Rhys William Lowery

Hallelujah!

Praise God in His sanctuary.

Praise Him in His mighty heavens.

Praise Him for His powerful acts; praise Him for His abundant greatness.

Praise Him with trumpet blast; praise Him with harp and lyre.

Praise Him with tambourine and dance; praise Him with flute and strings.

Praise Him with resounding cymbals; praise Him with clashing cymbals.

Let everything that breathes praise the LORD.

Hallelujah!

Psalm 150

That sums up how I feel with the birth of my first child Rhys William.

There were minor complications, but thanks to God and modern medicine my wife and I have a beautiful son

Baptism

The Biblical command to baptise Christians is clear. Perhaps the most famous place in the Bible that we find this command is in Jesus words:

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Matthew 28:18-20

There are many theological debates on Baptism which I will not go into instead, I’m going to raise a slightly more pragmatic issue on the same subject based mainly on my experience.

As a future Anglican Minister here in Sydney I will be bound by the 39 Articles or Religion which clearly endorse infant Baptism & I have no problem with this.  In An Australian Prayer Book (for the Anglican Church) we read:

 ‘Children are Baptised on the understanding that they will be brought up as faithful members of the church, to follow Christ … to be confirmed… when they are of age to take upon themselves the promises you are about to make on their behalf.

‘As they grow up they need encouragement, teaching and the help of a good example, so that they may learn to worship God, Pray to him, to put their faith and trust in him and to take their place in the life of the Church.’*

My big issue with infant Baptism however is the way that I have experienced them over the last 18 or so months.  Large service where 3 or 4 children are baptised together; probably going close t0 50 Children in the last 18 months.  The majority of parents bring their child to be baptised because in their limited affiliation to the church it is ‘the right thing to do’.  Probably only 5 of those families will come on a semi regular basis. 

I think this sort of service looses a lot of its meaning when done like this.  It’s no longer your special day for the parents or the child instead they have to share it with others.  On top of this, and I’m being pessimistic, most of those children will probably grow up not knowing the truth of the Gospel Message.  Their parents and God-parents will probably not fulfil the promises they made before the Church & before God.

That said, my wife & I have decided to get our child baptised.  Our Senior Minister  doesn’t want to lump us in with the rest – it will be our special day standing before our church family telling them that we do intend to raise our son knowing the message of Jesus death and resurrection for the forgiveness of sins.

*An Australian Prayer Book, Sydney: Standing Committee of the General Synod of the Church of England in Australia (1978), 518.

Garden update

As some may know, I love gardening. coming into Summer I’ve got out into the garden and given the veggie patch some attention.

A few weeks back I pulled out all the weeds and the dying pees, dug in composted cow manure and planted a few tomato plants & a Capsicum,as well as sowed the seed for some  rocket, pak choi, carrots & spring onions.  The rocket and Pak Choi are both up and today I planted seed for baby beetroot, and snow peas as well as some sage as my sage plant kicked the bucket in the pot it was in.

When i came to the Basil pot I was amazed that there are a few plants that have survived winter (Basil normally dies in winter) and are starting to re-grow.  I put in a few seeds for the black basil that didn’t survive so in a month or so that will be growing again as well.

I cant wait to see the plants grow and taste their goodness in a few months time.

Sin & Salvation

I need to stop just thinking about last week’s Doctrine lecture at MTC and write something about it.  So here are a few Bible passages that think about Sin and what God has done for us.

 

“Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.  It will produce thorns and thistles for you and you will eat the plants of the field.  By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.”

Genesis 3:17-19 

 

 ”Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty.”

Isaiah 6:5

 

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

Romans 3:23

 

He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.  Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted.  But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.

 Isaiah 53:3-5 

 

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.

Romans 5:6 

 

 

 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions.  Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.  For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.  Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge.  Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.

Psalm 51:1-5 

Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD”– and you forgave the guilt of my sin.

Psalm 32:5

 

Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.

Psalm 51:7 

 

But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.  For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

 Romans 6:22-23 

 

But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions–it is by grace you have been saved.

 Ephesians2:4-5 

 

Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behaviour.  But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation

Colossians 1:21-22 

 

 How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!  And that is what we are! 

1John 3:1

 

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.  He will wipe every tear from their eyes.  There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”  He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!”  Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”  He said to me: “It is done.  I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End.  To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life.

 Revelation 21:3-6

 

There are many other verses, but i thought that this was a starting point to continue reflecting on what our saviour has done for us.

Paul & pastoral care

This morning at MTC I’ve been struck in a very certain way about Paul’s letters and his pastoral manner that is seen in them.  Paul does not hold back when he needs to chastise rebuke and correct.  Yet at the same time, even when he is about to tear someone to shreds, he will always praise God for that person and the grace that is shown by God.  Now these are some half baked thoughts that I will continue to think through and work out the way to apply them to my ministry, but I thought I’d put them out there.

 

In Chapel services here at College we have been reading through Paul’s letter to the Philippian church.  It was a church that, whilst it was not without issues, was going pretty strong when you compare this letter of Paul’s to many of his letters to other churches.  We see so many statements praising God for what he has done, for the continued faith of the believers and encouraging them to stand united in their faith.    Even the way that Paul thanks them for their gift (Ch4) while at the same time not putting any hint of guilt onto the church for not sending it earlier or pleading for more goes to demonstrate his genuine love and concern for the believes and his thankfulness to God for them.

At the same time however, it struck me the way Paul speaks to the church in Corinth concerning their tolerance of sinful deeds and the way they accept those who are unrepentant.  This really comes to the fray when he calls for the church to literally ‘drive out’ those who call themselves believes yet are sinning and unrepentant (5:13).  Paul calls for us not to put up anyone who calls themselves a Christian yet doesn’t act like one while at the same time withholding judgment over those who are outside of the body of believers.

This discussion in New Testament and the talk at Chapel lead me to think about the way that we today treat those to whom we have pastoral oversight.  I believe that all too often we don’t take seriously our role to encourage people and hold them accountable to the word of God as set out in the Bible.  We have become lax in our day to day oversight and only step in pastorally when there is a serious issue such as a death of a loved one or a birth or something similar.

I believe that as members of the Body of Christ and leaders of his Church we have a long way to go on truly caring for His flock in this respect.

Whats ahead

So i’m trying to be organised and plan ahead – something that I am not teribly well known for,  but i’m going to try and see what happens.  Keep an eye out eye out for these posts that are coming your way.

• As a result of looking at some of Pauls letters this morning in New Testament and MTC Chappel, I have been thinking about Paul and his method of pastural care.  when it comes i’m sure they will be half baked ideas needing more reflection, but there is definatly a post in that one.

 

•  My wife & I will become Parents in just under 4 weeks or so – I’m thinking through Baptism - to sprinkle as a baby or hold off till he has some sort of understanding about whats happening and why?

 

• I’m working on my next post on the ‘39 Articles of Religion’, thinking about the divinity and humanity of Jesus and why it is so important.

 

So thats the thoughts of my random mind at the moment – see you then.

Thankfulness

We had a cracking talk at Community Chappel at MTC yesterday on thankfulness, preached by Peter Brain, the Bishop of Armidale.

 It was a great encouragment and reminder that as Christians, if we really want to be seen in the world as being different, then we should be thankful.

Now i’m not saying that we should only be thankful for what Jesus has done on the cross for us, but thankful for the little things in life and the things that can seem an inconvenience.

The big challenge is to ensure that we are constantly thankful, perhaps the greatest example of this is the apostle Paul in his introduction to his letter to the church in Philippi. This is what he writes:

I thank my God every time I remember you.  In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now,  being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart; for whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God’s grace with me.

Philippians 1:3-7 

Paul is also thankful for the church in Corinth, a church that was divided and full of failures. 

What can you be thankful for?

Punch Line

I had a great time last night. It was a the 2nd lecture in the MTC Annual Lectures, but i didn’t go because my wife sprung a surprise on me – tickets to go and see Anh Doh, live at the Sydney Opera House.

In his latest show, Anh has incorporated a lot of auto-biographical material into his work including his families flee from post-war Vietnam, growing up in Sydney’s western suburbs as a refugee, his parents separation andhis career as a stand up comedian.  If you ask me. he is one of Australia’s best Comedians, no actually, I’m going to say he is Australia’s best Stand up Comedian!

My reason for making this big statement is simple.  Whilst he was on stage for almost an hour, not once did Anh  revert to foul language, crude talk or toilet humor to try and get a reaction from the audience. There are so many comedians in Australia at this point in time who have the potentialto be really funny but they destroy it by their excessive use of foul language andbasing a large portion of their jokes around sex and plain crudeness.  Ok, so it’s not all of the rest, but a good potion of them.

A classic example of this sort of crude comedy can be see on Channel 10 every Monday night in the form of ’Good News Week’.  When you watch the show there are coarse jokes dropped left right and center with the occasional use of crude language.  This dependence of crude language of modern comedians was only emphasised earlier this year I went to a filming of this show.  While the cameras were rolling, the use of crude language was restrained, yet there were still regular crude jokes.  The moment the cameras stopped however, the shows host’s Paul McDermott and Mikey Robins would drop language without blinking an eye simply because they could – it didn’t make  what they were saying any funnier.  I now no longer feel that i need to watch this show because I know the jokes that are going to be made.

The saddest thing about this dependence upon crudeness and bad language is that people put up with the rubbish that is presented to them as Comedy!

My big question is why has this ?  Is life no longer funny? Or is it that comediens are not as smart enough to see how funny life is?

Smashing the Social Stigma

I was reading the SMH on Saturday while waiting for a haircut and the story on the front page really caught my attention. ‘The Gap’ at Watsons Bay in Sydney’s affluent Eastern Suburbs, yet many people don’t link this area with wealth but rather a sure way to escape the troubles of life once and for all.

The story, read it here, is about an everyday Aussie hero who has seen it as his duty to help people who have considered committing suicide at the notorious location just by being there to give a friendly smile, a warm hello and a cup of tea. He has had some wins and some losses yet people continue to end their lives at ‘the Gap’.

Whilst it is an issue that we would all rather ignore, the fact remains that depression and suicide don’t only affect the individual but their families, friends and the wider community. As Christians it is an issue that we all need to be aware of, knowing the signs to look out for, and where to seek help for those who need it.

My friend Kate has just started a bit of a series in her Blog about depression, catch it here.

Some helpful web based resources include: Beyond Blue, Black Dog Institute,  Lifeline  and To Write Love on Her Arms.

If you need to talk try one of these help lines:

Lifeline: 131 114;

Salvo Crisis Line 93312000;

Beyond Blue 1300224 636

1 0f 39:Of Faith in the Holy Trinity

Article I

Of Faith in the Holy Trinity

There is but one living and true God, everlasting, without body, parts, or passions; of infinite power, wisdom, and goodness; the Maker, and Preserver of all things both visible and invisible. And in unity of this Godhead there be three Persons, of one substance, power, and eternity; the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.

 According to a Gallup poll (from almost 10 years ago) about 75% of people believe that there is such a thing as God in one form or another, however many of these ideas that society has are probably wild and totally unrealistic.  The true nature of God is revealed to us through the Bible.  The Old Testament makes it clear that there is only one God (Ex 20:2-3; Deut 6:4-5; Isa 44:6-45:25) and this idea is also backed up by the New Testament (Mark 12:29-30; 1Cor 8:4; Eph 4:6; 1Tim 2:5).  As we read through the Bible we can start to paint a picture of what God is actually like; and quite often this picture is in great contrast to the god that we try to create our for ourselves.  The existance of God however is not the main point of the first article, but rather the trinitarian nature.

Whilst the word ’Trinity’ is not found in the Bible, the concept is definatly there.  A great place to start looking is the Baptism of Jesus in Mark 1:9-11.

 

At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan.   As Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove.   And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”

 

In this passage we can clearly see the triune presence of God – the father speaking, the son coming out of the water & the spirit decending.  It is vital that we recognise that all three – Father, Son and Spirit  – are all equally God, that is that they are the one being or nature or essence.  However, at the same time,  each is a clear and distinct person with clear and distinct roles. 

For a more detailed read check out one of these two articles: ‘A brief definition of the Trinity’ ; What is the doctrine of the Trinity?