Feeling weary?
Vaughan Roberts’ closing exposition on Luke 10:17-24 from the Proclamation Trust’s Autumn Minister’s Conference is a great encouragement.
Well worth watching the video here.
(We first posted this in November.)
First two talks from Summer School 2014
CMS has made available the first two talks from the 2014 NSW Summer School at Katoomba.
Andrew Reid is preaching from the Book of Exodus.
Grace has brought me safe thus far
“This first weekend of 2014 affords many of us an opportunity to hit “pause” on this busy opening week and to reflect, backward and forward, on our own lives.
Essential at the beginning of every new year is to set aside time to reflect on life, according to eighteenth-century slave-ship-captain-turned-pastor John Newton (1725–1807). This practice was embedded into his personal disciplines, and it emerged as a hallmark of his pastoral work. He penned new hymns and sermons and personal letters every year to urge his friends to take time at the unveiling of a new year to stop and reflect on life.”
– Tony Reinke, at Desiring God, looks at Amazing Grace.
Related: A hymn for the New Year.
Anglican church accused of ‘dumbing down’ baptism service
“The Church of England has been accused of ‘dumbing down’ the baptism service by changing its wording so parents and godparents no longer have to ‘repent sins’ and ‘reject the devil’.…”
– story from The Guardian.
Don’t Teach the Bible
“There is an important difference between teaching the Bible and teaching people the Bible. It is easy to be so engaged in what we teach that we forget whom we are teaching. We can even be oblivious to the fact that we are not teaching anybody.”
– Read all Phillip Jensen’s latest article.
ESV – free Audio Bible in January
For January 2014, the free download from Christian Audio is the ESV Bible.
It’s available in two formats, mp3 or m4b. Each totals around 2.1GB for the full Bible, so keep that in mind before you download them. Here’s the link.
Prayers in Melbourne for South Sudan
“More than 200 adults and 70 children gathered at the Anglican Church of the Apostles, Sunshine, for a regular thanksgiving service. But because most of those present come from the vicinity of Bor in South Sudan which has seen armed conflict this past week, the prayers reflected the anxiety and concern about relatives back home.”
– from the Diocese of Melbourne. (Map: DFAT.)
Bible Society Malaysia raided, Bibles confiscated
“321 Bibles were confiscated yesterday by Jais, a Malaysian Islamic authority, who arrested the Bible Society’s chairman Lee Min Choon and office manager Sinclair Wong and took them to Damansara Utama police station where they were later released on bail.”
– Story and image from Eternity Newspaper.
Thanksgiving for Ridley Smith
There will be a Thanksgiving service for Ridley Smith at St. Andrew’s Cathedral at 10:30am on Friday 3rd January 2014.
Ridley, who died just before Christmas, is best known to many as the Architect who designed St. Andrew’s House and Sydney Square.
We also have Ridley Smith to thank for perpetuating the “Eternity” symbol chalked around Sydney by Arthur Stace for so many years.
In 1977, he had Eternity, in cast aluminium letters eight inches high, set in pebbles at the bottom of the Sydney Square waterfall.
(Photo of Ridley Smith with thanks to Ramon Williams, Worldwide Photos – taken at the opening of additions to Gymea Baptist Church, 29th November, 2009.)
‘Emulate Mandela’ says Abp of Canterbury
“People should pledge this new year to try and emulate Nelson Mandela and change the world around them, the Archbishop of Canterbury has said.”
– Report from BBC News.
Chapter ends for Bathurst’s Anglican News
“After 34 years of publishing, the Anglican News has been printed for the last time. As the Bathurst Diocese of the Anglican Church struggles financially, the 2014 budget adopted by the Synod makes no provision for the production of a diocesan newspaper.”
– from The Western Advocate. (Anglican News Archives.)
The upward call of God in Christ Jesus
“But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…