CONDELL PARK
BIBLE CHURCH
NEWSLETTER:
JULY 2008
Photos posted by Kingsley at:
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/kingzley/CPBCSeventiethAnniversary?authkey=AsC-p0kcKOA
Quote for July
Learn to look for the roots of unbelief and discontent when you see the fruit
of guilt, anxiety, anger and despair. Dr Jim Berg
Reflections from June
70TH CHURCH ANNIVERSARY
What an Anniversary to remember! We had an edifying and challenging
weekend. We began with our fellowship dinner, with 155 in attendance.
There was some concern prior to the dinner, that we would not all fit in
Henderson Hall, however, we were all comfortably seated and abundantly
filled with great food. Thanks to Elizabeth and her faithful helpers.
We proceeded to the church for a memorable meeting. Chris Dhiacou did a
tremendous job creating a tribute video of the life of brother Reg Kassel. It
was a powerful presentation and many were moved by the memory of the
life of Reg. Chris has placed this tribute on You Tube if you would like to
view it. He does, however, note that the quality is low and therefore, for
higher quality viewing, a DVD copy can be purchased from Philip Brown.
The DVD also contains other extra content. The You Tube link is:
http://au.youtube.com/user/sydneytnt. We were further pointed to the
Lord by musical presentations and a challenging message from God’s Word
by Pastor Ross Trumble.
On Sunday we continued our anniversary celebration by further musical
items and more messages from Pastor Trumble that caused us to consider
our lives and our faithfulness to the Lord and His work in the local church.
We thank the Lord for the faithfulness and guidance given by the church
leadership over many years.
SCHOOL FAMILY AND FRIENDS NIGHT
We once again witnessed our school students present some items that they
have been working on during the term. The Family and Friends Night is an
opportunity for the students to learn presentation skills and also to develop a
desire to share these skills and the message of the gospel with others. It is a
time that teachers use to encourage the students to perform for the glory of
God, not for the glory of self.
Please remember the additional Senior High School presentation, coming up
on September 20th. We were all motivated by the audio-visual trailer that
was screened on the Family and Friends Night.
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creation reflections by Dr Ralph Matthews
BIG NUMBERS
(Information source: Extremes of Creation by Don DeYoung, Impact #401
November 2006.)
Behold, the nations [are] as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of
the balance: behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing. Isaiah 40:15
The prophet’s revelation of God portrays an immensely powerful Being
capable of handling things of mind boggling proportions. How can nations
be likened to a drop in a bucket or the small dust used to adjust a balance?
Or how could all the islands of the sea be counted as a very little thing? Was
Isaiah using picturesque language that exaggerated reality? When we
consider the extreme dimensions of the universe in which we live, and
remember that our God is the Creator of this universe, we can give a more
advised answer.
Our most mundane encounter of large numbers is in connection with
population or currency. Even some of these examples are a bit hard to
envisage. What exactly do twenty million people look like? Millionaires are
relatively commonplace but what does a billion dollars amount to? In the
physical world that God created there are numbers that are related to size
that are both much bigger, and smaller, than these. One of the first that
comes to mind is how many molecules of water there are in a teaspoonful.
High school chemistry tells us how to work this out.
You can calculate the number of molecules in any substance using a big
number known as Avogadro’s number. It has the numerical value of 6 x 10
to the power 23. You also have to know the molecular weight of the
substance. In the case of water the molecular weight is 18. The number of
molecules in a mass of the substance equal to its molecular weight expressed
in grams is equal to Avogadro’s number. So 18 grams of water contains 6 x
1023 molecules. That is 6 followed by 23 zeros, or 600 thousand, million,
million, million. Since 1 millilitre of water weighs 1 gram, one teaspoon of
water, say 6 millilitres, would contain about 2 x 1023 molecules.
Numbers like this are very difficult to visualise. In order to help us get some
sort of concept some analogies have been proposed:
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• Suppose an Avogadro number of marbles could be spread over the
surface of the earth. This quantity of marbles would result in a
worldwide layer of marbles 80 kilometres deep.
• If the entire population of Australia (ca. 20 million people) spent 24
hours a day, 365 days of the year, counting molecules at the rate of one
molecule per second, it would take about 950 million years to count an
Avogadro number of molecules.
• Avogadro’s number is more than 10 times the number of known stars in
the universe. This number also exceeds the total number of all the
grains of sand on all the seashores of earth.
Next time you swallow a glass of water think about how many molecules
went down your throat.
One of the expressions we are hearing more about in this space age is the
light year. The light year is not a period of time. It is a measure of distance.
It is the distance travelled by a beam of light in the vacuum of space in one
year. It has the numerical value of 9.4 x 1012 kilometres. Since there are
great distances between stars, the light year is a useful unit of distance in
astronomy.
• Twelve million round trips between the earth and moon would total a
single light year.
• If you could travel non-stop at 8.5 million miles per hour during a
lifetime of 80 years, the distance would total about one light year. The
fastest space probes travel 500 times slower than this speed. Talk of
space travel to stars beyond our solar system is science fiction.
• Apart from our sun, one of the nearest stars is Alpha Centauri about 4.3
light years away. Farther away, the stars of the Big Dipper average 100
light years distance. The diameter of our Milky Way Galaxy is about
100,000 light years. There are hundreds of thousands of other galaxies
so far away that they look like stars.
The Bible tells us in many places that during the creation God stretched out
the heavens. For example: The burden of the word of the LORD for Israel,
saith the LORD, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the
foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him.
(Zechariah 12:1) How far did He stretch them out? Many light years.
Somewhere between these extreme measures of distance, from the tiny to
the immense, a big God created the 2 metre man. Even more amazing,
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2000 years ago He came Himself as a man into the earth that he created, and
bled and died upon a cross, for the sins of a fallen human race.
regular features
JULY BIRTHDAYS AND ANNIVERSARIES
Congratulations to: Birthdays: Anita-Joy Pocock (4th); Carolyn Boatto (6th);
Chris Irvine (10th); Andrew Santosa (12th); Egon Pfeil (13th); Fleur Wenham
(13th); Cecelia Alvarez (14th); Sita Pale (15th); Sunshine Bird (16th); George
Jeffress (19th); Brittany Eveleigh (20th); Devvy Leys (20th); Kathryn James
(21st); June Irvine (22nd); Hope Abdelmalek (23rd); Angelina Manahan (25th);
Selma Matthews (26th); Mark Fonacier (27th); Maria Matthews (27th); Emily
Diaz (28th); Norma Atkins (30th).
Anniversaries: Peter & Sharon Miller, celebrating 3 years on the 2nd;
Matthew & Devvy Leys, 5 years on the 5th; Philip & Georgina Brown, 7
years on the 7th and Santiago & Emily Diaz, celebrating 2 years on the 8th.
PRAYER
Below are the names of some of our church brethren, listed in alphabetical
order. Why not pray for them during the month: Irvine – Chris, June,
Joanna; Irvine – Jed, Nicole; Jabboury – George; James – Greg,
Kathryn, Ben, Philippa, Timothy; Jauregui – Gilmer, Elena, Joseph, Paul,
Elliot, Maria; Jaworski – Set, Brenna; Jeffress – George, Marie.
OUR GOD – PRESERVING OUR PEACE
Here is an excerpt from another Adult Sunday School lesson, this time about
“Peace”.
The biggest single thing that can destroy our peace is worry.
Wesley's Cow - One day John Wesley was walking with a troubled man
who expressed his doubt as to the goodness of God. He said, "I do not
know what I shall do with all this worry and trouble." At that moment
Wesley saw a cow looking over a stone wall. "Do you know," he asked,
"why that cow is looking over the wall?" "No," said the man who was
worried. "The cow is looking over the wall," Wesley replied, "because
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she cannot see through it. That is what you must do with your wall of
trouble-look over it and above it."
Worry never gets us anywhere.
Worries are like babies: the more you feed them, the bigger they grow.
Someone once said, "Worry is interest paid on trouble before it becomes
due."
How foolish to put up your umbrella before it starts to rain!
How many try to cross the bridge before they come to it!
No driver in his car would ever think of trying to cross a bridge when he
is still five kms from it!
Yet in everyday life how often we attempt to do that very thing!
The two Marys and Salome were guilty of that. They were wondering
who would roll away the stone from the door of the sepulcher, and when
they finally reached the tomb they discovered the stone already had been
rolled away.
Has God ever failed you in the past? Of course not! Then why worry
about the future?
gems from history
TERRORIST SAVED
THE MINISTRY OF ROBERT MOFFAT, MISSIONARY
TO SOUTH AFRICA
The most savage cannibal is subject to the redemptive power
of the Word of God.
Robert Moffatt was a Scottish missionary in the 19th Century.
When Moffat went as a missionary to the pagans of South
Africa, a Hottentot desperado by the name of Africaner was the terror of the
country. The governor of Cape Town had offered a reward of $500 for this
man, dead or alive.
Moffat decided to take the Gospel to Africaner's tribe, disregarding the
warning that the desperado would use his skull for a drinking cup. With his
faith in the protective providence of God and the efficacy of the Gospel
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message, the dauntless missionary approached these benighted savages with
the Word upon his lips. His first convert was the terrorist, Africaner.
When Moffat later took him back to Cape Town as a gentle, humble
Christian, the colonial governor declared, "What a miracle! This is the
eighth wonder of the world!"
“For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy
Ghost, and in much assurance; as ye know what manner of men we were among you
for your sake.” 1 Thessalonians 1:5
It was largely due to Robert Moffatt that David Livingstone, his son-in-law,
took up his subsequent work. This story was included in a recent issue of
the Newsletter.
news and upcoming events
KIDS CLUB
Kids Club is now over and we once again had a great time. There will be
more written in the next newsletter, however, you may be interested in
viewing slideshows on the
church website: http://www.cpbc.org.au/ or the Australia Team website:
http://homepage.mac.com/gmatzko/2008BJU/PhotoAlbum163.html
REGARDING OUR POSITION ON THE BLOOD OF
CHRIST
Whereas the physical body of Christ in the Holy Scriptures means the real,
literal body of God the Son incarnate; so also in the Holy Scriptures when
the Blood of Christ is mentioned, it is the real, literal Blood which was
poured out from that same body and which accomplished our redemption.
The Bible reveals the mysteries of our redemption. In that revelation a
divine principle is revealed, illustrated, and enforced. That principle is
". . . without shedding of blood is no remission" (Hebrews 9 :22).
Sin can only be atoned for and cleansed from the heart of the sinner by the
precious Blood of God's appointed Lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ
must die once for all, but His death must be by literal blood-shedding; and
the Blood shed becomes the all-sufficient merit by which sin's guilt-power,
and ultimately its very presence, are destroyed.
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The Holy Scriptures nowhere separate the voluntary death of Christ from
the sacrificial shedding of His sinless Blood, but rather links them
inextricably in one inseparable act. The Bible reveals:
1. that the precious Blood is incorruptible.
It cannot be anything else because of its intrinsic purity.
I Peter 1: 18,19: "Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with
corruptible things, as silver and gold . . But with the precious blood of Christ . . "
2. that the precious Blood is indestructible.
It cannot be anything else because of its permanence. The Blood is
eternally preserved in Heaven.
Hebrews 12: 24: "And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the
blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel."
3. that the precious Blood is invaluable.
It cannot be anything else because of its parentage. It is the Blood of God
incarnate.
Leviticus 17: 11: "For the life of the flesh is in the blood . . . ."
Acts 20:28: ".. the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own
blood."
4. that the precious Blood is indispensable.
It cannot be anything else because of its power. No sinner can be saved
without washing in the Blood of the Lamb.
Revelation 7: 14: "... These are they which came out of great tribulation, and
have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb."
Therefore, this local Church:
1. reaffirms its adherence to the Scriptural teaching on this subject;
2. rejects every attempt either to deny the literalness of the Blood or to
minimize its efficacy and the necessity of its shedding in Christ's death on
the cross. Such denial is a dangerous and devilish deception;
3. calls upon Bible-believing preachers and God's saints everywhere to
proclaim anew the saving efficacy of the shed Blood of Christ in His
death on the cross, and to alert the Church in regard to all heretical
teaching on this vital truth, ever remembering that we overcome the
devil himself by the Blood of the Lamb.
Revelation 12: 11: "And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by
the word of their testimony . . . ."
(Taken from the resolutions of The World Congress of Fundamentalists.)
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