28 January 2015
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Presbyterians Week Headlines
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[1] Inverness Kirk Minister to Leave for Free Church of Scotland over Homosexual Clergy
[2] U.K. Pilgrim Heritage Trail Launched — Tours to Focus on Outstanding Men of Faith
[3] Present Joy in Future Hope: A Letter on Pastoral Ministry
[5] News from the Deepest Recesses of Hell
[7] Raging Heathen and Vain Imagining
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[1] Inverness Kirk Minister to Leave for Free Church of Scotland over Homosexual Clergy
A 27 January 2015 The Scotsman article by Alistair Munro titled “Defecting Minister: Kirk Has ‘Unchurched Itself’” reports that Church of Scotland minister the Rev. Andrew McMillan, pastor of the Dalneigh and Bona Church of Scotland in Inverness, has become the eleventh Kirk minister to leave over “unbiblical decisions” including allowing homosexual clergy.
McMillan is quoted as saying:
“As someone who holds firmly to the teaching of the Bible, there is no way I can remain in the Church of Scotland with any real integrity.
“By walking away from the Bible, the Church of Scotland is setting itself on a fatal course and sadly it appears increasingly likely there will be further deviations in the years ahead on moral, theological and ecclesiastical affairs.
“My call to ministry was to tell people that salvation is to be found in Jesus, not to waste it fighting a denominational war.”
McMillan is additionally quoted as saying:
“It has become more and more clear that my understanding of the nature of the Scriptures – which is entirely in line with Christian faith throughout the last 2,000 years – is simply not shared by the vast majority of the Church of Scotland, which has chosen to listen to the spirit of the age rather than the Spirit of Christ.
“And again for example, over the next few weeks the Scottish Parliament will be considering the contentious matter of assisted suicide.
“In times past, it would be a no-brainer that the Church of Scotland would unanimously oppose the deliberate killing of an innocent life – as the sixth commandment says ‘do not kill’.
“Regrettably, even on such a basic issue like this there is deep division amongst ministers.”
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+ The Scotsman, Barclay House, 108 Holyrood Road, Edinburgh EH8 8AS, Scotland, 131-620-8620
+ Church of Scotland, 121 George Street, Edinburgh EH2 4YN, Scotland, 0131-225-5722
+ Free Church of Scotland, 15 North Bank Street, The Mound, Edinburgh, Scotland EH1 2LS, 0131-226-5286, Fax: 0131-220-0597, catherine@freechurchofscotland.org.uk
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[2] U.K. Pilgrim Heritage Trail Launched — Tours to Focus on Outstanding Men of Faith
Written by Charles Gardner – Special to ASSIST News Service
DONCASTER, UK (ANS – January 26, 2015) — With the 400th anniversary of the sailing of the Mayflower fast approaching, a campaign to revive interest in the Pilgrim Fathers and other outstanding English Christians has been launched.
It is initially being focused on the area of North Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire and South Yorkshire which has witnessed events of great historical significance like providing the founding fathers of the United States who were hounded out of this area for their radical Christian views.
Tours of relevant sites will not, however, be limited to the so-called Pilgrim Fathers, but also include other local heroes who have made a huge contribution to Christian mission like John and Charles Wesley, Hudson Taylor, William Wilberforce, James Montgomery and Archbishop Cranmer.
ScroobyCowick2A first-ever excursion has already taken place and included a visit to Littleborough, near Retford, where Saint Paulinus baptized hundreds of new converts in the River Trent in the seventh century, while future tours will cover the fascinating history of the Quakers and Baptists.
But the project has been inspired by the heroic endeavours of Pilgrim Fathers like William Bradford, John Robinson and William Brewster, who risked everything to forge new ground for Christianity by encouraging personal faith.
Under the initial leadership of Rev Richard Clyfton, the Separatist movement (a breakaway from Church of England tradition) was formed in Babworth, near Retford, in 1606 and subsequently spread through the area after the vicar was fired.
The focus moved to Scrooby, seven miles away, where meetings took place at the local manor house until the King’s spies caught up with them and they became wanted men. After an abortive initial attempt at escape landed them in Boston Jail (Lincolnshire), they eventually fled with their families to Holland, where religious tolerance was practiced.
Twelve years later King James relented and offered them land in the New World, as a result of which Doncaster businessman John Carver hired the Mayflower which sailed for America in 1620.
Many of today’s Americans (and others) are under the mistaken impression that the Pilgrims departed from Plymouth, after which they named their first settlement. They did, however, call in for repairs at Plymouth, where they were welcomed with exceptional kindness. But few are aware that their leaders originated from the area where Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire meet.
“Pilgrims and Prophets” has been formed to help celebrate the heritage of Christianity in this region, particularly in the minds of a younger generation growing up with little knowledge of faith.
Plans are still at the formative stage, but it is hoped to set up a purpose-built center (possibly church-linked) which could host school visits and other tours, and encompass many aspects of the area’s rich Christian past.
“We are a not-for-profit group formed to promote Christian heritage tours and events across this area,” explained group chairman Gerard Pontier, one of the founders behind the initiative along with others from Retford Baptist Church (also known as The Well), just over a mile from where the Separatist movement began over 400 years ago.
But other churches have also come on board for a chance to inspire believers and reach out to those as yet unaware of the area’s unique role in making the world a better place.
A well-organized project with a dedicated center is thought likely to attract tourists from America as well as local schoolchildren and others searching for inspiration from those who have gone before us.
A week-long interactive event focused on the Pilgrim Fathers and held in Scrooby each summer from 2006-2008 introduced primary school children to the hardships and sacrifice made in the name of Christ by our ancestors, and proved a huge success involving schools from all over Doncaster, North Nottinghamshire, and even as far as the Selby district, near York.
And that was without a dedicated center, although villagers were very accommodating and the village hall and local churches (Methodist and Anglican) were used. The event, organized by the Doncaster Schools Work Trust in association with Scripture Union, only came to an end for lack of staff and funds – to the great disappointment of the many participating schools.
Mr. Pontier added: “We have a fantastic chance to show the world what a difference the area has made, but at the moment we find that even most local people don’t really know what happened here.”
For more information on tours, e-mail mail@pilgrimsandprophets.co.uk, text +44 (0) 7586 732462 or call +44 (0) 1777 702344.
Note: Issued on behalf of Pilgrims & Prophets by Charles Gardner, 50 Nutwell Lane, Armthorpe, Doncaster DN3 3JF, South Yorkshire, UK. Tel +44 (0) 1302 832987, e-mail chazgardner@btinternet.com and Twitter @WriteGardner
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+ Assist USA, Post Office Box 609, Lake Forest, California 92609, 949-380-1558, danjuma1@aol.com
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[3] Present Joy in Future Hope: A Letter on Pastoral Ministry
By the Rev. Dr. Michael Milton
Dr. D. James Kennedy used to tell me that the pastor must love three things more than all others: God, God’s Word, and God’s People. I believe his admonition of these simple and profound intuitive desires came from a singular passion stirred in the heart of the pastor by God Himself. I believe that these three “loves” cannot be manufactured by man or instilled by a seminary. This is altogether the incomparable work of God in the human soul. However, these “three loves” can-no, must-be stirred, kindled and expanded for even more productive ministry through the ordinary means of grace given to the pastor.
Consider one passage from the mind and heart of St. Paul-one passage that has meant to so much to me in every station of my pastoral ministry. We think of this peerless genius and tireless teacher of truth as the great apostle, evangelist, missionary and ambassador of the Gospel to the Gentiles, and yet, here and in some other places in his writings, we come face to face with one of the greatest pastors of all time. Oh what a portrait of a true, Christ-like good shepherd is here painted by Paul’s heart disclosed and open for all to see! What do we learn about the “secret love life”-the passionate life-of a pastor of Christ’s flock? The illuminati are those who simply, purposely, patiently and carefully read the ink of the Holy Spirit in the scribbling of Paul’s pen.
A Broken Heart
Paul’s words in seeking to communicate his heart to the Thessalonians not only convey his love to them, but demonstrates to us that the pastorate is risky work-you risk your heart. “It is dirty work,” O. Palmer Robertson said of those who are compared to sheep tenders by Jesus. Quite. When you preach the Word, publicly and privately; when you bring the Word in the Bread and the Cup to the saints, and when you are there at their spiritual and physical births, and pour the covenantal waters of God over the dear heads of these people, I assure you that you will never be the same.
“Is it like being in love with a girl, then? Is it like being away from the one you love? Is that the pain that Paul speaks of when he writes about being ‘torn away from you’?” It is that and more. It is like being in love with the Church, I say. It is like having your heart filled and overflowing with the celestial-earthly beauty of what Christ is doing in human soul. “But aren’t they ornery creatures, these sheep?” Yes, and so are you! But I tell you that the most difficult child is still loved by the tender-hearted mother. God loves these for whom Christ died and you will too if you minister in the power of the Spirit (and not the flesh). The saints of God may not understand that your love is greater than their insults or indifference or waywardness or criticisms. “But,” the applicant continues, “I have heard it said that there are ‘divine subtractions!” No, I say. No, there are problem-people but if there were not would there be a need for a pastor? I tell you that the greatest heartache and regrets I have are not in the time invested in the “lovable saints,” but in protecting myself from the “unintentional dragons.” I would rather, now, spend more time with them than any other. Their nasty e-mails and their thoughtless barbs are so often the cloaked cries of a wounded spirit. And I withdrew. Oh how I would go back a thousand times to hold them until the stiffness went away.
Just ask a pastor who is loved and then, through one circumstance or another, is removed from the saints. He will tell you that his heart has been torn in twain. But here is the thing, my beloved: this is your life as a pastor. You will have a broken heart. To love is to be hurt, they say. To open your life to others is to open your heart to brokenness. Christ had a broken heart like no other pastor (and He is the Chief pastoral model in all of Scripture). Think of His heart being broken as he wept at the funeral of his friend, or as he wept over Jerusalem who would turn against Him. He was a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. Yet through this broken heart He comes to us as One who knows our broken heart. So God breaks your heart as a pastor so that you love even more. For God does not need shepherds who do not love, who do not weep, who cannot feel the pain of separation from the flock. “Love God, Love His Word, and Love People,” Dr. Kennedy said and I cannot but become very emotional as I recall that charge to me and then read these words of Paul’s; and as I write to you my beloved.
An Unexpected Journey
Note that Paul said that “we wanted to come to you” but he had been “torn away.” He had intended to come to them personally. He did not want to write an epistle. He wanted to bring the Word to them personally. But his ministry here, and in other places, was always being re-routed by the devil (only a mere secondary cause in the glorious redemptive plan of God) or even in some case (no in all cases, even in this case) sovereignly diverted by the Holy Spirit to accomplish God’s purposes in the world at just the perfect time. But oh how costly these diversions are to the soul of the minister of Christ! There would be no pain, of course, if there were no love. Ask the pastor who has loved a flock and expected to minister to that congregation for the rest of his life, only to discover that his plan, a good plan, was not God’s? Was Paul’s desire to go to Asia wrong? Of course not. Yet the Holy Spirit forbid him to go so that he would head westward to bring the Gospel of life to Lydia and her European spiritual progeny. What of Paul’s journey from Corinth to Jerusalem after he declared that he would never preach again to the Jews? Yet this same man was re directed to return to the Jews to preach Christ to them. The old Methodists took a vow of itinerary, realizing that they would be sent wherever Bishop Asbury would send them. So, too, do you, in a way, take such a vow when you surrender to the Gospel ministry. For the Bishop of your soul, the Head of the Church, may send you places you do not want to go. Yet His kingdom vision is what guides you; not your own. Thus the ministry is, as it was to Pastor Paul, a most unexpected journey. The sooner you come to terms with this vow of love the sooner you will be contented in God’s service, and trust that unexpected journeys are never unexpected to God.
A Diabolical Opposition
If you have never seen the reality of Satanic activity, you need not go to an ancient, arid Animistic culture in a third world country or a pagan pageantry in a foggy, green-jungle, or an idolatrous village along the Ganges; you have only to do the work of the Lord with zeal where you are. Satan sought to disrupt the relationship of Paul and the Thessalonians. And why? The answer to that is no more remote than the very vision of the Great Commission of Jesus Christ! In the pastoral ministry, the saints are grown by the preaching of the Word, prayers, Scripture reading, singing the Psalms and hymns of faith, by pastoral visitation, and through the ministry of presence-the faithful, week-in and week-out pointing to Jesus of Nazareth. All of this regular pastoral work leads to a growth in the kingdom (too often unnoticed by even the pastor) as faith is strengthened and then passed from generation to generation. But fear not oh messenger of Christ! He who overcame the devil in the wilderness will guard you in such seasons of devilish attack. He who was comforted by heavenly angels in the desolate place after an obedience in the desert which Moses and the Children of Israel could not accomplish, and which you and I cannot accomplish without Him, will send angels to succor you. Paul’s heart-wounds, after being diverted by the devil, become the sacred time of writing this very letter, which instructs us today. Thus will Christ always deliver His pastors, even unto everlasting life, should the devil and the world bring martyrdom to the pastor. We live under the motif of the Cross and the Empty Tomb. This is the ground on which we conduct our ministry to the world.
An Other-Centered Identity
Paul asks, “For what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at His coming?” This is a question that has already been answered in the heart of this pastor on display. What Paul is saying, is that his hope, joy and crown of boasting is in “you” at Christ’s coming, has become his very identity. The pastorate is not a job or a career like so many. It is, rather, most like the identity of a physician of the body. The physician’s work flows from his identity. He is “Doctor so and so.” He cannot separate himself from his healing arts and his availability to the wounded community. He is a doctor of the body whether he is a spectator at a high school football game or whether he is in his lab coat in his office. He is and must always be a doctor. Thus, the physician of the soul is one whose identity is totally tied to a sacred encounter with the Christ who calls, and with the people that the pastor is called to serve with his very life. So, as Paul poses this rhetorical question (a question that Paul wanted to answer so that he would bring joy into the hearts of his spiritual children, the Thessalonians), so we who are pastors join with the “Apostle of the Heart Set Free” and declare that our identity also is in Christ and is with His Church, the blessed redeemed of God. Our identity is others-centered.
A Present Joy in a Future Hope
In a similar and climactic way, Paul links the hope and the joy and the rejoicing, or boasting, not only in the saints of God, but in a day when his ministry will be completed: at the Parousia of Jesus. There, in that Day, when as Fanny Crosby wrote in her hymn, there will be “souls safe in the arms of Jesus,” Paul will know the fully ripened fruit of his pastoral ministry. And so will you! Your pastorate is not judged by only those who come to Christ, or are healed of soul, or commit to the Kingdom of Jesus in your lifetime, but who multiply that conversion, that healing, that Kingdom work, by sharing their faith through the ages, through their familial and their spiritual descendants. They, all of them, are yours (that is, they are Christ’s), in the sense that you will see how powerful Christ is with so weak a worker as yourself. You will see how God multiplied ministry even though your heart was broken as you were “run out” of one pastorate only to find a new love in another pastorate (though you never stopped loving the saints where you were led from; for the saints in all the churches we serve are like flowers we gather from the several parts of the fields of Christ that we serve; flowers which are preserved for us for all the days of our lives, and here, even unto eternity). This is our hope and our joy and our crown-our people safe in the arms of the true Shepherd. But of course that is where we shall also be. Safe in his arms. The shepherd’s heart healed, his journey completed, all opposition thwarted (and used to bring him home), and his identity absorbed into the One he followed, as the pastor joins with the saints and processes to the Lamb’s throne-that which was preached for so long and with so many tears and trials-is now the hope fulfilled. And the pastor’s tears are wiped away by God Himself.
Dearest students in the Gospel of grace, and especially those of you called by Christ to shepherd his flock, read St. Paul-read his pastor’s heart in his pastor’s words-and be comforted by the Holy Spirit. Then go and love God, love God’s Word, and love God’s saints. There is no other work like it in all of this world. But it will end in another world that is already on its way.
Don’t you just love it?
[This is an excerpt from a forthcoming book, The Secret Like of the Pastor and other intimate letters on ministry (Christian Focus, March 2015).]
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+ Faith for Living, 3122 Fincher Farm Road, Suite 100, Box 552, Matthews, North Carolina 28105
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Nicholas Bownd, Sabbathum Veteris Et Novi Testamenti: or, The True Doctrine of the Sabbath (Naphtali Press, forthcoming Spring, 2015) 592pp. Hard bound, smyth sewn, dust jacket. Lengthy introduction and analysis. Retail to be determined. Pre-publication offer: $24.95 postage paid. USA ONLY (this book may be too large to ship economically overseas; International customers stay tuned for availability). USA customers, to order now online click this link: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=UYPXMBDCUKFBE . To order by mail see the end of this Note. This offer will expire once the books are completed and shipped.
In a few weeks Naphtali Press will, Lord willing, go to press with this classic Puritan work which has never been reprinted since 1606. Bownd’s work more than any other one thing in the late Elizabethan / early Jacobean period in England, set the mold for the Puritan understanding of the fourth commandment regarding the Lord’s Day or Christian Sabbath. It was the first scholarly and lengthy book on the subject, can be considered the grandfather of all subsequent works, and its influence cannot be overestimated in helping to shape and establish the Puritan Sabbatarian theology subsequently and classically expressed in the Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms.
To order by mail send a check or money order for $24.95 per copy to:
Naphtali Press
P.O. Box 141084
Dallas, TX 75214
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+ Naphtali Press, Post Office Box 141084, Dallas, Texas 75214, naphtali@naphtali.com
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[5] News from the Deepest Recesses of Hell
— 57,762,169 Abortions in America since Roe vs. Wade in 1973
— Obama Celebrates Forty-Two Years of Abortion: Roe “Gives Our Daughters Rights and Freedoms”
— New Reality Series to Follow Bruce Jenner on His Journey to Becoming a Woman
— Utah Woman Who Killed Her Six Newborn Babies, Packed Them in Boxes, May Reach Plea Deal
— Former Abortion Clinic Worker: We Shot Babies through the Heart with Poison to Kill Them
— Abortion Kills Nineteen Times as Many Blacks as Murder
— United Methodist Church Human Rights Director Compares the Unborn to Sandwiches
— Some Are Seeking to Define Father-Daughter Marriages as a Form of “Reproductive Freedom”
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+ LifeNews.com, Post Office Box 270841, Fort Collins, Colorado 80527, news@lifenews.com
+ Now the End Begins, Contact Page
+ LifeSiteNews.com, Incorporated, 4 Family Life Lane, Front Royal, Virginia 22630, 888-678-6008, Contact Page
+ Godfather Politics, 457 Nathan Dean Boulevard, Dallas, Georgia 30132
+ All Christian News, Contact Page
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— California Cop Who Stole Nude Photos from Arrestees Won’t Face Jail Time
— Rialto, California Cops Beat and Taser Man for Honking Car Horn
— San Francisco Cop Caught On Camera Trying to Throw Man From His Wheelchair, While Fellow Cops Watch
— New York Police Department Arrested a Teen over Facebook Emoji (Unicode Picture Letters) ‘Threats’
— Georgia Sheriff’s Deputy Says He Was Fired for Hosting Bible Study for Former Inmates
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+ The Daily Caller, 1050 17th Street Northwest # 900, Washington DC 20036, 202-466-3004, media@dailycaller.com
+ PrisonPlanet.com, Post Office Box 19549, Austin, Texas 78760, 512-291-5750, writers@infowars.com
+ Red Alert Politics, 1015 15th Street Northwest, #500, Washington DC 20005, info@redalertpolitics.com
+ Christian News Network, Post Office Box 30000, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103, Contact Page
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[7] Raging Heathen and Vain Imagining
Articles from the past week regarding kings and rulers setting themselves against the LORD and against his anointed:
— California DMV Ordered to Overlook Identity Theft by Illegals
— Georgia DPH Hires then Fires New Director for Being a Christian
— Indiana University Removes Chick-Fil-A for “Hate” Towards LGBT Community
— Homeschooled Children Seized by Authorities Still in Arkansas Custody
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+ Breitbart.com, 149 South Barrington Avenue #401, Los Angeles, California 90049
+ Godfather Politics, 457 Nathan Dean Boulevard, Dallas, Georgia 30132
+ The Sons of Liberty, P.O. Box 1126, Annandale, Minnesota 55302, 866-233-0747, info@sonsoflibertyradio.com
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Articles from the past week about the religion of peace:
— Obama Sends Five-Man Team to Israel to Defeat Netanyahu in Reelection
— Obama Authorizes Muslim Brotherhood-Aligned Leaders Meeting at U.S. State Department
— Muslim Brotherhood Starts New Political Party in Chicago with Obama’s Blessing
— Libya: Devout Muslims Attack Hotel, Open Fire in Reception Area, Kill Nine People
— The Real Fight against ISIS Begins in Saudi Arabia
— Islamic State Has Bombed the Historic Walls of Nineveh in Iraq
— ISIS Leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi Orders Female Genital Mutilation of Two Million Girls
— Philippines: Over Thirty Police Killed in Shootout with Islamic Jihadist
— Boko Haram Strikes Strategic Nigerian City, Slaughtering Dozens
— Islamic State Executes Women for Refusing Temporary Marriage
— Footage of Actual Muslim Slaughterhouse for Christian Organs Released
— Uganda: Imam Beats Twelve-Year Old Daughter to Death for Leaving Islam
— Islamic State (ISIS) Executing ‘Educated Women’
— Forty-Five Churches in Niger Burned by Islamic Protesters of New Charlie Hebdo Cover
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+ Now the End Begins, Contact Page
+ Atlas Shrugs, writeatlas@aol.com
+ Middle East Forum, 1500 Walnut Street, Suite 1050, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19102, info@meforum.org
+ Assist USA, Post Office Box 609, Lake Forest, California 92609, 949-380-1558, danjuma1@aol.com
+ Assyrian International News Agency (Nineveh Software Corporation, 2317 West Farwell, Chicago, Illinois 60645, 773-575-5863, Fax: 773-761-8534)
+ Jihad Watch and Dhimmi Watch
+ Restoring Liberty, Post Office Box 83440, Fairbanks, Alaska 99708, 907-451-8559, Contact Page
+ Israel Video Network, Contact Page
+ THEBLAZE.COM LLC, 1270 Avenue of the Americas, 9th Floor, New York, New York 10036, contact@theblaze.com
+ Clarion Project, Inc., 255 West 36th Street #800, New York, New York 10018, 646-308-1230, info@ClarionProject.org
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