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In a cemetery in England on a tombstone is engraved with:

Remember man, as you walk by,

As you are now, so once was I.

As I am now, so shall you be,

Remember this and follow me.

To which, someone replied in writing on the tombstone:

To follow you I'll not consent,

Until I know which way you went.

It has been pointed out many times that the only certainty in life are death and taxes. This is true and there is no disputing the fact that everyone would like to do away with both!

When a person is young, the last thing in their mind is the thought of death and dying. There is so far to go before death concerns this person.

Yet, for those who are entering their latter years of life, this topic becomes a dreary reality. However, this does not have to be the case.

We have a rich treasure of historical data about Jesus Christ: His life, teachings and His death and resurrection. What He has done for all people has opened the door for real reconciliation with God and for the gift of Everlasting life.

Jesus has not made this automatic, for reconciliation must be accepted on His terms.

Jesus warns: “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.” (Matt. 7:13-14)

That only a few find it certainly rings true if today’s attitude toward Christ is anything to go by.

Instead of “religion” being something of the heart, it can easily become a fad, a crutch, even a delusion.

I don’t say that last word lightly because a person can be opening a wide gate and be walking on a broad path and not know it. Or, they may know it, but have chosen that way in spite of reading Jesus’ saying otherwise.

People often chose their own way and own path regardless of what Jesus says. This saying of Jesus is meant for us to realise one important thing: “You can’t have your cake and eat it to”.

Reconciliation and indeed eternal life are on God’s terms. We may complain all we like, but the message of Christ is indisputable. If we want to know God and the gift He offers, then we either accept His conditions or we don’t.

With these hard sayings, many people left Jesus. He asked His disciples if they wanted to leave too. To which Peter replied: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life” (Jn. 6:58).

These people realised that the only source of life was in Jesus and despite the difficulty of accepting God’s way, they chose to walk it via the small gate and narrow road. They had seen enough of what Jesus could do to realise that eternal life could only be possible through Him.

Yes, you’ll have to pay your taxes, but you don’t have to remain dead! Be sure you know “which way you went”!

Lk 2:14 —14 “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

Most people agree that the world is in turmoil. People are fearful and anxious, not only concerned for their own life but for the lives of their children and grandchildren.

We all desire peace. Yet, there are different forms of peace. Which would you desire most? There is peace as in the absence of war. There is peace as in an inner peace. There is also peace as in wholeness/wellness. This wholeness comes from no longer being broken or less than what your Creator has made you to be. This peace speaks of a person’s restoration towards completeness and the proper functioning of oneself.

In this Scripture verse above from Luke’s Gospel, peace is bestowed by God upon those on whom His favour rests. 

This peace is the one last mentioned above. It is a peace which brings lasting change and wholeness to a person. It not only includes the present but also gives hope for the future where God’s peace will ultimately mean wholeness of body and soul in a resurrection from the dead to everlasting life. 

This peace is not able to be bought and is not able to be attained by human effort.

The problem for humanity is that, although we all desire this type of peace, we seek it in every which way, except God’s way.

In the time when Jesus appeared on earth, there were groups that sought peace in different ways.

The Zealots were a quasi-terrorist group that sought to murder and disrupt Roman rule the best they could. The result they were desiring was that the Romans would leave Palestine and God’s kingdom rule could be exercised and there would be peace.

Then there were the Pharisees. These people sought to achieve their peace by expanding on God’s law with oral traditions and the like. If God’s law was kept with the help of their traditions, then God would usher in a glorious age of peace.

Another group were the Sadducees. These lent more towards rituals and temple procedures as a way of appeasing God. Little is known of them but they, like the others, were not able to attain the peace they so desired.

Finally, after seeing that all these groups were unable to obtain peace, we meet Jesus.

The Scripture reference quoted above is in the context of the birth of Christ. 

In contrast to all human effort, the birth of Christ is God’s way of granting humanity the peace that lasts forever.

While this is a gift and good news, like all Christmas presents, the content of the gift is not yours until you receive it and open it.

Jesus Christ and faith in Him comes not from your effort but from your surrender. Human stubbornness has always been a barrier to receiving Christ and going God’s way

The world will remain in turmoil, but the peace that lasts forever, can belong “to those on whom His favor rests” and these are the ones who put their faith in Jesus Christ and follow in His ways.

Pastor David McAllan

echucacommunitychurch.com

We assume by the way we live that we are owed only good and not evil. But in a world without God – without His goodness – why should we expect goodness? Why should man experience good at all? Why not mostly bad? If people want to think there is no God or that He doesn’t care, why complain about bad? Without God, there is no rhyme or reason why the world should be a place of blessing at all.

In ages past, God destroyed the world with a flood because “the intent of man’s heart is only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5). Yet now, after the flood, God vows that He will never again destroy the world “even though the intent of man’s heart is evil from his youth” (Genesis 8:21-22). This is an amazing commitment from God – a commitment of continual seasons for harvesting and for living and enjoying life.

Jesus likewise points out God’s grace and tolerance: “...for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous” (Matthew 5:45).

It doesn’t change the fact that God is not happy about man’s heart leaning towards evil, but He has given a guarantee that He will not destroy the world in like manner ever again… “even though the intent of man’s heart is evil from his youth” (Genesis 8:21). In other words, God is granting blessing to the world and restraining His judgement.

Many people, however, take for granted the blessings of God’s patience and tolerance as they experience the rains, the seasons and harvests year after year. All this goodness is just assumed with no thought as to why such goodness is the norm. Granted, there are exceptions but they are just that – exceptions!

This means that no one should think that the future will be the same. There is clear indication that God’s period of grace and tolerance does not extend to post physical life.

As a church, we try to tell of what God has done in turning a person’s heart away from the intent of evil (as defined by God), but many do not listen.

God’s remedy was to send Jesus into the world to awaken them to the reality of their disconnect with God. Through Christ, God dealt with this age old problem and brokered a way to have this “evil in the heart” dealt with.

Sadly, Jesus is dismissed with cavalier whim by those who think naturalism/materialism is all there is. They cannot see that all this goodness the “world” seems to give them actually comes from God. If we assume naturalism, then there is no reason for assuming goodness to be the norm; because without a moral compass – as in God – good and bad don’t exist. There are no values to a neutral morality!

The message of Christ is, therefore, that He is the only avenue by which God has channelled His anger away from humanity. Accomplished through the death and resurrection of Christ, God has dealt with our heart problem (sin and guilt) both by His forgiveness and the effect of a changed life.

David McAllan

Echuca Community Church

For publication in the Riverine Herald 07-05-2021

We appreciate that the government wants to keep us safe. This is what they claim and the lockdown measures are designed to ensure the least loss of life. People will make mistakes but the intention is to prevent the loss of life.

Like all good intentions we can get lost, however, in the detail and miss the larger picture. This is what I hope we can grasp as we enter 2021.

As we consider the virus that has made us glad to see the end of 2020, we should also consider the myriads of other “enemies” that we have both without and within! We do face perils, knowingly or unknowingly every day.

As much as I’d like to avoid the topic, the reality is that death is on our doorstep whether we like it or not. There are a myriad of ways in which our life could end. The Bible says that our days are numbered but it also says that we should number our days:

Ps 90:10–12 —10 Seventy is the sum of our years, or eighty, if we are strong; Most of them are toil and sorrow; they pass quickly, and we are gone. 11 Who comprehends the strength of your anger? Your wrath matches the fear it inspires. 12 Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

Surely, this is important. To be ignorant of life and even of death will chart a course for us to a place that we may regret. So much is missed in life when we fail to number our days. The best wisdom is the course that is charted by a person at the end of their days. This person is the one who now sees things as they really are and can discern the difference between what is truly important and what is not.

Unfortunately, we seem to only realise this when we hit the end of our days. So sad that we can’t see these things from a young age. Such wisdom – in numbering our days – spares us many regrets.

The greatest of which is what a person does or has done with God. It is the nearness of death which causes a person to ask the questions: “If there is a God, how do we know”? “How can we be sure”? Often, the lack of remaining days does not permit those answers to come.

If I were to put a challenge to people to take up this year, it would be this: To look into whether there is a real basis for believing in God, for believing in Jesus Christ.

To be afraid to look into it because you may not like what you find is just avoiding the inevitable of what the Bible makes so clear.

If you accept that the Bible is true, then there is a far greater danger coming than the Covid virus. The Bible teaches that Jesus was sent by God to rescue us from our sins and to restore us to God. The person who does not receive that rescue will die in their sin and be excluded from God. The consequences of this are huge. Wisdom dictates that a person look into it before it is too late.

Christianity Explained is a six part course that will help you understand these important topics. If interested, please email me at echucacc@gmail.com

Pastor David McAllan

 As I scan over the current events in the world, the posting on Facebook, Parley and Twitter – others of which I have no time to even check – I’m confronted with a very broken world that is very divided. The hopes and aspirations of mankind’s progression going back to the turn of the 20th century are truly in disarray, if not completely dashed.

Division ought to be expected because, thanks to postmodernism, there is no longer any fixed truth. There is little to no agreement in one standard. All you have is relativism. You don’t have to think too hard about what the result of that is going to be. If there is no one standard, then you will have people competing to have their “truth” established either as the norm or on an equal level with everyone else. But that cannot happen because some of these different “truths” are diametrically opposed to one other.

Black lives matter as opposed to all lives matter; gay rights versus the right of a child to a biological mother and father; black versus white versus red versus who knows what else – so the conflict goes on ad infinitum. There is not a lot of hope out there in the world at the moment and there won’t be while you have different “truths” vying for top billing.

The Bible is always relevant and speaks to this very thing.

The apostle Paul in the Book of Romans chapter 5 says that mankind is under a “head”. That head is Adam. The point of this is that as is Adam so is his progeny. As he defies God, so do his descendants. Adam is representative of current humanity. He is a terrible template but history shows that his nature is very much with us. There is hatred, wars and some terrible things done in the name of one’s ideology/religion. There is corruption, lies, cheating, stealing and the list goes on. Forgiveness is not something this world practises nor receives. Likewise, death is received by those who are born into “Adam”.

In contrast to this, Paul speaks of another “head” appearing. That head is Christ. God has seen the mess mankind has put himself in and has done something about it. He has created a new order open for all and this order appeared 2000 years ago. At the head of this new humanity is Christ.

The first thing we find is that being part of this new order means recognising that we have turned away from God. We defied him for our own agendas.

Secondly, this new order allows us access to the grace and forgiveness of God. He freely forgives us as we come to Him through our new head, Jesus Christ.

Thirdly, in coming to Christ, we accept what God decrees. We accept our head’s values and “truth”. In coming to this head, we find that race and biology are not bases for judgement and power struggles.

Finally, joy of joys, in coming to this new head, we inherit his legacy of a bodily resurrection. In weighing up the two “heads”, I know to which I would rather be joined!

Pastor David McAllan

Echuca Community Church

As I scan over the current events in the world, the posting on Facebook, Parley and Twitter – others of which I have no time to even check – I’m confronted with a very broken world that is very divided. The hopes and aspirations of mankind’s progression going back to the turn of the 20th century are truly in disarray, if not completely dashed.

Division ought to be expected because, thanks to postmodernism, there is no longer any fixed truth. There is little to no agreement in one standard. All you have is relativism. You don’t have to think too hard about what the result of that is going to be. If there is no one standard, then you will have people competing to have their “truth” established either as the norm or on an equal level with everyone else. But that cannot happen because some of these different “truths” are diametrically opposed to one other.

Black lives matter as opposed to all lives matter; gay rights versus the right of a child to a biological mother and father; black versus white versus red versus who knows what else – so the conflict goes on ad infinitum. There is not a lot of hope out there in the world at the moment and there won’t be while you have different “truths” vying for top billing.

The Bible is always relevant and speaks to this very thing.

The apostle Paul in the Book of Romans chapter 5 says that mankind is under a “head”. That head is Adam. The point of this is that as is Adam so is his progeny. As he defies God, so do his descendants. Adam is representative of current humanity. He is a terrible template but history shows that his nature is very much with us. There is hatred, wars and some terrible things done in the name of one’s ideology/religion. There is corruption, lies, cheating, stealing and the list goes on. Forgiveness is not something this world practises nor receives. Likewise, death is received by those who are born into “Adam”.

In contrast to this, Paul speaks of another “head” appearing. That head is Christ. God has seen the mess mankind has put himself in and has done something about it. He has created a new order open for all and this order appeared 2000 years ago. At the head of this new humanity is Christ.

The first thing we find is that being part of this new order means recognising that we have turned away from God. We defied him for our own agendas.

Secondly, this new order allows us access to the grace and forgiveness of God. He freely forgives us as we come to Him through our new head, Jesus Christ.

Thirdly, in coming to Christ, we accept what God decrees. We accept our head’s values and “truth”. In coming to this head, we find that race and biology are not bases for judgement and power struggles.

Finally, joy of joys, in coming to this new head, we inherit his legacy of a bodily resurrection. In weighing up the two “heads”, I know to which I would rather be joined!

Pastor David McAllan

Echuca Community Church

We have just ticked over the 75th anniversary of VE day. What a terrible loss of life to achieve the freedom we all enjoy.

When you are fighting an enemy, you are usually fighting on multiple fronts. The aim of the Generals is to take into account all battlefronts and establish how best to achieve victory with the minimum loss of life. They never consider that the defeat of the enemy will come with no loss of life.

We are currently fighting a hidden enemy in the Coronavirus.

There have been calls for people to return to work in spite of the Coronavirus still present. Some are accusing these people of being heartless because “every life counts”. The problem with this approach is that these people ignore that Covid-19 is being fought on more than one front.

How compassionate is it to sacrifice 1500 additional suicides per year over the next 5 years as a result of the lock-down of the economy? This could drive deaths up to 10 times more than what the virus itself will do in Australia.

As much as this lock-down is driven by a response to try and save lives, it would be naive to think that fear is not present as a motivating factor. Fear from the people and fear of the people. While I’m not wanting to smear our leaders as they are doing largely what the people are expecting them to do, I can’t help believe that they have great fear in regard to how they will be held accountable if some people deem there are too many deaths. This, in part, explains the overreach we see in many states of Australia.

You only have to look at the vitriol aimed at our prime minister, Scott Morrison, over his handling of the recent bushfires. In the utter hate and disgusting critical rhetoric, he was all but accused of lighting the Bushfires himself! No wonder the leaders are bowing to the fears of the people.

It is amazing what fear can do to people. It does often cause us to make unwise choices.

The Bible has a lot to say about fear. The one most significant, I think, is its criticism of misplaced fear.

Fear, in itself, can be a healthy emotion. When handled rightly, it will motivate us to move back from the edge of a cliff; it will caution us from jumping into a mountain pool from a 10 metre high ledge.

But what do you make of those old cartoon photos of a woman jumping up onto a chair to escape the mouse running through the kitchen? Excepting the satire, that is surely a misplaced fear.

The Bible speaks of a terrible time to come. A time of apocalyptic judgement. It’s called the “day of God’s wrath” when He will pour out His anger on a Christ-rejecting world.

Those who have faith will have a healthy fear of what is to come and will ensure that they are following Christ now. Follow Him now and He will be your Saviour and you will never need fear the judgement to come.

(cf. Acts 10: 39-43; 2 Thessalonians 2: 7-12; Hebrews 2: 14-15)

Pastor David McAllan

https://www.breitbart.com/health/2020/05/07/report-suicide-rise-from-lockdowns-to-kill-more-than-coronavirus-in-australia/

People are looking to the government to be their saviour. Communism is the system of government which becomes for the people the “nanny” state. The government is your family and the government is to look after you. 

The western world has taken a different direction. A direction which places family at the heart of society. But as the breakdown of the family unit in the West continues, slowly but surely we, in the West, are moving closer and closer to idealising the Socialist/Communist system of government. There are many reasons for this, but one sure reason is the breakdown of the family unit.

Under the Judeo-Christian worldview, families were strong and society had a fabric of norms which were considered the “rule”. This is before the postmodern narratives kicked in and told us that all truth is relative and that virtually anything now goes. As Aeschliman rightly points out, however, “when you relativise the absolute, you absolutise the relative”. The high divorce rate and fatherless households, despite objections to the contrary, are proving a real problem for society and this is just the tip of the iceberg. It was not so long ago, that society would be horrified to think that “drag queens” could be invited to influence children in public libraries.

Most people want what the Christian worldview offers – grace, mercy, forgiveness, structure, clear differentials between right and wrong. Yet, they want the form but not the content. They want the shell but not the yolk. 

A Christian society can only be Christian when people want the content, not just the shell. Many people long for a coherent society where the majority of people can be trusted and they can live in freedom and safety. Yet, they are happy to jettison the very thing that brought and established the wonderfully free society that we have enjoyed. That kind of society, however, is disappearing as the majority of people abandon the content.

To counteract the unravelling of the social fabric people are looking more and more towards the government to “save” our society. This becomes the natural outcome of societal breakdown. Consider the Coronavirus! It affects all people whether rich or poor. We are depending on the government for help and to an extent they can help but as much as the government can do they also are merely human.

I would argue that our greatest dilemma has to do with our standing before God. The government can’t help you with that one. Neither can being religious (the show without the sincerity). The postmodern paradigm will not and cannot save any society let alone an individual. The mantra of “diversity” has brought us no closer to a unified society and some argue that it has taken us even further from it.

Jesus said “I am the way (to God) the truth (revealer of God) and the life (the giver of quality and quantity of life). He went on: “No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6). He claims to be the ultimate Saviour of men and women. If you want to see a possible future for yourself, then I would urge you to consider the claims of Jesus. If anyone would be interested in learning about the claims of Christ, please contact Echuca Community Church, 0428 826 174.

Pastor David McAllan