Eternity - September 2013

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NUMBER 40, SEPTEMBER 2013 CIRCULATION 100,000 ISSN 1837-8447

For those who’ve come across the seas

...we’ve boundless plains to share. Asylum seekers have been a difficult issue in the election for many Christians searching for a party to vote for. This man is one boat person most Christians will welcome to Australia. He’s from West Papua.

More on page 6

AUSSIES REVEAL...HOW I READ THE BIBLE

GRACE: A PRECIOUS WORD

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SEPTEMBER 2013

OPINION

Obadiah Slope Hold the front page: “‘Nothing unfair about private briefings’, say fundies” screamed the cover of The Financial Review. “Ignorant journos,” thought Obadiah. “Don’t they know that the name of the evangelical magazine is The Briefing (singular) ... and they’re not fundamentalists?”

Actually I didn’t think that. I guessed it was sort of financial. ‘Fundies’ are apparently fund managers. I doubt that you would see that headline in The Wall Street Journal.

They’ve already got one ... or two ... or five: “Subscribe to Christianity Today and receive a free Bible!” says the popup for the Christianity Today website.

But wouldn’t people likely to subscribe to a Christian magazine already have their own Bibles? Or is there a Bible drought in the US that we have not heard about?

Glued to the set: Total viewers for The Bible series on Channel Nine? Over ten million, or just under a million on an average night.

Tim Costello When you read this, the Federal Election will be almost come and almost gone, and it is worth reflecting on how the church can engage in the political process during the next three years.

Fear was a major driver in the election campaign. It is easy to succumb to the politics of fear when it is the prevailing mood in the electorate. However Christians are called to live by an alternative politics. We are to embody the politics of hope and love.

This is what the first Christians did.

Living under the oppression of Roman imperialism, they lived lives of such hope and love that they couldn’t help but impact their culture. By caring for abandoned children and sharing their possessions with those in need, they embodied the kind of politics we all want to see in the parties we vote for.

Jesus, of course, stood as the prime example. John 18 describes what is probably the most highly-charged political scene in the gospels. ‘Are you the king of the Jews?’ is a very political question (Jn 18:33). Two people representing opposing kingdoms are in faceto-face conflict. The political overtones of this speak loudly.

When the church lives out its claim that Jesus is Lord it is being overtly political. How should we confess our ultimate allegiance to Jesus, his kingship and to the political dimensions of what his kingdom means? What is our prophetic role? These are gospel ques-

“Are you the king of the Jews?” is a very tions for the church. political Politics is about handling the comof how people live together. question plexities That’s why it overlaps so profoundly

with the gospel. It goes to the heart of how God wants us to live together.

What is God’s intention for this world?

What type of kingdom does Jesus call us to? There are all sorts of parties that Christians will vote for in the election.

Whatever our political differences, the main witness we have is that Jesus is

Isaac Joo

Evolved: Charles Darwin’s granddaughter Laura Keynes has evolved into a passionate apologist for Catholicism.

She counts economist John Maynard Keynes as her great-great-uncle and holds a doctorate from Oxford University in philosophy, according to the National Catholic Register. While she was at university new atheism took off, with Richard Dawkins leading the charge.

“I expected to be moved from agnosticism to atheism by their arguments, but after reading on both sides of the debate, I couldn’t dismiss a compelling intellectual case for faith. As for being good without God, I’d tried and didn’t get very far.”

Post-election questions worth asking

Lord. That is what unites us. When we submit totally to Jesus as Lord of our politics, economics, morality and everything else, we—like the first Christians—will have an impact on our culture that will provoke people to ask why we live this way (1 Peter 3:15).

The gospel calls us to an alternative politics. It calls us to a politics of hope and transformation that allows the world to find fullness of life. Not just for the present, but for eternity.

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SEPTEMBER 2013

NEWS

An Aussie tool for Aussie Church Planters Charity law update Mark Hadley

In Broken Hill, church planters Matt and Kylie Letcher can feel a thousand miles away from the sort of support the average Australian ministry couple might take for granted.

It makes them all the more thankful for the Geneva Push assessment process they went through long before their car stirred up its first cloud of red dust.

“It was really holistic,” says Kylie. “It covered so many things that Australian church planters have to prepare for, and it forced Matt and I to really reflect on what it was we were planning to do.”

‘Assessment’ has become the buzz word for would-be church planters with American studies demonstrating that ministries that have a rigorous, independent evaluation before they begin, stand a much higher likelihood of surviving the first three years. But many of the processes currently offered to Australian planters are simply clones of American tools.

Hoping to better serve couples like the Letchers, Geneva Push has commissioned Lifeway Research’s internationally respected missiologist Dr Ed Stetzer to create the first truly Australian assessment tool.

“A church plant needs more than a good leader, it needs a good plan,” says Dr Stetzer. “This research seeks to provide church planting organisations in Australia with a tool that provides a solid initial indicator of a potential planter’s readiness for church planting and their probability of success.”

Dr Stetzer says Australian denominations and independent church planters cannot afford to rely on American programs and hope they will do the job.

Matt Letcher and his daughters (Natalie & Katie) at Broken Hill.

“ A church plant needs more than a good leader, it needs a good plan.”

“Australians are not just Americans living in Oz,” he says. “When you have a significant shift in context you have to validate that the tools are actually measuring things that matter in your new culture.”

Geneva Push general manager Scott Sanders oversees Australia’s largest, non-denominational church planting network. He regularly flies across Australia to meet potential church planters.

Having assessed 85 potential planters over the past three years, he says he can understand why putting people through the right assessment process is so important.

“It’s a lot of work for them. It’s also

the tension between wanting to plant and not wanting to be told ‘this might not be for you’ or ‘wait a while’,” says Sanders. “We’re looking hard at their character, their plans, their knowledge and spiritual gifts—we care about planters and their families—so we want to make sure they’re getting the best assessment available.”

Which explains why Sanders is so keen to get his hands on the Australiaspecific assessment tool, along with a list of prominent denominations that are co-funding the research.

“Crossover Australia (Baptist Churches), Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches, Evangelism and New Churches (Sydney Anglicans), the Vineyard Churches and the ASAP Committee of NSW Presbyterians are all investing in the study,” Sanders reports.

In Broken Hill, Matt Letcher says he’s glad to see Australian church planting growing in maturity.

When he and his wife decided to take on Saltbush Evangelical Church they were glad they’d been asked to think through issues they had not thought about themselves. “We really benefited from Geneva’s help, and we’d encourage people to persist with an assessment,” Matt says. “It can feel like a huge amount of work but articulating the things you have to do really forces you to reflect on your plans, and highlight issues before they become a problem.”

Lifeway Research’s initial findings on the marks of Australian church planting success and failure will be released at Geneva Push’s annual national conference in December this year.

Geneva Push and its partners hope to be using the new Australian church planting assessment tool next year.

Mark Fowler Director, Neumann & Turnour Lawyers, and Professor Myles McGregor-Lowndes, QUT Religious institutions, educational institutions and health and welfare providers have been affected by recent reforms.

1. For the first time in Australian history we now have a government regulator focused solely on the charity sector, the Australian Charities and Not-forprofits Commission (ACNC).

2. The Federal Government introduced five new governance standards which commenced on 1 July 2013 for most charities. The standards introduce the new prospect that an institution may lose its charity status (and its associated tax exemption or deductibility endorsement) if it breaches the standards, including where it fails to prevent its directors from breaching their obligations.

3. Charities with the exception of “basic religious charities” (a defined term), are now required to submit an Annual Information Statement (AIS) that is made publicly available on the ACNC register—some by December 2013.

4. The Government has legislated a definition of charity which is to come into effect on 1 July 2014.

5. Religious institutions which have to date considered that they were not required to be registered as a charity in order to be exempt from taxation or to gain a fringe benefit tax rebate will now need to register with the ACNC by 3 December 2013 to gain that status.

(Want more help? Read the full article here: biblesociety.org.au/ACNC)

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SEPTEMBER 2013

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Plunge into our Gap-Year Morling College’s gap-year program, PLUNGE is an exciting year of spiritual engagement, learning and discipleship for 18–23 year olds. Throughout the year, students and coaches journey together through academic learning, spiritual reflection, mission in our neighbourhoods and overseas, worship, ministry, prayer and community.

PLUNGE offers a year of learning, living, laughing and loving. It offers a year of life and ministry experience, community engagement with ‘big’ issues, foundational Bible training, the opportunity to complete a Certificate IV in Ministry, and much more. Intentional discipleship is at the core of PLUNGE and is present in all we do in order that PLUNGE participants continue to be transformed into the likeness of Christ (2 Cor 3:18).

Cherry Johnson, a 2013 Plunge student, reflects on her learning as we enter Semester 2: “It is amazing how quickly the time has gone. And not only because of how bizarre it is to look back to that first week, when I sat amongst a group of strangers (people whom I have now come to love), but because of the way that when I pause, and see what we have really experienced this semester, my mind is still blown. As I think to each Community Engagement Day, to each class, I am overwhelmed with gratefulness for the way in which PLUNGE has opened my eyes, stretched my heart, and expanded my mind, that we may be ‘transformed by the renewing of [our] minds’ (Rom 12:2) — though of course there is still far more to see, feel and learn.

“PLUNGE offers a year of learning, living, laughing and loving.”

Pip Berglund is the Director of Plunge.

This learning has only come with great disorientation. And this disorientation has been found everywhere—on the streets of Woolloomooloo, in the pages of the Old and New Testaments, under the domed roof of the Baha’i Temple, in the pain of another human being’s story, and in the knowledge of great brokenness and injustice in our world. As the weeks have passed, we have heard from a navy chaplain on war and peace, a human shield in Iraq, an environmental advocate, Micah Challenge, Sydney Alliance, and pastors working in areas of amazing cultural diversity. We have spoken with people who sleep rough, heard stories of

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incredible hardship faced by refugees, tried new cuisines in Lakemba and Cabramatta, experienced the gentle and loving hospitality of church families in Bathurst, and had the opportunity to share coffee with the community within Macquarie Housing Estate.

I can say with confidence that Jesus hasn’t disappointed. For as surely as disorientation has come, the sometimes elusive, though always present, kingdom of God has followed. Where we have seen isolation in the tall, run-down buildings of Northcott (an inner-Sydney housing estate), for example, we have also seen community and compassion. I have almost always seen God’s kingdom most clearly in the people of great passion and dedication whom we have met in their various ministries as they humbly serve God. Again and again I have been both inspired and challenged by those who, within their own communities, have imitated Jesus himself, who, ‘became flesh and blood and moved into the neighbourhood’ (John 1:14, MSG).

As I think over this semester, what else, apart from the glorious and surprising kingdom of God, can describe both the opportunity to share communion with some of those sleeping rough in the community of Woolloomooloo —one of the best experiences of church I’ve ever had—as well as the beauty of the countryside the PLUNGE group travelled through on a weekend road trip? With each place that we visit, I am able to cling to the assurance that God is alive working within the world, reconciling it to himself, and inviting you and me to be part of this ministry of reconciliation just as we are told in 2

Corinthians 5:17–19: ‘Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them.

And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.’”

As we prepare for an exposure trip to Thailand, we are even now getting ready for finding God at work in the communities there. For close to three weeks, the students are plunged into experiencing God and his mission within the Thai context. Throughout our time in Thailand we will have opportunity to observe, support and participate in the work being undertaken by Global InterAction Missionaries across Thailand, including teaching English to Thai students and Buddhist monks, running programs for local children and youth, visiting people affected by HIV/AIDS and other illnesses, as well as sharing testimonies and devotions ‘so that all people may know of [God’s] mighty acts and the glorious splendour of [his] kingdom’ (Ps 145:12).

PLUNGE is about equipping young leaders and calling a generation to dynamic faith, radical lifestyle, and adventurous mission born out of an understanding of our identity in Christ as people freed to serve one another humbly in love (Gal 5:13). Applications for PLUNGE 2014 are available for download on the Morling website www. morlingcollege.com and are being accepted now.

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SEPTEMBER 2013

5

The resurrection – standard hero equipment Mark Hadley Usually the scene involves two figures wrestling desperately near the edge of a menacing cliff, a figure caught in a hail of bullets or maybe a gigantic fireball of an explosion; in the best films, all three. One moment our hero is fighting for salvation; the next second he is gone. “Dead? He’s dead?!” we cry. Then, for the millionth time since Cecil B. DeMille was a boy, the camera focuses in on that lonesome cliff edge … and a grimy hand struggles back over the edge of the abyss. A moment later, the weary, triumphant face of our hero follows.

He—or she, when Sigourney Weaver is involved—is back from the dead.

Welcome to the resurrection, Hollywood style.

The release of the latest X-Men instalment The Wolverine has introduced us once again to this script staple. In the leadup to the film’s climax, Hugh Jackman’s Logan finds himself laid out in a medical facility, reaching into his own chest cavity to tear out a metallic bug that’s attached itself to his heart. He manages to kill the creature but the flatline on a monitor informs us his heart is no longer in the job. But there are still 30 minutes left in the film, so you can imagine what happens next. The twitch of a finger; the bleep of a machine. Just when all hope seems lost Logan is back

in the fight, better and badder than ever. It’s hardly surprising, because even though we come from a wide range of ethnicities and backgrounds, human beings have always longed for a hero who knows how to defeat death.

Death is Hollywood’s greatest villain, giving the measure to its heroes and appearing in a dozen guises every time we go to the cinemas. He could be President Snow trying to kill Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games, the virus that sweeps the planet in World War Z, or even the classic cowled figure who stalks teenagers in Final Destination. Whatever Death figure the hero confronts, it will represent the end of a way of life, happiness, and hope. Death is the ultimate villain because Death is the ultimate full stop.

But have you ever wondered why as a species we’re not content to leave it there? Hollywood tried to make Death attractive in the evolution-driven movie Creation but it was a flop. We can’t accept that the final curtain should come down with the hero in the grave; that’s why trendy anti-endings are so disturbing. We hunger for a resurrection moment, and most films oblige.

Sherlock Holmes reappears just when we thought he’d joined Moriarty in a watery grave. Harry Potter stands up just when we thought Voldemort’s curse had done him in. This month Channing

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Tatum will emerge from White House Down’s biggest explosion, and Ryan Reynolds won’t let a little thing like a bullet to the head get in the way of solving crimes for RIPD. The same reason accounts for all of these: the true hero always finds a way of evading Death.

This is the resurrection moment, and the best ones offered by the big screen don’t just benefit the hero. Indiana Jones climbs back over the cliff to save Willie Scott; Gandalf returns from the beyond to rescue Middle Earth. It’s not enough for the hero to defeat Death. We expect their return will have life-giving implications for everyone associated with them.

Sound familiar?

The stories we entertain ourselves with aren’t just ways to wile away the hours. For millennia the humble story has been the preferred method for passing on truths that undercut ethnic and cultural differences. These story truths resonate with audiences all over the planet because they reflect the God who designed us to be part of a much larger tale. If you like, the best elements of the

We hunger for a resurrection stories we tell each other today are the moment, thousand fractured pieces of a mirror that reflects the greatest story every and most told—not the George Stevens classic, but the great story of God’s redemption films of the world through Jesus Christ.

If all creation, ‘… waits in eager exoblige. pectation for the children of God to be revealed,’ and longs for its liberation ‘… from its bondage to decay’ (Rom 8:1921), is it any wonder that all culture in some way echoes that resurrection longing?

Admittedly Wolverine rising to save his partner Yukio from death is a pretty dull reflection of the life offered to the world through Jesus’ resurrection. But the real wonder is not that we regularly see Hollywood’s heroes rising to defeat Death. It’s that in the wake of that one history-changing event we still refuse to see they’re pointing us back to the real hero.

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SEPTEMBER 2013

TRAVEL

Thanks for my trip Sarah Brittain GodSpeak Advocate Sarah was part of a team sent to Mozambique by Bible Society Australia.

Father God, you are so good to me!

Thank you for this time in Mozambique, for what you have shown me about the world and about you. Thank you for going before me: I have had to lean on you more than ever before.

Thank you for being faithful and true!

Bible Society here has so many amazing projects, and I have seen how you are using these programmes to build the church body, through your Word.

Even when I would travel for hours in a bumpy truck to get to remote churches, many people attending the Bible literacy classes would have walked that far or longer!

Please help me remember this and rejoice in what you have given me.

To see the gospel transforming lives as they learn to engage with it has been incredible— despite little pastoral training and resources, you use it all for your glory!

The testimony of Rita Matondo, the former witchdoctor, brings me to tears when I recall how the gospel transformed her life forever.

In Mozambique, there is such a hunger for you, God, and the response of these people to you is humbling. Jesus, never let me forget my need for you, and let the joy and truth of your gospel compel me to share it across the world!

A horizon of hope in a sea Sophie Timothy Somewhere in the Gulf of Carpentaria, wind and waves lash against a handmade wooden boat. Forty-three West Papuan faces stare into the ocean, terrified and freezing, their tears mingled with prayers of desperation. They haven’t eaten anything or tasted fresh water for days. Now at night, they sit upright, packed together like cargo on what was supposed to be a short ride to freedom. There is no room to lie down, no opportunity to sleep. Calm will come in the morning, but morning is a long way off.

Among them is 15-yearold Danny Merdeka* and his 11-year-old brother. For months they have fasted, praying to God this boat would take them to Australia safely. Each plank of wood was hand-shaped, moulded into place by them and their friends. But this boat is getting them nowhere. For six days they have drifted with a broken engine. And yet, for six days they have sung, prayed and cried out to God like never before.

But on the sixth day they saw something in the distance.

“We saw some land, and when we came closer, red sand along the beach,” says Danny. “We didn’t think of Australia like this. It was so cold at night we thought maybe we’d drifted past

Australia to Antarctica, and perhaps around the globe to the US. “But when our boat landed on the beach and we saw beer cans with the words ‘Made in Brisbane’ on the side we knew we’d made it to Australia.”

Having grown up in West Papua under Indonesian rule, Danny Merdeka witnessed fighting between the indigenous people and the military. He’d heard the screams, the gunshots and the wailing. He’d seen friends taken away by the authorities for political resistance. And then one day his father came home and told him that he and his little brother would be leaving West Papua.

“He said, ‘You have to go to Australia.

First, to let people know about what’s happening here, and second, for your future–you can find a good life and good opportunities there.’”

Along with 41 other West Papuans, Danny and his brother set out for Australia. Having heard the journey would take six hours, Danny grabbed a few packets of biscuits and some drinks to last the short boat ride. When the engine broke down and the group were left drifting north of Australia for six days, Danny didn’t think he would survive, but it became clear his faith would.

“Death was on my mind,” says Danny.

“I said to my brother, ‘I’m really sorry.

This is the most stupid decision we have made.’ But during that journey, everyone prayed, sang, and worshipped God. “I’d been brought up in a Christian

family, but back then I didn’t have a really good relationship with God. I didn’t really experience my relationship with God until I got on the boat with my other 42 friends.”

After being picked up by Customs on the crocodile-infested Cape York Peninsula, the group were taken to Christmas Island. Here, minors were allowed to live in community housing, while those over 18 were sent to detention. Danny started to learn English, attend church, play soccer and get used to the Australian way of life.

But it was on Christmas Island during a routine medical check that doctors discovered Danny had throat cancer. It needed to be operated on immediately, in Perth. The doctors tried to explain, but without good English comprehension and not wanting to make a fuss, Danny just nodded. It wasn’t until he was in the operating theatre and doctors were trying to anaesthetise him that he realised what was going on.

“I saw the doctors in their scrubs and I thought, ‘This is like a movie, I’m going to have surgery.’ I didn’t realise until that point,” he says. “When I went to sleep I thought I was dead. I thought, that’s it, no more Danny.

“There was a massive light above me in surgery, and when I was about to wake up I thought I was in heaven, the light was so bright.”

It wasn’t until two months later, with an interpreter present at a medical

West Papuan refugee Dann

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“I didn’t really experience my relationship with God until I got on the boat with my other 42 friends.”

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Danny Merdeka*

ny* back home in Wamena at a cave he used to walk around as a child.

check-up, that he finally understood what he’d been diagnosed with.

“I was shocked and surprised when I realised what cancer was and that most people die. But I didn’t even go through chemotherapy. It was amazing.”

After his stay in Perth, Danny was taken to Melbourne to be resettled under a Temporary Protection Visa (TPV).

There he was reunited with his brother, placed with a local family and enrolled in an English language course, followed by high school. It was during this time he started to attend St Hilary’s Anglican Church in Kew, where he still goes.

“Even before Year 12 my teachers suggested I shouldn’t be at school—that I should go out and work because my background wasn’t the same as Australian kids. And I said to them, in faith, I came from West Papua to Australia and almost died and this is only VCE. Bring it on! They laughed at me and I said, ‘Just wait and see.’”

Danny did make it through VCE, as well as an Advanced Diploma of Aerospace Engineering, which has led into a Bachelor of Aeronautical Engineering.

Remarkably, Danny’s also been cleared of cancer, and lives independently with his younger brother in Melbourne.

When he’s not studying, working in a local pizza shop, teaching Sunday school or broadcasting his West Papuan community radio show, Danny is helping his younger brother with his VCE study.

His brother is hoping to study architec-

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Danny comes from a large, closeknit family, but until last month, the 23-year-old had never been back home.

He hadn’t planned to go back to his home town—it was too dangerous, and his emotions too strong—but while in Indonesia on a mission trip, the thought of his family only a few islands away weighed heavily on his mind.

“I just couldn’t not go. I was so close, I felt bad that I wasn’t going home to my family. So I decided to go,” he says. And so it was that last month, Danny met his three and four-year-old brothers for the first time.

“When I arrived at the house I just screamed, ‘I’m home!’ and I asked, ‘Where’s Andrew and Jackson?’ I could see their heads peeking above the windows. When I came into the house they ran into their rooms, giggling. They looked at me and asked, ‘Who are you?’

I said, ‘It’s Danny, your brother!’”

Back home in West Papua, Danny says he felt free for the first time. Free from fearing what might happen if he went back, and free in his faith.

“When I went back I felt like Australia has everything, West Papua has only very little. But in faith, West Papua has so much and Australia so little. West Papua is spiritually rich and Australia is spiritually poor. I feel so blessed to be in the middle.”

Asked his opinion on the Labor Government’s ‘PNG Solution’, Danny, who

came to Australia without the assistance of people smugglers feels ambivalent.

“I’ve got two views on this. It is a good way to stop people smugglers, because the smugglers get a lot of money and lie to people. People have to pay so much to them. It’s a good way to stop them.

“But on the other hand, it’s really bad, because there are some West Papuan refugees who live in PNG and even though they’ve been living there for years and years, they don’t have residency or citizenship and are treated as foreigners there. Even though we are Melanesian brothers and sisters, they’re not treated well. So for people who aren’t Melanesian to be sent there, I’m not sure how they will go.”

It’s now been eight years since Danny left his home to seek political asylum and a new life in Australia. He’s received a new life, but what he didn’t expect was a newfound faith.

“God has planned this. I never thought about coming to Australia, or imagined myself sitting here talking to you. But everything that’s happened to my brother and myself it’s all been done with a prayer.

“That’s what my family is like. If you pray, that’s your weapon. So is your Bible. Wherever you go, that’s your weapon. From this journey I’ve learned that God is always with me and he never leaves me alone. He’s there for me all the time and I believe that.” *Not his real name.

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SEPTEMBER 2013

First things first How ordinary Australians read their Bible Josh Dubya Stephen Terry

First and last thing I do

Reading the church year

Joining the 5AM club

Marjorie Theng, hairstylist, NSW First thing in the morning, after getting dressed up and feeling refreshed I do my daily online reading with the Reformation Study Bible by R.C. Sproul which covers the whole Bible in one year. Then just before I go to bed at night, I do the evening reading. This helps me start and end my day with God’s word on my mind. I find the references and readings very comprehensive, and not too long or too short.

Sometimes daily devotions can be too light and at other times too heavy to understand. I do not have much time in the mornings, so this is just perfect.

Andrew Robinson, Assistant Minister, ACT I’ve recently discovered the lectionary: that complex and comprehensive pattern of Bible readings mapped onto the church’s year. For a long time, I was all about spontaneous Bible reading—not quite ‘open-the-Bible-and-point’—but I had the sense that if I wasn’t choosing the readings, there was something inauthentic about the whole thing.

But the further I get in my Christian walk, the less happy I’ve been with my own idiosyncratic Bible-reading strategies. I’m actually really enjoying reading the same passages as many other Christians around the world (although, let’s be honest: days have been missed.)

Things I love about the lectionary: you read through the rhythm of the church year—through Lent and Advent—and are reminded of all sorts of biblical heroes and antiheroes. You’re regularly immersed in the voices of the biblical writers, and you’re constantly praying and reading the Psalms. Plus you don’t have to worry about choosing what you’re going to read—open up to today’s date, work out if it’s morning or evening and you’re ready to go.

Naomi Johnson, home-schooling mother of four, NSW I get up at 5am to get some time before my four kids wake up, grab a cuppa, tiptoe around the house and sit in the lounge room. I read the Bible through in chronological order each alternate year, and the other year, I select a book each month and read repeatedly. I am reading through Jeremiah at the moment (what a message!). I have a notepad where I write the ideas and verses that jump out at me, the overall idea and think about how it connects to Jesus and then through him to me.

I have a prayer notebook too. Firstly I pray for what the passage has brought up. I search my heart for things to be confessed and I pray for any people the Lord brings into my mind. Then I pray through my prayer list. There are some people that are always on the list, and there are people that pop on the list as they have particular needs. Sometimes I then listen to a worship song, or listen to a sermon podcast or take the dog for a walk (or all three), but at the moment, one of the kids is usually awake and so the rest of my day begins. I hardly know what to say to describe how God is changing me through this, because the growth, insight, and change in me has been far-reaching and massive. The best thing about it is the true joy there is in knowing God. And there is nothing in my life that is not affected by that.

Transforming my mind daily

Peter Gene

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Leland Fr

Matt Prater, pastor at New Hope Brisbane, and Vision Radio Breakfast Host, QLD I have a daily reading plan, which the New Hope churches and many others worldwide follow. Doing daily devotions repatterns the way we think and transforms the spirit of the mind. Then when we face similar situations as Jesus did, we begin to respond in the same way.

Journaling is an excellent way to record and process what God has spoken to us. Without writing them down, you may forget those blessings and important lessons! You may want to share some of your journaling with your small group or mentors. Through discussion, you may be able to look deeper into what God is saying, gain new insight and encourage others.

S for Scripture: Open your Bible to the reading found under today’s date of your Bible bookmark. Take time reading and allow God to speak to you. Look for a verse that particularly spoke to you that day, and write it in your journal.

O for Observation: What do you think God is saying to you in this scripture?

Ask the Holy Spirit to teach you and reveal Jesus to you. Write this scripture down in your own words.

A for Application: Personalise what you have read, by asking yourself how it applies to your life now. Perhaps it is instruction, encouragement, revelation of a new promise, or corrections for a particular area of your life. Write how this scripture can apply to you today.

P for Prayer: This can be as simple as asking God to help you use this scripture, or it may be a greater insight on what he may be revealing. Remember, prayer is a two-way conversation, so be sure to listen to what God has to say!

Now, write it down.

BRIEFS

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Really Big Bible Six metre long guides to the ‘big story’ of the Bible have been developed by the schools group Christian Education National. It also features almost 20 consistent, recurring, unifying grand themes that act like foundations for the great construct that is the Bible.

Help put Christianity on TV Christian Television Australia has begun a crowd-funding campaign to help raise funds to produce a program for the Seven Network for

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Christmas 2013. “We have commissioned Australian Christian Multimedia, who produced our Easter show last year to produce our program for the Seven Network,” said Martin Johnson, CEO of CTA. Crowd-funding raises money usually via the Internet. “We’re launching this project on the Pozible website,” said producer Phil Smith. “Not everyone can go out and make a television programme, but here’s a chance for anyone to contribute.” www.pozible. com/awisemantv

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I begin by kneeling Margaret Purton, church volunteer, SA I do my devotional reading straight after I get up, before breakfast. I begin by kneeling and briefly praying; kneeling is the way I acknowledge God is greater than me. I ask for concentration and teaching. I always read through a whole book of the Bible, not random or isolated passages. Reading a whole book puts what I am reading in its context, and this gives me better understanding.

I read one or two chapters, ask myself questions and write down any thoughts.

I try to read the whole Bible every 12-18 months, though not necessarily in order from Genesis to Revelation. I always feel it is a shame after gaining so many insights to not read that same book again within a few years, otherwise I will forget many of the wonderful thoughts. Through reading the Bible regularly, I am reminded afresh of who God is and who I am. It puts daily life into proper perspective. I meet Jesus in the words of the Bible—they are truly living words that touch my heart. I can never come to the end of knowing God, so there is always the possibility of seeing something else about his nature.

The more I read, the more I see the unity in the whole Bible: his judgments, his grace and mercy are on every page.

Bishops Lutherans have joined the Anglicans and Catholics in using the term “bishop” for their leaders. Rev John Henderson, 56, is the fifth national leader for Lutherans in Australia, who have been lead by ‘presidents’ since they amalgamated into one church in 1966.

Bibles from Broken Bay “It is a pleasure for the Diocese of Broken Bay to be able to contribute to the May They Be One programme, actively distributing Bibles

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My tip: read the whole book Bert Bain, Retired church minister, NSW My first readings of the Bible were from beginning to end. There were passages that I did not understand but I was determined not to give up. This introduced me to God, and His requirements and expectations of His people: all people have the freedom to submit to God, or remain in ignorance regarding this present life and the life to come. I discovered such great men as Abraham, Moses and David had times of doubt and failure. To become a follower of Christ, I saw the need to study the life of Christ. Jesus is the only way to heaven, and Jesus is the one who exemplified how to live in this confused and distorted world. In recent times, I have conducted specific, topical searches of the Bible, as I find this very beneficial when witnessing to those unfamiliar with the word of God. ‘…It is written.

Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.’ (Matthew 4:4)

throughout the Philippines,” says Bishop David Walker of the Catholic Diocese of Broken Bay. He was handing over a $10,000 cheque from the Catholics who live in Northern Sydney and the Central Coast to Bible Society Australia.

Rapid growth After launching in Melbourne’s City Centre in February this year, Hillsong now has four campuses across the city.

Lead pastor Joel A’Bell told Eternity he is excited about the number of new people they’re seeing in their campuses.

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SEPTEMBER 2013

Bible bafflers to bust (or blow) your brain!

God Always Keeps His Promises - Just Trust Him God saved Noah and his family when everyone else was cruel and violent. God made a promise that never again would the world be destroyed by flood.

In Numbers 23:19 we read: ”God doesn’t tell lies or change his mind.

God always keeps his promises.“ The Bible is full of God’s promises.

Finish colouring the rainbow, a symbol of God’s promise to Noah and his family.

(See Genesis 9:8-17)

a Abraham obeyed God. He left for e aus bec n see er country he had nev ised prom God God told him to go. that the whole world would be blessed through Abraham.

What did Abraham have? out.

Use the first letter of the pictures to find

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(Hebrews 11:9)

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Every child needs God’s Word.

Help children in Rwanda get a Bible! www.biblesociety.org.au/rwanda

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8. What promise did God make to David that led to God refusing to destroy Judah? (2 Kings 8:19)

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and brave.

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ABRAHAM N G P W N S S ANNA COMMANDED Q J E R C M A COURAGEOUS T O R H O L O DAVID E S A Y M M S JOSHUA KEEP M H I K M K I LAND P U N I A O N LORD MOSES L A B B N I S NOAH E L O N D N O OBEY PROMISE K A W H E N L RAINBOW M N N L D A SARAH V SIMEON C D B N D P R PROMISE O B E Y A N Z TEMPLE

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Quick Quiz

Abraham’s descendants became slaves in Egypt but God didn’t forget his promise to Abraham.

It took 400 years but God rescued his people from slavery through Moses.

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When David became king he built his capital city and a magnificent temple in the land that God had promised Abraham all those years ago.

And there are promises still yet to be fulfilled.

God has promised us a new heaven and a new earth, where justice will rule.

2 Peter 3:13 God kept his promise to

But what about the whole world being blessed through Abraham?

When a young woman became pregnant with God’s son, this was a fulfilment of God’s promise - the promised Messiah had come, a descendant of Abraham.

Matthew 1:23 & Isaiah 7:14

______

and

Looking for Bible-based, relevant, engaging lessons for kids aged 4-12 years.

____

GodSpace is the answer! www.godspace.org.au

that they would see the promised Messiah.

Read Luke 2:28-30 and Luke 2:36-38 to find out who they were.

Who is the one who gives us strength to cope with life?

Only colour in the following letters: S W E J V U X

Bible Society Australia and GodSpace working together. Next Wild Bible issue December 2013

Make sure you check out

www.wildbible.org.au for the answers & more about the Bible!

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SEPTEMBER 2013

OPINION

A precious

Michael Jensen

HELP NEEDED in PNG

A precious word

Billy Alexander

Do you feel called to the mission’s field?

Then come to PNG and serve with us.

We need teachers, trades people, anyone with any skills they can empower others with.

The people are hungry to learn.

Contact: Abe Akkary (+675) 7391 5080 akkary@cmp.org.au

As a former English teacher, I am sometimes known for being a bit particular about words. It irritates me when people are sloppy about them, or when they persistently misuse or even abuse a particular word. And I feel humiliated when someone discovers that I have been similarly inattentive to the way that words should work. I can never remember when to use ‘effect’ and when to use ‘affect’, for example.

To some people this might seem like fussiness—and, worse than that, fussiness over something that doesn’t matter very much in the long run.

But I am firmly committed to my fussiness. I think words are worth being fussy over, because they are the tools of our communication, and because when we miscommunicate with one another we hurt each other.

The difficulty in grasping the true meaning of words increases when we are dealing with words as they move between languages. ‘Love’ is a famous example: the Greek words we have classically translated as ‘love’ are not the same as one another. Yet when we use the English word ‘love’ we may be talking about erotic love or friendship or the delight in a particular flavour of ice cream. “I love Jenny” and “I love rum ‘n’ raisin” do not mean the same thing at all.

The word ‘grace’ is one of these words.

When we use it in English we usually think of two things. First, we think of that prayer some people say before meals and call ‘grace’. Secondly, we think (well, I think) of Audrey Hepburn, that great actress of the silver screen.

Why? Because, as the embodiment of

this word, she had a kind of virtuous elegance about her.

Is that what ‘grace’ really is? There’s something right about using this word to speak of the virtue belonging to a person who is extremely regal and yet, without compromising their decorum, is able to speak to mere mortals. But theologically and biblically speaking, we need to start not with grace as exhibited by human beings, but grace as it comes from God himself. And in the great narrative of the Bible, the words we usually translate as ‘grace’ (hen in the Hebrew, and charis in the Greek) usually refer to the way in which God approaches human beings to relate to them.

The Israelites are the prime example of this. God called them out of Egypt, where they were a slave people with no rights under an oppressive king, making bricks in the hot sun. He saved them from disaster through the Red Sea, and brought them into land he had prom-

ised would be theirs. And in doing so, he revealed his very own nature to them.

One of the great moments of the story is at Mount Sinai, in the desert. There, he said to Moses: “The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.” (Exodus 34:6-7, NIV) It’s worth reflecting on these words carefully, not least because they come at such an important point in the story of the Exodus, but also because they are words that come up again and again in the Old Testament. For instance, Jonah, dismayed that God is not going to punish Nineveh after all, complains to God of his own character (Jonah 4:2)! These

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‘Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.’

St Mark’s Anglican Church 25 Heath St, Red Cliffs Vic

SEPTEMBER 2013

word

words become a bit of a slogan of God’s character, and rightly so.

These words tell us what God’s grace is by showing us what God’s grace does.

And what is that exactly? God shows his grace in maintaining his love even to those who do not deserve it by any stretch. But notice, too, that he is not simply a pushover. Grace does not mean that sin and evil do not matter to God. Neither does grace mean that his justice is compromised. He does not, he says of himself, overlook the guilty or let them go unpunished. This might seem to be a contradiction at the heart of God’s declaration about himself. How can he be both gracious and slow to anger, and yet proclaim himself the uncompromising punisher of sin? But the contradiction is completely resolved only with the cross of the Son of God, Jesus Christ.

This is what the apostle Paul explains in his letter to the Romans, which rightly should be known as the ‘epistle of grace’.

How can God be both just and righteous and justify the ungodly? He expresses his grace in the death of his Son, who turned aside God’s wrath against sin and opened up the way for Jews and Gentiles together to know peace with God. ‘For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God’, he writes, ‘and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus’ (Romans 3:23-4). That is: God’s favour is made available to human beings, definitively and beautifully, through the death of Jesus on the cross for sin.

That is grace in a nutshell. It’s something God shows to human beings when by rights they have earned nothing. As Paul keeps saying: you can’t boast about grace, because it is given entirely as a gift.

But that’s not the end of the story of grace. By the time a few centuries had passed, the balance had tilted quite the way in the direction of humankind. To put it simply: instead of something God shows to us, ‘grace’ became defined as a thing that God gives by which God recognises how virtuous we are—and thus rewards us with our salvation. We can receive this grace in particular through

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taking the sacraments – baptism and the Lord’s Supper.

The Reformers of the sixteenth century—people like John Calvin and Martin Luther—would have none of this. They argued that the ‘grace’ that was being taught was nothing like grace in the Bible. For them, salvation was by grace alone, or (to use the Latin slogan) sola gratia. There was no combination of grace and works involved in the rescue of human beings. There could not be, since sin is so bad that we could never think of human beings as co-operating in their final salvation.

True grace was entirely a matter of God’s favour towards us secured by Jesus Christ on the cross. The things we do cannot ever be the basis of our salvation, as Paul explains in Romans 11:6, because ‘if it were, grace would no longer be grace’.

‘Grace no longer grace’?

That’s right: if there’s a suggestion that grace is merely God’s help for us in pleading for his favour, then it is no longer what it really is. He has not shown us his grace at all. It would be like giving us a Ferrari but not giving us the keys.

A national newspaper for Australian Christians, Eternity is sent free to any church upon request.

Eternity is published by Bible Society Australia (ACN 148 058 306). Edited by John Sandeman.

Email. eternity@biblesociety.org.au Web. www.biblesociety.org.au Post.

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SEPTEMBER 2013

Biblical women in the workplace My wife has always been annoyed that we didn’t have Proverbs 31 as a reading in our marriage service. I baulked at the idea since I felt it was suggesting that she would have to do all the work! After all, the woman described in this famous last chapter of Proverbs is a provider, property purchaser, clothesmaker, teacher and gorgeous princess (‘clothed in fine linen and purple’) all at once.

It just seemed too much to ask, even of Amelia! Here’s a sample: ‘She seeks wool and flax, and works with willing hands.’ (She not only shops, but also makes clothes.)

‘She is like the ships of a merchant; she brings her food from afar.”’ (She goes a long way to shop!)

‘She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.’ (She always knows what to say.)

‘She looks well to the ways of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness.’ (She never seems to rest!)

But these are all, in the end, not actions for herself, her family or her husband. They are all for the Lord: ‘Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised’. All of these wonderful qualities are expressions of service to God. When I thought about that, I really did regret not having the reading. I wasn’t listening properly: this was an expression of the great qualities of a woman, made by God, in service of her

Greg Clarke God. Her husband, family and community are all the beneficiaries.

While I was pondering my folly, a recent book on management, The Athena Doctrine: How Women (and the Men Who Think Like Them) Will Rule the Future by John Gerzema and Michael D’Antonio, caught my eye. Surveying 64,000 people across 13 countries, the authors (despite both being male!) found a consistent sea change (I prefer ‘she-change’) in approaches to leadership. Men and women alike were reporting the need for, and success of, leadership qualities traditionally attributed more to women than to men.

Companies were noting the need for ‘flexibility, collaboration, nurturing, and transparency’, finding that these arguably feminine traits were increasingly valuable in addressing the complexities of global business.

For instance, being cooperative around production schedules would enable price reductions by increasing order sizes. Or seeing vulnerability as a strength rather than a weakness would enable experimentation and innovation;

Caroline Chisholm, an early Australian Proverbs 31 woman: social entrepreneur, welfare worker, employment agent, reformer, banker, mother of eight. Apart from the Queen, the first woman on an Australian Dollar note. an employee could ‘fail’ without getting a reputation as ‘soft’. The study also concluded that ‘feminine’ thinking led to greater optimism about the future and increased resilience to deal with it.

Interestingly, the greatest positivity about this ‘she-change’ was coming from traditionally male-dominated business cultures in China, Japan, Korea and India.

What leadership research seems to be uncovering is the abiding wisdom of Proverbs 31. The qualities that are listed to describe the character of a noble wife

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The Bible are qualities that generally help life to continues ‘work’. Virtues such as perseverance, to speak prudence, empathy, strength, dignity, humour and ability to offer comfort: today; these are all praised in Proverbs, and exactly the qualities that today’s worksometimes place seems to be valuing, too.

What works for the ancient housewe are hold of Solomon’s time, also works for the complex global multinationals of slow to 21st century business.

The Bible continues to speak today; catch on. sometimes we are slow to catch on.

Husbands can be especially slow.