Revelation and indeed the whole bible finishes at Chapter 21 and 22 with a vision of a new heaven and new earth. God says in a loud voice from the throne that tears, sorrow, death, pain and crying will be “gone forever”. Then we see this glorious picture of what the holy city, the new Jerusalem will look like. I remember when our oldest son Jake was about to be born, people kept telling Nicole and me that “when kids come, everything changes”. Aside from a bit of lack of sleep, I couldn’t see then how EVERYTHING would change. Surely not! Besides no-one could explain to me exactly how everything would change. Then when Jake was born… everything changed. New life and a new family, the old life BC (before children) had passed away. It was wonderful and new and it was very different. In some ways I see these chapters about the life to come a bit like trying to explain to my BC self, just how different everything will be. I could try but I wouldn’t really understand until I got there. As with much of the other chapters of Revelation there are layers and layers of imagery and symbolism and wonderful connections to the rest of scripture. It’s like all the loose threads of ideas in the bible from the previous 65 books finally come together to make a truly glorious picture. You finally realise that the main story of the bible that began in Genesis and has been played out through every book since is unchanged, there is remarkable consistency, despite the constant change in author. “I will be their God, and they will be my people”. It’s about God dwelling with us, loving us, wanting to be close. It has always been about relationship not religion. In the end there is a beautiful picture of this finally happening, God with us.As we get to the end of Revelation, I wonder what new things have you learnt about God, about Jesus (remember this is the revelation of Jesus the Messiah) about the world and yourself? What has God been saying to you? Why not spend some time in reflection thinking about these questions.I look forward to seeing you this Sunday, we will have Holy Communion also.Your brother in Christ,Benji

Dear friends of BCUC,  The wisdom of ِEcclesiates says “There is a time for a war and a time for peace” On Tuesday 11th November people paused for a minutes silence to remember the time when the guns of World War 1 stopped firing over Europe after 4 years of conflict caused 40 million casualties. Revelation chapters 17-20 is about the final battle. It's a description of the final battles between the Messiah and Satan which eventually ends with Satan being defeated for all time. This is a great source of hope for us. If we are faithful to Christ we can achieve life with the eternal God. It does not mean that we cannot be tempted by evil, so we should be vigilant. It does mean that Satan cannot overpower us if we remain true to Christ who wins the battle over evil for all time.  We should not be put off by the imagery in Revelation since much of it comes from the Old Testament and would be familiar to the Jews, but what we must take from it is our great source of hope though Christ that we can gain eternal life. We look forward to you joining us this Sunday and afterwards for the AGM. Your brothers in ChristIan Olver and Benji Callen

Cultures throughout the world have long traditions of some form of Harvest Thanksgiving festival from the Moon Festival in China, Chuseok in Korea, Pongal in South India, Thanksgiving in the US, and even Pentecost in Jesus time. There’s much celebration and grateful thanks when the first harvest comes in and then when the final fruits are brought into the storehouses to prepare for a long winter. It means survival, the hope of being fed and not going hungry, life into the future is possible. I noticed living in the Eyre Peninsula that when the harvest is good (and the grain prices are too), spirits are high and lifted up.Throughout the bible the image of great and final harvest has been used as a metaphor for the final “Day of the Lord”. Jesus talked about this final day of judgment when the harvest would come, the grain kept while the separated chaff is burnt. In the second half of Revelation Chapter 14 we see this metaphor of the Day of the Lord coming like 2 harvests. One of grain and the other grapes that are then pressed into blood in the winepress of wrath. This echoes the same message of the prophet Joel Chapter 3: 13-14Swing the sickle,    for the harvest is ripe.Come, trample the grapes,    for the winepress is full    and the vats overflow—so great is their wickedness!”Multitudes, multitudes    in the valley of decision!For the day of the Lord is near    in the valley of decision.We are then left in the “valley of decision”. God is slow to judge and will give us every opportunity. To follow Jesus in our actions and beliefs or to ignore God and go our own way. As Jesus said the harvest is plentiful and cause of festival celebrations throughout the world. When the harvest comes people celebrate at the promise of life.Your brother in ChristBenji

Again, we see a piece full of signs and symbols. There is a pregnant woman who is about to give birth to a child who will rule all the nations with an iron sceptre. That child is Jesus. The woman, however, rather than representing Mary represents the chosen people, the Church, from which the lineage of Jesus comes. The next image is Satan. In the Old Testament Satan is part of the complement of heaven. Satan means ‘adversary’ and for example when Satan states that Job is faithful to God only because he has had such a good life, Satan is sent by God to earth to challenge Job and make him suffer. However since then Satan has changed and through pride wants to challenge God. Satan is now depicted as a 7 headed dragon, with complete power over a Kingdom of chaos opposed to God. He goes to earth to destroy the child, but Jesus is snatched back to heaven, and the mother is transported by God to the desert for safety. Satan pursues the Messiah to heaven but the archangel Michael, who is the defender of mankind, defeats Satan and banishes him from heaven forever.Satan returns to earth full of vengeance to punish the child by attacking the mother, the church. He does this by delegating to 2 entities represented by beasts. The first, the beast of the sea, is the Roman Empire and all it offers. The second, the beast of the land, is the requirement for Romans to declare Ceasar as Lord once each year under pain of death. However, if Christians remain faithful to Jesus, even if the consequence is martyrdom, then they cannot be harmed because Satan has been defeated by Jesus on the cross.What does it mean for the church today? The adversary has been defeated by Jesus on the cross for all time and we need no longer fear being challenged by the accuser as long as we remain true to Christ. Or as Charles Wesley so elegantly put it, “No condemnation now I dread, Jesus and all in Him is mine”.(Revelation 12-14) Ian Olver

Dear friends of BCUC,Aside from trying to understand all the rich and, at times, overwhelming imagery and symbolism of the book of Revelation, I am discovering two key perspectives that help unlock its meaning. The first, which I have spoken about before, is that the opening sentence announces this as the revelation of Jesus Christ the King. The second is to see this message through the lens of the persecuted church. It’s only then that the message becomes grounded, and the context more concrete.Revelation is a vision given to a persecuted church, for a persecuted church. This setting helps us gain a better perspective on some of the more difficult passages of Revelation, such as the seven trumpets in chapters 8–11. I can’t draw on my own life experience to understand this fully — my life does not begin to comprehend the depths of losing an entire village, all possessions, and close family members simply because of prayer to Jesus. Yet videos and testimonies from groups such as Barnabas Aid help us connect more deeply (for example, those from Nigeria). The women who shared their stories at our church on Thursday from Iraq and India also gave us a powerful glimpse.I am thankful that we at BCUC have been supporting Barnabas Aid and the persecuted church through the work of the Pantry, particularly in Laos. I am also thankful that at BCUC we have Christians from many nations whom I consider friends. When I hear about the persecution faced by people in their home countries, it becomes a little more personal.When I listen to witnesses from these countries, I’m amazed by their response to such personal suffering. I never hear words of vengeance or pleas for God to destroy their oppressors. Occasionally, I hear prayers of thanks for blessings in their lives — such as a tent to live in — or prayers for release and freedom. But more often, I hear prayers for endurance, for opportunities to continue sharing the Gospel, and for their persecutors to come to know the love, grace, and forgiveness found in Jesus.In Revelation chapter 11, which N.T. Wright describes as “the most puzzling part of all” of “the most puzzling book of all,” we see two witnesses who are killed for their faith and then given resurrection life. It is the witness of that new life that brings repentance to others. We can be puzzled and challenged by these chapters of Revelation, and we can also be challenged by the witness of persecuted believers who have stood firm in their faith, yet still preach love, forgiveness, and the mercy of Jesus in the midst of violent oppression.The church — both today and throughout history — does not win the battle by having bigger or more violent weapons than the enemy, but by bearing faithful witness to the Gospel of the Lamb who was slain for us all.I look forward to exploring these challenging passages together,Benji

Have you ever called a company or business or government agency and been put on hold for so long with a soothing repeat message saying “your call is important to us” interspersed with nondescript mind numbing music. Then 90 minutes later when the repetitive sequence of sounds change to something like “Hello, this is ____ how may I help you?”, you stumble around, a bit lost, quickly trying to gather your thoughts and remember why on earth you called in the first place and even ask yourself… what’s my name again?. I wonder if sometimes life can seem a bit like that.  An endless loop of monotony that has numbed the senses too deeply to notice.Along comes Jesus and says: “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the father except through me.” John 14:6. A promise of direction, the cut through of actual, real, pure truth and life that is more than simply default living. And how do we break the loop and get through to the purpose of the phone call that is our lives? It seems that Jesus is saying he is the only way. What do you think?This Sunday at BCUC is anything but monotonous and default living. Come along Sunday and be part of the abundant life of Jesus. We start at 9:30am in the car park with the grand opening of the new Hub area. We then move to the 10.00am worship service for some dance lessons with Freestyle Dance ministry, join in prayer and thanksgiving at the baptism of Ivory Ofoedu, we worship together looking more deeply at this passage from John 14 while the younger people (and the young at heart) have a dance workshop at the new Hub area, then we finish with games, activities, BBQ fellowship and more. All you need to do is send out the invite and bring someone along! What a day to be alive.Grace and peace in Christ,Benji

Dear friends of BCUC,A very familiar quote from Jesus is from the end of chapter 3 of Revelation: “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.” This comes after a challenge to the churches to repent and turn to Jesus.I find this one of the great captivating pictures of the Christian life. The image of a door to our lives, Jesus standing outside, knocking, calling, waiting for us to listen and respond. Then the wonderful joy of him coming into our lives to share a meal together.  I wonder what Jesus would see if we showed him around our house or life?The book of Revelation then switches from this image to another doorway at the start of chapter 4: “After this I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in Heaven. And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, 'Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.'"Now that Jesus has shared food together in our place he invites us back to his. Two doors to two very different places. The vision we are given when John, the writer of Revelation, walks through that door into the Throne room of the Almighty God, Lord of all, Holy and glorious is beyond breathtaking and enough to dazzle even the darkest cynic. It’s a place we can read in chapter 4 and 5 of Revelation. It makes Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory seem like a broom cupboard. It is that place we are going to explore this Sunday. We will look at the lion and the lamb, the 24 elders, the four angels, the throne and more.N. T. Wright quotes a friend who calls it “One of the two most wonderful chapter in the bible”. I encourage you to read them and even unto 7. To dwell in them. To soak in the imagery. Once you do that you can’t help be transformed. I invite you to walk through the door.Look forward to worshipping with you Sunday,Benji

This week we start a 7- part series on Revelation.John, banished to the Island of Patmos for preaching about Jesus, had revealed to him, by Jesus, God’s view of what must soon take place on earth and in heaven. The Jews referred to the present time where they were under Roman rule and had lost hope that mankind could change their fate.  Only God could intervene to establish His Kingdom. In a series of visions John is shown the apocalyptic destruction of the present age giving way to the new world where the Jews would return to Jerusalem and peace would reign. In the end God defeats the forces of evil and thereby restores our hope that we can dwell with Him for eternity.Given such a great news story of hope, why do people shy away from Revelation? It is often because the visions and symbols and code seem bizarre and frightening, and they can be difficult to interpret. However, it was quite common in the Old Testament to use visions of strange creatures such as are found in Daniel and the Jews would have been familiar with the multiple references to the Old Testament. Also, writing in code can be necessary if you are under the rule of tyrants.  One example is the use of the number 7 which appears 55 times. Seven stands for something which is complete or perfect. For example, if you have read the 7 scrolls you have read everything from beginning to end. John speaks of the 7-fold Spirit which is the one complete Spirit through which we connect with God and Jesus.What we will concentrate upon this week is the letters to the 7 churches. Again, 7 signifies that the letters are for all churches both then and today. John passes on to them praise and criticism but also shows what they need to do to get back on track. Two churches received no criticisms because they were keeping God’s Word despite attacks from society around them and from false prophets. Others were criticised for losing their love for each other or were compromising their values to fit with society or had become lukewarm or even lifeless in their worship.Each letter ends with “Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches” This means our church and us as individuals. Ian Olver

This Sunday we have the privilege of having YAV’s premier award winning female voice choir Aurora helping us with worship. It promises to be a time of musical beauty that will lift our hearts to God. We will sing songs that have been prayers of the church that God in his infinite grace keeps answering. We see answered prayers throughout the book of Acts also, all the way through to the last sentence. In the final chapter of Acts we continue to follow the journey of Paul and his friends. He finally arrives in Rome after a seafaring journey worthy of a book by itself. He is met by others and then teaches freely and boldly under house arrest at Rome for two years and then… the bible starts a new book with Paul’s letter to the Romans. Perhaps you were like me and kept turning the pages back and forth wondering if there were pages missing? Did Paul get to confront Cesar? Did the church grow in Rome? Did Paul get to go to Spain like he said he wanted? What happened to the church in Jerusalem? What about the rest of the disciples? Where’s Peter? Where’s Mary? What about the country I was born in? Why isn’t that mentioned? How is the Holy Spirit active after that? Why have a long chapter detailing a ships journey from the Middle East to Italy but not give details we really want to hear?Today’s movie industry is all about the franchise. If it is popular the first time then let's keep making movies in that world until it stops making money. We are tempted to want the trilogy of Luke/Acts and then the fourth and fifth instalments. Yet it’s not there. The message of the Good News has gone to the capital of the largest pagan empire the world had seen. The next chapters belong to you and me. Right here in Adelaide or wherever you are reading this. The very same Holy Spirit that worked in Acts lives and works in us, the mission is the same, the blueprint of what to do is in Acts. Let’s get on with making the sequel!Your Brother in ChristBenji

Everyone has storms in their lives at some time or other.  It seems part of being human.  Jesus said, “In this world you will have trouble.” Perhaps you feel like you’re in the middle of a storm right now.At first reading, Acts 27 looks like simply a factual account of getting Paul from A to B, and what happened along the way.  But if you dig a little deeper, you can find some clues as to what enabled Paul to survive through all the storms in his life – and there were plenty.In Paul’s own words, “Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one.  Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move.  I have been in danger from rivers, …from bandits, …from my own countrymen, …from Gentiles; in danger in the city, …in the country, …at sea, and from false brothers.  I have laboured and toiled and often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked…”                                  What was it that enabled Paul to keep bouncing back, ready for more, and willing to endure anything for the sake of the gospel?   Lesser men would have given up long before, keeping a low profile for their own safety.There are some hidden treasures in chapter 27 that show how Paul weathered this particular storm, and how they can help us in our storms.  Strangely, they all start with P, and no, prayer isn’t one of them, although it could have been.But perhaps the last word needs to go to Peter, in another watery story, where Peter learns the hard way how to keep his head above water, and how to stop the waves from overwhelming him (Luke 14:27-31).When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you (Isaiah 43:2).Colette Williams