OCTOBER 2019
SWEET
Pleasure, sex & God
HOW TO HELP THE GRIEVING AFTER SUICIDE
SO YOU’RE CHURCH SHOPPING . . .
A CHRISTIAN PERSPECTIVE ON THE WORLD TODAY
W
ELL B EING
Stress, overwork, legal troubles, marriage breakdown— there are so many obstacles to overcome in keeping a healthy connection with your kids. Yes, it’s hard work, but it’s worth it. BY PATRICK O’NEILL 14
SIGNSOFTHETIMES.ORG.AU • OCTOBER 2019
NAZAR_AB—GETTY IMAGES
FATHERHOOD & CONNECTION
OCTOBER 2019 • SIGNS OF THE TIMES
15
FA IT H
JULIAN J ROSSIG, ISMAGILOV—GETTY IMAGES
SO YOU’RE CHURCHSHOPPING . . .
26
SIGNSOFTHETIMES.ORG.AU • OCTOBER 2019
Churches are changing and it’s easy to be blinded by the razzle-dazzle of slick marketing. How do you find the church God is calling you to? BY NIGEL BYNG
H
ave you ever seen the early morning worship programs on television? The packed congregations, the huge church venues, the smooth-talking evangelist who delivers the perfect sermon . . . Church seems to be where the action is. That there are so many new mega-churches popping up all over the world suggests that a lot of people are desperate for spiritual guidance and fellowship. But with so many churches to choose from it can feel like a minefield. Are you one of those seeking to make a step in this direction and feeling overwhelmed by the profusion of options? Don’t hit the panic button just yet.
from corner shop to Amazon
Just like many family retail businesses have disappeared from main streets or been swallowed up by shopping malls, many churches have been forced to adapt or face the inevitable. Times change. Many older generations were born into a denomination—it was automatically assigned at birth. Yet today, there are so many choices around that anyone interested in finding a good church
can simply do Google search and get locations and customer reviews. Online shopping for a good pastor or congregation? Why not? We do it for everything else; from choosing the right shampoo to finding a quality used car. It’s the equivalent of shopping at your local supermarket 20 years ago, to doing your shopping online now. The online experience has changed the way we do everything. Technology has impacted the way society organises finances, education and even national security. On a personal level, it has made everything accessible, and the world that was once large and mysterious can now be explored for the most part from your smartphone. These are huge cultural and generational changes from a mere 20 years ago. It would be naive to assume that the cultural impact of the digital age—that remarkable ability to simply click and have it—has not influenced the church experience.
change: uncomfortable, but necessary
As advancements in education, culture and technology open our OCTOBER 2019 • SIGNS OF THE TIMES
27
W
ELL B EING
g n i v e i r G
HOW TO HELP THE
AFTER SUICIDE
Grief is never easy, but losing a loved one to suicide adds extra challenges and requires extra sensitivity from friends and family. BY VICTOR PARACHIN 32
SIGNSOFTHETIMES.ORG.AU • OCTOBER 2019
LAFLOR—GETTY IMAGES
W
hen Kristen Clifford’s husband— Steven, a police officer—wasn’t responding to her text messages she became alarmed and drove home where she found notes, his police identification, his driver’s license, “everything laid out very neatly, methodically”, she recalled. Frightened, she rushed down the hallway to their bedroom to discover the door closed and another note stating, “I did it. Do not enter. Call 911.” Her 35-year-old husband had ended his life by suicide. It's not just an American issue. Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show suicide rates creeping up over the last decade or so. For younger people, particularly, suicide is now at epidemic proportions— it’s the leading cause of death for 15 to 44-year-olds, particularly men, who are three times more likely to die at their own hand than women. But women’s suicide statistics spike in their early 50s—the menopause and “empty nest” years. New Zealand’s suicide rate is the highest its ever been, with increases every year for four years running, according to stuff. co.nz. Maori men are over-represented, with 97 dying by suicide during 2017. Internationally, the World Health Organization estimates that, each year, approximately one million people die from suicide, representing a global mortality rate of 16 people per 100,000 or one death every 40 seconds. Furthermore, it’s been estimated that every suicide death leaves behind an estimated six or more “suicide survivors”—family members and friends who are left grieving and struggling to understand. Here are seven ways to help those grieving a suicide death: OCTOBER 2019 • SIGNS OF THE TIMES
33
FA IT H
THE GIFT
or the
Life is a gift and an opportunity to show others how awesome God is, because He is the one who gave it all in the first place. BY MACIEJ KUBEREK 38
SIGNSOFTHETIMES.ORG.AU • OCTOBER 2019
ELITSA DEYKOVA—GETTY IMAGES
pre sent ?
M
oney is not a topic I normally enjoy talking about. More often than not, it’s an unwelcome reminder of how my earnings keep slipping through my fingers rather than piling up in my bank account. Can you relate? Sometimes, if we’re honest with ourselves, we have that love-hate relationship with money—it promises all kinds of possibilities, but it can also leave us feeling quite limited, depending on how much of it we have. Recently I plucked up the courage to read Scott Pape’s virally successful The Barefoot Investor about the management of personal finances. Initially, I expected it to be fairly tedious, based on my prejudice against the subject. But, to my pleasant surprise, I discovered instead that Pape actually had some pretty incredible insights on how to how to manage your wealth well. The overriding principle running through the book is that it’s not about how much you have, but what you do with what you already have. When we first encounter the idea or concept of managing wealth, or “stewardship”, in the Bible it’s in a garden with the first humans—Adam and Eve. Their first task and priority was to care for and protect the new world that God had made. The first book of the Bible, Genesis, gives us a glimpse into that conversation when it says, “God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living
creature that moves on the ground” (Genesis 1:28). God just handed over the keys to Adam and Eve so they could manage, expand and exercise care over all that He had just created. They had not brought a single thing into existence—stewardship for them meant making use of all the things they already had. Pape echoes this reality, when he concludes that one can live quite a comfortable life on an average income—it has to do with resourcefulness and making use of what you have. The first humans were encouraged to “be fruitful and increase”, which for them meant expanding their influence and progeny over the face of the earth. It involved the concept of being fruitful, an idea that’s easy to miss, because we have to ask ourselves what it even means. Jesus told a story in the New Testament book of Matthew about a man who went on a faraway journey and entrusted his finances to the care of three of his servants. Two chose to invest the money so that, when the journeying master returned, he received back the money that belonged to him with added profit. One servant, however, kept the money safe, but never did anything productive (or fruitful) with it—he didn’t even put it in the bank to accrue interest. The story ends on these words: “For whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them” (Matthew 25:29). OCTOBER 2019 • SIGNS OF THE TIMES
39
CU
LT U R E
If you love sifting through cryptic clues, why not check out the world’s longest-running and most vitally important treasure hunt? BY KIRA-LEIGH JOSEY
58
SIGNSOFTHETIMES.ORG.AU • OCTOBER 2019
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
T F I W S R O L TAY AND THE MESSIANIC COUNTDOWN
O
n April 13 this year, pop princess Taylor Swift began a 13-day countdown on her social media accounts. This countdown sent the world (or maybe just her “Swifties”) into a frenzy. The following days were fraught with cryptic clues from Swift—still images from what would turn out to be her upcoming music release. Increasingly far-fetched fan theories were spawned about what it all meant. The countdown culminated on April 26 with the release of a new single, “ME!” and, much to the pleasant surprise of her fans, the announcement of her seventh studio album. Rumours about Swift’s next offering had been swirling since October 2018, with some devoted fans claiming that photos of everyday things—including palm trees!—contained significant symbolism. Seemingly ordinary pictures of Swift and her mother playing Scrabble became pivotal clues—keen code-breakers enhanced the image, looking for hidden meaning. But, despite their wild theories and tin-foil hats, the fans were essentially right: Swift had been leaving breadcrumbs relating to her new release for months. It turned out that Swift’s official 2019 calendar also had the countdown start marked, as well as a few other dates on the 13th of each month (Swifties are waiting in eager anticipation to find out what these dates relate to). On her social media accounts the amount of emojis she had included in some posts related
to the number of days left until the release. It appears that being a Taylor Swift fan is immensely hard work! Swift herself has said that leaving cryptic clues for her fans is her “love language”.
the ultimate countdown
This exciting countdown has nothing on the one seen in the Bible, which continued for more than 4000 years. And, again, there were clues littered throughout the Old Testament, some cryptic and some unmissable. You did not need to guess what the Old Testament was leading up to—scholars note that it contains 200–400 prophecies of a coming Messiah. The Old Testament tells the story of a God with a rescue plan for His people; a plan to send a Saviour.
stunning fulfilment
The countdown kicks off at the very beginning of the Bible—in the book of Genesis. After sin infects the world, God reveals His plan. In Genesis 3:15 He spoke of a wounded victor; a descendent of Eve who would crush the head of the deceiving serpent. The victor does not walk away unharmed, however, but is struck on the heel. This verse is hinting at the victory that Jesus would achieve over death through His crucifixion. That amount of detail would be enough for some, but there are many more specific prophecies about the coming Messiah in the Old Testament. OCTOBER 2019 • SIGNS OF THE TIMES
59