The church fellowships within the Church of God Sabbatarian community are blessed with differing gifts, resources and opportunities. Instead of harbouring an “us and them” mindset, we increasingly embrace this diversity today with profound thankfulness. Across the earth we still call home, we find ourselves “building bridges between brothers” in an ever more uncertain and perverse generation. This increased fraternity and the sharing of resources is a powerful testimony to the work of the Holy Spirit in our midst. Are we not seeing the ministry of reconciliation during our time of stewardship? Praise God!
Perhaps one of the oldest (let’s call her “grandmother”) in our Sabbatarian community is the Church of God (Seventh Day). The past 170 or so years have seen many church families spread out across the world. Many don’t know “grandmother” all that well, but “grandmother” wants you to know that “she’s doing well by God’s grace”. The church internationally is represented in 60 countries, and its members are predominately English and Spanish speaking, the latter formed as strong and vibrant fellowships across the USA, Central and South America.
Ever wondered about the significant growth in the Spanish-speaking churches? Those who read their Santa Biblia (Holy Bible) soon discover that the word for Sabbath is Sabado. In English the seventh day has inherited its Roman naming after the god Saturn. But not so in Spanish. Thus, the day of the week given for rest, worship and fellowship is, of course, Sabado!
So next time you’re out of town, and looking for a place to fellowship, or would simply like to explore our shared church heritage, the love within our “grandmother” church is sure to leave you both blessed and loved. And, if grandmother bids you “paz hermanos” – it’s a special blessing among our Spanish fraternity which simply and profoundly means “peace brethren”.
I shared a children’s church message on Sabbath with the aid of a yellow hand puppet. It was a message about being thankful. And overall, the feedback we’ve received both verbally and via the internet has been affirming and encouraging. The children loved it, parents applauded the storytelling, and the elderly were equally delighted.
However, not everyone it seems appreciates this kind of creativity, with the lament that children used to just sit and listen to the word preached to them – without any kind of visual aid.
What do you feel about utilising such creativity to help the gospel message stand out above the current noise? Have we gone soft? Or, do we even more-so need to step up to the task, utilising all the resources available to lead our young to Christ?
Today our children and youth are flooded with a wicked, insidious and deceptive narrative in education and in our media. The cacophony of the deceitful “there is no God” resonates at every level of society.
The power of successful storytelling was Jesus’ alone, with simple parables, visual miracles, words written in the sand, and the power of physical touch. It takes all of Jesus’ power and creativity to rise up against the relentless multimedia of today. Not all people are skilled in storytelling; in this case, my Dad was a puppeteer from childhood, and in the spirit of being a “fisher of men” was able to later in life draw the attention of otherwise disinterested souls. We all have our calling and gifting in Christ. The message of Thanksgiving last Sabbath spoke not only to our little ones, but their angels in heaven also celebrated this simple modern-day parable.
Our children need us and Jesus holds us responsible.
By John Classic
PS Would you like to contribute to our local church ministry? Do you have a children’s church lesson, or an item of special worship music, a sermonette, testimony or scripture reading? We’d love to hear from you. Would you consider getting a friend to help film it? Send the video to us by Dropbox or FTP, and we’ll include it in an upcoming livestream https://www.cog7aus.com/live/
After more than a month of quarantine, social distancing and ongoing political and international narrative over the COVID-19 virus, with churches closed, businesses struggling, a major airline collapse amidst a general air of uncertainty, we’ve seen the remarkable response of church communities coming together in the digital universe for livestreaming of weekly church services, Bible studies, devotionals and online fellowship.
When we began livestreaming Sabbath worship services in Mundaring, WA, some 15 months ago in order to cater for our family in Christ living in remote areas, little did we realise that livestreaming would soon become an essential service. Now with three cameras, lights, microphones and other streaming equipment, the back part of our home has been turned into a mini television studio. Take a look!
And so, every Sabbath at 11:00am we “go live”, ministering in the lives of our faith community, not only throughout Australia, but overseas as well. Last week was our most successful and riveting online service, benefiting from the contributions of many more people. This week via Zoom we started a Tuesday night Bible study. And this next Sabbath’s behind-the-scenes work is again almost complete.
We’re grateful to Hannah and Emma, who significantly contribute to our team’s work. Hannah arrived here just before the coronavirus lock-down, and then being unable to return to Sydney, has been an invaluable help in our work here. Emma adeptly manages the livestreaming console. And Rebecca, as vocalist with keyboard as well as facilitating children’s church completes the onsite team.
When Jesus said, “I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it,” I think he was also thinking about the difficult times we’re now entering. For when the church is under pressure, it is then that she is at her best! Pandemic fear gives way to prolific faith.
Is there any difference between love, desire and lust? If were listening to the conversation in todays circles, not much! Tolerance and equality, it seems, can also be ported to mean acceptance and legitimising that which isnt moral or good.
Allow me to explain. A friend, well call him George, dearly loved three young women. They too apparently loved him, and quickly became more than good friends. Thats when things got complicated. Georges desire was torn between them all. Society dictated that he could only legally marry one. But, the foursome wasnt dissuaded by such mores. They assumed suburban family life and over time worked to legalise their relationships. In effect, he was husband to three women, which isnt uncommon in some countries. In terms of Western law, however, the merits of consent and love between a union of more than one man and one woman was not seen as eligible criteria for the historical, religious, legal and widely-accepteddefinition of marriage.
So, legally they werent married. Civil law defines marriage as the monogamous, lifelong union between one man and one woman, the origins of which lie at the heart of Christianity. So, George and his wives sought a compromise. A civil union of sorts was attempted in order to give some legitimacy to their family status. By that time, several children had been born. Soon, various government departments began investigating. The news media quickly picked up the story, and of course it made sensational weekend reading.
Were they not consenting adults who chose their relationships? Werent they in love? They seemed happy! Isnt it all about love, and the freedom to choose? The vexing question is who dictates then how they should live their lives, or deny them their equal rights? Its an ongoing and topical narrative that seems to reverberate within todays media and politics. There are those who uphold traditional marriage between a man and a woman, and those who espouse other models, such as homosexuality, lesbianism, union with under-age children, transgenderism, as well as polygamy.
Governed by higher law, civil laws generally adopted and accepted what was understood to form the basis for strong, peaceful and enduring societies based on the healthy, stable family unit constituting a paternal father and a maternal mother, united for life, and including the nurture of any children born to that union. After all, thats a foundational premise which Christianity espouses to be the God-ordained mandate for human life as reflected in the pages of its Constitution, the Holy Bible and thus reflected in the marriage vows of: A natural union but a Divine institution.
Today, unfortunately, were hearing a vocal minority attempting to redefine the family unit without knowing or assessing what future complications and consequences might be legally or societally. The Christo-centric values that Western society grew from, it seems,have all but been abandoned. Recognised historically, as is woven throughout our legal system, is the understanding that a loving and responsible father and mother together provide the best environment for a stable, nurturing home for the next generation. Marriage also provides that children have a right to life, a right to be protected, as well as a right to know who their biological father and mother are, and benefit from that nurture. Traditional marriage preserves the family as no other unit can, and therefore society depends on its strength. The covenant relationship within marriage between a man and a woman reflects a higher relationship of what God desires of us of holiness, fidelity and covenant. Interestingly, most gays dont want traditional marriage for the sanctity, holiness and Godliness it represents; its said that their desire rather is to malign and ultimately destroy marriage. It is widely known that unions such as those generally outside of marriage contribute to higher than normal rates of depression, dysfunction as well as suicide. Homosexual cultures historically are recorded as being more violent, and generally short-lived.
In terms of defining what healthy desire is, theres a vastly big chasm between love and lust. It is here that society seems to have blurred the lines. Genuine love leads to covenant, lifelong union between a man and a woman. This nurture in turn is extended to the children which in turn benefits society as a whole. Lust, as a base desire, is a powerful and dangerous agent, parading as love but seeking unhealthy sexual fulfilment as it chooses. Lust is not love. Its an aberration, a fanciful, unfettered and unhealthy selfish orientation. It may parade as virtue. But it isnt love not historically, legally or morally. Lust, a lack of self-control, is the very opposite of what God intended in the tenth commandment when he said, You shall not covet. If not remediated, this kind of self-centredness can be also diagnosed as a form of mental illness.
The conversation were currently having regarding the definition of marriage is one of foundational challengeswe face today. Like a ship without a compass, blown with every uneasy wind, a noisy minority is actively and avidly working to simultaneously erase historys other virtues and bastions beyond traditional marriage, especially those with Christian origins.
An example of this might help. We no longer count the years as from AD, a Latin term meaning Year of our Lord (a reference to Christs birth), in recent times having subtly changed AD for CE (meaning Common Era). Why the change? Perhaps its a subtle assault on faith history! Another example: Today we call babies in utero as foetuses” or “embryos which seem to be an additional attempt to further dehumanise them, and thus giving abortion the appearance of greater legitimacy. Family and faith values seem to have been progressively eroded in more ways than one.
Of course, although traditional marriage is generally upheld within the faith community as it ought, the virtues and blessing of marriage are generally poorly argued. The Christian community has failed to connect marriage to Jesus Christ, the Lamb and His Bride, and it is on this platform that the Christian voice must be united. Ordained at creation, traditional marriage has proven its value. The alternatives of anti-human and anti-family thinking will result in consequences to those of similar past histories remembered for escalated violence and vanishing. Sadly, the assault today on traditional marriage is accompanied by concerted efforts to remove it from its past faith history, and repaint it within the context of a purely secularist and evolutionary-modelled society a model too many have blindly accepted.
Western society, it seems, is progressively stripping away traditional and historical connections with the past, especially faith-oriented belief, in a subtle attempt to promote its new, moral-less agenda. Changes to legislation are sometimes slow and barely noticeable, other times accompanied by vocal andpersuasive politics, but either way progressively swaying the morality and opinion of greater numbers of people.
Yet, the fact remains that lust and uncontrolled desire is not love. It has no place in marriage. It has no place in relationships. It has no place in society. For some it is an illness; for others it is an obsession and perversion.
Concerned followers of Jesus need to know that now is the time to be accounted for. Now is the time to speak for Jesus. Our neighbours, friends, workmates, parents and grandparents, as well as the Georges of society, need to know of the healing and new life offered them in Christ alone, as well the consequences of any alternate legacy theyre leaving the next generation. Its time for the church community not only to voice genuine concern in its reformist voice for the brokenness of society, but also be able to articulate solid, immovable reasons in Jesus Christ as to why their belief in traditional family values as modelled over thousands of years and as ordained at creation, is the only way forward.
The underlying fabric of our great country has experienced dramatic change over the past 40 or so years.
The towns and cities that were pioneered often were denoted by their numerous church spires. Today, our housing estates are characterised by shopping centres and recreational venues. Once Saturdays or Sundays usually consisted of church time followed by family lunches; today we’re legislating seven day trading. As a boy I heard about “the theory of evolution”; in the classroom today it is taught as fact. Public meetings used to give credence to God; today we instead pay tribute to indigenous culture and tradition – often spoken in their unfamiliar language. I remember the taboo subject of homosexuality regarded among my peers some 40 years ago as absolutely abhorrent; today we celebrate gay mardi-gras parades as expressions of a healthy and dynamic culture.
We listen to politicians and ethicists discuss abortion and euthanasia as if it were a fundamental right, and we decry churchmen who might dare suggest otherwise.
Once Christian family values were accepted as the underlying foundation to our constitution and Western democratic values and freedoms. Today, our youth have never heard the stories of Noah, Moses or Jesus. The Bible as literature, history, religion or culture doesn’t belong anymore to our school curricula. Our various media today, however, are more likely to feature Buddhist or indigenous values than the Christian heritage that has shaped the emergent face of Western civilisation.
“We are now a secular nation,” a prominent politician echoed earlier this year. And we indeed are, or so it seems. The question that should bother us is, why has all this change been so apparently successful?
Is anyone to blame that millions of infants each year, for example, are killed before they can gasp their first breath of fresh air? Perhaps some of the fault for this onslaught of change may rest on the social upheaval and catalyst that came out of World War II. The world could never be the same again. Perhaps our media, responsible for occupying our evening television viewing with violence and “rated” immorality might share some of the blame for rising crime rates. Perhaps the advances of science and technology, often touted as the panacea for all our problems, has become a defacto god of sorts?
No, the blame doesn’t rest with the politicians, ethicists, media moguls, abortion specialists, scientists or our legislators. The blame rests on our churchmen – pastors and preachers who by large have become complicit by their silence. This is my holy discontent.
“Cry aloud, spare not, lift up your voice like a trumpet and show my people their sins,” God urged a prophet to proclaim to an ancient people not unlike ourselves.
Where are the pastors and preachers and leaders that might hold righteous sway in our great country? Are there any brave men and women left who might shape our moral conscience for the better by giving voice to a Godly perspective? Are there only a few leaders who speak just the truth (and not spin, alias lies) nowadays?
We shouldn’t be surprised. Didn’t a wise man once say that there’s nothing new under the sun? Take for example, an excerpt from a letter written by a senior pastor to a young minister some 2000 years ago – it could almost be speaking of our day:
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. (2 Timothy 4:3-4)
“We evolved,” say our teachers.
Isaiah repeated God’s words:
O my people, your guides lead you astray; (Isaiah 3:12)
Our church leaders have failed us, and they have failed our nation. In their silence, they have not fearlessly spoken truth. Instead, they have acquiesced to the falsehood that the “ten commandments have been done away with”.
What will the next 40 years bring? A golden age of secularism, previously attempted by Hitler and Stalin and other despots? We have the freedom to choose.
See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. For I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess. But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land… This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the LORD is your life, and he will give you many years in the land… (Deuteronomy 30:15-20 NIV)
We would do well to listen to the urgent voices of history.
