New range of Sunday School materials now available for sale!

The Dandenong Bible Education Centre now has a new range of Sunday School materials available for sale. There are books to guide the teacher in preparing lessons, as well as activity sheets for the children. Colouring books covering the Bible lessons are also available at a reasonable price for those children who love to colour in. Project books expand on the materials available for weekly classes, and there is even a CD of songs, together with a small book of the words, for the young classes. Materials range from simple activities for the 4-7 year olds, through to books suitable for teenagers. If you teach Sunday School, come and have a look.

Rejoicing at a baptism

It was with great joy that many people witnessed the baptism of Heidi. After studying the Bible for quite a while Heidi decided that baptism was essential for her salvation. As she wishes to be saved, she asked to be baptised. The smile on her face showed the happiness which she felt and was shared by all present, and the angels in heaven!

Do you want to know more about baptism? The topic for the New Life Class on June 20 is “Do you have to be baptised to be saved?”.

The New Life class

Each Sunday from 11.30-12.30 we hold a class covering a variety of Bible topics. All who attend are invited to stay to share lunch with us. God willing, the topics for June will be:

June 6 – Is Jesus God?
June 13 – Christian living: Being angry
June 20 – Do you have to be baptised to be saved?
June 27 – Christian living: Citizenship and the Christian

“Jesus” videos in many languages

We now have a new range of videos in the lending library. The “Jesus” video is a 2 hour long enactment of the life of Jesus. Filmed in Israel, this video takes the viewer back to the time of Jesus showing what many of the events in his life may have been like. Learn about the birth, ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus by watching this video.

“Jesus” is available in the lending library in about 40 languages. If you have a friend who struggles to understand English tell them about this! Languages include Arabic, Albanian, Cantonese, Farsi, Hindi, Korean, Malay, Singhalese, Spanish, Tagalog, Tamil, Polish and Vietnamese (and many more!).

If you are not already a member of the lending library, the once-off joining fee is only $5.

Did you know?

... that the book of Esther doesn’t mention “God” at all! It is, however, about God’s people, the Jews, and Esther is a godly woman.

God’s Offer to Mankind

The Bible says that God wants men and women to be in His Kingdom. He doesn’t make it difficult, or put problems in our way. He wants us to be there.

The Kingdom of God is not an exclusive club for “Members Only”. It is God’s good pleasure to give people a new and better life on earth. When Jesus rules as King, the world will become a really wonderful place – a world free from sorrow and pain. He foretold a time when the earth will be filled with the glory of God, where people (and animals) live together in harmony. The Bible is full of pictures like:

• a King who reigns in righteousness;
• people who rejoice at all that God provides;
• the earth teeming with plenty;
• justice and righteousness abounding;
• everyone being at peace.

Want it?

Ask yourself if those things really appeal to you. Do you want to live for ever in a world whose inhabitants are at peace with God? Do you want a life where violence, cheating, selfishness, ruthless competition and exploitation not only belong to the past, but are not even remembered? Or would you find that sort of life utterly boring and tedious, as some people might? If you do want a better world and really want to live in harmony with the God who can make all this happen, you are already halfway there. For wanting it is the first step. Whilst the Old Testament spends a lot of time explaining what the Kingdom of God will be like, the Lord Jesus concentrated much of his teaching on explaining what sort of people we need to be if we are to inhabit God’s kingdom. Many of his parables start with the words “The kingdom of God is like...” and go on to describe characteristics we need to develop, with God’s help. Jesus once told a parable about a man who stumbled across hidden treasure and proceeded to sell everything he had to get his hands on it. That’s the sort of desire we need if we are to get our lives right with God: a willingness to put first things first. If we do that, God will see that we are provided for. Remember that Jesus said:

“Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow...” (Matthew 6:33,34).

The Bible is given to help us become the sort of people God wants us to be. It is unlike any other book because it comes from God and contains His message of salvation. This is a message that can change your life if you want it to. Read it regularly, prayerfully and carefully, and you will find God’s offer of salvation. The promises God has made can redirect your life and help you to seek the Kingdom of God as your first and foremost aim in life. This is what the apostle Peter once said:

“His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust” (2 Peter 1:3,4).

Let the Bible inform you and transform you by reading it every day and learning more about what God wants. It will give you sound reasons why you can believe what God has promised, for we are not asked to make ‘a leap in the dark’ but to reason out of the Scriptures and then live by faith or belief in God.

Turn around

God wants us to change direction and to stop living selfish and self-serving lives. We are asked to repent and that means turning our lives around to try to please God in the things that we do. The Bible contains many accounts of people who did that, with God’s help. One man was a persecutor of Christians but he became a committed follower; others were fishermen who abandoned everything to follow Jesus. There were prominent officials who lost their high office to follow him, and people who lost their lives for his sake. These details are given to show us what God asks us to do in turning the direction of our lives towards Him. It’s something we will never regret.

The apostle Paul once challenged men and women in Athens to face up to this reality in these words:

“God ... now commands all men everywhere to repent, because he has appointed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom he has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising him from the dead” (Acts 17:30,31).

A lot of Paul’s listeners turned away, back to their previous beliefs – worshipping things instead of the living God. But some believed and ordered their lives accordingly. Even in the Greek city of Corinth, which was a notoriously immoral place at the time, we are told that: “... many of the Corinthians, hearing, believed and were baptized” (Acts 18:8).

Sensible people in all ages have listened to what God has to say and have then acted accordingly. Fortunately there is still time to learn about God’s purpose and to do something about it, but time is running out.

This article is taken from the Glad Tidings magazine pictured above (in the PDF file)

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