“God made me for China” — Eric Liddell beyond Olympic glory
“Those who have seen Chariots of Fire well remember how it ends, with the magnificent and sentimental music of Sir Hubert Parry’s anthem ‘Jerusalem’ and William Blake’s famous words: ‘Bring me my Bow of burning gold; Bring me my Arrows of desire: Bring me my Spear: O clouds unfold! Bring me my Chariot of fire!’
Then the screen fills with these words in text:
‘Eric Liddell, missionary, died in occupied China at the end of World War II. All of Scotland mourned.’
The end.
But in those few words was the real story of Eric Liddell…”
– Have your heart warmed to the true story of Eric Liddell – in this new post from Albert Mohler. (Photo: Wikipedia.)
Moore College to celebrate 500 years of the Reformation
Moore College will be celebrating the 500th anniversary of the Reformation with some key events.
It’s time to mark your diary!
Details at the College website.
Simon Manchester on Preparing to Preach
In the latest Preaching Matters from St. Helen’s Bishopsgate, North Sydney’s Simon Manchester speaks about Preparing to Preach.
“What are the priorities we need to have in good preaching?
Preaching Matters welcomes Simon Manchester this month, asks him what his sermon preparation looks like, and he gives us some examples of why handling the text rightly is so crucial for good preaching. Simon talks to us about being sailors and divers, and preaching Jesus not just the Bible.”
Watch it here. Most encouraging.
A Sovereign Protector I have
“The book of Esther is another reminder that God is in control of all things, not just some things. God is well able to use peoples’ evil intentions to bring about His good purpose.
Joseph’s brothers; the evil Prime Minister of Persia, Haman; the weak Roman Governor of Palestine, Pontius Pilate; the able Jewish lobbyists, who demanded the death sentence for Jesus; and later the deacon Stephen, are all examples that the Sovereign Lord ‘rules the peoples justly and guides the nations of the earth’ (Psalm 67:4).”
– in his latest message, Presbyterian Moderator-General David Cook calls believers to remember who is in control – the One to whom every knee will bow.
(Image: St. Helen’s Bishopsgate.)
Dick Lucas on What makes an excellent Bible teacher
Earlier this year, Nancy Guthrie spent an hour with Dick Lucas in London for her ‘Help me teach the Bible’ series.
She asks Dick about the early days of his ministry at St. Helen’s, about the Proclamation Trust, and then turns to the character of a Bible teacher, and the way Dick approaches a passage for preaching.
Strong encouragement for preachers, and for congregations.
Listen to the 56 minute conversation at The Gospel Coalition. (54MB mp3 file.)
(Photo: from a St. Helen’s Bishopsgate video.)
Is Same Sex Marriage a “Human Right”?
“The question posed by the title of this post is simply this: is it a denial of a fundamental human right, for a legal system not to extend the category of marriage to include marriage between parties of the same sex?
The question was posed in a stark way by recent reported comments of the President of the Australian Human Rights Commission, Prof Gillian Triggs. …”
– Neil Foster’s latest post at Law and Religion Australia, asks if there is an internationally recognised ‘human right’ to same-sex marriage.
EMA 2016 talks available
Audio and video files from Proclamation Trust’s EMA 2016 are available for your edification. Thanks to Proc Trust for this wonderful resource.
Tim Challies on ‘Heaven is for Real’ and other ‘heaven tourism’
“In March 2003, young Colton Burpo was in serious distress.
Doctors did not yet know it, but his appendix had burst and his life was in grave danger. When doctors at one hospital were unable to diagnose him, his parents raced him to a new hospital where he was rushed into surgery, the doctor warning ominously that their son was in grave danger.
Colton survived his surgery and emerged from it telling a strange story…”
– In his series on bestselling ‘Christian’ books, Tim Challies revisits the genre of ‘Heaven Tourism’, and republishes an infographic he created in 2015.
Hope because Hell has not yet come
“This past Sunday at our church we started a new sermon series on the book of Lamentations. The title of this series is “Hell of a subject” because Lamentations teaches us about the wrath or “fierce anger” (1:12) of God, of which an eternal hell is the ultimate expression.
We don’t often hear about the wrath or fierce anger of God, let alone about an eternal hell. Most people would say something like, “My God would never do that!” Rather than worshipping and serving the God of the Bible, most people worship and serve the God of their own making, who, not-surprisingly, has all the same opinions as themselves. Lamentations will help us. Lamentations gives us a small foretaste of the wrath of God…”
– At the REACH South Africa (formerly CESA) website, Andre Visagie shares strong observations from Lamentations.
Amazing Love? A review article from Church Society
From Church Society in the UK:
‘Amazing Love: Theology for Understanding Discipleship, Sexuality and Mission’ is a new book, edited by Andrew Davison, which seeks to promote a change to the Church of England’s doctrine of marriage.
In an extended two-part review, Dr Peter Sanlon, Vicar of St Mark’s Church, Tunbridge Wells, analyses the claims of the book –
“This aim of this book can be given in the authors’ own words: ‘This short book explains why we think it’s good for Christians to embrace their gay and lesbian brothers and sisters, and to celebrate their relationships … We think that the Church should be willing – delighted even – to hallow and strengthen such commitments.’…”
“This volume has the appearance of being a digest of thoughtful and considered academic research. However that is just the surface reality – a carefully curated image. Academic publisher, long sub-title, titled academics listed as authors. It looks like academic work; but upon closer examination the mirage fades.…
It is stated on numerous occasions in the book that the aim of the authors is the embrace and acceptance of homosexual relationships by the Church of England. In reality the book has a much larger goal. The goal is nothing less than a wholesale revision of the Christian Faith into a different religion.”
Two new posts at Law and Religion Australia
Neil Foster, at Law and Religion Australia, has updated his blog with two new posts:
Religious Freedom victory in Nova Scotia
and
Religious Vilification claim in Victoria rejected.
Informative reading for an understanding of what’s happening in the realm of religious freedom.
Related: The inaugural Freedom for Faith Conference, Friday 12th August.
What should we think about Pope Francis?
“Pope Francis in one of the most liked leaders in today’s world. …
An increasing number of Evangelicals say: ‘I like this pope, he talks about Jesus a lot…’
True, Francis knows the language that Evangelicals use (e.g. ‘conversion’, ‘mission’, ‘personal relationship with Jesus’) and is able to articulate it in a winsome way. …
The basic rules of interpretation, however, tell us that using the same words does not necessarily mean saying the same things. …
Evangelicals have to do their homework in order to go beyond the surface of mere phonetics in order to grasp the profoundly different theological vision underpinning Francis’ language. They may find it surprising how far Francis is from the standard evangelical understanding of the biblical Gospel. …”
– At Vatican Files (Evangelical theological perspectives on Roman Catholicism), Leonardo De Chirico and Greg Pritchard write about the current Pope.
‘The best of’ Ask Pastor John
Andy Naselli has listening to all of the more than 900 episodes of “Ask Pastor John”, with John Piper, and offers links to a dozen which stand out for him.
D. A. Carson — Reflections on 40 years of theological education
This week on Jason Allen’s Preaching and Preachers podcast, Professor D.A. Carson shares his story, and reflects on 40 years of theological education.
Very encouraging. Runs for 29 minutes.
(The Know Your Roots video series, mentioned in the interview and recorded in 1991, can be seen here.)
The End of Gender?
“In the year 2000 I started giving talks on gender issues, based on research I had been doing in feminism. At the time I would speak of the ‘the end’ of feminism, meaning, the logical conclusion of feminist thinking. …
So, I predicted, the end of feminism – its logical outcome – was not likely to be lesbianism, which after all still asserts that there is a difference between men and women, and that women are to be preferred. Rather, the end of feminism was likely to be the disappearance of gender altogether.
But I did not expect to be proved so right, so soon.”
Plenty of good and thought-provoking reading.
You could start with Kirsty Birkett’s article, “The End of Gender?” on page 6.
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…