The Hunger Games has been a smash hit at the box office (a movie based on part one of a novel trilogy).  To keep alert to what my daughter says all her school friends (and many millions more) are talking about, I decided to have a read.

The book is extremely suspenseful, so much so that I refused to sleep one night until I finished off the last 150 pages.  The plot seems like a blend of The Most Dangerous Game meets Lord of the Flies.

Rather than utopia, The Hunger Games describes a dystopia in the near future, where depravity is expressed at a new level:  taking the gladiators of the Roman Colosseum and applying the cruelty to teenagers, as they battle to death for the entertainment of the citizens.

Many citizens are starving, hungry.  And in the arena of the games, hunger for food drives some on; hunger for victory (by killing everyone else) drives others.

The book of Proverbs reminds us that hunger drives us to some noble things, like work:

              “The labourer’s appetite works for him; his hunger drives him on.” (Prov 16:26)

And as I read the horrors in The Hunger Games, and reflected on our culture’s fascination with it, I started wondering afresh, “Where are those who – as Jesus put it – ‘Hunger and thirst for righteousness’?”

The Hunger Games is so intriguing, yet so disturbing.  It raises good and necessary questions about evil and the extent of humanity’s depravity, as well as questions about our deep search for…

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I mentor a few Bible College students in our fellowship, so I spent my afternoon yesterday at a local Bible College, meeting and discussing this year’s mentoring requirements.

I am really glad for such requirements!  Ministry, and therefore Bible College, is not simply about information but people.  People serving people to encourage “growth in the grace & knowledge of Jesus”.  Not just knowledge!  Grace and knowledge.  Practical godliness, not mental puffiness.

The saying is common:  the death of the Church is always only one generation away.  The faith must be handed down.

Paul wrote to Timothy,

“What you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also.  (2 Tim 2:2)

The faith must be “entrusted” to others.  Trust implies trustworthiness!  Trustworthiness on both ends…not merely a trustworthy trainee (disciple), but also a trustworthy trainer (discipler).  This means the faith must not be simply instructed, but lived out!

This is why in his very next breath, in verse 3, Paul tells Timothy the Trainer,

“Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.” 

And elsewhere, Paul writes (with a crucial qualifier):

“Imitate me as I imitate Christ” (1 Cor 11:1)

This is the beauty of God’s design! – it includes integrity not just information…character not just curriculum.

So I am truly thankful for God’s call to mentoring, and for Bible Colleges that require it.  Mentoring keeps not only the trainee “on his toes”, but also the trainer (me)!

Both sides grow in the process, in conformity to His glorious…

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I officiated a wedding this past Saturday – a glorious & beautiful ceremony in God’s eyes!  But what made it beautiful in His eyes?

As the part of the ceremony arrived when I declared the definition of marriage in Australia (which a celebrant is legally required to do), I could not help but think of the current controversy swelling in Parliament on the definition of marriage.  Here is what I declared, the ‘law of the land’ as it currently stands:

“Marriage is the union of one man and one woman – to the exclusion of all others – voluntarily entered into for life.”

A brilliant definition, actually!

Yet a storm is brewing, as history is set to be revised Down Under, while Parliament soon votes on “gay marriage” – two words never meant to go together.  What is God’s problem with ‘redefining’ marriage to include homosexual couples?  The problem is at least 2-fold:

First, homosexuality undermines God’s creation ordinance, that we magnify His image in the world.  Look at the very first command God gave to humanity:

“God created man in His own image, male and female He created them.  And God blessed them and said “Be fruitful and multiply” (Genesis 1:26-27)

It goes without saying that homosexual couples cannot ‘be fruitful and multiply.’  But beyond lack of raw reproductive ability, homosexual relationships mar God’s very image:  ”God created man in His own image, male and female He created them”.  The way that a husband and wife relate (not just reproduce) has something to do…

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On this 10th anniversary of 9/11, our feelings are quite naturally torn.

We are created in God’s image, so evil & injustice are abhorrent to us

[at least, when evil is done to us!  Ironically, when we personally do evil, we want mercy & forgiviness; but when evil is done to us, we cry out for justice!  We are all self-centred hypocrites in this regard!]

What about when mercy is shown to us, as with the prophet Jonah?

This past Sunday (the 9/11 anniversary), we considered the book of Jonah and it’s surprising message:  God’s missionary heart for a rebellious world.

Disobedient Jewish Jonah was shown great mercy from God;

Disobedient Gentile Nineveh was shown great mercy from God.

What was Jonah’s attitude about the opportunity to share God’s news to terrorists of a foreign land?

What should our attitude as Christians be today, as we remember 9/11?

What is God’s attitude?  What is the “lost message” of Jonah?

Read (or listen to) last Sunday’s sermon – Jonah and 9/11 – and find the surprising, even confronting, but certainly world-transforming answers!

May God shine His Light to the world through us, recipients of His unfathomable mercy in Christ, the Light of the World,

Pastor Dave

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In order have Peace with God (Reconciliation), we first need to be Right with God (Justification).  But how can sinners, like me, be right/justified before a righteous God?   The book of Romans – which we have been studying as a church – unpacks the supremely “good news” that the that the Righteousness of God is not only His “Benchmark” (His “standard” of justice which we utterly fail to meet!), but also His “Bestowal” – His own righteousness granted as a gift, an undeserved act of grace, in Jesus Christ!

The thesis of Paul’s letter to the Romans:

The gospel is the power of God for salvation, to everyone who believes – the Jew first, then the Greek!  In [the gospel] the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.” (1:16-17)

What precisely this means is of utmost importance, for Christian living now (“live by faith”, v.17) as well as forever (“the power of God for salvation”, v.16).

Professor Douglas Moo has written at least 3 commentaries on the book of Romans, and has a well-balanced view of Paul’s letter to the Romans and of justification.  Prof. Moo will be giving a public lecture on “Justification in the Crosshairs”, discussing what we can learn from contemporary perspectives on Paul’s letter, as well as what are non-negotiable and unchanging gospel truths largely lost in the middle ages but rediscovered in the Reformation.

To register for this not-to-be-missed public lecture at the Queensland Theological College,…

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