th Century (and earlier).

I believe in the gospel: that it's God's power for the salvation of everyone who believes. I believe that God has his people in our city and will save them as they hear the gospel. I believe that peer to peer evangelism is an effective way to reach different subcultures.

BUT...

I wonder if the emo tree is ripe for the picking?

On the Central Coast (and on Coasts around the world) there is an organisation called Christian Surfers. Their aim is to build a bridge between surfers and the church. I wonder if it is time for CHRISTIAN EMOS??? Maybe we could aim evangelistic endeavours at them, their subculture and the questions they're asking.

EMO's know they suck
EMO's know the world sucks and is messed up
EMO's don't mind being different
EMO's persevere through bullying
EMO's are not afraid to show emotions (dir!)
EMO's question the world
EMO's seem open to exploring spiritual questions

I haven't yet ventured onto MySpace to find out more about them - but if you're interested I'm sure you could find lots of emotional MySpace pages!

Has anyone else thought about this stuff much???
If not for emos - for other subcultural groups???
Is EMO EVANGELISM worth a shot???
What do you think???
I would love to hear your thoughts...

Mike and Christine have just announced they are going to tie the knot... Wow! I wrote about the beginning of their going out faze here. It's been fun watching them talk about each other over the past few months. Mike went over to the US only a week or so ago... and within a week of meeting each other physically... they're engaged!! But obviously they knew each other well from online stuff plus skype. I think it's not a bad thing for Christians to meet online. Young Christians it may not be good for... but mature, honest, well-thought out Christians can get to know each other pretty well.

I wonder if their meeting was like Kip and LaFawnduh's in Napoleon Dynamite! As long as their wedding is as marvellous as the one in the movie!!

Last time I wrote the following...

We were talking with a friend last night about finding good single guys who are Christian. She said whenever she spoke to different guys they'd either be married or not Christian. So here's a proposal. Either on your blog or on your forehead - if you are an available Christian single - put an 'X'. I think this will solve lots of problems. What do you think?

What do you think?

No time to write today. So if you've missed the last two Picture Comps you can find them here and here. This is pretty much the best photo I've ever taken! What do you think?

Now for the money - YEN3000 for the first correct answer: Where was this photo taken?

Aaron has made the move away from ugly MySpace and joined the blogger community. Awesome! Go over and say g'day. He has popped up a few time on eternal weight of glory: check them out here, here and here.

Aaron likes long walks on the beach, collecting stamps, riding uni-cycles and playing with guns at the Army reserves. He's a godly young man and a fantastic youth group leader. (If you want any more of his details I can pass them on!!)

His blog address: plunkenator.blogspot.com

He already has some good posts he's transferred from his MySpace blog... so check it out.

(Here's his ugly MySpace blog if you want to compare)

Praise God. One of our prayer points from last Friday was answered... our Dentist didn't kill us! In fact he was very good. Row currently sounds like a boxer when she speaks (she had one of her wisdom teeth pulled out) and I'm enjoying super-clean teeth. The dentist told me that I'm unique. 2 reasons: 1) I haven't been to the dentist since I was a kid and I've only got minor problems and 2) My wisdom teeth are prefect and will stay intact.

Just call me 'Solomon'

How wise are you??

Wow... this is the 10th Anniversary of Prayer Friday! If you haven't been here for long you can check out the last 9: here, here, here, here, here, here, here, there and here. Good times. Thanks for praying and I would love to know how to pray for you. Ephesians 3:20-21 says: Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. Wow! We have a big God much bigger than we can imagine.

PRAISE:
>The last few weeks of ccecyouth - new converts + good times
>This Sunday is Thanksgiving Sunday (I call it Turkey Sunday) at church. Thank God for the past year at CCEC and the way that the Kingdom is growing here on the Central Coast.

PRAYER:
>Our Dentist won't kill us: my first visit in like 15 years. Pray more for Row - she will be getting another wisdom tooth ripped out - they've had her on drugs this week (not pot) in prep for the torture on Monday. She's been a bit sick from it this week.
>summerfest - an urban mission event that our church runs in jan. prep happening now

Around the web:
Comments are still raging from PF#009
optical illusions
the youth vanguard
this dude is crackers! (h/t CraigS)
Watch Your Life and Doctrine by CJ Mahaney (h/t JT)
Driscoll on Haggard (good wake-up call)

almost forgot... $NZ4Billion for the person who can guess where the photo is taken... hint: the dog isn't real...

mars hills church music
garage hymnal
sam chan sermon online
socceroos verses bahrain match highlights
the weight of glory sermon
katie noonan hallelujah
dave miers
aron ottignon
"Blue King Brown" download "come and check your head"
"come and check your head"+download
noel gallagher socceroos
"baptist church" +calvinism news local sports obituaries -greensboro
"dave miers" blog
benidiction quotes
eternalweightofglory.blogspot.com
eternalweightofglory
"David Miers" "eternal weight of glory"
eternal weight
weight of god's glory
dave miers (a whole bunch of times - and it wasn't me!)
lunchtime death at gymea high school
eternalweightofglory blogspot
the weight of glory audio
chaplain kerry nettle
The words of the benidiction
David Miers

ps - they weren't all google... but most of them were

pps - for a prize of $US3Million guess where the above photo was taken

ppps - the following posts have comments running hot:
Jesus' Resurrection: Of First Importance (23 comments)
Picture Comp #002 (22 comments)
Prayer Friday #009 (9 comments)
How to trick a dentist... (8 comments)

Next Monday morning I will be making my first trip to the dentist since the 1980s. During the next 5 days I would like to do whatever I can to make the visit a good one. So...

Do you have any tips on how to trick a dentist?

(I'm after serious ones... but funny ones will be fun to read too!)

Last night I watched a sermon by Mark Driscoll in the Vintage Jesus series at Mars Hill Church Seattle. The title was Did Jesus really rise from the dead?. It was good to watch him preach and see some of the how of his preaching. But the content was gold! Today I've been reflecting on how the resurrection of Jesus is of first importance.

3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 8 Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. 1 Cor 15:3-8

>>Jesus died for our sins
>>He was buried
>>He was raised
>>He appeared

We too often leave the resurrection of Jesus out of our gospel - what a stupid thing to do! Liberals will try to re-interpret the resurrection of Jesus into a spiritual resurrection... but Jesus rose - physically... and we who have our trust in him have a physical resurrection to look forward to because Jesus first rose.

Driscoll said that it ought not just be Easter Sunday that we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus - but every Sunday! They also take communion each week at church as they are reminded of Jesus' death on their behalf.

Our practise at church is to have communion every 6 weeks. It's more likely to be once every 10 weeks though! I think we ought to do it more often. Is it weird to the outsider??? I don't think so... it's a marvellous opportunity to preach the gospel each week!

What do you think? How often does your church do it? How often do you think you ought to do it?

My vote for best church website is Mars Hill Church Seattle. It's got loads of free stuff on there. I'm not going to link to it all here. Go and check it out. They have sermons, gospel class stuff, announcements, music, magazine, doctrinal statements, videos, blogs, maps, members section forum, hyperlinks, links, text, contact page... you name it they've got it!

What do you think?
What are the criteria for a good church website?
Put any good examples in the comments...

This is Steve Reimer and me at the Mariners smashing Sydney FC 3-1 a couple of weeks ago. Hope you're well Steve. Thanks for supporting the Mariners and not FC... and thanks even more for praying!

PRAISE:
>Praise God for his wisdom and knowledge
>The opportunity to teach Scripture in local schools

PRAYER:
>Romans 11 sermon this Sunday night
>Bring a friend night 2nite at ccecyouth (pray for follow up too)

Around the web:
Some people have called Christian Rap - CRap! But here is some reformed rap - check it yo!
New youth ministry blog
New Bathgate Baby
Ian is a cannibal

Nothing profound to say today. So after the roaring success of the last picture comp... drum roll please... Introducing... P.I.C.T.U.R.E. C.O.M.P. #.0.0.2.

1) Which well-known Sydney cafe is this?
You want a clue? Row and I were visiting my sister who lives on campus of a well-known Christian institution in Sydney. From what I know this is a popular cafe even amongst the likes of some of our coffee snobs!

Do you know the one? I gave it a double thumbs up.
2) If you know it... why is it so good? What do you like about it?

Prize for first correct answer (suburb + name of cafe) to question #1 - next time I'm there if you happen to be nearby I will buy you a coffer. To question #2 - you can buy yourself one...
----------
PS - issue #338 of the briefing arrived in the post today. The issue is on the prosperity gospel. I've read half of it already. Our Senior Pastor wrote a great article:

A different Jesus — Andrew Heard argues that the real problem with the prosperity gospel lies in its representation of Christ.

Find out more here