(Photo credit: State Farm via Flickr.com)

This week we learnt that over 60% of adults who returned the postal survey indicated that they were in favour of changing the definition of marriage to allow same-sex couples to marry.

Our Archbishop Glenn Davies says he accepts the outcome of the marriage postal plebiscite, but warns that there must be freedom of speech, conscience and belief for Christians and others who disagree:

“Now that the outcome is that the ‘yes’ vote is the majority vote on behalf of the Australian people – as I said to the Prime Minister 18 months ago on behalf of other religious leaders that if that’s what the Australian people want then we live in a democracy and I recognise and acknowledge that outcome.”

“That doesn’t mean I will change my views. I will still continue to teach that marriage is, in God’s plan, between a man and a woman. But I acknowledge that once the parliament passes those laws, that will no longer be the law of the land.

“The consequences then are – what happens to people who want to hold to that truth? It is one thing to say, for example, we don’t have laws against adultery in this country, but I still want to say adultery is wrong – it is immoral. I want to be able to uphold that teaching without the law saying to me – no, it is not illegal, so you can’t say that.

“At the moment that’s not the case, but the way in which we have seen in other Western Democracies, the coercive effect of changing the definition of marriage has been to restrict people’s ability to hold a different point of view. And one of the outstanding points of democracy and human dignity – is the freedom of speech, the freedom of faith and the freedom of conscience.

Therefore what the Parliament needs to do now, in legislating for same-sex marriage, is to do so in a way which protects people’s liberties.”

From www.sydneyanglicans.net

(CREDIT: Heidi via flickr.com)

Can you imagine what it would be like to have a bad reputation before you were even born?

That’s what life was like for the Old Testament character, Jacob.

God told his mother, Rebekah, that the twin sons in her womb would be at war with each other.

After their birth, the tension also grew between the parents, as each favoured a different boy.

In the end, Jacob lived up to his reputation, as he grasped the birthright from his older brother, and deceived his dying father to give him his final blessing.

And this made his brother, Esau, so angry that he wanted to kill him.

It would be hard to find a family that was more dysfunctional!

And yet, it reminds us that God uses imperfect people and imperfect families to achieve his plans.

As Jacob fled from his brother, God reached down to Jacob in a dream.

In this, God repeated the promise he made to Jacob’s father and grandfather.

Jacob had done nothing to deserve this favour and kindness from God.

It was like that back then, but it’s still the same today.

God makes the first move in our own lives when he draws us back to him.

We might boast of our wise decision to follow Jesus, but it’s really all from God.

As we read in the Bible in Romans chapter 5, it was “whilst we were sinners that Christ died for us.”

And two sentences later, we read that “when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him.”

You might feel there’s no way that God could accept you.

You might think your life is too sinful to be saved by God.

Yet, our hope lies in this: While we were still sinners Christ died for us.

Jodie McNeill.