Preparing the Way

I've spent some time recently remembering what a shock it was to leave for Bible College. In Sydney. I think 4th year does that to you. More than a couple of you enjoyed our very rare updates we sent back to the promised land during that time, especially this one, which was our first. It was sent on 6 Feb 2007. Here it is posted in rememberance of two crazy fantastic years in Sydney.

"Dear Friends and Family

How are you?
We hope you are having a good week, with many of you returning to work, England, uni or school after taking holidays during the summertime.

This week marks our fourth week living here as a family in Sydney, where we hope to stay to study at Bible college for the next 3 years. (At least, that's the plan). I am enrolled at Moore Theological Collge and have just commenced a Bachelor of Theology. Many of you have heard our news; I apologise to those who have not. Some of you are family, some are friends, old and new. Either way, you have received this email because we consider you partners in our adventure down here. Many of you have supported us in many ways. We think it is about time we shared some of our experiences with you, including all the good bits and some of the rough, chewy bits, of our move down. This particular email is a brief summary of the week spent early in January to prepare our new living quarters (provided by the college) for Sarah and the boys to come down to. (More emails to come!)

Preparing the way
A week before we left Brisbane, my good friend Bruce Ninness helped me drive a 3 tonne truck down to Sydney. My Dad, Rushi, Bruce and Chris Pine all helped us pack the thing full of most of our worldy goods on Sunday 7th January, after we attended our final church service at Creek Road Presbyterian as Brisbanites. Early on Monday morning (the 8th) Brucey and I set off for Warwick. Brucey had hardly been south of the border so it was exciting for both of us. All was going smoothly until we started sharing jokes and remembering some of the funnier adventures we had had as mates over the last 12 years. Soon we were heading toward Goondiwindi..... We had been so busy laughing and mucking around that we had taken the wrong highway out of Warwick and were halfway to Inglewood before something didn't quite seem right. So we visited Warwick twice in one day. Brucey made me swear that I'd never mention who was driving at the time, so I can't reveal that bit of information. In any case, we found a toilet stop and were soon back on track. We headed toward Stanthorpe and it wasn't long before we had Midnight Oil cranked up, interchanged occasionally with a little New Testament Greek vocabulary playing on the CD player.

It is a long drive to Sydney in a truck. Fiona had packed an esky full of healthy foods for us to eat on the way down, to make the trip more pleasant for us. Of course, we stopped at every roadhouse we could to supplement our diets with more 'normal' food - like burgers, chips, coke, mars bars, ice breaks and colloiteral minerals.

On the approach to Sydney we got lost again, somewhere on the northside. I can't say who was driving that time either, other than to advise that it was all the navigator's fault. We went through a suburb called Chatswood, which is still quite interesting the 3rd or 4th time you visit. We went through it about 5 times before finding the right road to the harbour bridge. Approaching the bridge was an experience to behold, with two cocky Queenslanders stuck in a 3 tonne truck, deciding which of 14 lanes we had to be in..... with about 2.5 seconds to decide which was the way to go. We took a guess and went straight through an E'toll booth. This worked fine except that the hire truck didn't have E'toll, and the plates in my head didn't work either. So while we drove over the bridge in the bright, sparkling city night, past the opera house and the magnificent sights of the harbour, Brucey and I were losing it again with laughter. There was another toll booth at the other end and the lady had pity on us because we were obviously from hicksville (Bruce had a blue singlet on and I had my akubra on). She also seemed to find the whole saga quite amusing. We then drove right through the Sydney CBD, along George Street and down Parramatta Road, in hysterics. I guess we were pretty tired. We had just driven for 16 hours, and eaten enough food to feed 6 horses for a month.

When we finally arrived at Stanmore (a suburb in inner-city Sydney), Peter and Kylie Evans (our good friends from Qld) met us at our new home and showed us our luxury villa in the dark. It didn't look as bad as in the photos we had been sent! It was late, so we left the truck parked in the driveway and slept on the cold, hard floor of Pete and Kylie's place. At 5am or so we woke up with a massive adrenalin rush, with the floor shaking, the windows vibrating and the air thick with the sound of an earthquake measuring 8.32 on the richter scale. In fact, it was just the first in a long line of planes that swoop over our place every morning to make sure that our walls can withstand the pressures of fly-bys. I quickly went back to sleep, and woke again to the sound of the alarm on my mobile. When I went to turn it off, it appeared to me that it was lying on Bruce's face (he was still deeply asleep). So I swatted for it in my half daze and smacked him in the head. It turns out I was badly mistaken. You learn little things about the people closest to you sometimes, in the most unexpected of moments. That morning I learnt that Bruce likes to sleep with a used black sock over his eyes to shield his sight from the morning light. Until that moment of clarity, I thought I knew Bruce really well.

Anyway, Bruce and Peter kindly spent the whole day unloading our stuff while I swanned around looking for easy things to do like make cups of tea and tell people where to put things. Kylie cleaned our bathroom, so that we could discover that it was actually tiles that line the room under all the muck. The handyman here was a little surprised to see us so soon, and had started preparing the bedroom for painting (yes, we have one bedroom to accomodate Sarah and I and our 2 boys). Things eventually evolved to the point where Peter was painting the ceiling, Bruce was painting the walls, I was painting the skirting boards and the handyman was telling us how badly we were doing everything. The front room (I shall call it the sunroom) has obviously leaked very badly for a number of years. We got in there and scraped the walls clean of all the old lead based paint and put a few extra holes in the walls where required (by accident). We cleaned the floors, fill in gaps, removed old plasterboard and sanded and scraped. Kylie even managed to find Paul's "Ice Breaks" down here, which was an amazing find! 3 days and nights later the whole place was semi-clean, with only a couple of holes in the walls in the sunroom, but our bedroom was looking like it probably looked in 1884 when it was originally built. The transformation of our little residence was amazing.

I consider that there may not be many people in the world who have such loyal and dedicated friends as we have been blessed with. I thank God very much for Peter and Kylie and Bruce and Fiona, and for what they have done to make our 3 years down here so much more "livable" by giving us that week of their time...... "preparing the way" for our little family to make the big trip down on January 14....

Cheers and Regards
David Bailey"

The Lost Son

A couple of weeks ago I got to preach on Luke 15: The Lost Son.
What a privilege. And what a task.

It was the last week of the Easter Holidays. Kids Church wasn't on. This meant there were over 120 extra bodies in the auditorium for the Bible talk. It also meant the congregation was a tad more lively; more than a tad less attentive; and then there were the kids to think of. I was under clear instructions to keep it below 20 minutes... but this was more to do with my own prediliction for lengthy meanderings than any zeal for control by my boss, Steve.

I worked hard on my preparation - probably harder than I ever had on a talk (It was college holidays too), and on the day I preached my guts out. I'd worked methodically through the greek and read through the bigger picture of Luke's story... and I'd deliberately NOT read Keller's book on the Prodigal God. I wanted to speak with my own convictions. From start to finish I knew people were listening.... you can see everything from up front.... but deep down I felt the passage deserved so much more than what I did with it.

It was the words of The Father to the older son that cut me up in my prep. "Everything I have is yours, my son" and yet still I fight the self-righteoussness inside. What a hypocrite.

But since then it's the words of The Father about his younger son that keep working me over: "This son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!" A merciful father that takes back a squandering, blundering fool - that's what I need. What an amazing God the Christian has: A Father who sends Jesus to seek and save the lost.

Fast forward to today, and I worked my guts out playing Mum for Sarah who was pretty crook again.... and tonight I slowed down and checked out this piece a friend had posted:







Talk about ambush. How is a grown man supposed to hold it together when he's again reminded of God's reckless love?

Here are the lyrics:

You held out Your arms, I walked away
Insolent I spurned Your face
Squandering the gifts You gave to me
Holding close forbidden things
Destitute a rebel still, a fool in all my pride
The world I once enjoyed is death to me
No joy, no hope, no life

Where now are the friends, that I had bought
Gone with every penny lost
What hope could there be for such as I
Sold out to a world of lies
Oh, to see Your face again, it seems so distant now
Could it be that You would take me back
A servant in Your house

You held out Your arms, I see them still
You never left, You never will
Running to embrace me, now I know
Your cords of love will always hold
Mercy’s robe, a ring of grace
Such favor undeserved
You sing over me and celebrate
The rebel now Your child

Anyway, tonight I was thinking.... wouldn't it have been great for this to be shown as a setup piece early in the service... after Tim's intro about the Lost Sheep and Joe's kids talk on The Lost Coin... with Sarah singing this song LIVE? And with an extended application where I don't just finish the talk suddenly but park for a while and let Jesus' words keep cutting us up inside?

A Father who loves his un-righteous son who comes to his senses... and the same Father that waits patiently for his self-righteous son to do the same.

Word Creeation Tuesday - (This one could also apply to The Iceman)

Creeliology
The science of discovering what you were thinking just before your boss does.

Word Creeation Tuesday

Creeligraphy: The fine art of writing in Futura font by hand.

Word Creeation of the Day

Creevolution: a process of fundamental change that occurs at a speed not visible by the naked eye.

(etymology: there is much debate as to whether this word is from the root of 'evolution' or 'revolution')

Trying something... help me Kutz

This whole blog thing is strange. Still trying to figure it out.
Kutzy, does this thing link to your blog?

I'm going to miss this

Another week of college finished.

Only about 18 lecture weeks left until I finish my studies fulltime at Bible College.

This week, like most others, I got to:
* Sit under quality lecturing with my bible open and in the company of heaps of friends.
* Pray with them.
* Read some great material.
* Learn some more Hebrew.
* Share openly about my struggles with preaching; and listen to others share theirs.
* Talk with fellow students about issues we've been thinking about. Had a great talk earlier in the week with Kutz and Joe about temptation; with Dan and Rodney about smoking some NPP, with Purnelly about imputed righteousness, with Jenny about sharing the gospel with Muslims, with Peter Evans about his impending placement as a minister at Mt Isa, with Nathan Campbell about how his blog has too much information and achieves less for more, with Kutz and Nathan about the empty tomb..... and with Jeremy Wales I had a brief discussion about a topic that he brought up: something about high school and spoons. (Not sure what was going on there..... must've been something they'd been talking about on staff at Mitchelton Cathedral).
* Hear our Principal passionately encourage us - that our preaching and pastoring would never be competitive or driven by jealousy.
* Laugh at Stewy Playsted who again left his mobile on for us to prank in Brucey Winter's Clash lecture.
* See some more flesh be put on the bones of our planned college mission trip to Currumbin later in the year.
* Sing my guts out with 80 other people in a little chapel with great acoustics.
* Hear a fellow student preach the Word.
* Get more excited about our college trip to Turkey and Greece to study the ruins of ancient Ephesus and Corinth, where St. Paul did so much work in establishing the early churches.
* Pray with my friends Joe, Jenny and Ben Seligmann in the car as we travel and talk together.
* Have a fellow student sleepover during the week at our place since his accomodation fell through.
* Listen to Peter Evans freak out about Steve Cree coming in to take over Uncle Phil's preaching class.
* Play handball at little lunch. With all the other grownups recalling their primary school years.
* Watch Joseph Wee rub his hands with glee at another practical joke effectively executed.
* Go shopping with Andrew Bain (well, this one rarely happens, but hey, it was fun)

All in all, although I look forward to getting out of college at the end of the year, I know I'm gonna miss it.

What a great bunch of people, a great thing to study and a great God we worship.

Cree Road is so par se

Creek Road Presbyterian Church.
Cree Road Presbyterian Church.
Wee Road Presbyterian Church.
GOLD.

Glossary: New Term of the Day

One for the boss today.

Creetail (noun): A level of detail no-one knew existed.

Why we suck at communication

* It's easier to teach more for less than less for more.
If we only teach one idea, we must creatively amplify and explain it until it's understood clearly.

* The context of ministry seems to be more demanding than the content.
The context instead needs to become secondary to the content.
We need to prioritise thinking and teaching over rostering and administrivia.

* We have bought into the 'going deeper' myth.
Often we think we are going deeper but most of the time it means we are taking people in over their heads. We don't water down the message; but just make it flow like a tap rather than a fire hydrant.

* We worry about not having enough to say.
(Ouch. This is getting personal for me now. Lucky it doesn't mention "fear of being found out to be a fraud"!) The object of our communication is not to cover a lot of material but to make sure people learn. If the student hasn't learned, the teacher hasn't taught.

* We fear we will leave something out.
(Yikes! Like the gospel? Amen)

*If we try to explain everything, we can be sure they will understand nothing.
(Dave Thurston talks about intentionally leaving 'gaps' in our teaching - wide enough to spark thinking in the mind of the listener, but not so wide that they get confused or give up. This helps people learn how to think well for themselves, as well as the content that we are teaching)

* We teach what is predetermined by entities outside our ministry.
Often we are pressured into teaching what others think is important. We must remember that it is we who are responsible for what is taught to those in our care.

* We confuse information with application.
(I heard once whilst at college that good exegisis IS good application. Really? I don't doubt it - for college lecturers who haven't met a real person on the street for 15 years)

* Often when we review our sermons or seminars we ask the wrong questions:
Is is true? Interesting? Creative? Passionate? Entertaining?
When really these should be givens.
What we really must be asking ourselves on behalf of our listeners is "Is it helpful?"

If not, we've failed to help our people.

It's like teaching shakespeare to people who really need to learn how to dance.

4 Steps to teach less for more

1) Decide what you are going to say.
Determine the critical things this person/group needs to learn.

2) Decide to say one thing at a time.
Too much info has a cancelling effect. Multiples ideas actually compete for a listener's attention. Every additional idea we introduce diminishes the effectiveness of the prior ideas already presented. When people walk away from a teaching moment with just one principle that can be applied, they are much more likely to remember it and beging trying to apply it!
Focus on just one principle and you enhance the potential of every listener to really 'get it'.

3) Decide how you are going to say it.

We need to engage the mind and the heart. People have different learning styles which we must try to appeal to. When using multiple mediums, all must complement the one main idea.
When an audience gets confused by mixed messages, they disengage.

4) Say it over and over again.
What is worth remembering is always worth repeating.
Repetition is how we learn.
Repetition is thus really important.
Good presentation, not new information, engages a students imagination. We need to package the one idea in an engaging and relevant way. The problem is not finding new info, but better presenting timeless truths so they will never be considered irrelevant.
Repitition is really important....

Teaching with the end in mind

We have to teach with the end in mind.
* When we do this, understanding that people are on a journey, we are forced to prioritise what we teach, and when.
* All Scripture is inspired by God; but not all Scripture is equally important to a person/group at any given time. Further, all Scripture is not equally able to be applied at any given time. (If we've worked with people in different age groups and different situations, we already know this to be true. We would find it unhelpful to try to teach the details of the story of David and Bathsheeba to preppies; but might find it very applicable to teenagers whose hormones are racing like crazy)
* To teach less for more, we must identify and package a handful of must-know, can't-be-without, age-appropriate principles for each target group.
* What are we going to say and not say in the limited time we have with people?
* We must make time before teaching a group, to decide what the big issues are for them; and establishing them as the irreducible minimums we must address.
* In doing this, we are saying that these things are the MOST important; not the ONLY things that are important.
* Thinking this way asks the question "How do I want to help shape these people?", since we must keep the end in mind.
* When we think about how we are helping to shape people, this changes the way we teach.

Teach Less for More

I have a real problem limiting how much info I want to teach people when I preach.
So it's great to read some really mind-bending ideas in a good little book that we are going through together as a staff team. It's called "7 Practices of Effective Ministry" and yes, it's American.

I'm finding the current chapter (practice #4) particularly helpful.

The key idea is that we need to Teach Less for More.

Information Overload
* We all accumulate a lot of knowledge in our lives; very little of which is actually helpful on a practical level.
* When learning a sport or hobby, a good teacher will first focus on the fundamentals of the game, teaching us only what we need to know.
(I've got a good friend called Peter Evans who I've watched model this really well. Find someone who teaches well and watch them in action)
* This is especially the case when the game is a complex one.
* When we think about it, we don't really learn something until we really need to know it.
(A good example is talking to people about Jesus. I find that when I go through periods of lots of conversations with people, my efforts at sharing the gospel seem far better and sharper than when I'm hit up to explain the gospel after a long period of stagnation. At that point, I essentially have to re-learn a lot of what I had already loaded into my brain on previous occasions)
* The greater the need, the higher the interest and potential to actually learn.
(Now that I've begun having some good conversations with some pretty fundamentalist muslims, I'm becoming much more interested in how best to talk about Jesus with people from such radically different backgrounds to me)
* Most of us don't learn so we can know more; we learn when we need to know something.
(Changing a tyre on the company car when on the edge of the gateway motorway, in peak hour traffic, in the middle of winter, with about 30cm's of lane space to work within...... that's when I learnt to change a tyre!)
* Our responsibility as teachers and communicators is critical: we must make sure we know what people really need to learn.
* Sometimes this involves helping people understand themselves why they need to learn something.
(I never learned of my need for Jesus until my friends explained the sin within)
* We can drastically improve how much people learn if we teach less but better.
* Sometimes we will actually need to say more about fewer things.
* These things should be limited to what our hearers most need to hear.
* Kids learn by doing things. Most adults still learn like kids. Concrete applications are crucial (Eg. 'our lives depend on them!')
* We must therefore separate what is important from what is merely interesting.
* We must be infocists (my term). All knowledge is NOT equal.
* Good teachers begin by identifying what is most important for their students to know.

The Single Issue

I'm reading 'The Single Issue' by UK author Al Hsu.

It's not the sort of book I'd choose to read while at bible college (I have around 10 books to read on justification at the moment) but a lady from church who was single for a long time lent it to me....with a strong recommendation that I get into it and at least start thinking things through about singleness.

Of course, I couldn't help but check out Al's take on 1 Corinthians 7.
This was the first thing to do.... to see if it was in accord with Dr Brucey Winter's take on singleness and marriage. But, thankfully, I was able to shake myself free of that creeping habit of assuming that my scholar and teacher (whoever that may be) is the guru and font of all knowledge. I'm also finding it hard to relate to singleness since I married my highschool sweetheart at age 22.

I've only just covered the intro and chapter 1. While the author sounds a little too defensive and reactionary (and seems to blame the church for his own hangups) I am being made to rethink some of my unconscious assumptions about singleness, society and church. (Maybe it's me who's being defensive about his hangups?)

One interesting observation she makes (is Al a guy or a girl?) is that virginity now carries the social stigma that adultery and premarital sex once had.

If that is the case, it's no wonder we live in a confused society.

DeYoung and the Restless: Christianity vs McLarenism

For some great discussion and thinking on what Brian McLaren has been smoking, check out this guy, who is fast becoming one of my favourite authors.
Here's his blog:
http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/kevindeyoung/2010/02/17/christianity-and-mclarenism-1/
Dave

Personality Cult?

I just saw an article on the Sydney Anglicans website titled "Personality Cult?"
It was headed with a small picture of a bloke that looked like Peter Jensen..... what??
Upon checking it out I discovered it was a piccie of Richard Dawkins. Woops.

Is busy answering a flurry of......

screemails.

Speaking of the People

Last week at Creek Rd Steve preached from Mark 8... challenging us to ask ourselves whether we really perceive why Jesus came. He asked me to lead both morning services, which included leading us in prayer.

As a staff team we're really trying to lift the whole shaping of each service. In prayer, we're doing this by insisting on written, prepared prayers. This is a cultural change for CRPC from longer prayers delivered ex tempore ('out of the moment'). We've adopted the ACTS thinking of 2 prayers (Adoration and Confession early on; Thanksgiving and Supplication later) by transplanting this idea from 10.30 church into 8:30 church and splitting what was previously a very long, single pastoral prayer. The first prayer is to reflect the big idea (eg. Jesus came to die for us) and also tie in with the rest of the service.

In this case, we had just begun the service with a very quick intro and two songs. The songs were 'Hear all creation sing' and 'Forever'. The big question we were setting up was "Why did Jesus come?".The kids were still in the service and we are aiming for prayers of only 3-4 minutes, since this seems to be the maximum that anyone can follow attentively. Steve was going to preach about seeing vs perceiving later when he looked at Peter and how, by Mk 8, he only partially understands what it means for Jesus to be the Christ.

Several people have asked me how/where I got the first prayer from; and many commented on how well it integrated into and lifted the whole message of the service. Here it is. I've included the bold bits which helped me to emphasise certain points.

Gracious God, we look forward to the day when we will hear all creation singing to you; when we will hear great rejoicing throughout the world, at the name of Jesus.

And even though the whole universe is not big enough to can contain you, even though you are a very, very big God, we still ask that you take for yourself the throne of our hearts, made by you and for you, and rule as our king, supreme in our lives, without rival; seeing off all competitors for our affections and dreams.

Put down in us every rebellious desire, every evil passion.

Purify our hearts by your mighty power and make us yours forever, Lord.

As your love endures forever, so too we want to sing praise to you forever.

For you are worthy to be praised with every breath we take,

to be loved with all our thoughts and affections

and to be served with every act of our will.....

...to be loved with all our bits and pieces.

For you have loved us, committed yourself to us....

You’ve received, purchased, washed, cleansed, clothed and adopted us as your children...

when we were unworthy, broken, rebellious, filthy and opposed to your rule in our lives.

We were dead in our rebellion and in our sin,

having no eyes to even see you,

no ears to hear you,

no desire to know you....

...and no capacity to please you.

pause

We confess Lord, that we still get clouded by trivial problems,

that we fight over silly things,

that we doubt your ability or willingness to provide us what we need....

forgetting again and again that you have met our greatest – our deepest need.

For your Son Jesus died for us.

You have brought us forgiveness from our sins - by his blood shed on the cross.

And your Spirit has awakened us, has worked in our hearts as we’ve heard you reveal yourself to us, and as you have raised us from death to life... to abundant and eternal life together with you.

We are now your new creation.

We now hunger and thirst after you.

Your Word has come alive to us through your Son Jesus...

And now he is our light, our guide, our comfort and our delight.

Amen.

In terms of drafting the prayer, I asked God to help me prepare (especially since I was very tired at the time) before getting stuck into it. I simply pulled out an old Valley of Vision prayer from the Puritans; translated some of the language into more modern English phrases, added a couple for the kiddies and changed a couple to more tie in with the songs and the big idea. Then I applied the Thurstonesque technique of quietly laying some seeds early on in the prayer (eg. the creation idea) to pick up at the end (eg. "now we are your new creation"). Then I reread it through a couple of times, removing the fluff and sharpening some phrases. Finally, I checked the wordcount to ensure it was under 3.5 minutes (at 125 words per minute).

I find service leading a great opportunity not only to help teach truth that's really healthy for our lives (Titus 2:1) but a very healthy exercise for my own edification. It was very nourishing for my soul, good fun and (so I'm told) helpful for the congregation. It is indeed a great privilege to have the responsibility of serving in this way.

The key learning for me was to be reminded again that some thoughtful and prayerful preparation goes a long way when leading people in church gatherings. And that it's not that hard to do.

Meditation on Psalm 1

Blessed is the man
Who doesn't walk in the counsel of the wicked,
Or stand in the way of sinners,
Or sit in the seat of scoffers;
But his delight is in the instruction of the LORD,
And on his law he meditates day and night.

He is like a tree planted by streams of water
that yields its fruit in its season,
whose leaves don't shrivel up.
In all that he does, he prospers!

Evil men aren't like this,
but are like ashes that the wind blows away.
And so they won't stand in the day of judgement,
nor amongst the community of the righteous...

For the LORD knows the way of the righteous man,
but the way of the evil man will be destroyed.


My prayer in response...

LORD, please bless me as you have named me:
Make me a man after your own heart.
Help me to stop walking in ways that are deceitful and misleading.
Help me not to lie down in laziness...negligent of the family and friends you have given me.
Help me not to sit in judgement, dishonouring my elders with my scoffing cynicism.

Instead LORD, stoke the fire of the joy of following Jesus within my heart.
May my life be overflowing with encouragement and blessing for others.
May the meditation of my heart and the words of my lips be pleasing in your sight!

LORD, your steadfast love never ceases!
It flows like a river and waters my soul.
Help me to grow like a tree, planted and nourished by the living waters of your Spirit.
As one firmly planted, help me to yield fruit
according to the seasons in which you grant me life.
Let me spring forth love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness and faithfulness.
May the abundance of your good gifts not shrivel up in the burning sun of the barren desert of this life.
LORD, grow me in your Word
so that everything I do
would encourage those around me to grow
in their love for the one who destroyed death on our behalf.

Help me not to play the evil man,
whose good behaviour belies so much hypocrisy,
whose shallow character will be exposed by the depths of your judgement.
May the refining fire of your discipline renew a steadfast spirit within me....
prevent me from being blown away like ash in a bushfire.
Instead LORD, cultivate within me the character you desire.
For your judgement will be final and complete.

Who, without Christ, will be able to withstand your anger?
Where can we turn but for the Mediator you have provided?
Who will live outside the gathering of your people around the cross?

You know the way of the ones granted righteousness in Christ
and you know the way of those who will die in the barren wasteland...
without Jesus, without the Spirit and without hope.

Amen.