Morning and Evening by C H Spurgeon free audiobook

The free Audiobook from Christian Audio for January 2019 is C H Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening.

Available here.

Free digital downloads from Credo House

Credo House in Oklahoma City has made available (for a limited time – we’re not sure how long), free downloads of some of their audio courses. You’ll need to create a free account.

“The mission of Credo Courses is to produce the best courses using the best teachers in the world. With courses produced by scholars such as Gary Habermas, Doug Groothuis, Daniel Wallace, and Darrel Bock, Credo Courses has distributed millions of course downloads for people all over the world.”

Well worth checking out.

Religious sanctions and contempt of court

“The recent decision of the NSW Court of Appeal in Ulman v Live Group Pty Ltd [2018] NSWCA 338 (20 December 2018) raises important issues about the interaction between internal disputes within a religious community, and the ‘secular’ court system.

In this case a majority held that the threat of purely religious sanctions, to be applied if a dispute was resolved in the ordinary courts rather than in a religious tribunal, amounted to contempt of court, and imposed financial penalties on members of the tribunal.

Significant questions are raised as to whether religious groups are able to apply their own religious beliefs in disciplining members of their community, or whether these decisions will be over-ridden by the ordinary court system. …”

– Associate Professor Neil Foster highlights a recent court decision, at Law and Religion Australia.

Bible Reading Plans for 2019

Ligonier Ministries has assembled a list of Bible Reading Plans you can download as PDF files.

Of course, there are many phone apps to help you read the Bible (some free, and some paid). One such is Reading Plan on iOS.

The free iOS app BCP: Daily Office Readings is also worth checking out.

Be encouraged to read God’s Word in 2019!

Looking for a Saviour — Archbishop Glenn Davies’ Christmas message 2018

Here is Archbishop Glenn Davies’ Christmas message for 2018.

Short, to the point, and ideal to show in church or embed on your church website.

See also the story and text from SydneyAnglicans.net.

“The Anglican Archbishop of Sydney, Dr Glenn Davies, has paid tribute to lifesavers and bushfire fighters while marking celebrations for the birth of Jesus, the saviour.

Archbishop Davies annual Christmas message was released as preparations were being made for Christmas services to be attended by thousands of people across Sydney, the Illawarra and beyond.…”

The Christmas Preacher

“There are numerous benefits of preaching at Christmas. 

But Christmas preaching comes with particular challenges too. Here are some things to keep in mind …”

– Helpful reminders from Mike Raiter. (GAFCON photo.)

Ruddock Report response (part 3)

“In my former posts (here and here), O Friend of Law and Religion, I have dealt with all that the Ruddock Report covered in recommendations 1-12 and 15, along with the official Government Response to those recommendations.

In this post I aim to cover recommendations 13-14 and 16-20. These deal with important issues of the law of blasphemy and religious free speech, along with State discrimination laws, collection of data, education on religious freedom, the role of the Australian Human Rights Commission, and the exercise of leadership in the area by the Commonwealth. …”

– Associate Professor in Law, Neil Foster, has just posted part three of his response to the Ruddock Report.

He concludes, in part, “… my general response is that the Report is a sensible document which takes religious freedom seriously, and hopefully the actions promised by the Government will be implemented with due speed”.

What should I tell my kids about Santa?

In his “Ask Pastor John” podcast, John Piper offers an answer to the question, “What should I tell my kids about Santa?”.

“Are we misleading the children in telling them this story as a simple statement of facts?

The latest Fuel for Prayer from GAFCON

Here’s the latest Fuel for Prayer from GAFCON.

Ruddock Report summary and responses (Part 2)

“Following my previous post giving comments on Recommendations 1, 5-8 and 15 of the Ruddock Report and the Government Response, I will comment here on another set of recommendations (Recs 2-4, 9-12) and the likely outcome. Comments on recommendations 13-14, and 16-20, will (hopefully) be made in Part 3! …”

– More from Neil Foster at Law and Religion Australia.

The Ruddock Report has landed! (Part 1)

“The long-awaited Religious Freedom Review: Report of the Expert Panel (chaired by the Hon Philip Ruddock) has now been released publicly, along with the formal Government Response.

After the prior leaking of its 20 recommendations there were no major surprises as to the final conclusion, but there is much interesting background to the recommendations (and in one or two cases the full Report seems to have a significant impact on how one should read the language of the recommendations.) It is also important to see the announced intentions of the LNP Government as to how they will respond.

In this first post in response to the full Report I will comment mainly on recommendations 1 & 5-8 and recommendation 15, with the other recommendations to be left for part 2 or later. …”

– Neil Foster provides his first response, at Law and Religion Australia.

Nexus19 Conference set for March 25

Tony Payne explains why the planned date for Nexus19 has been changed to March 25th.

More details will come soon.

On choosing a Christmas diet

“Here is a scary question: in the average day, how much time do you spend thinking about food? As Christmas looms, most of us spend even more time than usual thinking about menus. Who and what will you serve this festive season? There’s endless inspiration to fill our thoughts on TV, Facebook feeds and as we chat to others.

We happily spend hours considering what to feed our bodies, but how much time do we spend thinking about what we are feeding to our souls?…”

– What will you feed yourself? Alice Brown reminds us what we need. At the ACR.

How to Evangelise Friends Identifying as LGBTQ

Rosaria Butterfield shares some ideas on sharing Christ’s love.

At the Gospel Coalition, (Link via Tim Challies.)

Biblical friendship (part 3): Cultivating friendship

“In part 1 and part 2, we looked at what a true friend is, and how Jesus is the ultimate friend. Now we’re going to think about how to cultivate biblical friendships through the lens of one of the great friendships recorded in the Bible: Jonathan and David.

We won’t look at their story in any depth here, but I’d encourage you to read it for yourself in in 1 and 2 Samuel. It takes place in the midst of royal jealously, violence and manipulation. You would not be remiss to mistake it for the plotline of a soap opera, probably The Bold and the Beautiful if I had to pick one.

Jonathan and David’s friendship faced great trials and tribulations. Jonathan’s father, King Saul, tried to kill David no fewer than eight times. Jonathan saved David’s life twice. Although their friendship was greatly threatened, it stood firm right up until Jonathan’s death. And their friendship affected how David lived out the rest of his life. …”

– Caitlin Orr concludes her series on Biblical friendship at The Australian Church Record.

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