‘How euthanasia advocates will never stop at the terminally ill’
“Tom Mortier never paid much attention to the discussion about voluntary death in his country.
‘I was like just about anyone else here in Belgium: I didn’t care at all,’ he said. ‘If people want to die, it’s probably their choice. It didn’t concern me.’
But in April, 2012, ten years after the law changed to allow euthanasia, Mortier, a university lecturer, received a message at work…”
– Anglican Mainstream links to this article in The Telegraph. (Photo: HOPE.)
Kanishka Raffel — Do not lose heart
In the latest Preaching Matters video, Kanishka Raffel, who has been visiting St. Helen’s in London, speaks about why we should not lose heart as we preach the gospel.
Be encouraged.
Can we talk about Islam?
“One thing that most Australian Christians and Muslims share is a frustration with the standard media-driven categories in which nearly all religious claims or subjects are discussed in our society. Clichés, misunderstandings and misrepresentations are common. Even simply talking publicly and clearly about religious teachings and practices is often seen as undesirable, inappropriate and divisive.
Why is that? And could things be different?…”
– An interesting evening coming up at Moore College’s Centre for Christian Living.
Lent 2015 Studies from John Harrower
Bishop of Tasmania John Harrower has written a series of studies for Lent 2015.
Called The God of Life, you can read the details here.
Challenging the C of E to believe that ‘Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners’
“It’s not often that there’s a good Christian article in the otherwise secular press. But today’s Thunderer in The Times is an exception to the rule.”
– Adrian Reynolds writes at the Proclamation Trust.
Interview with Deepak Reju on preventing Child Abuse
“In his new book On Guard: Preventing and Responding to Child Abuse Deepak Reju (Pastor of Biblical Counseling and Family Ministry at Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, DC) brings the issue to the fore and sets the standard for church preparedness.
Today he talks to us about his new book and his dreadful yet dreadfully important subject…”
– published in two parts by Books at a Glance. Part 1, Part 2. Book availability.
Committed to the Gospel
At the Thinking of God Conference, held last November, Dr Peter Bolt spoke on Evangelicalism, calling his hearers to be discerning and uncompromisingly gospel-focussed.
Take the time to be challenged and encouraged. Watch or listen here.
Richard Johnson — the background
“In the summer of 1784, the Newtons took their orphaned niece Eliza to bathe at the seaside for her health.
John Thornton had invited Newton to accompany him to Lymington and the Isle of Wight. A stranger, Charles Etty, invited Newton to stay at his home near Lymington en route.
In December 1783, Richard Johnson had been licenced as curate to St John’s, Boldre, a village in the New Forest only 3 miles from Etty’s home.
It is conceivable that Newton and Johnson may have met there in the late summer of 1784. Certainly they subsequently knew the same group of friends in the Lymington area.
And it was only a few months later, on 25 March 1785, that Newton reported to William Bull:
“Yesterday I put Mr. Johnson in my pulpit,
(who I think gives us an earnest of a judicious good preacher).’…”
– Marylynn Rouse at The John Newton Project has been researching how John Newton came to know Richard Johnson and came to recommend him to be Chaplain on the First Fleet.
It’s a fascinating work-in-progress with more to come – read it here.
Related: St John’s Boldre is having “Australia Day Matins” on Sunday 1st February.
Photo courtesy Google Maps.
‘Go, bear the Saviour’s name to lands unknown’
This Australia Day long weekend, it’s a good time to bring the people of Australia before our heavenly Father in prayer.
Even before European settlement, the inhabitants of “lands unknown” were in the prayers of men and women like John Newton.
On 8th July 1777, Newton wrote this in his diary –
“My leisure time and rather more than I can well spare taken up with reading the accounts of the late voyage of Capt. Cook in the Southern Ocean and round the Globe.
Teach me to see thy hand and read thy name in these relations. Thy providence and goodness are displayed in every clime. May I be suitably affected with the case of the countless thousands of my fellow creatures, who know thee not, nor have opportunities of knowing thee.
Alas that those who are called Christians, and who venture through the greatest dangers to explore unknown regions, should only impart to the inhabitants examples of sin and occasions of mischief, and communicate nothing of thy Gospel to them. Lord hast thou not a time for these poor benighted souls, when thou wilt arise and shine upon them?”
(Special thanks to Marylynn Rouse of The John Newton Project, who transcribed this entry from Newton’s diary.)
Part of the answer to John Newton’s prayer was the Rev Richard Johnson (pictured), who sailed, in May 1787, on the First Fleet as the first Chaplain to the Colony to be established at Botany Bay.
Newton wrote to Johnson –
“Go, bear the Saviour’s name to lands unknown,
Tell to the southern world his wondrous grace;
And energy Divine thy words shall own
And draw their untaught hearts to seek his face.”
So let’s give thanks for Richard and Mary Johnson, and for those who sent them – and be committed afresh to “bearing the Saviour’s name” to all in our land.
Related: Richard Johnson’s An Address To The Inhabitants Of The Colonies Established in New South Wales And Norfolk Island (pdf).
How then, should we live?
“Defective theology will inevitably lead to defective Christian living.
There are three areas of systematics which require our careful attention – these truths often get lost in larger theological tomes, but they need to be taught thoroughly to our people.
I intend to write about each of them in my next three columns.
The first is the place of the law in the believer’s life, this bears on the relationship of old and new covenants…”
– Presbyterian Moderator-General David Cook begins a short series on key aspects of theology.
(Photo: St. Helen’s Bishopsgate.)
25 Truths about Preachers
At Unashamed Workman, Colin Adams has some reminders and encouragements for preachers, drawn from 2 Timothy.
Possible first-century fragment of Mark’s Gospel discovered
“In 2012, Dan Wallace dropped a bombshell during a debate with Bart Ehrman. Ehrman had pointed out that our earliest copy of Mark’s Gospel is dated 140 years after the gospel was first written. It’s a point often made by critics to show the unreliability of the New Testament. Wallace then revealed that he had knowledge that a first century copy of Mark’s Gospel had been discovered. …
LiveScience.com has a report today verifying Wallace’s claims about work being done on a fragment of Mark’s Gospel that appears to be from the late first century”
– Denny Burk has a little more on Daniel Wallace’s 2012 claim.
And some cautionary thoughts from Justin Taylor
“Let’s think critically and wait to see the published results. Until then, debating the details won’t get us very far.”
and Peter Williams, Warden of Tyndale House in Cambridge.
(Photo: Dr. Daniel Wallace at Dallas Theological Seminary.)
Refugees weather winter
“As Iraqi Christians from the Nineveh Plain spend their first winter away from their homes, conditions are becoming extreme.
Relief organisations moved thousands out of camps into rented accommodation.
In Mosul, one of the towns they left behind, conditions have grown desperate…”
– Read the latest from SydneyAnglicans.net, and give to The Archbishop of Sydney’s Anglican Aid here.
Why can’t the voice of Christians be heard?
“So, it has come to this! For more than 1,500 years, Christianity has formed and undergirded the public law of this land.
Now, the Lord Chancellor and the Lord Chief Justice, by disciplining Richard Page JP, have declared war on even residual notions of the faith having any place in our legal processes…”
– Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali comments on the disciplining of a British magistrate.
Related:
Is glorifying God a hate crime now? – Russell Moore on the firing of Atlanta’s Fire Chief.
“Now, I don’t expect the American people to enroll in Sunday school en masse to understand biblical references (although we’d be glad to have you).
I do expect that when we are castigating and caricaturing and firing each other that we will do so with at least some inkling of what we’re talking about.”
Unbroken — a true story of God’s grace
The film Unbroken is now in the theatres.
At Desiring God, read the story of God’s grace behind the story told by the movie. (Photo: Desiring God.)
See also this 28 minute video from the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.
Related: Jolie on making Unbroken in Australia – ABC News.
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…