Ash… What On Earth Are You Doing?
The nation was thunderstruck this week, when Ash Barty, favourite and golden girl of Australian sport, world’s No. 1 women’s tennis player, at the height of her powers at age 25, announced that she is quitting tennis! She said that she has achieved all she could have hoped for in tennis, and that’s where she […]
God is not up for re-election
My wife Kathryn tells of a Christian students’ camp she went on in university where the Bible Studies were on the theme, “God is not up for re-election”, and many were highly offended at this. Why?… well, because God is not up for re-election! There are many good things about democracy, and it certainly doesn’t have […]
Serious Joy
Lent, the name of the 40 day season prior to Easter, derives from the Old English word, lencten, meaning “Springtime” (northern hemisphere), and before that from the Germanic longitinaz, meaning “lengthening of days”. It anticipates Easter, following upon Good Friday, and the victory of the light and life of Christ over the darkness of sin and death. […]
History Repeating
History Repeating We – the West – are stunned at the moment by the arrogance and evil of Russia invading Ukraine. Since WWII and the Cold War, we like to think that humanity has “evolved” to be something “better and higher” than this, and moved “beyond” the evil of nationalistic aggression. However, the Bible affirms […]
Holy Huddle?
Sometimes as the church we can be a “holy huddle” – i.e., we’ve received a precious gift from God (the good news), and we focus on enjoying it among ourselves in our worship and protecting it against the unbelieving world outside. Consequently, we don’t relate to the world outside the church, we don’t grow, and […]
Complex Persecution
It’s “open season” on Christians in Australian society. What comes through the media, politics and general social attitudes, is a subconscious acceptance that Christian truth, and anyone who holds to it, must be absolutely opposed as illegitimate, and considered “evil”. This is not a shocking surprise, but the fulfilment of Jesus’ words of prophecy in […]
Want to live life to the full?…
For the Christian, the secret to that is not actually “rocket science”! Jesus said, man shall live “by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Mt 4:4). By which He meant, all the words and teaching of God contained in the Bible. The Psalm writer said that the person who meditates constantly on […]
Normal
The New Year has seen our community tumble into a new phase of the Covid pandemic with the arrival of the highly infectious Omicron variant, and transitioning from zero-tolerance of the virus, to living with it. And as much as vaccines have helped us prepare, we still feel exposed and vulnerable. Before the pandemic arrived, […]
HOW LONG. HOW LONG. HOW LONG?
In Psalm 15, David, the psalmist makes a plea to God, “Lord, how long will you ig- nore me? Forever?” In similar psalms, the cry is from a person who “dwells in the dust”. David questions God, “How long will you look the other way?” “How long must I struggle with anguish in my soul, with sorrow in my […]
Love Jesus Christ, or Hate Him…
…but whatever you do, don’t just tolerate Him! A lot of Australians tolerate Jesus Christ. Christmas has mostly become a secular holiday. Yet because of its overt connection with Christ, people may tolerate some mention of Him, or perhaps carols that have words about Him,… but not too much! Carol singing crowds can get pretty “tetchy” […]