In the Face of the Impossible

Francis Frangipane | I want to talk about how the Lord raises up a mature man or woman of God -- the drives and attitudes that propel a person into a fully committed walk with Jesus Christ. It is essential to realize from the beginning that, when it comes to doing God's will, both the person and God's provision will always seem inadequate. Oh, you will have been prepared, somewhat. You will have studied and prayed, but not enough. You will have faithfully given of your time and finances, but nothing you do will be something you can confidently rely upon. Indeed, when you've done all you could, you will mutter to the Lord your equivalent of the disciples':

Evil as Evidence for God

Greg Koukl | The presence of evil in the world is considered by some to be solid evidence against the existence of God.  I think it proves just the opposite.  The entire objection hinges on the observation that true evil exists "out there" as an objective feature of the world.  Therein lies the problem for the atheist.

To say something is evil is to make a moral judgment, and moral judgments make no sense outside of the context of a moral standard.  Evil as a value judgment marks a departure from that standard of morality. 

FamilyVoice: asking the hard questions before the SA election

16/03 | "This year we have again sent surveys to all contactable candidates in the SA state election 2010," said FamilyVoice SA state officer David d’Lima.  "Our ten questions on family, faith and freedom issues were straightforward and specific – but the two major parties found some of them too hard, and the Greens do not want voters to know anything about their policies in these areas.

...SA Labor headquarters found the questions too hard.  They told us to find the answers ourselves by checking out the party platform on their website.  We did our best – and Labor scored 40 out of a possible 100.

"SA Liberal headquarters personally replied to our survey, but either don’t have a policy or don’t want to have a policy on most of the questions we asked.  We therefore scored them 5 for most questions.  The Liberal total was 52. 

Rebecca St. James Made "Sarah's Choice"

Angela Walker | Rebecca St. James is a musician, songwriter, author, editor, and now actress. She started writing in the second year of her ministry, and in response to advice from Cal Thomas, diversified her career, which she finds helpful to staying fresh creatively. This year, she edited the book Loved and had her first lead role in a new film from PureFlix called Sarah's Choice.

Christian Values Checklists NOW ONLINE

15/03 | South Australian election - March 20, 2010

Tasmanian election - March 20, 2010

GREAT NEW WEBSITES: SOUTH AUSTRALIA VOTES

SA Votes is a resource to help people cast an informed vote at the up-coming South Australian election on 20th March 2010.

Use this site to compare and contrast the policies of the parties on key issues, some of which may not gain significant mainstream media coverage.

AND: TASMANIA VOTES

TASMANIA Votes for insight into the 20th March 2010 election.

Watch a message from Jim Wallace and Nick Overton on this election .

The Last Supper - Not Exactly

Dwight A. Pryor | Few paintings are as recognizable or as cherished by Christians as The Last Supper by Renaissance Master Leonardo da Vinci. The iconic fresco on a wall in the Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, Italy, is renowned the world over for capturing one of the most significant moments in the life of Christ

Unfortunately there is a serious problem with Da Vinci’s painting: this classic work of art is in error in almost every historical detail!

Jos, Nigeria: explosive situation needs defusing

Elizabeth Kendall | Around 2:30am on Sunday 7 March 2010, hoards of armed, mostly Fulani Muslims slipped in and massacred some 500 mainly Christian ethnic Berom residents in three villages on the southern outskirts of Jos, the capital of Nigeria's volatile Plateau State. Whole families were ambushed, shot and hacked to death as they fled their burning homes. The tensions between the Muslims and Christians arise from competition between the 'indigenes' (Christian tribes) and 'settlers' (Muslim tribes who have come in from the north) for land, resources, jobs and political ! power. If not ended now the cycle of violence could quickl y spiral totally out of control. The revival of fundamentalist Islam with its doctrine of Muslim supremacy has added fuel to the fire. Nigeria needs a miracle of God's grace.

War and Redemption Reign at the Academy Awards

Marc T. Newman Ph.D | James Cameron will have to console himself with the over $2.5 billion in worldwide box office receipts that his film, Avatar, has raked in over the past few months (and more coming in daily). When it came time to hand out the Oscars at the end of the seemingly-eternal Academy Awards ceremony, Cameron’s neo-pagan/environmental vision was trounced in all the categories that focus on storytelling – though kudos are due to his technical crew who raised the bar on visual 3-D effects. And even the technical thrill is likely to be short-lived. Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland – another 3-D extravaganza – had opening weekend ticket sales that eclipsed that of Avatar’s. Still, there is something to be said for delivering first.

So if giant blue indigenous aliens fighting greedy capitalist strip miners couldn’t wrest gold from the Academy, what kind of stories did? This year, it was tales of sacrifice and redemption – at least in the main categories for screenplay, three of the four main acting awards, direction, best animated feature and best picture.

Proposed Victorian changes set to create powerful ‘equality police’

09/03 | Proposed Victorian law changes to allow the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission to initiate its own discrimination investigations without even a single complaint, would effectively create a powerful new ‘equality police’ in the State, the Australian Christian Lobby (ACL) said today.

ACL Victorian Director Rob Ward said that legislation reportedly due to be introduced into Parliament today would substantially increase the powers of the Commission – allowing it to act as ‘a law unto itself’ in deciding which organisations should be investigated and what it viewed as sufficient grounds

Missionaries of the AX

Food for Thought | The humble town is Fritzlar, called Gaesmere in ancient times. It is known in Germany as the birthplace of two beginnings: Here began the Christianization of Germany, and here’s where the German Empire was born as a political entity. The statue is that of the Anglo-Saxon monk and missionary Wynfrith, also known as St. Boniface, the patron saint of Germany and the Netherlands. And the stump is the remains of the tree that belonged to the highest German god, the Oak of Thor. The Oak of Thor was the center of the pagan religion of the local tribe of the Hessians, and the most pagan Germans at the time.

In 723, on his way to Thüringia, St. Boniface stopped at Gaesmere. He had worked for five years as a missionary in Frisia, Hesse, and Thüringia, and he had some limited success. Unfortunately, as his biographer Willibald relates, those Germans that converted were never too stable in the faith; while giving lip service to Christ, they would secretly go back to their pagan ways, bringing sacrifices to the pagan gods, practicing divination and incantations, etc. Boniface decided to deal with the problem once and for all by attacking at the very center of their pagan religion. One morning he appeared at the Oak of Thor with an ax in his hand, surrounded by a pagan crowd who cursed him and expected the gods to intervene and kill him. He raised his hand against Thor and delivered the first blow.

Jesus Meek & Mild or Conquering King?

Bill Muehlenberg | Without question there is no more beautiful, loving and wonderful person to have walked the earth than Jesus Christ. He is known even by his critics as a loving, forgiving and gracious person. It was even difficult for his enemies to find fault with him when he was present with us.

Millions of words have been penned about this altogether lovely person. Yet if we are not careful, we can get a distorted picture of who this Jesus really is. Is he everything I have just described? Absolutely. But he is much more as well.

Violent games make violent kids

02/03 | Research published yesterday by the American Psychological Association, analysing 130 studies worldwide, has proved conclusively that exposure to violent computer games affects youth behaviour

... Dr Anderson and his colleagues found that playing violent video/computer games makes kids more aggressive and less caring, regardless of their age, sex or culture.   They found that exposure of youth (of junior primary school age to college undergraduates) to violent video games is a causal risk factor for increased aggressive thoughts and behaviour, and decreased empathy and pro-social behaviour.

Prayer 4 Australian Police - February Update

Senior Sergeant, Paul Mellick recently sent us an article on the topic 'Where Authority Comes From', here is an excerpt: 

“... Kingdom-delegated authority is found in Romans 13:1-2 - Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore, whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God.

Notice it says “every soul”.  No exceptions.   In this specific  text Paul is referring to civil or governing authorities. 

A Vision for the Lost

by William Booth (1829 - 1912) | I saw a dark and stormy ocean. Over it the black clouds hung heavily; through them every now and then vivid lightening flashed and loud thunder rolled, while the winds moaned, and the waves rose and foamed, towered and broke, only to rise and foam, tower and break again. In that ocean I thought I saw myriads of poor human beings plunging and floating, shouting and shrieking, cursing and struggling and drowning; and as they cursed and screamed they rose and shrieked again, and then some sank to rise no more.

And I saw out of this dark angry ocean, a mighty rock that rose up with it’s summit towering high above the black clouds that overhung the stormy sea. And all around the base of this great rock I saw a vast platform. Onto this platform, I saw with delight a number of the poor struggling, drowning wretches continually climbing out of the angry ocean. And I saw that a few of those who were already safe on the platform were helping the poor creatures still in the angry waters to reach the place of safety. .