Where is Jesus now? And what is he doing?

“At Easter Christians all over the world repeat the joyous affirmation of faith: ‘Christ is risen. He is risen indeed.’ But then comes the question: ‘OK, he is risen. So where is he then? And it’s not just the question of an inquisitive child, it should be a question for every adult and for every Christian too.

The Apostles’ Creed tells us:

On the third day He rose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from there He will come to judge the living and the dead.

So, Jesus is in heaven. But where is that and what does it mean that he ‘ascended’? It’s not just non-Christians who regard this as somewhat fanciful; many Christians struggle with this idea too. …”

– David Robertson writes at AP, the Presbyterian online journal.

Classics for Easter: Handel — I Know That My Redeemer Liveth

“The composer Georg Frideric Handel (1685-1759) was born in Germany but settled in London in 1712, where he spent the bulk of his career, becoming a naturalised British subject in 1727. At that time he was mainly composing Italian operas but by the late 1730s their popularity was declining and he was turning to English choral works. In 1738 he completed Saul from a libretto sent to him by English landowner and patron of the arts Charles Jennens.

In July 1741 Jennens sent him a new libretto for an oratorio, drawn from the King James Bible and the Coverdale Psalter, with a few small alterations.…”

– At The Conservative Woman, Margaret Ashworth shares her love for ‘I Know That My Redeemer Liveth’.

Photo: Performance of The Messiah at Sydney Town Hall, 2023.

A hymn for Easter Day 1775

Two hundred and fifty years ago, John Newton wrote this hymn for Easter Day 1775 –

Glorious things of thee are spoken – See the details at JohnNewton.org.

For more, see this article by Marylynn Rouse, CEO of The John Newton Project:

“The River Ouse meanders peacefully behind the church of St Peter and St Paul in Olney, Buckinghamshire. It bids a pleasant walk along its river banks as swans glide gracefully by while a watchful heron keeps an eye on a troop of Canada geese on the opposite side of the bank. This tranquil scene was the refuge of the local minister, newly ordained, who fled there in a state of panic.

Before coming to Olney the Reverend John Newton had published six sermons. He had just preached from the last one! A friend explained many years later, ‘he thought he had told them his whole stock, and was considerably depressed.’

Newton himself recalled: ‘I was walking one afternoon by the side of the River Ouse. I asked myself, How long has this river run? Many hundred years before I was born, and will certainly run many years after I am gone. Who supplies the fountain from whence this river comes? God. Is not the fund for my sermons equally inexhaustible?—the word of God. Yes, surely. I have never been afraid of running out since that time.’…”

– Published at Evangelicals Now (requires a free subscription).

Images with thanks to Marylynn Rouse.

We should not forget the meaning of Easter

“Is the Easter story becoming a myth? You might well think so, if we judge by the recent English Heritage booklet for children, which asserts that ‘Easter started as a celebration of spring’ for ‘honouring the goddess Eostre’.

It’s not difficult to find similar material. Walking through the Canary Wharf shopping centre last weekend, I found the ‘Easter Tree of Life’, a ‘place for reflection and gratitude’ where you can ‘add a leaf to the branches sharing your future wishes [or] cherished memories’. …”

– David Frost, a former foreign policy advisor in the British government, writes a thought-provoking piece in The Telegraph. Worth reading and sharing. Perhaps a good conversation-starter.

Thanks to Julian Mann in the UK for the link!

Theology in the Margins – Donald Robinson Library Lecture with Mark Earngey

A fascinating and fun Donald Robinson Library Lecture from Moore College a few weeks ago:

“In Theology in the Margins, Mark Earngey, Head of Church History, will be considering how the notes and drawings in the margins of the personal Bibles of the English Reformers can encourage us today to grow our understanding and outworking of God’s word.

Archbishop Thomas Cranmer’s prayer for the second Sunday in Advent asks God to help us read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest the holy Scriptures.

Christians today may be familiar with reading the Bible and learning from God’s Word. But what was the significance of physically marking God’s Word?

This lecture will illuminate how and why some of the English Reformers engaged with their own personal Bibles and will draw some conclusions for modern readers of the Bible who may want to learn from the models provided by our sixteenth-century forebears.”

– Watch and be encouraged.

A Light on the Hill

“I love a good biography. It’s always fascinating and often inspiring to read the account of a life of special significance. Yet for all the biographies I’ve read, A Light on the Hill may be the first whose subject was not a person but a church. It surprised me what a blessing it was to read about that church and to see how God has seen fit to bless, preserve, and use it for so many years.

In late 1867, Celestia Anne Ferris, a young member of E Street Baptist Church in Washington, called her friends together to pray for the establishment of a church on Capitol Hill. Only a few people were present that evening and their specific prayers were not recorded, but it did not take long for God to begin to answer them. …”

– Tim Challies reviews a book about Capitol Hill Baptist Church.

Photo: The U.S. Capitol in Washington.

Anglican Mainstream survives “deplatforming attempt”

“A UK Christian charity is urging all charity trustees to urgently risk assess their ‘cyber vulnerability’ after an unsubstantiated attack on their ministry caused Go Daddy, their cyber host, to unilaterally ‘terminate’ their website leading to loss of income and restrictions on ministry.

Anglican Mainstream (AM), a leading Anglican online news service, was informed on February 28 that Go Daddy had received one general complaint about ‘potential breach of copyright’ after it had uploaded links to news articles for educational purposes. …

Go Daddy also informed AM that hundreds of posts that they had hosted over the years had been destroyed – thereby denying AM’s lawyers any opportunity to counterclaim any copyright breach or, to present a legal defence. …”

– This news via Anglican.ink is a reminder of the era in which Christian organisations operate.

Our suggestions for Christian website owners:

This story also a reminder of the value of having a regular backup of all your data which is independent of your hosting provider. (If your backup is with your hosting provider, and they cancel your account, you lose website and backup.)

While the Internet Archive’s WayBack Machine has been saving copies of Anglican Mainstream since 2014, resurrecting a site from that data would be a huge task.

For websites (like the ACL) using WordPress, there are many plugins which will allow you to save complete copies of the database and all files to your own computer or to your cloud storage. One such plugin is Updraft Plus – the premium version of which allows for backups and easy restoring of a website if something goes wrong, or migration to a new hosting company.

If your website is important to you or your organisation, do consider such a plugin.

“We can have confidence as we read these accounts” — Easter message from Tyndale House

Peter Williams, Principal of Tyndale House in Cambridge, shares this Easter message.

Are we post Christian or post Secular? – with Mark McCrindle

From The Pastor’s Heart:

“The new McCrindle report ‘An undercurrent of faith’ says:

Founder and Principal of McCrindle research, Mark McCrindle, says his report shows a new search for purpose and meaning and asks is ‘Australia Post Christian or are we now Post Secular?’

Plus we compare the findings of the national McCrindle report with the recent Sydney Anglican report on Church attendance.”

– Watch or listen here.

The Problem of Sextortion: A Message for Parents and Pastors of Teenage Boys and Young Men

A special edition of Albert Mohler’s The Briefing:

“It’s a special edition of The Briefing for the parents of teenage boys and young men. Not only parents, but the pastors and youth pastors and those who are directly concerned with teenage boys and young men. And this is going to be material I wouldn’t discuss in the way I’m going to discuss it today, in the normal edition of The Briefing.

This is a privileged conversation, but it’s an urgent conversation for the parents of teenage boys and young men, and others ministering to them and who love them, and it’s that love and concern for them that leads to this special edition today. It’s about the problem of sextortion. …”

– Watch, listen, or read the transcript here.

The Best Friday

From Phillip Jensen:

“Holidays are always marvellous opportunities to relax and catch up with friends, but the Easter holiday is even better because it gives us time to think about the greatest weekend in human history: when our Lord and Saviour died and rose again. The death of Jesus was so great that I would call Friday not just good, but the best Friday.”

– Hear Phillip and Peter Jensen in the latest Two Ways News podcast. Well worth listening and sharing.

Conversion Act protest needs to be targeted carefully

“NSW has now joined Victoria in having a Conversion Act come into operation that bans some forms of Christian ministry. The Conversion Practices Ban Act 2024 No 19 aims to “aims to “ban practices directed to changing or suppressing the sexual orientation or gender identity of individuals”,” and created a civil penalties scheme.

Victoria’s act goes further than the NSW one. Despite the NSW Premier Minn’s promise not to ban prayer, certain types of prayer are now against the law in NSW following Victoria. The Other Cheek reported the then-opposition-leader’s promise: “Labor’s Chris Minns promises no ban on preaching, prayer in conversion therapy bill.“

But the prayer promise was not kept. Prayer with an LGBTQIA individual with the aim for them to be celibate or change orientation is clearly defined as illegal in the NSW Act. In the case of sustained prayer, definitely so. …”

– John Sandeman at The Other Cheek adds more on the ‘Conversion Act’ in NSW.

Using Artificial Intelligence

“The [British] Prime Minister said recently that ‘Artificial Intelligence will drive incredible change in our country’ and that he wants to ‘turbocharge’ the industry and make Britain a world leader in this area.

Growth in this arena has really taken off and caught the public imagination in the last few years, and naturally that has led many Christians to be curious and ask questions about it.

So I decided to dig into AI, and did a bit of training…”

– At Church Society’s blog, Lee Gatiss looks at AI.

The Image of God Reconsidered — Two Ways News podcast

From Phillip Jensen:

“One of the most profound and widely quoted verses of the Bible is the creation of Man in the image of God. So, this week Peter and I went exploring some of its implications. It is such a fruitful concept by which to understand humanity, not the least because in the New Testament we find Jesus is “the image of the invisible God”. But before we get there, we need to understand how we are as individuals, male and female, in the image of God as well as how humanity, as a whole, is in his image.

There’s so much fruitful discussion to be had on this passage, we hope our conversation will stimulate yours. …”

– Listen (or read the transcript) here.

The seed that will bear fruit has been planted

“At the turning point in John’s Gospel, Jesus makes a seemingly obscure reference to his death. As we get ready to celebrate Easter, let’s take a moment now to explore a powerful yet often overlooked verse to see in a fresh way what Jesus endured and the life he has won for us.

The moment comes in John 12, when some Greeks visit Jesus shortly after his triumphal entry to Jerusalem. …”

– Callan Pritchard writes at The Australian Church Record in the lead up to Easter.

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