InFocus

It’s kind of hard to express the things I felt as I read Jason Janz’ article yesterday morning announcing that he is moving on and passing the leadership of SI to Aaron Blumer. Though I don’t know Jason personally, I do feel a sense of comraderie with him because of the similarity of what he has done to what we are doing here at GMT and InFocus. The other thing I felt was a profound sense of gratefulness. There are three key reasons why I’m grateful for what Jason has done over the last three years.

First, I’m grateful that Jason had the courage to launch and build Sharper Iron when he knew it would be controversial and misunderstood. I’m thankful that Jason didn’t let the critics, the trolls, those with an agenda… he didn’t let them stop him or side track him. He pioneered a model for fundamentalist interaction on the web that is wise, courageous, edifying.

Second, I’m grateful that Jason opened up so many important topics for discussion within Fundamentalism. The day when open, honest Read the rest of this entry »

I’ll admit it’s not my title, but it sure is a good title. It’s actually Abraham Piper’s title and he wrote the article which you can read here. And I encourage you to do so, but if you can’t, I’ll give a very brief summary because this is something that I’m pretty passionate about.

I think Australian pastors need to blog. I understand that not every pastor can or should blog. I understand that there are certain weaknesses to the medium and certain dangers to be avoided. And I understand that the younger generation of pastors is more likely to blog than the older generation. Still, I think Australian pastors need to blog. Here are a few of my reasons and then I’ll give you six of Abraham’s reasons.

First, I believe Australian pastors need to blog because blogging creates a spirit of accountability and transparency that Fundamentalism tends to lack. The blogosphere is a level playing field of sorts where ideas naturally carry more weight than personalities.

Second, I believe Australian pastors need to blog because blogging would allow for dialogue within the Australian movement. We’re all in this together Read the rest of this entry »

By Steven Mock

The first church in Jerusalem was formed in Acts 2 when Peter preached a powerful, Spirit-filled, convicting message. God used Peter’s words to convert 3,000 people who were baptized and started meeting together. Verse 42 tells us they had four priorities as a local church: the apostles’ teaching, fellowship, the Lord’s Supper, and praying.

All four of these priorities are important but the apostles’ teaching is probably mentioned first because it was the greatest of priorities. In other words, the local church must be a learning church. The Scriptures must be foundational in your church because according to 1 Timothy 3:15, truth must be pillared and protected by the church.

This leads me to discuss a problem that seems to be a modern day phenomenon in the church at large: distance preaching. I’m not talking about sitting in the back of your church building versus sitting towards the front—not that kind of distance. I am talking about the fact that we live in a day where you can listen to a variety of sermons from all around the world in a variety of media: tapes, CD’s, radio, TV, and internet—that is Read the rest of this entry »

“Looking unto Jesus and not to our brethren, not even to the best among them and the best beloved. In following a man we run the risk of losing our way; in following Jesus we are sure of never losing our way. Besides, in putting a man between Jesus and ourselves, it will come to pass that insensibly the man will increase and Jesus will decrease; soon we no longer know how to find Jesus when we cannot find the man, and if he fails us, all fails. On the contrary, if Jesus is kept between us and our closest friend, our attachment to the person will be at the same time less enthralling and more deep; less passionate and more tender; less necessary and more useful; an instrument of rich blessing in the hands of God when He is pleased to make use of him; and whose absence will be a further blessing, when it may please God to dispense with him, to draw us even nearer to the only Friend who can be separated from us by ‘neither death nor life’ (Romans 8:38-39).”

-Taken from Looking Unto Jesus, Theodore Monod, p. 9-10 (emphasis mine).

The Olympic torch relay has been an absolute debacle. It’s like the whole world is participating in a big shaming of China. And for good reason. China has been trying to play with the big boys economically for quite some time now but has avoided accountability at all cost. Well, maybe we’ll turn a blind eye just before a business deal, but it seems that when it comes to celebrating sport and the Olympic spirit, all eyes are wide open. China is being shamed by the world, and she deserves it.

China has treated religious freedom as a luxury to be bestowed on the co-operative. China has harassed, imprisoned, tortured, and even executed people for their religious beliefs for decades and continues this oppression without remorse to this day. I’m glad that this torch relay has not been peaceful. This torch carries with it the heritage of oppression and the blood of martyrs. I understand that we try to isolate the Olympics from the brokenness of the real world so that we can focus on something good and honourable, and in that sense, I’m glad the torch is traversing the free world. But in another sense, you cannot honour something good and noble with blood on your hands. In that sense, I’m glad that the Olympic flame is being greeted by protests the world over and I hope it will not have a peaceful stop on it’s journey.

China has chosen this. Shame on China.

By Randall Fox

“Be filled with the Spirit” Ephesians 5:18

The command to be Spirit-filled is one of the most vital imperatives for the Christian life. Yet one of the most misunderstood and neglected. The meaning of the command to be filled with the Spirit further unfolds as we look at other usages of the word “filled.” In John 12:3, the word “fill” is used to describe a permeating fragrance when Mary anointed the feet of the Lord: the house was “filled with the fragrance of the oil.” Being filled means to allow the Spirit to pervade every area of our lives. He must have the whole. Anyone who has the mentality that he can be filled with the Spirit yet keep some areas of his life closed to Him will never experience this. This word “filled” is often associated with human emotions. The New Testament speaks of being filled with sorrow (John 16:6), fear (Luke 5:26), or anger (Luke 6:11). Just as an immaterial emotion can dominate (”fill”) a material human body, the immaterial Spirit of God can govern a physical human being.

What does the Spirit-filling look like? Scripture gives us examples of people who were filled with the Spirit. When the Holy Spirit came at Pentacost, the ensuing preaching is attributed to being filled with the Spirit (Acts 2:4). Peter, who denied Christ before a servant girl only weeks earlier, is now bold as a lion before the Sanhedrin because he was filled with the Spirit (Acts 4:8). Stephen’s fidelity to Jesus Christ and his disregard for his own life are attributed to being filled with the Spirit (Acts 7:55). That supernatural quality that characterised the early church is explained as being filled with the Spirit. The reason the early church’s courage, dedication, and love seem supernatural is because they were.

The helpful parallel passage in Colossians 3:16 replaces the phrase “Be filled with the Spirit” with “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.” When you let the Word of God have its home (dwell) in your heart, you are letting the Spirit of God control you. The will of the World and the will of the Spirit are not two distinct things but one, since the Spirit wrote the Word.

Finally, it is important to distinguish the filling of the Spirit from spiritual maturity. Spiritual growth is Read the rest of this entry »

Revival in Australia, Part Four
By Jason Harris

This brief series on revival in Australia has not been an overview, but merely a few brief windows into the rich spiritual heritage of our nation. We could yet talk of the great evangelistic works of Lionel B. Fletcher and John G. Ridley, of Chapman and Alexander in 1912, of the great evangelistic work of Billy Graham in 1959 (his Melbourne campaign attendance of 130,000 still holds the record for the largest crowd ever at the MCG). But I trust we have already seen enough to widen our perspective and waken our hearts to the work that God can and will yet do in Australia.

There was a time in Australia, that when the evangelist came to town—even Sydney town—the civil leaders Read the rest of this entry »

Revival in Australia, Part Three
By Jason Harris

The glowing evangelistic days of Torrey and Alexander’s Melbourne mission in 1902 were not one-off events. There were many campaigns held around the country. One of the most notable was held in 1909 when Charles Alexander returned to Australia, this time with J. Wilbur Chapman. Chapman was one of the most well known evangelists in America at this point. He is also notable for having been a significant influence in the early ministry of Billy Sunday (Billy Sunday and the Redemption of Urban America, 49ff). The Chapman-Alexander Campaign included a month each in Melbourne and Sydney, two weeks in Brisbane, and ten days in Adelaide, as well as shorter visits to Albury, Ballarat, Bendigo, Castlemaine, Moss Vale, and Townsville (A Romance of Soul Winning and Song, 152, 162).

Again in Melbourne, Alexander led his choir of over 1,200 voices. On the afternoon of his first choir rehearsal, the rain was pouring down in true Melbourne fashion. Three men sat questioning whether anyone would Read the rest of this entry »

Revival in Australia, Part Two
By Jason Harris

It was in April of 1902 that R. A. Torrey, the well known Bible teacher and successor to D. L. Moody in Chicago, held his great Melbourne Mission. The churches of Melbourne had been a long time in preparing for the meetings. Their organisation was so strong and their preparation so thorough that every house in Melbourne had been visited twice! The city was divided into fifty sections, each division having it’s own meeting place set up with an Australian evangelist assigned to preach in that meeting. The main meetings downtown were held at first in the Melbourne Town Hall, but after a short time were moved to the great Exhibition Building which could seat 7,000 people.

The schedule was intense with up to four meetings a day being held at the main Exhibition Building throughout the campaign. Charles Alexander, who was personally selected by Dr. Torrey to organise the music for the campaign, led a choir of over 1,200 voices each evening. Alexander would sometimes arrive at the Exhibition Building two hours before the evening service only to find Read the rest of this entry »

Revival in Australia, Part One
By Jason Harris

When I was in Bible college, I lived in a suburb of Wollongong nestled on the heights leading up to Mount Kembla. Every time I walked out the front door, there she was, that mountain peak just begging me to climb her. So one day I did. Well, almost. I didn’t really have time to do it just as a hike so I decided to combine it with my running routine. It didn’t take me long to find the small country lane that led up it’s slopes. On the mornings when I’d run, I could make it two-thirds of the way up the mountain in fifteen minutes, but then I’d have to turn around and head home in order to keep my routine to a half an hour. My goal was to get to where I could run all the way to the top and back in a half hour.

Kembla is a quiet mountain. There’s not much that happens up there on the South side of the mountain these days. There are a few homes close to the top, and if you go past those, you’ll come to some old shacks that have fallen to the decay of time. I’m told if you cross over to the back of the mountain, you can visit the town that used to be a thriving mining village. I’ve spoken to a man who used to work in the mines on Mt. Kembla. He told me of the “pit ponies” that would carry the carts in and out of the mines. Evidently Mt. Kembla was one of the last mines to switch over to modern mining techniques. The older miners who just didn’t want to learn the new equipment would be sent there to work using all the older mining methods.

Of course you’re probably wondering what in the world this has to do with revival in Australia. Well, I’ve been Read the rest of this entry »

Mobile Phone Etiquette for the Church Goer
By Jason Harris

One of the most distracting things that can happen during a church service, second only to crying babies and sleeping deacons, is when the phone rings. You know the drill. The pastor is drawing the Scriptural points together and the power of the message is hitting home… then Satan personally dials your mobile number and next thing you know cows are mooing or we’re all bopping to the Nokia® tune. Of course everyone in the building is craning to see where this monstrous interruption has come from… everyone that is, except for the owner of the phone who is still obliviously caught up in the message, though somewhat puzzled as to why Read the rest of this entry »

“A handicap is a responsibility! It is an exclamation point in a person’s life message. Whatever we’re saying with our lives, we say more emphatically if we are disabled.”

—

“Becky was trying to look through a picture book. For about ten minutes she had been trying to turn the page with her little, fingerless hands. Debbie was playing the piano. As Brenda worked in the kitchen, Becky asked, ‘Mommy, when I grow up, will I have hands like Debbie?’

As I read quietly in the next room, I listened to hear her response.

Brenda stopped her work and said softly, ‘Becky, Debbie has the hands that God has given her to do her job, and you have the hands that God has allowed you to have to do your job.’

Out of that simple statement has grown the ‘Hidden Treasure’ principle, a central theme of our ministry, especially our ministry with disabled children: ‘We have everything we need to do the will of God for our lives.’”

—

“The afflicted have a responsibility to take the initiative, to use their disability to glorify the Lord. … The disabled have no right to take advantage of their handicap for selfish purposes; it is a trust from God.”

-Taken from More Precious Than Gold, pp. 205, 207, 212.

By Jason Harris

It has been said that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. Most Christians are familiar with the great British and American missionary martyrs of previous centuries, but perhaps less familiar are the martyrs of Australian missions. The first Australian missionaries to plant their blood in the seedbed of the mission field were two sisters, Topsy and Nellie Saunders, and another young lady, Annie Gordon.

It was 1895 and the anti-foreigner sentiment in China that would eventually break out in the Boxer Rebellion was gathering momentum. On 1 August of that year, the “Vegetarian” rebels carried out an attack on a mission station where the Saunders sisters and Miss Gordon were working (Welch, Missionaries, Murder and Diplomacy in Late 19th Century China: A Case Study, 16).

Nellie and Topsy were woken by three men with trident spears who tipped their beds over and dragged them out. Nellie was stabbed immediately and collapsed at the door. Topsy was marched outside and surrounded by several more men. “Walk! Walk!” they shouted at her, “tell us where you have hidden gold!” “We have no gold,” she replied: “there is money in the bedroom. Go and take it.” Angry, one of the braves dug a spear into her. (Gittings, link)

Eleven missionaries were martyred that day. Among them, the three Australian missionaries.

The next Australian martyrdom occurred three years later. Tensions continued to mount in China as the anti-foreigner sentiment, which would culminate in the Boxer Rebellion just two years later, continued to simmer. In November of 1898, missionary William Fleming, who had been saved through the ministry of Read the rest of this entry »

“The young man of leadership caliber will work while others waste time, study while others snooze, pray while others daydream. Slothful habits are overcome, whether in thought, deed, or dress. The emerging leader eats right, stands tall, and prepares himself to wage a good warfare. He will without reluctance undertake the unpleasant task that others avoid or the hidden duty that others evade because it wins no public applause. As the Spirit fills his life, he learns not to shrink from difficult situations or retreat from hard-edged people. He will kindly and courageously administer rebuke when that is called for, or he will exercise the necessary discipline when the interests of the Lord’s work demand it. He will not procrastinate, but will prefer to dispatch with the hardest tasks first.”

Taken from Spiritual Leadership, p. 53

Sometimes I log on for fun. Sometimes I log on just because I’m in the mood. Sometimes I log on because I need encouragement. Sometimes I log on because I’m eager to reap from the vast and endless wisdom that flows from the minds of our many posters. But whatever is happening on the surface, there’s always an underlying reason why I log on to givemetruth.net.  Read the rest of this entry »