Adapting to your environment

Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage–with great patience and careful instruction. 2 Timothy 4:2

You meet some interesting characters out in the desert regions of Australia. Not all of them are people. I met this shingleback lizard at Eucla the other day. Like a creature from a pre historic age.. his hissing threats and gapping jaws caught me by surprise. Some how this short legged, stumpy tailed, slow moving, blue tongued lizard with a mean bite has survived for thousands of years and adapted to some of the harshest climate conditions on earth.

God has created us all to adapt to where we are. To reflect His radiance and glory wherever we are. “Christ in us.. the hope of glory!”. The apostle Paul knew the importance of adapting to the environment, of using the right words before the people he was reaching, whether in prison or in places of political and religious power, he did his best to win as many people to faith as possible. Presentation is everything. Don’t be an irrelevant, out of touch, ignorant ambassador for Jesus Christ. Don’t play church. Be real and be relevant. Share in the wonderful blessings God has for you in taking the gospel to your generation and culture.

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The Gospel of Grace

As far as the east is from the west, so far as he removed our transgressions from us. Psalm 103.12

The unconditional love of God is an amazing attribute we need in our lives. To be able to live with His forgiving and empowering love for people every day. Choosing to never recall the sins others have done towards you, knowing that is what Christ has done for you. There is some stuff you will never fully understand this side of eternity… so best to leave it in the hands of God’s grace and get on with things that really do matter. When God forgives… He forgets. He will allow us to work through the consequences of our decisions but He is all about restoration, not condemnation. He is a God of redemption and salvation and Jesus is the greatest example in all history of that very truth. Even as He hung on a criminal’s cross He was asking the Father to “forgive them for they know not what they do”.

Forgiveness is sweet and brings about freedom while to choose not to forgive cripples your soul and imprisons you in bitterness. God’s way is to give way and allow His purposes to be fulfilled in your life. I love that. The Gospel is a message of Grace and forgiveness in a broken and dying world. Let us be the people who live out that Grace every day.

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Honouring the Past

Know therefore that the LORD your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commands. Deut 7:9

In 1975 the world changed forever for the indigenous people’s of Australia and Papua New Guinea. The Labour government of the day lead by Gough Whitlam abandoned our south Pacific neighbours by giving the fledgling nation its independence. Over night PNG was taken over by corruption, greed and foreign control… it was no longer under our security and the alliance that had seen many victories together in the past. PNG has never fully recovered from our rejection and today is still in great need of a proper education system, medical care and law enforcement. It is a poverty stricken nation in many ways.

In that same era the church missions that were established in the early 1900′s throughout the vast outback regions of Australia were told by the government to hand over control of the tribal missions and towns to the government. Many of these early church missions had been places of refuge for Aboriginal people who were being hunted down and killed by settlers and land owners. It was a shameful episode in the pages of our history. I am convinced there would be no Aboriginal people existing today if it were not for the mercy and brave actions of many church missionaries from those days.

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