Lest We Forget – Gallipoli – an ANZAC remembrance by Milton Gillie

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Lest We Forget – Gallipoli – a remembrance by Milton Gillie

This is Ray Mossholder. America is my homeland and I am 100% true blood American. There will never be  a doubt in me about that. But there are two other countries I have spent so much time in and that I deeply love – Australia and New Zealand. They are both amazingly beautiful countries with beautiful people in them and I will never forget my precious friends across the sea.

On this Memorial Day it seems fitting to share with you an article written by our Reach More Now correspondent in Australia – Milton Gillie. He sent me this earlier this year, but I could think of no time more appropriate than this weekend to present it to you. 

Warx it is in his party and is finishing itPart way through this article I’m inserting the final scene from the movie “Gallipoli” and the beginning of the battle Milton describes in what he’s written

Milton begins…

April 25th in Australia & New Zealand is ANZAC day. We commemorate the day in 1915 when the Australian & New Zealand Army Corps from which the name ANZAC is derived stormed the beach in Turkey as part of the English operation to attempt to capture the Gallipoli peninsula.

Today right across our countries their will be dawn services and marches followed by remembrance services.

The English commanders completely stuffed up the operation, landing the soldiers on the wrong beach. Instead of landing at the planned beach where they could make a realistic assault on the Turkish position they were landed on a beach beneath a fortress like cliff above them filled with fortified bunkers and machine guns. Many never even made it to the beach.

This is Ray. if you have the stomach for it, let me show you visually what happened. This is really what Memorial Day represents in America. Our  military has been sometimes caught in the same kinds of death traps. This scene is from one of the most powerful movies I’ve ever seen – Mel Gibson and a tremendous cast in Gallipoli…

The campaign was a slaughter as the task of taking the land above the cliff was next to impossible.   On the allied side over 44000 died during the campaign with another 97000 being injured.  The Turks suffered even heavier casualties with 86000 dead and another 165000 injured.  

It lasted from April 25th to the following January 8th when the commanders, having accepted defeat, withdrew all surviving personnel.  

The withdrawal being one of the greatest war time successes.  Elaborate devices were set up in the trenches that periodically fired rifles at the Turkish position fooling them into believing the area was still occupied.  Unlike the landing when so many were killed by machine gun fire before they even made it to shore, not a single life was lost in the withdrawal.

Despite the overwhelming odds a division of the ANZACs achieved their goal and captured one of the posts on the peninsula.  No other posts were taken by any forces involved in the campaign.

It is recognized as the single event that shaped our nation and forged the belief that we are a nation.  Prior to that we still saw ourselves as an English colony despite Federation actually having taken place on Jan 1st 1901.

It was also the first time that heroic deeds by our soldiers that have become legendary in our folklore, took place on behalf of our nation.

The highest military award that can be received in the British Commonwealth countries is the Victoria cross.  It is the equivalent of the US Medal of Honor.

Nine Australians and one New Zealander were awarded Victoria Cross for this campaign, 7 of these coming from the Battle of Lone Pine between 6th to 9th August 1915.  In all 39 were awarded to all troupes under the British command for the campaign.

Many of the Victoria Cross winners actually died in action for which they receive the award.  Indeed our most well known war hero John Simpson Kirkpatrick was a medic who for 21 days on the campaign took his donkey under enemy fire to retrieve the injured and bring them back to safely before he was shot and killed.

Every school child in Australia is taught the story of Simpson and his donkey,  Statues of both exist an more than one memorial site around the country.

The deeds of Albert Jacka who singlehandedly routed a Turkish attack who had overrun his bunker and killed all the other solders in that bunker, before he drove them out, were so legendary that in the 1930’s he was probably one of the most well known Australian, although not so well today.

There were many others whose deeds were just as great, some who were recognized other who got no recognition.  

In the WW2 Kokoda campaign, which was one of the most important campaigns of the war against the Japanese there were a number of recommendations for the Victoria Cross to be awarded, yet only 1 was.  Reading eye witness reports from the campaign, its hard to believe that there were not about a dozen awarded.

But whether they rise to such heights or whether unknown, every single person who served our country is recognized today and honored. For the vast majority of our nation they are given due recognition on this day.  

Sadly although it a small minority there are more and more instances of disrespect to our service people.  This year police manged to foil a plot to carry out a terror attack on a march.  This is the second time it’s happened.  This year it was a 16 year old boy who was found with explosives that were intended to kill and maim those marching.

The scripture tells us that there is no greater love than to lay down your life for a friend.  Many have done so and we must continue to honor them, lest we forget.

In September 1914 poet Robert Laurence Binyon wrote For the Fallen.  Perhaps no greater tribute has been written to honor those who gave their life in service for their country. Verse four of the poem is used every single Anzac day to help us honor our fallen soldiers.

With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,
England mourns for her dead across the sea.
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,
Fallen in the cause of the free.

Solemn the drums thrill; Death august and royal
Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres,
There is music in the midst of desolation
And a glory that shines upon our tears.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,

Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.

They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted;

They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them.

They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;
They sit no more at familiar tables of home;
They have no lot in our labor of the day-time;
They sleep beyond England’s foam.

But where our desires are and our hopes profound,
Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,
To the innermost heart of their own land they are known
As the stars are known to the Night;

As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain;
As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,
To the end, to the end, they remain.

 

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CLIP DESCRIPTION:

It is an absolute massacre when the troops go out against the Turkish trenches armed only with bayonets.

FILM DESCRIPTION:

The first of two consecutive films to see director Peter Weir team with Mel Gibson (the other being The Year of Living Dangerously), Gallipoli follows two idealistic young friends, Frank (Gibson) and Archy (Mark Lee), who join the Australian army during World War I and fight the doomed Battle of Gallipoli in Turkey. The first half of the film documents the lives of the young men in Australia, detailing their personalities and beliefs. The second half of the movie chronicles the ill-fated and ill-planned battle, where the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps is hopelessly outmatched by the enemy forces. Gallipoli was the recipient of eight prizes at the 1981 Australian Film Institute Awards.

CREDITS:

TM & © Paramount (1981)

Cast: Peter Ford, Mel Gibson, Bill Hunter, Mark Lee

Director: Peter Weir

Producers: Ben Gannon, Patricia Lovell, Francis O’Brien, Robert Stigwood, Martin Cooper

Screenwriters: Ernest Raymond, Peter Weir, David Williamson

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Lest We Forget – Gallipoli – an ANZAC remembrance by Milton Gillie

Discipleship: Being The Right Leader, Having A Personal Touch

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Discipleship.   Being the right leader, having a personal touch. by Reach More Now staff writer Milton Gillie in Australia

Milton Gillie is the Reach More Now staff journalist in Australia. He has been a friend of Ray’s for many many years and was his administrator all during Ray’s nineteen ministry trips to the land down under. Milton’s Christian walk is exciting. He lives what he lips and he walks what he talks. I see two kinds of people who will most want to read this article. First, those Christians who are witnessing and leading people to Christ. Second, those who have stopped going to church altogether because they have felt that they didn’t fit in. Join Ray for this important Milton Gillie teaching

What is discipleship and how do we do it?  What makes it work or fail?

Talk to any Christian and they will probably be familiar with the term “discipleship”.

Of course we all know that Jesus had 12 disciples, but do we really understand how that relates to us today?

If you have been around church for long enough, you will have most likely read some books on it,

heard a sermon or two about it, or even attended classes in your local church called “discipleship classes”.

My own church is at the moment experimenting with a different church program structure to enable a greater level of discipleship within the members of our congregation.

If the term discipleship is not one you are familiar with, the more common term “mentoring” is closest to it in meaning.

Before taking a look at what biblical discipleship is, first a description of what it is not.

Some will remember certain discipleship movements from a few decades ago that went way off the rails and turned into a type of cult where in the name of “discipleship” members had to submit their whole life decisions to their spiritual leadership.

Women had to phone their leader and ask if they could go shopping. If the leader said no, they stayed home.

Husbands had to ask their leader if they could take their own wife out for an evening. If the leader said no, the couple stayed home.

In short, all final decisions, however mundane, were made only by the leaders in the name of Christianity.

Sadly, the leaders were some of the best-known world-class Bible teachers of that day.

This was abuse and wasn’t “Christian” or Christlike at all. Instead of people being set free by the truth, they were being held in bondage by lies.

It had the exact opposite effect on those who came under its influence. Instead of maturing in Christ, the so-called “disciples” were being kept as spiritual infants.

Discerning people had nothing to do with this movement and got out of it as quickly as they woke up to what was being done to them.

Ever since this group disbanded many years ago, many Christians have shunned any form of discipleship or even the mention of the word.

This is unfortunate because based on some peoples extremes they short-circuited what is possibly the most important command of Jesus to His Church.

Another thing that discipleship is not, is a form of cloning.

The goal of discipleship is not to make a “mini me” out of those we disciple, but rather to inspire them to grow into their own gifting and calling and become mature in their faith.  If aspects of our own walk are imparted they need to be by being caught.

The problem that occurs when the goal is to reproduce a replica of the leader is that it never works.

It is also not scriptural.

The goal rather is to mentor, inspire, bring them to maturity in Christ.

I am reminded of the plot of the movie “Multiplicity” starring Michael Keaton.

His character gets cloned, but then the clones clone themselves.

The problem is that each new generation of clones become more defective.

We all need to be discipled into a first hand relationship with Christ.

My own journey in understanding discipleship began with my involvement as a university student with the Australian branch of Campus Crusade for Christ, called Student Life.

The group led by Bill Bright developed a great strategy of meeting in small groups to do Bible study, accompanied by a follow-up session by the leader with each group member one on one that would usually include a cold call witnessing segment – putting quote was can’t into practice.

Following my student days I worked for five years as a staff worker with a Students for Christ, a Pentecostal student ministry that began in the early 1980s.

While we had some doctrinal differences with Campus Crusade for Christ , we used an identical model in terms of discipleship.  We became the most successful ministry in the state of Victoria.

I was later involved with a cell church that ran a very similar structure.

Cell churches and groups are the most successful by far in reaching people and having lasting fruit.

One of the things I learned from Campus Crusade for Christ that has stuck with me ever since is the biblical understanding of the importance of discipleship.

I haven’t heard it taught better than them.

Their main teaching comes from Matthew’s version of the Great Commission in 28:18-20.

In the Greek language there is a concept of different types of verbs.

Within this passage Matthew records first Jesus stating His authority to give the command, then the command itself, followed by His statement of assistance.  The command part of the passage has four verbs in it.

You’ll remember from early schooling that a verb is a doing word.

These four verbs are what we are commanded to do as followers of Christ.

The four verbs in order are 1. Go into all the world, 2. Make disciples, 3. Teaching them and 4. Baptizing them.

When you read the passage in English the four verbs carry the same amount of weight, but not in the original Greek.

Greek has the concept of an imperative verb and a supportive verb.

The imperative verb, or primary verb as some refer to it, carries the main thought or action that the writer is expressing.

The supportive verb(s) carry a thought or action that enhance or assist the carrying out of the main thought or action.

In the passage the imperative verb is “Make disciples”.

In other words, everything that Jesus commands us to do should revolve around making disciples.

We do this by “Going into all the world”, by “Teaching” and by “Baptizing”.

Of course, there are many other scriptures that fill out how we do this.

2 Timothy 2:2 instructs us not only to “Make disciples” but to “Make disciplers”.

In other words train those that you disciple to make disciples of others.

The question is not should we be involved in discipleship, but “What is biblical discipleship”?

Along with many other doctrines and concepts from scripture, our concept of this has been shaped by our cultural.

Many churches only think in terms of having programs and meetings for any form of spiritual activity.

Discipleship is thought of in terms of running a class with the message on some scriptural concept.

And if it’s a small group, maybe some form of interaction between the members of the group.

But is that how Jesus taught His disciples?

I am not saying that all meetings big or small are wrong.  In fact, we are told not to neglect our gathering together.

I myself attend a fabulous church with fantastic large meetings and also small group structures.

Jesus regularly taught large crowds, and in the synagogues as well as going in to people’s homes.

But those He called His disciples were the ones He did life with.

I recently caught up with a good friend of mine, Sarah Ardu, who has been a missionary in Cambodia for 18 years.

Sarah and I had both worked as staff workers with Students for Christ.

We discussed our journey of revelation in Christ that we have been on and found a lot of common ground.

We had both come to understand the pure grace message of the Bible, and how works had been subtly woven into the doctrine that we had been brought up with and that we had taught in the past.

Sarah shared how she had for 15 years been planting churches using traditional methods.

She would have been considered a successful long term missionary.

Then about three years ago she discovered a radical new way of sharing the gospel using Buddha’s four Noble Truths to relate the

message in concepts that they could understand.

The initial response has been a response rate to the gospel hardly seen in cultures that have an understanding of the Christian message let alone those with next to none.

Although it is too early to provide definitive statistics, Sarah estimates that as many as one in five or six will give their lives to Christ on the first hearing of the message, with further decisions from those who don’t respond on the spot if contact can be maintained with them.

Along with a change in the way she shares the gospel, Sarah also changed her emphasis from trying to plant churches to creating a groundswell of discipleship.

Instead of building a church from a program base and then trying to disciple the members, she builds a movement of disciples from which can meet in church fellowship.

In relation to a clip by Francis Chan entitled “how not to make disciples”, which is available on YouTube,

Sarah wrote the following: “I suspect part of the disconnect is that the main model that churches have used to make disciples is to run a class, which is not something that just anyone can do on their own initiative.

Jesus modeled a way of making disciples that even illiterate people in Cambodia can do – in a nutshell – get into people’s lives and teach them to obey Jesus as you walk along with them.”

I have several books in my bookshelf on the subject of discipleship that have been used in the various discipleship groups and classes that I have been involved with over the years.

All of them have good teaching from writers who were passionate about seeing believers discipled into mature Christians.

But somehow Sarah’s statement rings true for every one of them.

Well-intentioned as they are, and to give them due honor, using and studying them has produced the most fruitful results in the body of Christ in the Western World. But in our day they have had not carried Christ’s power of generational ongoing growth.

This is, of course, is a general statement as there are some great churches that have succeeded more than most in discipling their members with their own methods.

What then is the key to seeing true biblical discipleship where we really go into each other’s lives and walk together down the pathway to Christian maturity?

I believe there are several keys required for an individual or for a congregation to see an explosion of discipleship in their world.

1. A theology if pure grace.  Most of us who have been in Church for any length of time have been brought up with a doctrine that is a mixture of grace and works.

The problem with this mixed approach is that it is unbiblical and creates a false halo around the leader that leaves no place for failure in the life of the believer.

When the leader who is discipling another person has a theology that says “I have to portray Christian perfection” it creates a mask of fakeness.

Not only does it cause the leader to be a hypocrite; it creates an unattainable destination for the one being discipled.

The leader will resist letting the disciple see the real them because they know they are not living up to what they teach.

The disciple either replicates the actions of the mentor and becomes a fake Christian too, or finds it too hard and drops out of being discipled.

A pure grace theology says my position is not based on my works but on Christ’s finished work on the cross.

Yes, He is working to bring me to perfection, but that is an ongoing outworking of what He has already made me.

I am free to share my faults and failures with those I am close to or working with.

The false doctrine of mixed grace has probably caused more people to leave the church than any other teaching.

2. Develop relationship-based, rather than performance-based, interactions with one another.

We live in a performance-based society in the west.  Our whole economy runs on performance and interactions.

The majority of people exchange a fixed number of hours each week for a pay-check.

We go to a shop and exchange money for goods.  This makes for an effective way to run an economy.

Our church services run with this time based pattern.

The service is scheduled for a set time each week where you come and invest your time in order to receive impartation and inspiration.  And there is a practical reason for running them this way.

But the culture of the New Testament valued relationship far above performance or time-based activities.

Indeed many cultures still run this way.

When I traveled to the Australian outback some years ago, I learned that church services there start when the people finally turn up, if they turn up that week at all.

Until we learn to care more about people and the state of their inner health than care about what they do, we will not successfully disciple them.

The Christian disciplines of praying and reading the Bible can easily be reduced to daily performance instead of a living relationship.

In the church I was involved with that practiced discipleship, we had a scheduled one-on-one time which we called “accountability”.

The idea was that we would encourage each other and keep ourselves accountable to each other for our walk with God.

I am now convinced that the only question we should have asked each other in such a session is “How is your relation with God and with others going?”

3. Understand that people are different and what works for you may not work for them.

There have been thousands of books written by people with a “Do it my way, or emulate my success formula”.

Most discipleship classes and programs have a methodology which they try to get everyone to follow in order to become a “true” disciple.

But the most effective discipleship teaching teaches principles, not rules to follow.

I have heard some people teach that you must establish a morning time with God in order develop your personal walk with God.

That works fine for morning people, but for night people it can have them struggling to wake up, meaning they end up either doing it legalistically or giving up. Many a “Christian grouch” exists because someone got up too early!

Rather a better approach is to find a time that works for each of them.  Understand what motivates each of them as individuals.

There is place for the Christian discipline of establishing good routines and spiritual practices, but unless it can become something each Christian really wants to do, they will always struggle with the unbiblical legalism involved in it.

4. Discipleship isn’t usually helped in large events.

Motivational speakers make a fortune speaking to large crowds, enthusiastically telling them how they can have the same kind of success the speaker has had by following the speaker’s methods, which of course requires you to buy their materials.

Yet statistically very few in the crowd apply the teaching and duplicate the success into their own life.

The church is no different.

Many churches continue to run conferences that are the Christian version of a motivational speaker. Providing those who attend with the speakers spiritual insights, motivation, and encouragement to become better Christians, everyone, of course, needs to buy the speaker’s books and audios to keep their momentum going.

This certainly guarantees the financial success of the speaker.

A couple of years ago I was sitting in a Masters of Wealth seminar with some friends.

All the teachers were excellent world class speakers providing first class information about building wealth.

One of the speakers made a point of stressing that before you invest in anything you should investigate it thoroughly.

But as one of my friends observed at the end of the session, the speaker said (as all of the teachers did) “Buy my materials now on special or you will miss out.”

Before you think I am against helpful conferences or reading books, I am not.

There can be lots of value in the excitement, motivation and learning in large events.

But unless any conference is used to bring you to involvement in real life, it will only bring a superficial non-lasting result.

I am stressing discipleship is not a mass activity, but an individually tailored learning done in small settings with flexible rather than rigid programming.

There may be a larger meeting such as a church service or a or a large class that delivers common teaching, but discipleship that lasts only really happens in small group discussions and one-on-one fellowship.

5. Informal learning is even more important than structured study.

Jesus taught His disciples through the normal course of their lives as they lived together for about three and a half years.

Everything that happened was an opportunity to teach a truth.

In fact the gospel writers wrote more about times of conflict and difficulty than they did about when life was smooth and

everything was rosy.

Jesus taught them when they were arguing among themselves (Luke 22:24-30).

He taught them when they were afraid of a storm (Luke 8:22-25) and when they didn’t have enough resources for the crowd (Luke 9:10-17).

Everything in normal life was teaching.  Not lecturing but impartation.  Truth is better caught than taught.

When Jesus taught them about servanthood He

did so by washing their feet John 13:4-17.

This point is probably the most crucial to the whole process of discipleship.

This is not an article about the best methodology for discipleship. You have to discern what is best for yourself.

There are many books detailing every methodology thought up.

The books I studied years ago all had great teaching and programs in them.

The point I want to emphasize is to get your principles right first.

 In our western world the biggest threats to effective discipleship are first all the activities that get crammed into our time,

and secondly the shift from community to individualism, or thinking “me” instead of “we”.

Spending unstructured time with each other can be seen as non-profitable in our modern fast paced society, where often life is a series of meetings and appointments.

Taking time to chill out might not be seen as a spiritual discipline by some, but they seem to forget Jesus did it often.

In summary we know discipleship is a biblical mandate that obedience to Christ demands we engage in.

But what we need to concentrate on is not so much programs and structures, but doing life with one another in both highs and lows, success and failure.

I don’t think I can improve on Sarah’s definition “go into people’s lives and teach them to obey Jesus as you walk along with them”.

If you want to know more about Sarah’s work you can find it from her web sitewww.cambodiadream.info.

If you would like to support the work of Sarah, you can do so by going towww.accipartners.org.au/ardu.

Discipleship.   Being the right leader, having a personal touch. by Reach More Now staff writer Milton Gillie in Australia

Discipleship: Being The Right Leader, Having A Personal Touch

To Tullian and Kim Tchividjian - We love you and we care

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To Tullian and Kim Tchividjian – We love you and we care


Milton Gillie, Reach More Now’s correspondent in Australia, has written a powerful letter to a powerful married couple who are at present divorcing. Tullian Tchividjian (pronounced cha-vi-jin), was the most recent pastor of the Coral Ridge Presbyterian church, the church made famous by Ministry of the late Dr. James Kennedy in his many years of television and in person. The fact that Tullian is the grandson of 96-year-old Dr. Billy Graham who has nothing at all to do with Tullian’s and Kim’s decision to divorce. Tullian has admitted he had an affair. Kim was the first to admit that she had one before he did. He released the following statement to The Washington Post:

“I resigned from my position at Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church today due to ongoing marital issues. As many of you know, I returned from a trip a few months back and discovered that my wife was having an affair. Heartbroken and devastated, I informed our church leadership and requested a sabbatical to focus exclusively on my marriage and family. As her affair continued, we separated.

Sadly and embarrassingly, I subsequently sought comfort in a friend and developed an inappropriate relationship myself. Last week I was approached by our church leaders and they asked me about my own affair. I admitted to it and it was decided that the best course of action would be for me to resign. Both my wife and I are heartbroken over our actions and we ask you to pray for us and our family that God would give us the grace we need to weather this heart wrenching storm. We are amazingly grateful for the team of men and women who are committed to walking this difficult path with us. Please pray for the healing of deep wounds and we kindly ask that you respect our privacy.”

Tchividjian, 42, has been married to his wife, Kim, since 1994 and they have three children. Kim Tchividjian sent the following message to The Post of Lauderdale:

“The statement reflected my husband’s opinions but not my own. Please respect the privacy of my family at this time, thank you. I do thank everyone for the outpouring of love for my family as well during this difficult time and we appreciate all the prayers and support we are receiving.”

Rob Pacienza, executive pastor of Coral Ridge, provided the following statement from the church:

“Several days ago, Pastor Tullian admitted to moral failure, acknowledging his actions disqualify him from continuing to serve as senior pastor or preach from the pulpit, and resigned — effective immediately. We are saddened by this news, but are working with and assisting Pastor Tullian and his family to help them through this difficult time, and asking people to join us in praying that God will bring restoration through this process and healing to all involved.”

Many have considered Tchividjian, a rising star in evangelicalism, especially in Reformed circles. He is the fourth Florida megachurch pastor to resign after having affairs, including the son of megachurch pastor Joel Hunter.

The distinguished Dr. James Kennedy was one of the architects of the Religious Right, a movement of evangelicals who became intertwined in more conservative politics. However, Tchividjian decided to preach less about politics, unlike his uncle Franklin Graham, president of Samaritan’s Purse.

As he stepped into Coral Ridge’s pulpit, Tchividjian made a point of moving past the old Religious Right and not being a cultural warrior. Billy Graham, 96, was one of the most influential religious leaders of the 20th century and an adviser to many U.S. presidents. Tchividjian’s mother is Billy Graham’s oldest child.

Here’s what Tchividjian posted on Twitter after his Sunday announcement.

Before he became senior pastor of the Fort Lauderdale congregation, Tchividjian’s church plant, New City, merged with the larger Coral Ridge. Seven months in, a group of church members, headed by Kennedy’s daughter, circulated a petition calling for his removal. Church members voted 69 percent to 31 percent to keep him, but a group of congregants formed a new church in response.

Tchividjian was described by the Miami Herald as a pastor who would focus on specific Bible passages rather than on the news, preferred more contemporary music over the organ, and chose podcasting over broadcasting.

The Hartford Institute for Religion Institute’s database of megachurches lists Coral Ridge as having 1,900 attendees. The church had its first worship service in 1959, and under Kennedy, its weekly services were televised as the Coral Ridge Hour, reportedly reaching up to 3 million people. Kennedy was a founding board member of Jerry Falwell Sr.’s Moral Majority and developed the popular curriculum “Evangelism Explosion.”

Last year, Tchividjian broke up with the Gospel Coalition, a network of Reformed leaders, over a theological dispute. His popular blog was hosted at TGC and he wrote several books with evangelical publishers Crossway and David C. Cook.

“Kicked out of his family’s home as a teenager, Tchividjian indulged in almost everything Miami’s sensual nightlife offered,” a 2009 profile in Christianity Today said. “But now he believes that Christians must forsake any hope of winning cultural acceptance if they want to affect the culture for the Lord’s sake.”God’s grace

Now, for the letter to the Tchividjian’s from Milton Gillie: An open letter to Tullian and Kim Tchividjian.

I was recently shocked to read of your marital troubles and of Tullian’s subsequent resignation as senior pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian church in Fort Lauderdale Florida.  When I read about it following the resignation announcement my first reaction was denial followed by a search which revealed the truth of what I had read.  On reflection I asked myself why the troubles of a pastor on another continent in another denomination affected me more than I expected.  I am quite familiar with your teaching having four of your books and listened to a number of messages.  But you are not the first writer or minister I have known or read that has had a moral failure, so why did I feel your failure more than others.  As I contemplated this question I came to the conclusion that it is because your message is so much different than most of the others I have known or known about who have walked this path.

Most open letters are written by people wanting to bring correction or accusation against the recipient.  I want to make it clear that that is not my intention.  I have read commentary by others some which is critical or professing great wisdom on your situation.  The only message that I would have would probably come out of one of your sermons and contain a heavy dose of “Grace” because I believe that is the only message that can be shared with anyone in your situation.  So why write to you?  There are several reasons expressed in what I would say to any one in your situation and this letter is for any one broken and in need of healing following a failure.

I am sure that there is nothing unique in my comments but sometimes we need to rehear the things that we already know to encourage ourselves.  None of us are exempt from or innocent of any form of sin before God, even if we have not physically committed it.  Yes we understand that there is more work to do on horizontal relationships particularly with a spouse when we physically commit serious sin, but nothing is irreparable with God.

One of the great tragedies that I have seen is the number of people that having failed, have received condemnation rather than forgiveness and healing that drove them away from their faith and their calling.  We are all broken people living in a broken world.  Yet it is in our brokenness that God is revealed fully to us.  Through our brokenness it becomes totally about him, and nothing about us.

What keeps us from fully receiving God’s grace and healing?  It is only ourselves.  Recently I had a disagreement with my wife.  I was most unhappy with her attitude towards me.  Everything within me wanted justice.  As I meditated I heard the Spirit prompt “show grace to your wife”.  The problem I had was I didn’t want to show grace to her.  My self-righteous nature wanted to squash the idea and have my thoughts and actions justified.  I have found that the closer a relationship I have with someone, understanding grace is easier than applying it in relation to them.  I don’t know where the two of you are with restoration process, but I suspect it is not an easy process to go through.  I pray that you are receiving healing and restoration.

Probably the most disturbing aspect of human nature is the rise of self-righteousness when dealing with those who have fallen.  The church unfortunately is not immune from this fault as time and again we see condemnation being cast at those who have fallen. I am not referring to appropriate discipline by authority in the situation, but to those outside that sphere who effectively shoot the wounded.  My good friend Ray has shared with me how he lost nearly all his friends when he walked a similar path to you. There was no one that came to him to bring healing and restoration which led him to spend five years in the wilderness.    But even in his situation the grace of God reached out and brought healing and restoration.

One thing life has taught me is that it is so often easier to see God working from outside a failure than when living through it.  The scripture tells us the gifts and calling of God are never cancelled or rescinded.  You have been called and gifted.  There is probably no harder time than being removed from your gifting and calling because of failure.  Yet in all this God’s purpose can still work in your lives.

My own church here in Australia went through the fall of the previous senior minister.  Through it all though God was faithful and had prepared new pastors for us that none of us could have dreamed of.  The scripture “all things work together for good” was fulfilled in our midst.  If we had not gone through the valley five years ago we would not be where we are today.  I am not suggesting any sin is good but that in the worst situation God is working for our good.

This year the theme for our church is “grace” and the word hangs over the stage in our sanctuary.  Our conference theme this year is Grace Divine.  Our worship teaches us about God’s grace.  Our messages have grace as the foundation.  Would we have been where we are today if we hadn’t gone through pain five years ago?  I know God could have caused blessing

I have wondered what I would say if I was given the privilege of ministering to either or both of you.  I am sure you have people in your lives more capable than I who can minister healing to you.   My only message would be how much God loves you and the fullness of His redemption for every situation.  I’d probably encourage you to have a break from your environment, get away hopefully together, work on your issues.

A final thing I would encourage is to come to our conference.  Why the conference?  It’s probably the last thing you feel motivated to do. But you can’t get much further away from your home than Australia.  Almost nobody would know you here, but most of all you need the ministry.  You can register here https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/hopeuc-conference-2015-tickets-12661146831.

May God bring full restoration to you both.

Milton Gillie

Australian correspondent for Reach More Now

I can be contacted through this web site.

Ray’s e-mail address is: ray@holyhugs.com

To Tullian and Kim Tchividjian – We love you and we care

To Tullian and Kim Tchividjian - We love you and we care

Australia: Has a new Ice Age begun?!

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An email to me from Milton Gillie, our Reach More Now news correspondent in Australia:

 Hi Ray,

 Not sure if it made your news but Eastern Australia has been hit by the Antarctic version of the Polar Vortex.  Freezing temperatures have hit the country.  Due to our further distance from the pole than North America our temperatures have not been as cold as what was experienced there.  Nevertheless Eastern Australian  has experienced one of the largest snow falls for some considerable time.  Snow has fallen in the hills of South Australia which is a very rare event and even as far north as Queensland.

 

This comes at a time when scientists are now predicting that we are heading for a mini ice age http://www.sciencealert.com/a-mini-ice-age-is-coming-in-the-next-15-years. Unlike all the “Global Warming” predictions due to man made effects this is based on studying solar cycles.  In other words the main affect on our weather is the rather large fireball the earth circles around.

 

Those of us who have read wider than the general rubbish put out by the majority of the media on the subject have realized for quite some time that there is nothing scientific about the whole campaign.  One wonders what the climate change alarmists with try and tell us now.  One thing I am very confident is that they will not admit they were wrong.  Having been telling us that carbon emissions have been causing a rise in temperatures will they now tell us we need to have more carbon emissions to combat the cold or more likely they will now say carbon emissions are causing temperatures to fall too fast and we still have to go on wrecking our economy to satisfy their ideology.  The fundamental problem is that they have invested so much in the idea of man made climate change that they cannot afford for the truth that it is all false to be contemplated.

Australia: Has a new Ice Age begun?!