For the benefit of international readers

Knowing how much people overseas enjoy seeing our native animals, I decided to post some pictures!

Miss Tamrin Tasmanian Devil


Master Walter the Wombat


Wendy the Wallaby and her baby Bruce


Mrs. Kristianne Kookaburra


My brother and nephew with Mr. Klaus Koala

An unexpected kindred spirit

“Well said, Teacher. You have spoken the truth, for there is one God, and there is none other than He. And to love Him with all the heart, with all the understanding, with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbour as oneself, is more than all the whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

Mark 12:32 - 33.

“Love will cover a multitude of sins”
1 Peter 4:8

In October I wrote about beginning my teaching Field Experience. At that time I realised that aside from the material benefits I may eventually gain, the situation had a purpose. That purpose was to spend the time loving God and others.

I ended up having an excellent time in many ways. Why? The school was a loving community. Even though I was different to most of the staff theologically, their enthusiasm for God, prayerfulness, and love for the students and other staff was a great blessing. They even gave me a special farewell afternoon tea!

Even more importantly, I had a wonderful supervising teacher. She was encouraging and helpful. I was also a blessing to her. She wished that she’d started out in life with the decision to walk in God’s ways, and enjoyed hearing about my life choices. By the end of the Field Experience, we felt a real oneness in spirit.

My supervising teacher was an unexpected kindred spirit. She is a working Mum of a three-year-old, a divorcee in her second marriage, and a Pentecostal. I am a newlywed Presbyterian who thinks day care is an abdication of the responsibility to train one’s children. Yet in Christ, we can love and learn from one another.

I share this story in the hope that I can encourage you, too, to focus on loving God and others in every situation. If love can cover over a multitude of sins, surely it can cover differences as well? Who knows, you may even find an unexpected kindred spirit along the way!

Perseverant love

Carolyn's blog Radical Womanhood, formerly Solo Femininity, is worth visiting. Carolyn expreses a lot of wisdom through her study of God's word and her commitment to Him. Radical Womanhood recently featured a post about perseverant love, titled the pink bear parable. Carolyn says . . .

I want to love and be loved until all that remains is a tattered remnant. Then may the Lord gently lay me to rest, closing my mortal eyes until the day I exchange an imperishable body for the one that wore out.

This weekend I've struggled with perseverant love. It is easy to grow tired of giving, isn't it? Yet God calls us to keep on, and keep on, and keep on giving. To give until it hurts, then give some more. Our aim should not be to preserve our own lives, but to wear them out for the sake of others.

My most important new year goal

I have written pages in my diary about things I'd like to do this year. I would like to learn to . .

- clean each room once a week
- praise God in song through learning hymns
- clean windows
- make cusions
- create web pages (learn html)
- recognise the capital cities and key political leaders of each country in the world
- bottle food
- and much more!

I'd like to read about . . .

- biblical communication
- South African history
- environmental issues, especially individual and household consuption rates
- and much more!

I don't expect to achieve every one of my goals, but I am aware that having them written down and clear makes it much more likely that they will happen. Amongst all these goals, it is necessary to prioritise. I've decided that my most important goal is to learn to praise God in song as I go about my daily tasks. The Bible is full of examples of people who prioritised praise, and of exhortations to praise God. Yet I do not even know many songs of praise, let alone make a habit of singing them. Western Christians can learn much from African Christians in this regard. Many Christians in Africa commonly sing joyously as they go about their work. I want to ensure that I create an atmosphere of praise in our home. Learning to sing myself is also an important step toward teaching any children God gives us to praise Him.

To help me towards this goal, I've taken a few steps.

1. I wrote out a list 29 of hymns I'd like to learn. This is not a magic number, it just happened to be what filled 1 1/2 pages of my diary. At that point, I decided that this was a large enough goal for now!

2. I purchased a display book, and have begun to get the words of songs from cyberhymnal to print out and put into it.

3. I sing as I prepare meals, wash up, etc., and quickly learn the words.

Some of the hymns I've chosen are . . .

• Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus
• Blessed Assurance
• I heard the Voice of Jesus
• A Mighty Fortress
• I Need Thee Every Hour
• Tell Out, My Soul
• Great is Thy Faithfulness

I hope to make this the year when I learn to praise God more than I've ever done before. I'd love it if you'd join with me! Perhaps hymns are not your style, and you prefer modern tunes.
Whatever your preferences are, make it a priority to praise God. This is one way we can fulfill the commandment to love God with all our hearts and minds. As we focus upon His many wonderful characteristics, it will be impossible to keep from loving Him more!

Peirce and Christina, man and wife

On the last weekend before the New Year, it was a joy to participate in Peirce and Christina's wedding. The festivities began in earnest for me on Thursday the 27th, when I helped to organise the Kitchen Tea. The event was lovely, and very feminine with hats and gloves to adorn us. It was also a lot of work, and I even forgot things because I was so busy creating various food items. I didn't properly eat breakfast or lunch because preparations took so much time. Not to worry! Happy memories . . .



The next day we had a rehersal at St. David's Cathederal, as Christine the rehersal manager has so ably described! That afternoon it was off to Port Arthur to stay the night before the "official" rehersal and rehersal dinner the next day. Port Arthur is one of Tasmania's most famous historic sights. We stayed nearby in a lovely cabin. Like Christine, we enjoyed meeting some very interesting people and discussing a variety of topics with them.

The rehersal and rehersal dinner on the 29th were further great opportunities to meet people and enjoy the occasion. Since Peirce is American, there were many guests from overseas. It was great to be able to get to know people. Rehersal dinners are not an Australian tradition, but I enjoyed this one so much that I can see why they have become a tradition in the USA! There were many touching speeches, which gave honour to God.

Here are the happy couple at the rehersal dinner . . .



Finally it was the wedding day! As a bridesmaid my day began before 7 as I prepared for my 7.30am hair appointment. From then on, apart from an hour or two's respite mid-morning, there was a frenetic schedule until about 1am on the 31st when we arrived home from our cruise back from the reception location.

Here is Dave giving Mr and Mrs Baehr a baby Bear. Strange? Well, there was a prayer for the blessing of children in the wedding service.



Dave and I in a rare moment together at the reception . . .


All the bridesmaids had different shades of blue for their dresses. I don't have any pictures of us together as yet, but hopefully I'll post one later.


Here is my bouquet, which I loved. It was a special privilege to be involved in this wedding. This wedding was one of the most God-honouring and parent-honouring that I have ever attended. It was wonderful to be involved in all the preparations and associated festivities, as well as the actual day.

The only down-side to being a bridesmaid is that it made me somewhat obsessed with trivialities! While Christina Elizabeth was saying to Theodore Peirce

"for richer or for poorer,
in sickness and in health,
to love and to obey,
until we are parted by death"

I was thinking about the fact that I hadn't taken good enough care of her skirt! Why, there was a small crease in the train that should have been spread out, and wasn't that a speck of dirt . . . ? Thoughts like this consumed much of my attention during the service.

Contraception, population, and humanist imperialism

Some time ago I received a question about my views on contraception and population. This is a very extensive topic, with many angles that could be addressed. In this post I am choosing to focus on the differences between a humanist and a biblical worldview. Before beginning, I’d like to note that much of the earth’s surface is unpopulated and there is more than enough food for every person. God has given us abundance. Human sin and mismanagement, however, mean that there are still people suffering from lack of food.

The promotion of contraception for the purposes of population control is usually associated with the promotion of many humanist ideas. These include the following:

• Smaller families are happier, healthier and more practical.
• Have smaller families so each member will be able to have a higher standard of living.
• There is a duty to control fertility to ensure that children are provided for well, and the environment will not be harmed.

While it is commonly believed that modern times are unique in regard to the use of birth control, many ancient cultures also practised it. Ancient Egyptian and Native American cultures come to mind.

I believe that the Bible presents a different vision on each of the points above. . .

• Many children are a blessing and a source of happiness (Ps 127 & 128, Duet. 28, and other passages)
  
• Each family should be content with what they have, as long as it is sufficient to provide food, clothing and shelter (1 Timothy 6:7 – 8).
  
• God is in control of fertility, as he opens and closes the womb (Genesis 20:18, 30:22, 1 Samuel 1:5). God also promises daily bread for all his people. When the Israelites were in bondage in Egypt they multiplied rapidly, although they were bearing children for a life of hardship and slavery (Exodus 1). This was a blessing to them, and the Bible never indicates that they were unwise for having children in these circumstances.
• We have a duty to care for the environment. However, the very part of the Bible that encourages us to care for the world (Genesis 1 & 2) also encourages us to have children (Genesis 1:28). It is ironic that some Christians use the Creation Mandate as a reason to control fertility, when it relates physical fruitfulness to godly rulership of the earth.

Theoretically I would not have a problem with promoting knowledge about non-abortive birth control methods (barrier methods, natural family planning, and sterilisation), if massive doses of humanist thinking did not accompany it. While Christians can and do disagree about the ethics of contraception, all should agree that it is a matter of conscience which should never be laid upon people as a duty. Advocating population decreases in the developing world imposes Western ideology upon people who have differing beliefs about fertility and family size. It is essentially an exercise in humanist imperialism.

Culture and the Creation Mandate

The “command to subdue the earth (often called the creation mandate) is a cultural mandate”. Walsh and Middleton 1984, 55.

So God created man in his own image; in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. Then God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living creature that moves on the earth.
Genesis 1:27 – 28

In their book The Transforming Vision: Shaping a Christian Worldview, Brian Walsh and Richard Middleton explain that the creation mandate is a cultural mandate (p. 54 – 56). Genesis 2:15 reveals that Adam was placed in the garden “to till it and to keep it” (RSV), or to “tend and keep it” (NKJV). “The twofold original human task is to develop and preserve our creational environment” (1984, p. 54).

Walsh and Middleton explain that the notion of cultivating, which is encompassed in the idea of tilling and keeping the earth, is connected to culture. “Culture is the result of cultivation . . . Both culture and cultivate refer essentially to our human interactions with the world” (1984, p. 54).

This cultivation of the world, and simultaneous creation of culture, is a communal or social action (p. 55). Adam needed Eve to complete his mandate. As a couple they needed to have children in order to rule the whole earth effectively. This was not something they could complete alone.

As human beings made in God’s image and living in communities, we cultivate relationships, forms of worship, ideas and traditions, technological objects, institutions, music, economics, and entertainment (p. 55).

“In all our cultural activities and affairs – that is, in all human actions, artefacts, relationships and institutions by which we interact with and develop creation – human beings provide evidence of their God-given rule of the earth” (p. 56).

The formation of cultural norms is a God-mandated activity. It is part of being human, and Christians have an additional motivation. Culture is not neutral. We can cultivate the earth for God’s glory, bringing his love into all our interactions. Or we can abdicate our responsibility, and allow idolatrous cultures to dominate.