What kind of House Would God Want to Live in?…
Australia is facing a housing crisis at the moment. This is very real and making life hard for many, and probably for some of us. We would assume that God wouldn’t have this trouble – after all, He has heaven with “streets of gold”. Yet, shockingly, the Son of God, Jesus Christ, left that perfect […]
Trans-figure This!
What’s life like for you at the moment? Is everything ‘coming up roses’? Or is it in ‘the pits’? It could well be somewhere in between. And even if we are on the ‘rosy’ side of that scale, things can unexpectedly take a ‘nose-dive’ any time. In Mark chapter 8 Jesus foretells that He is […]
Let’s Dance
We start a sermon series today – “Journey to the Cross”, and it’s all about dancing. We may wonder at that, but Jesus died on the cross precisely in order to usher us into a dance that will last forever. God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit rejoice in each other (Mark 1:11); and they rejoice […]
The Fear of the Lord
I’ve been getting “back into the saddle” this week and thinking, how I can make this year the best that it can be? In other words, I’ve been seeking wisdom, accompanied by a fair bit of head scratching. The Bible says that “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Psalm 111:10). But then, what […]
Emmanuel: God With Us
Are you going through a rough time this Christmas? We may be feeling burdened or crushed by circumstances, or emotionally broken, or inescapably trapped in a situation that is harmful or painful to us, or overwhelmingly sad because someone we love has died. God can seem very distant from us when we do go through […]
Comforted
We live in a very shaky world. We feel fortunate to be living in Australia when we see the unthinkable trauma people are going through in the Middle East and Ukraine. Yet many of us also have our very real troubles, and we can be shaken to our core by them. Yet, when God’s people […]
Shaken
Does it ever feel like the sky is falling in?… That our lives and world are turned upside down?… Like everything that once seemed solid under our feet is disintegrating?… What if these events are not just blind, dumb fate?… What if in them God is drawing near?… Today is the first Sunday of Advent, the […]
‘Twas the Month Before Christmas….
Our Christmas tree isn’t up yet. There are few signs in our house that Christmas is just over four weeks away: just two token, tiny nativity sets and a 15cm wooden ‘tree’. This is not for lack of interest. I love Christmas! Yet the preparations can feel like another thing to add to an already […]
Israel of God
In the last month our emotions and thoughts have been in turmoil as we have watched TV broadcasts of the horrific war in the Middle East. We’ve seen lives and communities torn apart on all sides of the conflict. As Christians we must want to see peace come to all who suffer, as quickly as […]
Swim Free, Little Fish
Remember Nemo, the ocean-going Clown Fish? By misadventure, he found himself confined to an aquarium in the office of a Sydney dentist. He looked out fearfully at a big, scary world, wondering if he could ever muster the courage to try and break free to return to the limitless expanse of his native ocean. As […]