The persecuted church
Bishop Bill Atwood has written this for the American Anglican Council’s weekly newsletter:
When President Nixon went to Yalta in 1973 (in what is present day Ukraine), I flew the White House staff and secret service on my Air Force plane. Of course the senior staff and the President flew on Air Force One. Read more
Mike Raiter and Radical Discipleship
Mike Raiter, Principal of the Bible College of Victoria, opened God’s word, starting in Luke chapter 9, at this week’s CMS Summer School at Katomba.
CMS has graciously made Mike’s first talk available for download.
It, and the whole series, were a great blessing, challenge and encouragement to all who were present. The other talks are available for purchase from CMS NSW.
This Life I Live — new hymn free download
At the 2010 CMS Summer School held in Katoomba this week, a new hymn by Michael Morrow was taught. ‘This Life I Live’ is a beautiful song ‘celebrating the fact that we who died with Christ now live for him, and live in hope of a glorious resurrection’.
‘The Life I Live’ is not yet available on CD, but you can hear it and download the mp3 file and sheet music at Morrow Music.
For the Love of God
Excerpts from Don Carson’s devotional resource, For the Love of God, are being posted daily at The Gospel Coalition.
You can subscribe to to receive a daily e-mail or subscribe to the RSS feed. A very helpful resource.
Teach us to number our days
At the 9Marks blog, Michael Mckinley recommends this sermon (from last year) on Psalm 90 by Derek Thomas (Professor of Systematic and Practical Theology at Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson, Mississippi).
Sobering and encouraging.
Outline of redemptive history
At Between Two Worlds, Justin Taylor has posted a useful summary of Graeme Goldsworthy’s outline of redemptive history–
See it here – and download a copy of the famous ‘coathanger’ chart here.
If you are not familiar with Graeme Goldsworthy’s books, in Sydney, you can get copies at Moorebooks or from Reformers Bookshop.
Ten years closer to Eternity
Ten years ago, Sydney celebrated the beginning of 2000 by displaying on the Harbour Bridge the word Eternity in the iconic copperplate handwriting of Arthur Stace.
A lot of water has passed under the bridge (literally) since then, and in many ways the world has changed. But the basic need of men and women is the same – to hear the gospel and be saved.
In 2010, please be encouraged to continue to trust Christ, and to live in the light of eternity. Read the story of Arthur Stace in our Resources section.
Bible reading plans for the new year
Justin Taylor, at Between Two Worlds, has links to some helpful Bible reading plans.
The glory of the Cross
“There is no greater cleavage between faith and unbelief than in their respective attitudes to the cross.
Where faith sees glory, unbelief sees only disgrace. What was foolishness to Greeks, and continues to be to modern intellectuals who trust in their own wisdom, is nevertheless the wisdom of God.
And what remains a stumbling-block to those who trust in their own righteousness, like the Jews of the first century, proves to be the saving power of God (1 Cor. 1:18-25).”
– John Stott, The Cross of Christ. (With thanks to Of First Importance.)
Leon Morris on The Person of Christ
Church Society has republished Leon Morris’ 1960 Church Book Room Press booklet “The Person of Christ’ on their website:
“When we want to understand the importance of a person we turn to his work. If we think, for example, of Winston Churchill our minds instinctively go back to the dark days of the war when he rallied the Empire. If we think of Napoleon we recall his mighty deeds on many battlefields. If we think of Einstein his enunciation of the theory of relativity gives us the measure of his greatness. What men do shows what men are.
Similarly in the religious world, if we wish to understand something of the person of Jesus Christ we do well to begin with what He has done. John sums it up for us in a sentence: ‘the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world’ (1 Jn. 4:14). The greatness of Christ is to be seen in the fact that He brought salvation, not for just a few, but for ‘the world’…”
Despite the sceptics, there is real truth in the story of Christmas
“There are enough question marks over the Christmas story for dogmatic sceptics to have a field day at this time of year, but the core historical realities are not easily swept away…”
– John Dickson writes in The Sydney Morning Herald.
Very different paths to God
“Everything I know about God comes from God himself.”
– Archbishop of Sydney Dr Peter Jensen and ‘militant agnostic’ Brian Schmidt are both featured in today’s Sydney Daily Telegraph on ‘seeking the truth of our existence’.
Objections to Christmas
“Column 8 of the Sydney Morning Herald last week had an interesting entry from a man identifying only as a ‘Canberra Anglican parish priest’. In the lead up to Christmas he had organised some community carols in his local shopping centre, but met some resistance.
‘To my great amusement,’ he wrote, ‘the manager of the centre objected, because she thinks the “[expletive] Christians want to take over Christmas.”
I’d always assumed that the “Christ” bit in both words might serve as a clue.’ …”
– read the full article by Simon Smart at the Centre for Public Christianity.
The saint(s) go marching in
Over at SydneyAnglicans.net, Glenn Davies, Bishop of North Sydney, provides some much-needed Biblical perspective for the current excitement about Mary MacKillop.
J I Packer interviewed at Oak Hill
In May 2009, Dr Jim Packer spoke at Oak Hill College’s annual School of Theology.
While at the college, he was was interviewed on camera by Principal Mike Ovey.
Each segment runs for about 10 minutes.
Part 1: Knowing your stuff – theological training in a climate of cultural scepticism.
Part 2: The faith taught not caught – the challenge of being a pastoral theologian.
Part 3: Training the congregation – the greatest challenges facing Christian ministers today.
Also see the new Commentary magazine online.
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…