Somewhere in the mishmash of modern political correctness and the gospel of acceptance and tolerance the line between making sound judgements and being judgemental has been blurred.

     This is not new. Jesus had quite a bit to say on this topic in combating misunderstandings in his day. Thankfully, his example and teaching make clarifying the difference between judging and being judgemental much simpler.
      Jesus butted heads against a form of religious correctness rather than political correctness. This doctrinaire said life is about fulfilling religious obligations through observing a series of expanding interpretations of laws. Instead of allowing people to draw near to God it squeezed the love of God out of people’s lives. The religious correctness of the Pharisees and teachers of the law was infused with a self-righteousness on matters ranging from foods to eat or not, circumcision, Sabbath observances and even the tricky problem of tithing mint, herbs and other condiments.

      LLOYD HARKNESS takes a look at how Jesus differentiates between making a sound judgement and being judgemental... | more... |

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Recently, American states bordering the Mississippi River have been flooded. The great river about which Mark Twain wrote so much has been swollen by rain, rain, and more rain.

     (Here in the US we have a saying about April showers bringing May flowers. I don’t know where it comes from, but the April showers certainly have come late this year.)

     They call such things “acts of God” in the insurance business, I understand. If floods and hurricanes and whatnot are acts of God, He surely does work in mysterious ways. What did the victims do to deserve this?

       MICAH TILLMAN writes about the debate over the recent floods along the Mississippi... | more... |

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IT TAKES COURAGE TO APOLOGISE

On Wednesday, 11th June, while Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper was giving an official apology to Canada's Aboriginal People, my wife and I were driving into Regina, Saskatchewan, to attend the Rising Above National Conference on issues of abuse and residential schools. While the speech was historic and profound, I wasn't fully aware of what this apology was leading up to. Nor was I aware of how the events of this week would impact me.

     As we drove to our destination, we continued to listen to the speech broadcast live to the nation. Arriving at the conference site, we walked into an auditorium where some 200 Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people were watching the speech. Tears flowed throughout the gathering. It was a time of relief for some, yet very painful for others as it dug up memories that many kept hidden for years.
      During the next three days as I listened to people sharing their stories, I too found myself swept up in the whirlwind of horror, pain, and trauma. You see, I too am a survivor of physical and sexual abuse. While not an Aboriginal, nonetheless, I experienced abuse and have lived with those painful memories since I was ten years old.

     JIM UTTLEY, of Assist News Services, writes about what Canadian PM Stephen Harper's historic apology to Canada's Aboriginal people means to him... | more... |

STRENGTH TO DELIVER

Since the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Americans have become keenly aware of the uncertainty of our nation’s future. We have faced the shocking reality that neither our commerce nor our strong military can ensure our security. And we have been awakened to the vast extent of turmoil beyond our shores.

  The question is: What do we as Christians do in these troubled times?

  Steps toward solutions are complex. Yet this we do know:  We need a habitation of God’s presence to change us and compel us to impact our society with the Gospel.

    It’s not a time for status quo Christian living. The world is desperately searching for answers. And I believe that America in particular will come to her knees and experience revival either by a birthing or a shaking.

   DOUG STRINGER issues a challenge for the future... | more... |

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This passage starts off with two people walking along a road, probably some hours after reports had started circulating among the disciples that Jesus had been seen. Historians tell us that it is most likely that the two people were a couple. We know one of their names, Cleopas, and the other one was probably his wife, Mary. To understand this passage we need to put ourselves in their shoes; we need to imagine where they were at in their mental and emotional state. And to do that we need to go back to look at the mindset of a 1st century Jew.

     You see, as the two were walking along the road, they were in a state of complete disillusionment. Firstly, they had been completely perplexed by the fact that Jesus had died. The Messiah was not supposed to die, and I will discuss that in more detail below. On top of that, some women in their group said they went to his tomb that morning and found it empty and had seen angels who said he was risen. And then, this stranger comes up to them and starts talking like he’s just come down in the last shower, with seemingly no idea of what has been happening over the last few days.

    NILS VON KALM takes an indepth look at Luke 24: 13-35... | more... |

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I have had occasion over a number of years, in various capacities, to spend time assisting individuals and couples experiencing marriage and relationship difficulties.

     One such case springs to mind. Jack and Jill (yes, a rather unimaginative pair of pseudonyms) are a couple in their mid thirties, married for around ten years, with three young children. They both express concern that their relationship is not as it used to be, the spark is missing, there is a lack of intimacy and close connection, and they have grown apart. Both are concerned that they are reaching a crisis point, something needs to change or the marriage will disintegrate.

     Some probing reveals that life for Jack and Jill is busy. Jack works over 40 hours a week as a physiotherapist. Jill works part-time because one income is not enough to pay the mortgage and the other expenses that come with raising a family. Jill is the primary carer of the children, although both parents spend time driving the children to various sporting and musical pursuits. Life has become so busy that something is missing. Jack and Jill have very little time for each other, and the time they do get is often at night when both are worn out from the hectic activities of the day.

     RUSSELL STUBBINGS takes a look at the reason for prayer... | more...|

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The letters pages, blogs and airwaves were running hot recently following a front page article in the Daily Telegraph about a ban on the terms ‘husband’ and ‘wife’ in NSW schools. “This is ridiculous” was the general tone, and to that one could only say amen!

     In many ways it turned out to be a storm in a teacup. The NSW Government quickly put an end to the gay lobby’s reported push and it seems that these family friendly terms are once again allowed in school - at least for a while.

     How long, however, is debatable, as the issue is more fraught.
     This incident has exposed the gay lobby’s agenda to change the social ethos of schools - supplanting traditional family relationships with terminology and teaching which normalises same-sex relationships and promotes the homosexual lifestyle.

    JIM WALLACE argues that schools should fully declare curriculum content... | more... |

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I’ve always found it a moving experience to look at something that was created hundreds of years ago and a recent visit to the State Library of Victoria to take a look at The Medieval Imagination: Illuminated Manuscripts from Cambridge, Australia and New Zealand exhibition was no exception.

     DAVID ADAMS is impressed by wonders of a bygone age... | more... |

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A year ago I came home from Africa feeling like an overstuffed emotional sausage; a vague scratch of my surface and everything would tumble out. Tears and way too many over-analyses later, it was time to travel again. So I left for Nepal as an epiphany-dodging vague-out. If it involved going any deeper than the weather, food, celebrity pop culture trash or the songs on my iPod, I didn’t want to know. Perhaps this is the wrong attitude with which to approach a Third World country. But heck, I thought, if there is going to be some life-changing cataclysm, I wasn’t going to go look for it - it had to find me! Many had told me about the breathtaking experience of seeing the Himalayas from the plane as you fly in. I flew in at night. It was foggy and the cold certainly took my breath away.

    If one were to use the meat in the sandwich analogy then population-wise Nepal is a very thin piece of ham wedged between two semi trailer sized chunks of bread. To the north lies China , with a population of 1.3 billion. To the south, India with a population of more than a billion. There’s a lot of humanity in this section of the world. Meanwhile Nepal barely beeps on the population radar at nearly 30 million people.

     ADAM KELSALL writes about his recent visit to the "roof of the world"... | more... |

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Beautiful and complex, Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ, drifts in and out of the Scriptures with the result that we know little about her.
      However, the Gospels describe Mary as a witness to Jesus’ most significant moments, including His first visits to the Temple in Jerusalem, His first miracle at the Cana wedding, His death, and beyond to Pentecost.

     Since Pentecost, Mary has been raised to the - often contested on the basis it's Biblically-unsound - status of "Queen of Heaven", born without original sin, a virgin throughout her life, assumed body and soul into heaven, and an ever-holy mediator between mankind and God.

     Other Christians view Mary as simply a humble servant of the Lord who cared for His son throughout His life.
      So is Mary a heavenly mystery beyond our understanding or a believable reality we can learn from?

    Every Christmas we celebrate the life of Mary in countless nativity scenes. Yet, for many, the mother of Christ remains something of a mystery. In an article first published in Christian Woman magazine, CHARLOTTE DURUT takes a look at what Mary's life can teach us ... | more... |

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GREAT MOVES OF GOD: THE NICENE CREED

The Council of Nicaea held in 325 AD became a watershed moment for the Christian Church when it formulated one of the most popular and recognizable creeds in Christian History.

     Origins

      In 318 AD a bitter dispute broke between Alexander, bishop of Alexandria and one of his senior priests Arius over the divinity of Christ.

      Writing for Christian History and Biography, Colin Hansen describes Arius as “…an expert logician and master of extracting biblical proof texts that seemingly illustrated differences between Jesus and God…”

      Bishop Alexanderas, on the other hand, held to the Son being both co-substantial and co- eternal with the Father.

   TONY TOWNSEND explores the origins of the Nicene Creed... | more... |

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I just spent the last two days trying to say one of the most beautiful words in the Navajo language, Yá'át'ééh.

     It didn't work, at least to the point of fluidity.

     Yá'át'ééh is the Navajo word for "hello." Traditionally, Yá'át'ééh is used as a greeting or an expression of kindness and love towards another person.

     Though I never mastered the word (at least to my liking), I must say that through the course of my two days with people from the Navajo nation, I did feel expressions of kindness and charity, bringing back memories of my childhood.

     Growing up in New Mexico in the United States, I had many Native American friends, many of which were Navajo. I had my first taste of the Navajo culture through my neighbors, school buddies, and their families.
    In an article first published by Assist News Service, BRIAN NIXON talks about his visit to the Navajo nation... | more... |

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Why a Christmas album?
“It’s Christmas - that’s the easy answer. I’ve done a Christmas album before. I did one a few years ago with a German orchestra actually...It was your regular kind of Christmas album - it had some carols and it had Santa Claus is Coming to Town and all that stuff on it and it was instrumental only. I thought it was time to do a bit more of a focused Christmas album; one a little bit more on what Christmas is really about. So this is just carols and also I’m got Emma Pask singing on there with me because I wanted people to hear the lyrics. So, yeah, just a bit more focused...a real Christmas album, is how I think of it.”

     Musical virtuoso James Morrison has just released his latest album, Christmas. The 44-year-old speaks to DAVID ADAMS about Christmas, the power of music and what he’d be doing if he wasn’t a musician... | more... |

REVIEW: JAMES MORRISON'S GROOVIN' CHRISTMAS
This is Mr Morrison at his smooth 'n grooviest. Difference? It’s been seasoned. For those who have had the privilege of seeing JM live, you will know that there is rarely a bad night and when there is, there’s a joke to go with it. Here, you won’t get any wrong notes, but you will hear the cheekiness and fun that JM and the band bring with them when they jam.
JUSTIN MICHAEL looks forward to a Christmas with James - and his trumpet... | more... |

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I hear from God when...I am alert to the possibility that God can and does speak at any time through scripture, experience, circumstance, worship, creation, or the person (people) I happen to be with at the time.

Like all atheists, Richard Dawkins does not understand the concept of God and why God exists. He has been told this before, as he writes in his book, The God Delusion:  "This is as good a moment as any to forestall an inevitable retort to the book, one that would otherwise - as sure as night follows day - turn up in a review: ‘The God that Dawkins doesn’t believe in is a God that I don’t believe in either. I don‘t believe in an old man in the sky with a long white beard.'...I am attacking God, all gods, anything and everything supernatural, wherever and whenever they have been or will be invented."

      In this essay, I will try to succeed where others have failed so that we can say of Dawkins, “And immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been scales: and he received sight forthwith...”

      Dawkins is an atheist because he places too much confidence in the methods and ideas of science. Working scientists are just people living their lives in a practical and reasonable manner. If something unusual occurs in the lab, scientists assumes there is a reason and try to replicate what happened. This is the same kind of common sense and reason mothers use when they assume there has been no change in the number of children they have when they are out shopping.

     DAVID ROEMER answers the arguments in Richard Dawkin's book, The God Delusion... | more... |

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