The_Messenger_Summer_2011.pdf

8/18/2019 The_Messenger_Summer_2011.pdf

1/32

MESSENGERThe

Published by Westminster Presbyter ian Church | Volume 152 Summer Edit ion 2011


2/322 The Messenger • Summer 2011

ContentsVolume 152 Summer Edi t ion 2011

A IMSTo uphold the teachings of Scripture assummed up in the Westminster Confessionof Faith.

To assist the WPC churches in their congre-gational life and witness.

To foster a spirit of unity amongst WPC

churches.

SUBSCRIPTION DETAILSThe 2011 subscription rates are as follows:

1. If posted directly to your address, $4.25per copy, or $16.00 p.a.

2. Bulk mailed to your church’s Messengerrepresentative for $14.00 p.a.

3. $4.50 for single issues.

4. Please send payments to:

The Westminster Messenger via SandraWilson105 Regency Drive,THORNLIE W.A. 6108

Email: [email protected]

otherwise Ph: (08) 9452 1830or Mob: 0417 944 138

PLEASE NOTE:ALL SUBSCRIPTIONS DUE INADVANCE.

CONTRIBUTIONS, LETTERS,ETC.All materials for the editor, such ascontributions, letters and comments about

The Messenger should be directed to:Revd Clem White,10 Melaleuca Terrace,HALLS HEAD, W.A. 6210

Phone: (08) 9535 3301


DEADLINES FOR EACH ISSUEArticles of Church News, Letters to the Editor

and contributions for each of the 4 issues areto be in the Editor’s hand no later than:

• Feb 14 for Autumn issue• May 16 for Winter issue• Aug 15 for Spring issue• Nov 14 for Summer issue

and addressed to Rev. Clem White at thecontact address or email above.

THE MESSENGER COMMITTEE• Clem White (Editor)• Sandra Wilson (Treasurer)• Pam White (Secretary)• Ray Wilson (Proofing)• Roy Lim (Designer)

Opinions expressed are those of the contributor and not necessarily those of WPC, theeditor or the committee. Submitted articles are welcome.

You can help make your denominational journal a success by subscribing and contributingto it. We cordially invite you to do both.

T h e M e s s e n g e r

Church News

23-25Missions

4-7Features

8-22Youth & Family

26-29

PHOTO ON COVER: Christians in the Brookton/Pingelly districts gather each Sunday evening for prayer at the foot

of this cross overlooking the town of Pingelly.


3/323The Messenger • Summer 2011

W hat should our response be to theseheadlines of an article in a recentnewspaper? “Church’s attitude to

Gays puts people off.”

According to this article the Christianmedia group Olive Tree Media, found thathell, damnation, anti gays, abuse and theBible were turning people away from comingto church. These comments came out of a

national survey of more than 1000 Australiansincluding churchgoers and follow-up focusgroup sessions.

Some churches respond by eliminating thesetopics from their church services. They preachmessages which they hope, will not hurt anyone. They only sing songs with happy messages andcatchy tunes. They don’t read from the Bibleand keep any prayers to a minimum. Thisformula seems to work if judged by the numberof people attending such churches.

However, bynot focussing onbiblical centred worship they havemade themselvesirrelevant to theserious God seeker. They have placed

themselves in thesame position asthe politicians whoare guided by focusgroups. The public

lose faith in them because they don’t have stablepolicies to guide them.

If we are going to have an impact on ourfellow Australians we must know what we

stand for as a church. Those of us who aremembers of the Westminster PresbyterianChurch need to understand, believe and live outour fundamental beliefs.

In today’s church bashing climate we shouldnot be ashamed to make it public that we area church of Jesus Christ. We remember that Jesus told Peter the gates of Hades would notovercome his church, Matt 16:18.

We should not be ashamed to say that webelieve the Bible is the Word of God and theonly rule for faith and life.

We should study and understand the

Westminster Confession of Faith which sets outour view of the Bible. We need to be condentin knowing what we believe as members of ourchurch. Then as loyal members we shouldthrow ourselves wholeheartedly into ourregular worship services and every other aspectof church life in which we can participate.

During a radio interview, Karl Faase, a Baptistminister and leader of the Olive Tree Media

explained how he and his team use the feedback from their survey to produce short radioand television presentations. Interestingly,during the interview Rev. Faase said that whilepeople can be critical of the church when itcomes down to personally knowing a churchattendee they are usually very positive aboutthat person.

So this gives us a further clue about how weshould respond to criticism of the church. Weshould try to build up relationships with nonchurchgoers and stick with the teachings of theBible. Then when we get an opportunity toanswer their criticisms we remember the advicefrom 1 Peter 3:15-16, “Always be prepared togive an answer to everyone who asks you to givethe reason for the hope that you have. But dothis with gentleness and respect, keeping a clearconscience, so that those who speak maliciously

against your good behaviour in Christ may beashamed of their slander.” U

Editor ia l

CLEM W HITE

CHURCH CRITICS



The Brookton Family Festival, 2012

TONY V EALE

Preparations for the 2012 BrooktonFamily Festival are well under way.If you’re not sure what the Brookton

Family Festival is, we are a group of peoplefrom various Perth churches (mostly WPC) who run a mission, under the auspices ofScripture Union, in Brookton, WA.Brookton is on the western edge of the Wheatbelt, and is basically the town ofabout 800 people, which services thefarming community. Brookton has had a varied Christian heritage, which peaked inthe 1960’s, but the established churches arenow, like many small towns around Australia,struggling to survive, let alone grow.

We held a mission there in January 2011,to provide an opportunity for children andtheir parents (or grandparents) to hear the

Gospel through a week-long Kids’ Cluband a couple of community events. In thelight of the wonderful community support we received, not only are we enthused toreturn, but we want to tweak our program to

maximise our opportunities to present Jesus,and to encourage the Christians who livein Brookton. We will be in Brookton from Tuesday 17th January to Sunday 22nd January2012. There are three small Protestant churchesin Brookton - Presbyterian, Anglican andUniting. [The Presbyterian church is a WPC(Calvary), which historically is tied to thestart of the whole denomination.] TheMission team would love to see all these localChristians work together to bring the messageof Jesus to their community. As a team of 30or so people, we think we can help.One of the major events we intend to holdis a combined Sunday worship service in the Town Hall for the town, and to especiallyinvite Christians from those churches as wellas others from the nearby towns of Pingelly

and Beverley. We hope that gathering manybelievers together will be an encouragementto them, as well as provide any interestednon-Christians who come to meet and makefriends with some of their local followers of Jesus.Prior to the church service, we will hold a 3day Kids’ Club program from Wednesday toFriday. We found that with the summer heat inBrookton, it was difcult to maintain interest

from the Primary School-aged children for a whole week. So, a 3 day program was decidedupon, and we will use a slightly different wayof presentation, too, to keep the interestup. Within a Mediaeval theme, using short,punchy segments of song, stories, craft,games and Scripture, in a large group, wehope to make the Gospel clear every day, sothat even if participants only come for oneday, they will hear about Jesus. We will also

have a family movie night, and an afternoon visit to the local nursing home to sing songs with the aged people there. The main community focus will be aCommunity Fair on Saturday 21st in and

An old fashioned theme

M i s s i o n s



around the Town Hall, from 10.30 a.m. to3 p.m. We intend to have a large number ofactivities and stalls for all ages. Lunch willbe a free sausage sizzle, and during the day, we will have some live music, competitionslike archery and tug-o-war, face painting,puppets, Christian books and craft items forsale (courtesy of the Kingsley Church Craftgroup), and a bunch of other things to amuseand interest the whole community. We willalso invite people to come to a Quiz Nightthat evening (last year’s was well attended),and most importantly, ask them to come tothe Sunday service. We would love for you readers to supportthe team in prayer. The Fair and combinedservice are new parts to our program, and willin all likelihood stretch the team. We have anumber of new members, and many of ourteam are teenagers from WPC across Perth. There are still areas of preparation to bedone, and advertising to be sent out.

Another way to support the team is throughdonating towards the cost of putting on thisprogram. Many of our team are students; we have a couple of families, too. If you would like to help to reduce the fees the teammembers pay, you can give directly into theMission account:Name: Scripture Union of W.A.

Yanchep Family Festival(where we were formerlybased).

BSB: 036 044 Account no.: 22 6751

We will report back in a future Messenger

edition on how things went, to God’s glory!!U

Tony Veale is a ruling elder at Kingsley WPC

and the leader of the FF team

Fun with the kids at last year’s BFF

Adam blamed EveEve blamed the snake

And the snake didn’t have a leg to stand on.



Marshall Musings Dec 2011D AVID & W ENDY M ARSHALL

M i s s i o n s

Different Traditions We live in an unusual situation, Australiansin Japan, yet partially immersed in Americanculture and working with an internationalmission.

On a day-to-day basis David and the boys arein a fairly American environment. Even thoughmany of the students are not American, theteaching at Christian Academy in Japan (CAJ,pronounced Cee-Aye- Jay) is based on an

American curriculum and largely implementedby North American teachers.

Therefore we come face-to-face with many American traditions. Some are quite foreignto us (like 100 Days of School), some we’veheard of (like Thanksgiving), and others wehave our own Australian variations of (likeChristmas). As well as this are numerous termsand institutions that are American (like parkinglot, Varsity teams, and concessions stand).

The benet of this is learning about othercultures. We can now say we know people frommany different backgrounds and traditions.

But it can be achallenge for us tond a balance betweenall these cultures.

We’re Australian, atleast David and I grewup in Australia. Ourboys have Australian

passports, but mostlyknow Australia

vicariously through usand through the short

times they’ve lived in the country themselves(which is much less than the time they’ve livedin Japan). There are only two other Australianfamilies at the school, neither of which weknow well.

The challenge of how much you adapt and

change your family style to the culture whichsurrounds you is a challenge that most expatsface. Missionaries especially, because you arethere to reach the people in whose country youare living.

Every person and every family end up with a

different style, a different level of adaptation.So there needs to be patience and exibility.

When my son ips between “see ya this arvo”and an American accented “meet you in theparking lot”, I have to accept that that is whohe is and that the environment he’s growing upin inuences him.

There is also a need to berespectful of the traditionsand styles of other

people. Thankfully mostpeople are respectful ofour Australian-ness, buteven for those who overwhelm us with their

American-ness, we need to be lled with grace inour interactions with them. We appreciate yourprayers. International living can be challenging,even within the English speaking community.

Spotlight on CAJ

Many of you know the term “accreditation.” Itis a process whereby an outside authority statesthat what goes on inside your organisationmeets certain quality standards. The Western

Association of Schools and Colleges is theoutside authority that certies what standardsCAJ is meeting. Accreditation is importantfor international schools because we areindependent of national education systems. Weneed to be able to show that what we do at ourschool is comparable to what other schools do.

Without it, universities or employers have no way of knowing what a graduation certicatefrom our school means.

CAJ exists to provide an education formissionary children. It is best if it is accreditedby an outside body. This year, I have been

working as part of a team to prepare anaccreditation report on our school. We havereviewed policies, read pages of data, andtalked about how our school is going. This has

taken some time, but we are getting close to theend of it. An accreditation team will come inFebruary to check that what we wrote in ourreport is what is happening.

At rst glance it might seem unrelated to



missionary life, but accreditation is an importantpart of what I do to serve God. Pray that the

whole process will go smoothly.

Prayer points• Both David and Wendy are juggling many

roles. Pray for efciency, wisdom andstamina.

• Pray for Wendy as she helps move themagazine she edits, Japan Harvest, onto ahigher standard of professionalism. Thisinvolves changes in a number of areas andchallenges in interpersonal relationships.

• Wisdom about what we should include inour short visit to Australia in the middle of2012.

• Christmas is the prime time for evangelisticevents in Japan. Both CAJ and our churchhave a full events calendar. Pray for goodhealth for participants and open hearts foraudiences.

• Wendy’s Bible Study is going well, with thebiggest challenge being a large range ofEnglish language abilities. Mr N. has notbeen too difcult to manage, though he doeslike to use large English words that no one

except Wendy knows!

• Wisdom in parenting is something for which we always need prayer.

Praise points• Our fun camping trip. It was great to get

out of Tokyo and see the beautiful Japanesecountryside.

• We have a week’s holiday just beforeChristmas, not in tents this time, but up inthe mountains where we hope to get in somesnow play.

• Good health generally speaking.

• Good parent-teacher conferences at thebeginning of November. So thankful to heargreat things about each of our boys.

• Wendy’s magazine Writer’s retreat went well.• We’re planning more for next year. U

David and Wendy Marshall are missionaries

in Tokyo, Japan with the Overseaas

Missionary Fellowship

The Marshalls



MISSIONARIES CAN BE LONELY?

F e a t u r e s

Several years before I became a missionaryin Japan, I was about to go on a short-termmissions trip as a single person. Before I

left, I had a conversation with a young man whotold me he could never consider dating someone

who was interested in missions. I was not evenclose to being a missionary, yet I could alreadyfeel the bite of loneliness that comes with therole.

Before missionaries even leave the shore oftheir home country they face loneliness. So I wassurprised when I wrote on this topic on my blogsome time ago and found someone who wasstunned to think that missionaries experienceloneliness.

At the start of the journey to becoming amissionary, a person has to declare his or herintention. This immediately causes people,Christians particularly, to view the persondifferently. Even to start to avoid the person, asif a call to missions might be infectious. Perhaps

they feel threatened by the missionary-to-be’spassion. Or some might think it is just a phase

the person is going through and that if theyignore it, it will pass. To be misunderstood is toexperience loneliness.

Once missionaries are ready to depart, theymust say goodbye to all their friends and family.

To many this farewell almost equals a funeral. Itcertainly felt like that to us the rst time we left.People began to exclude us from their lives, evenif not deliberately. It felt as though our lives werecoming to an end, and indeed I suppose, life as ithad been, was drawing to a close. Conversations

would suddenly break off at our appearance, orpeople would apologise for planning an event

that would take place after our departure. Otherpeople just slipped away, lacking the words tosay farewell, but hoping that their absence wouldnot be noted. A living funeral, that’s what it feltlike: a lonely place to be.

To say goodbye to loved ones and move toa foreign country is a frightful experience. Toanticipate going to a place where you probablydon’t speak the language is to anticipateloneliness. I’m glad I didn’t realise at the timehow isolated I would feel. It wasn’t till we’dphysically settled in Japan that I realised I hadtruly left behind all the human support I’dever had (outside my marriage, of course). Atthe same time, going out as a missionary is anexciting time, a time of anticipating what Godhas prepared for you to do. It helps to know thereason for leaving was a call from God, but hedoesn’t promise he’ll provide instant friends toreplace those we’ve left behind. That takes time

— and in the meantime, loneliness can feel likeyour only friend.

Of course these days the internet makesa difference. We have retired missionaryfriends who recall the days when their ownchildren were born on the eld. They had to

go to the next city to telegraph the news tothe new grandparents. We’re grateful for fastcommunications, although not all missionarieshave this. We’re also aware, that even though wecan communicate with friends and family backhome, that doesn’t mean they understand what

it is like to live in our new environment or eventhat they’re interested. Communication tends to

peak soon after departure and gradually dropoff during the following months. Friends andfamily are busy with their own lives, which nolonger include you.

It can take years to feel comfortable in your

To say goodbye to loved ones

and move to a foreign country

is a frightful experience.

BY W ENDY M ARSHALL

One of our sons saying a tearful goodbye to his aunty

at her wedding.



newly adopted country; possibly never. Even ifyou make good friends with the local people,there can be a sense of not ever being able totruly share your heart. Much like a pastor orpastor’s wife cannot be good friends with mostof the parishioners. I have a missionary friend

who’s been in Japan for many years. Not long

ago I wrote a long, rambling email to her aboutrecent events in our lives. I also apologised formy lengthy response to her enquiry about how I

was going, knowing that she has a busy ministry.She wrote back and told me never to apologisefor a lengthy personal email. Why? She’s lonely.

Then there is the issue of language. This variesfrom country to country, but in some countries,like Japan, missionaries rarely make it to native-level competency in the language. The challengeof making friends when you struggle to

communicate isenormous. Whenyou can chat withsomeone aboutthe weather, butnot about yourheart’s desiresand frustrations,that is loneliness.

Sooner or

later, it is timeto return homefor a period: the

unique missionary institution of furlough orhome assignment. After enduring loneliness andhome sickness, missionaries often look forwardto this time at home. They look forward topicking up those relationships they’d missed

while being away. But before missionaries getthere, goodbyes must be said once again — thistime to colleagues with whom they’ve sharedmuch. Local friends and acquaintances toomust be farewelled, many of whom will notunderstand why the missionaries must go. Onceagain missionaries endure severed relationshipsand being misunderstood. More loneliness.

When missionaries arrive “home” for therst time they begin to realise how much theythemselves have changed. At the same time,the people back home haven’t remained static.

They’ve married, divorced, had kids, changed

jobs, houses, or states. And the spot that themissionaries once held in their lives is no longer

vacant. The missionaries discover it is difcult tond a place to belong in other’s lives, even thosethey used to be close to. The people back home

nd it difcult to relate to the missionaries, thesepeople they once knew. There now is a lack ofshared experiences and they notice changes thathave taken place within the missionary that theydon’t understand. Loneliness!

While missionaries are ‘home’, they touraround different churches and groups. Their

lifestyle is irregular and their time is oftenspread across many different situations andrelationships. It is difcult to invest much time

with just a few friends. The missionaries wantto make up for lost time with family, but it isimpossible. The time that has passed is lost,and nothing can be done to retrieve it. Moreloneliness!

Missionaries can look like they know lots ofpeople, but many relationships are not deep ones

where their true worries and concerns can beshared. Usually they feel pressure to tell successstories and to keep personal stories and talesabout failure to themselves. Not many people ‘athome’ stop long enough to hear beyond surfacedetails of missionaries’ lives. Loneliness!

Enough. I think you get the picture. Thankfully, there are exceptions. Many

missionaries have one or more special friends who remain faithful throughout life — friends with whom it is possible to pick up where they

left off and not feel as though much time haselapsed at all. And for them we are truly grateful.From a personal point of view, we as a family

live in a very special place. Because Davidteaches at the Christian Academy in Japan andall our boys attend there, we live very close tothe school. So do many other staff and theirfamilies, as well as a number of the students andtheir families. So we see many foreigners andhave many rich relationships. However, there isa high turnover in the community, and so we saya lot of goodbyes each year. But we aren’t aslonely as we used to be in our earlier years in

Japan. When you think of missionaries you know,

please pray for satisfying relationships for them.People don’t want to admit they are lonely. Butnow you know: many missionaries nd it hard toescape loneliness. U

David & Wendy Marshall are missionaries

in Tokyo, Japan with the Overseas Missionary

Fellowship (OMF)



BARBARA LOOKS BACK BY B ARBARA CROSS

F e a t u r e s

Our day began on Thursday with verydear friends arriving at the apartment where we are staying and as soon as

they arrived the little place smelled of smoke. When our friends came home from churchon Sunday they saw what they later realised was smoke in a bedroom window. When they went in the house they discovered that theupstairs was on re. Their rst concern was

for their son, if he was in the house. After their investigation they found that

their son had left and had actually set there, the result of which was that their wholeupstairs was either re, smoke or waterdamaged. The police began a hunt for theirson. Eventually they found that he was in ahospital quite a few miles away. There are alot more details that I could write but sufce

it to say that when they came and sat with us we were in the presence of extreme raw pain.

Others had given them used clothing andbedding and we gave them a gift of moneyso they could go out right then and buyunderwear and other clothes that they wouldnot be given used. My heart ached for thismother and father. How horrible to have yourhouse burned but how much more terrible to

know that it was done purposely by your son.In spite of all this terrible pain their Christianfaith came through.

After they left we went to a very ancientpub to meet up with three dear friends fromour DivorceCare ministry here in Chelmsfordto have a nal lunch with them. It was abeautiful sunny day and we sat outside to eattogether. We laughed, remembering happy

times together but they spoke of how wehad been a lifesaver as they went through theterrible pain of divorce and they met week by week in our home.

Again, these relationships go back some15 years and have been strongly maintainedthough we have been separated in distancefrom them for the past nine years while in Worcester. Small gifts were brought to us tocause us to remember them as individuals. Again a mixture of sadness at saying goodbyeto them and yet joy in each other’s companyand deep love for one another.

Before we left for England 20 years ago afamily member from my mother’s side wroteto say that our ancestors had come fromEssex, the county where we spent our rst11 years in England. We had been to thebeautiful village which the Sherman familyleft back in the 1630s. We even worshippedin the church where there is a window in theirhonour and saw the lovely home they left

there in the village to travel to the wilds of anew country to nd religious freedom.

We knewthat they went with T h o m a sHooker, agreat Puritanp r e a c h e r , who hadbeen ejectedfrom hisp r e a c h i n gpost at whatis now theChelmsfordCa thedra l . When he was ejected

Hooker wasforbidden to come any closer than ve milesfrom Chelmsford. Knowing that there were

Hooker’s Company reach the

Connecticut, publishers: Estes &

Lauriat, 1879



many Puritans who depended upon him forhis teaching and encouragement he moved tothe tiny village of Little Baddow – ve milesfrom Chelmsford. There he set up a schoolfor the purpose of training young men.

One of his assistants, called an “usher,” was John Elliott, who became a believer underHooker’s inuence, and later became the rstmissionary to the American Indians.

When wicked Archbishop Laud, who hatedPuritans, forced Hooker and other Puritansto ee from England, the Puritan Shermans went with Hooker to the New World. Hookerlater disagreed with one of the strong leaders

in the Colony in Boston over the limited voting rights given to men. He, along withanother Puritan leader named Stone, andanother 100 people, including my ancestors,the Shermans, travelled deeper into the wildcountry to a place they named Hartford –now in the state of Connecticut.

I write this historical background to tell youof a very moving experience on Thursdayafternoon. We knew for some years that thehouse to which Thomas Hooker ed fromLaud still existed in Little Baddow. However, we had never visited it and I was determinedthat I would see this place before I left England. We located the beautiful ancient home downa one track road in a heavily wooded area.David felt it was a bit unnecessary to knockat the door to ask permission to take a picturebut I felt strongly that I shouldn’t take the

picture without being seen.I knocked on the door and identied

myself and my interest and asked permissionto take the photo. We were instantly given a warm welcome, shown around the outside ofthe house and invited inside as well to take

photos of the very room where ThomasHooker had his school, held meetings withPuritans from around the area (perhaps evenmy ancestors) and where John Elliot receivedhis training to become, not only the rst

missionary to the Indians, but one of the rstto translate the Bible into a foreign languagefor evangelistic purposes. I must confess thattears came to my eyes to be in this spot soimportant to American and Church historybut also important to my family history.

The owners, both retired doctors, weredelighted with our interest and even obtaineda wonderful book for me written about

Hooker, and in which details about myancestors are even given. We were asked tokeep in touch with these delightful people asthey wanted to see any articles that I might write about these historical men.

On the wall outside the house and also ona wall near the Chelmsford Cathedral is aplaque that says, “Thomas Hooker – Fatherof American Democracy.” it was his ideasand that led to the framing of the AmericanConstitution. (To know more about thesegreat men do look up Thomas Hooker and John Elliott on the Internet). I left there very moved and thankful for this wonderfulexperience as we nish our nal days inEngland. How often I think of the verseabout the Lord granting us the “desires ofour hearts” – not only our needs but oftenour desires and this was certainly one of

those times. U

David & Barbara Cross have served with

Mission to the World in England and Wales

for about ten years. They have now returned

to America.

CHRISTMAS CHEER

The only way to reduce your bills at this time of the year ...

is to put them on microfilm.



MR TROPICANA –CHRISTIAN ENTREPRENEUR

Anthony Rossi 1900 - 1993

BY B ARBARA CROSS

Y ou have seen his products on thetelevision and in the supermarket juicesection but do you know the story

of the Christian gentleman who developed“orange juice – not from concentrate”?

Anthony wasborn to a largefamily in Sicily. When he wassix a massivee a r t h q u a k ehit that islandkilling 80,000p e o p l e , A n t h o n y ’ s

oldest brotheramongst them. After several days reliefships brought food and a way to escapethe devastation. Having heard his devoutgrandmother speak of Judgement Day little Tony realised that because he was a naughtyboy he would not have gone to heaven shouldhe have died like his brother. In spite of hisnaughty ways he wanted to know God and so

faithfully served as an altar boy where he wasadvised that the way to heaven was to say hisprayers every morning and evening for sevenyears.

At age 15 an uncle visited from Americanand set in motion a dream Anthony had tomigrate to America. That dream came true when he was 21. With the 30 dollars he hadsaved, he sailed to New York. The sight of

the Statue of Liberty seemed to promise allthat he desired in this new country. Findinga home with an Italian family he workedrst as an assistant to a mechanic. Next was

driving a taxi cab and after only six months in America he bought his own car and became achauffeur to a wealthy businessman. Next heopened restaurants with his brother and thena grocery store where he met his rst wife,Florence.

However, Tony never stopped dreamingof new ideas. One day he announced to his wife that he was going to the library to ndout about agriculture in Florida. While theredoing research on tomato farming his eyes fellon a book left on his table called The Life ofChrist. Picking it up, he read it for the wholeday. Longing to know more he returned to thelibrary and found a Bible. Day after day he

read it until he came to the New Testament.It was when he read the words of John 3:16that all his questions about God and heaven were answered. In the quiet of the library hesurrendered his life to Christ.

He followed his dream of growing tomatoes,a business that ourished but then once again was drawn into opening a restaurant. Alwaysfull of new ideas he remembered one day

how his customers in New York loved to buyoranges from Florida he thought,“I could sellFlorida oranges to restaurants in the north.Having worked out better ideas for buying,selling and shipping the oranges than othershis oranges were in great demand. Sellingoranges was not enough. Then he thought ofthe need to supply fresh fruit salad and orangejuice. This was done by developing better and

colder ways to transport the fruit to the New York market. In the midst of his businesssuccess Florence developed a serious heartproblem and soon died of a heart attack.

F e a t u r e s



Loneliness led to two things: longer working hours, developing new ideas, andintensive prayer times and Bible studies withclose friends. It was during those times herealised that he not only needed to witness to

friends and co-workers but that he needed toshare the gospel with his familyin Sicily. Hisbrothers andsisters showedlittle interest inthe gospel buthe had the joy ofseeing his father

come to Christ.

The orangejuice company,now named Tropicana, grewand prospered

with 800 employees. One day Anthonyproposed a party for his workers to celebratetheir success. While they were enjoying

themselves the new roof which had just beentarred that day began smouldering leading toa re that destroyed the huge storage building.

Through his tears and exhaustion as he leftthe re Tony’s greatest business idea cameto mind –buy a ship to transport freshlysqueezed orange juice to New York! Hischief engineer told him that it could not bedone but Tony only replied, “I never studied

engineering. So how can I know this could notbe done?” Starting in 1957 Mr Rossi boughta ship, the S.S. Tropicana, which was used toship millions of gallons of fresh orange juiceto New York.

Friends had often heard him say, “If I evermarry again my wife must be a missionary.”Eight years after the death of his rst wife hemet Sanna Barlow who was a missionary toSouth Africa. After their marriage in Londonthey headed off to Italy to meet his family andalso to nd the means to share the gospel withhis own people. They started a small Bible

study which grew into a Bible conferenceand then into a church in Anthony’s boyhoodhome of Messina.

Business trouble developed when theorange crops were destroyed by freezing

temperature. Anthony rejected the idea ofselling reconstituted orange juice. Firmlybelieving, “If any man lack wisdom, lethim ask of God.”(James 1:5) he designed aoating juice factory off the coast of Mexico where fresh juice was processed and thenshipped to the US.

Selling the company for 500 million dollars Tony used the money to build an extensive

home for retired missionary as well as startingan organisation to provide Bible tapes for theblind and for prisoners. Anthony Rossi washonoured by being inducted into two Halls ofFame but his greatest honour was serving theLord through his witness and his wealth. U

Barbara with her husband David have spent

all their married life working as missionaries

and church planters. They have now retired

in America and continue to serve the Lord

and His people there.

GOD IS GOOD

Thank God for dirty dishesthey have a tale to tell,

and by the stack I have

it seems we are living well.

While others are starving

I haven’t the heart to fuss;

for by this stack of evidence

God’s awfully good to us.



IDOLS ARE NOT JUST LITTLE STATUES!

Idolatry means following idols instead offollowing God. Perhaps when you think ofidolatry you think of literal images made

of stone or wood. That was the issue in Old

Testament Biblical times: people bowed downand worshipped golden calves and carved woodenpoles and bulls and snakes made of bronze.

If you come from an Eastern country you areprobably familiar with seeing people worshipall manner of things. For example, in differentHindu festivals people worship different godsof the river, of fertility, or of prosperity. ManyChinese restaurants even in Perth have littleBuddhist shrines in them. And the temptation is

for us to think: that is not a problem for us. Mostof us do not have idols in the corner of our livingrooms, and most of us do not make sacricesto anything. The closest the average Australiancomes to this is rubbing their lotto ticket on thetummy of a Buddha statue for good luck!

The shocking truth is that we are a nation of idol worshippers. You are an idol worshipper, and soam I.

Think about it like this. If I asked you: “Whator who saves you? Where do you nd fullmentand purpose?”, and you are a Christian, you

would think that is an easy question. It’s Jesus, you would say. Of course I am only saved by Jesus,

by trusting in Jesus alone. That is the answer thatyou truly believe in your head – your ‘in theory’faith.

However, life is not as simple as that.

If I could see what you thought about, what youdid with your time and money, and what youtalked about, I would have a reasonable idea of

what your faith is really in. This is your functionalfaith – your ‘in reality’ faith.

• Maybe it is in your work or vocation – your jobgives you fullment and purpose. You thinkthat your job will give you the money you needto do what you want, and give you a reason to

wake up in the morning.

• Maybe it is in your family – they make life worth living.

• Maybe it is in your intellect or your abilities –they have given you so much and can be reliedon to achieve what you want in life.

Everyone has faith in something; we would all liketo think that our lives are a reection of faith in

Jesus, but maybe they reect something else.

Of course, we see faith and passion much closer

to home – have you ever been to an Aussie Rulesfootball match? Or to an English football match?

There is no doubt that these people know whatthey are passionate about. I read a book by NickHornby called Fever Pitch in which he outlinedhis obsession with one particular English footballclub. He went to every match for over 10 years,

whether they played at home or away. He refusedto be the best man for his friend’s weddingbecause his team was playing at the same time.

For him, his team was his idol – it dominated hislife, it is what he lived for, and everything elsecame second.

You might think that this is just some kindof extreme case; surely you and I are not that

THE IDOL FACTORY SIMON V AN BRUCHEM

F e a t u r e s

This is the modified transcript of a sermon preached at All Nations on 14 August 2011 by Simon van Bruchem. It was the opening sermon in a series of

seven sermons about idolatry.



passionate about anything? But we all makedecisions and sacrices for what is importantto us, and we often nd it hard to recognizeour idolatry in ourselves, only in other people.

There are a million things that could be an idolfor you, but the core issue is not that difcult tounderstand. At its heart, this issue is about love

and about what you love.

LOVE GOD, FOR ONLY HE IS WORTH IT

We are a people with passions and desires. Welove things, we worship things, we adore things.

And we are all wired somewhat differently. Thethings that I love may very well be different fromthe things you love.

Idolatry can be dened like this: an idol issomething that you love more than God. An idol

is something that is ultimately more important toyou than God is. There is nothing wrong withloving fruit trees, or Star Trek, or miniature boats;but it becomes a problem when these thingsdominate your life and God does not.

The problem with following something otherthan God is that you are devoting your life tosomething that is not ultimately worth it.

Let’s turn to God’s Word to see what God has tosay about idolatry. We will nd that it is a verycommon theme; we will only be looking at a fewkey passages today but we could have chosenfrom almost any book in the Bible. Today we arefocussing on Exodus 20. This is the passage ofthe famous Ten Commandments, the core of theOld Testament law.

1. And God spoke all these words, saying,

2. “I am the LORD your God, who broughtyou out of the land of Egypt, out of the

house of slavery.3. “You shall have no other gods before me.

4. “You shall not make for yourself a carvedimage, or any likeness of anything that is inheaven above, or that is in the earth beneath,or that is in the water under the earth.

5. You shall not bow down to them or servethem, for I the LORD your God am ajealous God, visiting the iniquity of the

fathers on the children to the third and thefourth generation of those who hate me,

6. but showing steadfast love to thousandsof those who love me and keep mycommandments. (ESV)

For many of us, these are familiar words, so we need to look closely to make sure that weare seeing what they really say. God starts byintroducing himself. And the words he choosesto describe himself are fascinating: “I am theLORD”. That word ‘Lord’ in capital letters inour English Bibles is the Hebrew word ‘YHWH’,

the personal name of God. This is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

This is no force out there, some unknowablepuppet-master; this is a personal God, someoneyou can know and love.

He describes himself as “I am the LORD yourGod”. Not only is God a personal God, he istheir God. The Bible has an important word todescribe this – he is the covenant God. This is theGod who promised to be the God of Abraham’s

descendants, the one for whom he was their Godand they were his people. He had rememberedhis promise to Abraham and rescued them fromEgypt. He already had a track record of keepingpromises and being their God, and this would beshown more and more.

So this is a personal, covenant God.

What is the very rst commandment? It is in v3.“You shall have no other gods before me.” Simple,

and to the point. God is the one to love, andserve, and worship, and not anything or anyoneelse. Why? Well, He has just reminded us in theprevious verse. He is our covenant, personal God

who has rescued us. That is true of no-one else.

Verses 4-6 expand on what this might mean. TheIsraelites were banned from making any kind ofimage and bowing down to it or serving it. Ifthey did this, they were being unfaithful to God.Do you see that in v5? The reason God doesn’t

want them to follow other gods is because he isjealous! He is in a covenant with them; they arecommitted to God like in a marriage. If youare married, you don’t want the person you aremarried to to be with other people. And neitherdoes God. He is jealous – if you are God’sperson, then he has a right to expect you to loveand worship him and no-one else.

In case you are tempted to think that this issimply an Old Testament thing, have a quick look

at Matthew 22 with me. Jesus was asked whatthe greatest commandment in the law was. Whatdid he answer? “You shall love the Lord yourGod with all your heart and with all your souland with all your mind. This is the great and rst



commandment.” This is the ipside of idolatry. The most important thing in all of the law, whichincluded 613 different laws according to the countof the Rabbis, was to love God. And not to loveGod a little bit. To love God with everything youhave!

With your heart, with what you feel; with your

soul, with what is eternally important; and withyour mind, with how you think. This remains thekey command of the Christian life. We have aGod who is worthy of incredible love because hehas shown incredible love to us.

In Exodus 20 the people were told to love Godalone because he had rescued them from slavery,and because he was their personal covenant God.For us who live after Jesus it is much the same.In Jesus we see the rescuing action of a personal

covenant God. God saw that we were helplessand sinful and facing certain punishment. He sent

Jesus to come and to save us from sin and deathand hell. He died on the cross in our place. Hesuffered God’s anger poured out on him in orderthat you might be right with God, rescued froma horrible fate and freed to love God forever.

Christians are rescued people, rescued by a lovingGod. And because of that, we should love God

with all we have.

Whatever we might try to give our life meaning, totake the place of God in our life, will be inferiorto God. Nothing else can save us from something

worse, or give us something better. God is worthfollowing. That is the crux of the matter, and thecore message of the Bible: salvation is found inno-one else but Jesus Christ. If we believe that

with all our hearts it should impact all of us. Butso often we see this:

NOT LOVING GOD MEANS LOVINGSOMETHING ELSE

Not only are we people who are made to love

things, we are people who are made to worshipthings. Yes, the census data might reveal that adecreasing number of people gather together onSundays to worship God in a traditional church.

But all of us are worshippers of something. Wecannot help it! That is how we are made. JohnCalvin said that “every one of us is, even from hismother’s womb, a master craftsman of idols.” Weturn everything so easily into an idol.

What does it mean to worship something? Itmeans more than that we sing to it. The word

‘worship’ is from the old English word for ‘togive worth to’. We worship something if we giveit worth, if we show by how we live and act andspeak that it is something of ultimate importanceto us.

So the question for us is not: ‘Do you have anyidols, any rivals to God in your life?’ Because ofour sinful nature, we already know the answer tothis – of course you have rivals to God, and so doI. The real question is: ‘What is the idol that is the

most danger in your life? What do you ultimatelylove more than you love God?’

How might you nd this out? Let me give yousome ideas.

Ask yourself these questions: What is the worstthing you think could ever happen to you? Is it

losing your house? Your spouse? Your children? Your job? What doyou worry about happening?

Whatever you are most frightenedof, for you this becomes hell. Andthe fear of this happening to youmight make you look for rescue

from this hell from a Saviour.

• If you are most frightened of poverty, havingno money, then you might be a driven person

who needs to make money.

• If you are most frightened of your childrennot having a better life than you, you mightmake their education into a god that will bethe answer to all the problems in life.

• If you are most frightened of being overweightor unattractive, you might make tness andcosmetics and diets into a god that will rescueyou from all your problems.

Do you see how that works? Everyone looks forsomething to save them from their worst fears; ifthat Saviour is not Jesus, you have an idol.

Or perhaps you could think about it from thepositive angle. What is it that you dream about?

What would your perfect life look like? Whatdo you save your money up for? Jesus tells us in

It is in what we dream about, andwhat we fear most, that we see mostclearly what it is that acts like anidol, or a rival god, in our lives.



Matthew 6:21 that “where your treasure is, thereyour heart will be also.”

Perhaps your idol is money, or status, or respect. You want to be comfortable with physical things,and are willing to work hard and sacrice muchto get this. You want people to think you aresomeone special. If people’s opinion of you

falls, to you that would be a disaster, and you will do what it takes to look good to others. Ifthat is where you nd fullment and peace, it hasbecome an idol. Jesus calls on us to sometimeslook weak to the world, to be humble and relyon him, and overstating ourselves is makingourselves into a rival to God.

Do you see how easy it is to make idols? Ourhearts, our passions, so easily turn good thingsinto ultimate things.

It is in what we dream about, and what we fearmost, that we see most clearly what it is that actslike an idol, or a rival god, in our lives.

I did promise that this would not be a ‘let’s makeeveryone feel guilty’ kind of sermon. Yes, whenour sin and evil hearts are pointed out to us weshould feel guilty. But feeling guilty is not enough

– we want to be constructive and think on how tochange to better follow Jesus.

HOW CAN YOU LOVE GOD MORE?

We don’t want to be passionless, boring people. The people of God, the church, sometimes havea reputation for being indifferent to things. Thereare quite memorable descriptions such as the‘frozen chosen’. I don’t want to be like that! And Iassume you don’t either! In order to defy idolatryand our hearts turning so many good gifts ofGod into an idol, we need to do two things. Weneed to repent and believe.

The answer is not just to stop living for that idolyou love. The answer is to love God more thanthat idol. If you simply stop living for pleasure,you will soon nd yourself living for somethingelse. If your spouse is your idol, I don’t want youlove your spouse less. I want you to love your Godmore!

Our core problem is that we don’t really do therst and greatest commandment – we don’t love

the Lord our God with all our hearts, and souls,and minds. How can I say that? Because you talkabout what you love, and God does not comeinto our conversations that much. Because we

talk to the one we love, and our prayer lives sooften speak loudly as to how seriously we takeGod. Because we sacrice for what we love, andso often we are not prepared to sacrice our timeor money to follow Jesus.

What we need to do is immerse ourselves in God’s Word and prayer. Have you dropped your Bible

reading habit or perhaps you never really had one?It is a good habit – it makes sure you are alwaysbeing exposed to God’s word and his characterand his love. Does your family pray together, anddo you pray individually? Do you make the mostof your church family by meeting together toread the Bible with others, to pray, to talk aboutGod and life? If we don’t make the effort to beconstantly exposed to God and his love in theBible, all the other inuences around us will ll

the gap. According to Morgan research this year,the average Australian watches 15 hours of TV a week and spends about 10 hours on the internet. And if we are lucky, Christians meet once a weekon Sundays and occasionally read our Bibles. Tolove God, you need to know God. To know God,you need to read and pray.

So today, I want you to have a serious conversation with someone. Maybe your family, maybe a friend. Talk about idolatry – see if you can help one

another to identify what your idols are, what yourrivals to God are. Find out what you love the mostin the world. And start the habit of reading God’s

word, today before the pressures of a Mondaymorning make you forget.

God is so much better than whatever we mightreplace Him with. Just like Simon Peter said to

Jesus in John 6:68: “To whom shall we go? Youhave the words of eternal life.” Looking tomoney to save you will only leave you empty and

disappointed. Looking to your work to full youand give your purpose will ultimately not work.Idols are so attractive to us, yet they cannot deliver

what they promise. God created you, sustains you,redeems you if you trust in Jesus, and promisesto spend eternity with you in glory if you are hisperson. What you are following now cannot dothat. U

Simon Van Bruchem is the Pastor at All

Nations Presbyterian Church



Book Review BY N ATHAN AND ERICA W OONINGS

F e a t u r e s

W

e are very excited about this book which we are currently readingto our toddlers. We haven’t come

across anything like it before and maybe youhaven’t either. If you have toddlers like usyou want them to grasp the basic story ofthe Bible as a whole (well we hope you do).But how much of it do you tell them? Whichparts do you leave out? Which parts do youinclude? Are we telling them too much or notenough? It’s not easy!

Most of the excellent Bible story books thatare available are for school children and justtoo detailed and too hard for toddlers tounderstand (and not enough pictures!). Ofthe Bible story books that we do have for ourtoddlers we nd ourselves getting frustratedthat important truths are compromised forthe sake of simpler language. Key eventsare left out. They are just a collection ofdisconnected stories. If the stories have

applications they tend to be simply moralistic.So at the outset our toddlers aren’t able tograsp the central message of the scriptures,including its stories, which is Jesus (Luke24:25-27, 44-47).

However, all that has changed with TheBig Picture Story Bible. It’s a masterpiece!It doesn’t just tell Bible stories. It tells theBible’s story. It shows that the Bible is a big

book, about a big God, who keeps a bigpromise; God’s people, living in God’s placeunder God’s rule. It’s divided into 26 partsand spans over about 430 pages. Parts 12-23

are devoted entirely to Jesus and the Gospels.It includes two CD’s which are an audiorecording of the book read by the author.

Every single page of the story is beautifullyillustrated in full color (all 430 of them!) Your little tots will love turning the pagesand looking at the pictures as they accurately(peoples clothes, the buildings, evenNoah’s ark are all reliable representations)communicate the Bible’s story.

As one who currently spends muchof his time seeking to teach the truths of theBible to God’s people, Nathan knows howextremely difcult it is to do so clearly, simplyand with as few words as possible. We can seethat this book has been very much a labourof love. The author has worked tirelessly totell the story of the Bible as quickly as he can, with as few words as possible, yet makingsure the key events and teachings are in there.It’s doctrinally accurate. Helm’s selection of

material to include is rst rate and he movesthe story along at an excellent pace. He usesshort sentences. Where he can he uses twosyllable words, but he has not compromisedtruth; the stories being faithfully retold. Thechildren will not get lost in all the details asthe overall story is never out of focus.

Normally in a book review one wouldn’tgive away too much of the details of the

content of the book so that the person goesout and reads it. But we would like to let thebook speak for itself in the hope that if wehave not persuaded you to buy it, it will.

The Big Picture Story BibleBy David Helm with illustrations by Gail Schoonmaker



Let’s jump ahead to when Pharaoh nallyagrees to let God’s people go. Helm’s choiceof words is very effective in communicatingthe conclusion of the story of the ten plagues,“At last Pharaoh stopped pretending to be God. Helistened to God and told God’s people to go.”

So many children know the story of Davidand Goliath. Often the moral of the storythat they learn is along the lines of ‘be bravelike David’. Not so in this book. The childrenget to see this story in the light of the wholebiblical message. “David’s belief in God’s promisewas big. David’s trust in God’s word was strong. SoDavid decided to ght Goliath. He took his sling anda few stones and ran out to attack the giant. Do you

know what happened next? God kept his promise torescue his people! The rst stone that ew from David’ssling hit Goliath right between the eyes. David killedGoliath and rescued Israel from the Philistines. Godwas with David and God gave David victory over hisenemies in other battles. David, the mighty warriorbecame king over God’s people. David ruled overGod’s special place.”

Helm devotes a whole chapter to showing

how the Old Testament was fullled in Jesus.“In [God’s holy book] were many word pictures that proved he must die to pay the penalty for sin. In it weremany pictures that promised he would rise again…Do you see the Lord? Painted on the pages of Israel’shard and happy history is the big picture of God’s forever king.”

How do you possibly summarize the contentof all the NT letters in one short paragraph?One can see that Helm has put a lot of

thought into it! “These letters told God’s people:‘Remember, hold on to the message. Keep believingin Jesus! Love one another like family. Forgive oneanother. Be careful! Don’t let people trick you. Runaway from sin. Endure hardship. And look to Jesus’return.’”

How does he conclude the story of the Bible?“God’s forever people will one day live in God’s forever place under God’s forever rule. Can you believe it? Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!”

If you have toddlers, value the Bible as God’sinspired word, and believe that the Old andNew Testament is focused on God’s foreverKing who came to bring God’s forever rule,then you must purchase this book. You won’t

be disappointed. Your toddlers will love it. Atthe very outset your children will have a basicgrasp of the overall message of the Bible. Asthey grow and begin to delve into the Biblein much greater depth, hopefully they won’tget lost in all the details because they alreadyhave, in the back of their minds, the ‘bigpicture’ from the Big Picture Story Bible.

You can purchase the book from Koorong for

$29.95. If you know of another book as goodas this one we would love to know! Pleasedrop the editor an email to let us know. U

Nathan Woonings is a ruling elder in

Mandurah WPC and a ‘student under

care’ of the Presbytery of WA

A TRUE STORY

Did you know that in 1954 Joanne Schieble, a young unmarriedstudent, discovered she was pregnant but did not want to marry thechild’s father. Although she could have had an abortion, it was nother desire. Instead, she arranged to have the baby adopted.

Paul and Clara Jobs adopted the baby boy and named him Steven.

Not every child will have a life as remarkable as Steve Jobs’ but withevery abortion we lose a potentially great life created by God.



INTRO

In bad times, it is a great encouragement that Godis working in all things for my good (Rom 8:28). When I am tempted, it is empowering to know thatGod will not allow me to be tempted beyond what

I can bear (1 Cor 10:13). It is a great relief to castall my anxieties on God and be protected by hispeace (Phil 4:6-7). But these things are only truebecause of God’s providence.

DEFINITION

The Westminster Confession of Faith denesprovidence in chapter 5 paragraph 1:

I. God the great Creator of all things does uphold,

direct, dispose, and govern all creatures, actions,and things, from the greatest even to the least, byHis most wise and holy providence, accordingto His infallible foreknowledge, and the freeand immutable counsel of His own will, to thepraise of the glory of His wisdom, power, justice,goodness, and mercy.

In other words, there is an ultimate sense in whichGod controls everything that happens.

Now this is a very popular doctrine when it is

stated in a limited way. Jesus says, “Are not twosparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of yourFather. And even the very hairs of your head are

all numbered. So don’t be afraid, you are worthmore than many sparrows.” (Matt 10:29-31) It isright that this should warm our hearts. God caresfor his creatures, especially humanity. It is a lovelythought that even a small bird cannot die without

the ruler of the universe taking an active interest.OBJECTIONS TO PROVIDENCE

However, what does this mean if I, for somereason, want to shoot the bird? If that cannothappen apart from the will of God, then God’s will must in some sense constrain my actions. This is where we may become uncomfortable andraise objections to the doctrine of providence.Firstly, that it would not be fair for God to holdpeople accountable for their actions, since they are

controlled by God. If God is ultimately in controlof my decisions, then it is argued, that I am notin control of them. And surely I cannot be heldaccountable for something over which I have nocontrol. Secondly, it might be objected that in thiscase God would even be responsible for sin andtherefore sinful. If God is in control of everythingthat happens and he controls people in such a way that they sin, then it is argued that God issinning. It is good to note that these objections areessentially an accusation of being illogical.

For example, the rst objection assumes thatfor God to be in control of a person’s decisionsmeans that the person cannot be in control of theirdecisions. However, the WCF goes on to voice thetraditional view that:

II. Although, in relation to the foreknowledge anddecree of God, the rst Cause, all things cometo pass immutably, and infallibly; yet, by the sameprovidence, He orders them to fall out, according

to the nature of second causes, either necessarily,freely, or contingently.

Far from being an obstacle to human responsibility,God’s providence is viewed as the basis for humancontrol of our decisions and actions.

Biting the Hand of ProvidenceBY M ATT W ALDRON

This is the sixth article in a series written by various authors on the

theme of each chapter of the Westminster Confession of Faith.

Westminster Confession of Faith chapter 5

F e a t u r e s



Similarly the second objection assumes that forGod to be in control makes him responsible.However, once again the traditional view expressedin the WCF is clear:

IV. The almighty power, unsearchable wisdom,and innite goodness of God so far manifestthemselves in His providence, that it extends itself

even to the rst fall, and all other sins of angelsand men; and that not by a bare permission, butsuch as has joined with it a most wise and powerfulbounding, and otherwise ordering, and governingof them, in a manifold dispensation, to His ownholy ends; yet so, as the sinfulness thereof proceedsonly from the creature, and not from God, who,being most holy and righteous, neither is nor canbe the author or approver of sin.

God ultimately controls everything that happens.

Even sin. Nevertheless, God is not the source orthe author of sin.

So then the doctrine of providence teaches thatGod’s control over humanity does not negatea person’s control over themselves. Further,

God’s control over humanity does not make Godresponsible for humanity’s sin. The obviousquestion is whether this makes sense. Is this alogical contradiction?

THE LOGICAL COHERENCE OFPROVIDENCE

The frst thing we must note is that we arelimited in our ability to assess God’s capabilities.

Therefore, even if we cannot understand howprovidence can work, that doesn’t mean it isn’ttrue. God’s way is sometimes hard to understand(2 Peter 3:16), sometimes beyond us (Job 37:5), andsometimes simply a secret (Deut 29:29). If I don’tunderstand how aeroplanes y that doesn’t meanthey are logically restricted to the ground. The ipside of this is that if we try to solve the apparentlogical problem by limiting God’s providence itdoesn’t actually solve the problem. For example, we might say that God doesn’t actually controlpeople’s decisions he just allows them. However,that would still make God an accessory to ourcrimes. God’s righteousness is compromised bythis view.

Secondly however, I would draw your attentionto the observation that pretty much all Christianspray that God will change people. It might bein regard to behaviour towards us. It might bein regard to an issue of godliness. It might be inrelation to coming to trust in Christ, though this isa special example, that requires further discussion

later in this series. The Bible encourages us toask God to change people. There are only twopossible ways to interpret those prayers. We areeither assuming that God is capable of inuencingpeople’s decisions without taking away their actualfreedom to choose, or we are asking God tomanipulate them. If God is not providentially incontrol, then manipulation is all he has left, and thisis inconsistent with God’s transparent goodness asthe God who does not lie. If you pray, you believeGod is providentially able to answer your prayers.

Thirdly, though not very importantly, the currentdirection of science is against these objections toprovidence. The objections to providence assumethat causes are linear. That is to say, the factors thatcause something add up to 100%. So if God is

100% in control of my decision thenI have no control over it. However,as I understand it (and this is not myarea so correct me if I am wrong)modern theoretical physics sees

the interaction of causes as morecomplex than this. In other words,

causes do not always simply add up. To assumeGod is bound by a law of logic that does notalways apply to his creation is clearly ridiculous.

Finally, the Lord Jesus is both divine and human,and yet does not have a split personality. If it ispart of human nature to have a will, and part ofthe divine nature to have a will, then Jesus has a willaccording to his human nature and a will according

to his divine nature. How is it that he can be onlyone person? How is it that he can function andmake decisions? If his divine nature controlled hishuman nature such that his human nature couldnot function to make human decisions, then he would not be fully human. But if the freedom ofhis human nature required his divine nature notto assert the divine will then he would not be fullyGod. It must be the case that Christ can divinely will and humanly will the same thing at the sametime without either of his natures being controlledor compromised by the other. This doesn’t provethat God’s will ultimately controls all humanity,since only Jesus is also divine. But it does provethat both human and divine will can function in

God ultimately controls everything that

happens. Even sin. Nevertheless, God is

not the source or the author of sin.



unity without the compromise of either. To objectto the logic of providence is to object to the logicof the incarnation. Rather, in the gospel of God’sgrace, we are redeemed in to the perfect freedomof the incarnate Son of God.

CONCLUSION

In everyday life, most modern people assume alimited form of providence. We assume the world works in an orderly predictable way. Otherwisemy decisions would not matter, because theconsequences of my actions would be random. And we also assume that the orderliness of causeand effect inuences me without taking away my

responsibility for my actions.

In the death of Christ, we see that even inhumanity’s worst sin, God was in control, to bringabout his best blessing. So we know that God’sprovidential control of all things is ultimatelyloving and gracious. And we know that God’s loveand grace are so powerful he can’t be stopped by

anything. U

Matt Waldron is the church planting pastor of

Three Crosses church at Murdoch University,

Perth

TRINITY THEOLOGICAL COLLEGE WESTERNAUSTRALIA

Address: Trinity House 632-643 NewcastleStreet, LEEDERVILLE, WA

Telephone: (08) 9228 9067Email: info@trinity. org.au

AUSTRALIAN INDIGENOUS MINISTRIESALICE SPRINGS

Postal: PO Box 31, Alice Springs, NT 0871Telephone: (08) 8955 5271Contact: Rev. Phil & Cathy StuartChurch Service (winter):Meets: 20 Parke Cres, Alice SpringsTime: 10.30amEmail: [email protected]’s web: www.stuarts.id.au

ENGLAND

Revd David and Barbara Cross


PROVIDENCE REFORMED PRESBYTERIANCHURCHPastor Christopher SeahMob: +65 9139 4654Meets: 350 Alexandra Road, Level 3 (Next to Princess House)

SINGAPORE 159946.Time: 9.30amBible Study/Sunday School: 11.30am

Postal: c/o Apt Block 1D, Pine Grove, #08-15, Singapore 593001

Email: [email protected]: http:www.providencerpc.org

GRACE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCHBELLMERE, QLD 4510

Contact: Revd Bill Ham (07) 5428 1797Email: [email protected]

GRACE THEOLOGICAL COLLEGE c/- 36 Balaclava Street WYNDHAM

SOUTHLAND NEW ZEALANDContact: Revd Andrew Young

EVANGELICAL PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

PO Box 31-210, CHRISTCHURCH,NEW ZEALAND

Contact: Trevor WebbEmail: [email protected]

CHURCHFREO

“the gathering” 5:15 pm Sunday 408 SouthTerrace SOUTH FREMANTLE, WA

Contact: Chuck LinkstonEmail: [email protected]

EASTGATE BIBLE CHURCH

Meets: 52 Herries Street - TOOWOOMBA,QLD.

Time: 10amContact: Dave Kiewiet (07) 4636 5438Web: www.eastgatebiblechurch.net

DECEMBER 2011

Please note: While every care is taken toensure the information on these pagesare accurate, it is the responsibility ofeach church or organisation to informthe editor of any changes.

OTHER CONTACTS:

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 31



The good folks of Calvary PresbyterianChurch, Brookton, were recentlyblasted out of their quiet surrounds

by a vibrant team of young ladies. SheelaNathan led the team consisting of Samara, Jessie, Chelsea and Amy. We had a Ladies’Night on Saturday when we had tea togetherfollowed by a quiz – the Brooktonites lovequizzes! Amy gave her testimony. Nextmorning the team led the Sunday school withnew songs and stories. They helped us inthe church service with Bible readings, a skitand Chelsea gave her testimony. During theafternoon they gave joy to the residents of theBrookton nursing home. The elderly peoplealways love to have young people visit them.

The gospel was presented with a skit, a storyfrom Sheela and a testimony from Chelsea. The old time hymns were fondly rememberedby the residents. That evening we joined with other local

Christians around a 40 meter high cross set ona hill overlooking the nearby town of Pingelly.Monday morning saw the team at the local

school where they again presented the gospelthrough song, testimony, skits, hand craftsand talks.In between all this the girls enjoyedtrampolining with the local children. We give grateful thanks to God and the teamfor a wonderful weekend. U

A Great Weekend at BrooktonBY CLEM W HITE

C h u r c h N e w s

Food glorious food Story telling

In action withGrade sevens

Sunday school Chelsea reads theBible



GRACE CHRISTIAN CHURCH,BUDERIM, QUEENSLAND

The gospel ministry at Grace Church,Buderim, during 2011 has been greatlyenhanced by the work of an enthusiastic and

committed group of young people. Anna Joyce, having completed Year 12in 2010, decided to take a gap year beforeentering university, and volunteered to assist inthe church as much as possible. She has spentFriday afternoons helping run Kids Club, bothleading the program and being part of a teamthat brings the Bible talks. She also helps atGrace Youth on Friday nights, and sings in oneof the music teams.

During the year she has taken two classes

(Old Testament Introduction and Evangelism)through Sunshine Coast Theological College,as well as taking in a Bible conference inSydney and several local conferences. During2012, she will continue volunteering in thechurch, while undertaking tertiary studies innursing at University of the Sunshine Coast.

Callum Lewis, who comes from GracePresbyterian Church, Morayeld, is a sportand tness student at USC and is undertakinga Ministry Training Strategy (MTS) traineeship

through Grace Church. He helps lead Grace Youth, while assisting at Kids Club, and hasdeveloped into a church service leader andpublic Bible reader. During 2012 he willcontinue his studies, while doing the secondyear of the MTS program. Bible conferencesduring the year have taken him to Sydney andBrisbane.

Matthew Aitchison, who in 2010 graduatedfrom Sydney Missionary and Bible College,has done an internship with us by heading up

our 2011 ministry to international students,a ministry that has brought the gospel tostudents from all over Asia. As well, Matthew’spreaching has been greatly appreciated by thecongregations of Grace Church. In 2012,Matthew will be undertaking missions work inEast Asia, and will be greatly missed by GraceChurch.

Matt & Rashell Stodard graduated fromthe WEC College in Tasmania in 2010, andhave been working voluntarily in Grace Church

during 2011. They assist with the ministryto international students, Matt preaches andhelps promote Sunshine Coast TheologicalCollege, while Rashell teaches Kids Churchand helps at Playgroup. They are planning to

enter overseas missions in 2013, but during2012 Matt will come on staff and head up theinternational students ministry.

God has blessed us through the ministryof these young people, and we’re praying he will raise up more gap year students, graduate

students and others, to gain a taste of church work before settling into the work force.

MAIDA VALE CHURCH CAMP This year the Maida Vale congregation went

on our rst church camp in many years and was greatly blessed by the experience.

We headed out to Dryandra Woodland Village (an hour and a half south-east ofPerth) for a weekend together under God’s word. The campers were challenged to do twothings over the weekend: to spend time withGod, and to spend time with God’s people.

The rst of these was particularly enhancedby our corporate worship and by Bible talksfrom 1 Thessalonians 1-2 delivered by Brad

Vigus (AFES staff-worker on Curtincampus) which challenged us to live for Christin a changing world. Interestingly also, thejourney from the city to the Dryandra bushalso caused people to reect on the majestyof God’s creation and many prayers reectedpeoples awe for the God who made theheavens and the earth.

We also spent considerable time with eachother as members of God’s family, establishingand re-establishing relationships. We did thisas we went on a bushwalk, a walking tour orNarrogin, as we joined for games, as we sattogether over meals and, as we washed-uptogether. Taking time out to spend with eachother was a great blessing and our fellowshipgrew though it.

Please join with us in giving thanks to God,and please pray that our Heavenly Father willcontinue to bless us as we seek to grow ourfellowship, especially among the newer peoplein our church family.

THE MESSENGER COMMITTEERequest from South Africa

Recently we had a request from a pastor inPretoria, South Africa for back copies of TheMessenger. The pastor wants to use articlesin The Messenger as reading material forChristians in their churches.

Sandra Wilson has kindly put togetherseveral back issues and sent them off. We praythey will be used for the glory of God. U

C h u r c h N e w s



SYNOD REPORT FOR 2011

The 18th Synod took place this year at All Nations

WPC in Perth.

The Moderator, Simon van Bruchem, and the

Clerk Mark Vivian received many comments thatthose who attended were really encouraged by the

various speakers.

Synod was opened on Thursday 29th September

by Steve Rarig. He delivered a solid message on

Matthew 16 about bearing the cross. This was

followed by Chuck Linkston who shared about

Church Freo’s outreach work. Simon then led us in a

good discussion on our ‘grass roots Presbyterianism.’

The afternoon was then devoted to Synod business.

On Friday the 30th September Tim Thorburn

began a two part session on Leadership Development

in our churches. It was very well presented and

refreshing, and re-directed our attention to training

people to teach others in Gospel work. Roger

Palmer continued the good instruction sharing with

us from 2 Timothy 1-4 (an overview and discussion

of the whole book). It was a wonderful overviewof an important pastoral letter. The afternoon was

again devoted to Synod business.

On Saturday 1st October Simon van Bruchem

led the Synod in a discussion and exchange of

ideas to make our churches more evangelistic.

Those attending Synod were left with a reminder

of why God’s people are here – the Lord wants us

to be involved in being His witnesses and making

disciples. The19th Synod of WPC will be held in Western

Australia and is planned for May 2013.

~ Mark Vivian

Our moderator, Simonven Bruchem makes

a point

Tim Thorburn spokeabout leadership

Our ladies made sure

we did the right thing

We celebratedShelley’s ??? birthday

We enjoyed a fnal

meal together

The Messenger committee wish all A BLESSED CHRISTMAS!

C h u r c h N e w s



What do you see nurses? . . . What do you see? What are you thinking . . when you’re looking at me? A crabby old man, . . . not very wise,Uncertain of habit . . . with faraway eyes?

Who dribbles his food . . . and makes no reply .When you say in a loud voice . . . “I do wish you’d try!”Who seems not to notice . . . the things that you do. And forever is losing . . . a sock or a shoe?

Who, resisting or not . . . lets you do as you will,With bathing and feeding. . . the long day to ll? Is that what you’re thinking? . . . Is that what you see? Then open your eyes, nurse . . . you’re not looking at me..

I’ll tell you who I am . . . as I sit here so still, As I do at your bidding, . . . as I eat at your will.I’m a small child of ten . . . with a father and mother,Brothers and sisters . . . who love one another.

A young boy of sixteen . . . . with wings on his feet Dreaming that soon now . . . a lover he’ll meet.. A groom soon at twenty . . . my heart gives a leap.Remembering, the vows . . . that I promised to keep.

At twenty-ve, now . . . I have young of my own.Who need me to guide . . . and a secure happy home. A man of thirty . . . My young now grown fast,Bound to each other . . . With ties that should last.

At forty, my young sons . . . have grown and are gone,But my woman’s beside me . . . to see I don’t mourn. At fty, once more, . . . babies play ‘round my knee, Again, we know children . . . My loved one and me.

Dark days are upon me . . . my wife is now dead.I look at the future . . . shudder with dread..For my young are all rearing . . . young of their own. And I think of the years, and the love that I’ve known.

I’m now an old man . . . . . and nature is cruel.Tis jest to make old age . . . look like a fool.The body, it crumbles . . . grace and vigour, depart.There is now a stone . . . where I once had a heart.

But inside this old carcass . . . a young guy still dwells, And now and again . . . my battered heart swells.I remember the joys . . . . . I remember the pain. And I’m loving and living . . . life over again.

I think of the years, all too few . . . gone too fast. And accept the stark fact . . . that nothing can last.So open your eyes, people . . . open and see. Not a crabby old man. Look closer . . . see ME!!

Youth & Family Pages CRABBY OLD MAN

W hen an old man died in the geriatric ward of a nursing home in North Platte, Nebraska, it wasbelieved that he had nothing left of any value. Later, when the nurses were going through hismeagre possessions, they found this poem. Its quality and content so impressed the staff that copies were made and distributed to every nurse in the hospital. One nurse took her copy to Missouri .

The old man’s sole bequest to posterity has since appeared in the Christmas edition of the News

Magazine of the St. Louis Association for Mental Health. A slide presentation has also been made

based on his simple, but eloquent, poem. And this little old man, with nothing left to give to the

world, is now the author of this ‘anonymous’ poem winging across the Internet.

Remember this poem when you next meet an older person who you might brush aside without

looking at the young soul within . . . . we will all, one day, be there, too!



PLUGGED IN

Sometimes I hear about a movie and I gettold it’s really good. But all the reviewsaround are done by atheists, so how do I geta balanced review for the whole thing withChristian values incorporated into the review?

Well head over to www.pluggedin.com!

They’re a US basedorganisation that domagazines and also havetheir very helpful website.

While sometimes I thinkit’s slightly conservative(do they need to count thenumber of swear wordsin the movie?) I’m surethat there are many people

that appreciate the meticulous reviews whichinclude positive and negative elements, spiritualcontent and then drug, alcohol and swearing

content. It may ruin the plot for a movie ortwo but I nd that most of the time I don’t endup going to see the movie.

Plugged In doesn’t stop there. They also domusic, video and video game reviews. Then theyhave a few other sections like Family Room andUp Front. Family Room generally deals withissues related to families especially ones thatare younger and heading towards teenage yearsand how western culture permeates Christian values all too easily. There’s some handy tipsand advice in there. Then the Up Front area isto do with the latest issues. I read a good articleon narcissism lately and another on the impactsof giving young children mobile phones andiPads to keep them quiet.

So overall, Plugged In gives us a differentChristian perspective on a lot of hot issues inour modern day western culture that are so

often overrun by atheists. I’ve found it veryuseful especially for movies. The one thing I would love them to do is review some moreChristian music.

By James Wilson

WESTMINSTER

SHORTER CATECHISMWITH THE SCRIPTURE PROOF

Q. 34. What is adoption?

A. Adoption is an act of God’s

free grace [a], whereby we are

received into the number, andhave a right to all the privileges,

of the sons of God [b].

[a]. I John 3:1

[b]. John 1:12; Rom. 8:17

Q. 35. What is sanctifcation? A. Sanctication is the work of

God’s free grace [a], whereby

we are renewed in the whole

man after the image of God [b],

and are enabled more and more

to die unto sin, and live unto

righteousness [c].

[a]. Ezk. 36:27; Phil. 2:13; II

Thess. 2:13

[b]. II Cor. 5:17; Eph. 4:23-24; I

Thess. 5:23

[c]. Ezek. 36:25-27; Rom. 6:4, 6,

12-14; II Cor. 7:1; IPet. 2:24



THE FIRST GIFT OF CHRISTMAS

The rst Christmas gift ever given

Wasn’t bought in a mart or a shop,

And it wasn’t encased in gay wrappings

With a bright ribbon bow on the top.

The rst Gift of Christmas was given

In a manger lowly and bare,

And a blanket was the lone wrapping

Of this gift so priceless and fair.

God gave the First Gift of Christmas,

A most Holy and Wonderful One,

When He looked down in mercy and

goodness

And gave us the Gift of His Son!

~ John Gilbert

THE NATIVITY

Among the oxen (like an ox I’m slow)

I see a glory in the stable grow

Which, with the ox’s dullness might at length

Give me an ox’s strength.

Among the asses (stubborn I as they)I see my Savior where I looked for hay;

So may my beast like folly learn at least

The patience of a beast.

Among the sheep (I like a sheep have strayed)

I watch the manger where my Lord is laid;

Oh that my baaing nature would win thence

Some woolly innocence!

~ C. S. Lewis

Youth & Family Pages



A CHRISTMAS PRAYER

Loving Father, help us to

remember the birth

of Jesus, that we may share

in the song of the angels,

the gladness of the

shepherds,

and the worship of the

wise men.Close the door of hate and

open the door of love all over the world.

Let kindness come with every gift and

good desires with every greeting.

Deliver us from evil by the blessing

which Christ brings, and teach us to

be merry with clear hearts.

May the Christmas morning make us happy

to be Thy children, and the Christmas evening

bring us to our beds with grateful thoughts,

forgiving and forgiven, for Jesus’ sake. Amen!

~ Robert Louis Stevenson

True God of true God;

Light of light eternal:

Lo! He abhors not the Virgin’s womb.

Son of the Father,

Begotten, not created:

O come, let us adore Him,

Christ the Lord.

~ Anonymous, 17th or 18th Century

translated by Fredrick Oakley

CHRISTMAS...

Can you think of ChristmasOr a gift

To give in His Name?

Or without joy or peace

Of heart

to share,

As we celebrate again?

Can another year with it’s

Christmas cheer

But remind us

That Jesus died?

And the cradle there

Is empty,

Indeed,

Unless He was crucied.

The_Messenger_Summer_2011.pdf

Documents

Transcript of The_Messenger_Summer_2011.pdf