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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Have you heard the news?  Jesus has returned!…or apparently so, and to nearby Kingaroy!   I learned of this by reading not the Bible but the newspaper!

John Miller claims he is Jesus Christ…only, his coming was not on the clouds  for all the world to see:

“as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.” (Matt 24:27; Luke 17:24)

And rather than return in glory with the glorified body he left with, he crept back onto the scene as a decrepit, decaying a 47-year-old.  Moreover, he claims to have returned with Mary Magdalene…not sure what she is doing on the scene?  Maybe reading one too many Dan Brown novels and not enough Scripture?

So here is a question for you:  what would YOU say to John Miller?  What would YOU ask him, to test him?

For starters, we might ask why the manner of his “return” contradicts what he previously promised (as above), that the whole world would see his coming?  Do you no longer keep your promises, Jesus?

Or we might ask him some questions in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek, since Jesus was fluent in all three languages.

We could simply watch his life and wait for him to sin in any way!

Finally, we might ask him to confirm his credentials with miracles of biblical standards, such as:  healing completely and healing instantly not a stranger but a local person known by other locals to be blind…

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As we finish off memorising Psalm 23, these words from Phillip Keller’s book A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23 serve as a fitting conclusion:

My neighbour’s sickly sheep would stand huddled at the fence . . . facing the rich fields in which my flock flourished.  Those poor, abused, neglected creatures under the ownership of a heartless rancher had known nothing but suffering most of the year.  They were thin and sickly with disease, scab and parasite.  There seemed to lurk in their eyes the slender, faint hope that perhaps they could break through the fence or crawl through some hole.

Once during king tides, three sheep went down on the tidal flats and slipped around the end of the fence and snuck onto my paddock . . . . As they were not my property, I loaded them into a wheelbarrow and wheeled them back to their heartless owner.  He simply pulled out a sharp knife and slit the throats of his sickly sheep.  He couldn’t care less.

What a picture of Satan who holds ownership of so many!  Right there the graphic account Jesus portrayed of Himself as being the door and entrance by which he sheep were to end His fold flashed across my mind. Those poor sheep had not come through the proper gate. I had never let them in. They had never really become mine, under my ownership and care . . . . In short, they tried to get in on their own.  The same fate…

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