The Hunter Bible Church crew answer:

Simple really.  We are praying that groups of people will gather friends and family together for a meal or social event that is explicitly geared towards introducing people to Jesus.  We will provide a speaker to do a short 5 minute talk and who can answer questions and you do the rest.

• Could your church be doing something similar?
• What is your church doing to equip and encourage its members to reach those they know with the gospel?

via @SamHilton

Friend B
Love comes from within… no matter the situation, you don’t have to detach from love, you can be in a relationship or not and still develop the same compassion. The love and joy you talk of has a catch….namely grief and pain when the joy and love is ‘taken away’. That is relying on the externals. When you grieve, what are you grieving for?

The love that is described in the bible can be a bit hit and miss, “Serve the Lord with fear and trembling, kiss his feet or else he will get angry and you will perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled (Ps 2:11)”. God wanted people to fear him? Is this what you expect from someone full of love? If I had a partner like that I would call that domestic abuse. “For the Lord your God is a devouring fire, a jealous God (Deut 4:24).” Ok so God is a jealous guy too… poor guy…. might need to work on that one…. I’ve been told it’s hard to maintain relationships when you are jealous.

And as for God not changing, name me one thing in this entire universe that doesn’t change? Saying God doesn’t change has no base for reality in our experience in this cosmos. Everything is changing all the time every moment of every day. Why wouldn’t God change as well? Is he immune from the forces of nature? Isn’t he nature? Nature changes right?

As much as I love this conversation, we’ve probably both learnt that such discussions don’t really get anywhere as we both have egos to maintain. Sorry for initiating the debate…. I like what you have to say and you come across as a person with the right intention…. and that’s the most important thing….:) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L50xVM7wwss&feature=feedu
3 hours ago · Like

Hayley Neal
yeah i enjoy these chats. hard to share thoughts on a FB thread though.

I think the big difference in our thinking is the way we approach and understand God and the things around us.

I believe God is God. If God wasn’t immune from the forces of nature he would not be. He would just be you and me and I agree with you unable offer no hope.

Thanks for the link… found it interesting, especially having just read this the other day: http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/jesus-the-buddha-on-happiness

Read Part 1 of the conversation here

Status Update by Friend A:
Just following my post regarding the wonders of god in the tragic Japan Quake… I guess this answers it??????
http://www.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/81374648/

7 hours ago · Like · Share

Hayley Neal
While I want to and do affirm God is in control, I’m know there is a need to be filled with greater humble compassion. Because, I know if God were to shake, who could stand? Not the girl in the video, not any of us. We would all be stuffed.

These calamities make me look up & think why? Why didn’t that happen to me? I feel so fortunate to not have been in that place at that time. In many ways I could have easily been caught up in that?

I don’t want to be cliche Christian – but it makes me see my need for God even more. Left to ourselves, what hope is there? It’s why we need a God who wasn’t thankful for human suffering (unlike this young girl whom i think is misguided) but was willing to endure human suffering, taste death, (i.e. the cross) so that we wouldn’t have to.
6 hours ago · Like

Friend B
Left to ourselves, what hope is there? Answer – Ourselves.
5 hours ago · Like

Hayley Neal
What hope is there for us in ourselves?
5 hours ago · Like

Friend B
You have no hope for yourself?
4 hours ago · Like

Hayley Neal
do u really think we can prevent ourselves from disappointments, hurts or ultimately death? what kind of hope in ourselves r u talking of?
3 hours ago · Like

Friend B
I’m talking of the hope that let’s you decide which path you take. You can’t prevent death, but you can prevent disappointments and hurt (mental). What is a disappointment? It’s when you expect an outcome and it doesn’t happen right? The reason people get disappointed is because we don’t see reality as it is. Mental hurt (as opposed to physical hurt) is merely an effect to how we deal with a situation. You can learn to react to situations in different ways so mental suffering loosens its grip.
3 hours ago · Like

Friend C
What ever is going to happen, will happen, the biggest illusion is that we get to decide on what happens to us. We are all here to progress and that also means facing sorrow head on.
about an hour ago · Like

Hayley Neal
The grief &/or disappointment of knowing your partner will not be coming home from work because they were killed in the earthquake, is responding to reality as it is. To say they just need time to deal mentally with the physical situation and wait for it to loosen its grip, is mere poetry.

We are holistic beings whereby our emotions are, more often than not, rooted in a very real and physical or relational reality.
We need a hope that does not come from within but from outside. Otherwise when I or my situation change so too would my hope. But if hope comes from outside then it will sustain me even when I or my situation (whether physical or emotional) may change.

….

^“1 The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
² Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they reveal knowledge.
³ They have no speech, they use no words;
no sound is heard from them.
⁴ Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world.”

- Psalm 19

H/T Liquid Squid

However how about killing two birds with one stone: turn this evangelist training course into mini-evangelistic events. Open the event up to not just cater for the Christian. Promote it as something Christians could even bring unbelievers to.

1. For the Christian – To train up and equip your church about the defeater beliefs, objections to Christianity, and tough questions that they face in the conversations they are having with their friends.
2. For the Unbeliever – They would not only cater for the Christian but the unbelieving friend also. They would be nights where you could easily invite your friends to, and allow them to hear more about the Christian worldview.

Get a speaker to speak on their hobby horse topic, have a panel of speakers, or even open it up for questions time also.
Topics could include:

» Resurrection proof
» Hasn’t science disproved Christianity
» Reliability of the bible
» Objective Morality
» Ultimate truth/Exclusivity of Christianity
» Where is God during the GFC
» God hates religion – cause of all wars
» Christian disunity
» Role of sex in relationships
» Christianity is a group of homophobes
» Place of suffering in humanity
» Origin of creativity and beauty
» Purpose of work/career
» Toxic Culture
» Money

Canberra man Robert Brown was fishing off the Tathra wharf two years ago when he saw a pram carrying a 15-month-old boy, and four-year-old boy fall into the sea… “Robert acted selflessly and at severe peril of his own life to do his best to help a complete stranger,” link

Why? Why would Robert a complete stranger risk his life to help a father and his two kids from drowning?

Scott Kauffmann in his blog essay “The Problem with Good” highlights 3 possible answers to questions like the above:

Logically, there are three possible answers to the problem of good.

1. “Comic grace”: we’re good enough to save ourselves
2. “Cosmic waste”: goodness outside salvation is an illusion
3. “Common grace”: goodness outside salvation is God’s gift to everyone

… I believe the best answer to the problem of good is common grace. Common grace is one of the most essential, useful, redemptive, and dangerous truths to understand as we interact with the world around us. It helps us understand God, our world, and others.

… Let’s start with some key elements of common grace.

1. God gives immense grace (unmerited favor) to all His creatures, in many ways.
2. God cares about more than just saving individual souls. That is certainly of great interest to Him, but it’s not His only interest. He also cares about restoring His creation to glory through the coming of His kingdom.
3. God is the author of truth, beauty, and goodness wherever – and in whomever – they are found. And they can be found nearly everywhere – in virtually every person, place, situation, or idea that ever existed.
4. Wherever they are found, they can and should be used to point others and ourselves to their source in Jesus.

Read the rest of the article here

Pat Condell doesn’t respect your beliefs and doesn’t care if you get offended. He has writting a book “Godless Comedy”, which is his serious thoughts on religion and giving it the kicking it apparently deserves. You can watch many of his video-posts on youtube that detail why Christians and other ‘religions’ have it so wrong.

Check out his website here

What would it take you to believe that Robert Pattison and I once dated?

What would I need to do to prove it to you?

• A photograph?
• A testimony of my friend?
• Robert Pattison himself standing before you saying “YEP – we dated”

And What would it take you to believe that Jesus is Alive.

It is almost as just as outrageous claim.
Robert and me once an item.
Jesus is Alive.
What is more believable?

Heaps of people think the death and resurrection of Jesus is a joke, that it’s just some fairytale. But its not! It is history and there is proof. He appeared to many and the accounts have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

Do you doubt? Most of us do… even a guy named Thomas wanted proof before believing and it was only a week after the resurrection. Read his story in John’s Gospel (chapter 20).

Check out other resources.

• The Trouble with Christianity | Redeemer Presbyterian Church, New York
• Questions & Answers | Christianity.net
• Library | Centre for Public Christianity