Windows On The Soul

Some Christian traditions have always associated the Church with a mother image. Although not an actual scriptural term, the Bible does however call her the “Bride of Christ” ( Rev.21:9 ). Without stretching the analogy, we can learn a lot about what a church should be like by considering motherhood. The first is the birth of new disciples. The Church’s Great Commission ( Mk.16:15 ) echoes the first biblical commandment to Adam and Eve, “ Be fruitful and multiply ” ( Gen.1:28 ). Evangelism will not be fruitful because of programs devised by man, but as a (super)natural outcome of the attractiveness of the deep love between the Church and her ‘bridegroom’, Jesus the Christ. And having born new disciples into her family, the Church’s other function is the love and nurture of her members, with special attention to the ‘new-born’. There are both spiritual and physical needs to be met. There is feeding and teaching and cleaning up after ‘accidents’. Nursing of injuries (both spirit...

" Friends come and friends go, but a true friend sticks by you like family " ( Pr.18:24 ) The experts tell us that in aiming for the goals we have in life, like love, friendship, success, etc. we all consciously and unconsciously have various conditions, measures or rules by which we decide whether we are moving toward or have achieved a goal. These conditions can be positive or negative, and mandatory or optional. Friendship is a goal relationship that will be very fragile when the conditions held differ widely and are poorly communicated. Some example conditions are:- frequent contact, never criticizes, shows genuine interest and concern, never breaks confidences, shares personal thoughts. A useful exercise is to divide a sheet of paper into four, and prayerfully list all the conditions you have about friendships: the ' musts ', the ' shoulds ', the ' should nots ', and the ' must nots' .  Try and be exhaustive; if you have many more positive...

" Combine dry ingredients with milk and eggs. Mix well; do not beat" . So goes the recipe book, but the same instructions should apply to Christians, who are called to be the " salt of the earth ". Why are new Christians the most effective in evangelism? Partly because they still have plenty of "non-Christian" friends. How easy it is as the years pass, to make our church the focus of our social and community activities as well as for worship and spiritual growth. As important as these latter are, our spiritual growth is not for personal gain, but as the means to God's end. Just as Israel was called to be " a blessing to the nations ", we are called to be " the salt of the earth " and " the light of the world ". ----xxxXxxx---- Gen.12:2-3 "...you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you. In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed" 1 Cor.7:16 ...

In this age of Industry Restructuring and Business Process Re-engineering, everyone seems to be preparing "Mission Statements".  Even when one consults a Financial Adviser, he asks, "What are your Life Goals?". Anyone of "?0 something" asks "What have I done with my life so far? What will I do with the rest of it?". As we start this "Missions Month", it would be instructive to look at Jesus' personal "Mission Statements". Matt.5:17 "Don't think that I have come to abolish the Law and the Prophets, rather I have come to fulfil them" Matt.20:28 "The son of man did not come to be ministered to, but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many" Luke 4:18 "The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor, to heal the broken hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, to free those that are bruised, to p...

Good evangelism is more than apologetics, which attempts to give a reasoned defense of the Christian faith.  Apologetics cuts down trees; evangelism builds houses. As John Stott puts is, " You have to win a person's confidence before you can win their soul ". But good evangelism is more than being friendly, its more than inviting your neighbour to a mission at the Church. Evangelism is relating to people as Jesus did - day by day, week by week, right at the point of their need. And the best evangelistic Churches are where people truly love one another, especially across racial, social, cultural and other barriers which previously divided them. In the end, an evangelistic life-style arises out of the reality of our own experiences of Christ. If He has really changed our lives, that's great news and we will want to share it. ---===X===--- Mt.9:31 "they (the blind healed) spread the news of Jesus..." Ps.66:16 "Come and hear...I will decla...

In our years of “coffee shop” youth out-reach work, we put up with being sworn at, occasionally spat upon, and personal property damage. But I can’t think of any time when we felt in bodily danger. However, a week ago, such an incident did arise. In our 26 years of fund-raising for the Royal Children’s Hospital, we have volunteered our services to sell the Herald-Sun ‘WEG’ Premiership posters. Unfortunately, this year, the ‘out-of-towners’, Adelaide, won, and we were faced with trying to sell Adelaide premiership posters in the face of a rather angry, parochial crowd. Football crowds have always been a noisy fickle lot, but this was the worst I have ever endured. A boozed load-mouth slew our stock off the table, and as I turned, a swinging fist caught my cheek. I must confess, that my immediate thoughts did not include offering him my other one. Fortunately, his cohorts dragged him away and the incident was over as quickly as at started, but leaving my onlooking...

One of the greatest inhibitors to personal and church growth is the FUD factor (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt). After the horror of Christ’s crucifixion, the incredulity then ecstasy of His resurrection and His times of sharing with His disciples, Jesus ascended to heaven. What did the disciples feel then? I’m sure they must have felt very “flat” after their mountain-top experiences, and probably uncertainty and doubts crept in - “ What do we do now?” , “ Why has He left us like this?” . In many ways, these phases in the birth of The Church mirror the phases in the birth and growth of our children. The teenage years are times of much questioning, of moving out from under the sheltering presence of parents, to discover one’s directions and goals in the ‘real’ world - these are the “Why?” years. Then the young adult blossoms, the world is at their feet and they are prepared to take on anything, with courage and determination. Just as parents must hold back in order to release thei...

Although this phrase borders on American jingoism, to me it simply encapsulates the important duality of the gospel. For Jesus came to make possible the restoration of right relationships between God and man, and that there might be peace among all men. In my years in youth outreach in coffee shops and beach missions, particularly in a cross-denominational environment, the perennial discussion is about "friendship" evangelism versus "conversion" evangelism. Building friendships is fine as a means of breaking down the barriers to serious communication. But unless the friendship comes from true acceptance and humility rooted in the fact that God accepted and loved me "while I was yet a sinner", then the friendship is false. Equally important is the desire to share the good news of what God has done in my life and is available for all. Our living is the picture for the world to see, our words are the captions and sub-titles. ----xxxXxxx---- Rom.15:19 ...

If you weren't at the evening service a couple of weeks ago to see 50 of our young people, fresh back from camp, arms linked, singing God's praise, you missed out on a great soul stirring night. Yet our children grow up so quickly. In a matter of 5 years or less, a thriving church can go into decline if there is no on-going flow through from nursery, pre-school, primary, juniors to youth groups. But even with the best Christian parenting, our children must become children of God in their own right - God has no Grandchildren . They must discover for them-selves God's salvation. So continue to pray for the youth and children’s leaders and teachers at all levels. The children of today are the church leaders of tomorrow. ----xxxXxxx---- Pr.15:20 "A wise son makes his father glad, but a foolish man despises his mother" Ecl.12:1 "Remember your creator in the days of your youth" Pr.29:5 "The rod and reproof bring wisdom. A child left...

What if Lazarus had decided that he did not want to "Come forth!"? After all, he was now in paradise with his Heavenly Father. The pain and disease that had killed him, had been left behind. On returning from the dead, he would face certain persecution, pain and murder ( John 12:10 ). Did Lazarus have a choice? I believe so, otherwise why would Jesus call to Lazarus. The answer lies in heaven, where our will, will be at one with the perfect will of the Father. When Jesus calls, our immediate desire must be to follow. When Jesus calls, it is not to passive "membership", but to strong, positive action - "Come", "Go", "Follow", "Love". But so often on this side of heaven, our response to "Follow me!", is "I can't", "I don't have any ability", "what about .......", "I'm afraid". Conversely, sometimes we move off on our own and ask Jesus to "Follow us"! (check...

I haven't seen the inside of many police stations, but here we were at XXXXX police station, helping Mary (not her real name) make a statement. She had been involved with a couple of guys who assaulted and robbed someone in the hotel carpark. We had convinced her that she needed to make a break from this crowd, and that confession was good for the soul, and the right thing to do. This was not your average Scripture Union children's mission - 3 weeks running a state housing commission estate youth centre holiday programme.  Mary 's family was not atypical - 4 brothers and sisters were state wards, a brother in a state youth detention center, an usually absent father, a mother more often in a drunken stupor than sober. On one visit to give the kids a wash and feed, the only food in the house was one can of spaghetti. Deceit and squalor were a way of life, self esteem non-existent, yet underneath the hard facade was a craving for love. What is "The Gospel" to familie...

Sometimes God’s answers to our prayer for direction in our life can at first be unrecognised or even harsh. But we must remember that in God’s time, “ All things work together for good... ”. The following member’s submission is unnamed for privacy. “Quite some years ago, I was struggling with God’s direction for my life, especially at work. One morning I was feeling particularly stressed about going to work and prayed about it before leaving. Within an hour, as I arrived at work, the boss met me waving a cheque and generally sounding off about this customer’s cheque bouncing. He challenged me about why I had “not been looking after this customer”. I explained that I had been going out of my way to keep this customer happy, but that I was not a credit manager.  Even so, I was sacked on the spot (this was before ‘unfair dismissal laws’). Some 6 months later, my ex-employer came to my home. He said that he had recently become a Christian and felt that he had t...

Have you noticed in the testimonies given by our young people at recent baptisms, the importance of the Christian home upbringing. This is good and right, and our responsibility as parents must be to raise our children to be given over to God so that they become God's children, not "grand-children" through our faith. The moment a person or church thinks that the "faith of our fathers" is sufficient, they are lost. God calls us all to a personal faith in Jesus - God has no "grand-children", only sons and daughters. The most evangelistic and enthusiastic Christians are usually the new converts. Their faith is new and fresh and they still have lots of non-Christian friends with whom they want to share it. Not only are we called to individual personal faith, but we are called to renew that faith daily, to be continually filled and over-flowing with the Holy Spirit. Withdrawing into our circle of exclusively Christian friends, and relying only on establishe...