Prisoners seek Prayer

From the Diocese of North West Australia:

“Inmates at Greenough Prison are turning to the chaplain for prayer and encouragement.

Geraldton Assistant Minister Mal Walker has begun filling in as prison chaplain two days a week and says the experience has shown him God’s immense love for people.…”

– This and other matters for prayer and thanksgiving on the website of the DNWA.

Outprinting the Prosperity Gospel in Southern Africa

“Seven years ago, Tommie van der Walt went to his elders with an idea.

‘I wanted to train pastors,’ he said. He especially wanted to train pastors in impoverished and underresourced areas. And he wanted to do it, in large part, by using books.

It sounds like the beginning of a great plan. Van der Walt lives in Africa, which is overrun with syncretism and the prosperity gospel. The need to train pastors is obvious.

But relying on books wasn’t as intuitive. First, getting books to Africa is prohibitively expensive. The shipping takes months. And if you do manage to get books there, Africa’s oral tradition and lower literacy ratesmean they’re likely to sit unread.

Not only that, but somebody else had beaten him to it.

‘Guys like Joel Osteen pay for imports or for printing,’ van der Walt said. It’s a financial strategy: ‘They pay for their resources to be dirt cheap, because they know if you read their books or see them on TV, you’ll give them money.’

It’s working—over the last 10 years, the prevalence of the prosperity gospel has been ‘getting worse,’ says pastor and TGC Africa Council member Conrad Mbewe. ‘One reason is that there is very little antidote for it.’…”

– A fascinating story of God’s grace at work – from Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra at The Gospel Coalition.

Photo: Gospel Coalition.

Preaching to Men

David Cook:

“This year I have been preaching at Mens’ days at churches here in Sydney.

Domestic violence is dominated by men; there is growing focus on ‘toxic’ men’s culture; suicide rates are dominated by men at a rate of 3 to 1; mens’ mental health is an area of growing need. Men and true masculinity are under pressure.

Male models, patterning healthy masculinity are scarce in our schools and single parent families are mostly mothered families.

Two areas needing special attention are:

How can I be a better man?

Where can I find purpose and meaning in life?

In every Gideon’s Bible, the ‘Where to look when..’ page is dominated by references to …”

– At The Expository Preaching Trust, David Cook writes about true manhood, purpose and meaning in life.

Image: A 2024 photo of Armidale’s Bishop Rod Chiswell with David Cook.

Humility and Peace: the relationship between the Bible and science

From The Pastor’s Heart:

“There are understandings/interpretations of the Bible that conflict with the conclusions of modern, empirical research – where science and the Bible are thought to be giving competing explanations of the same event or concept.

One way of reading the Bible leads to the conclusion that the Earth is 6000 years old while your local science department will tell you it is more like 4.5 billion years old.

Were human beings created in an instant from dust, or over billions of years through a gradual, meandering evolutionary process?

Was there a moment in our historical timeline at the curse of God on the sin of Adam and Eve when the physical nature of our universe changed?

Were there no volcanoes or earthquakes or floods or bushfires before the curse, or has the universe operated on the same physical principles since its creation, as the conclusions of mainstream geology and astronomy suggest?

Dr Lewis Jones is an astrophysicist from North Carolina, who moved to Sydney to do post doctoral research. Lewis is now director of the Simeon Network, the postgraduate and academic arm of the Australian Fellowship of Evangelical Students.”

– Watch or listen here.

Men and Women: Re-thinking the reality, role and differences.

From Phillip Jensen at Two Ways News:

“As we come to the end of Genesis Chapter 2, we open up some of the biggest topics for debate, happiness and unhappiness in humanity today. Re-thinking marriage has been part of our social dialogue since the Sexual Revolution of the 1960s. Re-thinking the reality and role of men and women, their sexual differences and similarities has caused great turmoil in society.

I’m sure you will find our discussion in this episode gives more food for thought and ammunition for debate.”

– Hear the latest illuminating chat with Phillip and Peter Jensen.

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