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In the last year, Australia has seen the deaths of three household names: Kerry Packer, Peter Brock and Steve Irwin.
In many ways, what these men were known for represents a trifecta of great Australian idols: money, sport and nature.
Their deaths ought to serve as a reminder that there is only one god worth worshiping.
It's commonplace to say that 11th September 2001 was the day on which the world changed forever. In many respects, it did. The war in Afghanistan; the toppling of Saddam Hussein; the increasing belligerence of Iran; the terrorist attacks in Bali, Madrid and London; the growing rift between Anglo-American and European approaches to the problem; the new suspicions about Islam and its ambitions within Western democracies; the re-evaluation of multiculturalism; and so on—does anyone doubt that all this and more flowed as a direct consequence of the World Trade Centre attacks?
However, the events of September 11 also function as an awful sign that the world has not changed at all: wickedness and evil still inhabit our world and our hearts.
In case we had forgotten.
In case we had begun to think that humanity was making steady and irresistible progress towards enlightenment, freedom and happiness. In case we had thought that our comfortable, Western aspirational havens were also free from hatred, malice and callous indifference to human life. In case we no longer believed that the best four words to describe the current state of our world are those of the Apostle Paul: “this present evil age”.
September 11 was a shocking reminder that humanity still lives in the tumultuous final scene of world history—that period between Christ's first coming and his return referred to as ‘the last days’, with all its wars and rumours of wars, tumults and conflicts and earthquakes and famines.
On this day, as on all others, we pray, “Come, Lord Jesus”.
According to the American Psychological Association, it is now no longer wrong to want to provide help to someone who wants to overcome unwanted homosexual desire.
It's one of those careful compromises that means it's still possible to hold a biblical view of homosexuality without being forced to resign as a registered psychologist. Culture wars score? 0-0.
This report in The Sydney Morning Herald talks about the recent controversy that's been swirling around Prime Minister John Howard's comments that immigrants should learn to speak English, and treat women with respect. The Muslim community have reacted angrily, believing that they were the target of the comments.
Whether they were or weren't, will learning English in English-speaking countries enable migrants to become more peaceable? Judging by the history of the English-speaking world, speaking English is no guarantee that the heart will become purer, kinder or gentler as a result.
I wrote to the SMH letters editor (but alas, to no avail!) suggesting that Muslims should learn about the Christ they revere as a prophet. That's a far better foundation both for peace and inter-religious dialogue, though you're unlikely to hear the Prime Minister of Australia (or the Prime Minister of anywhere) advocating it in a hurry.
In Hebrews 12:25ff, God commands us to “see to it” that we “do not refuse him who is speaking”. To do so is to put ourselves at risk of missing out on the “kingdom that cannot be shaken”. Rather, we are to “offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire”.
The writer then immediately goes on to explain some of the dimensions of this “acceptable worship”, one of which is ‘contentment’—keeping our lives free from the love of money (Heb 13:5).
In other words, when we are satisfied with what God has given us, whether little or plenty, then we are worshipping God.
How is your worship? Is it acceptable in this area?
Of course, this whole notion of contentment puts an end to the possibility of holding to a ‘prosperity gospel’. Even the more recent trend of a ‘modified prosperity teaching’, which says, “I want more money ... so that I can do good with it”—thus trying to cloak the desire for more wealth with sanctified motives—seems to me to be quashed by this injunction to be ‘content’. We should aim to “share what we have” (v. 16), not ‘what we wish we had’.
God is in control. We must be content. It is a dangerous game to wish that we had more so that we could do more good with it. It is dangerous for at least two reasons:
Firstly, the desire for more money is inherently dangerous to our souls: “[T]hose who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction” (1 Tim 6:9). The rationalization of that desire by hearts that are incomprehensively deceitful (Jer 17:9) is even more fraught with danger.
Secondly, such a desire potentially undermines our trust in God's sovereign purpose and timing. The prayer for more money in order to do more good could go very close to sounding something like this: “God, if you only knew the needs in our world that I could solve if you would just give me the money to do it ...”
Certainly, with what we have we are to be “rich in good deeds” and “generous and willing to share” (1 Tim 6:18), and the desire to share is indeed a proper motive for work (Eph 4:28). But these attitudes are not to override the need for contentment with what the Lord has provided.