A great victory
The first cricket test against England finished recently after just two days of play! England batted first and scored 172 runs, which seemed too low. But then Australia only scored 132 runs, giving England a lead of 40 runs on the first innings. In the second innings, England was 1 for 65 (105 runs ahead, with 9 wickets in hand). They would have been feeling confident of winning the game. But then the Australian bowlers took 5 wickets for 23 runs and England scored only 164 in the second innings. This meant that Australia needed to score 205 runs to win, which was higher than all the previous innings. So the English would have still been confident of winning, especially after their fast bowlers had terrorised the Australian batters in the first innings and Khawaja (the Australian opening batter) was injured. So the barmy army of English supporters was in full swing while things were going England’s way. What happened next? Australia was rescued by Travis Head who hit 123 runs off 83 balls! It was an amazing effort. He was a hero and won the game for Australia. And the barmy army were silent. (more…)
Share this:
Giving thanks in everything
A prayer at the end of a thanksgiving service for an aged care provider
The Bible says that Christians are to, “give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Th. 5:18NIV). And those who are filled with God the Holy Spirit will be “always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Eph. 5:20). We can give thanks in everything because God is in control and He is always with those who trust in Him. That’s why each November we publicly honor God and thank Him for the work done through our organization over the past year. (more…)
Share this:
A thanksgiving prayer
A prayer at the end of a thanksgiving service for an aged care provider.
As next Thursday is Thanksgiving Day in the USA, today has been day of thanksgiving for us. So let’s continue to honor God and thank Him for the work done through our organization over the past year. (more…)
Share this:
Our Christian ethos
I’m involved with an aged care provider whose vision is “Christ’s love compels us to care for and enrich our community”. Our mission is “To excel in the provision of loving Christian care for seniors”. And our values include a “Christian ethos”. Our Strategic plan says: “We are a Christian organisation. We believe that all people are created in the image of God and care for those entrusted to us to the best of our God-given ability. Our caring reflects the attitude of service shown by Jesus Christ. Our work is not ‘just a job’ but an opportunity to serve others.” Our Christian ethos can make a difference to the people around us. (more…)
Share this:
Don’t forget to remember
How you remember things? Some people use mnemonics like “ROY G. BIV” for the colors of the rainbow. Or in sheet music, “Every good boy deserves fruit” for the treble lines and “FACE” for the treble spaces. And “Good burritos don’t fall apart” for the bass lines and “All cows eat grass” for the bass spaces. Or “Eddy ate dynamite, good bye Eddy” for the strings of a guitar. Or “All stations to central” or “All students take care” or “Add sugar to coffee” for the signs of trigonometric functions. (more…)
Share this:
Healthy masculinity
When you put the word “domestic” in a search engine, it replies with the prompt “violence”. This indicates the prevalence of domestic (or family) violence in our society. Statistics for NSW, Australia, are given below. According to the news media there is an epidemic of violence against women in Western Australia. And Queensland’s Police commissioner said that we should be ashamed of the high number of domestic and family violence incidents. (more…)
Share this:
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…)
Share this:
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…)
Share this:
Create in me a clean heart
What would you think of a man who used his power to forcibly have sex with a woman? But he didn’t stop there. This woman was married and after finding out she’d become pregnant through his sexual assault he tried to make it look like the baby belonged to her husband. When this failed he once again used his power to arrange the husband to be killed. It’s reprehensible behaviour. Unforgivable, many would say. This is the biblical story behind Psalm 51 – the story of king David. (more…)
Share this:
Applied mathematics
One of the courses that I took at the University of Sydney many years ago was applied mathematics. Applied mathematics is used extensively in science, engineering, technology, business and artificial intelligence (AI). And phone apps frequently utilize applied mathematics to solve real-world problems and deliver practical solutions. (more…)
Share this:
Opportunities and dangers in sport
Many people enjoy playing and watching sport. But how should a Christian be involved with sporting activities?
This post is based on a book by Stephen Liggins, “The good sporting life – Loving and playing sport as a follower of Jesus”. (more…)
Share this:
Queen Elizabeth’s funeral service
The State Funeral of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II
Extracts from the Order of Service at Westminster Abbey on Monday 19 September 2022. The service paid tribute to the Queen’s “remarkable reign and lifetime of service”.
The sentences
Jesus said to her [Martha], “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die” (Jn. 11:25-26NIV, see Appendix A). (more…)
Share this:
Repentance – turning around to follow the true God
In 2013 a friend and I walked through Glenbrook Gorge in the Blue Mountains to Lapstone Rail Station. I had a map to follow. Outside the gorge we reached a junction, but I didn’t know where we were on the map. So I didn’t know whether the station was towards the left or the right. We walked right towards the north for about 15 minutes and then repented (turned around) because we realised that the station was probably towards the south! We had to turn around 180 degrees to reach our destination. As we wasted at least half an hour because of this mistake, I decided to get a mobile [cell] phone so I could use a GPS like Google maps to show where I was on the map. (more…)
Share this:
Living for the Lord
An overview of Ephesians
In about 1445 BC during the exodus from Egypt, at Mount Sinai Aaron made a golden calf and the people said, “These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt” (Ex. 32:4, 8NIV). The calf may have been a pagan god or a symbol of strength. But the first commandment said, “You shall have no other gods before me” (Ex. 20:3). And the second said not to worship an idol. As they were disregarding or subtracting these commands from their Bible, about 3,000 people died. (more…)
Share this:
Who are you trying to impress?
From Matthew 6:1-15
I spent my younger days on a farm near Forbes in central NSW, Australia. My mother had seven brothers who liked to play cricket. The eldest one played first grade cricket at St George Cricket Club with Don Bradman. When my mother and dad were young, they watched Don Bradman play at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG). When I was young my dad took me to the SCG on a day when Neil Harvey scored 231 not out in his last Sheffield Shield game. I played cricket at Forbes and in the Protestant Churches Competition in Sydney. My 9-year-old grandson plays junior cricket for Lisarow-Ourimbah on the Central Coast. The club’s most famous player is Alan Davidson who died recently. On Saturday mornings I leave home at 6am to get him to the oval by 7:30am to be ready to play by 8am. (more…)
Share this:
COVID anger
The changes, uncertainties and reductions in some of the freedoms we had taken for granted can lead to frustration, and sometimes even to anger.
This post comes from Philip Nunn who lives in The Netherlands.
How do you respond to the arrival of new COVID variants, rules and restrictions? How do you feel about the social and legal changes aggressively promoted by those with new ideas on sex, family and gender? Are you concerned? The issue that frustrates you may be more local, at your workplace, your church or in your family. (more…)
Share this:
Taking risks for God
In March 2021 a developer was given an order to fix serious defects in a 16-storey apartment tower in Auburn in New South Wales. The defects included waterproofing, fixing of wall tiles to bathroom and ensuite walls, and falls to bathroom and ensuite floors. Following the structural flaws in Sydney’s Opal and Mascot towers, there has been increased attention on weeding out shoddy work. The risk assessment done by the builder was something like this. I can make more money by not doing everything properly. What could go wrong that could harm my profit? I could get caught by the NSW Building Commissioner. What would be the consequence of this happening? Is it minor, or moderate or major? Besides the extra cost it would be bad publicity and so the impact would be “major”. What is the likelihood of this happening? Is it unlikely (rare), or possible, or likely (common)? Because he thought he could get away with it, he thought it was “unlikely” (rare). What is the risk level? The risk matrix (table), says that a “unlikely” likelihood and a “major” consequence give a “medium” risk ranking, which is tolerable. That’s why he went ahead with the shoddy work. But he erred – the likelihood was actually “possible”, which gives a high risk. And he suffered the consequences. (more…)
Share this:
12 reasons God is not like a genie
Prerequisites for answered prayers
According to fairytales, a genie lives in a brass oil lamp or a bottle. When you rub the lamp or bottle, the genie is released and offers to grant your wishes. Does God grant our wishes when we pray? When we ask God to give us this and that and expect the answers to be delivered immediately, we treat God like a genie.
Scriptures that seem to imply that Christians receive whatever they ask
At first appearance, the following scriptures seem to imply that God will give Christians whatever they ask for in prayer. (more…)
Share this:
The Warrenton Declaration on Medical Mandates, Biblical Ethics, & Authority
The Warrenton Declaration on Medical Mandates, Biblical Ethics, & Authority was created in order to provide doctrinal clarity and coherence on issues of biblical authority and ethics related to medical mandates. The declaration seeks to equip local churches and their officers in providing transparency on where they stand and to assist individuals who are being mistreated in their churches with a well-ordered summary of belief in this regard. (more…)
Share this:
Following Jesus: Our obedience
Previously we looked at, “Following Jesus: Our purposes”. We found that God wants us to become more like Jesus. He wants us to have purposes that reflect His purposes (above) and our strengths (below). We serve others when we apply our purposes to people’s needs. Then like Esther, we will have a meaningful and significant life that brings fulfilment.
We introduced the diagram to show the relationship between these aspects of our life. We looked at our resources, which are comprised of our genetic makeup, our life experience and our spiritual gifts. These are the tools that God has given to us that enable us to do the tasks to achieve our purposes by meeting people’s needs. (more…)
Share this:
Following Jesus: Our resources
The previous post was about “Following Jesus: Our purposes”. We found that God wants us to become more like Jesus. He wants us to have purposes that reflect His general purposes for believers (above) and our individual strengths (below). We serve others when we apply our purposes to people’s needs. Then like Esther, we will have a meaningful and significant life that brings fulfilment. (more…)
Share this:
Following Jesus: Our purposes
Esther was a Jewish girl in the palace of the king of Persia in about 460 BC. When the lives of all the Jews in Persia were threatened, her cousin Mordecai told her that she alone could save all their lives if she spoke to the king. He said, “perhaps you were made queen for just such a time as this?” (Est. 4:14NLT). What would she do? Bravely she spoke to the king and the Jews lives were saved. This is a great example of how God can give us a purpose in life. God used Esther to fulfill His purposes. She was in the right place at the right time. That’s an example of God’s providence (His wise and purposeful sovereignty); it wasn’t an accident. And she made the right decision. That’s an example of human responsibility.
As human beings we want our lives to be meaningful and significant. How can we make our life count? The Bible implies that God made us for a purpose. And as we live for that purpose, we will find fulfilment. (more…)
Share this:
Investing in the next generation
Building a robust Christian worldview
Children and young people are the next generation. They live in an ungodly skeptical world that will challenge their faith in Jesus. We want them to have a robust and resilient faith that can withstand enemy attacks. But how is this possible when many young people stop attending church on a regular basis after they turn 18? And the pandemic may cause more to abandon Christianity or churchgoing. Many of these young people are leaving because the culture around them has impacted them deeply and caused them to question the truth claims of Christianity. What can we do about it?
Bushfires
Many homes were destroyed by wildfires (bushfires) last summer in Australia. Bushfires can attack buildings. Locations in bushfire prone areas are classified according to the Bushfire Attack Level (BAL: Low, 12.5, 19, 29, 40, Flame Zone). Close to vegetation the BAL is “Flame Zone” and the attack level decreases with distance away from the vegetation. A building in the flame zone without flame-proof protection has a high risk of being destroyed by a wildfire (bushfire). (more…)
Share this:
A robust climate?
“By not doing enough to fight global warming, we’re trashing the planet” says National Geographic magazine. “How hot can it get before truly catastrophic changes are set in motion?”. And Wikipedia warns of “abrupt climate change as it approaches and surpasses 2°C above pre-industrial levels”. It also mentions the possibility of “accelerated global warming”, “runaway climate change”, “climate collapse” and “climate apocalypse”. Others mention a “climate emergency”, “climate crisis”, “climate breakdown”, “irreversible climate destabilization”, “abrupt and irreversible environmental changes” and “interconnecting calamities”. That’s alarmist. It’s creating a culture of fear and panic. And climate change is blamed for any extreme weather. But are these warnings justified? (more…)
George's Journal 
RECENT COMMENTS