Course: Talking with Catholics about Jesus
Lionel Windsor draws attention to a very helpful course:
“An opportunity to understand Catholics and have great conversations together about Christ.
A new resource by Certainty4Eternity, distributed by Matthias Media. A course to consider for your church or small group 2024!”
Be better equipped to love your Catholic friends.
Image: Mark Gilbert.
Relationships, Results and Rhythms of Ministry Teams – with Grahame Fuller and Jo Gibbs
This week from The Pastor’s Heart:
“As we head to 2024 most of us are recasting ministry teams for the new year.
But how can we do this without making some of the mistakes that we have made in 2023?
How do we do better with staff teams and all the various volunteer ministry teams across our church?
And even in the best places – there’s an inertia that we will slip back to functioning as rosters… How do we fix that?
Grahame Fuller is a long term senior leader at EV Church on the Central Coast. Jo Gibbs is the Effective Teams consultant for Reach Australia.”
What is the Good News? A Response to Jayne Ozanne’s Reinterpretation
“I was astonished last week to see that Premier Christianity published what to be frank was just a heretical article from Jayne Ozanne…even more so after my own experience of being cancelled by them lest I upset some people (Why was I Cancelled and Repented for by Premier Christianity?)
They seem to have little difficulty in upsetting biblical Christians! I was not going to respond and then I came across a couple of other Christians who were influenced by Ozanne and did not see a major problem with what she said – so I wrote this piece – which Christian Today have thankfully published. …
‘But what is this Good News? The Church of England, as the Church of Scotland and much of the rapidly declining mainstream denominations in the West, seem greatly confused. I recall a group of Scottish politicians who had asked a group of “representative” clergy to give advice and how confused they were. ‘You seem to believe in two different religions’ was their accurate observation. Indeed the trumpet has been giving an uncertain sound for many years.
Jayne Ozanne, the former evangelical, who once believed the Good News, has now come to agree with this view that there are two different versions of Christianity which are incompatible with one another. She wrote of this in a revealing article earlier this month. …’
– David Robertson responds in his usual helpful way – by drawing us back to the word of God. At The Wee Flea.
A Harmony of the Birth of Jesus: Matthew and Luke
From Justin Taylor at The Gospel Coalition:
“Here is a simple chronology to show how the events of Matthew 1–2 and Luke 1–2 fit together and what each of the gospel authors emphasize.
Matthew tells things more through the eyes of Joseph and Luke (who perhaps interviewed Mary) tells the events largely through her eyes.”
– See it here.
Did Pope Francis Really Give Blessing to Same-Sex Couples? The Complicated Disaster of the News Coming Out of the Vatican
In his The Briefing for Tuesday 19th December 2023, Dr Albert Mohler takes a look at the latest statement from the Vatican.
“I think this is an indefensible statement.”
– Listen here.
Bathurst Christmas Reflection – Bishop Mark Calder on Finding Permanence in a World of Change
Bishop Mark Calder’s Christmas message for 2023:
“In a world where everything bears the label ‘temporary,’ the Christmas season invites us to discover the enduring permanence found in Jesus Christ.
Imagine labelling the items in your life – microwaves, cars, homes – as either ‘temporary’ or ‘permanent.’ The result is confronting: almost everything is temporary, except for Jesus.
As we celebrate his birth, we’re not just commemorating God stepping into our world as one of us; we’re affirming the timeless reign of a permanent King. Jesus is the exception in a world of transience, offering reliability, dependability, and lasting hope.
This Christmas, amidst the chaos of life, run to Jesus. In him, find not only help but a source of unwavering hope, strength, and inner transformation. Amidst the temporary, Jesus stands as the permanent promise of a Kingdom that never ends.
May this Christmas be a reminder that, in Jesus, we discover hope and help and strength in the face of our world – and our lives – which are often confusing and uncertain.
Bishop Mark Calder
Anglican Diocese of Bathurst, covering central and western NSW.”
Hard Decisions will have to be made — Bishop Wallace Benn
“I was privileged to be part of the group at the Lambeth Conference of world-wide Anglican bishops in 1998 which produced the statement overwhelmingly supported by the Conference …
I was also part of the group that wrote the excellent Jerusalem Declaration in 2008 (which became the basis for GAFCON — the global movement of orthodox Anglicans)…”
– Both statements assert the authority of Scripture.
So, in the light of the latest moved by the House of Bishops of the Church of England, Bishop Wallace Benn asks, “What are Bible-believing Christians to do?”
– Anglican Mainstream has republished his comments from Evangelicals Now.
Photo: Bishop Benn at GAFCON 1 in 2008 by Peter Frank for GAFCON.
Top 7 stories in 2023 (from heaven’s perspective)
“It’s the season for reflecting on the year that has been.
People are compiling lists of the biggest or most momentous events of 2023. While these lists can be interesting, I want to do something a little different here.
Rather than taking the usual perspective, I want to remind us that the Scriptures give us another view of reality and it’s one that we can easily miss or forget in the midst of everyday life.
Enjoy and be encouraged and a little bit challenged as well. …”
– Murray Campbell wants us to have a heavenly perspective on 2023.
Improving your Christmas service and talk – with Dave Jensen and James Galea
News you can use – from The Pastor’s Heart:
“How can we make our Christmas Services better?
With just a few days to Christmas, and while some of us are well planned, some of us are still scrambling around putting things together.
Whether it’s Christmas Day or Christmas Eve, or a kids gathering, carols or Gingerbread and Wreathmaking…
What are the pitfalls we can fall into? How do we avoid them?
James Galea is senior minister of Freshwater Anglican Church.
Dave Jensen will be working next year with the Sydney Anglican Churches Evangelism and New Churches team to encourage best practice evangelism.”
Canada is not only euthanizing Persons but Personhood itself
“In 2016, Canada legalized euthanasia for adults suffering severely and incurably near the end of life.
Four years later, it legalized euthanasia for adults even if death is not “reasonably foreseeable.”
Next year, euthanasia is set to become legal also for adults whose sole medical condition and source of suffering is mental illness. Recommendations have been made to legalize euthanasia for minors whose death is “reasonably foreseeable.”
The organization that regulates physicians in the province of Quebec has suggested that euthanasia should be available for infants with severe disabilities or illnesses that render them unlikely to survive. …”
– Since euthanasia has just been introduced in New South Wales, this is a very relevant article by Brian Bird at Public Discourse.
Link via Anglican Mainstream.
The Desecration of Man
“This year marks the eightieth anniversary of the lectures that became C. S. Lewis’s book The Abolition of Man.
Speaking to an audience at the height of the Second World War, Lewis identified the central problem of the modern age: The world was losing its sense of what it meant to be human. As man’s technological achievements were once again being used to destroy human life on an industrial scale, Lewis pointed to the dehumanization that was occurring all around. And as the war continued, the Final Solution and the atomic bomb served to reinforce his claims.
Yet modern warfare was not the only problem. As Lewis argued, the intellectual and cultural currents of modernity were also culpable. The war was as much a symptom of the problem as a cause. Modernity was abolishing man. It represented nothing less than a crisis of anthropology. …”
– There’s a great deal to contemplate in this essay from Carl Trueman at First Things.
This essay was originally delivered as the 36th Erasmus Lecture at Grove City College on 31st October 2023.
Photo: Carl Trueman, courtesy Grove City College.
Why Jesus Came — Devotional from John Piper
Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. (Hebrews 2:14-15)
“This, I think, is my favorite Advent text because I don’t know any other that expresses so clearly the connection between the beginning and the end of Jesus’s earthly life — between the incarnation and crucifixion.
These two verses make clear why Jesus came …”
– A wonderful reminder, via John Piper.
Image: Ornaments by Lacewing Creative in Sydney.
Collect for Advent 2
Via GAFCON:
“Blessed Lord, who caused all the holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: Grant that we may so hear them, read, mark, learn and inwardly digest them, that through patience, and the comfort of your holy Word, we may embrace, and forever hold fast, the blessed hope of eternal life, which you have given us in our Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen.”
See also:
The Bible: Read, learn and digest – Julian Mann at TCW.
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.
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…