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…)
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…)
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…)
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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