The vision to have a reformed conference for Brazilian youth arose out of two issues. First, we were concerned about the increasing apathy and superficiality in the Brazilian evangelical church and in Christian youth in general. Secondly, we knew that some young people went to great lengths to attend Editora Fiel’s (a reformed publisher in the…
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New Tribes Mission reports the death of Indonesian missionary Elisa Bowa. Graham Castle writes - he was a humble, gentle man who had a heart to serve the Lord; 'I'm just a servant!' is what he would say to me.He once told me, 'Had not missionaries come to my tribe when I was a…
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Scottish prosecutors have been criticised for cautioning the Celtic goalkeeper Artur Boruc for crossing himself during a match against Rangers. Polish born Boruc was cautioned for a breach of the peace over the incident at an Old Firm match at Ibrox in February. The Catholic Church called the caution 'worrying and alarming' as the…
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Earlier this year I visited India and was deeply impressed with that vast nation of a billion people. It is a country of immense contrasts – poverty and yet industriousness; good communications and yet chaos in the cities; the tranquillity of the Ganges and yet the incessant noise of traffic. We asked one of…
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Church leaders in Zimbabwe say that almost nothing has been done to re-house 700,000 people who lost their homes and livelihoods in massive demolitions last year. At the time the Zimbabwean government said the destruction was to clean up cities, but many believe it was designed to demoralise President Mugabe's political opponents.Kirk Moderator loses…
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The Reformed Tabernacle in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, hosted their first youth conference, on 7-8 August. Its theme was 'Biblical foundations for Christian living - in the home, church and society'. The attendance was encouraging, with 100 young people present and 17 churches represented.Pastor Alan Levy and his wife Mary, of Penyrheol Free Church, Swansea,…
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Witness for Christ in the workplace is one of the hardest things we face as Christians. We know we are called to be witnesses for our Lord wherever we are, yet we struggle with 'on site' witnessing.Somehow, whipping out a gospel tract at the office business meeting - or in the shed with the…
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Chester presents extraordinary opportunities for evangelism. While local people flock in regularly to the shops, a further 6 million visitors of many different nationalities pass through its historic centre each year.As one with a strong interest in world mission, especially among Moslem peoples, Ian Cameron-Swan welcomed retirement from full-time employment nine years ago as…
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Psalm 68:31 says, ‘Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands to God’. However, ‘Ethiopia’ here is a translation of the Hebrew word ‘Cush’. Among the several pastoral Cushite peoples in the deserts of Northern Kenya are the Rendille, with their fascinating cultural background. It is probable that the Rendille were influenced by black Ethiopian Jews…
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The largest Hindu temple in Europe has opened in the West Midlands with priests performing a number of rituals to sanctify the £6.5m Shri Venkateswara (Balaji) Temple of the UK in Tividale. The temple's design is based on one of the holiest sites in the Hindu world, the Tirupati-Tirumala Temple in India. Scores of…
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One wonderful aspect of the Bible is the sheer diversity of people and personalities within its pages. It does not matter what kind of person you are, you will find someone like you within the Scriptures. The full range of human-ness can be discovered in the pages of God's book.This ought to encourage Christians…
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The Gay Police Association (GPA) is being investigated by Scotland Yard for an advert that blamed religion for an increase in homophobic crime. The advertisement depicted a Bible beside a pool of blood under the heading ‘In the name of the Father’. The police are believed to have received over 40,000 complaints about the…
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On the weekend of 2-3 September special services were held to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Lampeter Evangelical Church (Eglwys Efengylaidd Llanbed), at Ceredigion in west Wales. The church was established in 1981. Although at one time it was in danger of closing, it has seen substantial growth over the last decade. The anniversary…
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The Bible uses many different terms to describe evangelism - such as, proclaiming the gospel, making disciples, preaching Christ, fishing for men, bearing fruit, the aroma of Christ, the ministry of reconciliation and declaring the wonderful deeds of God. However, so complex is the subject and so varied are the means, that Christianity has…
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Many consider street children to be trash. Local businessmen in Brazil call them ‘vermin’ and ‘garbage’. They say, ‘If we let them grow up they will become criminals — a blight on our society’. From time to time some have even hired assassins to kill them. A staggering 160 million extremely underprivileged street children…
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An extract from 'Can we rock the gospel?' by John Blanchard and Dan Lucarini - a new book from Evangelical Press on music in worship and evangelism God loves music. We say this not because either of us has a vested interest in securing God's backing for our ministries nor because we want to…
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In an astonishing act of patronising PC-ness, nine Scottish firefighters, disciplined for refusing to hand out leaflets at a gay pride event, have been earmarked by superiors for a ‘diversity training’ course. One of the firefighters involved was demoted from a watch manager to crew manager with a £5000 salary cut and the others…
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This year’s Zambian Reformed Family Conference and School of Theology were held in Lusaka from 21-25 August. The keynote address was given by Choolwe Mwetwa, pastor of Central Baptist Church in Chingola, Zambia. He showed from Romans 8 how true spiritual assurance comes from reflecting upon the eternal dimensions of our salvation. Guest preachers…
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Do you ever feel like throwing in the towel and giving up your Christian commitment?Personal failure, hostility from the world and painful disagreements with other Christians may all point in that direction, yet God has given powerful encouragements in his Word to counteract setbacks and urge us on in the Christian life. That was…
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We began this short series by considering the Holy Spirit in evangelism (ET, August) and continued last month with the Spirit and the church at worship. But I have so far made little reference to a central feature of evangelical worship, namely, pastoral preaching.Of course, as we saw in August, gospel preaching lies at…
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In July 1952 a somewhat strange and reclusive man was buried in Scotland, at Stornoway in the Isle of Lewis. Probably few of his neighbours knew that Arthur W. Pink was the spiritual leader of a 'paper flock' scattered around the English-speaking world - devoted readers to whom he ministered through his journal Studies…
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Pastor Jonathan Bond recounts his church’s first experience of using ET’s evangelistic Christmas issue. Jennyfield Evangelical Church (JEC) is a small church (30-plus members) seeking to share the gospel on an estate in Harrogate (N. Yorks.) with well over 3000 homes. With the exception of a small Saturday night meeting run by the local…
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The main addresses in this year's Evangelical Movement of Wales conference (August 14-18), at Aberystwyth, were given by Joel Beeke, pastor of Heritage Netherlands Reformed Church, Michigan. They were on - Jesus' cross-bearing and ours, Jesus' office-bearing and ours, Jesus' tears and ours, and Jesus' endurance and ours. His ministry led to much discussion;…
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Gideon was a man of faith. Make no mistake about that. But he was also a man whose faith was in crisis. He makes this clear when the Angel of the Lord appears to him (Judges 6:11-13). What was the reason for this crisis? There were two sides to it.One cause was the Midianites.…
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Talking Bibles International, based in California, has sent 1000 new digital, solid-state Talking Bibles to the Bible Society in Malawi, Africa. The company believes these are the first digital Talking Bibles available in Africa.The Talking Bibles have a special arrangement of Scripture passages from the Old Testament as well as the entire New Testament…
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Earlier this year I visited India and was deeply impressed with that vast nation of a billion people. It is a country of immense contrasts - poverty and yet industriousness; good communications and yet chaos in the cities; the tranquillity of the Ganges and yet the incessant noise of traffic. We asked one of…
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The people of Calvary Reformed Presbyterian Chapel (CRPC), of Colombo, Sri Lanka, had been eagerly anticipating the visit of Dr S. H. Tow (Singapore) in August to minister the Word of God and were not disappointed. For three days he expounded the Bible's teaching on the work of the Holy Spirit. Many remarked afterwards…
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The Vatican and the Emerging Church have something surprising in common — the promotion of mysticism. A well-known papal document reveals the heart of Roman Catholic policy in this area. ‘It [Vatican Council II] longs to set forth the way it understands the presence and function of the [Roman Catholic] Church in the world…
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The first shared faith school in Wales has begun taking students for the new academic year. St Joseph's Catholic High School in Wrexham is now known as St Joseph's Catholic and Anglican High School. The merger decision was agreed two years ago by the denominations.In what is seen as a possible precedent for future…
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I am committed to expository preaching. It is my unshakable conviction that the proclamation of God's Word should always be the heart and the focus of the church's ministry (2 Timothy 4:2). And proper biblical preaching should be systematic, expositional, theological and God-centred.Such preaching is in short supply these days. There are plenty of…
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Demand is rising for Bibles in China and India despite Christians there being in the minority. The People's Republic of China has an official Bible printing house. Since 1987 its press in Nanjing has turned out more than 46 million copies of the Bible and the New Testament. Official Bible distribution figures in China…
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The French state railway SNCF has been asked to pay millions of euros in compensation to more than 200 families whose relatives were transported to Nazi death camps during World War II. The families have threatened to sue the company if their request is not granted. In a landmark ruling in June, a court…
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'All the nations you have made will come and worship before you, O Lord; they will bring glory to your name' (Psalm 86:9).Why do we do what we do? Most of the time we probably don't analyse it. But if we pressed the question on ourselves, what would we say? For example, why do…
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The National Director of Christian Voice, a prayer and lobby group, was arrested by South Wales Police for distributing gospel tracts at a homosexual event. Stephen Green refused to stop giving out the leaflets to people entering Bute Park in Cardiff, where the 'Mardi Gras' event was being held.Mr Green was held for four…
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A concert by US pop star Madonna, in which she re-enacts the crucifixion, went ahead in Amsterdam despite a bomb threat. Police later arrested a 63-year-old Dutch priest who confessed to making a hoax call in an attempt to disrupt the event. The mock re-enactment of the crucifixion offended some Christians when the show…
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Evangelicals face a dilemma. The more they distance themselves from the values and lifestyles of this 'present evil age' (Galatians 1:4), the more marginalised they become and the less they are listened to. How can we be faithful to the Lord and yet still win a lost world for Jesus Christ? How can we…
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