An Appealing Message?

By Luke Midena, Canberra Labouring Community

Is this an appealing message?

This was a question asked by a young man in our discipleship training group over dinner recently.

In an era where people crave authenticity and evidence of God’s power, Simon*— who has been battling significant undiagnosed health issues such as constant pain, breathlessness, fatigue, and a 15kg weight loss in recent months — wasn’t questioning the message itself, but his role as the messenger. He voiced a common concern:

‘If anything, my life is evidence against the gospel! Who would want to be like me?’

This brought us to the core of the gospel. If it’s true that God is most clearly experienced and seen in our suffering, what is the good news that we’re sharing?

The gospel reorders what it means to prosper or succeed. It offers hope that goes way beyond physical wellbeing in the here and now. Simon’s suffering brought us to the heart of what it is to be blessed – an intimate, loving, and trusting relationship with God. Just as Jesus expressed, ‘…that where I am you may be also’ (John. 14:3).

We wondered: Do our friends desire a message like this? Is the gospel truly appealing?


Please Pray for Simon:

  • Gratitude: Thank God for Simon’s burning desire to make Jesus known.
  • Strength in Weakness: Pray that the power of the resurrected life of Jesus would be perfectly seen and experienced in his weakness.
  • Boldness: Ask that God would fill Simon with such a knowledge of Christ’s love that he would gladly boast about the gospel to his colleagues.
  • Healing: Pray for God’s healing in Simon’s life.
  • More broadly, as all the young men and women in our discipleship groups learn to share the gospel with their friends, pray that their security and rest in God amid their weaknesses would adorn the message.

Upcoming Events and Needs:

  • NavCon24: Our national student conference is on from June 24-27. Stowe Campbell from the NZ Navigators will train students to engage deeply with God through Scripture, focusing on the book of Exodus. We’ll be taking a group of Canberra students down to Melbourne for this. Sign up here.
  • Canberra-wide Labourers Evenings: The theme for our bi-monthly dinner meetings this year is ‘Immersing Our Minds in God’s Perspective’. Pray that we meditate on His word (Joshua 1:8) and that God grants us clarity through the truth of the gospel. Also, pray for wisdom in prioritising and developing our scriptural study skills.
  • Canberra Fundraising Afternoon Tea: Scheduled for 29 June. Pray that God would be honoured as we celebrate His generosity and that He continues to meet our financial needs. May everyone who attends delight in the responsibility Christ entrusted to us (Matthew 28:18-20). Interested in coming along? Sign up here.

Thank you so much for your prayers.

*Names are changed to protect privacy or identities of persons in sensitive situations.

Easter Thought

By Grant Dibden

The year has been a bit of a blur. I got started in earnest after Australia Day, had trips to Brisbane, Sydney and Tasmania, and an early Easter. But what really makes it a blur is my father-in-law’s death twelve days after diagnosis. Arthur’s death puts things into perspective. Life is fragile and not permanent. Life isn’t about all the things that we do. It’s about relationships. David Brooks, in his book, The Road to Character, insightfully (more…)

Why is Good Friday good?

By Grant Dibden

I remember as a kid laughing at Christianity for calling the day that Jesus died Good Friday. Good – the day that Jesus died! I thought that was crazy. Good Friday, the day the supposed hero died? Surely, it should be Bad Friday! I really had no clue about Christianity. I had gone to Sunday school and knew about Jesus, but I just didn’t understand the gospel.

Good Friday is good because (more…)

The Lordship of Jesus

By Mike Johnson, first published in Compass, Autumn 2021 edition (if you would like to receive the hard copy, please contact our office).

Navigators are called to advance the Gospel of Jesus and His Kingdom. The message we have is one about a man who walked among us, shared in all things human, suffered and eventually was crucified. Yet, though he shared our humanity, he was the powerful, magnificent (more…)

Easter in a Covid-19 Environment

Dear Nav Family,

A little over 2000 years ago tonight, the disciples ate the Last Supper, and the next day Jesus was crucified. Jesus had told his disciples that he would be killed, that he could even be crucified, but the disciples didn’t really understand. They didn’t really get it. We know the end of the story. We know Jesus rose on Easter day, but they didn’t. It’s so familiar to us, we can miss the devastation, the disorientation, the debilitating effect it had on the disciples. They had seen so many miracles right before their eyes – healing, walking on water, food from nowhere, raising the dead and hearing incisive teaching from a confident public figure – so it would have been unthinkable to acknowledge that anything could ever change. (more…)

Small Initiatives

By June Sparks, first published in Compass Winter edition 2020

At the Neighbours to Nations Conference, I was reminded once again and encouraged to continue taking small step-by-step initiatives in the lives of those around me in the process of pointing them to Jesus.

Jesus said the greatest command is to love God with heart, soul and mind, and the second is to love your neighbour as yourself. Attending, paying attention, listening, noticing, seeing are the first steps in influencing the people around you toward Christ. Jesus had compassion on the crowd, he saw them as lost, like sheep.

Prayerful seeing and hearing leads to connecting. Our encounters move from knowing by sight into acquaintance and a deepening relationship. Prayerful encounters (being with/among the lost at life events, weddings, funerals; socially – just getting together for coffee, dinner; in crises – over time, friendships develop and trust is built) can become mutual and intentional friendships.

Prayerfully taking small initiatives leads to further insight and Spirit-led seeing and seizing of opportunities: seeing obstacles to faith that need to be removed; seeing truths that need to be shared; seeing practical help to be applied.

All of it – under God – becomes God-stories within the big picture of His redemption story. Some may be stories of sowing, others of cultivating, others of reaping and seeing generations spring up. In a world where distrust and suspicion are on the rise, small random as well as planned consistent initiatives have a big impact.

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