The Bible’s guide to time travel

“Time is a funny thing. It goes too fast. Then too slow. We want it to stand still and then wish it didn’t. We love losing track of it but incessantly strive to find it. There are few things more frustrating and difficult than running out of time or wasting it. We just can’t seem to get it right! Why does time so often feel out of joint? ”

– The Australian Church Record has published the first two parts of a series by Annabel Nixey.

Part 1. Trusting the original Time Lord.

Part 2. Accepting that time is broken.

“The bus pulls away just before you reach it. The priceless opportunity disappears just before you can grab it. Just when that person finally gets back on their feet, something else goes wrong. Bad, broken timing.”

Rich and Getting Richer

“They used to call them financial advisers or even simply bank officers; now they are wealth managers. Having adequate money is so yesterday. We want to have wealth. We think of ourselves managing our resources to become first, rich, and then even richer. There are no votes for the party that promises that under its leadership citizens will become poorer!

Yet that is exactly what Jesus did! His milieu was opulence, glory, splendour and supreme power over everything that exists. The whole universe was under his thumb, yet he chose to make himself nothing and become the lackey of humanity. …”

– Written and published in time for Christmas, this reflection by Bishop Trevor Edwards in the diocese of Canberra & Goulburn should turn our hearts to thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving

“On September 28th 1863 Sarah Josepha Hale, a 74-year-old magazine editor, wrote a letter to Abraham Lincoln, the President of the United States of America, asking for an Annual Day of Thanksgiving. …

I had a deep sense of sadness when I read this, reflecting on our own nation that appears so confused and divisive. We live in a nation with a myriad number of commemoration days set aside and sometimes even a whole a week to remember certain things, but do we stop as a nation to offer thanksgiving? Someone has said ‘The worst moment for the atheist is when he/she is really thankful and has no-one to thank.’…”

–  At the Diocese of Armidale website, Bishop Rick Lewers reflects on what Australia needs as we enter a new year.

The Enduring Authority of the Christian Scriptures

ACL Council member Mike Taylor tells us the Kindle version of The Enduring Authority of the Christian Scriptures – edited by Don Carson – is on special at a (currently) very good price.

Check it out here.

Morning and Evening by C H Spurgeon free audiobook

The free Audiobook from Christian Audio for January 2019 is C H Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening.

Available here.

Free digital downloads from Credo House

Credo House in Oklahoma City has made available (for a limited time – we’re not sure how long), free downloads of some of their audio courses. You’ll need to create a free account.

“The mission of Credo Courses is to produce the best courses using the best teachers in the world. With courses produced by scholars such as Gary Habermas, Doug Groothuis, Daniel Wallace, and Darrel Bock, Credo Courses has distributed millions of course downloads for people all over the world.”

Well worth checking out.

Religious sanctions and contempt of court

“The recent decision of the NSW Court of Appeal in Ulman v Live Group Pty Ltd [2018] NSWCA 338 (20 December 2018) raises important issues about the interaction between internal disputes within a religious community, and the ‘secular’ court system.

In this case a majority held that the threat of purely religious sanctions, to be applied if a dispute was resolved in the ordinary courts rather than in a religious tribunal, amounted to contempt of court, and imposed financial penalties on members of the tribunal.

Significant questions are raised as to whether religious groups are able to apply their own religious beliefs in disciplining members of their community, or whether these decisions will be over-ridden by the ordinary court system. …”

– Associate Professor Neil Foster highlights a recent court decision, at Law and Religion Australia.

Bible Reading Plans for 2019

Ligonier Ministries has assembled a list of Bible Reading Plans you can download as PDF files.

Of course, there are many phone apps to help you read the Bible (some free, and some paid). One such is Reading Plan on iOS.

The free iOS app BCP: Daily Office Readings is also worth checking out.

Be encouraged to read God’s Word in 2019!

Reformation sights in Oxford

Moore College’s Lionel Windsor shares some sights from Oxford relating to the English Reformation.

“Right in front of the pillar and the picture of Cranmer was a little stand where people could pay a pound to light a candle.”

Looking for a Saviour — Archbishop Glenn Davies’ Christmas message 2018

Here is Archbishop Glenn Davies’ Christmas message for 2018.

Short, to the point, and ideal to show in church or embed on your church website.

See also the story and text from SydneyAnglicans.net.

“The Anglican Archbishop of Sydney, Dr Glenn Davies, has paid tribute to lifesavers and bushfire fighters while marking celebrations for the birth of Jesus, the saviour.

Archbishop Davies annual Christmas message was released as preparations were being made for Christmas services to be attended by thousands of people across Sydney, the Illawarra and beyond.…”

The Christmas Preacher

“There are numerous benefits of preaching at Christmas. 

But Christmas preaching comes with particular challenges too. Here are some things to keep in mind …”

– Helpful reminders from Mike Raiter. (GAFCON photo.)

Ruddock Report response (part 3)

“In my former posts (here and here), O Friend of Law and Religion, I have dealt with all that the Ruddock Report covered in recommendations 1-12 and 15, along with the official Government Response to those recommendations.

In this post I aim to cover recommendations 13-14 and 16-20. These deal with important issues of the law of blasphemy and religious free speech, along with State discrimination laws, collection of data, education on religious freedom, the role of the Australian Human Rights Commission, and the exercise of leadership in the area by the Commonwealth. …”

– Associate Professor in Law, Neil Foster, has just posted part three of his response to the Ruddock Report.

He concludes, in part, “… my general response is that the Report is a sensible document which takes religious freedom seriously, and hopefully the actions promised by the Government will be implemented with due speed”.

Christmas: Satan’s field day?

“Now the title of this article might appear a little too shocking for the ‘merry’ Christmas season… but let me highlight some of the ways that the great deceiver tries to take our minds off Christ during the Christmas period, before suggesting some ways to respond.  …”

– At The Australian Church Record, Mike Leite encourages you to swim against the tide this Christmas.

Christmas in the Future

“The countdown to Christmas is in full swing. …

For Christians, Christmas is the annual festival celebrating the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ—an event that split history in two. We recall the God who acted in mercy by entering this fallen and broken world to redeem it. We remember that in Christ, God is with us—Jesus, our “Immanuel.” And while we too countdown to Christmas and the year’s end that it signals, we reflect on the saving grace of our God.

We draw this significance of Jesus’ birth from the accounts in the Gospels, as well as the reflection of the New Testament writers generally. With another two thousand years of Christian reflection since, plus our favourite carols playing in the background, the importance of Christmas has been ingrained into us. Although the annual celebration is fixed immovably into our calendars, the Christmas event itself lies behind us. We have to look back over our shoulder, as it were, to see it.

But it was not always so. …”

– Moore College’s George Athas helps us put Christmas in perspective.

What should I tell my kids about Santa?

In his “Ask Pastor John” podcast, John Piper offers an answer to the question, “What should I tell my kids about Santa?”.

“Are we misleading the children in telling them this story as a simple statement of facts?

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