Feb 15
The first of the women’s breakfasts for 2012 is happening in just under two weeks. The details are as follows:
Saturday 25th February, 2012 @ 8am
DPC Church Building
What a great opportunity to catch up with friends across DPC, pray together, enjoy breakfast with each other and hear about God’s faithfulness in tough times!
Hope to see you there!
Dec 23
In the opening chapters of the book, Piper shares his desire to not waste his life and his struggle to figure out what this would look like for a follower of Christ. He shares from his own life experiences and how he came to the understanding that if he was to come to the end of his life and say “I’ve not wasted it!” then he would need to find the ultimate purpose of God and join him in it. He suggests that this is to both Glorify Go and Delight in him.
‘God created us to live with a single passion to joyfully display his supreme excellence in all the spheres of life. The wasted life is the life without this passion. God calls us to pray and think and dream and plan and work not to be made much of, but to make much of him in every part of our lives.’
Piper goes deeper and explains how Christ is the ultimate display of God’s glory and thus a cross-centred life is a God-glorifying life. In the following chapters Piper explores the practical applications of his thinking.
It is not a book for the faint-hearted! Expect to be challenged!
Well, that concludes our extended series of ideas for using our time to glorify God. Most of all remember that God loves you and wants you to live for him. We don’t have to be busy all of the time (in fact if we are, we will probably miss out on some of the important things) but we do need to do everything “as unto the Lord”.
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Thank you to all our blog contributors this year. We are having a break from blogging over the summer holidays, and hope to resume next year with more articles, links, book reviews, interviews etc. Please be thinking about what you might be able to contribute and what topics or issues you would like to “talk” about – let us know your thoughts.
Dec 18
…more ideas for encouraging your family to grow in godliness:
If you are married:
. Think about what you can be doing to help your husband to grow in his relationship with Jesus.
. What selfish behaviours in your own life do you need to work on, with God’s help, that cause him to stumble in his godliness?
. Have a look at proverbs that talk about a nagging wife.
. Think through your spending habits and attitudes to belongings. Are they a cause of tension between you?
. Are your comments about other people, church or bible study mostly negative? Be deliberate about seeing positive things in people and sharing those.
. Could you both benefit from a weekend alone to work on your relationship with Jesus and each other?
. Pray together, read the bible together and consider reading a good Christian book together.
. Look at doing some sort of ministry together.
. Pray for your husband.
. Think about how to grow in submission to your husband, and how to improve in being his “helper”.
Dec 15
…..more ideas on encouraging your family in godliness:
With teenagers:
. Talk to your teenagers about who they would like to see come to know Jesus. Pray with them for their friends. Talk through different ways of bringing up Jesus in conversation. Help them to think through what things might be helpful to invite them to.
. Encourage your teens to be regular in their attendance at youth group and to be serving at youth group.
. Encourage your teens to go to a Christian camp to be challenged about Jesus. Talk about why you find camps and conferences helpful.
. Celebrate positive achievements and milestones.
. Be positive about ways they can contribute and things they can achieve while still in their teens.
. Discussing deeper issues, and current affairs from a christian perspective
. Be ready to be a listening ear any time of the day or night!
. Pray for your teens.
. Encourage them to pray about their joys and concerns, pray with them.
. Look for appropriate christian books for them to be reading. For example: Little Black Book series from Matthias Media
With adult children:
. Regularly chat to your kids about their joys and concerns and ask them what you can be praying about for them.
. Encourage your kids to attend christian conferences/camps, offer to pay for them if their finances are stretched. Maybe go with them, if appropriate.
. Share with your kids about good christian books you are reading, offer to loan them or buy them a copy to read.
. Discussing deeper issues, and current affairs from a christian perspective
. Be interested in their church family, bible study group, christian activities
. Pray for your adult chilldren (and their spouses and your grandchildren)
. Be ready to be a listening ear any time of the day or night!
. Share with them what you have been learning from your Bible reading, sermons etc.
Dec 12
….more on encouraging our family to grow in godliness:
Some ideas for encouraging your kids to be loving towards others outside the home:
. Help them be good at being other people centred. Make up a help chart and reward caring and thoughtful actions.
. Encourage your children to serve at church. Encourage them to find someone who isn’t being talking to anyone and go and talk to them. Discuss beforehand what sorts of questions can help get a conversation going.
. As your kids get a bit older encourage them to go up to a known adult and ask if they would like a cup of tea after the church service.
. Make greeting and handing out bulletins at the door a family activity when you are on the roster. Get your children to help say hello to people and pass them the outline.
. Teach them to offer their Sunday School teacher help packing up.
. Take your children along if you are helping someone out at home during the week. . Get them to help with cooking a meal if you are on the meal roster.
. Talk with your older child’s teacher about ways you can help out with still at home children in tow!
. Talk together as a family about how you could reach out to others in your church family. Who needs help, who needs encouragement, who needs a cuddle, who needs a laugh, who needs a family to love them?
. When you get presents for your friends get your children to give them the presents.
Ideas to encourage your kids to love others at home:
. Teach them to do kind things for members of the family. Encourage sharing and generosity.
. Encourage children to ask their parents if they need any help around the house.
. Encourage them to make a card or draw a picture or write a letter to someone from church.
. Think of missionaries you know who have children a similar age. Your children could write to them or draw them a picture or chat to them using Skype.
. Encourage your children to pray for missionaries and teach them about where they live and what they are doing and why. Have a map of the world with pictures of the missionaries you support with arrows pointing to the countries they were working in.
. Encourage your children to find out more about the different countries. Have a party where you try out food from that country and get dressed up in (approximate) national dress. A great book to help with this and with prayer is “You can Change the World”, the children’s version of Operation World.
. Get your children to think about who they would like to take on a picnic lunch with them or who would be good to invite for dinner from church. Involve them in hospitality.
Dec 08
2. How can I serve my family so that they grow in godliness?
Some ideas for teaching your young children about God and the gospel:
. Do your children trust in Jesus as their Saviour? If you aren’t sure then ask them. Explain the gospel to them. Think about what basic things they need to know about being a Christian and teach them.
. Write down some of the big words that the Bible uses with a simple explanation for each of them. You could include words like sin, forgiveness, eternal life, redemption, holiness, salvation.
. Look for books and DVDs that teach your children about key parts of Christian faith and living. Some great examples are the Danny D books, Veggie Tales DVDs and the “Adventures in Odyssey” kids radio program from Focus on the Family. Each of these teaches about what God is like and how we should respond to him.
. Teach your children to see God at work in everything around them. A book that can better equip you to do this “For the Children Sake” by Susan Schaeffer Macaulay. It has some great ideas about using kids enthusiasm for different things as an opportunity to teach them about God and the world around them.
. Read to your children from an age-appropriate children’s Bible or an easier translation as they get older. Discuss what is being read and get them to retell you the stories later.
. Talk about what you see God doing in the world around you and help your children do the same.
. Pray with your kids about difficulties and uncertainties in their lives. Model this in your own life when things go wrong.
Dec 03
…… returning to part two of our series on Time and how to use it effectively to serve Jesus:
2. How can I serve my family so they grow in godliness?
This is obviously another broad area to cover. Ideas will vary depending on our family situation. Nevertheless, we will try to give some suggestions under three broad categories: younger children, older children/teens, and adult children.
As always, please add your own ideas and thoughts.
Firstly a few general things to think about:
. regardless of how long you have been married, regularly think about what you can be doing to help your husband to grow in his relationship with Jesus. What selfish behaviours do you need to work on, with God’s help, that cause him to stumble in his godliness?
. regardless of their age, regularly ask yourself are your children trust in Jesus as their Saviour? Are they growing in their relationship with Jesus? If you aren’t sure then ask them. Pray and act accordingly and age appropriately. Explain the gospel to them. Think about what basic things they need to know about being a Christian and teach them.
Nov 28
Thanks to everyone who helped out with the showcase. Many women heard through Clare’s talk on the gifts of the wise men that Jesus is both King and God, who came to die so we may be saved.
Now is a great time to continue praying for those who heard this message. Coming out of this event, several women are looking into the difference Jesus makes. Pray also for the women meeting with them as they help these ladies discover who Jesus is.
Nov 23
…if you knew that company was encouraging the objectification of girls and women?
I was pointed in the direction of this link last week:
Food for thought as we plan our Christmas gifts and beyond.
Nov 21
What brought you to Dubbo?
My simple answer is that God did. I was actually sent to teach at Wellington High School as a ‘support teacher’ in 1975. I had two short term appointments in Beverly Hills and Fairfield and was sent to Wellington to await a more permanent position. After being the Librarian for 7 months I was appointed as a Social Science teacher in Wellington where I later met and married Kelvin.
How long have you been a Christian?
I became a Christian in 1969 after attending a camp at Wentworth Falls. I was in Year 11 at school at that time.
What are some ways you are connecting with other women?
I meet in an ‘accountability/Bible Study group’ each week, I meet with 3 other ladies one on one. I have been able to connect with some non-Christian ladies through a sewing group and hope to develop more associations in a similar way in the future. I have been starting to see some other opportunities to be involved in ladies’ lives but they are yet to develop. It is a bit exciting really to see things open up.
Have you read any good Christian books lately you can recommend to other women?
I have been seriously challenged in recent years about my mind and its ‘thought processes. At present I am reading (and talking to others about) Battlefield of the Mind by Joyce Meyer. I had been given the book as a gift and later discovered it as a very helpful way to deal with the thought processes that I had which were not helpful to me as a Christian woman. Proverbs 23:7 reminds us that ‘we are what we think’ and I have come to realize that I cannot have a positive life with a negative mind. The vital necessity for me is to get my thinking in line with God’s word. Philippians 2 reminds me that I need to have a mind consistent with Christ Jesus and Corinthians talks about ‘taking captive every thought and make it obedient to Christ’. I want to be transformed into Christlikeness and this involves the renewing of my mind.
So… I am on a journey of renewal and transformation. It is not always smooth but I am heading in the right direction. I am finding it helpful and it is generating a new peace in my life which I haven’t experienced for a long time.
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