Weekly Bible Reflection

In the light of Dr. George Barna’s Reports in February and March this year, I am touching on Bible references that have been foundational and inspirational for me. The Barna Report in February revealed, “that while 71% of adults” (in America) “believe in the existence...

In a report released this week, Dr George Barna wrote that ‘Americans are increasingly minimizing the role and influence of God in their lives—with a minority of only 40% who believe He exists or influences human lives. ‘As a result, fewer American adults put God at...

It’s often said, we have only one life to live! We need to live it well.’ How many people really believe this? Most people have a sneaking suspicion that there is more to life – that death is not the end of our existence. C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity commented, If...

No-one likes a hypocrite – someone who says one thing and does another. I’m not talking about times when we fall short of the Lord’s expectations of us. I’m referring to the general disposition of someone whose professed faith is hollow. A hypocrite – an English word...

HG Wells, historian and author of The Time Machine and The War of the Worlds responded to a request from The American Magazine in July 1922, to identify the six most influential people in history. “I am an historian,” he said. “I am not a believer, but I must confess...

Last week a good friend of mine went to be with the Lord. In a final conversation with him – in this world – one of the things we talked about was the hope we have in God whose loving action led to Jesus’ crucifixion. Jesus’ death is reckoned to be foolishness by the...

As The Lord’s Supper is often confusing, let me step aside from my usual practice of providing a Bible reflection and make a few remarks about key themes that were crafted by Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1533-1556. Cranmer was used by God to re-form the...

The late afternoon storms last Tuesday afternoon (Australian Eastern Summer Time) brought down a huge neigbouring tree on to the Cammeray Church site – one of two church properties where I am part-time interim senior minister. No one was harmed – for which we thank...

With the elections in the UK and the US last year and upcoming elections in other democracies we wonder about the future. Good and upright leaders are rare. Indeed, while every election shows that no leader is perfect, most people long for someone who will use their...

There are many things in life that baffle and trouble us. If God is almighty and all loving, why does he allow pain and suffering, evil and injustice to run riot through the world? From the wildfires in Los Angeles to conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine, why does...

Martin Luther King Junior’s 1963 Washington Speech, “I have a dream”, fired the hearts of American people across the racial divide to a new vision and energy to promote harmony and peace. Yet within five years Martin Luther King himself was dead, gunned down by an...

Writing in The Weekend Australian (01/4-5/25), Greg Craven, former vice-chancellor of The Australian Catholic University, observes that Christmas has not merely “become commercial … but that it has become materialist. “All of which is odd,” he continues, “in a nation...

Another day. Another year. A year of change…? In his Choruses from the Rock written in 1934, TS Eliot prophetically observed:   But it seems that something has happened that has never happened before:       though we know not just when, or why, or how, or where.   ...

Does Christmas hold out something special for you? A time to be with family? A joyful celebration? Or is it nothing but fake news and a season of stress? Let me touch on two scenes in the biblical narrative in Luke chapter 2. But first, let’s remember who the writer...

We all like to think that there are areas in our life where we are in control. CS Lewis in Surprised by Joy wrote of his pre-Christian phase: “… But, of course, what mattered most of all was my deep-seated hatred of authority, my monstrous individualism, my...

“Prepare ye the way of the Lord …” are the opening words of the Broadway musical Godspell, that was released in 1971. The lyrics pick up the theme of John the Baptist’s preaching some two millennia ago as he prepared people for the coming of God’s promised Messiah or...

"Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely," Lord Acton wrote in his correspondence with Bishop Creighton in England in 1887. Reflecting on the moral issues in writing a history of the Inquisition, Lord Acton considered that all people, including...

‘Thanksgiving’ in America is one of the delights Judith and I experienced when we moved to New York in 2001. Despite the evil events of September 11, 2001 people at our first Thanksgiving Dinner expressed their thanks for the way the Lord had used the events of 9/11...