God's Providence - His People

My Local Church
I am blessed to attend a fellowship were the Bible and the gospel are valued, Crossroads Presbyterian Church. I appreciate hearing the Bible preached weekly. I am also grateful that at the end of 2005 we began having more singing. We sing mainly hymns, which I love. We also became a bigger church in 2005, through receiving back two church plants to form the "new Crossroads". At this church I have many friends, and I greatly appreciate God's gift of these relationships. We are a church of mostly twenty-somethings, and we meet in this very, uh, unusual building, with an unusual colour scheme.


It used to be a cinema. There is also another large room with booths, that used to be a bingo hall! This is good for chatting after the service.

God's People Far Away
I am also grateful for relationships with God's people overseas, through letters, email, and phone calls.

Another aspect of God's Providence is people I don't know personally, who bless me so much through their writing and speaking. In 2005 I benifitted from reading many people's contributions on the Internet, which challenged me in new ways. I also benefitted from reading many books, including several commentaries on the Bible. It is wonderful that God's people can be such a blessing even from a long distance. One book I read in mid-2005, Joshua Harris' Stop Dating the Chruch!: Fall in love with the family of God, challenged me to more deeply grasp God's plan for working through his church. I don't think I've ever been a real "church hopper". However, I did not see how important the church is to God and how important he wants it to be to us.

Answers in Genesis Conference
This year I also had the privilege of attending an Answers in Genesis conference, which I loved. I was able to go despite my back problem, because they had inner spring mattresses. I had a wonderful time of fellowship on the Gold Coast. There were very few people my age, but I enjoyed talking to many older people and having the privilege of hearing their stories.

Here I am with some of the ladies I enjoyed meeting:

During 2005 the Answers in Genesis ministry helped me to understand that there are two types of science:

1. Observational science can be measured and observed through repeatable experiments, and enables us to create things like computers.

2. Historical science concerns the past and cannot be observed and tested in the present. The views people come to on historical science depend upon their interpretations and beliefs. Evolutionists and Creationists have the same facts.
Evolutionist Stephen Jay Gould said "Facts do not 'speak for themselves', they are read in the light of theory." Evolutionist educater P. MacInnis said: "The Genesis account of creation may even be the correct one, but there is no way science can prove or disprove that, and the creationists know it."

Many sincere, godly Christians are confused because they believe evolution is "proven", when it is not. They try to fit death and suffering into a "very good" world before the fall of man, which undermines the gospel message. I am deeply grateful for the ministry of God's people at Answers in Genesis, who have helped so many to trust in the truth of God's word and the work of Christ on the cross.

Read more...

Small Steps

I enjoyed Amy’s post on Small Steps. There are so many areas of life where small steps add up to achievement. I like the saying “How did the mouse eat the elephant? One bite at a time.” I don’t know its source, but it has stuck in my mind. I kept thinking of this when I was working toward my degree. Whether the task is sewing a quilt, completing a course of study, learning to cook well, or understanding the whole of God’s Word well, if I look at the whole it can be overwhelming. There is a temptation to give up before starting. Yet if I just “do the next thing”, as Elizabeth Elliot says, that seems attainable. Gradually, all those small steps add up to a whole that means the achievement of the original goal. Small steps are especially important for me because of my back problem, which means I often have to break a task into chunks to be able to complete it. To cook a recipe, for example, I usually have to make part of it and then sit down before completing more. If you have a goal, it is better to do a small thing toward it than to do nothing.

Here is nephew 2 taking his own small steps:

Read more...

Am I a Closet Catholic??

A person who called herself "Yabby" on an Online Opinion message board, recently accused me of being a Catholic solely on the basis that I am pro-life. Even after I told her I was not, she persisted in saying I must be "connected". Yabby looked up my blog and then wrote that I had a whole heap of anti-abortion people listed, most of whom have links to the Catholic church. Hmm. Perhaps she doesn't know the difference between Catholics and protestants. As a protestant, I am nearly as likely to be criticisized for being actively pro-life as encouraged. Two people have told me to make sure I note that what I'm doing isn't really useful, as if I do "save any babies" they'll probably grow up and go to hell. Many people are encouraging too, but there is certainly a lot of feeling that I'd be better off spending the time I take on pr0-life work "preaching the gospel". I don't mind these friendly reminders. They help me keep anything I do about abortion in perspective. The gospel is indeed far more important.

My exchange with Yabby reminded me of emails I received last year as the President of Students Organised to Uphold Life at the University of Tasmania. When I received the following emails, I sent them on to a few Catholic SOUL members, and they found them extremely funny. Here is my correspondance with our critic:

The original email, titled “Message for SOUL”, on 5 March.

get your rosaries of our ovaries

6-3-05

Hi Danielle,

Thank you for your message. I can assure you that we at SOUL have absolutely no interest in your ovaries. Nor do the majority of us have any interest in rosaries. Some of our members are Catholic, but they do not make up the majority.

Your cute rhyme represents a common stereotype, but it really has absolutely nothing to do with what we are trying to do.

Pro-life people are commonly assumed to be solely religious, but that is just not true. See these two sites if you are interested.
http://www.godlessprolifers.org/home.html
http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Parliament/8383/

From Sherrin Ward.

6-3-05

Ha Ha Ha,

You Catholics should just tell the truth about SOUL
and that is just a recruiting ground for picking up
unsuspecting young catholic girls who will be driven
to a life of submisiveness or young boys who priests
would be interested in.

You should be all sterilized the lot of you

People who assume all pro-life people are Catholic do two things, neither of which are helpful to their cause.

1. They attack the person (inaccurately in my case), rather than the arguments persented.
2. They underestimate their opposition, which is never a smart thing to do.

Read more...

Summer

Read more...

Remind me

"Remind me of this with every decision, generations will reap what I sow. I can pass on a curse or a blessing to those I will never know. To my great-great-great granddaughter, live in peace."

Songwriter Sara Groves

Read more...

True Holiness is Shown in Small Things

I have begun reading J. C. Ryle’s book Holiness again. I read to chapter four early last year, and I am starting at the beginning again now. Even the preface, written in 1879, contains a lot to think upon. J. C. Ryle wrote that “holiness” meetings that excite religious feelings are only of value if they make people “better husbands and wives and fathers and mothers and sons and daughters and brothers and sisters”.

He questioned the value of these meetings.

“Do those who attend these meetings become more holy, meek, unselfish, kind, good-tempered, self-denying and Christ-like at home? Do they become more content with their position in life, and more free from restless craving after something different from that which God has given them?”

“Above all, do they grow in charity, and especially in charity toward those who do not agree with them in every jot and tittle of their religion?”

J.C. Ryle felt that the meetings did “not promote private home religion, private Bible reading, private prayer, private usefulness and private walking with God.” After all, “it is far easier to be a Christian among singing, praying, sympathising Christians in a public room, than to be a consistent Christian in a quiet, retired, out-of-the-way, uncongenial home.”

These reflections seem all the more pertinent in 2006. Over and over again, the Bible tells us that devotion to Christ is to be evidenced in love for others. It is to be exhibited moment by moment, day after day, year after year. Our religion should show itself in how we speak to a child, our response when a family member asks us to do something, and our tolerance toward Christians who differ with us on non-essential matters. Such moment-to-moment devotion is usually less than exciting, but it results in good fruit. It can only come from always seeking our Holy Sanctifier with a humble heart.

Read more...

God's Providence in 2005

I am planning a series of posts on God's providence to me in 2005. I recognise and celebrate many things God sovereignly brought into my life during that time. I enjoyed my best year since 1999, when I was injured in a car accident.

I appreciated a Vision Forum email newsletter that encouraged readers to think on and document God’s providence to us this year. Anyone who has read much about Doug Phillips, Vision Forum’s President, will know he believes this is important. He named his seventh child Providence. The newsletter he wrote is also on his blog, and can be read here.

I'd firstly like to mention God's providence to me in his gift of a family. My nephews, brother, and sister-in-law are visiting for two weeks. It has been fun to watch Esther becoming acquainted with her cousins. Here are Esther and nephew No. 1 watching a catipillar.

During 2005, God's providence to me with regard to family included:
* My second nephew's birth.
* Learning that a new niece or nephew is due in June. I rejoice in welcoming new personalities to love!
* Seeing my brother and sister pray with their children.
* Visiting my nephews for two weeks.
* Two loving parents who always try to help me, and have done more for me than anyone else!
* Esther living close to us. Babysitting Esther and rejoicing as I watch her develop new skills.
* Having my sister (Esther's Mum) nearby and doing scrapbooking with her.
* Visiting different parts of Australia where I met up with aunts, uncles and cousins I had not seen for many years. I do not remember meeting my cousin Nigel Flowers before, and it was fun to visit his house for dinner.
* Seeing various family members learn more about God and apply His word.

God has placed each one of us in our particular family, with all its strengths and weaknesses, to accomplish his purposes in us. We should not disregard this. Instead, we should praise God and plead with Him on their behalf. We can have an impact, for good or evil, for eternity. One of most important keys to producing what is good is to pray for a humble heart that is ready to change, and submit to others. I know I need that!

Read more...