SIGHT-SEEING: ISLAND FEVER?

 

Palm treeWhen coming to the topic of evangelism there is need for a church community to remember those continents and far off places where the Gospel has not been preached and to provide resources that may be scant or nonexistent for the continuation of the work in those areas. The importance of wealthier communities supporting and sending people into these regions so that all people have opportunity to hear the 'good news' is a Christian duty. The Pacific islands in particular have been a long term focus of the church for over a century and there is now a well established presence in these fields where the Gospel has had a large impact.

     You could say, however, that the back of the Pacific islands has been broken for many years now as population ratios of non-churched nationals to church membership is lower than in western countries like Australia. While there are some isolated pockets of outlying villages still clinging to traditional forms, the Christian impact on the Pacific islands has been significant, all encompassing and extensive.

      DANNY BELL suggests it's time we started looking homeward when it comes to missions instead of another 'island experience'...  | more... |

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OPEN BOOK: HINDSIGHT FOR THESE LATTER DAYS - WE SEE JESUS' DEATH AND SUFFERING

 

Jesus on the CrossThis part of the letter might seem a little vague, until it is pointed out to us that here we have a poignant reminder of Jesus' suffering. On Calvary's cross, and in that suffering, the Lord Himself was praying in the words of Psalm 22 which begins with those well-known words: "My God, My God, why have you left me in the lurch?"

     That is the opening line of a psalm which recounts David's personal confrontation with unimaginable terror. We know this now, despite the fact that some of the people attending His agony were confused by Jesus' final cry. This now is to be understood as the cry of the Davidic King, not a cry in re-enactment of the bereft prophet Elisha who waited in vain for Elijah to come back and help him. And further on in Psalm 22, after all the evil has been recounted, we also read of the stupendous victory that God has granted His suffering one. And so David continues: "I will declare your name to my brothers and sisters in the midst of the congregation (where) I will the praise Thee" (verse 22).

     BRUCE C. WEARNE shows how the writer of Hebrews connects his readers directly to Jesus' death and suffering...  | more... |

FOR MORE OPEN BOOK click here...

 

THE WORD: THE CREATOR

 

CreationGod is the creator. The creator is God. Only God could be the creator and only the creator could be God. God is the self-existent one who is was and always will be. He is life and He gives life. He is the life of the cosmos and He is its source.

     God is life. He is the fire that burns without consuming the bush, as Moses witnessed. He is light and life independent of all He has created.

     “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1: 1) This isn’t a fable nor a once-upon-a-time story. The Bible’s ‘beginning’ reveals God Almighty at work creating. God did not create with pre-existing eternal materials. The heavens and earth are not eternal. God created.

     He is the author and sculptor who brings light out of darkness and order out of chaos. He speaks and it is.

     LLOYD HARKNESS looks the difference between the creator and creation... | more... |

     

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LIFE'S TOUGH QUESTIONS: DOES THE BIBLE TELL US HOW THE WORLD WILL END?

 

ApocalypseOver the history of the Christian church there has been much fascination with the Second Coming of Jesus and with when and how it will happen. The fact that it will happen is not disputed by the vast majority of believers, but when and how it will happen has been the subject of much conjecture and debate by many different strands of Christendom.

     Why is this so? Why the almost fanatical obsession by some Christians over ‘end times’ issues and Biblical prophecy? I think it comes down to human nature and our God-given intuition that we are made for something more, something better than the blood, sweat and tears that this life brings for every single one of its inhabitants.
      When I was a young Christian, I was convinced that I was living in the end times, mainly because certain people told me I was. I was therefore convinced that I was never going to die because Jesus was going to come back in my lifetime. All the signs were pointing to it. Wars were increasing, and there seemed to be more earthquakes and other natural disasters occurring. From what I learned about the Bible and from what I saw on the nightly news, I really believed that everything was going to get worse. I even heard a preacher get up once and give some statistics showing that the number of earthquakes in the 20th century had increased dramatically. This was another clear sign that Jesus was coming back soon.

     NILS VON KALM on the question of what happens when Jesus returns... | more...|

MORE OF LIFE'S TOUGH QUESTIONS click here...

 

LIFESTORY: CHILD OF ROMANIAN REVOLUTION OFFERS HOPE TO CHILDREN

 

Daniel BrudaHe grew up in a Christian family in Romania before the 1989 revolution, which meant he could not talk freely in his own home. After the communists fell, some thought heaven might even come to earth, but those thoughts have been tempered by reality.

    “We experienced a kind of persecution,” says Daniel Bruda, Romania director for Every Generation Ministries (EGM). “My father was an elder in the church and he was watched. It was also illegal to listen to Christian broadcasts.”
      With their phones bugged, they had to take precautions when they talked in their own home. Bruda came to Christ when he was 10-years-old, after he heard an evangelistic message. “I heard God’s voice through the preaching,” he says. “It was not very dramatic, but God was working step-by-step in my heart.”

    In an article first published on Godreports, MARK ELLIS tells the story of Daniel Bruda... | more... |

FOR MORE OF LIFESTORY...  | more... |

 

WOW! SANDWICHES FOR THE POOR

 

SandwichIt’s the sort of thing that makes me go wow! when I hear of it. I recently found out that largely UK-based sandwich chain Pret A Manger not only donate money to a range of charities to alleviate poverty in the UK – focusing particularly on the homeless – they also give their unsold sandwiches to them at the end of each day.

     While some charities for the homeless pick them up directly from the company's shops, the Pret Charity Run operates vans which deliver 12,000 meals to London-based shelters each week, making it, according to the company, a total of 1.7 million products donated each year.

     DAVID ADAMS finds a sandwich chain with a charitable mission... | more... |

MORE OF WOW!... | more... |

 

POSTCARDS: HAITIAN PEOPLE'S RESILIENCE SHOWS THROUGH AS LIFE REGAINS SOME SEMBLANCE OF NORMALITY

 

HaitiAt the end of April, I went to Haiti for four weeks with the organisation I work for, Samaritan’s Purse, to evaluate our work there.

     “A beautiful country in a complete mess” is how Mac, a Haitian man I met living an internally displaced person  camp, described his own country. I would agree.

     The most noticeable effect of the earthquake, as you drive through the capital Port-au-Prince, is the collapsed buildings. Buildings which were seemingly picked at random as to which should stand and which should be left as a piles of rubble.

     However, the underlying destruction - the destruction you only sense from talking to people and hearing their stories - is in people's own lives. Everyone I spoke to knew someone who had been killed in the earthquake. Family members, friends, colleagues – all lost in an instant.

     ALEX DAY, of Samaritan's Purse, writes about his recent visit to Haiti...   | more... |

FOR MORE OF POSTCARDS CLICK HERE...

 

SAINTS OF PAST AGES: ST GEORGE

 

St GeorgeHe’s celebrated as the knight who slew the dragon but who was the real St George? And why has he become claimed as a saint important in countries from Georgia to Hungary, Spain to England?

     While there is little historic evidence surrounding details of the life of St George, St George was most certainly not the medieval knight he’s sometimes pictured as but rather is believed to have been a Roman soldier who served the Emperor Diocletian and who was eventually executed for refusing to renounce his Christian faith.

     Tradition suggests that George was born sometime between 275-281 AD in Anatolia or Cappadocia in what is modern Turkey.

     The story goes that following the death of his Christian parents – his father was a Roman official or military officer and his mother was apparently from Lydda in Palestine (where some versions say she took him to live after his father’s death), he went to the imperial city of Nicodemia where he presented himself to the Emperor Diocletian and, thanks to his father’s good service, was welcomed into the army.

     DAVID ADAMS looks at the life of St George... | more... |

FOR MORE SAINTS OF PAST AGES click here...

FOR GREAT MOVES OF GOD click here...

 

THE LOBBYIST'S VIEW: EASTER MESSAGE SHOULD NOT BE LOST FOR NSW SCHOOLS

 

Richard Dawkins recently scoffed “that the idea that God, the all powerful creator of the universe couldn't think of a better way to forgive humanity's sins than to have himself put on earth, tortured and executed in atonement for the sins of humanity” was “a horrible, depraved notion.” 

     And yet the strength of belief, and more importantly hope, in the death and resurrection of Christ has seen multitudes of Australians attend church over the Easter weekend.

     More importantly, this counter intuitive story, a narrative that places self-sacrifice and weakness above strength and status, is one that has preserved compassion and justice in Western societies otherwise seemingly intent on personal gratification and wealth at all costs.

     JIM WALLACE, managing director of the Australian Christian Lobby, says religious education should not be replaced by teachings on ethics... | more... |

FOR MORE OF THE LOBBYIST'S VIEW...  | more... |

 

UNDER THE GRILL: JAMES MORRISON

 

Why a Christmas album?
James Morrison“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... |

FOR MORE OF UNDER THE GRILL, click here...

 

INSIDE THE CHURCH: REV DAVID PITMAN

 

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.

We talk to Rev David Pitman, moderator of the Uniting Church in Queensland...... | more...|


RIGHT-OF-REPLY: WHY RICHARD DAWKINS IS WRONG

 

The God DelusionLike 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... |

FOR MORE OF RIGHT-OF-REPLY...  | more... |




 

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THEY SAID IT

 

 

"I can't regret the decision to go to war...I can say that never did I guess the nightmare that unfolded, and that too is part of the responsibility. The truth is we did not anticipate the role of al-Qaida or Iran. Whether we should have is another matter; and if we had anticipated, what we would have done about it is another matter again."

- Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair in his memoir 'A Journey' (released on 1st September), speaking about the Iraq war. For previous 'They said it'... | more... |

 

 

THIS WEEK ON THE WEB

 

 

28th July, 2010

Afghanistan has been in the spotlight again this week following the leaking of thousands of the US military's internal logs relating to the period between January 2004 and December 2009. The files were leaked to website Wikileaks which has allowed several news organisations special access to the data, including UK newspaper, The Guardian. You can read its coverage here...

For previous 'This week on the web'... | more... |

 

 

DID YOU KNOW? NEWS BRIEFS

 

 

THE STATISTIC

Number of species living in the Australian waters:

330,000

Source:Census of Marine Life

| more... |

• North Korea: Healthcare breakdown in isolated state..  | more... |

• EBibles among top five ebooks on religion, says Zondervan...  | more... |

• More poor in south Asia than Africa says new study...  | more... |

| MORE NEWS BRIEFS... |

 

WORLDVIEW

 

 

TRIBUTES MARK 70 YEARS OF TAIZE SPIRITUAL COMMUNITY

World Christian leaders are paying tribute to the ecumenical community of Taizé in eastern France, which is marking its foundation in 1940 by Brother Roger Schutz, who died in 2005.

     In a message in advance of the 14th August commemoration to Brother Alois, who now heads the community, Pope Benedict XVI described Schutz as a "pioneer in the difficult paths toward unity among the disciples of Christ".

     "Seventy years ago, he began a community that continues to see thousands of young adults, searching for meaning in their lives, come to it from around the world, welcoming them in prayer and allowing them to experience a personal relationship with God," Pope Benedict said.

STEPHEN BROWN, of Ecumenical News International, reports...  | more... |

 

 

THE WORD EXPLAINED

 

 Wordle

Theism

(God the) creator

Mercy


| more... |

 

BLOGS

 

 
CELEBRATING ROSH HASHANA...

On 9th September, Jews in Israel and around the world will celebrate the Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashana: ‘Head of the Year’).

Rosh Hashana falls on the first day of Tishrei (the seventh month of the Hebrew calendar), and is the first of the Jewish High Holidays or Yamim Noraim (’Days of Awe’), on which Jews focus on repentance before Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement).

On Rosh Hashana, Jews observe a day of rest (Leviticus 23: 24). Rabbis sound a shofar (a trumpet made from the horn of a ram, goat, or antelope), to symbolically awaken listeners and alert them to the coming judgement.

KARYN MARKWELL's blog on the history and culture of Israel... | more... |


THOUGHTS ON CONTROL...

U2's song Moment of Surrender has a line which simply says “to be released from control”. It is yet another line from a U2 song which has hit me like a brick.

Just about everything we do in life is designed to keep us in control of our lives. But the life of the cross is about relinquishing control to the only one who is ultimately trustworthy. Oh to be released from control on that day when we will have new bodies and new minds in the fully consummated kingdom of God.

 NILS VON KALM'S blog on faith, life and how it all might fit together...  | more... |


A RHINO CITY; WHY WE CAN PLAY A VUVUZELA BUT CAN'T GO WURFING; AND JESUS ON TENNIS

We've already heard of island archipelagos designed to resemble palm trees or maps of the world. So why not a city shaped like a rhino in Africa? That's the design planners in southern Sudan have reportedly come up with for their capital, the city of Juba.

DAVID ADAMS writes about the odder side of life... | more... |

 

THINKING ON POLITICS...

Thinking on politics... Sometimes a door opens and as a Jesus follower you have to decide whether to walk through it. If you are fair dinkum about following you don't leave your God clothes in a pile by the door - you just wear em and walk on in. Mine don't come off.... and they are always clean and fresh, He washes me daily!

ANN WOJCZUK's blog about life, the universe and possibly everything...  | more... |

FRAGMENTS OF BRONZE AGE LAW CODE FOUND IN ISRAEL

Fragments of a cuneiform tablet containing a law code which parallels parts of the famous Babylonian Hammurabi Code have been found in northern Israel.

The find - the first of its kind in Israel - was made during excavations conducted by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem at Hazor. The fragments date from the 18th and 17th centuries BC - the Middle Bronze Age - and are written in the Akkadian cuneiform script. They refer to issues of personal injury law relating to the relationship between slaves and their masters and the researchers say they also reflect the Biblical concept of a ‘tooth for a tooth’.

DAVID ADAMS reports... | more... |

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