Weekly Bible Reflection
DELIVER US FROM EVIL
n the aftermath of September 11, 2001 there was much discussion on the subject of evil. While most people agreed that it exists, there was a strong opposing voice, especially from the world of academia. However, in the light of the recent killings...
LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION
hrist has died; Christ has risen; Christ will come again’ forms part of many a liturgy. But how many of us really believe that there will be an end time when Jesus Christ returns? And, if we do believe it, how many of us live as if it is a...
ANGLICAN THANKSGIVING COLLECT
he American ‘Thanksgiving’ is a holiday Judy and I have especially come to appreciate, for it resonates with the theme of thankfulness that we find in the Bible. Indeed, as our first Thanksgiving followed the events of 9/11, it was a particularly...
Forgive Us Our Trespasses
orgive us our trespasses… (Matthew 6:12). How necessary this is! Daily, even hourly, we need to come to God with a deep repentance for those thoughts, words and actions that dishonour his name. Like Isaiah (in chapter 6), we feel our unworthiness...
Our Daily Bread
ive us this day our daily bread. With this petition in the Lord’s Prayer we see that God is fully aware of our daily need for physical food to sustain our bodies. Jesus reminds us that we are ultimately dependent on God for this ongoing provision....
Thy Will Be Done
“Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven…” When we begin a prayer relationship with God we open the door to untold blessings. This is why Jesus confidently taught: “Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened for...
YOUR KINGDOM COME
s we continue to plumb the riches of the model prayer that Jesus gave his disciples we read: Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. His words give us pause, because there is so much in our world that is wrong and we are...
What is in a name?
hat’s in a name? According to Shakespeare’s Juliet in Romeo and Juliet “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” The names of things don’t matter, only what they are. But when we turn to the pages of the Bible we discover that name is...
Father
n times when you feel your prayers are not being answered have you ever wondered whether you are praying correctly? How encouraging it is to discover that Jesus’ disciples were aware of their need to know how to pray. Without their request we...
Thanks!
friend of mine here in New York once asked me why it was that some Australian friends of his hadn’t expressed thanks following an event to which he had invited them at some cost to himself and his wife. I assured him that most Australians are not...
Prayer
n response to a talk I gave at a Men’s Breakfast in the North-West of England a little over a week ago, one man commented on the explosive spiritual power that must have been at work when the gospel was first preached. He is a nuclear engineer and...
Negativity
t the launch of a new book by Australian political commentator, Paul Kelly, Triumph and Demise, Tony Abbott, Prime Minister of Australia, commented: “Paul suggests that the relentless negativity of our contemporary conversation, the culture of...
Justice
ichael Connelly in his 2013 book, The Gods of Guilt writes these words into one of his characters: Everybody has a jury, the voices they carry inside… Those I have loved and those I have hurt. Those who bless me and those who haunt me. Commenting...
Is God In Control When Everything Seems Out of Control?
ith the rise of militant Islam we may be tempted to wonder if there is a one true God and, if there is, we wonder whether he is still in control. Why does he allow the atrocities against his people that are occurring in Iraq at the hands of ISIS?...
Dreaming
he Castle is a classic Australian film, much lauded because of its understated handling of a blue-collar suburban household. One of the lines that catches our attention is, “Tell ‘im e’s dreamin’” – in response to a quoted price for a supposed...
The Christian Response
nti-intellectual? Christianity is often dismissed as being anti-intellectual: ‘No-one with half a brain could be a Christian’. Many in the West reject Christianity, not because they think it is false, but because they think it is trivial. If they...
God’s Peace
eace’ is a word that goes to the heart of the Christian message. It was the theme of the angels’ song on the night of Jesus’ birth. It is something we all long for. Yet ‘peace’ is one thing the world does not have. In fact, with the constant news...
Comfort
e have all been appalled by the events in Iraq over this last week with accounts of the shooting and beheading of men, women and children who have refused to convert to Islam because of their commitment to Jesus Christ. They are truly Christian...