Sunday 15 August - Faithful Witnesses - Acts 1:15-26

One of the biggest issues that the Church is facing today is about the authority of the Bible. People question whether or not a holy book which sums up human history in just over six thousand years and took 1500 years to compile is relevant in the 21^st century. Because of this, traditional customs and values are constantly being scrutinized, challenged, and changed. What was good enough for Paul and Silas may be good enough for old time religion but, according to some, it certainly isn’t good enough for modern people.

Today’s passage from Acts deals with similar questions. Luke continues to write about the beginning of the Christian church as an apologetic, an answer, and as an historical and theological reply to those who were asking such questions as:

Where did Peter get his authority to preach? What makes the Gospel different from other religious messages? What really happened to Judas Iscariot and did Jesus make an almighty mistake in choosing him in the first place?

I’ve mentioned to you to look out for and watch what the Holy Spirit does throughout the Book of Acts. In today’s passage, several noteworthy things and teaching moments take place. Luke writes that Peter stood up amongst the Gathering and suggested that they find a successor for Judas. Peter believes that this is necessary to perfect their leadership number of twelve in order to maintain continuity with the twelve tribes of Israel.

Peter also states that Judas’ betrayal of Christ was foretold a thousand years beforehand, through the work of the Holy Spirit inspiring King David as he composed several psalms. This maintains the continuity of the first Christians with their Jewish roots, but it also showed them that the Holy Spirit had been working for centuries in the sacred history of Peter’s people in order to bring about salvation through Christ.

This is very important for us to understand and accept because it deals with the authority of scripture, which is one of our major issues facing our people today. The Holy Spirit actively inspired David to write words in his psalms which became fulfilled prophecies in Christ’s lifetime. The Holy Spirit did this and we need to remember that. As John Calvin wrote five hundred years ago, “Such manner of speeches bring greater reverence to the scriptures… (because) …they were directed by the Holy Spirit.”

This is why I personally think it that questioning the authority of the scriptures is not something to be undertaken lightly, or to glibly cast aside the Bible because of its cultural contexts. The great arrogance and mischief can arise when we question Biblical authority because we are in danger of saying and believing that we know better than the Holy Spirit about the Word of God. And that, my dear friends, was the very first temptation and sin in the Garden of Eden when the serpent tempts Eve beginning with the words “Did God really say…?” (Genesis 3:1)

But why is Peter mentioning Judas at all and why does Luke fill in the details about Judas’ death?

Peter is bringing resolution for himself and the rest of the Gathering. Judas had been with them for three years. Despite his obvious faults, he was still one of them. John Calvin stated that “It is not to be doubted that the disciples did remember Judas with grief and sorrow.” In the midst of all their joy about the Resurrection of Christ, the shadow of Judas’ betrayal and tragedy of his death still affected them. To bring closure to their sorrow, they have to appoint a successor. To find relief from their grief, they have to accept that the Holy Spirit foretold this long ago.

Luke fills in the details about Judas’ death and his gory ending, not because he wanted to shock his readers, but because in Luke’s time there were already rumors surrounding what had actually happened to the traitor. Some misguided Christians, who would later be known as Gnostics, began to think that Judas did not commit suicide but that he nobly sacrificed himself by taking Christ’s place on the cross. Their stories are very similar to what Charles Dickens would write 1800 years later in his famous book “A Tale of Two Cities” where the anti-hero Sydney Carton dies at the guillotine in place of the hero Charles Darnay. No doubts the Gnostics of the past would love to have borrowed Dickens’ words and place them in the mouth of Judas Iscariot as he died on the Cross for Jesus: “It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to, than I have ever known.”

But this never happened, which is why Luke includes the gory details about Judas’ death – a fatal falling to the ground which causes his stomach to burst open and all of his intestines fall out – which happens when someone dies and dangles from a rope for a while and then the noose breaks. (This is also why in England traitors were hung and disemboweled).

This in turn brings us to another question: did Jesus make a mistake in choosing Judas in the first place, or as John Calvin put it: “It seems a strange thing that Judas, who was chosen by Christ for such an excellent ministry, should fall so filthily.”

Did Jesus make a mistake? Well that’s like asking “Did God make a mistake in creating Adam and Eve?” The short answer to both questions is a loud and affirmative “No.”

The mistakes that were made by Judas, Adam, and Eve were all committed through their own free will and subsequently their own foolish choices. Judas fell away, not because he had been compelled to through prophecy, but only by the malice of his own heart. John McArthur, a great contemporary preacher that I admire, has this to say:

“Judas represents the greatest example of wasted opportunity in all of history.”

McArthur also goes on to say: “Although he was counted among the apostles and received his portion in their ministry, Judas was obviously never saved.”

“Judas was obviously never saved.” We all make mistakes and Judas tragically paid the price for his act of betrayal. He couldn’t live with himself or of the fact that he had placed Christ into the hands of His enemies. If Judas had been saved, he might have heeded Christ’s warning to him before the Last Supper. If Judas had been saved, he might have been able to go into hiding and come back to Christ after the Resurrection and plead for forgiveness. Had he been saved and if he had done that, Judas would have been shown mercy by Jesus and fully restored to God’s favor. But Judas was not saved and so he believed that God could not help him, nor could Jesus be gracious to him. And so the tragedy of Judas lies not in the sad fact that he committed suicide, but that he did not give Christ the opportunity to forgive him. He died in his sins, instead of being saved from them.

When Peter talks about the need to find a successor for Judas, he also lays out the conditions and qualifications for such a person. It would have to be someone who was with Jesus from the very beginning and who had seen the Risen Christ. In other words, it had to be someone who had remained a faithful follower of Christ, and an exclusive witness of his Resurrection. This new apostle would have to preach the Gospel and take the exclusive message of the Resurrection to other people. He would have to have been taught personally by Christ and have been an eye witness to the post-resurrection appearances of Christ. In other words, he had to validate his faith with personal accounts of who Jesus was and what actually happened after He rose from the dead.

This brings us to a very important point about sharing the gospel. Many misguided Christians believe that sharing the gospel is about good deeds, kind words, and nice acts of compassion. These are wonderful things to do on behalf of the church, but sharing the gospel is not about how many good deeds we get done in a day. Sharing the gospel has always meant one important thing – it is about telling a dying world full of dying people that Christ still lives! Without the Resurrection, there is no gospel, and without the constant telling of the Resurrection, there will be no salvation. As Paul the apostle once wrote to the church of Corinth, “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.”

Finally, a successor is chosen. The Upper Room Gathering of about 120 people selects two candidates and leaves the final choice up to the Holy Spirit using the customary method of applying lots. This is the last occasion in the Bible that lots are used. After the Great Day of Pentecost, lots will no longer be needed because the Holy Spirit will directly guide the apostles and Christ’s church.

The use of lots is not like throwing dice or picking door prizes. The apostles use the lots as a sacred means of giving the final decision over to God. This is not spinning the bottle, the tossing of a coin, or hoping for a win. This is sacred nomination and final affirmation given by the Holy Spirit. Luke tells us that they say together a very special prayer: Then they prayed, "LORD, you know everyone's heart. Show us which of these two you have chosen to take over this apostolic ministry...."

Through the presence of the Holy Spirit, Matthias is chosen, whose name actually means “The gift of the Lord.” We don’t hear anything else about this new apostle in the Bible, but some ancient documents of the early church say that Matthias first preached the gospel throughout Judea and then he went down into Ethiopia and Sudan to preach to cannibals and pagans. He was eventually crucified, so Judas’s successor actually went to the cross for the sake of Jesus and his Gospel.

So what have we learned today? (1) The Holy Spirit has been at work for thousands of years.                   (2) Scripture is inspired by the Holy Spirit, so we should all be wary of believing that we know better than the bible.   (3) If we are open to the Holy Spirit, then He will guide us clearly; but if we become divided, we will end up making bad choices as a Church and will suffer the consequences.

Prayer:        Lord, You know everyone’s heart here today. Show us the way, through the Sacred Presence of the Holy Spirit, that our church should take to fulfill Your ministry and mission in this community. In Your Holy Name, we pray. Amen.

Study Resources

Links

John Macarthur’s Bible Study page: “Grace to You”

http://www.gty.org/

Apostle Matthias Information

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10066a.htm

Home Study and Personal Reflections    

1.       What made Peter suggest that the Upper Room group needed to choose a successor to Judas??

2.       What do you think about Luke’s account of Judas’ death? What makes us feel sorry for Judas?

3.       How much of a priority is Christ in our lives? Do we ever allow other things to take His place?

4.       Where does the authority of the Bible come from? Why should this make us cautious about criticizing the Scriptures?

Sunday 1 August - Serving by Waiting - Acts 01:1-9

The best way to begin this two year study of Acts is to understand the basic questions of who, what, where, when, and why about the written word. I know that it sounds like Journalism 101, but it’s important to know what the background was of this remarkable book in order to recognize how it should impact our church and our lives today.

Who wrote the book is relatively easy to answer: it was Luke, the glorious physician, a convert to Christ, the writer of the third gospel and a travelling companion of the apostle Paul.

In one of the documents of the second century, we are given a brief biography of him.

“Luke was a Greek speaking native of the Syrian city Antioch, by profession a physician. He had become a disciple of the apostle Paul and later followed Paul until his martyrdom. Having served the Lord continuously, unmarried and without children, filled with the Holy Spirit he died at the age of 84 years.”

“Who is the book about?” is a question that has various answers. Firstly, the Book of Acts is about the work of the Holy Spirit and how His powerful presence established the Christian Church. Secondly, the book is about the ministries of Peter, the Big Fisherman, who was part of Christ’s original band of twelve, and also of Paul, Christ’s Chosen Apostle to the Gentiles, who were the non-Jews living in various communities and cities along the Mediterranean. Other characters and disciples appear in the Book of Acts, but Peter and Paul are the main heroes in Luke’s account.

Who was the book written for? Luke addresses this in the first verse – it’s written to a person called Theophilus. The name is Greek and it means “God seeker” or the “one who loves God.” Theophilus may have been a real person, esteemed by Luke for his influence and perhaps wealth. He may also have been one of Luke’s former patients. He could also have been someone who was being instructed in the faith, which may also mean that “Theophilus” is just a general term for anyone who wanted to become a Christian in the newly formed churches of the Mediterranean.

Now we turn to the question of What. What is the Book of Acts?

Firstly, it’s an historical document which relates the initial experiences of Christ’s disciples in the wider world after the Ascension of Christ. The Great Reformer John Calvin and the Father of Presbyterianism wrote that “if there was no Book of Acts, then it would appear in history that Christ’s ministry ended with His Ascension.” In other words, if we did not have Luke’s account, we probably would never have heard of Christ at all.

The Book is also an accurate historical document because Luke is very careful in listing the details, names, and powers of various rulers and governors in the Roman Empire. This adds authenticity to what is written and is also a valid insight into how cases and appeals, citizenship and authority were experienced in the first century.

The question of When the book was written has puzzled many biblical scholars. Some used to think that it was written centuries later after the events as an historical story in much the same way that authors today write about George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and other patriarchs of the American War of Independence.

These days, most scholars agree that the book was written and completed about AD 63 – 1900 years before President Kennedy was assassinated and approximately 36 years after Christ was crucified. The conclusion that it could not have been written later than AD 63 is based upon several reasons.

Firstly, the Roman Emperor Nero began to persecute Christians in AD 64. Throughout the Book of Acts, Roman leaders and governors whimsically and sometimes favorably interview Paul on several occasions. After AD 64, this could not have been the case because the Roman authorities became hostile towards adherents of the Faith.

Secondly, both Peter and Paul were strongly believed to have been executed during Nero’s persecution. Because Luke is so detail oriented, he would certainly have contained those events at the end of the Book of Acts. Their deaths are not mentioned, so therefore we conclude that the book was written before AD64.

And thirdly, the Jerusalem Temple was completely destroyed by the Romans in AD70. If Luke had written his historical account much later, he would certainly have included such a cataclysmic event in his narrative because it had such a profound effect upon the young Christian community and was indeed a fulfilled prophecy that Christ had foretold during His Earthly ministry.

Where the Book of Acts was written has several answers. The first half of the book may have been written in Jerusalem or even Luke’s hometown of Antioch, where followers of Christ were called Christians for the very first time. Some of it may have been written later in Rome to help the Gentile Christians there understand the roots of their faith.

Curiously, the latter parts of the book read like a personal journal which Luke recorded as he travelled with Paul, which means that it was written on the go. As a writer myself, I believe that Luke used his journal as the source material for his descriptions of the events in Paul’s life. For some reason or another, (perhaps the outbreak of persecution?), Luke did not get around to editing the last part of the Book of Acts, which is why it reads more like a raw travel log rather than a carefully crafted and creative narrative for his readers.

Our last question, as a means of introducing us to the Book of Acts, is perhaps the most important of all – why did Luke write such a book, after all wasn’t the Gospel enough for any would be follower of Christ?

Several suggestions to this question have been made. Firstly, some suggest that when Paul was put on trial in Rome before the Emperor, Luke’s account was the actual defense document that was used to try to influence Nero to give Paul a favorable judgment. If that was the case, then it failed completely.

Secondly, the document may just have been Luke’s memoirs, written for himself and close friends to re-experience the good old days, in much the same way that we all experience past events when we read family letters or personal journals from decades ago.

Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, the Book of Acts was a permanent historically written record of the initial events that saw the empowerment and establishment of the Christian church. It was meant to be read by future followers of the faith as a means to teach them about Christ, His message, the Holy Spirit, and God’s ever expanding Kingdom here on Earth.

It is this last suggestion that is so important to us today. As we read and study the Book of Acts, we will come to recognize and understand that the work of the Holy Spirit is revealed through the witness, testimonies, and stories of real people. It will help us to know what Christ did through the Holy Spirit long ago, so that we may see and know what He is doing in the church and world today. As Calvin also wrote, “Christ conquers the world with simple souls who become the voice of the Gospel…and the Holy Spirit is the power of the Gospel in the world.”

So that’s some of the background to the Book of Acts, but what can we quickly learn from today’s passage?

Acts 1:1-9

Firstly, the Book of Acts begins in the forty day period just after the Resurrection. Christ appears to His followers, giving them many proofs that He was alive, and teaching them about the kingdom of God. These signs and proofs were vitally important to Christ’s followers because whenever and wherever they preached the Gospel, the first question that would be asked is one that is still raised today: how do you know that Christ rose from the dead? And the answer to that question was deeply personal and meant that they would have to make a lifetime commitment to Christ: they would simply answer: “I know it’s true because I was there to see Him.”

Secondly, Christ commands them to wait in Jerusalem for the gift of the Holy Spirit. To a certain degree, Jesus is testing them and showing them that patience is a sacred means of serving God. Perhaps some of them, like Peter, wanted to immediately get out and tell the whole world about Christ’s Resurrection and Salvation. If they had done it without waiting, praying, and pondering then Christ’s ministry would have soon collapsed because they would have been doing it on their own strength. Waiting for the Spirit stopped them from being hasty and superficial. Waiting on God’s promise was a way of respecting Christ’s teaching and of truly giving themselves to God’s work.

At this moment in time, we are going through a similar experience. This church is in the process of being renovated, but a greater event will follow if we wait patiently for the Spirit. By the end of November, the contractors will have moved out and we will then want to move on ahead with the reinvigoration, resurgence, and resurrection of our congregation in this community. However, if we do this on our own, we will soon run out of steam and all this new building will be worthless to us. But if we truly wait, pray, and ponder for the Spirit, then there will come a time when we will know when, where, and how Christ wants us to use the betterment of our church for God’s work and kingdom in this community.

Finally, Christ tells His followers that He is appointing them as His witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to the end of the Earth. They were to become His ‘martuses’, the Greek word for witnesses, from which we derive the term “martyrs.” They were to spend, give, and perhaps even sacrifice their lives for His ministry.

They were to be Christ’s martuses in Jerusalem, the heart of the conservative, traditional and religious powers of the Jewish people.

They were to be Christ’s martuses in all of Judea, the center of Herod’s authority and of Roman imperial power.

They were to be martuses in Samaria, the community of religious outcasts who were despised by the Jews and treated as heretics. They were the illegal theological immigrants in the Holy Land and enemies of God’s chosen people.

And finally, they were to be Christ’s martuses to the ends of the Earth. In other words, no one and nowhere were ever to be excluded from the hearing of the Gospel. All people everywhere, in any time and place, were to be given the message of the Gospel.

The questions that we need to ask ourselves today are these: are we willing to wait for the Holy Spirit? And where does Christ expect us to be martuses for Him in our everyday lives and to our local community?

LET US PRAY

Lord Jesus, we praise You for the inspired and historical writing of the Book of Acts. We pray that we may open our hearts and minds to the many messages that this sacred record contains. We also ask for patience and the ability to serve You by waiting for the Holy Spirit to come among us. Bless us now with Your love and compassion. In Your Holy Name, we pray. Amen.

Home Study and Personal Reflections       

1.         Where do you see the Holy Spirit working in the life and work of our congregation?

2.         How important is it to wait upon the Spirit’s guidance before we make important decisions?

3.         Where should our church be witnessing to the people of this community?

4.         How do we share our faith with other people? What would make us more effective?

Other Resources                                           

How to be a Disciple by Dallas Willard

http://tinyurl.com/c7xae2

Scripting the Transformation by Amy Butler

http://tinyurl.com/33uu9xv

Bible study Questions by Ray Bucknell

http://tinyurl.com/2uuyx92

Kids Activity – eBible for kids – Jesus Ascends

http://tinyurl.com/332wt32

Sunday 25 July - Where Are We Going? - John 6:60-69

I think that if the great patriotic writer of the American Revolution Thomas Paine were alive today and if he was a church member of a mainstream denomination, he might be inspired to write something like this:

“We are living in times that try the souls of loyal church people. The irregular attender and the nominal Christian will, in this present crisis, shrink from service of God’s Kingdom, but whoever stands by Christ now, deserves the love and thanks of future generations. Heresy, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What grace we obtain too cheaply, we will esteem too lightly: it is only sacrifice and cost that gives everything its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; so it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as the BIBLE should not be highly rated.”

My friends, for some time now, I have been deeply troubled with the theological divisions that our national church is currently experiencing. I have wrestled with its present policies and latest decisions with regard to ordination and marriage. I have tried to be open to the bidding of the Holy Spirit and constantly prayed for guidance for what to do and say. I am at a loss because I feel that we are at a significant crossroads which may lead us either to greater glory or take us down a path which ends in a blind alley.

As I personally struggle with this, I wonder why God has blessed our wee church with all of this expansion and renewal. In the midst of both an economic and theological crisis we, as a congregation, have undertaken one of the biggest building projects in our history. We have been led to do this as an act of faith and I wonder what lies ahead for Erin church. It’s as if God is preparing us for a time when all of these issues will be resolved, therefore I believe He’s making us ready for what is yet to be revealed.

Today’s Gospel passage (John 6:60-69) is about a significant turning point in Christ’s ministry. His teaching is being questioned by His very own followers and at the end of the day, only a faithful remnant will remain of His Galilean entourage. His team will be divided and the number of his disciples will fall dramatically. Complaints will be made that Christ’s demands are too hard to live by or accept. The summer disciples and fair-weather followers will abandon Jesus, leaving him to even question and doubt the loyalty of the Chosen Twelve.

This is not a passage that many church people remember. We tend to think that Jesus was like a divine Pied Piper who went from town to town accumulating followers and disciples, so that when He at last came to Jerusalem, thousands of people were with Him. But here we get a picture of something entirely different. We have perhaps hundreds of people abandoning Christ because His demands for conforming to His Way were just too much for the crowds to endure.

I think that the common crowd wanted Christ’s miracles of restoration without His message of repentance. They wanted to live and make their own choices, instead of choosing Christ and live His life.

And that is precisely what is wrong with the mainstream church today. We want cheap grace without a godly commitment. We want prosperous lifestyles instead of living to please God. We want the church to reflect our culture and see to our needs, instead of reflecting Christ’s teaching and asking what does God need of us?

It is indeed a hard teaching and very difficult to be a Christian, but then again the symbol of our faith is a Cross, so who said it was ever going to be easy?

On 25 July, 1814 the Battle of Lundy’s Lane took place near Niagara Falls on Canadian soil. It was one of the bloodiest battles fought between British and American forces during the War of 1812.

No one actually won the battle and both sides were exhausted and depleted by the unusual amount of hand to hand fighting that took place. Most of the casualties, however, occurred through friendly fire. There was so much confusion on the battlefield that troops from either side were constantly firing at their own units. Leadership and strategy were ineffective from the command structure in both the British and Americans forces. At the end of the day, as the generals and commanders ordered retreat from both sides of the battlefield, it was obvious that there were no winners and that the real losers were all of the men who were killed or wounded in action at the heart of the battle.

This is one of my greatest fears for mainstream Christianity and in particular our own denomination. The antagonists on both sides of the theological divide are rupturing the whole church and it’s the people in the middle who are having their faith killed. As conservatives and progressives scramble to gain footholds and control of the national Church, a lot of church members are becoming disillusioned and spiritually wounded. The heresy that exists on both sides of the issues is killing and contaminating the ordinary simplistic faith of many people in the pews.

And of course, the media is having a field day by sensationalizing the whole process and not truly reporting what actually took place or what decisions have been made.

We need to rediscover leadership in the church and that is why I’m proposing that we study the Book of Acts together Sunday after Sunday for the next two years.

Why the Book of Acts? Well it’s all about the Early Church which was constantly led by the Holy Spirit. Time and time again in this wonderful book, we can read about the Holy Spirit inspiring ordinary people to do extraordinary things for Christ. In fact, I call the Book of Acts the “Gospel of the Holy Spirit” because the good news is that we as Christians are not left alone to work out what we should be doing in the world, we have a Counselor, Comforter, Advocate, and Guide who will actively help us be Christ’s church in our community.

My hope over the next two years is that we become so focused on what the Holy Spirit did for the New Testament Church in the past that we will be able to see where the Holy Spirit is leading Christ’s church into the future. If we do that then we will not be caught in the current theological crossfire, but instead Erin will emerge as a church that is intentionally led by the Holy Spirit and will become a resurgent missional community of the Presbyterian Church in this area.

So, starting next Sunday, we begin a new journey of Erin’s faith-life by experiencing the Book of Acts together. And at the end of the process, I believe that a new Holy Spirit inspired and Christ centered church will emerge and we will know that this is why God has called us to build in the midst of such troubling times that try all our souls.

At the end of the day, when many of Christ’s followers had abandoned Him, Jesus was left with the Twelve. In a very tense moment and a crucial crossroads for Christ, He dares to ask the Twelve if they will also go away. Even although Jesus is the almighty Son of God and has the whole power of the universe at His disposal, He cannot compel the disciples to continue to follow Him. They must make their own choices and do it of their own free will. The whole salvation of the world hangs in the balance.

And then the Big Fisherman speaks the words that every Christian should have written on their hearts: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life?”

And that, my dear friends, is why we are all here. Schisms and divisions, heresies and hypocrisies will damage, disturb, and diminish the Church until Christ returns, but the Gospel will always prevail. As long as people are born, live, and die we will always be looking for everlasting life. And to whom will we go? To Jesus Christ our Lord, for He alone has the words of eternal life.

So where are we going? We are going on a journey that is led by the Holy Spirit. And where will journey end? With Jesus, in Eternity; for only He can get us there.

Prayer:        Lord Jesus, we are all heartbroken for the divisions that damage Your church and we ask for forgiveness for our part in the process. We pray that You will allow us the Living and Sacred Presence of Your Holy Spirit in our church. We ask that You will teach us the lessons of the First Christians and lead us onward to a new journey of faith. In Your Holy Name, we fervently pray. Amen.

Questions for Home Study and Personal Reflection

1.       What teachings of Jesus do you personally find hard to accept?

2.       What kind of life does the Spirit give to you?

3.       What must Jesus have felt when many of his disciples no longer followed Him? Does this event surprise you?

4.       What are the words of eternal life that Peter says that Christ has? How do you apply those words to your own life?

Other Useful Links

Lectionary Bible Study:

http://www.lectionarystudies.com/studyg/sunday21bg.html

One Family Outreach Study

http://onefamilyoutreach.com/bible/John/jn_06_59-69.html

Catholic Word Study

http://www.word-sunday.com/Files/b/21-b/A-21-b.html

Seattle Sermons: Stumbling Blocks

http://www.sermonsfromseattle.com/series_b_stumbling_blocks.htm

Kids Activity

http://www.grassroots.com.au/Kidschurch/BdesertJesus.htm