Lifting our voices to God — Wednesday at 7:00pm

Anglican churches across the Diocese are encouraged to join together and pray at 7:00pm on Wednesday, September 22 at the Lifting Our Voices to God livestream event.

In the one-hour online event, Christians will be encouraged to corporately lift their hearts, minds and vision to God during the pandemic. Read more

Encouragement to use The Word One to One

John Mason, President and Chairman of Anglican Connection, is encouraging his North American readers to consider using The Word One to One as a very helpful tool in evangelism.

As part of that, he reminds us of this brief 2016 interview with the then Dean of Sydney, and now Archbishop, Kanishka Raffel.

The books are available locally from The Wandering Bookseller.

 

Community supports beloved bookseller

“It was a message that Karl Grice hoped never to write.

The unexpected and severe impact of Sydney’s second major lockdown, which is still ongoing, meant that just as things were starting to look up for the event-based Christian bookseller, everything came to a stop once more. …”

– SydneyAnglicans.net reports on The Wandering Bookseller and how you can support them.

And here’s The Wandering Bookseller’s website.

COVID Vaccination and The Church

“The recent announcement by the Australian government that increased freedoms would be available to citizens who were double vaccinated for COVID-19, or have exemption on medical grounds, has caused significant consternation in the Christian community. Issues of conscience and concerns about exclusion have been raised as reasons why such measures should not be introduced.

This paper has been written to consider how Australian churches should respond. …”

– The Gospel Coalition Australia has republished this very helpful article by Dr. Megan Best (palliative care doctor, researcher and bioethicist).

Well worth taking the time to read and consider.

Growing Old — Blessing or Curse?

Equal But Different has published three reflections on growing older – by Lesley Ramsay. She writes of the dangers and blessings of growing older:

Growing Old — Blessing or Curse? Part 1.

Growing Old — Blessing or Curse? Part 2.

Growing Old — Blessing or Curse? Part 3.

Jesus, Freedom and Authority in Lockdown

ACL Council’s Lionel Windsor is continuing his series on “Jesus, Freedom and Authority in Lockdown” at Forget the Channel.

Part 1. How should Christians in lockdown respond to authorities? 1 Timothy 2:1–7 tells us to pray. But it’s not a bare command—it also tells us why.

Part 2. God is not an alternative or enemy to human governments. Rather, he is the Lord over them. That’s why we are to pray to him.

Part 3. When our physical horizons are narrowed down in lockdown, our gospel vision can also become narrowed to ourselves and our group.

Also published at The Australian Church Record, which already has Part 4 online.

Keep the Bible Front and Centre

“To state the obvious, we must let the Bible shape what we do as mission leaders.

That means that we need to keep on constantly thinking about the priority that we give to our personal reading of the Bible, to our use of the Bible in our day-to-day ministry and to the way that we apply the Bible as we think through what is happening in the world today.

I’d like to encourage you to do two things …”

– Kevin Murray, National Director of Australian Presbyterian World Mission, writes at Missions Interlink.

Archbishop Raffel on Sunrise 13 September 2021

Archbishop Kanishka Raffel was interviewed on Seven’s Sunrise this morning, 13 September 2021.

The interview highlights the desire to minister to all while acting responsibly during the COVID outbreak.

The Jesus people met

“There is no piece of ancient literature that has as much manuscript evidence to support its integrity, as John’s gospel. …

In John 3 and 4 we meet Nicodemus and the unnamed woman of Samaria, they could not be more contrasting. …”

– At The Expository Preaching Trust, David Cook shares some insights from the Gospel of John.

Preaching Class with John Piper — 30 Videos

“John Piper—co-founder of Desiring God, former preaching pastor at Bethlehem Baptist Church, and author of The Supremacy of God in Preaching and Expository Exultation: Christian Preaching as Worship—has recorded 19 mini-lectures on preaching (about 10 minutes each, for a total of about four hours). This is then followed by a two-and-a-half hour workshop where Piper is joined by three younger local preaching pastors to talk through various issues. …”

– Justin Taylor draws attention to what promises to be a very helpful resource.

John Piper’s 9/11 Radio Interview

From Desiring God:

“Twenty years ago today, at 8:14 a.m., American Airlines Flight 11 was highjacked. And with it began a nightmare no one who lived through it will forget. …

The following morning, Pastor John was called on to be one of the Christians who would speak into the tragedy — for him, on KTIS, a local radio station. Where was God on 9/11? There, for about forty minutes, he spoke wisdom into the shock and sorrow.

We want to share the recording with you today on Ask Pastor John, on this twentieth anniversary. The interview covers the importance of grieving and creating space for sorrow, yet a sorrow under God’s all-encompassing sovereignty. Pastor John explains why 9/11 was a call for national humbling, a wake-up call. God was shaking the foundations of America and calling sinners to come to Christ — a global call not just for Americans but also for Palestinians, Saudis, and Afghans. …”

– Read the background and listen – at Desiring God.

Seeing God at Ground Zero: an Aussie’s testimony from 9/11

“A meteorologist would tell you there were sprawling areas of high pressure, but to me it was simply a picture-perfect day for my last full day in New York, and an opportunity to explore the tourist hot spots. First on the list was the viewing observatory inside the World Trade Center’s South Tower. It was Tuesday, September 11, 2001. …”

– Two years ago The Australian Church Record published this reflection and testimony from Anthony Philips. Good to re-read and share.

See also:

‘September 11 – Twenty Years On…’ – John Mason at Anglican Connection.

“Twenty years ago Judith and I were living three short blocks south of the Twin Towers in Downtown Manhattan. We had awakened that Tuesday morning to clear blue skies and the sparkling waters of New York Harbor. But it was not to last. …”

The Day the World Stood Still — Dean Phillip Jensen, St. Andrew’s Cathedral, September 11 2011.

A Profile of Moral Collapse: President Biden, Abortion, and the Culture of Death

“Almost fifty years after Roe v. Wade, abortion remains the moral issue in American public discourse and politics.

There are very few profiles in courage in American politics. This seems especially true when it comes to the defense of unborn life. The political predicament of a pro-life politician is this – the political class and the New York-Hollywood-Silicon Valley axis reward those who abandon pro-life positions and condemn those who refuse to surrender.

A particularly important profile in moral collapse now resides in the White House. The story of President Joe Biden’s slippery shape-shifting on the abortion issue is both revealing and horrifying.

Brace yourself. …”

– In his latest essay, Albert Mohler looks at what happens when leaders abandon their ‘devoutly held beliefs’ for political expediency. This is not a ‘party political’ commentary, but a chronicling of one man’s moral shift, at the expense of countless unborn lives. Mohler ends with a challenge to us all.

SparkLit Awards Author Interviews

The SparkLit Awards Night was held last week, with Stephen McAlpine winning the Australian Christian Book of the Year Award for his book “Being the Bad Guys: How to Live for Jesus in a World that Says You Shouldn’t” (available from The Wandering Bookseller and other Christian bookshops).

SparkLit has now released video interviews with shortlisted authors, including Professor Graeme Clark AC (pictured), inventor of the “bionic ear”.

On the SparkLit YouTube channel.

In the Lord I Take Refuge: Daily Devotions on the Psalms with Dane Ortlund

Crossway is hosting Dane Ortlund’s daily devotions on the Psalms.

Starting today. On Apple Podcasts.

← Previous Page — Next Page →