Tupu Whakarangi Issue 229

TUPU WHAKARANGI ISSUE 229

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02 CONTENTS

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HOPE’S TESTIMONY CULT CHARACTERISTICS

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THE STORY OF CHAMPION AXEMAN EARLY COMMUNION IN AOTEAROA

DEFENDING THE FAMILY THE VALUE OF THE GOSPEL

EDITOR: GRAHAM BATSON DESIGN: TEREYA DOWERS MAIL: PO BOX 10, WHANGANUI EMAIL: info.maoripostal@gmail.com WWW.MAORIPOSTAL.CO.NZ COVER PHOTO: Adele McQueen “Ka pai tenei!”

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WHY SUCH AN AMAZING CHANGE?

Apotoro Paul: “Kahore hoki oku whakama ki te rongopai; ko to kaha hoki ia o te Atua hei whakaora mo nga tangata katoa e whakapono ana; mo te Hurai ki mua, mo te Kariki ano hoki” (Roma 1:16).

As a young man Saul gave approval as a witness to the martyrdom of the Christian leader, Stephen, who was stoned to death by the Jewish religious elite. Soon afterwards he embarked upon a campaign of terror against the early church. He “began to destroy the The name of Saul of Tarsus brought church. Going from house to house, he fear to many Christians in the days of the dragged off men and women and put birth of Christianity. He had been raised them in prison” (Acts 8:3). by a Jewish mother and a Greek father and educated in the Old Testament Law It is, therefore, somewhat amazing under the well-known rabbi, Gamaliel. that this man, who was so opposed to But to him, the rising Christian faith was the Christian faith, should be found something that needed to be stamped spending the last days of his life in a out and he spared no pains in seeking gloomy Roman prison cell awaiting his its eradication. To him, Jesus Christ own execution as a martyr for Christ. was an impostor who had suffered the What brought about such a tremendous death He deserved. Certainly he did not change? believe in the resurrection of Christ as some of His weak-minded followers had You can read about the event that laid claim to. He knew better than to fall so radically changed Saul’s life in Acts prey to such deception. chapter 9. Continuing his murderous campaign against the Christians, he had obtained letters of authority from the Jewish high priest in Jerusalem to travel to the city of Damascus and there imprison anyone he found to be a follower of Christ. But as he and his retinue neared the city he was suddenly blinded by an awesome bright light. He fell to the ground and heard a voice, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me?”

Editor

The One whom he had thought to be an impostor and who he considered to be consigned to history, had suddenly appeared to him, and confronted him with the seriousness of what he was actually doing. By persecuting His people, Saul was persecuting Christ.

04 Suddenly Saul realised that Jesus Christ was not an impostor.

He had indeed been crucified, but He was no longer dead.

His resurrection was a reality and Paul had been wrong in all that he was doing against the Christians and in all he had thought about Christ. This One was who He had claimed to be and as the only Saviour from the penalty and power of sin, He had appeared to Saul to save him and to call him to a life of devoted Christian service.

That day the direction of Saul’s life completely changed, and he became a dedicated follower and servant of Christ for the rest of his life until his martyrdom over 30 years later. Now he knew the truth, and it was not to be found in an empty religion, but in a Person – the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. After his encounter with Christ, he was blind for three days, but as soon as his sight was restored he was baptised, publicly confessing his allegiance to the One whose name he had sought to eradicate from the earth.

His first Christian mission was in the very city where he had intended to capture and imprison Christians. Instead he entered the city as a Christian himself and, after his baptism, went into the Jewish synagogues, not as a religious terrorist but as a preacher of the Gospel. There he began to proclaim the risen Christ and that “Jesus is the Son of God” (Acts 9:20).

From being Saul the persecutor he became Paul the preacher!

You can read his testimony in 1 Timothy 1, vs 12-17.

In his testimony, Paul wrote these words, “Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners – of whom I am the worst”. In saving Paul God has shown that no-one, no matter how sinful and depraved they may be, is beyond the redemption that is found in Jesus Christ.

The conversion of Paul is one of the facts that proves the resurrection of Christ. And His resurrection proves that He was who He claimed to be – the very Son of God, who came into the world to provide salvation from the penalty and power of sin (Romans 1:4). Through His sacrificial death and victorious resurrection we can be set free from the bondage of a destructive, sinful lifestyle into the freedom of His love, victory and power. The whole purpose of this magazine is to introduce you to the One who changed the life of Paul and set him on course for Heaven who once was bound for Hell.

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HOPE’S TESTIMONY

(Hope is seen in the centre of picture above) Kia Ora Aotearoa. My name is HopeEmeri Sucich, born in 1978 of Maori Croatian descent. I grew up in a tiny settlement called Te Hapua on the banks of the Parengarenga Harbour, the most northern settlement in New Zealand, only 33 km from the iconic Te RerengaWairua (Cape Reinga).

I grew up in the Ratana Church and was a fourth generation Morehu/Remnant, the name given by the prophet and founder of the Church. I loved to attend Church mostly because I was drawn to the beautiful hymns. I didn’t understand as a child the Maori language, but I did understand that I was singing to God, and I really liked the thought of that. I believed as a child in the Holy Trinity, Father, Son (Jesus) and the Holy Spirit, and knew that they made up One God. I believed in God’s Heavenly angels and that Heaven was where they all lived. I could honestly say the Bible was foreign to me, and as a child I had only heard certain stories like Adam and Eve, Noah, Moses and Jesus. When I was twelve a wonderful christian couple invited me

to attend a Christian Bible Crusade Camp, and I was so excited to go. There I received a small blue book, which was the Gospel of John, and read John 3:16 for the very first time.

When I returned home from Camp I was teaching my cousin Rehutai a song that I had learned at camp about Jesus, as Lord and Saviour. We sung it as we bounced around on a trampoline.

I remember feeling full of love and joy, and a conviction that the words we were singing were true. Then, all of a sudden, there in the clouds, we saw Jesus in a white robe, with his arms open, motioning with one hand for us to come to Him. Even to this day, when Rehutai and I meet, we always remember that vision when we were children. As a child I had never heard anything about Satan and Hell, sin and evil; only references in movies and people’s mean remarks.

But fast forward about 25 years to late 2015 when I found myself drawn to the late singer, Selena QuintanillaPérez (Mexican/American, crowned the Queen of Tejano Music), after watching

06 “Since then the desire has grown in me to want to lead people to the Lord . . . sharing openly my testimony, and the Word of God!”

a movie based on her life and who had been tragically shot and killed in 1995.

I found myself watching endless videos of her on You Tube, and had learnt at least five of her songs in Spanish off by heart. I was getting quite obsessed with her. Then one day my daughter saw a video about a young girl who had been taken to Hell for 23 hours, and the singer Selena was mentioned. I believed this testimony and became convinced about the reality of Hell. This was my first step in coming to repentance.

you I never thought about Hell when I burnt rubbish, but today the thought of Hell always comes to mind when I’m standing in front of a fire.

Finally at the end of March 2017, my study led me to check the beliefs, doctrines and teachings of the Ratana Church. When Jesus said, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life”, He wasn’t lying, because God cannot lie. He is holy and righteous. So only a few weeks before Easter 2017, I willingly surrendered my life to Jesus, with all my heart. I felt a I began to binge watch other sense of freedom, joy and peace. Jesus testimonies of Hell and Heaven, and Christ was now my Lord, Saviour, King then Muslim and Jewish testimonies and Friend. of coming to faith in Jesus (Yeshua), as Saviour and Lord.

There were another mother and daughter living in Te Hapua in the By early 2016 I was overcome with Ratana Faith, who were on their own the urge to study the doctrines and journey with the Lord. They were also teachings of various religions that convicted in the Spirit of truth, and we claimed to be Christian, and was were all baptized together on the 3​rd​ shocked at what I had discovered. of December 2017, in the beautiful During my study, I also read the New harbour of Pārengarenga.

Testament through for the first time in my life. I felt convicted to give away Since then the desire has grown in some of my possessions, and to burn my me to want to lead people to the Lord . occult books, Halloween decorations, . . sharing openly my testimony, and the costumes and even the Christmas tree. Word of God. I just want to thank the Now growing up in Te Hapua, one of Lord for His love, mercy and grace and our chores was burning rubbish with the greatest Gift ever given to mankind, my Grandmother. I had done this for His Son, Jesus Christ. almost 30 years of my life, and I can tell ~ Hope-Emeri Sucich

NEIL GOODWIN

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AT HOME WITH THE LORD

On July 18th this year, after a period of illness, one of MPA’s most faithful workers, Graham Neil Goodwin, passed away to be with the Lord whom he had served for many years. Together with his wife, Beverley, using the MPA lessons and magazines, they took the Gospel into much of the area of Eastern Bay of Plenty. They became well known among the people of the Taneatua, Waimana and Ruatoki districts, visiting many homes monthly for many years.

The large crowd that filled the Whakatane Gospel Chapel in Stewart Street for his funeral on July 20th was an indication of the respect in which he was held. Family members, including grandchildren, as well as friends, spoke of his caring, gentle nature, his love of music (he was a music teacher in his younger days), his inimitable sense of humour and his unshakable faith in Christ.

“Kua whawhaitia e ahau te whawhai pai, kua omakia toku omanga, kua rite i ahau te whakapono. Kei te takoto mai moku i nga wa o muri nei te karauna o te tika, e homai ki ahau a taua ra e te Ariki, e te kaiwhakawa tika. He teka ki ahau anake, engari kite hunga katoa ano hoki kua matenui ki tonu putanga mai” (2 Timoti 4:7-8).

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“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day – and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing” (2 Timothy 4:7-8).

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PEACE PERFECT PEACE

The little room was shabby and not too clean. The tall young woman standing by the window was as shabby as the room. Her red dress was torn, and her dark hair hung untidily to frame a face that was drained of all life. The pupils of her eyes were enlarged, and her face was drawn and haggard.

In the street below the derelicts stumbled and tottered, but it wasn’t the people that held her attention. The murky water of the river was drawing her like a magnet draws steel. She clasped her hands and wrung them.

Turning from the window she sank into an old armchair, leaned her head back and closed her eyes. As she lay there she went back to the days of her childhood . .

She saw her mother’s large figure bending over the black kitchen stove.

Her eyes twinkled, and she looked up to greet her husband as he entered the room. He was tall and thin, and as fair as the mother was dark. How happy they had been on their farm! They worked from morning till dark, denying themselves to bring up their large family. They taught them the fear of the Lord, for God was the mainspring of their existence.

She was the youngest, and at 17 was the prettiest girl in the neighbourhood, but she spurned the love of her suitors who would have been proud to have her for their girlfriend. She wasn’t going to marry a farmer and work the way her mother and sisters did. She was going to the city to do big things!

She went to the city and attended business college there. Then she worked in an office where she advanced rapidly.

As time went on she lost the faith of her parents. There was no time for the Bible or church. But she had lots of friends and was caught up in a whirl of good times. When she went home her parents looked at her so sadly that her visits became fewer and fewer.

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door was open, but the light was dim except near someone who was playing the organ. Quietly she slipped into a seat near the door.

The music soothed her taut nerves.

Out of the past she saw her family in the church back home. She recognised the tune that was being played, “There is a peace that flows like a river”. She recalled the Bible readings she had been Then she met Hake. He was taught as a child. The words of Jesus, handsome, smart and lots of fun, and “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give their relationship grew. One night they you” (John 14:27). were introduced to drugs. It had all seemed so innocent at first, but it wasn’t Down on her knees, the tears flowed. long before they were hooked. Their She repented of her sins and for turning lives began to unravel and spiral out of away from all her parents had taught control until the tragic night when Hake her. She accepted Christ as her Saviour shot himself. and Lord and yielded her life to Him. How long she knelt there she didn’t She had tried to kick the habit then, know, but she became conscious of a but it held her in its grip. Her work began deep, inward peace. She got up and left to suffer, and she lost her job. She sank the building. She looked around at the lower and lower. She drifted to another street and the water below, but it no city where she was unknown, but it was longer had any effect on her. Then she no better. made her way back to her room.

“Oh,” she sobbed. “To know the God Looking around the untidy place, her my parents knew! Too late, too late!” she eyes saw the syringe on the table. She moaned. grabbed it, took it to the rubbish bin and threw it in. “Lord,” she said, “I’ve tried Moving to the window once more she many times in my own strength, but this looked out upon the water. “I’ve been time, with Your help I mean to win!” a fool,” she said. “Oh, for my mother’s simple faith!”

Songs she had known in her childhood came back to her. Then she burst into Putting on a shabby old brown coat, singing, she went out. On the street the drunks and addicts staggered, but she paid no “Peace, perfect peace attention to them. Down the street she headed. She must get to that water. It In this dark world of sin – will soon be over.

The blood of Jesus whispers Suddenly she stopped. Organ music was coming from a building nearby. She Peace within”. followed the sound. An old store had been turned into a mission hall. The ~ Unknown

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Hank Hanegraaff

CULT CHARACTERISTICS...

WHAT ARE SOME COMMON CHARACTERISTICS OF A CULT? One of the most devastating experiences someone could face is to have a loved one involved in a cult. What are some ways we can know that a certain group is in fact a cult? The devil always hides behind a mask; and he seldom carries an ID card. If this statement is true, it is of utmost importance for us to discern a cult when we see one.

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Scripture Twisting The first mark of a cult is its manipulation of Scripture. The Bible is twisted to fit the leader’s or group’s interpretation. Private interpretations are forbidden because the leader(s) of the cult are the only ones (according to them) who are able to understand God’s voice properly. Their teachings distort the historic, orthodox claims of Christianity.

Mental Manipulation Second, many times cults manipulate people’s minds. There is little concern for individual thought and development. Education is usually discouraged while the convert is bombarded with the cult’s doctrine and literature. Members are called to leave or neglect their old family and lifestyle for a brand new one.

Time Manipulation A third characteristic is the manipulation of time. Since salvation comes exclusively from the teachings of the group (according to them), in many cults members spend much of their time working for their organization.

Family, school, leisure, sleep, and even food are often neglected.

Manipulating Reality Finally, cults typically manipulate reality. They tend to have an exclusive “us”/“them” mentality in which society and old associates are all out to get them. Anyone outside of the group is suspect.

If a religious group exhibits one or more of the marks mentioned above, that group may well be considered a cult. Jesus Christ said that in the last days many false prophets would arise and deceive many (Matthew 24, vs 11 and 24). To avoid the deception of the cults, we should be rooted in the teachings of the historic Christian faith, and receive Jesus Christ, God the Son, second Person of the Trinity, as Saviour and Lord of our lives.

BILL WYNYARD

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AT HOME WITH THE LORD

“William Watene Wynyard (Bill) – with Topsy, his love of 66 years by his side, and surrounded by members of his church family at Raumati Chapel in Onerahi, Whāngārei, was called home to be with his Lord at 9.20 am on Sunday 3 June 2018. Bill’s tangi was held over three days at Kāretu Marae, where hundreds of family/ whanau, friends, and people from a variety of fraternities celebrated his life. The service was conducted by Raumati Chapel elder David George, who delivered a challenging message from 1 Timothy, Bill’s niece the Revd.

Beverley Hall-Smith, and two of his son’s Hira and George. Bill was laid to rest among other whānau at Puhangahau Urupa” (Report by his son, George Wynyard).

Bill and Topsy were well known and respected in Northland as MPA leaders, a ministry in which they faithfully served the Lord for many years. In their caring and compassionate way, they touched the hearts and lives of people from all levels of society during this time.

Bill’s testimony was published as a tract some years ago and copies are available from MPA for distribution. It is reprinted here once again.

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THE STORY OF A CHAMPION AX Puketohunoa te maunga. Taumarere te awa. Ngatimanu te hapu. Te Hurihanga Winiana (Wynyard) te matua. Merekingi Winiana (Edmonds) te whaea. Ko Wiremu (Bill) Wynyard ahau. Tena Koutou.In my earliest years I was raised in a large family of 16 in the Northland district of Karetu. From the age of 9 I lived with an aunty and uncle on their small farm in Ngawha (Waitaheke Road) helping with the chores such as milking the cows, helping in the large vegetable gardens and other general farm work. During the latter part of my life on the farm my days were long and busy. My uncle was away working splitting posts some 5 km behind the Ngawha Springs. As my aunty was unable to milk, I had to have the 18 cows milked, the cream separated and out on the road (a couple of km’s away) by 9 a.m. and then off to school. I used to take the cream by horseback and many times I would have to gallop the horse flat out with the 8 gallon can in order to catch the cream truck.

The day came when I left school, winter was near, the cows were dry and I went to help my uncle drag the posts he had split over the summer about 5 km using three teams of horses with about 12 posts on each sledge. He paid me the equivalent of $2 a week. My poor uncle could not read or write and signed an agreement with the owner to have the job completed and off the property by mid June. He was unable to hire a truck because of the clay road and the autumn rain made it impassable other than by sledge and there would be two loads a day beginning at daybreak. The job was completed by mid winter and within two months the cows were due to come in and so it was back to my milking job.

Christmas in 1947 came, and my older brother arrived home from the coal mine in Huntly for the holidays. He told me about the big money to be made in coal mining and he managed to lure me into returning with him. My first pay was about $28 for the first fortnight and I thought I was the richest man in the world.

I worked in this coal mine for nine months.

Another brother had a bush contract in Taumarunui falling and heading trees for 10c per 100 super feet, so away I went to join him after the bigger money. I worked in the bush until 1952 when I met my wife and we were married on 28th June that same year. We then went to Ohura where I worked in the coal mine there until 1971 when the mine closed and they converted the miners’ hostel into a first offenders’ prison. I then joined the prison service as a warden and, because of my experience with the forestry, I was able to serve the Justice Dept. supervising work parties of prisoners in the bush doing clear-felling, burning off

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ON AXEMAN by Bill Wynyard at me in a way I will never forget, but my obsession and pride got in the way of my real responsibility.

and planting pine.

It was during this time that I took up wood chopping competitively. To reach the standard I attained everything else in my life took second place and my family suffered as a result. The most important thing to me was to become fit. Nothing else really mattered to me than to maintain my fitness and become better at the sport than my competitors.

1973 was the year I won the Maori and World Championships at the Waimiha Show. All that week, building up to this event my wife, Topsy, was ill in bed. But I had trained for months for this day and nothing was going to interfere with it, not even her illness.

I thought if I asked my neighbour to pop over every now and then to keep an eye on her things would be alright.

That morning as I left, my wife looked

I had just put away my axe after winning the Maori Championship, about 2 p.m., when my neighbour arrived after traveling about 100 km to tell me she had taken my wife to the hospital and she needed me bad. My response was, “What can I do – even if I went now?” The World Championship was just coming up – (which I also won). My neighbour gave me a similar look to that which my wife had given me that morning.

I eventually got to see my wife the next day and I was shocked to see how drawn and sick she looked. The doctor called me aside and said, “Mr Wynyard, you are a very lucky man. Your wife had a fifty-fifty chance of survival!” She had had to have an emergency operation because of blood poisoning.

Then one day in the guard house at the prison I picked up a magazine and read an article. It was about an Australian sportsman who had become a world champion rower. Like me he had put everything else aside in order to reach his goal. But he had contracted leukemia and had been reduced to a wheel chair. It was only then that he was forced to stop and think about the things that mattered most in life.

The nurse was pushing him in his

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wheel chair around the gardens one day, and for the first time he noticed a rose. Before this such things did not exist to him. This article began to make me realize that there was more to life than the goals which I thought were so important, for I was making the same mistake this man had made.

Not long after I had read this article, one day I arrived for work and there was a gang of prisoners ready for me to take up into the bush on a work detail. During the day, one of the inmates who was new on the job came up to me with a strange remark, “You’re just like I thought you’d be,” he said. I did not know it then, but he was a Christian, and how he came to be in the prison I still do not know. I asked him what he was talking about and he said he had heard about me from the other prisoners. I replied, “Go on, get back to work!”

He left me for the time being but any time he had a chance over the next few weeks he would sidle up to me and say things like, “I was reading the Bible last night and thought you might be interested in this.” Then he would share with me what he had been reading. He did this on a number of occasions and once he directed my attention to the mist coming off the bush and said, “See, that’s how we’re going to go up. The dead in Christ shall rise first, and then we who are alive will

“I was amazed and it was there that I became convicted about the reality of God.”

be caught up together with them!” He was talking about the second coming of Christ, but I was not interested. I told him to get out of it and not to be so stupid.

This man never gave up on me and on another occasion shared with me the Old Testament story of how the people of Israel, with God’s help, had captured the city of Jericho (Joshua chapter 6) and how that a sinful woman, Rahab, who was a prostitute had been saved. By this time I actually found myself becoming interested in some of the things he was saying. One day he turned up with his big Bible to show me an illustration of excavations revealing how the walls of Jericho had collapsed. They had fallen out flat, but one portion of the city wall was intact and he said that was where Rahab had lived in her house on the wall. He told how that Israelite spies had come to her and, at the risk of her own life, she had hidden them on the rooftop among a heap of flax (Joshua chapter 2) from the king’s messengers. As a reward they promised her that when the Israelite army arrived she would be spared with all who were in her house.

She was to hang a scarlet cord out of her window so that they could tell which was her house. She obeyed and when the city was taken she and her household were spared, and thus that section of the wall remained standing as shown me in the illustration.

The next Sunday morning it was my responsibility to take the inmates down to the local church and a laypreacher, who was a farmer in the district, spoke on the very subject the inmate had been sharing with me. I was amazed and it was there that I became convicted about the reality of God. Although I did not make a personal

commitment at that time, I was stirred up.

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During those days a Christian worker from Taumarunui, Mr Bob Mossop, used to visit us once a month. Initially I used to make sure I was not available when it was time for him to visit, but after my experience with the inmate and at the church I found I looked forward to his visits and used to like to talk with him.

Sometimes we used to have a Bible study with him in our home. Eventually my wife, Topsy, received the Lord as her personal Saviour, but I was still not ready to do so.

One Saturday I went up to the part of bush in which we were working because I had seen evidence of pigs in the area and was keen on pig hunting. I went into the hut that the inmates used for shelter and to have their meals. I was by myself and I felt the Lord’s presence in a way I had never experienced before. In the stillness of that empty hut I came under strong conviction concerning the need for the Lord in my life. Many things went through my mind, including the way I had rejected my family in pursuit of my sport. I remembered how Rahab was saved with her household because she obeyed, and I realized that I needed to obey. I needed to obey the Lord just as the inmate, the preacher at the church and Bob Mossop had been telling me.

In that hut, for the first time in my life, I got down on my knees and prayed to the Lord. I told the Lord that I needed Him, that I believed Him and I received Him into my life. There in that old hut I claimed Jesus Christ as my own personal Lord and Saviour. A short time after my conversion experience Bob Mossop made arrangement for both Topsy and me to be baptized at the Gospel Chapel in Taumarunui.

After becoming a Christian I no longer felt the same about working at the prison. I had seen first hand the hassles in the lives of many of the inmates and I felt I would rather become involved in Christian work among children where they could be reached before they got into some of these problems and their lives became messed up. At this point in our lives Topsy and I became involved in the work of the Tangiteroria Children’s Home where we worked for ten years.

Although it was not always easy going we found it very rewarding having such an effective input into the young lives under our care.

When we were no longer able to continue this work through ill health, we became involved in the work of Maori Postal Sunday School. Over the years we have visited many homes in Northland, as well as schools and Kohanga Reo groups. It too is a very fulfilling work and we are able to continue having a worthwhile input into many families and lives as we reach out to our Maori people with the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Only the Gospel of Christ has the power to redirect and change damaged and ruined lives, because it deals with our sin and makes us right with God. We know, because it has made such a difference in our own lives. What God has done for us, He can also do for you.

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AN EARLY COMMUNION IN AOTEAROA

A number of long wooden canoes were moving swiftly down the river, each expertly paddled and manoeuvred by a crew of swarthy men. Other canoes were being hauled up the gently sloping banks and their occupants – men and women and children laden with flax baskets and various provisions, were making their way to a grassy place of assembly, where a crowd was already gathered, squatting in family groups, waiting expectantly.

Who were these people and what was their purpose?

These were Maori people of different tribes gathering for worship at a place called Putiki on the banks of the Whanganui River. The year was 1848 in the month of December. A pulpit had been carried to the field and the Rev. Richard Taylor, Church Missionary Society agent, prepared to address a large gathering.

Till lately these people had been barbarous heathen, but now among them were some candidates for baptism and others to partake of the Lord’s Supper. These converts had, in previous years, practised cannibalism, infanticide and other atrocities. They were now exhibiting “marks of grace” and showing evidence that they were “New creatures in Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

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In his journal, Richard Taylor remarked, after having examined the candidates, “It is a very gratifying consideration that I have such a body of persons in my district living so consistently, that even the most censorious could not allege anything against their religious or moral conduct”. He went on to explain that the examination of these candidates was so thorough that “if it was found that any had lived on terms of intimacy with any immoral person, he was at once rejected”. Each candidate was presented by his “teacher”.

The following day after the service, Taylor addressed a meeting of the “teachers” or “lay preachers” and listened to 42 of them preach before him from a selection of texts which they had not previously seen. He was struck by the good sermons he heard and the extraordinary fluency of speech of these dedicated “pastors” who had the oversight of the churches in the Whanganui district.

On December 24th, a Lord’s Day (Sunday), he remarks: “I began the service a little after seven. It was a glorious day, not a cloud to be seen. We had the pure light of the sun shining upon us; but it was a still more glorious sight to see before me upwards of 3000 Maori people uniting in the solemn service of our church and listening with deep attention to the Word of God. Around the pulpit stood my band of fellow labourers – the teachers – no inconsiderable company, being 150 in number, and by my side nearly all the head chiefs were assembled, dressed in their picturesque costumes of dogskin mats, or eloquently woven parawais; some in their newly acquired European clothing. Beyond them the entire field was filled with the congregation. The lesson of the day afforded a most appropriate text: St Paul’s confession before Felix (Acts 24).

After the sermon I administered the Sacrament to 360. I was obliged to divide the communicants, part for the Sunday and part for the Christmas Day as the church could not contain the whole at once.”

On the Christmas Day it was fine, hot and sultry. Taylor preached from Luke 2:14, “Glory to God in the highest. On earth peace, good will toward men”, and afterwards administered the Lord’s Supper to 350, making a grand total, including three of his family, of 710 for the two days.

At this Communion a remarkable scene was witnessed. Two Maori chiefs approached the Lord’s table. One of these men, Tamati Wiremu Puna, was seen trembling. After the service he was asked the reason for his emotion.

He related the extraordinary circumstance that the other man who had accompanied him, Panapa, a chief of the Ngati Apa, had in former years killed and eaten his father. He went on to say that only the Gospel, which had given him a new nature, could make him eat of the same bread and drink of the same cup with one who had been the murderer of his own father!

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DEFENDING

THE FAMILY

Article by Bruce Logan as see in the Dominion Post, 12 Sept 2018

We’ve been at war over marriage and family for some time. Are we approaching the last battle?

In a High Court judgment against “Family First”, Justice France declared that “Family First’s” promotion of the “traditional family cannot be shown to be in the public benefit”. This decision is the opposite of the judgment of the same court in 2015.

The “Family First” model runs counter to human rights law, says Justice France.

If that’s true, then human rights law is an ass. So what has happened?

Human rights were originally conceived to protect people from an oppressive state. Their purpose was to prevent arbitrary arrest and detention, torture, and censorship, by placing restraints on government. The state’s capacity and responsibility to protect these “negative rights” was assumed, since they required only that people be protected from over-reaching state power. They were the consequence of the belief that human dignity found its genesis in our creation by God, and not in the state.

Modern human rights are about entitlement, manipulated by the ideology of equality, diversity and the new affirming tolerance. Increasing new positive rights laws allow the state to decide what we are entitled to, and what we are not.

Consequently, we are in the middle of a spiritual and culture war over the control of the private and public conscience. Human rights have become a weapon to normalise social justice values of identity politics and to delegitimise traditional belief. These new rights are lining up against us to limit our liberties.

We used to believe that God was the master. Human beings were creatures

with inalienable rights. For example, a man and a woman have a right to marry and start a family - the basic unit of civil society - not because the state says so, but because they are male and female.

Up until relatively recently, nearly everyone believed that.

Who’s the boss; God or the State? Family First, in its defence of the natural family declares that there is an authority above the state.

However, with the increasing imposition of group equality - same sex marriage for example - rather than individual equality under law, it doesn’t matter what people might have believed about marriage. Marriage is now what the state says it is. In doing so, the state became a surrogate deity turning its own positive law into an absolute; it now determines what constitutes a family.

Going back to Magna Carta is helpful. Magna Carta was an attempt to understand and employ natural law.

Human dignity was assumed because the framers believed that they had been created by God. For example, the idea of a just and reasonable tax is only possible if the state can be called to account by a higher law. There was a natural order by which men and women must live. It was the law’s function to understand that natural order and to give it positive expression. Law was discovered rather than invented.

Who’s the boss; God or the State?

Family First, in its defence of the natural family declares that there is an authority above the state. Which is no more than what the natural family claims in practice.

As the prime institution of civil society it has its own limited area of authority into

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which the state should not intrude. The natural family stands in the way of an aggressive overreaching state.

However, once the family has been redefined by the state, the game changes and citizen freedom is dramatically undermined. The Marxist doctrine echoes in the background; “It is not the consciousness of men that determines their existence, but their social existence that determines their consciousness.”

Modern human rights theory is all about invention. The state makes them up as it goes along.

That’s why “Family First”, according to Justice France, is guilty of breaking human rights law in its defence of the natural / traditional intergenerational family.

We’re told we are a secular society. Just what that might mean is difficult to ascertain, but one thing a secular society does not have is a new moral vision.

At best all it can do is to distort the old narrative by emphasising one traditional virtue above the rest; tolerance at the expense of truth or courage for example.

Human rights, disconnected from their roots, have become parasitic. They consume the old notion of freedom hoping its digestion will lead us to the utopia the progressives keep promising us.

The Commission’s claim that the traditional family is not the heart of a free nation is outrageous and wrong. Any kind of legal or bureaucratic action that undermines family status, function and authority will, most certainly, harm our children.

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THE FAITH FRED BARRETT

Some time ago the following letter was published in a local newspaper: -“A recent Muslim Awareness Week resulted in a number of letters from both supporters of Islam and Christianity. Most writers attempted to defend their faith by pointing to the misdeeds of the followers of the other.

The essence of any movement should be sought in its founder, not in its fickle followers. Surely the only sensible comparison of Islam and Christianity is a comparison of their founders.

The Quran mentions Jesus 97 times and Mohammed 25. According to both the Quran and the Bible, Jesus never sinned, and Mohammed prayed often for the forgiveness of his sins.

Jesus waged no war, taught mercy and love and established a spiritual kingdom. Mohammed waged 66 battles, showed no mercy and established an earthly empire by the sword.

While Jesus taught his followers to love their enemies, Mohammed taught his to kill theirs and the Quran consents 103 times to the beheading of any non-Muslim.

Jesus never married and taught that each man should have one wife.

Mohammed had 15 wives and taught that a man could exchange wives provided he had no more than four at a time – including temporary ones.

According to both the Quran and the Bible, Jesus rose from the grave, while Mohammed is still dead!”

– Fred Barrett

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THE VALUE OF THE GOSPEL

Paul’s statement in Romans 1, vs 16 is just as true at present as it was in Paul’s day: “I am not ashamed of the Gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile”.

One of the major concerns in our country at present is the rising prison population and what to do about it. Interestingly, a recent report from “Family First” shows that imprisonment rates are related to family structure. Young people who grow up in a family with both natural parents are far less likely to become incarceration statistics. The report says, “Biological parents appear to provide a protective role which replacement parents do not. The strongest predictor for imprisonment is growing up in state care – the ultimate consequence of family or whanau breakdown”. The report goes on to say, where there is a Godfearing input from “The community is a poor substitute both mother and father, is still by far for caring, committed parents”. the best answer. And the way to have strong, healthy marriages that provide Today the emphasis in dealing with security and stability for young people, the rising prison population appears to where husband and wife are committed be on various social programmes that to each other and their children, is often prove to be more cosmetic than through the power of the Gospel. Only anything. However, repeatedly, we are the Gospel of Christ has the power brought back to the reality that God’s to change people from within so that ways as set out in His Word, the Bible, they have a right relationship with contain the only lasting answer. He God, resulting in a right relationship created us, and He knows what works with each other. This applies not only best. Marriage as we have it in the Bible, in the marriage relationship, but in all

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relationships and in society in general.

Even within the prison population the Gospel of Christ provides the greatest means of changing lives, redeeming and redirecting inmates into worthwhile and productive lifestyles. Sadly, the authorities largely fail to recognize this fact. This is why ministries such as Maori Postal Aotearoa, where the propagation of the Gospel of Christ is the sole objective, are so valuable. We seek to reach young people before they become involved in destructive lifestyles. But we also reach out to those who have become ensnared with such lifestyles because through the Gospel they can be rescued and redirected.

If you would like to see more of our material, please see our web site or contact us for a catalogue. We are looking for people who are willing to become representatives of Maori Postal Aotearoa and help in the distribution of our material in their local areas. If you would like to help, please contact us.

MAORI POSTAL AOTEAROA PO Box 10 – Whanganui – Ph 06 343-7957 Info.maoripostal@gmail.com