Through their reading of the Scriptures, the reformers were acutely aware that our will, our ability to choose, is captive to our heart. And our heart is captive to sin, the flesh and the devil. But more than this, far from freeing us from this captivity, our mind actually justifies this weak-willed slavery as being right.

It’s a scenario we have all experienced; I like chocolate and want to buy some, so I decide I will. Of course, I then think to myself, “Well, I have been working hard and I do deserve a reward. And I’m not buying the biggest block. And after all it is on sale. Anyway, I’m sure I read somewhere that chocolate is good for you.” Ultimately, it is my love of chocolate which drives my will, and my mind dutifully makes me feel better about the whole situation. It’s often this way with gluttony, but it is also the case with greed and gossip and sexual immorality and any other sinful behaviour. What our heart loves, our will chooses and our mind justifies.

It’s not surprising, then, that when the Bible talks about the heart of change, it talks in terms of a change of heart. Ezekiel provides us with a classic example. Throughout Ezekiel, God rebukes his people for their stubborn, wandering hearts that refuse to follow him. The Lord challenges Israel in Ezekiel 18:31, “Cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed, and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit!” Of course this only serves to highlight their, and our, problem—we cannot change our heart, and so we continue to wander from the Lord. It is God alone who can do this for us as we read in Ezekiel 36:26: And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. The first thing we must learn about change is that we cannot change ourselves, but God can—and he does this by changing our hearts.

The second thing we must learn is this: what our heart loves is the engine room driving our words and actions. The greatest command is that “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind” (Luke 10:27). If we get this right, everything else will fall into place. It won’t happen immediately, nor without effort and failure, but if we have a sincere love of God we have the right foundation for change, the right engine to power the Christian life. The key point to make here is that it’s only as we are divinely enabled to understand God’s love for us that we are able to change, and love God and our neighbour. But, just as the reformers recognised, there is always the danger that our hearts might love the wrong thing, and, as a willing accomplice, our minds will justify our wrongdoing. Our mind must rather be the willing servant of a heart that loves God. And our heart will only ever truly love God by continually returning to the love of God for us shown in Christ Jesus.

If we want to change, we must keep returning to our Lord Jesus Christ, the perfect expression of God’s love for us. We must apply our minds to understanding afresh what Christ has done, and so by the Spirit rekindle in our own hearts a love for God which expresses itself in right action. Or, to put it simply, we will change because Christ’s love compels us.

Simon Roberts

ANZAC Day is a long standing tradition for Australians. It’s been a day of remembrance since being officially named in 1916. It’s a day that means different things to different people—and rightly so.

For some it’s a deeply personal day of mourning. Some have lost loved ones to armed conflict. For them it’s a day to mourn.

For others it’s a day to stop and give thanks and honour the memory of those who served in our armed forces and those such as our nurses who cared for them during the conflict and afterwards.

For others it’s a day to pause and remember that the freedoms we have in this country were defended with the upmost vigour and that we must be continually vigilant to defend freedom—be it in the political sphere or otherwise.

For others it’s a day of national pride. A day to remember a time in our history when Australia and New Zealand took their own place on the world stage and assembled their own military force. A day to celebrate ideals—of mateship and courage and tenacity.

For others ANZAC Day bring very mixed emotions. The desire to honour the fallen, but also a day to pray to God that we will never again find ourselves at war, a day to remember the horrors of war, not the glories.

Why are you here today? What is it you have come to remember?

ANZAC Day is a complex day. A multifaceted day.

Of course by it’s very history ANZAC Day is not a simple day.

As everyone knows the Gallipoli Campaign involved a botched landing and assault that resulted in a costly 8 month stalemate and an eventual retreat and evacuation. It was no glorious victory, not for the ANZAC’s anyway.

I think that’s a big part of why ANZAC Day has remained a focal point for our remembrance of armed conflict. It’s not a celebration of victory, it has never been a day to glorify war.

It was always a day to remember the dead. It was always a day to pause and reflect on life.

Yes, the Gallipoli Campaign was a defining movement in our nations history, but ANZAC Day is not primarily about our nation, but the fallen.

And in war there are many casualties on both sides. And regardless of who is the victor in war there is always a sense of deep loss that, in time, can actually bind enemies together.

A memorial established at ANZAC Cove by the Turkish military hero and leader, Ataturk in 1934 reads, “There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us, where they lie side by side here in this country of ours.”

And to this day there exists a common bond between the Australian people and the Turkish people—a bond centred around the Gallipoli peninsula—a strange bond that came out of intense conflict.

This week thousands of Australians will once again descend on ANZAC Cove, not in conflict but warmly welcomed in peace and friendship.

How is it that peace can come from conflict?

How is it that enemies can be made friends?

What kind of freedom is worth the ultimate sacrifice?

We would do well on this day to reflect on words written well before Gallipoli, written by the Apostle Paul about Jesus of Nazareth.

About Jesus Christ, Paul wrote in Ephesians “His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.”

Like many of the fallen, Jesus also laid down his life in the midst of a great conflict. Jesus laid down his life for the purpose of peace.

But the battle he fought was a spiritual one—he fought to reconcile God and man. He strove to end the hostility between man and God and therefore between man and man.

He fought by means of his own death on a cross—a death in which he paid the penalty for all our wrongdoing and all our rebellion against God. He fought and he won a decisive victory.

And the peace he won was absolute. He opened up access to God the Father. He won freedom—the freedom to approach the God who made and loves us, but the God whom we were previously unable to approach because of our sin.

And so all those who come to God are equal—all those who come to God are reconciled to each other—because we can only come through Christ. We all come on equal terms—undeserving of God’s love, but deeply loved nevertheless.

ANZAC Day should certainly remind us of the potential for freedom and peace to come out of conflict: “There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side here in this country of ours.”

But most of all it should cause us to remember that in Christ Jesus all hostility between humanity and God and between fellow human beings can be done away with—because at the end of the day we all need Christ’s death on our behalf to win for us a peace with God and each other we could never otherwise attain.

“His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.
He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.”

It is so good to be a Christian and for so many wonderful reasons. One is that our knowledge of God is absolutely rock solid.

This is not to say we don’t doubt, but doubts come from within. You can doubt anything if you give yourself half a chance. I’m talking about the objective truth from God- God’s side. That is rock solid. And it’s rock solid because Jesus is God, and in Jesus, God has come and made the Father known.
Recently we’ve had computer problems and I searched and searched for a solution (and hassled a few very generous church friends). When someone who knew what to do, came and solved the problem, it was so good. It didn’t matter what I thought, it doesn’t matter how hard I tried. My problem was fixed- hallelujah!

God’s Word is able to make us wise for salvation (2 Tim 3;15). It fixes our relationship with God. I now know. I now have certainty. Certainty about eternity. Rock solid. Fact. And this is fantastic. It is marvellous. It takes away my anxiety. It gives me joy and confidence. And it skittles pride- for pride is to ignore how God’s knowledge has come.

There were many wishful thinkers at Darling Harbour to see Australia play Germany last week. They were so hopeful, willing us to win (if that was possible). But we lost. Badly. The objective reality was that we were never going to win. We weren’t the better team, full stop. Is Christianity like that? No way. Christianity isn’t wishful thinking. It is the opposite. We might doubt, but that doesn’t change anything about God. He is real, objective, true, and he can make us right with God. Hallelujah! It is so good to be a Christian. (Andrew)

(Andrew)

However, the assumption in this kind of thinking is that, for most people, gambling is just a bit of harmless fun. This kind of rhetoric is just what the gambling industry want us to believe and it hides the very dark reality of gambling in this country. For there are huge numbers of people for whom gambling is not just a bit of fun.

The statistics confirm this. There are between 80,000 and 160,000 problem gamblers in Australia, and between 230,000 and 350,000 people at moderate risk.

And the amount of money that is being lost by these people is staggering. They contribute about 50% of total revenue from gambling. The saddest part of these statistics is who is collecting the money. Australian Community Clubs, are collecting up to 800 million dollars a year just from problem gamblers.

On a poker machine you can lose up to $1200 an hour, and $10,000 can be placed on a machine. This is not “just a fun night out”. The kind of people losing money on these machines aren’t the rich and famous but those supporting families, or those whittling away their retirement savings. Problem gamblers in one sense are still responsible for their loses. But the families, their children, their friends, their mums and dads, are innocent victims of the social repercussions.

The gambling industry, our local clubs, and our State government, depend on the 50% of gambling money coming from problem gamblers. They are not interested in reform and are indeed resistant to it. The reform that is needed is only going to come from a strong movement of prayer and a voice from the community. My prayer is that that Christians will be the loudest voices in this reform.

(For further reading and references refer to: Tackling poker machines head on Social Issues briefing #091, 29/04/2011. )

I found this book very helpful. It encourages Christians who believe in theistic evolution to speak up and out, for the Christian Scientist’s position is the one being heard by the non-Christian world, and this is doing damage to the witness of Christ.
I am not “a scientist” , but Collins is. He is certainly a believer in the Bible, converted out of atheism. I found his arguments balanced, accessible and convincing for now.
However I caution, we need to remember Romans 14 in this discussion, not to despise or judge others who think differently.
Here are some points I gleaned from the book:

• Theistic evolution is compatible with Genesis 1-2. Theistic evolution is the belief that God created the world slowly, over a long period, through evolutionary processes.
• A “theory” is a framework with substantive backing. Eg. The theory of gravitation, the theory of relativity, or the germ theory. They can be overturned, and have in the past (eg. Copernicus’ discovery of the orbits of the planets around the sun), but it is quite rare. Evolution is a theory like this- it is not just an idea dreamed up by Darwin on a sailing boat. It has lots of independent support.
• Regarding the Big Bang, Edwin Hubble studied the rate at which neighbouring galaxies are receding from our own. Others have developed further his studies, and worked backwards to ‘conclude’ (for now), that the earth began 14 billion years ago. There is additional evidence (quite compelling) that Hubble is probably right. Eg. Microwave measurements; the ratios of certain elements in the universe.
  Interestingly, scientists cannot explain what happened at the beginning. That is called a “singularity” and the laws of physics break down there. But this is not a problem for the Christian. God brought this set of events into reality. Collins gives some examples of some physicists sounding downright theological too when they try to explain what happened. The big bang cries out for divine explanation.
• Geological studies of radioactive chemical elements and fossils, all independent studies, give results that are strikingly concordant, pointing to an age of the earth that is 4.55 billion years old (with an estimated error of about 1 percent). Some 400 million years ago the prebiotic environment gave rise to life. No one knows at present, how life began.
• In the area of molecular biology, Collins is at his best. This is his area of expertise. The human genome and its structure supports the idea that we have evolved from a common ancestor to other species. Eg.p 129 “ Darwin’s theory predicts that mutations that do not affect function (namely, those located in “junk DNA”) will accumulate steadily over time. Mutations in the coding regions of genes, however, are expected to be observed less frequently, since most of these will be deleterious, and only a rare such event will provide a selective advantage and be retained during the evolutionary process. That is exactly what is observed. This latter phenomenon even applies to the fine details of the coding regions of genes… If, as some might argue, these genomes were created by individual acts of creation, why would this particular feature appear?”.
• Or another example, in comparing the chimpanzee and the human chromosome set, “ The human has twenty-three pairs of chromosomes, but the chimpanzee has twenty four. The difference in the chromosome number appears to be a consequence of two ancestral chromosomes having fused together to generate human chromosome 2. That the human must be a fusion is further suggested by studying gorilla and orang-utan- they each have twenty-four pairs of chromosomes, looking like the chimp.
  Recently, with the determination of the complete sequence of the human genome, it has become possible to look at the precise location where this proposed chromosomal fusion must have happened. The sequence at that location- along the long arm of chromosome 2- is truly remarkable. Without getting into technical details, let me just say that special sequences occur at the tips of all primate chromosomes. Those sequences generally do not occur elsewhere. But they are found right where evolution would have predicted, in the middle of our fused second chromosome. The fusion that occurred as we evolved from apes has left its DNA imprint here. It is very difficult to understand this observation without postulating a common ancestor”
• There are some notable conservative Protestant theologians who have accepted evolution as “a theory of the method of divine providence” (B.B. Warfield). Darwin’s own personal beliefs remain ambiguous. At one time he called himself a theist, and another an agnostic. Darwin himself, far from being ostracised by the religious community, was buried in Westminster Abbey.
  When considering the scientific worldview and Christianity, we need to be careful we don’t make the Bible say more than it is alleging to say. Collins cites Saint Augustine, probably one of the greatest of all Christian intellects, who said we need to beware of turning biblical texts into precise scientific treatises.
  “In matters that are so obscure and far beyond our vision, we find in Holy Scripture passages which can be interpreted in very different ways without prejudice to the faith we have received. In such cases, we should not rush headlong and so firmly take our stand on one side that, if further progress in the search for trust justly undermines this position, we too fall with it”. A great quote!.