Weekly Bible Reflection

olus Christus (Christ alone) or Solo Christo (through Christ alone) is the phrase the 16th century Reformers used to speak of the unique and necessary work of Christ in reconciling us with God. Yet how often do we glibly pass over the reality and...

ext Monday, October 31, is the four hundred and ninety-ninth anniversary of the day Martin Luther posted his ninety-five theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany. The door served as a university notice board. ...

his Sunday, October 23, St Matthew’s Anglican Church, Wanniassa, in Canberra, Australia’s Capital, is celebrating its 40th Anniversary. From small beginnings St Matthew’s has not only grown in maturity and in number, but has equipped and sent out...

question we rarely think about is this: ‘What does Jesus expect of everyone who believes?’ A third part of the prayer Jesus prayed on the night of his arrest provides a vital part of the answer. In John 17:21a we read: “I ask … that they may all...

ow can we be sure about God? Christianity makes claims that can be hard to believe in the 21st century – for example, its exclusiveness, its supernaturalism and its age. To say that Jesus is the only way to God appears to be very narrow-minded....

ur prayers say a great deal about us. Are your prayers like that of AA Milne’s, ‘Christopher Robin’ who, in the midst of his child-like reflections of the day, prayed that God would bless his parents as well as himself? Or do your prayers reflect...

ow often have you asked, ‘How long, O Lord?’ David asked it in Psalm 13. Daniel asked it when God’s people were in exile. DANIEL'S PRAYER In Daniel 9 we read one of the great prayers of the Bible. In fulfillment of the words of prophets such as...

ing David was relaxing on the roof of the palace when he saw her. Probably in his early fifties, he was attracted by the beauty of the young woman bathing on a nearby rooftop. He invited her over. But she was the wife of one of his army officers....

his Sunday is the fifteenth anniversary of the events of September 11, 2001. As I reflect on our experiences in New York that day I recall the way New Yorkers talked to one another, caring for and supporting one another. Churches in the city were...

ost of us don’t find it hard to imagine a better world – a safer, happier and fairer world. The question is, ‘How do we get there?’  Many see solutions in terms of politics or economics – change the leaders, fix the political and economic systems,...

ith the many and varied changes in the culture around us – the pressures of secularization, the decline in church attendance, the changed attitudes to sexuality, the rise of militant Islam we might wonder about the future. We can feel powerless....

ometimes I am asked: ‘Can I trust God to hear my prayers and answer them? It is all very well to say we can call God, Father, but we know that parents are often preoccupied with other matters and do not hear us, let alone respond. And given the...

n Sydney, Australia, churches have the opportunity to have representatives teach the Christian faith in schools. There’s a story of a boy who came home from school one day and told his mother that the Scripture Teacher had asked each the class...

hat do you think of prayer? Do you pray regularly, and if your answer is ‘Yes’, do you pray with confidence? Blaise Pascal, the 17th French philosopher and mathematician wrote in his Pensées: God instituted prayer in order to lend to His creatures...

GLORY ‘…There's glory for you!' ‘I don't know what you mean by glory,' Alice said. Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously. 'Of course you don't…till I tell you. I meant, "There's a nice knock-down argument for you!" ' But glory doesn't mean "a nice knock-down argument,"'...

he old proverb, ‘Manners maketh man’ has an interesting history and meaning. It may well have been the personal motto of William of Wykeham, Bishop of Winchester in the 14th century. It is the motto of New College Oxford and Winchester (School)...

rticles by thoughtful opinion writers continue to focus on the critical times in which we live. In the United Kingdom articles pose questions about the future of the country in the aftermath of the ‘Brexit’ vote, the incoming Prime Minister and the...

n February 2012, David Brooks in an article in The New York Times, ‘How to Fight the Man’, related the story of Jefferson Bethke, a 22-year-old man. Bethke had ‘produced a video called “Why I Hate Religion, but Love Jesus”. Brooks noted that Bethke...