Weekly Bible Reflection
Christ’s Love
Love. Back in the sixties Burt Bacharach sang: What the world need now is love sweet love ... The Beatles were singing All You Need is Love. The problem was then and still remains today that it’s one thing to sing about love, but quite another to live it. In his...
Trusting Prayer . . .
It’s never fun to stand against current opinion. People laughed when Galileo insisted that gravity attracts all bodies with the same acceleration, regardless of weight. People derided Isaac Newton when he presented science that explained the laws of motion. People...
Wisdom and Words . . .
Over recent Wednesdays, we have been considering Paul’s exhortations concerning the new lifestyle that God wants his people to adopt. We’ve touched on the themes of new life, forgiveness, peace, wives and husbands, parenting, children, work, and prayer. Throughout...
Prayer . . .
Can prayer change people – even though they are cynical or outright hostile towards matters of faith? In Colossians 4:2-4 Paul the Apostle writes: Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with thanksgiving. At the same time pray for us as well that God will...
Work . . .
On recent Wednesdays, I have been asking what practical steps we can take to influence society positively and create opportunities to talk to others about God’s good news. Benjamin Kwashi, the archbishop of Jos in Northern Nigeria writes in the recent...
Children . . .
Most of us long for a better world – a safer, happier and fairer world. But the question us, ‘How do we get there?’ Most people see a solution in politics or economics: change the leaders; fix the political and economic systems, the courts and the schools, and the...
Wives and Husbands . . .
People generally know that a life-long marriage is good; but everyone agrees that marriage takes commitment and work. Writing in the London Times on July 18, 2012, Janice Turner commented: Marriage is gruelingly hard, astonishing, a feat of endurance. So what advice...
Peace . . .
‘Peace’ is a word that goes to the heart of the Christian message. It’s something we all long for, yet it is one thing the world does not have. Everywhere we go there are tensions, injustices, and conflicts. In fact today, April 25, Australia remembers the sacrifice...
Forgiven & Forgiving . . .
In his article, ‘Choosing My Religion’ in The Weekend Australian Magazine (April 14-15, 2018), Bernard Salt says that while he had ‘a deeply religious (Catholic) upbringing, my faith lapsed in my 20s’. That said, he goes on to observe: ‘Christianity is connected with...
Rules . . .
“I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do.” So wrote the noted 20th-century science fiction...
Easter Joy . . .
In his article, ‘The Easter Effect’ in The Wall Street Journal over Easter (March 31 – April 1, 2018), George Weigel asks, ‘How did a ragtag band of nobodies from the… edges of the Mediterranean world become such a dominant force in just two and a half centuries?’ He...
Transformation . . .
Back in August 2011, The Wall Street Journal carried an article, ‘Reversing the Decay of London Undone’ by Dr. Jonathan Sacks, then chief rabbi in Britain. Dr. Sacks stated, ‘In virtually every Western society in the 1960s there was a moral revolution, an abandonment...
Thank You . . .
Many around us seem to have lost what used to be the common courtesies of please and thank you. Sadly, this is not just true of the wider community but is also true of many families and church members, particularly in the large urban centers. Yet, to...
Glory . . .?
There are times in life when we can feel cut off from God, sometimes because of feelings of failure or unworthiness, sometimes because of feelings of ignorance or unbelief. How important it is for us to continue to read and reflect on God’s written self-revelation –...
Alienation . . .?
Despite extraordinary advances in science and technology, we are still incapable of making a just and lasting peace for all peoples of all nations. Peace at the best of times is an uncertain affair. It seems the only way we can ensure it, is through more laws, greater...
Unity . . . ?
In his book, The Holy Trinity (P&R Publishing: 2004), Robert Letham observes that since the 1970s the western world has developed ‘a generally pessimistic view of human progress… The modern world’s reliance on reason has been replaced by a preference for emotion…...
Diversity . . . ?
The world-views of the western world have experienced dramatic shifts over the last century. For example, with Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle and Gödel’s mathematics, science and math have shown, at the extreme edges, the limitations of human logic. Further, the...
Fullness
‘Valentine’s Day’. All of us like to think that we can find a way to experience life to the full. In the minds of many, a special relationship celebrated or affirmed on Valentine’s Day is important, if not essential. Well, so the retail world marketing wants us to...