Are you going in circles?
Tunnel boring machines (TBMs) are being used to build new roads and new metro rail lines in Sydney (see Appendix). The road is the Western Harbour tunnel from North Sydney to Rozelle. And there are three metro rail projects: from Chatswood under the harbour and the city to Sydenham, from the city to Westmead and from St Marys to the new Western Sydney Airport.
And the Snowy 2.0 pumped-storage hydroelectric project to help Australia’s electricity network is using three TBMs to excavate about 40 km of tunnels. But one of the machines named Florence, got bogged. Florence was meant to drill a tunnel 15 kilometres long but had only travelled about 150 metres before getting stuck in very soft wet ground for 14 months. It had only travelled 1% of the distance! The machine weighs 2,400 tonnes and measures 143 metres in length and 11 metres (3 stories) in diameter. (more…)
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Not for washing brains, only hearts
Bible basher and brainwashed are two aspersions often cast upon Christians. This is understandable given the sudden change and single mindedness some new Christians display. (more…)
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Christmas is all about the gift
Have you ever given yourself a present? There are many advantages. You can get just what you want. No lurid pairs of socks. No cheapo, no-name stuff.
But, let’s admit it, buying yourself presents is a bit sad. No one wants to open a present they’ve wrapped themselves. And it does remove the element of surprise. (more…)
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Can we change the climate?
Recent floods in far north Queensland took everyone by surprise. It was quite scary, because it happened very quickly. Water started rapidly rising — seemingly out of nowhere. Most people thought that there may be a lot of rain when cyclone Jasper passed but there was no warning that there was going to be millions of litres of water tumbling down the Tableland hill, pushing houses and land to the side. Cars were floating past the house. It was mayhem. (more…)
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Christmas is all about the presence
For my young children the excitement of Christmas really is about the presents. We can harp on about Jesus being the best gift but honestly it’s just background noise to the paper tearing, box opening frenzy. Presents can be held, presents can be seen, presents can make obnoxiously loud noises in your sister’s face until she screams. But what if my materialistic little darlings didn’t have us there on Christmas morning? What if they woke up to all the presents they’ve ever dreamed of but no parents to be found? No doubt they would have a fantastic few hours unwrapping to their hearts’ content. However, I believe eventually our absence would cause some concern. (more…)
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Prophecies about Jesus: He would speak in parables
When He was on earth Jesus often spoke to the crowd in parables. 40 are listed in the NIV Study Bible (Appendix). A parable is a short story with two levels of meaning that may be hard to understand. It takes something we know to explain something we don’t know, and we wouldn’t have any other way of understanding it. (more…)
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Enemies and ungodliness at Gaza
In October 2023 Hamas terrorists from Gaza attacked Israel killing about 1,200 people and taking about 240 hostage, including babies, children, women and the elderly. Since then in an attempt to destroy Hamas, Israel has attacked Gaza and killed thousands of people. So there is war between Israel and Hamas at Gaza. (more…)
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Finding the way to heaven
When we travel, maps and GPS apps guide us to our destination. But how do we find the way to heaven, and how many ways are there?
Understanding heaven
Heaven is where God lives and rules (Appendix A). Jesus taught His followers to pray to “Our Father in heaven” (Matthew 6:9NLT). Heaven is a spiritual place which we can’t see. It existed before the physical universe began. (more…)
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The way to heaven
Most people want to go to heaven. Do we all go there automatically? How can we know the way to heaven? A map or a GPS App can show us many ways to a destination. How many ways are there to heaven? (more…)
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Prophecies about Jesus: The time of His coming was predicted
There’s lots in the world to be worried about, but we can be less anxious if we knew about future events.
The Old Testament has predictions of future events and people. For example, Abraham was told about 200 years beforehand that the Israelites would be 400 years in Egypt (Gen. 15:13). Isaiah named king Cyrus about 200 years before he reigned over Persia (Isa. 44:28 – 45:1). And Daniel was told about the death of Christ over 400 years beforehand. (more…)
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Customer support open 24/7
What’s your most frustrating customer support story? I remember a time when I got into a menu loop on a call and couldn’t get to a person to talk to. There’s others times I’ve spent hours on hold hoping to get a real person to help me with my problem. With the increase in automation, off shore customer service centers and the use of scripts, it can often feel impossible to get the specific help needed. (more…)
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YouTube propaganda for the UN indoctrination program
In the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), by George Orwell, Newspeak is the fictional language of Oceania, a totalitarian superstate. It was a form of indoctrination promoted by the government (Big Brother) to diminish the possibility of critical thought. It enabled them to control the people’s minds. (more…)
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The politics of climate alarmism
The story behind the “climate crisis”
Do you remember the story of the emperor’s new clothes? The emperor was persuaded by a tailor that he could make him a grand set of clothes which could only be seen by the really intelligent. When this invisible set of (non-existent) clothes were put on, everyone wanted to appear intelligent and so they commented about how grand and beautiful they were. Until one small boy shouted out in the crowd “the emperor is naked. He has no clothes”! And then the truth became obvious to everyone. The climate emergency is like the emperor’s clothes. It doesn’t exist. There is no climate emergency. (more…)
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The greatest extraterrestrial message
Astronomers have been searching for messages from extra-terrestrial (ET) beings for many years without success. And E. T. was a popular science fiction movie released in 1982. Meanwhile, two special messages from the greatest ET have been available for thousands of years. (more…)
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Love your neighbor as yourself
As a mental health counsellor I have the privilege of joining with people in their deepest struggles. I hear harrowing stories of neglect, abuse, self-loathing, loneliness. At the heart of these varying stories there is a common tragedy: the profoundly painful experience of not being loved. (more…)
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How were the books of the Bible decided?
How do we know that we have the right books in the Bible – the Old and New Testaments?
Most people believe that the early Catholic Church decided which books were authentic. This is not true; it is a myth. The Church did not authorize Scripture, it just accepted it. It merely recognized and accepted the books God Himself had inspired and authorized. (more…)
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Prophecies about Jesus: He will be the “Son of God”
In ancient times sons got their identity from their fathers. They did the same work and were trained by their fathers. For example, Jesus was known as “the carpenter’s son” (Mt. 13:55NLT). And many characters in the Bible are named as “the son of” their father (Appendix). (more…)
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The best terms and conditions you have ever read
Terms and conditions (T&Cs) are inescapable these days. When you sign up for insurance, join a sports group, attend an event, make a purchase, visit a website….almost everything we do comes with a little asterisk indicating pages and pages of fine print.
There are so many T&Cs in our life it would take hours out of our week to read them all before ticking every little box of agreement (the average time it takes to read one T&C is half an hour). So we don’t. A Deloitte survey found that over 90% of consumers do not read the online legal terms they agree to. (more…)
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The faith of Moses
We all have to make choices in life, and often those choices result in significant consequences. In 1938, Joe Schuster and Jerry Siegel sold all their rights for a comic book character that they had invented for $130. The character’s name? Superman! In 1955, Sam Phillips sold to RCA Victor Records his exclusive contract with a young singer named Elvis Presley for $35,000, thus forfeiting royalties on more than a billion records. Bad choices! (more…)
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Prophecies about Jesus: He will preach good news
I have some good news and some bad news. Yesterday, the Tigers (rugby league) won, but the Matilda’s (soccer) lost. Most people prefer to hear the bad news first because we prefer stories with happy endings. But bad news dominates in our news media because it gets higher ratings. The Good News Network was founded in USA in 1997 because the media was failing to report the positive news. (more…)
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Peter’s hills and valleys
Simon Peter lived in the Middle East between about 1 BC and AD 67. There is an account of his life in Matthew to John and Acts 1-15 of the Bible. Peter was the main preacher to the Jews in the early church. And he wrote the letters 1 Peter and 2 Peter in the New Testament. The major hills and valleys in his life are shown in the graph – the lower graph follows the upper one. (more…)
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King Saul’s hills and valleys
Saul was the first king over Israel. He lived in the 11th century BC. There is an account of his life in 1 Samuel 9-31 of the Bible. The main hills and valleys in his life are shown in the graph – the lower graph follows the upper one. (more…)
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Give all your anxiety to God
Anxiety. Worry. Concern that something will go wrong. Heart palpitations. Feeling hot. A pit in the stomach. Restlessness. Racing thoughts. Sweaty palms. What does anxiety feel like for you? And what do you do with that experience?
All of us feel anxious at times. When we are not sure we’re safe. When something we want or care about may be in jeopardy. It can help us protect what’s important to us. But there are ways we can respond to anxiety that make it feel worse. We can sometimes get anxious about feeling anxious. We can interpret our worry as something being wrong with us. We may have even heard a “christian” message that anxiety means a lack of faith. (more…)
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Solomon’s hills and valleys
Solomon was the third king over Israel. He lived in the 10th century BC. There is an account of his life in 1 Kings 1-11 and 1 Chronicles 29:21 to 2 Chronicles 9:31 of the Bible. And Solomon wrote Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Songs. The main hills and valleys in his life are shown in the graph. (more…)
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