OUR REDEMPTIVE CALLING
Many believe Australia has been given a redemptive calling to the Pacific Island nations. It is one which doesn’t give us any superiority over them. Instead, it highlights our responsibility to come alongside smaller island nations to honour, respect them, build them up and value the unique contributions they give the world. This calling was birthed in the prayers of Evangelical Christians in England who used to pray for revival to spread the Gospel to the most distant parts of the globe. They started praying in 1784, 4 years before the first fleet came to Australia and included John Newton and William Wilberforce who helped handpick Rev Richard Johnson to be the first chaplain of NSW. He was sent to spread the Gospel to the ends of the earth. But the seeds of the Gospel had already been planted in 1606 by the Spanish in Vanuatu which they called “The southern Land of the Holy Spirit”. Shortly after settlement in Sydney Rev Samuel Marsden declared that the time had drawn near for the Island nations of the South Seas to be favoured with the knowledge of divine revelation. Has the Lord commanded us ‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth?’ ?(Acts 13:47) The Lord still says, “ turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other.” ( Is 45:22)
The recent incursions of China into the Pacific have challenged nations around the Pacific, including Pacific Island nations, to become much more involved with one another. This may seem to be about providing finances, helping Island nations cope with a changing climate and freeing a greater interchange of people between nations. But God may once again be challenging us to remember our redemptive calling. Let’s be challenged by an early missionary in the colony who prayed in 1817 that we may be filled with faith in Christ, and with a burning zeal for the spread of His gospel.
Let’s pray:
* Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be your Name, your kingdom come and your will be done in all nations of the earth, especially those in and around the Pacific, as it is in heaven.
* That Christians will once more pray for revival to spread the Gospel across this distant part of the world and for Australia to take up our redemptive calling to the Pacific.
* Thanking God for the seed which was sown in the Pacific Islands that has fallen on good soil, where it has produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.( Mat13:8)
CHANGING CULTURE – DISCIPLINE OF OUR CHILDREN
We’re producing a generation of kids many of whom are allowed to rear themselves with the aid of television, violent DVDs, and the internet. Often both parents work, leaving one child to supervise another. As a result they become a law unto themselves. Most parents are loving, desiring only the very best for their children. Enforcing discipline isn’t easy. But the alternative is a betrayal of our children and our God given responsibility to enforce discipline within the family. Children need to learn to make good decisions from the rewards and consequences of dealing with law and order at home.
Please pray:
* that parents would learn that love without discipline is not real love. Pray they more parents would take their role as “enforcers of the law” within the family seriously so that emerging generations within Australia will feel more loved, accepted and secure.
* that parents would understand that failure to enforce discipline through abandonment or in order to gain short-term popularity with their children, will end up costing them the long-term respect of their children.
* that children will learn at a young age that enforcement of boundaries by parents is a sign of their love and a protection over them and that they would learn to accept not reject such expressions of love and to make good personal decisions as they grow up learning from the disciplinary process.
SCHOOL CHAPLAINCY
The federal Government is ending the compulsory religious aspect of the $60 million a year National School Chaplaincy Program. Schools will be able to choose to have a chaplain or a professionally qualified student welfare officer. The Howard Government introduced the voluntary well-being, pastoral care and mentoring program for school students in 2006. During the Covid-19 pandemic its funding was increased by $200 million to support children’s mental health. School chaplains must be certified youth workers and must complete a three-hour online course in cyber-bullying. They are also banned from proselytising. However the Australian Education Union has for a long time been opposed to the chaplaincy program because of the requirement that all chaplains be affiliated with a religious institution. Federal Liberal MP Andrew Hastie said of school chaplains, “They are big-hearted, caring people who love and serve their communities…because they are motivated by their Christian faith and a desire to see our kids prosper.”
Please pray:
“First things first. Your business is life, not death. And life is urgent: Announce God’s kingdom!” Luke 9:60
“May the God of hope fill you with all peace and joy as you trust in Him so that you overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
Romans 15:13
* Lord God, our Heavenly Father, we see what has resulted in our nation because we have not put You first. We see a decline in Christian belief and we see an increase in mental health problems among our young people. Help us as we pray for our country.
* Pray that schools continue to opt for Chaplains. Pray for school Chaplains and thank God for their wisdom, love and courage. May they be filled with peace and joy as they trust in Him and may they see many discouraged students be filled with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
* Pray for the Minister of Education, Jason Clare, and pray for the Australian Education Union. May they come to know and trust Jesus and put Him first in their lives. And may their lives overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
PRAYING FOR ISSUES IN THE NEWS
* The continuing cold weather is again placing strain on our electricity markets with warnings being given that Victoria in particular risks shortages of gas which it needs to keep the lights on and generate sufficient power for the industrial needs of the State. Please pray that these projected shortages, due mainly to ideological differences within our political systems, as to how best to handle the impact the changing climate, will not eventuate and that the Australian Energy Market Operator will be given wisdom as to how best to handle the crisis with the minimum negative impact upon households and business.
* Governments do not appear to have any solutions to the increasing strain being placed on households by the ever increasing cost of living. How much strain people can endure before breaking will be sorely tested over coming weeks/months. Please pray that Godly wisdom will be given to our Governmental leaders and to individual households in making the best decisions in each and every situation that arises. Pray that the Church would be ready to arise in the midst of whatever human crisis may develop to assist individual families and households to get through to the other side of this crisis, and that the name of Jesus would be again heard and noticed in the market place as the one who can meet every human need when people have nowhere else to turn for help.
PRAYING FOR OTHERS
This week let us pray for Mali. Pray that serious acts of extremism across the country will not instill fear but will instead drive more Muslims to want to know the love of Christ.
Source: Australian Prayer Network
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