Review of J. C. Ryle, ‘Christmas Thoughts’
“J. C. Ryle was an unusual clergyman in that he could preach and write, and he could write in different styles while all the time being clear and engaging.
Andrew Atherstone has gathered and edited five of Ryle’s Christmas tracts written during the 1850s and 1860s, and published them for our benefit. …”
– Peter Barnes, Moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Australia, writes a brief review at AP.
From the foreword of the book:
“This little book contains five of Ryle’s most popular Christmas tracts, originally published during the 1850s and 1860s. They have not been issued in this Christmas form since they were first printed more than a century and a half ago.”
Christmas Thoughts is published by Banner of Truth.
New to Ryle? See –
His Sermons Roused a Sleeping Church – John Piper.
1 Timothy 2 and the scholarly debate
From The Pastor’s Heart:
“1 Timothy 2:8-15 might be the most controversial New Testament passage.
There has been an enormous amount of scholarly attention on this section of scripture, especially over the last few decades, and there are practical questions that we can’t ignore in church life.
Lionel Windsor is a New Testament lecturer at Sydney’s Moore Theological College. Lionel teaches the pastoral epistles to third year students. So is abreast of the scholarly debate.
Lionel gave a super helpful seminar a few months ago at the Priscilla and Aquila Conference held by Moore College. We have linked to that seminar and Lionel’s notes here.
What are the elephants in the room – Culturally, Philosophically, in Scholarship.
What are the issues of interpretation? How do we approach the passage?
What issues surround 1 Timothy?
What is the significance of ‘quietness’?, ‘let her learn’?, ‘to teach’?
What is the connection between teaching and authority?”
“The Surprising Genius of Jesus” — Peter Williams
Tyndale House Principal Peter Williams gives three lectures at the Southern Baptist Seminary.
The title for his talks, “The Surprising Genius of Jesus“, is drawn from his forthcoming book.
Fascinating and enlightening. Well worth setting aside the time to watch and listen.
A growing mission field: reaching South Asian migrants
From The Pastor’s Heart:
“How do we connect for Jesus with the largest group of migrants coming into Australia?
In just in the last few years, the group of Hindus migrating from India have overtaken China and the UK to become the largest constituency of migrants. …”
What I’d be reading right now (if it had come out before the extended version)
“You might be aware that a couple of years ago, Victoria passed laws to ban certain kinds of conversation about gender and sexual identity—and other states like NSW are considering following suit. The scope of Victoria’s laws goes far beyond the fringe practice called ‘conversion therapy.’ …
Why am I mentioning this? Despite what you might assume, I’m not just lamenting the madness of modern society or trying to stir up some conservative outrage. Instead, I’m mentioning it because I believe it’s essential to ask: Why? Why are we, in our Western world, in this situation? To be more precise:
Why are we in a situation where ‘sexual orientation’ and ‘gender identity’ are so central to our collective modern view of what it means to be a human being that it can trump biological reality and even a person’s own convictions?…”
– At The Australian Church Record, Lionel Windsor points us to a book which will help you understand why our culture is where it is now – so that “through God’s grace, we can proclaim the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ to real people in our world today”.
How we got the Bible: The story of Scripture
“Countless lives have been changed by the preaching of the word of God. Since human beings tend to look at the outside and not at the inside, we often attribute the power of this transformative teaching to the preacher. We all know on reflection, though, that the real power does not rest in humans but in God’s word itself.
Reading Scripture is the most immediate exposure to the word of God. In practice, this means picking up a physical book and opening it to a specific page, or opening up an app on our phones and scrolling to a specific location. In either case, we trust that the word has not been corrupted and that the message of the Bible we hold in our hands was not changed or lost altogether. We believe that we are reading the actual words that God spoke.
In what follows, we will think about what has gone before that moment when we open Scripture and read it. What happened to the Bible between the earliest times and the twenty-first century? How did God bring his word to us? The reverse of this question—how he brought us to his word—is part of our individual testimony. But the way in which God brought about the Bible is the story of his providence in history, played out over thousands of years. And by understanding what God had done over the ages, we will see that it is reasonable and justified to trust that the Bible in our hands is a translation of the trustworthy words of Scripture. We could talk about ten reasons why to trust the Bible. But it may be more effective if we understand the larger narrative of the history of the Bible. …”
– Dirk Jongkind, Vice Principal at Tyndale House in Cambridge, takes a long look at the story of how the Bible came to us. Very helpful and worth sharing.
Image: A 3rd Century fragment from Egypt, of Revelation chapter 1, in the Chester Beatty collection, Dublin. Photo with thanks to Kevin Murray.
This is the Word of the Lord
“Thanks be to God.
With great joy in his heart, a friend of mine recently shared with me about how his son became a Christian.
The teenager had been reading through the story of Achan’s sin (Josh. 7:1-26) at youth group and upon reflection on the nature of sin, had come to trust in Jesus for salvation. I was wonderfully surprised! Wonderfully, for the boy had made the most important decision of his life by believing in Christ. Surprised, because – somewhat to my shame – my initial impulse was to be surprised that the account of Achan’s sin could have been the instrument of his salvation. I think, upon reflection, that I had forgotten something significant about God’s Word: that it is good, all of it. But perhaps it is possible to forget the other good aspects of the Holy Scriptures too?…”
– At The Australian Church Record, Mark Earngey writes with great encouragement to treasure the Word of the Lord.
Your preaching is primarily for believers
“In certain circles, seeking to get unbelievers into church is seen as the highest possible goal. There is nothing better, according to some, when unbelievers come into the church and under the sound of the gospel. That, they aver, is what we ought to be about. At the risk of being deemed a contrarian, I just don’t think that is true.
What goes on inside the church is necessarily for the upbuilding of believers. The church is, after all, a gathering of believers. The world is not the church. What happens in the church is not primarily for the world. It is for believers.
This matters when it comes to our preaching.…”
– Here’s a short and encouraging article for preachers from Stephen Kneale in Oldham, Greater Manchester. (Link via Tim Challies.)
A heart for the persecuted Christian – with Dan Oli Shani
From The Pastor’s Heart:
“One in seven Christians are persecuted globally. That’s 360 million Christians who are denied access to jobs and education, are arrested, attacked, and even killed for following Jesus.
Worst effected according to the Open Doors World Watch List are Christians in North Korea, Somalia, Yemen, Eritrea, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan and Iran.
All that sounds so distant from the comfort of an armchair in Sydney.
Open Doors International is deeply engaged with ministry to persecuted Christians.
Open Door’s Global CEO is Dan Ole Shani from Kenya. Dan shares his pastor’s heart for the persecuted with Dominic Steele, and suggests ways forward.”
The Gender Revolution – with Patricia & Kamal Weerakoon and Rob Smith
From The Pastor’s Heart:
“What is meant by each of the terms biological sex, gendered behaviours or expressions, sexual orientation and gendered identity? How do the various terms relate?
We talk to former director of Sydney University’s Graduate Program in Sexual Heath, Dr Patricia Weerakoon, Rob Smith, who is head of doctrine at Sydney Missionary and Bible College and Rev Kamal Weerakoon, who has done masters studies in this area.
Rob, Patricia and Kamal are encouraging us to treat with love and compassion those with gender dysphoria or gender incongruence. …”
King’s Birthday Conference 2023 Talks now available
The first King’s Birthday Conference from Two Ways Ministries was held at Moore College on 12th June.
Peter Jensen spoke on True Government and Philip Jensen spoke on Long Live the King?
– Watch or listen to the whole conference via this link.
God’s goodness in 1 Timothy
“Paul’s first letter to Timothy is full of goodness. Terms for ‘good’ appear 25 times in the letter.
That should lead us to expect that 1 Timothy would bring us delight, joy, peace, and satisfaction in God’s goodness. But when we come to read or teach this letter, there’s often a measure of anxious apprehension. That’s because to our modern ears, some of the things Paul writes in 1 Timothy, especially about human relationships, sound naïve, harsh, or just plain bad.
In this short article, I want to help us to grasp the fundamental goodness of 1 Timothy. I want to help us to better know and share that delight, joy, peace, and satisfaction in God’s word and his world that resounds throughout the letter. Seeing this goodness in 1 Timothy can be challenging, as we grapple with our own and our modern world’s assumptions about what is truly good. But I’m convinced it’s worth the challenge. …”
– Here’s some great encouragement to read 1 Timothy – from Lionel Windsor at The Australian Church Record.
What is a Christian? — book by Dave Jensen
Here’s a new book by Dave Jensen which is worth checking out –
“What Is A Christian?” is a short book explaining Christianity and what it means to be a Christian.
This book can be read in one sitting and clearly explains why Jesus came, what he did and what it means for us today.
This book is great for churches to have on book stalls or to give away to new Christians or those seeking to learn more about Jesus and Christianity!”
Here’s the structure of the book:
Introduction: What is a Christian?
Part 1: God made it
What kind of life do you want to live?
God created everything
What does Jesus say?
Part 2: We broke it
What’s wrong with the world?
We’re to blame
Reality check
Part 3: Jesus fixed it
Why did Jesus live?
Why did Jesus die and rise from the dead?
The consequences of what Jesus has done
Conclusion: What is a Christian and how do you become one?
Copies also available from The Wandering Bookseller.
Preachers should be great storytellers
“Stories are captivating, inspiring, and memorable. Perhaps some of our greatest childhood memories are having stories read to us, and the privilege of parents, and grandparents to read stories to our children, to curl up with them, and do funny voices, and laugh along with them at the silly ones.
The Bible, is, in effect, a story.
Jesus told stories, he was the master story teller, bar none. …”
– At The Expository Preaching Trust, Jim Mobbs has encouragement for preachers.
A homiletical health check – the state of preaching in Australian Churches
From The Pastor’s Heart:
“We take a pulse check on the health of preaching in Australian Evangelical Churches with one of our leading preachers, from Melbourne’s Centre for Biblical Preaching, Mike Raiter.
Mike has just spent a few weeks surveying twenty different Australian Churches – watching their sermons online – and analysing them on type of sermon, biblical genre, who was being preached to, faithfulness to text, length of sermon, appropriateness of application, and how well the preacher addressed the heart?
Mike listened to ten evangelical Anglican Churches from across the country, and ten evangelical churches from a range of denominations from the Queensland capital Brisbane.
Mike’s detailed review of the sermons is published in the EFAC Evangelical Fellowship in the Anglican Communion Magazine, and shares his findings with us here.”
Fascinating and worthwhile discussion.
Preachers: Should you aim to make your sermon five minutes shorter? How can you better preach to the heart?
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…