Not how many Bibles, but …

My son was around the other night and wanted some specific biblical information about a certain subject. Information that I didn’t have off the top of my head, but believed I had written down earlier and placed in one of my bibles.
So I started looking for it and upon having no success, said, it wasn’t in that Bible. Well by the time I had said that for the third time, he piped in, with, “How many Bibles do you have?”
Well!!! The actual answer to that question is a little hard to answer as one bible has 3 separate versions in the one Book. But with different bibles and versions in separate books, I have at least 9.
That then led me to this thought: “It is not a matter of how, many bibles one has, but rather a matter of how often one looks at any of them?”
Yes, you can have one or a hundred Bibles, but if you never look into them or open them, then you have, for all intents and purposes, no Bible at all. Yes, a closed Bible is no different from not having even one.
Although I do truly believe that the best book of all is the Bible, and even if that was the only book you had, you would not need any other! However true as that is, it is only true if you actually open and read it with an open mind and Heart.
Will you do that now? Yes open a Bible and reads it with an open heart and mind? Will you?

Whose Rules Do You Play By

Was recently reading an extract from an interview Michael Parkinson did with the Poet W.H. Auden. There, as part of his presentation, although actually talking about the rules of poetry, Mr Auden said: “After all, everyone knows if you play a game, you can’t play it without rules. You can make the rules you like, but your whole fun and freedom comes from working within them. Why should poetry be any different?”
This of course is very true of everything in life, and my mind went back to earlier days when we used to play backyard Cricket. Either as a kid myself or with my kids. Before every game, one had to define or at least declare, the rules, which sometimes changed depending where you played and depending on how much space you had to play in. {Generally, the basic rules were “tippity run” (hit it and you have to run); in the wood pile, 4 runs; over the fence or in the creek, 6 runs and you are out; lost ball, 6 runs and out etc.}
Again, although the rules would occasionally change because of different circumstances, once those rules were established, we usually had lots of fun. I said usually, because although we had pre-agreed rules, there were often disputes about who applied the rules during the game. Often with one player saying the other is out and the other saying no.
Funny isn’t it, how we can agree to the rules before the game, but as the game progresses, we want to modify, and even in some cases nullify the rules when it suits us, and only follow them fully when it benefits us most.
Sadly many who call themselves Christian do the same thing. They claim to live and play within God’s rules and by His rulebook the Bible, but then as their lives progress, they (Should I say we,) often want to change the rules and the word of God, at least for our own relief and benefit, even if not for others.
So today I would encourage us all to truly decide whose rules we are really going to live by now? God’s or our own? Over to you now.

Holding on to your Call.

(The following is a Talk I gave to Deep Creek Uniting early April, 2003.)

Although I was Christened as a baby and had a few months of Sunday school when I was 12, as well as having had Religious Instruction during both my primary and Secondary School years , I really came from a non Christian Background and so when I finally , at 29, accepted that there was a God and that Jesus was his son and the Bible was His words to us and that I was a sinner in need of His forgiveness, I still knew nothing much about this God I now accepted as mine.

I don’t know about you but I was not happy with my limited knowledge of the one I now claimed to follow; and so I set about learning as much as I could about this God that I now called Father. So I started attending a Regular Bible Study and regularly read my Bible as well as attending all the seminars about prayer and the Bible that I could.

During this time I felt the Lord calling me to Missionary service. At first I resisted this call! Not because I didn’t want to go but because in those days I thought being a Missionary was something special and I wasn’t really sure if it was God calling or simply my pride as a new Christian.

Eventually my wife and I decided that it was God calling us and not our own desires and we approached a Mission society offering ourselves for service, expecting to be accepted almost straight away as the need for Missionaries was so great. Now of course that did not happen and it was a bit of a shock to us to say the least.

How we were led to that particular society is a long story in itself, but we did feel that God had definitely called us to Africa for 20 years or so with them, which is why we approached them and said here we are.

However we never heard from them for a long time and when we checked up with them we found that they apparently had lost our original application, and so we had to apply all over again. During this second approach, we were told that it was Missionary policy that all applicants have hat least one or two years of Bible collage experience behind them and they suggested we go to a Bible Collage in NSW for two years.

Now we were happy to go to Africa for 20 plus years but not happy about going to NSW for two Years. However we felt sure that God had called us to that Society and if that was what they wanted then that was what had to be. Others in our Church were not so sure and wanted us to go to BCV out at Lilydale.

Anyway we applied to NSW and much to my joy but utter amazement we were knocked back, as there, the wife must also do the course and they felt that with 3 small kids, Martha would not cope. Personally they totally misjudged her, but at least we got out of going to NSW. For a while at least! And ended up at BCV.

Now I don’t believe in doing something just for the sake of going through the motions of fulfilling their requirements, so I started looking at what I would do there and the only course that appealed to me was a 3 or 4 year course. Now it was bad enough having to do two years but to spread it out to 4 was pushing it a bit. Never the less I decided to apply for it but was told that as I didn’t have my Matriculation Certificate (Now the VCE, I believe!) Anyway whatever it was, I didn’t have it, so I wasn’t qualified for the course I wanted to do. There were two others I could have done but not the one I felt strongly about.

We were told that as I was a mature aged student that I may be eligible to try the first year and see how I went, but they weren’t sure. So we ended up at BCV a week before the year started still not knowing what course I would be doing. To cut a long story short I did the course, passed the first year and graduated 3 years later with a Bachelor of Theology.

But still things were not made easy. Half way through the course, we were told that this was great but now the Mission wanted us/me to have some practical Church experience, so during our last year at Collage I was helping the Minister at Wandin Uniting Church where I preached for the first time. When we finished at BCV we went, finally to NSW, to be Associate Minister at the Wagga Ashmont Baptist Church. Soon after our arrival there, their was a mass departure of the leadership and although I was supposedly the Associate pastor learning from others above me, soon I found I was the only one in leadership, with half the Elders and Deacons we started with.

It really wasn’t my fault, they all just took the opportunity of a new Pastor to leave. Anyway, we were there for 12 months and it was a sharp and difficult but ultimately a good learning curve. The mission wanted us to get some Church experience and believe me we got it in spades during our time there. Yet we still look back at that time with fond memories.

During our time there the Mission finally accepted us for Missionary service in Madagascar. It had only taken some 6 years and a couple of applications to get that far. So we returned to Melbourne for a few months expecting to head for the Mission field within 12 Months. Again it is another long story that I won’t go into here but it was two years later and to a completely different part of Africa that we finally went to.

During our time in Transkei and South Africa, we had our own litany of travails. The Apostle Paul lists his in second Timothy 11. Well ours may not be as impressive as we have never been whipped, shipwrecked or imprisoned but we did have a stone thrown through the car windows hitting the wife on the back just missing her head. Our house was petrol bombed twice. The Car was stolen, never to be returned although we did see it once. I have been mugged at knife point and had at least 3 pick pocket attempts, the fence cut and the dogs let out in an attempt to break into the house. There are a few other incidence, but these were the main ones.

Throughout all this we felt strongly God’s protection for us there and rather than being hindrances to our ministry, these attacks against us actually helped our ministry as people saw that we both believed and practiced what we preached about our trust in God and his concern for all who believe and follow him.

We did not stay there the 20 plus years that we expected but ended up leaving after only 12 years as God again made it clear to us that our time there was at end and it was time to leave there.

And so, 4 years later, here we are with you tonight. Still following God’s call for us. It is no longer in Africa but in darkest Croydon, but God is still calling and we are still walking in His call to us. It hasn’t always been easy, but it has never been too hard, and there have been many, many good times too. It’s just that the good times don’t make as good a story as the bad things do they?

To sum up, I would encourage you to make the most of every opportunity to learn as much as you can about your father God and be as involved with your church as much as you can and follow God’s call at the speed He calls you. If you have to make detours, even to NSW, to get the needed experience, do so. Don’t rush God’s call to you, but don’t drag your feet either.

Thank you and good night

The use of Christian words in a non-Christian setting.

In reply to my recent blog” Coca-Cola Evangelism, I received this reply: “I am not very sure about using evangelization for advertisement because to me the former pertains to preaching the gospel (the death, burial and resurrection of God in the person of my Saviour and Lord Jesus Christ). No comparison Walt!”
Now I don’t wish to be pedantic here, nor to get hung up on semantics but while my friend may be right from a Christian perspective, his understanding is based on the content of the message of Christian evangelising, and not on the act of proclamation, which is technically what evangelism is. Not the message itself, but the act of proclaiming that (or any other) message
Another thing I could add here, is that while Christians may have qualms about using religious terms (which themselves originated out of non-religious terminology) in a secular environment, secular people don't have the same qualms about using religious terms in their secular world, thus often words accepted as normal Christian words, words like, evangelism and Bible, are often used by secular people to describe their non-biblical activities. Thus, I at least, feel my other friend’s use of Evangelism in his opening statement, instead of using " Spreading the word" (which also has strong Religious implications) or “advertising”, was appropriate when trying to reach a wide audience of both Christian and non-Christian alike. Which is the aim of these blogs, as well as to encourage all to think more carefully about spiritual things and eventually Christ.

Also, Jesus often did the same thing when on earth, where in his parables and public proclamations, he used the language that people were familiar with and told stories that they could relate to and understand, to convey his spiritual message.

Anyway, don't know if this has cleared things up a little or just muddied the water further. Either way, please feel free to discuss this further if you feel you have something to add: Walter

Coca-Cola Evangelism.

Coca-Cola Evangelism. 11/5/2011
Just as an aside here, I appreciate and welcome any and all comments on my Blogs. I may not respond or reply to all of them, but I do promise to take the serious ones seriously, and to at least ponder on what you say.
It is with that thought in mind that I post the following reply to my recent: "Good old Coca-Cola,” Blog. It is from an American friend currently living in South Africa and he wrote:
“It is interesting to me how successfully Coca-Cola has evangelized the world. Wherever you go in the world you will find Coke. People everywhere like it and want it. One day when we drove from our house to our church our kids identified over twenty Coke ads on the way (billboards, shops, taxis) etc. Yet Coke is just sugar and water and a few ingredients—nothing that ultimately satisfies and meets real needs.”
He is right you know! Haven’t been to the States, but we have lived for a time in South Africa, and in recent years, briefly cruised through parts of the South Pacific and parts of Europe, and Coke is available everywhere there too.
Mind you, the Christian Church has not done a bad job of evangelism either, and in all the above places that I mentioned I have visited, we have seen many churches there too. On one South pacific Island, some people from our boat went to the left and others to the right. Later , on meeting up in a McDonalds (!) one, who went to the right, asked of one who went to the left, what was there, only to be told, “Dozens of stray dogs and dozens of Churches!” Something we found, from our own observations of going to the right, was also true there too.
So yes the Christian Church, like the Coca-Cola Company, has done a good job of evangelism in the past, but? But, just like when you can go into some establishments that sell Coke, you can get Coke that is already previously watered down, or else have your cup half filled with ice, reducing the amount of Real coke that one gets, whilst thinking that we are getting the full deal, the same is true for some churches and even church Denominations too.
Don’t wish to get into an argument about that here but simply wish to point out that Christ is more substantial than Coke, but sadly many churches and self-called Christians, have in fact, not only watered Christ down, but have so done so much so, that many outside observers have never, ever experienced the real thing. Which is a terrible thing indeed!
But that is them! What about our own personal evangelism here? (And here I am talking specifically to Christians.) Yes in our own presentations of Christ to those around us, are we producing the Real Thing or just a watered down version of the original? Again, something to think on seriously! What say you?