It’s not our habit to watch Oprah, but today Steve and I caught 30 minutes of her 2-part series on male sexual abuse – where over 2 days she gathered 200 men in her audience who had all experienced childhood sexual abuse. It was hard to listen to their stories but so important – and that was the point of these 2 shows.

There are many things that could be said in response, but a short note (and we write this both personally and as representatives of 5:17 church) – we want to say categorically that sexual abuse of any kind, especially that perpetrated on children, and perpetrated by people in religious authority, is a heinous and horrible evil. It is wrong and scarring on every level, and its perpetrators should be brought to justice. We grieve that such abuse occurs, we pray for its victims, we encourage them to find people of safety to talk to and seek help from, and we trust in the power of the Lord Jesus for the healing and hope that is so very much needed.

We’d also like to point you towards this book, just released by ReLit – Rid of My Disgrace: Hope and Healing for Victims of Sexual Assault. You may like to read all the reviews listed at the bottom of the Amazon page I linked to; I’m including two below.

“I thought I had gotten over the abuses in my past—I had forgiven my abusers, stopped feeling like a victim, and felt like I was a stronger person. After reading Rid of My Disgrace, I realized there were still underlying issues I hadn’t dealt with that were preventing me from getting close to other people and, worst of all, preventing me from having a deeper relationship with God. Each chapter not only discussed each emotion that had been secretly weighing on me, but also showed me that those emotions don’t have to rule me. Jesus’ death and resurrection apply not only to my sins, but also to the burden of someone else’s sin against me. My identity is no longer as ‘damaged goods.’ It is ‘child of God’ and with that comes God’s unending love. I highly recommend this book for anyone who has experienced not only some form of sexual abuse, but other abuses as well.”

—Adult female victim

“Rid of My Disgrace reminds victims of sexual assault that they are not alone and it is not the end of the story. From King David’s daughter Tamar to the courageous survivors telling their stories today, the Holcombs take sexual assault out of the shadows of shame and isolation and into the light of the gospel. With a solid grasp on both the effects of sexual assault and of redemptive history, the Holcombs thoroughly identify sexual assault and its aftermath while calling the reader to let even such a painful, hideous act be a part of their story of redemption through Christ’s sufficient work on the cross.”

—Monica Taffinder, co-founder and counselor, Grace Clinic Christian Counseling

CMS is one of the mission organisations 5:17 supports through prayer and finance, because we value what they do and how they do it.

Coming up on the CMS calendar is this event – which we’d encourage non-CG-South 5:17ers to get along to if you can – for thought-provoking help in understanding Islam and Muslims in Australia, plus a yum home-cooked dinner!

Find out more about Journey In Mission here.

Here are the slides from Sunday night’s 8-minute overview of the Old Testament (OT) as we begin looking at the book of Jeremiah. Hope they help(ed) you to better understand how the OT fits together, and thus how to read any of its 39 books!

This last slide acts as a summary of the whole OT based on the framework introduced above. (click on it to see a bigger version of it)

If you’d like to read more about Goldsworthy’s Framework, look for The Goldsworthy Trilogy (Gospel and Kingdom, Gospel and Wisdom, The Gospel in Revelation) or According to Plan.

We’re turning our service leaders’ training session into a BC3 event – this Sunday afternoon at 2.30pm. If you’re not a service leader you don’t really need to worry about this but feel free to come if you’re interested! Otherwise please pray for it and everyone coming.

As announced, it will be 5:17 church’s 1 year anniversary in 2 weeks’ time! The big day is Feb 7 so invite your friends to our special anniversary service which will be incorporating 2 baptisms (wahoo!). Obviously there isn’t a large body of water in or outside of our church building so we are moving church that Sunday to Pastor Ben and Faith’s home at 48 Boundary Rd, Indooroopilly, and we’ll start at the special time of 5pm. PLUS we’ll be having a BBQ anniversary party after the service so that’s triple reason to invite your friends (1. anniversary 2. baptisms 3. food)!

The Women of Purpose annual Bible teaching day is fandiddlytastic and I personally think this year’s (Sat March 13) is looking like the best yet. See the City North Baptist Church website here for all the convincing details and register yourself straightaway or if you must, let me know by comment, email, or at church and I’ll add you to the group rego count. If you’re a 5:17 female you have to come!!! If money is an issue please don’t be embarassed to say so and we’ll see if we can arrange subsidies.

We sing a lot of Sovereign Grace music at 5:17 church, because it’s biblically-sound, gospel-proclaiming, and musically-appealing.

Sovereign Grace Music’s Facebook page reached 20 000 fans on or about November 20, so they gave away 9 of their songs for free download here.

In addition, they’ve just announced that you can listen to SG music for free here.

How generous of them is that!

(And just to be clear, the reason we celebrate music being given away or made available for free is because we uphold the importance of Christians obeying the civil law where it does not mean disobedience to Christ – and that includes not stealing by illegally downloading music (or movies or anything else)).

I am sitting in our study with our guinea pig Munchee on my lap, with her little hind legs stuck out in her ‘this is the life’ position. I’ve just finished reading Isaiah 45 – a majestic portrayal of God’s absolute sovereignty over Israel and both her friends and her enemies. As a proclamation it could sound arrogant if it weren’t true, and justly so. And what a great finish -

They will say of me, ‘In the LORD alone are righteousness and strength.’ All who have raged against him will come to him and be put to shame. But in the LORD all the descendants of Israel will be found righteous and will exult.

You don’t need 3 guesses to work out which side you’d want to be on!

But actually I was going to ask what you’re reading, and say that if you ever want or need a recommendation, Steve and I love both reading and recommending books (including books of the Bible) to people. We’ve been so influenced and grown through reading over our journeys as Christians that we can’t help spreading the love. Plus we have several hundred books in our library available for borrowing, so let us know if you’d like a summer reading list. We’d be glad to get you started!

I just realised I should put up some links as follow-up to the night with Simon – for 5:17ers or BC3ers.  I hope these help at least one person…

The organisation Simon works for is Liberty Christian Ministries, Sydney.

The Brisbane equivalent is Liberty Inc – no website but you can email them at [edit: updated, correct address is info@libertyinc.org.au].

Exodus International is ‘the largest information and referral ministry in the world addressing homosexual issues’.

Reconnecting is a much smaller Canadian site for youth, adults, their friends and family.  This article from their site is a highly-recommended read for Christians generally, about how we can help create safe places in our churches for those who struggle with same-sex attraction.  We’ll pray this is happening all around Brisbane as a direct result of last Saturday night.