Monthly Archives: September 2017

We are bombarded by people in our society who claim to be Australians—BUT WITH SOME QUALIFICATION attached. Examples that I have heard include: Lebanese Australian (choose from a multiplicity of countries), Indigenous Australian, right-wing Australian, socialist Australian, gay Australian, conservative Australian, etc, etc. At Glenelg Primary School in South Australia in the 1950s, we had all sorts of children attending. Jens Irmler’s father had been on a German U-boat, Ben Rubenstein was a Jew, Leon Haeft came from the Netherlands……

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In the last few weeks we have witnessed on television ferocious storms in the Carribean, huge floods in India, earthquakes in Mexico and huge numbers of people displaced in Myanmar. Millions of people have lost homes and livelihoods. Many are overcome by sickness, despair and hopelessness. Worst of all, so many lives have been injured or lost. How do Christians interpret these events? My answer is to say that we cannot be certain in our response if we want to…..

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How does the Letter of Jude concern the Christian church in the twenty-first century? The answer lies in two parts. First, Jude speaks to attitudes and behaviour that always have been, and always will be, part of the make-up of congregations that comprise the body of Christ on earth. That is because this body is comprised of sinful human beings. Like the human body, the body of Christ constantly suffers from germs, colds, and minor ailments, all of which are…..

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A recurring theme in the Bible is that God judges nations—whether or not they know or recognise him. God’s judgment may sometimes take a long time before its evidence becomes apparent. The Bible makes it clear that God regards everyone as being accountable to him. See Romans 2:14-15. Whether or not individuals or nations know the God of the Bible, everyone has a conscience to differentiate right from wrong, good from bad. The Book of Amos in the Old Testament…..

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I am thankful for …… The partner who hogs the covers every night, because he/she is not out with someone else. The teenager who is not doing dishes but is watching TV, because that means he/she is at home and not on the streets. For the taxes that I pay, because it means that I am employed. For the mess to clean after a party, because it means that I have been surrounded by friends. For the clothes that fit…..

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August 28, 2017 R Albert Mohler, Jr President, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary And how will they hear without a preacher?   Romans 10:14 Has preaching fallen on hard times? An open debate is now being waged over the character and centrality of preaching in the church. At stake is nothing less than the integrity of Christian worship and proclamation. How did this happen? Given the central place of preaching in the New Testament church, it would seem that the priority of…..

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Pierre Robert Olivétan, a cousin of John Calvin, wrote the first French translation of the New Testament in 1534. In the preface, John Calvin wrote: “When you hear that the gospel presents you Jesus Christ in whom all the promises and gifts of God have been accomplished, and when it declares that He was sent by the Father, and has descended to the earth and spoken among men perfectly all that concerns our salvation, as it was foretold in the…..

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The Book of Leviticus in the Old Testament describes the laws given by God to Moses for the people of Israel after God rescued them from the Egyptians. Much of this law reflected hygienic issues that modern medicine copes with efficiently. Some laws related to the sacrificial system instituted by God for the ongoing forgiveness of sins. Fortunately, the death and resurrection of Jesus is the perfect substitute for these imperfect rituals. Quite a deal of Leviticus deals with fairness…..

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