Investing in our Kids — “Taste the New Testament” by Noble Bereans

“Any investment made in our children’s knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, his word and his gospel is an eternal treasure of great value. Noble Bereans have made this kind of investment.

Taste the New Testament is an album of kids’ songs for use in our homes and kids’ ministries. Noble Bereans is a music ministry helping kids connect with God through Scripture. A noble aim indeed! Kingsley Davidson, the artist behind Noble Bereans, has primary-school-aged kids and this is the demographic his album is aiming for. …”

– At The Gospel Coalition Australia, Nicky Chiswell commends the album “Taste the New Testament”.

It’s more awkward to reject the virgin birth

“Around this time of year, you will begin to find folks who insist we don’t need to believe in the virgin birth. After all, the Hebrew word almah, found in Isaiah 7:14 pointing forward to the coming Messiah, can mean maiden or young woman. So, can’t we just accept that the Messiah would be born to a young woman and avoid all the awkwardness of defending weird stuff like virgin births?

There are a number of problems with taking this line. …”

– At Building Jerusalem, Stephen Kneale, minister at an evangelical church in Oldham, near Manchester, affirms the virgin birth of the Lord Jesus.

Link via Tim Challies.

Evangelistic Fire

“The Christian gospel is the most significant message ever entrusted to human beings.

It is the message of a love so strong it overcomes every obstacle in order to rescue sinful people from judgment. Jesus is God come to save us, by bearing himself all the consequences of our sin and opening up a new life of hope and joy and peace. This is breathtakingly good news, all the more so because our situation without it is so dire. The gospel of the crucified and risen Messiah changes everything. It is the powerful way God saves people (Rom 1:16). …

A friend of mine asked not that long ago where all our evangelistic fire had gone. Where’s that sense of urgency, that passion for the lost, that clarity of focus on Jesus and the salvation available only through him, which used to characterise Christians in this part of the world? It made me think. Have we become too comfortable or perhaps too fearful? Do we still believe it?…”

– Moore College Principal Dr Mark Thompson writes this foreword to the latest Moore Matters, Summer 2023. It has the theme of the Urgency of Evangelism.

Related:

John Chapman: Encouragement for Evangelism.

Expository Preaching Trust Activities 2024

From The Expository Preaching Trust:

“In 2024 the Trust will sponsor Preaching Clubs in Abbotsford, Armidale, Sutherland and Wahroonga.

These meet quarterly mostly on Mondays. There is no charge, please contact the coordinator of each Club to register your interest: …

Two of these Clubs, Armidale (May 6-7) and Wahroonga (August 5-6) will be holding two day Preaching conferences. The visitor for the conferences will be Simon Manchester and he will be assisted by David Cook, David Burge, Jim Mobbs and Janet Riley. …”

– See the details from the Trust.

Words worth reading — from Richard Johnson, first Chaplain to New South Wales

“The faith whereby a sinner receives Christ, and becomes a partaker of all the blessings of the gospel, is the sole gift of God, wrought in the heart by his Holy Spirit (Eph. ii.8). This Holy Spirit produces an inward change in the soul, called, in the scripture, the new birth, regeneration (John iii. 3-7), or conversion, and thus enables a sinner, convinced of his sin and misery, to look to Jesus, and to believe on him.

But though repentance and faith are the gifts of God, which none can obtain by any endeavours of their own, yet we are encouraged and commanded to pray for them (Luke xi. 17).

All who have thus, through grace, believed, and are daily living a life of faith in the Son of God, shall be saved: but such as carelessly neglect, or wilfully reject this gospel, must be damned (Mark xvi. 15). Think, I beseech you, of this! Remember, that it is the solemn declaration of the Lord Jesus Christ himself.

Now is the time to obtain the blessings revealed in the gospel, and which are set before you when it is preached. Many have had these gracious declarations made to them, before we were born, and they will be repeated to many after we are dead. But this is our day. Now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation (I Cor. vi. 2.). Hurry — for you and I may not live to see tomorrow. Today; if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts (Heb. iii. 7,8). My brethren, it is your duty, your wisdom, and will finally prove to be your greatest happiness, to seek an interest in this salvation for yourselves. It is your personal, and must be your heart concern, to make your calling and election sure (2 Pet i. 10).

For death will soon put a period to all the overtures of grace and mercy, with which many, and particularly you, are now favoured. It is, as I have said, both my duty and my pleasure, to preach and proclaim these glad tidings. But to whom? Not to the dead, but to the living; even to you (Acts xv. 22). To you is the word of this salvation sent. But, alas! should you still put it from you, and should death at last find you in an unprepared state, it will then be too late for you to begin to cry for mercy. (Eccl. ix. 10).”

– Extracted from Richard Johnson’s “An Address – to The Inhabitants of The Colonies Established in New South Wales and Norfolk Island”, 1792. PDF here.

Photo: Moore College.

The Faithfulness of the Lord

“As our graduates have made their way from Newtown to serve in a range of locations, both domestic and further afield, we have been increasingly blessed to see new students come through our doors from a variety of different countries, with different family backgrounds, different stories to tell of how they were brought by God from darkness to light, and a raft of different ministry experiences.  …”

– Moore College’s Chief Operating Officer, Soo Sing Goh, gives thanks for God’s blessing on the College this last year.

How youth ministry is changing and needs to change – with Andy Stevenson and Ruth Lee

From The Pastor’s Heart:

“Cultural changes and increasing push back against churches are impacting youth ministries. It is getting  much harder for Christian Teenagers to be Christian among their secular peers.

Teenagers don’t just walk in the door of a church.

What are latest youth ministry trends and opportunities? How can we do youth ministry on the front foot?

Andy Stevenson is Director of the Sydney Anglican Youthworks’ youth & children’s ministry division and Special Religious Education (Scripture Ministry).

Ruth Lee is Youth worker at Cornerstone Presbyterian Church in Sydney.”

– Watch or listen here.

The how and why of Bible reading – and why we should do it more

“According to the recent National Church Life Survey, 47 per cent of Sydney Anglicans say they read their Bible every day and 75 per cent of them a few times a week. This is a very encouraging statistic!

During the pandemic, newspapers reported something of a revival in personal “spiritual practices”, including reading “holy texts”, prayer and meditation. No doubt many Christians also found that being forced to stay at home lent itself to reviving personal Bible reading and time with God in a more disciplined way.

The Scriptures emphasise both the importance and also the sheer joy and privilege of meeting God in his word …”

– Archbishop Kanishka Raffel encourages us to continue to hear and respond to God’s word. He writes at SydneyAnglicans.net.

Facing Death as a Christian

From Mark Powell at AP’s Profiles in Christian Living Podcast:

“In this interview we talk with Gordon Cheng who was recently diagnosed with stage 4 bowel cancer. Thankfully, he is currently in remission, but we speak to him about where to find comfort, strength and hope when we walk through the valley of the shadow of death.”

– Watch here.

Many of our readers will be upholding Gordon and his family in prayer.

Gordon makes it very clear: “As a Christian, I want to testify that there’s nothing better than being the servant of the Lord. Even in the darkest valley of the shadow of death…”

Why the Post-Christian West is eagerly pursuing ‘Skynet’-Level AI

“OpenAI (chatGPT’s parent company) exists to develop ‘Skynet’-level Artificial Intelligence.  Or more specifically, a safe version of AI as intelligent as Skynet. In their founding charter, they write:

OpenAI’s mission is to ensure that artificial general intelligence (AGI)—by which we mean highly autonomous systems that outperform humans at most economically valuable work—benefits all of humanity. We will attempt to directly build safe and beneficial AGI.

And if the recent ousting then return of OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman is any indication, they’re making progress. The ABC reported on Sunday:

Ahead of Altman’s ousting, several staff researchers wrote to the board of directors warning of a powerful discovery that they said could threaten humanity, according to Reuters. …”

– Akos Balogh writes at The Gospel Coalition Australia.

Voluntary assisted dying laws partly invalid

“An important decision handed down recently in the Federal Court of Australia rules that part of Victoria’s euthanasia law (the Voluntary Assisted Dying Act 2017 (Vic)(‘VADA 2017’)) is invalid, as it authorises assistance with suicide, which is prohibited by Federal law.

The decision, of Abrahams J as a single judge in the Federal Court, is Carr v Attorney-General (Cth) [2023] FCA 1500 (30 November 2023). The implication is that similar provisions of other State and Territory laws are also invalid. The relevant federal law, sections 474.29A and 474.29B of the Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth), in broad terms, makes it an offence to assist or encourage someone to commit suicide through use of a ‘carriage service’, most commonly by use of a telephone (either a voice call or a text message), email, or some internet service. …”

– At Law and Religion Australia, Neil Foster looks at the implications of a recent decision.

Image from a Diocese of Sydney training day.

Kel Richards calls on Australians to ‘refuse to walk backwards’ in the fight against the evils of anti-Semitism

“A new expression was coined at the recent Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (or ARC for short) conference in London: ‘civilisational moment’.

The 1,500 delegates were warned that Australia, Britain the United States and all of the western world is facing a ‘civilisational moment’  – a tipping point in which we could lose the civilised values that have guided us for well over than a thousand years, and which have given us the freedoms we enjoy. …

The warning sign of our ‘civilisational moment’ is the epidemic of anti-Semitism sweeping the western world – what we thought was the civilised world. …”

– Kel Richards writes this opinion-piece at Sky News Australia.

Related:

Archbishop Kanishka Raffel’s statement on antisemitism — 13 October 2023.

Image: ABC.

Wanted: Catholic Pastors

“I was in a meeting not too long ago in which a pastor said that he was going to lead his church to be the first church in history that fulfilled the Great Commission.

That’s a breathtaking claim.

And it reminded me of many other such vision-casting mission statements. One of the most famous slogans has to be the watchword of the Student Volunteer Movement, from over a century ago — ‘The evangelization of the world in this generation!’ That stirring call was used by God to send thousands of evangelical Christians from the English-speaking world around the globe to share the gospel in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

But I have to be honest—I’ve always thought that famous slogan was a mixed bag. …”

— At 9Marks, Mark Dever sees the need for pastors to be more catholic.

Ian Paul – Church of England is “trying to square a circle”

“Rev Dr Ian Paul offers crucial insights following November’s Synod, reaffirming the Church of England’s doctrine that marriage remains defined as a union between one man and one woman. For a nuanced understanding of what took place, the half-hour interview is accessible on our YouTube channel here.

Ian asks, ‘Do we have confidence in the teaching of Jesus?’ and firmly states the impossibility of detaching doctrinal adherence from pastoral care. He critiques efforts to align the Church’s timeless doctrine with contemporary views as ‘trying to square a circle’. …”

– From The Coalition for Marriage in the UK. Watch here.

Why Ayaan Hirsi Ali became a Christian

“Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a former Muslim and now a former atheist, recently declared that she has converted to Christianity. This is a cause for great rejoicing.

It is also a fascinating sign of the times. Her published account of why she is a Christian is somewhat odd, given that it mentions Jesus only once. It is, however, unreasonable to expect a new convert to offer an elaborate account of the hypostatic union in the first days of faith. This is why churches catechize disciples: Conversion does not involve an infusion of comprehensive doctrinal knowledge. And whatever the lacunae in her statement, the genuineness of her profession is a matter for the pastor of whatever congregation of Christ’s church to which she attaches herself.

Here is what makes her public testimony a sign of the times …”

– Carl Trueman writes at First Things.

Related:

Why I am now a Christian – Ayyan Hirsi Ali at Unherd.

Image: Crossway. Link via Anglican.ink.

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