We can have Confidence

“Sennacherib ruled Assyria from the capital city of Nineveh, which was the largest city in the world at the time. He was formidable, ruthless, a military ruler bent on collecting nations.

Nebuchadnezzar II, the ruler of the Babylonian Empire, surpassed him. He made Babylon even larger and greater than Nineveh. Nothing like it had ever been seen.

Cyrus surpassed them both, creating the world’s largest empire through merciless force. When Cyrus’ vast army marched, the ground shook for miles. …”

– Ligonier Ministries’ Stephen Nichols writes with godly encouragement to Christians in a world of turmoil.

Image: Dr. Stephen Nichols from a Ligonier Ministries video.

Ministry Tip: Communicating Christ Clearly

“I think the most important thing that I have been taught in the whole area of Communicating Christ, was to know what you are aiming for, and be focussed on getting there.”

– In this short and to-the-point video, Dominic Steele encourages preachers to be focussed.

Challenges and opportunities in rural NSW

In the Summer 2020 edition of Moore College’s Moore Matters, Mark Calder, Bishop of Bathurst, shares:

“… I am surprised and delighted and sometimes terrified to find myself in a new role in the Diocese of Bathurst. It is an extraordinary privilege. Having been here a year (on 23rd November) – and a very unique and challenging year at that – I know that I am only just beginning.

My oft repeated line, when asked how things are going, has been ‘the challenges are great, but so too are the opportunities’. So let me tell you a little about both. …”

– Read, be encouraged, pray – and – perhaps – go!

‘New Year’

“2020 has been a troubling, turbulent year – one to which we could apply Her Majesty, the Queen’s apt and pithy comment in 1992: annus horribilis.

While commentators and historians will analyze the events of the year for some time, in many ways it has been God’s wake up call to the reality that, despite what we might like to think, there are significant events in life beyond our control.

Indeed, unexpected events suggest that there’s another dimension to life which we should not ignore – especially as we move into the new year. …”

– Encouragement from John Mason at The Anglican Connection.

Heaven — Rejoicing in Future Glory

The latest 9Marks Journal is out, with a focus on Heaven.

Plenty of encouraging and stimulating reading.

Christmas video message from Archbishop Foley Beach

From GAFCON.

Latest from the Northern Territory — Top Centre Issue 20.3

From David Ray, Registrar of the Diocese of the Northern Territory –

“Dear friends of the Anglican Diocese of the Northern Territory, please enjoy reading the latest edition of ‘Top Centre’, featuring the ordination of Craig Rogers to the Order of Deacons and our new Dean at Christ Church Cathedral, Darwin!”

And from Bishop Greg Anderson’s page –

“We are close to the end of another year – and most of us will hope that next year is very different from this year.

But although 2020 has been challenging in many ways (and very much more challenging for people in other parts of Australia and in the wider world compared with the Northern Territory), so much has remained the same. God is still God, and he is doing his work in the world. Jesus still reigns and the good news about his work of rescuing the world still builds the church. The Holy Spirit still works to transform and empower Christians, and to soften hard hearts. …”

– Plenty of encouraging reading and fuel for prayer.

GAFCON Chairman’s Advent Letter 2020

“Advent greetings to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!

The season of Advent, one of the oldest observed Christian seasons, is upon us.  This season calls us to become aware of two great tensions: The Lord Jesus has come into the world, and He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead.  These two great tensions describe the hope and anticipation of faithful followers of Jesus for two-thousand years.

My prayer is that we will live faithfully in this tension between these ‘two Advents.’…”

– GAFCON Primates’ Council Chairman The Most Rev. Dr. Foley Beach shares his Advent message.

A Conversation with Bishop Julian Dobbs

Joshua Bovis, the Vicar of St. John the Evangelist in Tamworth, recently chatted with Bishop Julian Dobbs, Bishop of The Anglican Diocese of the Living Word, in the USA, on the theme of Advent.

“Knowing that Jesus will coming again greatly steadies us in this shaky world. One verse in 25 in the New Testament touches on the return of Jesus Christ. Jesus spoke of it often. Paul called it ‘our blessed hope’. Peter called it ‘our living hope’. Running unmistakably through the Bible is the unshakeable conviction and insistence that the God who is working in history and who has already established his rule in Jesus Christ will one day bring history to a goal or climax in the Son of Man’s coming in glory. You can’t read the New Testament and be in any doubt about that.”

Joshua published the conversation for his church, and has also made it available for your encouragement. (PDF file)

And please do pray for the Armidale Election Synod, meeting this Saturday (12th December) to elect the next Bishop of Armidale.

“PRAY FOR AUSTRALIA” DAY

Phillip Jensen has written to encourage prayer –

Our country is desperately in need of our prayers so would you join us for a day to:

What better day than Australia Day, 26th January (the public holiday just before the year gets under way)?

What better way than in our parish churches – with connections to others meeting to pray?

Last January we started an evangelistic prayer day with a group of young adults. Read more

Encouragement in the midst of a challenging year

“It’s important to take moments to stop and reflect in order to see the ways God has worked in our lives. We want to celebrate how God has blessed churches, sustained and expanded ministries, and grown his kingdom this year. Join us in giving thanks for the year that has been!…”

– At SydneyAnglicans.net, Judy Adamson reminds us there is much for which we can be thankful.

Sydney Diocese’s Unchanged Priority for over Eighty Years

“The world’s greatest need is evangelism. With all the earnestness and strength that are in me I urge upon you that fact. I urge it especially upon my brethren of the clergy. Study evangelism; preach evangelism; live evangelism.

Let us not, by neglecting it, betray the Lord that bought us; let us not, by neglecting it, betray the souls of men who look to us for light and leading; let us not, by neglecting it, betray our own souls on the day of judgment when God shall call us to give account of our stewardship.

‘Who is sufficient for these things?’ we cry. And our cry would be one of despair did all not remember that “our sufficiency is of God”. That sufficiency comes to us through the medium of prayer.”

– Archbishop H. W. K. Mowll, Presidential Address to the 3rd Ordinary Session of the Twenty-fourth Synod of the Diocese of Sydney (Monday 15 August, 1938) (Year Book of the Diocese of Sydney 1939, p. 247)

Picture: Archbishop Howard Mowll, painted by Alfred G. Reynolds, 1958. On display at Mowll Village, Castle Hill.

New contemporary service planned for Bathurst Cathedal

Phil Howes, minister at Narromine Anglican Church, has been asked to move to Bathurst to help start a contemporary service to complement the work already being done there.

In his online service for Sunday 15th November, Bishop Mark Calder asked Phil about the planned move, and how people could pray for him, and for the team at the Cathedral.

The interview begins 12 minutes 30 seconds into the video.

Fuel for your prayers.

Redeeming Time — an App you probably need

Andy Geers and his team at Discipleship Tech (think PrayerMate) have just released a new, free, app.

“According to some estimates, internet users spent an average of 2 hours and 22 minutes per day on social networking in 2019; and in the midst of a global pandemic that figure is only likely to have increased in 2020. But in that same time, you could read the entire Gospel of Matthew or the Acts of the Apostles. Even with just two minutes you could read the whole of 2 or 3 John.

Many of us are increasingly disillusioned with how social media is draining our time and attention. This week, Discipleship Tech launched a brand new app, Redeeming Time, seeking to change that and help us reset our relationship with our phones and reconnect with God through His word.

Just tell the app how long you’ve got, and it will recommend books of the Bible that you can read in that time. You can also scroll up for longer books and it will track your partial progress through them, letting you carry on where you got to last time. At six minutes per day you could read the whole New Testament in six months.”

A church for every kombini — Japan needs Jesus

“On our days off we’ll occasionally take a drive, usually to the seaside. It’s refreshing to go through the country, but also discouraging. As we drive through village after village, there is always a shrine or temple, but rarely a church. We see beauty, vigour and tradition, but we don’t see much hope of people coming to know Jesus in these towns.   

My family and I are part of a project to plant a church in Chiba City, the capital of Chiba prefecture, neighbouring Tokyo. We are patiently, diligently turning soil, preparing, hoping and praying for gospel growth. We dream of a vibrant, growing church in our city. We want to see new believers keen to share their faith, uninhibited and enabled for the task. …

We’re begging you to join us.”

– Helane and Adam Ramsay send encouragement – and a plea – from Japan. On the CMS Australia website.

Photo: CMS.

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