Are you feeling inadequate?
Posted on February 4, 2021
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“In these days of lockdown livestreams it’s easy to feel inadequate. I’m not surrounded by a gifted staff team with abundant technical resources or an attractive online presence. It’s not hard to feel inadequate when people can tune in with ease to a more exciting online service with a more prestigious preacher (and nobody will ever notice they’re missing a Sunday morning). In my pride I feel inadequate and ashamed of it…”
– At Church Society’s blog, Simon Donohoe shares some encouragement for us all.
Gafcon’s Lift Up Your Hearts Devotional
Posted on February 4, 2021
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GAFCON is now publishing podcast versions of the Lift Up Your Hearts Devotional each weekday.
Dustin Messer in Dallas, Texas, is contributing the devotions in February 2021. You can read or listen to them here.
The audio is also available on Apple Podcasts.
Each runs for 3 or 4 minutes.
When Victoria Becomes Babylon
Posted on February 3, 2021
Filed under Australia, Culture wars Comments Off on When Victoria Becomes Babylon
“A few short years ago almost everyone would be shocked to learn that praying for a person who asks for prayer would be considered illegal activity and lead to 10 years in prison.
That is the situation facing Victorians.
This is not hyperbole. This isn’t exaggeration. Next week the Victorian Legislative Council will vote on one of the most extraordinary pieces of law ever proposed in our nation’s history.
Imagine an Australia where two people are having a conversation about life issues and they are trying to encourage and persuade one another. The police are called, one person is taken away and charged because they sought to persuade the other with the Bible’s view of sexuality. …”
– Published a few days ago, Murray Campbell in Melbourne writes a ‘must read’ post about the legislation before the Victorian Legislative Council.
See also:
Victoria’s Conversion Practices Bill is as bad as they say it is – Assoc Prof Neil Foster at Law and Religion Australia.
Liberal rift deepens over bill banning gay conversion therapy – The Age, 01 February 2021.
Canadian Anglican archbishops sign anti-conversion therapy declaration – Anglican Journal, 03 February 2021. (Note the varying definitions used.)
Love, grief and identity
Posted on February 3, 2021
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“You learn a lot about what a person meant to you when they’re taken away. Separation magnifies all the intricate and beautiful nuances of what you had, and absence pries open memories that may have lain dormant for years. Songs, sights, smells. The faintest hint evokes a cascade of reminiscence. …”
– At The Australian Church Record, Scott Millar has been sharing some very personal reflections on grief and the Christian. Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.
The truth about secularism – with Rory Shiner
Posted on February 2, 2021
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“Christianity in Australia is in decline. The narrative is we had a few golden years at the start, where 96% of the population identified as Christian, but that has been on a gradual decline for decades.
But if that’s the case:
– Why does Christianity in Australia go up, not down, after Darwin?
– In Australia, why does it go up after WWII?
– If the Church was so strong in the middle ages, why was church attendance so sketchy then?
This week, Rory Shiner joins us to discuss the ways that modern understanding is wrong about secularism. Rory believes we’ve accepted a narrative that isn’t true, and are making massive pastoral and missional mistakes because of it. …”
– A challenging and encouraging episode of The Pastor’s Heart.
Continually trying to improve your prayer life?
Posted on February 2, 2021
Filed under Encouragement, Theology Comments Off on Continually trying to improve your prayer life?
“How is your prayer life going? Many of us feel this part of our faith lives could improve for a variety of reasons, but the Rev Stephen Shead says not all of these reasons are good. …”
– Here’s some encouragement for you, via SydneyAnglicans.net.
A conversation with Dr. Carl Trueman on the modern self and the sexual revolution
Posted on January 31, 2021
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“Like all historical phenomena, the sexual revolution didn’t cause itself. It arose out of a set of cultural and social conditions that were already in place. For ideas like gay marriage or transgenderism to be acceptable and plausible in society, a whole host of other ideas must have already been given authority, become plausible, become accepted by that society.
The story in my book looks at how the ideas that made the sexual revolution plausible, even desirable, emerged in the West. …”
– Carl Trueman speaks about the topics covered by his new book (The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self) with Jason Thacker.
Also see these reviews of the book.
“I believe in the Holy Spirit”
Posted on January 29, 2021
Filed under Theology Comments Off on “I believe in the Holy Spirit”
“Two years ago, while preaching through Deuteronomy and the instruction given there for Israel’s calendar, I was convicted of the usefulness of having times in our church year, where we remember God’s great saving acts and rejoice before him—celebrating his kindness to us in Christ.
It would give a pattern to our year and make prominent what was core in our confession of Christ, and would help us remember, and not forget, that we are the Lord’s people, saved by His grace to live for Him.
We already celebrated Christmas and Easter. What would we add? It was a no brainer: Pentecost, the coming of the Spirit on the first disciples recorded in Acts 2; an event of fundamental importance to the individual and collective life of Jesus’ followers. …”
– Moore College graduate, and Minister at Bundoora Presbyterian Church in Melbourne, Neil Chambers, writes the next article in the series commissioned by The Gospel Coalition Australia on The Apostles’ Creed.
Restrictions easing for churches, with promise of more
Posted on January 27, 2021
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“The New South Wales Premier, Gladys Berijiklian, has announced that caps on numbers at church services have been eased, although the 4m2 rule is still in force.
The Premier has announced the easing will take place on Friday, 29th January. …”
– Report from SydneyAnglicans.net.
The Year of the Un
Posted on January 27, 2021
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“2020 has been the year of the Un. The unusual, the uncommon, the unparalleled, the unprecedented.
Hope springs eternal and we now enter a new year, 2021, which promises to be the year of the Re. The recovery, the restoration, the renewal, the revival.
According to one of my grandchildren, when asked which Bible book would be best to preach in the year of the Re, she suggested the book of Revelation – a good idea but not what I had in mind. …”
– At The Expository Preaching Trust, David Cook suggests preaching through Acts. He gives four reasons why this would help.
Related:
David spoke about preaching through Acts in this Preaching Matters video from St. Helen’s Bishopsgate.
“A rare opportunity to show God’s love… in very special and practical ways”
Posted on January 26, 2021
Filed under Sydney Diocese Comments Off on “A rare opportunity to show God’s love… in very special and practical ways”
“His Christian faith and a family experience of dementia first drew Dr Stephen Judd to the field of dementia care. He has now been made a Member in the General Division of the Order Of Australia (AM) in recognition of his work. …”
– At SydneyAnglicans.net, Russell Powell reports on Sydney Anglicans who were honoured this Australia Day.
Abortion – The Central Sacrament of the Political Left
Posted on January 26, 2021
Filed under Culture wars, Opinion Comments Off on Abortion – The Central Sacrament of the Political Left
“This past Friday, January 22, 2021 marked the forty-eighth anniversary of one of the darkest days in the history of the United States. Forty-eight years ago, the Supreme Court handed down the decision known as Roe v. Wade, and abortion on demand was effectively legalized throughout the nation.
Since that time, it is estimated that more than 62,000,000 unborn babies have died from abortions. When Roe turns fifty in 2023, those numbers will be even higher. It is hard to think of numbers on this scale, especially when we are talking about the loss of human life …
the last forty-eight years have also revealed that abortion has become the central sacrament of the political left in the United States. This is evident in a tweet issued by President Joseph Biden on the forty-eighth anniversary of Roe. He stated: ‘As we mark the forty-eighth anniversary of Roe v. Wade, now is the time to rededicate ourselves to the work ahead…’ ”
– Albert Mohler comments. Read it all.
Appalling famine in Madagascar set to worsen
Posted on January 24, 2021
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“When the Rev Berthier Lainirina called the Archbishop of Sydney’s Anglican Aid from Madagascar in November, he had just heard that five family members of one of his friends had died of starvation, and 200 people had died in his village.
Since then, if it were possible, the situation has deteriorated. …”
– At SydneyAnglicans.net, Russell Powell has the story – and a link to where you can do something to help.
‘In some instances … feticide is undertaken’
Posted on January 23, 2021
Filed under Australia, Culture wars, Opinion Comments Off on ‘In some instances … feticide is undertaken’
“I wrote in November about the Liberal Bill before the parliament here in Adelaide which seeks to make lawful the killing of a foetus right up to the time, and immediately after, his or her birth. The upper house has already passed it. The lower house will vote on the February 3.
Since I first wrote of the bill, an anonymous someone in the Attorney-General’s Department or Health Department has distributed to MPs a document explaining how the Bill the department has drafted will operate.
This is question and answer #5 in that government publication:
Q: What happens in later term abortions?…”
– Retired Federal Circuit Court Judge Stuart Lindsay writes in Quadrant Online about a vile abortion bill. Important, though distressing, reading.
Also read the earlier article with its challenge to the churches.
(Photo: Stand for Life rally, Sydney, September 2019.)
Related:
‘Catholic’ Biden marks Roe v. Wade anniversary with pledge to make abortion available for ‘everyone’ – LifeSiteNews.
Remember our Chains
Posted on January 23, 2021
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“Across a wide swath of the world — from North Africa to North Korea, from Central Asia to Central Africa — ‘the persecuted church’ is simply ‘the church.’
These believers — like first-century Christians in a twenty-first-century world — live, serve, and witness in the face of hostility, and remind us of our roots.
And if the opening decades are any indication of things to come, this century promises to exceed the persecution of Christians of the last bloody century.…”
– Tim Keesee, founder of Frontline Missions International, describes the state of the persecuted church today. At Desiring God.
See also:
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…