Recent Pastoral Notes/Blog Items

"Fair Dinkum"

Submitted by John Zuidema on March 11, 2010 - 12:00am
Some time ago I asked whether we were being ‘fair dinkum’ when we pray, “Lord, may your will be done.” Just so that there is no misunderstanding, when I ask whether we are “fair dinkum,” what I am asking for is whether you really mean what you are praying for, in this case, obedience. If you wish to broaden that a little, you could ask, “Are we [you] being ‘real, true and sincere about your Christian faith?” It is one thing saying the ‘right’ words; it can be quite another to know that it actually lives in your heart. The sinfulness of hypocrisy is very great in our day, and its uselessness is even greater!

The Fruit Of The Spirit: Patience

Submitted by Nigel Cunningham on March 7, 2010 - 12:00am

In recent pastoral notes, we’ve been exploring the fruit of the Spirit. Until now, I’ve argued that the fruit of the Spirit flow from His task of teaching us about the Saviour and the implications of what Christ has done.

Does this change when we turn our attention to the topic of patience? After all, we might ask how the work of the Saviour could possibly help us to be patient when we’re eagerly awaiting a special day or waiting for something in the mail, or sitting in a waiting room?

The WORD [2]

Submitted by John Zuidema on March 7, 2010 - 12:00am
One of the passages in Scripture that always keeps me on my toes is Paul’s warning to Timothy. “For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.” [2 Tim 4:3-5].

It seems to me that this passage warns leaders in the church to be very careful, not only with their own exposition of the Word, but also to be careful not to deliberately expose the people who are under our care, having been saved by Christ’s precious sacrifice and hence precious also in God’s eyes, to false teaching. However, one of the dangers in our modern world with the internet in virtually every home, the Lord’s people can have a smorgasbord of ‘biblical’ teaching available to them, some of it very tasty and some of it down right tasteless.

Giving someone control over your life

Submitted by John Westendorp on March 6, 2010 - 12:00am

We all know that forgiveness is essential for us as Christians. We are people who are forgiven as we come to the Lord in faith and repentance. Forgiveness is a blessing of the gospel. We need to extend the same kind of unconditional forgiveness also to others. Jesus made that abundantly clear in the parable that He told about the unforgiving servant. That servant had been forgiven a huge debt by his master. However this same servant was unwilling to forgive a fellow servant a trifling sum in comparison.

Forgiving others is essential... but forgiving others is not always easy. Over the years I have met church members who continue to hold resentments against other church members – or more commonly, against other family members. Forgiveness is necessary but it is difficult.

At a recent visit my brother reminded me of another good reason why we need to forgive and that is that our unwillingness or inability to forgive someone gives that other person control over our lives.

That needs some explaining. My brother was telling me about a man whom he had worked with and who had been guilty of embezzling his company.

The WORD [No 1]

Submitted by John Zuidema on February 28, 2010 - 12:00am
In our reformed churches, we pride ourselves on ensuring that the Word remains central in our worship services. Hence the Scripture readings and preaching of the Word takes primary place in our services. That doesn’t mean the singing of hymns and psalms and spiritual songs are secondary. On the contrary, we also try to ensure that everything we sing is in accord with God’s word and compliments the teaching and preaching of the Word and brings glory to God’s name.

Let us also add that when we say ‘Word’ it means all of Scripture, even those sections which seem hard to understand. “All of Scripture is God breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness...” [2 Tm 3:16ff]. Furthermore, when we say that we wish to keep the ‘Word’ central, we are saying that we wish to keep Christ central, after all He is the Word and the last Word for the Church today [Luke 24:44; Heb 1:1-2].

The Fruit Of The Spirit: Peace

Submitted by Nigel Cunningham on February 26, 2010 - 8:09pm

A person who lacks peace is a person who thinks their security is in some way lacking. They feel that they or someone else still need to do something more or be something better in order to make up for the defecit, and they lack confidence that the deficiency will be addressed.

The third fruit of the Spirit is peace. It is perhaps the simplest fruit to explain, especially when we remember what we saw last week – that the fruit of the Spirit arise out of the work of the Spirit of enabling us to grow in our knowledge and understanding of the gospel.

Change

Submitted by John Westendorp on February 23, 2010 - 11:00am

Change is difficult for most of us.  That applies to individuals as well as to communities.

At a communal level there are those who want things to change and nothing ever changes quickly enough.  There are also those who are uncomfortable with change and who prefer to maintain the status quo.  When both sides in a community dig their heels in the fireworks are sure to start. In the church we have lived with that tension for a long time.  Some want the church “to move on” and they have their own agendas as to where it ought to move on to.  Others feel that there’s nothing wrong with the way we’ve always done things so they resist change.  The challenge for leaders is to manage change so that it happens without division – and (more importantly) so that it happens in faithfulness to Biblical principles.

"Hallelujah"

Submitted by John Zuidema on February 21, 2010 - 12:00am
This past week I have been watching some of the Winter Olympics and have been amazed by some of the skills and bravery being shown by the athletes. I also happened to see some of the spectacular opening ceremony. The choreography, lighting, and computer imagery in the ice ring was simply stunning. However, for me, there was also a down side. Canadian singer, Kathryn Dawn Lang performed Leonard Cohen's song “Hallelujah” [nothing to do with the well know Hallelujah Chorus]. Ms Lang has an exceptional voice, obviously talented and performed this song on several occasions before, but I dare say she has never had such an audience before.