Instant library: 22 free eBooks from R.C. Sproul
Posted on September 3, 2015
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From Ligonier Ministries:
“To further help Christians know what they believe, why they believe it, how to live it, and how to share it, in May 2013 we made the ebook editions of R.C. Sproul’s Crucial Questions series free forever. We continue to publish new ebooks in this series and this year have added Can I Lose My Salvation? and What Is the Great Commission?”
– Find them – for Kindle or iOS – at this link.
Packer on Preaching
Posted on September 3, 2015
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“When did you last hear a sermon that spent 50% of the time on application? J. I. Packer has insightfully analysed contemporary and historic approaches to preaching over his years as a pastor and scholar. In this featured article, drawn from the summer edition of Churchman, Benjamin Dean outlines Packer’s approach to preaching…”
– Today’s post on Church Society’s blog.
‘Tamworth’s Anglican Ministers take marriage equality concerns to Barnaby Joyce’
Posted on September 3, 2015
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“A group of Anglican church leaders from Tamworth have used a meeting with New England MP Barnaby Joyce to call for a balanced debate on same sex marriage…”
– Report from and audio ABC New England.
Rod Chiswell from St. Peter’s South Tamworth was interviewed – worth listening. (Photo: Barnaby Joyce Facebook.)
Church of England appoints third female bishop
Posted on September 2, 2015
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“No 10 Downing Street has announced this morning that Her Majesty The Queen has approved the nomination of the Venerable Christine Hardman … for election as Bishop of Newcastle…”
– Diocese of Newcastle (C of E). (h/t Anglican Mainstream.)
The visit of Dr Ryan Anderson
Posted on September 1, 2015
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“Dr Ryan Anderson is the William E Simon Senior Research Fellow at the Heritage Foundation in the USA and Founder and Editor of the online journal Public Discourse. Dr Anderson recently visited Australia … I attended his Sydney meeting held in the Strangers’ Dining Room at NSW Parliament House. …
Dr Anderson stressed the need to engage with our culture over the issue, saying that churches which had not done so in the US now regret their inactivity. Our pulpits, he said, are a place to inform congregations about what God says about marriage and they must not be silent.
I am a member of the pastoral staff of the Chinese Presbyterian Church in Sydney. At our recent staff retreat, we planned the preaching program for 2016. Unusually for a Chinese church we have dedicated three Sundays next year to preaching on what God says about marriage and sex. …
The need for Christians to engage their mind, to think clearly, faithfully and lovingly is always apparent but has never been greater.
In my next column I want to outline how we will preach the three week series and some useful resources to help preachers.
I urge you all to preach about this issue as a plebiscite/referendum is an imminent possibility and such a series on such a subject will always be helpful.”
– Presbyterian Moderator-General, David Cook, with an exhortation to all Christians, and especially to Pastors. (Image: St Helen’s Bishopsgate.)
Bishop John Harrower reflects on 15 years in Tasmania
Posted on August 31, 2015
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The Diocese of Tasmania is preparing to elect a new Bishop on 27-28 November. Nominations closed on Friday.
Last month, in an interview with Dean of Hobart, Richard Humphrey, Bishop John Harrower reflected on his 15 years as Missionary Bishop of the diocese.
Related:
A prayer of thanks – Bishop John’s blog.
My intention to retire – Bishop John’s blog.
“Following much prayer and consultation with family, senior colleagues and close friends, I believe God is leading me to draw my ministry as the 11th Bishop of Tasmania to a close mid-September.”
Please pray for the churches of Tasmania as the election synod draws near.
The Word: One to One
Posted on August 31, 2015
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The Word: One to One evangelistic resource is now available in Oz. The idea is simple:
“Many people are totally ignorant as to what the Bible really says. The Word One to One is a resource that helps you walk through John’s Gospel with your friends. As you turn over the pages with them they’ll see what the Bible says about who Jesus is, and what He came to do.”
Read about it at their website – and watch the video intro by Rico Tice.
Available locally from Matthias Media.
Thomas Cranmer and the fear of death
Posted on August 28, 2015
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“On 21st March 1556, Thomas Cranmer, was marched out to Oxford’s University Church.
However many thousands of services he had attended in over twenty years serving as Archbishop of Canterbury, this was to be his last. Condemned as a heretic, he was to be burned, like so many of his protestant colleagues and friends under the short but bloody reign of Mary. A small cobbled cross on Oxford’s Broad Street still marks the spot to this day…”
– For Church Society’s Formulary Friday, Sam Brewster draws us to consider the ninth Homily, ‘An Exhortation Against The Fear Of Death”.
My Bishop, a liar and a schemer
Posted on August 28, 2015
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“The latest biography of the late B.A. Santamaria, by Gerard Henderson, records an interesting incident.
Santamaria had cooperated with the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne, Daniel Mannix, to see the successful establishment of the Democratic Labor Party in Victoria, but had less success with the church’s Sydney hierarchy…”
– Presbyterian Moderator-General David Cook on the foundation of the Christian faith.
Schools, same sex politics and religion in NSW
Posted on August 27, 2015
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“So there is no doubt the film is ‘political’, as dealing with a matter of highly charged debate in the Federal Parliament and in the public sphere. Yet the school was proposing to cancel classes and direct all students to attend, while also encouraging (if not directing) all of them to wear the colour purple as a mark of support for homosexuality…”
– at Law and Religion Australia, Associate Professor in Law, Neil Foster looks at the controversy over the planned screening of a film at Burwood Girls’ High.
Related:
Gayby Baby imbroglio – Denials, fear and a lack of tolerance – Miranda Devine, The Telegraph, 28 August 2015.
“A department spokesperson was quoted in The Guardian on Wednesday, saying: ‘The school has not received any complaints from Burwood High School parents.’
That just wasn’t true…”
Redefining Sex & Marriage: talks available
Posted on August 27, 2015
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At Moore College’s Centre for Christian Living, the topic discussed on Wednesday night was “Redefining Sex and Marriage: how to think, live and speak as Christians when the world heads in a different direction”.
Sandy Grant and Tony Payne both gave addresses, and there was a question time.
The event was fully booked out, so we are grateful that the talks have now been made available online.
Ashley Madison and the Death of Monogamy
Posted on August 27, 2015
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“I wrote an essay on Ashley Madison as ‘Adultery Incorporated’ back in 2011, after Bloomberg Businessweek published a cover story on the business. Back then, it was clear that many people saw Ashley Madison as a joke. No one is laughing now…
Given the numbers involved, the exposures are likely to hit nearly every community, millions of families, countless churches, and just about every major corporation and institution…”
– Albert Mohler on the sobering story of Ashley Madison.
And Village Church in Annandale is offering hope to locals:
“Annandale has 455 Ashley Madison accounts according to the Sydney Morning Herald, which the newspaper describes as being 6.27% of the postcode …
If you are struggling, either you have hurt someone or been hurt, and you would like to see if it’s possible to fix things with God and your spouse then it’s possible we can help.”
‘NSW Education Minister bans school from screening gay film’
Posted on August 26, 2015
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“Public pressure appears to have forced a Sydney girls’ high school to screen a documentary on gay parenting after school hours, instead of during scheduled lesson time…” – Report from The Sydney Morning Herald. (School flier here. PDF.)
8th Planned Parenthood video + resources
Posted on August 25, 2015
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“C. S. Lewis once wrote in the preface to the Screwtape Letters,
The greatest evil is not now done in those sordid “dens of crime” that Dickens loved to paint. It is not done even in concentration camps and labour camps. In those we see its final result. But it is conceived and ordered (moved, seconded, carried, and minuted) in clean, carpeted, warmed and well-lighted offices, by quiet men with white collars and cut fingernails and smooth-shaven cheeks who do not need to raise their voices.
He could have been writing about Planned Parenthood and StemExpress.
Today (August 25, 2015), The Center for Medical Progress released its eighth video using undercover footage exposing the reality of what goes on behind these closed clinical doors…”
– At The Gospel Coalition, Justin Taylor has a description of the video, plus some resources for healing.
Bishops call for ‘climate justice’
Posted on August 25, 2015
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“Several bishops around the Anglican Communion have made short videos describing the impact and implications of climate change in their dioceses and calling for prayer and action…”
– Bishops call for ‘climate justice’.
(Photo: Bp Tom Wilmot, Diocese of Perth.)
Related:
“The Primate of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, Archbishop Thabo Makgoba, has called on Anglicans everywhere to join Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Lutheran and other Christians in a World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation on 1 September…” – The Anglican Communion News Service.
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…