Weekly Bible Reflection

MOTHER'S DAY This Sunday, May 8, is Mother’s Day. It’s an important day in that it reminds us of the love and extraordinary sacrifices mothers can make for their children. Since the 1960s there have been significant changes in the way women see themselves: having now...

AGENDAS This year significant decisions will be made at the polls in three different countries – In the United Kingdom: to exit or not to exit the European Common Market; In Australia: following a double-dissolution, election of representatives to both Houses of...

t is said that there are two certainties in life – death and taxes. Ironically both subjects tend to be off limits at dinner parties. Our death is something we don’t want to talk about, let alone think about. Woody Allen once quipped: “It’s not...

ddressing the question, ‘How can we make politics better?’ in an opinion article in The New York Times yesterday (April 12), David Brooks observed: ‘…It’s increasingly clear that the roots of political dysfunction lie deep in society. If there’s...

ur culture resists the idea of Jesus’ physical resurrection. Most of the recent Easter cards reflect this. While there are motifs of new life, new birth, and even renewal, rarely is the word ‘resurrection’ mentioned. Theologians don’t always help,...

REFRESH The resurrection of Jesus Christ is often lightly dismissed these days because most people have not taken the time to investigate it. For example, writing about the silence of the New Atheists on the subject of Jesus’ resurrection, Dr. John Lennox, professor...

MERCY AND HOPE In an article last week in The New York Times (March 15, 2106), David Brooks wrote of the way a ‘shame culture’ is replacing a ‘guilt culture’. ‘In a guilt culture’, he writes, ‘people sometimes feel they do bad things; in a shame culture social...

MONEY MATTERS It is sometimes said that the Bible teaches that money is evil. That is not so. The Bible tells us it is the love of money that is the problem. In fact, the Bible makes it clear that we should view money as our servant, something to be used for service. ...

here is no such thing as the perfect church. We might long for it, but we won’t find it this side of heaven. The reality is that churches can experience tensions and disagreements amongst their members. Yet church is important. Jesus said, ‘I will...

or many, church is an irrelevant institution filled with self-righteous hypocrites. The Letters of Paul the Apostle paint a very different picture of church – a picture of vitality, community and  growth. We see this for example in Paul’s...

Jesus’ story of the Prodigal Son paints one of the most vivid pictures of the extraordinary riches of God’s grace. In Luke 15 we read: Then Jesus said, “There was a man who had two sons. 12 The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the...

HOPE'S DREAM ities have become so synonymous with evil and corruption, poverty and injustice that we tend to overlook the significance of the city in the Bible. The Scriptures often speak of the City of Zion or Jerusalem as a picture of God’s rule...

UNCERTAINTY ncertain times give us pause and challenge us to ask questions. I don’t want to sound negative, but given the uncertain start to this year, economically and politically, not to speak of the rise of terrorism, many people are anxious...

FAINTHEARTED? When the going gets tough in life it’s so easy to become fainthearted. We lose our energy and drive. Indeed the reality is that many situations in life challenge us to be tough-minded, and not fainthearted. As I considered this two...

LUCK AND FATALISM ‘You’re just lucky,’ a young woman said to a friend who had announced her engagement to a young, macho, Wall Street success. How many people think that so much in our lives is due to luck? The English historian, A.J.P. Taylor in his Politics in...

s what you believe about God important? Are you confident that God is infinitely wise as Article I of the Anglican Thirty-Nine Articles says? ‘…There is but one living and true God, everlasting,…; of infinite power, wisdom, and goodness;…’ It’s...

s we move into this New Year, many of God’s people are feeling like his people at the time of the Assyrian conquest of the Northern Kingdom Israel (721BC). In the words of Psalm 83 they feel encircled, even besieged by opposing forces – especially...

THE HEART OF GOD s we come to the end of one year and prepare for the next, the news media is alive with commentary from the past twelve months and predictions for the New Year. Indeed as one year closes and another opens there is an underlying...