Christian Faith

In his bestselling autobiography, Life and Laughing, the British comedian Michael McIntyre reveals something of his heritage. He amusingly calls himself a ‘Canary’ because his Father is from Montreal, Canada and his Mother from Hungary.  I too am part Canadian, having lived and worked there for nearly twenty years, initially in Vancouver and latterly as a Senior Pastor in Calgary. Whilst serving there I fell in love with the Canadian sporting scene, especially Ice Hockey.  As a spectacle this sport is fast, exciting and very combative. I loved to watch my local NHL teams, The Vancouver Canucks and The Calgary Flames. So you can imagine that a hockey analogy would particularly resonate with me. It was said of the late Steve Jobs of Apple that he, ‘could see a pass even before the puck left the stick’. In other words, Steve Jobs had the gift of seeing the direction of future marketing trends before anybody else. That is what made him the phenomena he was!

Dr Alan Palmer explores more than just discipleship .... read on!

A group of religious VIPs travel north from Jerusalem one day to challenge Jesus.

Apparently, He is a lousy Rabbi because His disciples are breaking the 'tradition of the elders' (a broad range of religious requirements that are NOT in the Old Testament).

Jesus will do more than offend highly respected members of the community; He will challenge religion itself.

The confrontation is not pleasant; in fact, it is truly shocking!

Recently the President of USA, Barak Obama, publicly expressed the reasons and rationale as to why he supports same-sex marriage. This has prompted our own leader, Ms Julia Gillard to re-affirm her oppostion to what many believe to be an inevitable social adjustment.

But surely, same-sex marriage simply makes sense!

Michael Horton explains this via an article he has just written entitled: 'Same-Sex Marriage Makes a Lot of Sense.'

MONERGISM is offering some very handy titles on their website (not sure how long?).

They are 2 books by AW Pink:

'The Doctrine of Man's Impotence' and 'The Total Depravity of Man.'

These are available via HTML, ePub and .mobi formats and guess what? You do not have to register!

Monergism has also made available: 'Prevenient Grace and Semi-Pelagianism' (.pdf only) by Scott Christensen.

Great bedtime reading! Available HERE.

A young man was late for church. After the service the vicar greeted him and enquired as to why he had been late for worship. With a little hesitation the young man said that he was going to go fishing until his dad told him no. Although disappointed that that the young lad would even consider going fishing instead of coming to church, the vicar affirmed his father’s wise choice. Then asked, “Where’s dad?” the young man answered quickly, “Dad said that there wasn’t enough bait for us both to go fishing – so he went alone!”

Dr Alan Palmer explains why church can be a 'man-free zone' ...

WE HAVE JUST TURNED 3 YEARS OLD! ...Thanks for your ongoing support!

You can now follow us on TWITTER ...

@XianFaithAus Christian Faith

Official twitter Feed for christianfaith.com.au, Welcome! :)

1. We have a couple of significant new pages on our site.  The first one is a page about the RESURRECTION OF JESUS. This is a valuable page considering that if Jesus has not been raised – our website is a waste of time (which it isn’t!).

2.  The other new page is called ‘BIBLICAL COUNSELLING’. This page has been in the pipeline for quite a while now and we are very glad that it has now made its appearance. We all should be counsellors to some degree and we should all use the Bible to effectively counsel.

Read on for more ...

The book of Zechariah does not get a lot of publicity these days. Its weird visions and pronouncements of judgement might make for a great movie, but we tend not to turn to these pages of Scripture for our morning devotional reading!

But did you know Zechariah is quoted more in the New Testament than Jeremiah, Proverbs or Daniel? Hard to believe, but true.

What's more, every single time Zechariah's words are quoted, they are either spoken by Jesus or by a gospel writer in relation to something he did.

So why would we ignore such a book?

Charles Colson, the self-confessed ‘hatchet man’ for President Richard Nixon, died this week. If ever there was someone whose life typified the ‘condemned’ to ‘set free’ message of the gospel, it was he.

Christians know this of themselves anyway, but Colson’s conversion showed the world just what the Lord can do when a person completely surrenders.

To think that someone so intimately involved in the Watergate scandal could end his life as a respected elder statesman. That was Colson.

Al Mohler answers this question:

"I work with college students...and one of the big influences on their lives right now is Mark Driscoll. What do you think the effects of sitting under Driscoll on Youtube or on his website, and what kind of things do I need to be prepared for ministering to college students listening to his teaching?"

The D.M Lloyd-Jones Recordings Trust has announced that its entire collection of Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones' sermons will be offered free to download in MP3 format.

At this stage, 200 are available now ready to download and more will be available soon.

On their website, 7 of "The Doctor's" sermons can be readily accessed. They are as follows:

• A Man Called Paul
• Authentic Marks of God’s Child
• He is Our Peace
• Healing of the man at Gate Beautiful
• The Church and Her Message
• The Holy Scriptures
• Through Christ Jesus

It is of great concern that many young people have never heard of the name of Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones (one of the greatest preachers ever) and it is hoped that this very generous (and wise) offer by the Trust will produce a great deal of fruit.

Rarely have I put my hopes in a Roman Catholic to defend orthodox Christianity and this week’s effort by Cardinal George Pell, in his debate with atheist Richard Dawkins, has done little to change my mind.

However, there is one who, if he were alive, I would gladly offer up to Mr Dawkins on such an occasion: GK Chesterton.
 

“Dear Stephen

In finalising the details for the Bicentenary Celebrations to be held on Friday 17 September, 1993, your name was suggested to the Celebration Committee as one who not only teaches in a Christian school but whose ancestors played a foundational role in the Christian schools movement. We would be honoured if you would accept an invitation to be one of three people to conclude our Bicentenary celebrations at the Opera House in prayer. As the enclosed program indicates, we would like you to pray briefly for God’s blessing on Christian teachers and for their need to remain faithful.

Yours in Christ

Robert J Frisken”

What is all this about and why the drawing of the Rev. Richard Johnson? Read on…

My son said he 'cringed'.

My friend could not watch it anymore.

I was not feeling at all well today so I stayed in the very comfortable leather chair, in front of the new LCD TV and watched the program.

Why do I allow myself to do these things?

It wasn't just awful - it was unsettling. And I was already unsettled!

Yes folks; I watched 'Q&A' - I watched Richard (there is no God) Dawkins debate Cardinal George (not sure about my Bible) Pell - the most influential Roman Catholic in Australia.

Yes folks; I watched and listened to George Pell declare that Adam and Eve never existed; they were a myth. Alas, if that was the only gaff I heard!

Read on for why there had to be a Protestant Reformation...

We have just created a new page on Counselling (for our US readers - 'counseling) called 'For Biblical Counsellors'.

This page has been in the pipeline for some time but now a reality.

Why?

Because the Bible is THE greatest source document to help people - all people. Too often it has been ignored due to a perceived superiority of 'secular counselling'.

For a free copy of one of the best articles ever written on 'Biblical Counselling' please read on ...