Daylight Saving ends Easter morning
In 2010, NSW Daylight Saving ends on Easter morning, April 4th.
Reserve Bank Governor uses ‘God given capabilities’
“Glenn Stevens used a charity breakfast in Sydney this morning to say he was using his god-given talents to do the job of managing the economy.…
Mr Stevens also responded to a direct question about his belief in God. ‘I would say that, despite claims to the contrary, there is a God. This is worth checking out and the critical issue people have to deal with is, was Jesus Christ who he claimed to be? If he wasn’t then you can forget about it, and if he wasn’t then I am living in a fool’s world…’”
– report from ABC News. (Photo: Reserve Bank.)
Easter and history
Simon Smart from the Centre for Public Christianity, writes, “[We] would like to draw your attention to a resource that we thought might be of assistance to you as you prepare for the lead-up to Easter and Easter services. …
How do we respond to claims that Jesus didn’t even exist? What about answering questions about the reliability of the New Testament documents? Why is the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus such a crucial aspect of the Christian story? How might one respond to the New Atheist claims that the crucifixion represents cosmic child abuse?
For all that and more, just click here to gain access to our Easter page. We hope you will be able to use the material in whatever way is most helpful to you.”
‘Easter Show bans Jesus’
“It’s a curious thing that an event bearing the name “Easter” has disallowed anything to do with the very thing Easter is all about – the death and resurrection of Jesus,” – CEO of Bible Society NSW, Daniel Willis. Report from Eternity newspaper.
‘Calvinism is back’
“New Calvinism draws legions to the sermons of preachers like John Piper of the Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis.
Here at CHBC, the pews and even rooms in the basement are filled each Sunday, mostly with young professionals. Since senior pastor Mark Dever brought Calvinist preaching here 16 years ago, the church has grown sevenfold. Today it is bursting at the stained-glass windows…”
– The Christian Science Monitor takes a look at the ‘New Calvinism’ – via Capitol Hill Baptist Church. (h/t Justin Taylor. Photo: Mary Knox Merrill / Christian Science Monitor.)
Secured by Christ on the cross
To meditate on during this Holy Week:
“Everything that we know and appreciate and praise God for in all Christian experience both in this life and in the life to come springs from this bloody cross.
Do we have the gift of the Spirit? Secured by Christ on the cross.
Do we enjoy the fellowship of saints? Secured by Christ on the cross.
Does he give us comfort in life and death? Secured by Christ on the cross.
Does he watch over us faithfully, providentially, graciously, and covenantally? Secured by Christ on the cross.
Do we have hope of a heaven to come? Secured by Christ on the cross.
Do we anticipate resurrection bodies on the last day? Secured by Christ on the cross.
Is there a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness? Secured by Christ on the cross.
Do we now enjoy new identities, so that we are no longer to see ourselves as nothing but failures, moral pariahs, disappointments to our parents—but deeply loved, blood-bought, human beings, redeemed by Christ, declared just by God himself, owing to the fact that God himself presented his Son Jesus as the propitiation for our sins? All this is secured by Christ on the cross and granted to those who have faith in him.”
— D.A. Carson, Scandalous: The Cross and Resurrection of Jesus (Crossway, 2010), 70-71.
(With thanks to Of First Importance.)
Holy Week Geography and Harmony in Google Earth
Justin Taylor writes:
“Today is the first day of “Holy Week,” where Christians recount Jesus’ final pre-glorified week on Earth.
Here is something you might find fruitful while contemplating the events leading up to our Saviour’s death and resurrection: an attempt in Google Earth to show the locations of the major events (to the best of our knowledge) along with descriptions and biblical passages describing those events.”
‘Canonically Permissible Graciousness’
“…on May 15 the Presiding Bishop intends to do the very thing that the Joint Standing Committee — on which she serves — urged the Episcopal Church not to do. …
… even a rudimentary grasp of Jesus’ admonition to “let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No’” (Matt. 5:37) highlights a conflict between the Episcopal Church’s rhetoric of reconciliation and autonomous actions.”
– from an editorial in The Living Church.
(Photo taken at the November 2008 Joint Standing Committee meeting: ACNS Rosenthal.)
The Messiah by Mr Handel & Mr Newton
Dr Alec Motyer, Bishop Timothy Dudley-Smith and others speak about Handel’s “The Messiah” at The John Newton Project.
In preparation for Easter, learn about John Newton’s little-known connection with Handel’s Messiah.