"God holds the high center,

he sees and sets the world's mess right.

He decides what is right for us earthlings,

gives people their just deserts."        Psalm 9: 7,8 The Message

Last Sunday in our Junior High School Bible class (we call it the catechism in our church - same word as for the Catholics!) we continued to look at why the Bible is such a rich source of life for us. We calculated the time we spend in front of various screens and then how much time per day we would need to read through the Bible in one year. The challenge then is : 10 minutes a day : which book of the Bible do you choose to get through and then see how long it takes. One chose Genesis, the other Revelation (we only have 2 in this group) and they chose the Psalms for me to do. For the moment we are staying disciplined and getting through our time allotment! And I'm reading the Psalms in The Message because it makes me think about what is really being said. I'm re-discovering ideas and thoughts I'd forgotten and given our social context (gay marriage, gender theory in schools, corruption etc) some of these psalms pack a punch! I find it very reassuring to be reminded that the Lord is Sovereign and will bring about full justice in his time. A challenge for me to be ready and to have encouraged as many as possible to do the same.

My sending church, Hamilton Baptist Community Church, sends me its weekly church bulletins. It's great to keep up with their activities and some news. I like reading the Pastor's Pen - how many times has the subject echoed for us here in France? - our Western society is so going down the wrong path in many ways!

For prayer, they list the members of the church family by family, individual by individual and also give a specific prayer point for each day. This coming Sunday's point is:

Ask God to strengthen your faith when evil seems to triumph

This seemed so appropriate to me because, although we are not in direct persecution or physical danger here in France (or in Australia), every day we are confronted by evidence of evil and the consequences of evil. I can be very evangelical in saying that we can easily find evidence of badness in our own lives - deal with the log in our own eye before trying to get rid of the piece of straw in another's - but the good news is we CAN deal with this evil and get rid of it. However, French Christians are feeling overwhelmed by the evidence of evil in our own country (sexual scandals, gay marriage, financial corruption, power plays, bizarre conception of democracy, lies that certain are particularly keen to pass on to our youth and the list goes on...) Our pastoral role is to encourage Christians to pray and to act as written above. This joins what we were saying at the Pastoral meeting. See previous blog entry.

This Sunday is also our Church Union's Evangelism Day to raise awareness in our churches about the continuing need to do our part in witnessing. Pray that our church service this Sunday will keep the fire burning in our small community. We have work to do!

Yesterday we had our regional Pastor's meeting. The day started off with a look at the following text:

¹³ Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good? ¹⁴ But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. “Do not fear their threats^]">[a]; do not be frightened.”^{]">[b] 15} But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, ¹⁶ keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander. ¹⁷ For it is better, if it is God’s will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.

My italics.

We said a lot of things on this text: we will suffer for following Jesus because He overturns the values of this world;  we need to keep Christ at the centre of all things, then we will act correctly and in harmony with His heavenly principles; we mustn't sin ourselves when hard-pressed by circumstances or persecution; we need have no fear (remembering that perfect love casts out all fear); and, in particular, there was a discussion about our main task as Christians. I highlighted the text : it's our testimony to who God is in our lives and from whom we get our hope. So this reminds us that HOPE is the distinguishing feature of all mature Christians. God gives us the rest: peace, faith and love.

I'm posting a commentary written by Lauren Moore who is also an Aussie missionary working in France. She sums up a very worrying situation and I'm grateful for her perspective. I'm really worried at the way government is operating here and rough shod decisions and lack of correct, informed, public, intelligent and respectful debate. Even if our rôle as Christians is primarily to proclaim the Kingdom of God and not to try and impose our way of living and believing (if not, we would be practising the equivalent of the sharia - think about it!), we do have a rôle to play in stating our beliefs and explaining why we understand things in that way - we have to be an alternative voice.

"The gay marriage debate is officially over in France last week, but yesterday the protests continued. There have been 3 major protests, gathering Catholics, Protestants and non-believers alike, to protest against the law to allow gay marriage and same sex couples right to adoption. There is also a change in the education system, to teach children that there is NO difference between male & female, that gender means nothing. (I promise I'm not exaggerating). Despite the protests being massive (hundreds of thousand up to millions of protesters gathered in Paris), nothing has been heard. Literally nothing in any of the articles of these laws have been stopped. Gay marriage, same-sex adoption, and the teaching that there is no gender have all been passed."