The Second Greatest Commandment
Many people will tell you that the most important thing in the world is just to love people. The problem is that we have many ideas about what love is, and something we think is loving may in the end turn out not to have been for the person’s good, and even actually harmed them. Like […]
Climate for Change
A number of government leaders from around the world are making louder noises in acknowledgement of global climate change, and the necessity of responding to it with new, stronger policies and action in order to prevent dangerous alteration to the world’s environment. Even the Murdoch news empire, a recent strident climate-change denier, has converted, and […]
Grace & Law
There are two false ways of living: 1. to live by a grace that has no law in it, where there is no accountability for one’s actions, and no obligation to live in a true way. 2. to live by law that has no grace in it, where there is only success or failure to […]
Submitting
One Sunday a mum and dad were at church with their children. Their young boy insisted on standing on the chairs. He was placed off the chairs several times and chastised by his dad. After quite a ‘wrestle’, finally he sat, dutifully. His father said that he was a good boy for sitting quietly. He […]
Utter Evil
I was on the small side as a young rider, and I was put on a 16 hands plus thoroughbred. I broke from the trees on the opposite side of a hundred acre paddock, the horse saw home, and bolted. I grabbed one rein in both hands and tried to wheel the horse with all […]
Living With The Disease
I was a teenager at high school in the late 1970s. It was the height of the Cold War between the United States and the West, and the Soviet Union and the East. I remember ‘living and breathing’ the threat of WWIII breaking out, and nuclear winter. In one way or another, humanity has always […]
Low Is The New High
“We’re at a low ebb”, I’ve heard said about many things because of the effects of the COVID pandemic – hospitality, tourism, retail, just to name a few… and church life. Many of us wonder when, or even if, things will return to the former ‘highs’ we once knew as ‘normal’! There’s no telling. James says […]
The Certain Resurrection From The Dead To Eternal Life
“I will raise them up on the last day.” – John 6:54b You must not judge by external appearances. You must be guided by the Word which promises and gives you everlasting life. Then you truly have eternal life. Even though your senses tell you otherwise, this does not matter. This does not mean that you […]
Words, Words, Words…
News reports regularly tell us that levels of public cynicism towards politicians are at an all-time high. The perpetual criticism of the political sphere is that words of promise are not backed up with action. But come to think of it… I’ve been hearing those news reports for 50 odd years! Well – if those […]
This Sporting Life
It’s been race, after race, after race on our TV screens this week, as the track and field week of the Olympic Games has been in full flight. If anything was going to ease the pain of COVID-19 for the sporting nation of Australia, it would be this mega-international festival of physicality! Paul in the […]