Earlier I reported that there was no sermon for today, due to a software problem.
When I turned on the computer for tonight’s service, Audacity started with a message, “Hey I’ve recovered that sermon you thought you lost.”
So we now have the prodigal sermon on our web-site. Click here to listen
The sermon for February 23rd was not able to be recorded due to a software problem.
Sorry!
Our society is now so far removed from its christian roots that basic Biblical teaching is deemed offensive. I wouldn’t have given “Revolve” to primary school children, but there s far more explicit stuff in “Dolly” and “Girlfriend”.
Victoria is further down the slippery slope than New South Wales but we can’t be far behind. When Bibles in a traditional format where distributed to Year 6 students in Narrabri a few years ago, some parents were outraged.
From the ABC:
Victoria’s Education Department has launched an investigation into what it calls inappropriate and offensive religious material distributed at a primary school.
The ABC understands religious educators handed out material at Torquay College last year that instructed children to seek counselling if they had homosexual feelings.
The material also claims that girls who wear revealing clothes are inviting sexual assault and that masturbation and sex before marriage are sinful.
The so-called Biblezines were given as graduation gifts as part of a program run by the state’s Christian education provider Access Ministries.
Naja Voorhoeve, whose seven-year-old child received the material from an older student, says special religious instruction (SRI) providers should be banned from public schools.
“If the SRI providers were prepared to breach our trust in this matter, you have absolutely no idea about the other things that they’re doing, about instances in other schools where this material might have been handed out,” she said.
“My personal position is that SRI volunteers should not be allowed in schools because their programs cannot be adequately monitored.
“What they do is not part of the curriculum… so they’re basically let in on their own.”
The department says it has launched an investigation into the material and the actions taken by the provider.
“The materials are totally inappropriate and offensive and have no place in our schools,” it said in a statement.
“The department has scope to review the accreditation status of providers once are investigations are complete.”
Access Ministries has been contacted for comment.
The Greens sure are committed.
Last week in the Senate they tried and failed to remove the Lord’s Prayer from parliament.
Since 1901, the prayer has been recited at the start of each sitting day in the senate and house of representatives by the president and speaker respectively.
A group of committed pray-ers is always present in each chamber. No one is forced.
Australia did not become what it is in a vacuum. Christianity had a profound impact on the development of western institutions, including parliament.
While not everyone in Australia is Christian (although more than 60 per cent tell the census they are), nothing changes the fact that Christianity made a significant contribution to making Australia what it is today.
It is a simple fact that Christianity is part of our cultural heritage in a way that other religions are not. That is no disrespect to them. The ethics and ideas of other religions simply did not have the same impact on the formation of western values and the Australian nation.
As the pre-European peoples of this land, indigenous people, are of course a huge part of our cultural heritage. Recognition of their cultural heritage is also acknowledged in parliament each day and that is fair enough. The Greens have not sought to remove this.
Most of us would condemn the cutting down of a 113 year old tree, but when it comes to our cultural heritage the Greens are happy to fell any vestiges of the values of our past.
Greens Senator Richard Di Natale cites the separation of church and state for wanting to remove the prayer.
This misunderstanding of the concept is becoming wearisome. The Greens and others who abuse this concept are attempting to cloak their secularism in neutrality and objectivity, but in reality seem to be excluding Christianity in order to substitute their own secular irreligion.
Australia was founded with the principle of separation of church and state but it was never meant to keep religious ideas, people or even prayers out of public life.
It was simply to ensure that Australia, unlike Britain, did not have an established church constitutionally entwined with the state.
The idea was for all religions to be allowed to flourish without any being favoured by the state.
Read the rest here
Australian missionary arrested in North Korea: “The answer is to be found in Jesus Christ”
From Eternity Newspaper
NEWS | Guan Un
Thursday 20th February 2014
An Australian missionary, John Short, has been arrested and detained in North Korea under allegations of possessing religious material. If found guilty, he could face up to 15 years imprisonment.
John is originally from South Australia, but has worked in missionary service and printing of Christian literature in Asia for fifty years. He is married to Karen, and has three children.
He was part of a larger tour group, but was detained separately, when it was found that he was allegedly in possession of Christian tracts translated into Korean.
North Korea is a notoriously difficult place for both missionaries and North Korean Christians. As we reported earlier in the year, North Korea was listed at number 1 on the Open Doors 2014 World Watch List as the most dangerous country in the world for Christians to openly practise their beliefs. It is estimated that some 50,000 North Koreans are in prison camps because of their Christian faith.
Eternity talked to Merv Knight, who has worked closely with John on the mission field for over twenty years. When we called, Merv said that he had just got off the phone with Karen, and had received a text message from John the day before his arrest.
“He’s one of those people who took the attitude that if people say you can’t do it, then it needs to be done.”
Merv told Eternity that he met John in the early 90s, and that John has always had a “burden” for the places that it was the most difficult for the gospel to go—to China, Burma, Vietnam—which was why he went to North Korea.
“He has a burden for North Korea, which he sees as one of the most difficult countries in the world when it comes to presenting the gospel, and a country that has a terrible human rights record, as came to light just this week.
“He’s one of those people who took the attitude that if people say you can’t do it, then it needs to be done.”
The possibility of a successful diplomatic resolution to the arrest is potentially difficult, as Australia has no official diplomatic ties to North Korea. Australian interests in North Korea are currently channeled through the Swedish embassy. In a previous case, US Missionary Kenneth Bae was arrested in November 2012, and is currently serving a 15 year sentence of hard labour, despite his public appeals to US diplomatic relations.
However, Merv said he believed that, while John and Karen would love continuing support in prayer, John would remain resolute in the face of his arrest.
“I have the greatest confidence in John that he will be somebody that will be very hard to intimidate in any way, and he will stand up for what he believes in,” Merv says.
“His feeling will be ‘Here I am, so God has put me here, so I have to use this opportunity.’
“He will refuse to deny his faith, no matter what treatment he may face, and use the opportunity wherever he is, and to tell others that, in his view, the answer is to be found in Jesus Christ.”
– See more at: http://www.biblesociety.org.au/news/australian-missionary-arrested-north-korea-answer-found-jesus-christ#sthash.A43jLUqk.dpuf
NEWS | Guan Un
Thursday 20th February 2014
An Australian missionary, John Short, has been arrested and detained in North Korea under allegations of possessing religious material. If found guilty, he could face up to 15 years imprisonment.
John is originally from South Australia, but has worked in missionary service and printing of Christian literature in Asia for fifty years. He is married to Karen, and has three children.
He was part of a larger tour group, but was detained separately, when it was found that he was allegedly in possession of Christian tracts translated into Korean.
North Korea is a notoriously difficult place for both missionaries and North Korean Christians. As we reported earlier in the year, North Korea was listed at number 1 on the Open Doors 2014 World Watch List as the most dangerous country in the world for Christians to openly practise their beliefs. It is estimated that some 50,000 North Koreans are in prison camps because of their Christian faith.
Eternity talked to Merv Knight, who has worked closely with John on the mission field for over twenty years. When we called, Merv said that he had just got off the phone with Karen, and had received a text message from John the day before his arrest.
Merv told Eternity that he met John in the early 90s, and that John has always had a “burden” for the places that it was the most difficult for the gospel to go—to China, Burma, Vietnam—which was why he went to North Korea.
“He has a burden for North Korea, which he sees as one of the most difficult countries in the world when it comes to presenting the gospel, and a country that has a terrible human rights record, as came to light just this week.
“He’s one of those people who took the attitude that if people say you can’t do it, then it needs to be done.”
The possibility of a successful diplomatic resolution to the arrest is potentially difficult, as Australia has no official diplomatic ties to North Korea. Australian interests in North Korea are currently channeled through the Swedish embassy. In a previous case, US Missionary Kenneth Bae was arrested in November 2012, and is currently serving a 15 year sentence of hard labour, despite his public appeals to US diplomatic relations.
However, Merv said he believed that, while John and Karen would love continuing support in prayer, John would remain resolute in the face of his arrest.
“I have the greatest confidence in John that he will be somebody that will be very hard to intimidate in any way, and he will stand up for what he believes in,” Merv says.
“His feeling will be ‘Here I am, so God has put me here, so I have to use this opportunity.’
“He will refuse to deny his faith, no matter what treatment he may face, and use the opportunity wherever he is, and to tell others that, in his view, the answer is to be found in Jesus Christ.”
– See more at: http://www.biblesociety.org.au/news/australian-missionary-arrested-north-korea-answer-found-jesus-christ#sthash.A43jLUqk.dpuf
NEWS | Guan Un
Thursday 20th February 2014
An Australian missionary, John Short, has been arrested and detained in North Korea under allegations of possessing religious material. If found guilty, he could face up to 15 years imprisonment.
John is originally from South Australia, but has worked in missionary service and printing of Christian literature in Asia for fifty years. He is married to Karen, and has three children.
He was part of a larger tour group, but was detained separately, when it was found that he was allegedly in possession of Christian tracts translated into Korean.
North Korea is a notoriously difficult place for both missionaries and North Korean Christians. As we reported earlier in the year, North Korea was listed at number 1 on the Open Doors 2014 World Watch List as the most dangerous country in the world for Christians to openly practise their beliefs. It is estimated that some 50,000 North Koreans are in prison camps because of their Christian faith.
Eternity talked to Merv Knight, who has worked closely with John on the mission field for over twenty years. When we called, Merv said that he had just got off the phone with Karen, and had received a text message from John the day before his arrest.
Merv told Eternity that he met John in the early 90s, and that John has always had a “burden” for the places that it was the most difficult for the gospel to go—to China, Burma, Vietnam—which was why he went to North Korea.
“He has a burden for North Korea, which he sees as one of the most difficult countries in the world when it comes to presenting the gospel, and a country that has a terrible human rights record, as came to light just this week.
“He’s one of those people who took the attitude that if people say you can’t do it, then it needs to be done.”
The possibility of a successful diplomatic resolution to the arrest is potentially difficult, as Australia has no official diplomatic ties to North Korea. Australian interests in North Korea are currently channeled through the Swedish embassy. In a previous case, US Missionary Kenneth Bae was arrested in November 2012, and is currently serving a 15 year sentence of hard labour, despite his public appeals to US diplomatic relations.
However, Merv said he believed that, while John and Karen would love continuing support in prayer, John would remain resolute in the face of his arrest.
“I have the greatest confidence in John that he will be somebody that will be very hard to intimidate in any way, and he will stand up for what he believes in,” Merv says.
“His feeling will be ‘Here I am, so God has put me here, so I have to use this opportunity.’
“He will refuse to deny his faith, no matter what treatment he may face, and use the opportunity wherever he is, and to tell others that, in his view, the answer is to be found in Jesus Christ.”
– See more at: http://www.biblesociety.org.au/news/australian-missionary-arrested-north-korea-answer-found-jesus-christ#sthash.A43jLUqk.dpuf
Scripture
“Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
Observation
In the past, people decided that “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” was an acceptable level of revenge, but amongst people of the Kingdom forgiveness and non-retaliation are the rules. Go further than you have to in order to bless even those who are against you.
We must love our enemies and pray for our persecutors in order to be true sons and daughters to our Father. If we love only those who love us there is no virtue- anyone can do that. No, we are to be perfect like our Father.
Application
The desire for revenge runs deep in the human soul. The law of “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” was meant to out a cap on revenge by stating that we can go so far and no farther.
Jesus tears all of this up by commanding us to love our enemy and extend grace to those who hurt us.
This is a radical extension of the idea that God will judge all people and so we do not have to. We offer no retaliation, just blessing.
Prayer
Lord, this is a hard command to put into practice. Grant me grace to bless those who cause me pain. Amen.
Scripture
Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?
Observation
Paul compares himself to an expert builder who lays a foundation for others to build upon. What we build on that foundation will be tested by fire on the Day of the Lord.
We are God’s temple and God’s Spirit dwells in us. No more boasting about men and who we follow! We don’t have to be divided by personalities and celebrities. We have all things in Christ.
Application
As followers of Jesus we are all meant to build on the work of Christ. The extent to which we build in the strength of the Holy Spirit determines the value and longevity of what we build.
Many people are building for themselves or in their own strength or giftedness. They are like people building with straw. It will just disappear when examined on the fiery day of judgement.
We, the people of God, are God’s temple being built in Him and for Him. As we invest our time and energy in the things of God, He builds His presence in us.
Prayer
Show me Lord how to invest myself in your kingdom. May I build with gold, silver and precious stones. Amen.
From news.com.au
Accused … suspects in an alleged internet porn operation cover their faces at the Cybercrime division of the National Bureau of Investigation in Manila. Source: AP
GOVERNMENT agents have raided an internet child porn operation based in a Philippine school and arrested its president and eight other people, investigators say.
The suspects used a room at the Mountaintop Christian Academy to post online images and video of children and adults for foreign consumption, said Ronald Aguto, cybercrime investigation head in the National Bureau of Investigation.
Authorities were still investigating, but Mr Aguto said it didn’t appear that children at the school were being abused and that the operators were uploading prerecorded images and video stored.
The school had 2000 elementary and high school students, Mr Aguto added. Its licence was revoked in 2006 for unknown reasons but it had remained open.
Puring Martinez, the arrested president and owner of the private school, told GMA television network she rented out the room to the internet site operators to augment the income of the school because fees paid by students were not enough to cover costs.
The site … Thomas Vincent Martinez, son of the president of Mountaintop Christian Academy, talks on the phone outside the room where an alleged internet porn operation rents space.
She said she believed that the internet links sold could only be opened by foreigners and that the links led to “naughty” materials.
Ms Martinez’s son, Tom, said the school had only 260 preschool, elementary and high school pupils, and that their permit to operate was valid. It was not clear why there was a discrepancy with the NBI information.
He said the internet operation was owned by an American from Tennessee, who rented two rooms for 40,000 pesos ($1000) in a bungalow separate from the classrooms but within the school compound. All of the suspects arrested are Filipino, and the American’s whereabouts were not clear.
The raid shows the extent of the task facing Philippine authorities in cracking down on child pornographers, who exploit weak law enforcement and increasing broadband internet access to base operations in the country.
Raid … Philippine government agents have raided an alleged internet child porn operation based in a school and arrested its president and eight other people.
Gilbert Sosa, director of the national police’s Anti-Cybercrime Group said last month the Philippines was one of the top 10 sources of child pornography in the world, and that police have been cooperating with other countries to crack down on it.
Two other internet porn operations in Quezon City were raided Monday night. At least 22 people were arrested in those two raids and more than two dozen computers seized.
Aguto said they have yet to conduct a forensic investigation on the seized computers, but based on what they have gathered so far, the suspects will be charged with violating laws against child pornography and obscene publication of adult pornographic images.
More than 40 computers were seized as evidence during the raid late Monday at the school in Metropolitan Manila’s Muntinlupa city.
School investigated … an employee comes out of Mountaintop Christian Academy where government agents have raided an alleged internet porn operation.
“It was like a computer lab inside the school,” Mr Aguto said in a telephone interview. “Even during daytime, when the pupils were there, they were using it for this kind of offence.”
He said the site operators worked day and night, chatting online with clients and pretending to be women or girls depending on what the client wanted. They would then upload pictures and prerecorded video of a nude girl or woman they claimed to be.
Last month, Britain’s National Crime Agency said child abuse investigators in Britain, the US and Australia had dismantled an organised crime group that streamed footage of child sexual abuse. The ring abused impoverished children as young as 6, the agency said. Authorities made 29 arrests, including 11 people in the Philippines who had facilitated the crime. Some were members of the children’s families.
Who changed things from the vibrant, Spirit-empowered “by life or by death” faith of the New Testament to today’s spineless home-and-garden Sunday-morning religion?
Who changed things from “Leave everything and follow Me” (see Luke 14:33) to “Pray this little prayer and you’re set for eternity”?
Who changed things from “All who live godly lives in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution” (see 2 Tim. 3:12) to “Ask Jesus into your heart and enjoy a comfortable life”?
Who changed things from a fearless proclamation of the truth, whatever the cost or consequences, to a watered down, compromised message that is afraid to offend anyone?
By what authority, by whose decree, based on what new revelation have we so blatantly departed from the faith of the apostles? Who changed things?
Who changed things from the New Testament faith, where even the disciples couldn’t minister without the Spirit’s enduement, to today’s version, where whole ministries are run with hardly any evidence of the Spirit’s work?
As A.W. Tozer once said, “If the Holy Spirit was withdrawn from the church today, 95 percent of what we do would go on and no one would know the difference. If the Holy Spirit had been withdrawn from the New Testament church, 95 percent of what they did would stop, and everybody would know the difference.”
This remains true of most of the contemporary church in the West.
Who changed things from a God-centered faith to a man-centered faith, from “Take up your cross and deny yourself” to “Bypass the cross and empower yourself”?
Who changed things from holiness being beautiful to holiness being bondage, from the early church being known for its high standards to the contemporary church being known for its scandals?
Who changed things from the people of God being a threat to the powers of darkness to the people of God being active participants in darkness?
In the early church, Paul instructed the Corinthians to separate themselves from people who claimed to be believers but were living in outward, unrepentant sin (1 Corinthians 5). Today, some of those people lead our churches and preach from our pulpits. Who changed things?
Who changed things from a faith that was so focused on the life of Jesus and so infused with the reality of His death and resurrection that no sacrifice was considered too great and no act of service considered too extreme—to the contrary, suffering for Him was considered a privilege (Matt. 5:10-12; Acts 5:41; Phil. 1:29)—to today’s convenience-store Christianity, where we have to “sell” salvation to the sinner by spicing up the deal with perks and benefits?
When did Jesus stop being enough?
When did obedience become an option?
When did keeping God’s commandments out of love for Him become “religious” (in the negative sense of the word)? Didn’t Jesus say that if we loved Him, we would keep His commandments (John 14:15, 21)?
Who changed things?
If we belonged to another religion that claimed to have other books that supplemented the Bible or traditions that superseded it, that would be one thing.
But we don’t. We believe the Scriptures alone are God’s Word and that nothing that comes after the Scriptures—no tradition, no alleged revelation, no consensus—can undermine or countermand the written Word of God.
So, who changed things from the biblical version of the Jesus faith to the modern American version?
We can debate church history and blame this group or that group, and we can point out what’s wrong with this denomination and that denomination. We might even have some great historical and contemporary insights.
But unless we get back to believing what is written and acting on what is written, we will continue to perpetuate our merry-go-round Christianity with lots of noise and action and bells and whistles but with little authority, little purity and little effect (if any).
I didn’t get the memo that God’s Word and Spirit were not enough, and I’m far more concerned with what He says than with what the latest polls say.
Really, now, since when did the Lord command us to fashion our preaching and our style of worship and even the way we look based on what’s trending?
If some church leaders choose to trust in worldly business models and carnal consulting firms, that’s their choice. I say that we go with the power of the name of Jesus and the wisdom of the Word of God and the fullness of the Spirit. I say that we go with the New Testament model, applied with boldness and with compassion to the needs of the day.
Years ago, Leonard Ravenhill said, “One of these days some simple soul will pick up the Book of God, read it, and believe it. Then the rest of us will be embarrassed.”
I want to be that simple soul. How about you?
Scripture
“Speak to the whole assembly of Israel and say to them: `Be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy.’ “
Observation
This chapter consists of various laws and commandments. Some of them are about how to bring sacrifices to the Lord. Others talk about personal relationships. Still others talk about living justly in a civil society and how to treat neighbours.
Application
God does not divide our lives into sacred and secular. Every part of our life is meant to be holy and dedicated to the Lord.
This means that I must worship God with integrity, being attentive to the kind of worship that pleases Him.
I must also honour family members and treat other people with respect and consideration.
Over all of these things is love for my neighbour. That means letting go of offence for the sake of the Lord.
Prayer
Forgive me Father for any time when I have separated a part of my life as mine and not yours. Help me to live with love and integrity in all I do. Amen.
New Life Narrabri 