Southern Cross Presbyterian Church

Below is a PHATT study that I wrote this week. I reckon this topic is really confusing. Let me know what ya reckon.

Read through the quotes below

• If people think God is interesting, the onus is on them to show that there is anything there to talk about. Otherwise they should just shut up about it.
• Religion teaches the dangerous nonsense that death is not the end.
• I am against religion because it teaches us to be satisfied with not understanding the world.
• By all means let’s be open-minded, but not so open-minded that our brains drop out.
• Faith is the great cop-out, the great excuse to evade the need to think and evaluate evidence. Faith is belief in spite of, even perhaps because of, the lack of evidence.

Who do you think wrote them?   Do you think they’re right?

My first response to the above question is yes – for sure they fit together. I mean the definition of science is knowledge gained by observation and experiment. But the more I think about it the more I think the answer is no. For most people – science doesn’t appear to be just the study of the universe it is their religion or philosophy.  They use science to justify their belief that their is no God. They don’t let science be science.

Science is good and has helped in many ways – but it’s application is limited. Science is not the only way to rationally investigate an issue – the study of history is also rational.

I guess Richard Dawkins just thinks that science is rational (there is solid evidence) and belief in God is irrational (there’s no evidence) – but is that true?

Check out part of a letter sent to the Northern Rivers Echo (published on the 2nd of April 2009)
So yeah, some things about religion are pretty trippy, to say the least, but let’s look at the theory of evolution; reality is an empty void of nothingness, pitch black darkness everywhere, yet somehow suddenly from out of nowhere a “big bang” occurs that gradually creates all the life in the universe! Yep, that makes perfect sense.

Richard Dawkins knows that science can’t answer all our questions but he forgets that the big bang and evolution are pretty wacky ideas and that there’s still a lot that we don’t know. Instead of having faith in God Dawkins has faith in science (biased science).

I guess I believe in God because he has revealed himself in the man Jesus Christ. I don’t believe in God because my brain has fallen out – but because there is solid evidence that indicates Jesus (a man of history) is God.

Read the following passages

John14:11 Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves.

1 Corinthians 15:3-6 3For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. 6After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep.

What evidence do these passages give us that Jesus is God?

If Jesus is God we can look to him to know there is a God and what God is like. And we will be doing that in future weeks, but if Jesus is God, then the most important thing is not HOW God made the universe (which is where the debate usually gets stuck), but WHO Jesus is and what that means for the universe.

What do ya reckon?

Although Anzac Day was a few days ago now, I’ve been thinking about it the last few days. Like most years, this year at Anzac Day I planned to go to the Dawn service, and unlike most years, last weekend I actually woke up in time and dragged myself out of bed to get there.

And why not? It’s a good thing, I feel, to remember those who died tragically in war. Many of those who died did so to protect Australia’s freedom. I’ve always considered that as a whole we Aussies take our freedom for granted. So it was interesting to see a pretty big turn out for the service.

And yet…I was quite struck by how our freedom was presented at the service. At one point a prayer was offered for the Australian people. In essence the prayer thanked God for the material blessings we have here in Australia, and asked God that we’d remember to enjoy those blessings. And that was pretty much it. I thought to myself ‘Is that all?’. The three B’s of bbq, beer and beach. The great Australian dream of owning your own house. That sort of thing. Is that as much as we can do with our freedom? But then, what greater use of our freedom is there for the average Aussie?

As Christians, we have something so much greater than our lifestyle that we can serve with our freedom – the gospel. The message of the one who sacrificed his very self to bring us freedom from something far worse than the rule of a foreign nation – freedom from God’s wrath, eternity spent forsaken by him. Aussies on the whole need prayer for much more than enjoyment of our free lifestyle – they need the blessing of turning to Christ and knowing true, eternal freedom with him. Is this our heart’s prayer for the people of our country, or does the joy of our hearts go no further than our lifestyle? And are we using the freedom we have in this country to serve that end and show our country that true freedom? What important questions to be asking of ourselves at any time, but especially as our ‘Got Questions’ series approaches! What an amazing opportunity that is!

I’ve stood in a land that doesn’t have the freedom we have in this country. A land where most people pass from birth to death without ever hearing the wonderful news of Jesus and the eternal freedom he won for us, because those who know this wonderful news face many obstacles and a lot of fear. Perhaps the real tragedy would be for us to take the opportunities we have for granted. Especially since we can’t assume we’ll have them forever. That’s certainly a challenge for me. How about you? Let’s not forget the freedom that Jesus brought us through his sacrifice, and let’s not forget the freedom we have in Australia to share this wonderful news with others. Let’s make the most of it.

Last week ‘The Bible Talks’ university ministry was scheduled to hold it’s ‘Grill a Christian’ – the opportunity for Christians to come and, over a free bbq, grill a panel of Christians with any question about Christianity, God and the Bible. However, the event was canceled due to bad weather – having rained for days up to the morning of the event, the sun coming out about half an hour before we would have held it. But what can you do?

The answer to that question is: reschedule it for a later date! and so we have done, planning to hold ‘Grill a Christian’ on Thursday the 30th of April at 12 pm. Thankyou to everyone who has been praying for this event. Your continuing prayers are greatly appreciated. ‘Grill a Christian is a great opportunity to share the hope of Jesus with many people who’ve never truly heard the gospel before.

If you forgive anyone, I also forgive him. And what I have forgiven – if there was anything to forgive – I have forgiven in the sight of Christ for your sake, in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes. 2 corinthians 2:10-11

As we head into “Got Questions” and the heart of our year of mission, it’s absolutely crucial that we remember to love one another well – to be “devoted to… the fellowship” (Acts 2:42), and to remember that we belong to one another as members of the body of Christ (Romans 12:5). And we need to know that this won’t be easy because, as the above passage reminds us, one of Satan’s central schemes is to try to cause division within the body of Christ. He does this to distract us from God’s mission and compromise our witness to God’s love.

According to this passage in 2 Corinthians, our key weapon in defeating Satan’s scheme is forgiveness. Forgiveness stops Satan dead in his tracks. He has no weapon as powerful in his own arsenal. The reason for this is that forgiveness is at the heart of the gospel and at the heart of how we are to respond to the gospel in our lives together. And anything that springs from the gospel is infinitely more powerful than Satan’s strongest weapon.

So I ask you, is there anyone in our church family that you feel hurt by, who has sinned against you in some way? Or on the other hand, is there anyone you have sinned against? Surely the answer for each one of us is “YES” on both counts! Well let’s not be “unaware fo Satan’s schemes”. Instead let’s be people who practice the gospel of Jesus Christ and, as forgiven people, ”forgive everyone who sins against us” (Luke 11:4).