God Be In Your Face!
We say that someone is ?in our face? when they invade our personal space, are always ?on at us? about something, make us feel uncomfortable, and particularly when they keep ?pushing? all of our annoyance ?buttons?. They insist on getting our attention, and forcing us to respond to them. Our gut reaction is to hold […]
From “Celebrating Common Prayer”
Faithful God, full of mercy, nourish your people in a world of violence; through prayer and the Scriptures give us the life-giving water of truth and the rich goodness of Your presence; in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. As your living Word brings light out of darkness, O Lord, so may Your Spirit renew the […]
Is the Government appointed by God?
James Ross-Naylor gave an excellent exposition of Ro 13:1-7 last Sunday evening ? election weekend – and that passage indeed states that the governing authorities ?have been instituted by God?. This is because Jesus Christ is ?the ruler of the kings of the earth? the Almighty? (Rev 1:5,8), and therefore all things serve Him and […]
The Left, the Right.. and the Heights
??.remember the heights from which you have fallen,? [Rev 2:5] We?ve heard a lot in recent weeks about how far left the Left are, and how far right the Right are, as well as about right-leaning members of the Left, and the left-leaning members of the Right! Not to mention the ?loopy-Left?, or the ?loopy-Right?! (?it feels […]
Mother Love
Greet every saint in Christ Jesus. [Phil 4:21a] The Holy Scriptures call Christians saints and the people of God. It is a pity that it?s forgotten that we are saints, for to forget this is to forget Christ and baptism. You say that the sins which we commit every day offend God, and therefore we […]
Lest We Forget
At this time we think of the young Harper boys, Robert (22) and James (20), who were killed a week apart in France in 1916. We are proud to have them on our honour board, as a permanent memorial to the sacrifice that they made.
Paradise Lost
This having learnt, thou hast attained the sum Of wisdom; hope no higher, though all the stars Thou knew?st by name, all th? ethereal powers, All secrets of the deep, all Nature?s works, Or works of God in heav?n, air, earth, or sea, And all the riches of this world enjoy?dst, And all the rule, […]
Births, Deaths and Marriages
We?ve just celebrated three births into the Golden Grove church family: Ren?e and Ruan Wilkinson?s, in a wonderful baptism service around our swimming pool ? yes, they did make quite a splash!; and Mary Hunt?s, in an equally wonderful Baptism service around her bed at Dunbar Home ? where we also managed to splash a […]
Massacre Of The Innocent
We remember the 50 victims of the Christchurch terror attack ? and those lives that may still hang in the balance ? as well as the families and communities torn apart by this evil act, with deep sorrow and prayer. We also denounce in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ the slaughter of these […]
Sacred Cows Make the Best Burgers
I stole that title ? from the 1996 book on best business practice by Robert Kriegel. Thanks, Robert! A ?sacred cow? is anything we have become accustomed to doing, and keep doing simply because we have become accustomed to doing it. It could be a particular way that we pray or worship (whether new and […]