Couldn't Help Noticing

No Peace

As I walked the dog past a disused local church, I couldn't help noticing a small sign doing its best to communicate something of the gospel to the local community.

Those of us who've been Christians for a while will be familiar with the catchphrase on the sign. It harkens back to an era when the world's most common phrase was “Hey, peace, man” (followed closely by the phrase “Hey, Charger!”).

It said: “No God. No peace.”

Of course, many of you will recall that this was only the second half of what became a familiar church billboard. The full version was normally:

Know God. Know peace.
No God. No peace.

(It was a small piece of wood on which the church painted the sign, so the whole thing certainly wouldn't have fitted. Besides, every good piece of literature needs a Reader's Digest abridged version.)

But it made me wonder whether “No God, No peace” would still cut it as a persuasive phrase these days.

In our community, the sense that religion is largely responsible for much of the violence of history seems to be getting stronger. So in many people's eyes, to claim to “know God” was at least as likely, if not more likely, to make you intolerant and possibly violent. God-worship seems to just generate so much conflict, so surely we'd have more peace without him.

Of course, the idea that religion is largely responsible for much of the violence of history is only true if you define belief systems like atheism, humanism and pragmatism as “religion”. But getting people to see that such worldviews are “religions” just as much as Christianity and Islam is no easy task. And the argument that wars and atrocities that were conducted in the name of Christianity in the past were clearly not authentically Christian, does not seem to be overly persuasive. To many people this argument just defines Christianity to be what we'd like it to be rather than what it really is.

So I rather suspect that we have our work cut out for us if we are going to persuade people that “No God = No peace”. And it's probably time we educated ourselves on the issues. How do we counter the negative view of Christianity? How do we show people that it really is true that Christianity is the religion of the “peace-lovers” and “peacemakers” (Ja 3:17-18, Matt 5:9)?

My God is so BIG

I lived in the UK for 5 years during my early primary school years. When mum and I moved back to Australia, I kept in touch with my best friend from England for a few years. Eventually, we lost touch.

Both of us have been searching for the other person from time to time over the last 10 years, but our searching bore no fruit until last week, when I suddenly got an email from her.

I was thrilled to hear from her, but to be honest, I was also quietly dreading the inevitable moment when, in our catch-up-on-each-other's-lives emails, I told her I was a Christian. I expected her to react negatively at worst, or politely at best. Oh, me of little faith.

In the middle of her second email to me (before I'd said anything about Christianity), she asked if I remembered taking her to my church when we were about 7 years old, and going down the front with her so we could pray to God and become Christians. I don't: it was over 20 years ago! (And my recollection of when I became a Christian was in our kitchen, sitting on a stool, praying with my mum.) Anyway, my friend explained that her faith really came alive when she was at university, so she's still a Christian too.

I was amazed to read that, and I was reminded of God's “bigness”. It's hard to believe he would ever use a wretch like me to bring someone to him. And I'm so thankful that he continues his work in people's lives without my help. It's such an encouragement to keep telling others about Jesus. We may never know whether our labour in the Lord will bear fruit in a person's life: but we can trust that God will make use of it for his purposes.

It's also a fantastic encouragement for those of you involved in children's ministry. You work extremely hard, and I can imagine that preparing lessons for Sunday School and Scripture week after week would be exhausting. But look at what God can do with children! Reminds me of a (very true) children's song ...

My God is so BIG!
So strong and so mighty,
There's nothing my God cannot do.

Free seminar tonight

Tony Payne is speaking at a free seminar on “Fatherhood” tonight at Covenant Christian School, Belrose (here in Sydney). All are welcome; feel free to bring interested non-Christians friends along too.

Details: Speaker: Tony Payne, Publishing Director, Matthias Media
Date: 30 August 2005
Time: 7.50pm
Venue: Covenant Christian School auditorium
212 Forest Way, Belrose (enter via Waldon Rd and Dell St)
Cost: Free (just turn up at the School)

New world order

In the coming new world order, leaders won't have followers. Rather, followers will have leaders, and fools will rule the world.

Such is the thought behind 1 Corinthians 3:21-22, where Paul insists that “all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future”. Every single one of these things will exist for our benefit.

However, the catch is that no-one will be impressed. Because it relies on becoming a Christian, and as anyone who has read 1 Corinthians knows, this means placing our entire faith in the body of a crucified man, and then expecting that he will achieve greatness on our behalf. What a stupid concept, indeed. As Paul reminds us: “If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise.” (1 Cor 3:18)

Yet the new world order that Paul envisages in these verses doesn't simply end with us strutting around like kings, dominating over the created order and over those who have instructed us about the truth of our power. “All are yours,” says Paul in 1 Corinthians 3:22, then continues in v. 23 “and you are Christ's, and Christ is God's.”

If we are lords of all, it is because Christ is our Lord. If Christ is Lord, it is because he has submitted himself to the will of his Father God, even to the point of dying on the cross to achieve greatness. The new world order places the bottom at the top, and the top at the bottom.

Urgent: Protecting the Unborn

Protecting unborn children, and limiting (if not preventing) research using human embryos, remains an important battle. Australia's laws regulating human embryo research and prohibiting cloning are under review at the moment, and the committee responsible for the review must take into account community standards when they consider any amendments to the laws.

So it's well worth our efforts to present to them a Christian perspective on these matters.

If you are part of the Australian community, send in a submission and tell them what you think! But time is of the essence: the closing date for submissions is 9 September 2005.

For help in writing your submission, visit the review committee's website or phone the Secretariat on (02) 6295 8481. We've also prepared some helpful guidelines for writing your submission (PDF, 87KB).