Anzac Day

Anzac Day, April 25th, is a very special day in the life and culture of the nation of Australia.   It is a day Aussies and Kiwis pause and honour those Returned Service Men and Women who have paid a price to procure and maintain the precious freedoms we all enjoy. It is also a day we are called to stop for a moment and take stock and remember the sacrifices of those who purchased such freedoms for us by making the ultimate sacrifice of their blood. It is a time we should ask ourselves, “What price are we willing to pay to maintain the liberties we hold so dear as free men and women in a free nation?”

On Anzac Day,  the younger generations will stand and watch the faltering steps in the slow parades of those honoured men who have served the country in six conflicts of the last and present centuries. They will see the tears fall freely upon the cheeks of stooped and greying men, as they weep openly for their fallen comrades in arms.

They will hear again and again the poignant words, “Lest we forget,” issue from the lips of those who hold the memory of the fallen so dear. They may stand trembling in the half-light of dawn services and hear the mournful notes of the last post; played in remembrance of those who lie in graves on such faraway fields as Gallipoli and in the Owen Stanley ranges.

In previous years  large crowds have  carried signs and placards in support of our men and women who are serving today in harms way. They have wanted to counter the misguided voices of the peace at any price pacifists who seem to feel they occupy the moral high ground. They wish to counter their illogical philosophy that freedom is cheap and it is better live on your knees as slaves to tyrants and despots than to die on your feet for freedom’s cause. This is the least we of the often silent majority feel we can do in this critical hour.

As we once again count the blessings of our freedom, it would be good to also ask for God’s blessings upon our nation. We should surely say and pray today, “God Bless Australia.” But in order to sincerely do so, we must first ask ourselves if we are willing to do our part to build or rebuild a nation that God would view as a fit recipient of His continuing blessings?

I believe principles enunciated in God’s statement to Israel on the matter still hold true today, “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” (II Chronicles 7:14)

It should be clear to any discerning Christian that our nation and our world is on the very verge of a moral and cultural collapse. As we await His return, we should continue as watchmen of the walls of freedom. As one great man once said, “The price of liberty is eternal vigilance.”

Why Easter?

The Easter Season is here again. Once again the world's focus upon symbols rather than substance continues to distract many from the real meaning of the Season. In a day of terrible tragedy and bad news, it is good to have a time we can be reminded of some really good news. A time we can remember the death He died and the sacrifice He made for our sins during that first Easter Season. A time we can recall that the good news of the resurrection of our Saviour, Jesus Christ, is still the very essence of the Christian gospel.

Easter is also a time to remember God's answer to the riddle of man's mortality. A time to reaffirm that a true and spiritually satisfying answer to man's perpetual quest for immortality can only be found at that empty tomb.

It is a time to again assert that the resurrection story is the most well documented fact of history. More than five hundred eye witnesses saw Christ alive during the forty day period following His resurrection. They were surely thrilled to have their eternal hope confirmed by His resurrection. But by faith the contemporary true believer finds the same joy in the real Easter Story - the gospel record of Christ's victory over death, hell and the grave.

He understands that through true repentance and faith he can also have eternal life. The risen Christ is the Christian's blessed hope. When we face death, the common denominator of all mortals, what other hope would suffice? Our quest for immortality joyfully ends at that empty tomb where an angel once cried, "He is not here, He is risen!"

Easter serves to remind all of us who are saved by His grace that He is our personal Living Saviour. We are once again eternally assured that because He lives we will live with Him eternally.

Easter also offers a special opportunity for anyone who has not yet truly repented of their sins and placed their absolute and utter trust in the resurrected Christ, to do so. What better time to discover the.-real joy of knowing you have eternal life in the Christ of Easter?

Pastor John White

Are Mortals Immortal?

The proposition for this strange paradox is stated by Job in the fourteenth chapter of his book. The rhetorical question Job actually asked was, "If a man die shall he live again?" Of course, Job's inferred affirmative answer is obvious in the context.

Job in desperation, when all earthly hope collapsed and lay shattered in fragments at his feet, was speaking for all of us. He was speaking for those who in one moment of time have had their world turned upside down to come crashing down around them. He was speaking for those who have personally come face to face with the stark reality of that common denominator of all men, death. Who have realised that the eyes that once smiled have closed, the lips that once spoke have fallen into cold silence and the warm loving grasp of a vibrant hand has forever relaxed.

He was speaking for all men who, no matter how lightly they may treat the matter or how desperately they may try to circumvent or delay the issue, must someday stand on common ground as their heart ponders the same age-old questions, "Is there life after death? If a man dies, shall he really live again?"  The stark reality of man's mortality is made evident in the life of even the most sceptical. He cannot avert his eyes from the spectre of death that stalks his every step.' He cannot silence the voice that shatters his self-imposed naivete. The timeless question breaks loudly into the false sanctity of his consciousness with all the force of a wailing siren. "If a man dies, shall he live again'?

Job was willing to break out of the shell of self-deception. He was anxious to face the issue squarely. He dared to come to grips with the implications of man's mortal existence; no matter how painful an encounter with reality might be. He was ready to admit the hopelessness of man's dilemma unless an answer was supplied by some higher authority.  He could find no comfort in the evident fact that man is the dominant creature of creation. He was compelled to confess that man, with the ability to reason, to make order out of disorder, to accumulate and perpetuate physical and intellectual stores, was, on the surface of mortal existence, in no better state than the lower orders of creation. He said, "Man that is born of woman is of few days, and full of trouble. He cometh forth as a flower, and is cut down".

Yet Job in his desperation sought a solution for the insoluble, His is not a scornful cry flung into the face of an inflexible fate. Nor is it the cry of a man who has slipped to the end of his rope of time, to grasp with trembling hands the knot of uncertainty at the end, as he swings suspended over the chasm of a dark unknown. But rather, in the context of his book, it is framed as an intelligent appeal, conceived in the heart of a Godly man of wisdom. A man who recognises the eternal being of God, the life-giver. His is a cry that recognises that the answer to life's central question can only come from the one from whom life issued.

Was Job, or are we, justified in holding that in spite of death we have a valid hope of immortality?

Some scoff at such a proposition as a ridiculous paradox. Some shudder at it as a dreadful possibility.

Some, not as wise as Job, turn to history outside God's word, and are lead only to the grave and left there. Because such history is mute concerning the matter. It neither confirms nor denies the prospect of an after-life.  Some turn to science but find no laboratory, no apparatus or no technique for analysing life or death or discovering the fate of a soul.  Some turn to philosophy and find themselves free to speculate, postulate, formulate and advance theories, but in the end find their hypotheses unreliable, for philosophy has no reliable means of testing its conclusions.

Some of us, as Job, turn to the Word of God to find there the only authoritative and satisfying answer. And we cherish this answer as an established hope. Our hearts vibrate within us as we echo his cry, "I know my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth ... and though my body be destroyed ... yet in my flesh shall I see God"!