Gospel News — Jan-Apr 2013

Australia

One advert in the Australian magazine "Women's Weekly" has brought in around 1000 requests for the NEV Bible [about 50% of them from men!]. Some people who've got the Bible have gone on to study the Bible Basics course. We had a complete set of answers returned from MARYGRACE in Sydney, along with a request for baptism. We called her... to find that that morning she had, in her daily morning devotions, prayed that the Carelinks people with whom she had correspondence with would arrange somehow her baptism. This is how we find God at work in human life time and again. We had only been talking about this theme of "God at work in human life" at the Carelinks gatherings in Brisbane and Sydney over the last few days. Due to her handicap, we went to fetch her, and had a pleasant evening with her at the Jones' home, during which she was baptized. Here you can see her being baptized in the family setting, and being welcomed into the Lord's ever growing family by the Carelinks treasurer, Brother John Thatcher. Our Sister has passed through and left various churches and rejoices at having found the pearl of great price. And we give thanks to God that He is so actively at work worldwide, not only in places like Africa and Eastern Europe, but also in complacent Australia. We continue praying for other contacts desiring baptism throughout Australia.

25

God's Order in the Home

David Yelulani (Banket, Zimbabwe)

God is a God of order. When He created man He knew and understood that man would need an order or plan by which to govern his life. When men plan and work together in an organised way, they can accomplish great things. We see this in the account of the tower of Babel in Genesis chapter 11. If God had not stepped in, the people would have made a name for themselves. God has ordained powers for the nations of the world to maintain order. As long as the people under a ruler respect and obey him, the country is able to function and, at times, even prosper even though the man in power may be using that power to promote himself and his own ideas. But when someone tries to overthrow this power, it brings turmoil and confusion. This is also true for the home.

God has an order that He will bless when followed. When everyone accepts his rightful place, there is security. Security brings happiness and contentment; when anyone tries to step out of his place and into someone else's, it will cause disruption.

It is alarming how many broken homes and single parent homes there are around today. It is heart breaking when we see the havoc it works in the lives of those involved. The children receive many emotional scars. Mistrust, sometimes even hate, governs the thoughts toward one another: parent to parent, parent to children or children to parent. Many times ungrounded suspicions are planted. One sad result is that the children who find themselves in these situations have no foundation upon which to build their own homes when the time comes. It becomes a very weakening element in any organisation.

Another cause for alarm in many homes today is disobedient children. Many are the heartaches of parents whose children do not respect and obey them. Disobedience to