I've just been back from NTE.

As I talked to students, and I hear the talk, impelling them to gospel work in their lives and beyond, I remember being in their shoes. I remember how I thought and lived as a Christian in my early years. How the world was starkly black and white: and all matters were either ephemeral or eternal. And those things that pass were unimportant. How the gospel was all that mattered. I learnt those lessons well, and I think it is fair to say I pursued God's kingdom as hard as I could. I didn't always succeed, but it drove me as I served at Unichurch, as I uprooted to Quakers Hill, as I pursued MTS as the avenue to understand ministry, and if that was what I should do. I learnt those lessons and I dreamt in black and white.

In reflecting on my year at SMBC, it occurs to me that one of my big lessons this year has been to see the world that God has made in colour. Subjects such as Intro to Degree Theology, Old Testament, and various sermons on Wisdom Literature has tried to show me that the world that God made is wonderful and deep and mysterious; that Yahweh, our God, is amazing and unpredictable and joyful and spontaneous.

The created world is wonderful. It sings with beauty and splendour. The variety of creation: thousands of types of trees, birds, flowers. It is amazing to watch a baby grow and change and develop. It is wonderful to be part of the created world; and we should marvel no less at the things that man has accomplished which God has hitherto imagined: cars and buildings and computers and books and the internet.

I still feel the urgency of the gospel. People still need to hear about the saving work of Jesus Christ. Teaching the word is still necessary, and preaching the gospel to the unsaved is of prime importance. But the wonder of this present world that God has created hasn't paled in comparison. Rather it paints it in even sharper focus. There is still a God-like-ness in working, in bringing order to creation, in bringing life to the world, in saving and restoring, in ecology and social work. In care that only lasts for one lifetime.

Because even though the effect is fleeting; and the trees we save, the people we heal, the order we restore to the world will not last, these hymn we sing to God, of his glory and honour and praise will last for eternity.