Where will you respawn?
Despite the way some people may react, death is not that big a problem in a video game. You may lose your loot, position or game but there’s always another life. On the contrary, the Bible says real human death is a once off occasion, life is not repeatable, it’s a one time only offer. And what comes next is crucial.
“People are destined to die once, and after that to face judgement.” Hebrews 9:27 (more…)
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What’s so special about Easter?
Everyday in the world about 190,000 people die. That averages as 8,000 deaths per hour and two deaths every second. In Australia we do a pretty good job at keeping death out of conversation and mind. However there’s no denying it is an inevitable and ordinary part of life. Death isn’t, in a manner of speaking, anything special. So why do we have a public holiday – an extra long weekend with Good Friday and Easter Monday, in remembrance of one man’s death? What has the death of one specific, Jewish man who lived 12,217 kilometres and 2,000 years apart from our lives today got to do with us? (more…)
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God saved the Queen
“God Save the Queen” has been the anthem of Britain for the last 70 years; the phrase used as an expression of patriotism and royal support. But what did the Queen need saving from? Did she need saving from republicanism, from the decline of the Commonwealth, from foreign invasion, or the collapse of her own family? In her own words, Queen Elizabeth II explained she needed saving from something far more insidious and universal than outside enemies. “Although we are capable of great acts of kindness, history teaches us that we sometimes need saving from ourselves—from our recklessness or our greed,” Queen Elizabeth said during her Christmas message in 2011. This remarkable woman, who has since her passing been described as dutiful, faithful, servanthearted, forgiving and stable, recognised that she still needed saving from her own sin. (more…)
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Be who were born to be, a child of God
What would your ideal parent be like? This question may feel a bit awkward or even painful to answer, but I invite you to consider it for a moment. If you’re anything like me, your character list of the ideal parent might go something like… caring, gentle, wise, compassionate, capable, stable, fun. Then, if I was really going all out with a wish list I might add powerful, rich and well respected. (more…)
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No one knows what tomorrow will bring
Have you ever had to walk in the dark? I mean when it’s can’t-see-your-hand-in-front-of-your-face dark? For those of us not used to it, walking in the dark can be slow and scary. We may have an idea of a destination but we can’t always be sure we’re going in the right direction. We desperately search for something familiar or a sliver of light to guide us. (more…)
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Are you protected?
The older I get the more I understand how fragile human life really is. The COVID-19 pandemic is just one example of how something seemingly small can change the lives of the entire world’s population. As advanced, intelligent and resilient as humanity is, life can be lost in the blink of an eye. For this reason we spend a lot of effort trying to protect ourselves and our loved ones… from buckling the back-arching, screaming toddler into her seatbelt, to spending hard earned cash on insurance policies, to getting the COVID jab. (more…)
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Is it time to start trusting God?
He’s known you the longest!
Something bizarre was happening inside me. While I ate and slept and talked and went about life as usual, a tiny human was forming in my womb. A minuscule heart, tiny fingers, spec sized toenails, teeny lips were taking shape. I wasn’t directing what was happening. I didn’t make any conscious effort — “OK today we’re going to separate the left and right chambers of the heart … today we’re going to form eyelids.” The only way I knew what was happening inside me was by reading about it. I felt wonder at this most ordinary miracle taking place within my body. I felt humbled at how little control I had over this most significant life event. (more…)
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At life’s crossroads? Let Jesus give you directions
Life’s road is rarely straight. We often find ourselves in places we didn’t expect or want. How are you going with the uncertainty of life at the moment? Do you feel like you’re standing at a crossroads and not sure which direction to take? There are so many unknowns and what ifs. However, we don’t have to step into the uncertainty alone.
When Jesus was facing His violent crucifixion, He took the time to explain to His followers that although they couldn’t go with Him immediately they would one day be reunited with Him in His eternal kingdom. One candid follower verbalized his concern,
“Thomas said to him, ‘Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?’ Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life’” (John 14:5-6). (more…)
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Sanitize more than hands
How clean do you keep your hands? Hand hygiene has certainly gotten a lot of attention lately. It reminds me of one of my favorite Shakespearean scenes — Lady Macbeth is sleepwalking after she has orchestrated the murder of her king. In her sleep she sees spots of blood on her hands and no amount of washing can remove them. She smells blood on her hands and “all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten” them. Of course it is her conscience and not her hands that is really unclean. (more…)
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Imagine someone knowing everything about you!
Do you know you’re not the only one? We all have parts of ourselves we’d rather no one else knew about. Parts we may try to hide from even ourselves, to distract ourselves from with busyness or entertainment, to overcompensate for with gifts or acts of service. But they are there. Whether it’s memories of what we’ve done or what has been done to us, ugly thoughts and feelings we can’t bear to look in the face, the way we treat our family when no one else is around, secret addictions we believe render us unlovable… Oh they are there and they want to remain hidden in the dark where no one can see and judge them. (more…)
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Essential Christmas!
Racing car drivers and procrastinators want the same drug. It comes from that contradictory cocktail of excitement and terror. Whilst drivers push the physics envelope, procrastinators push the limits of time. As fear of the impending deadline looms, finally adrenaline seeps sweetly into the system.
Let me illustrate. The greatest rush in the world is not the French 24 Hours of Le Mans Endurance Race… it’s the Westfield Christmas Pressie Dash: 27 presents in 8 shopping hours. Every year, on Christmas Eve, men who should never have been licensed as fathers, take part. And I’m here to tell you it can be done because I’ve done it more than once. But there’s absolutely no room for failure. (more…)
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Start life again
So keen was Nicodemus to meet Jesus that he was willing to risk being seen. But he had reason to be afraid. The religious sect known as Pharisees that he belonged to were committed to killing Jesus. Such was their intense jealousy over Jesus’s popularity. It was almost certainly for this reason that Nicodemus came at night (John 3:1-16).
He began by addressing Jesus with respect.
“Master” he said, “We know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him”.
His statement – or was it a question – seemed to be something like, “I think you’re from God … but who are you?” But, instead of credentials, Jesus offered Nicodemus a challenge. He said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God”. Clearly Nicodemus wanted to move closer to God. But how does one get ‘Born again’? (more…)
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Heaven’s even better
The Giants Causeway in Northern Ireland has 37,000 gigantic, geometrically perfect polygon columns. Have you been there? They’re extraordinary. But back before photographs, television and the Internet, it was hard to believe in and imagine far off places. “Surely you’re exaggerating about those columns?” “Surely they were made from concrete molds?” Or else, “They don’t really exist and you’re making it all up!”
It’s a bit like that with heaven. Because we haven’t been there we’re tempted to doubt it’s goodness or wonder if it even exists. The writer C.S. Lewis had a helpful and funny insight about this in his book, Miracles,
I think our present outlook might be like that of a small boy who, on being told that the sexual act was the highest bodily pleasure should immediately ask whether you ate chocolates at the same time. On receiving the answer ‘No,’ he might regard absence of chocolates as the chief characteristic of sexuality. In vain would you tell him that the reason why lovers in their carnal raptures don’t bother about chocolates is that they have something better to think of. The boy knows chocolate: he does not know the positive thing that excludes it. We are in the same position. We know the sexual life; we do not know, except in glimpses, the other thing which, in Heaven, will leave no room for it. (more…)
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Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves
The media in Australia and other community gatekeepers treat abortion as a settled question. As a consequence, that’s how most Australians view the issue. We’re encouraged to think that, in the past, an important victory was won for women. And now, instead of being bullied to bear and care for children they never wanted, women have the right to make decisions about their own bodies – because, ultimately, abortion is a woman’s issue.
But abortion is not and never will be a settled question. (more…)
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What stops you being with God forever?
Here’s a challenge from Outreach Media.
I used to smoke a lot of marijuana. But the first time I got stoned after becoming a Christian I felt embarrassed in God’s presence. I discovered that dope made it hard for me to control silly thoughts and treat God with reverence. It was awkward and I felt ashamed. So I stopped smoking marijuana and haven’t touched it since. That was thirty-five years ago.
When I stopped smoking dope I gave up something from this world so I could be sure of having life in the age to come. You might think it was no loss. And besides, Christians should obey the law anyway. Well, to that I say, ‘Yes, we should obey the law’ (and I would have acted on that I’m sure), but as for ‘no loss’? Well, that’s simplistic. People smoke dope because they have interesting experiences. I certainly felt a sense of loss in giving it up. (more…)
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Jesus gives life to the full
There are so many wonderful things in life. The joy of love, family, satisfaction in hard work, the thrill of the race, or the game, admiring the astonishing beauty of nature, the prospect of a new adventure. It is truly a remarkable world.
Yet in all of these things, there’s always a blemish. And the blemish lies in us and in each thing we experience. For example our own cynicism and doubts prevent us properly enjoying goodness in love and work and family. And, as for the objects of our joy and desire – they always let us down in some measure. So, families fracture and fall out. Children forget their parents and live selfish lives. We chase a project with all our energy only to find it wasn’t worth the chasing. (more…)
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Sin is not as much fun as you think
Why do we sin? Because it’s a chore – of course not! Actually, we do the wrong thing because it’s fun, satisfying or seems too difficult to resist. Why would we bother if it weren’t any of those things? Lowering the car window and letting rip at the stupid person blocking our way… how good did that feel? Revealing that choice morsel of information … everyone in the office deserves to know what happened! Mostly, our sin reveals a lot about the kind of person we really are.
Some years back a newspaper article named seven high profile males (mostly politicians) found to be adulterers. Collectively they had fathered 24 children. The article pondered the damage caused to those 24 lives and the sad ending to public careers. (more…)
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Don’t let Christians put you off Jesus
Suppose there’s a man in a town with a history of shady business practices and fraudulent dealings. He also happens to be a regular church-goer.
Many people where he lives know the man to be shonky and would say they’ve been ‘ripped off’ as would people in other towns. What’s terrible is that some people where the man lives say, ‘If that man is a Christian, then I don’t want any part of Christianity’. And, at one level, their reaction is understandable.
The story raises questions about what it means to be a genuine Christian and what churches and other Christians should do when people say they are Christian but their actions clearly aren’t. You can imagine that the answers aren’t always easy. (more…)
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Take a closer look at Easter
If we took a closer look at Easter, what would we find – a chocolate fantasy or important history?
In the 8th Century, the English monk, Bede, spoke of how the name of the pagan goddess ‘Eostre’ was used for the ‘Easter month’. Bede’s words have long been seen as proof that Christians simply replaced existing cultural rituals with their own. But the problem is that there isn’t much hard evidence for the English Goddess ‘Eostre’ or her Spring pagan festival. However, there’s lots of evidence that Christians throughout Europe, from the medieval period onward, used eggs and rabbits as symbols of new life.
As for the chocolate versions, well Joseph Fry of Bristol made the first chocolate Easter egg in 1873. Ever since then Easter has been very chocolaty and run, almost entirely by the major supermarkets. (more…)
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We all need forgiveness
No matter how interested you are in cricket, it’s Australia’s national game. Indeed, when he was Prime Minister, John Howard, reckoned he had the second most important job in the nation after the Australian cricket captain. If that’s true, then a year ago, in March, we had a crisis of national leadership when our nation’s captain, vice captain and another player were caught tampering with the ball.
One year later, on March 29, 2019, the most severe bans ever handed down by Cricket Australia for on field behavior will come to an end. After a year’s forced absence, former captain, Steve Smith, and former vice captain, David Warner will once more be eligible to play for Australia, New South Wales and their Big Bash teams. (more…)
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Soul food
Once, when Jesus was speaking with His disciples, He challenged them with this…
“what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul?” (Matthew 16:26NLT).
In the Bible, the soul is the center of a person’s being. It is the soul that longs for something or hopes or is crushed or weighed down. When a person’s soul delights in evil then it’s the soul that deserves death and punishment because a person should love God from the core of their being.
So Jesus’s warning about losing our soul should be taken seriously. If we don’t draw close to God and invite Him into our life now, then don’t expect or demand good things in the future. Jesus’s warning is both blunt and bleak. But He’s giving it to us so we’ll take action. And that’s a kind thing to do. (more…)
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a txt msg frm God
When the clock strikes 00:00 on New Year’s Eve mobile (cell) phones all over the world start buzzing with New Years’ wishes from friends and family. Huge numbers of text messages are sent, probably because people send group messages to everyone in their phone. Entire phone address lists spammed with something like, ‘Happy New Year – Have a good one in 19 – Cheers Danno’. Boring, predictable, though very friendly and nice.
It makes one wonder how we’ll cope in the future when everyone we’ve ever met or bought anything from sends us a New Year’s Eve greeting. Perhaps our artificial intelligence assistants (the Siri, Alexa, or Google Assistant of the future) will gently mention that we’ve got ‘greetings from many current and former friends’, and if we ask, “Oh, who from?”, well they can tell us if we really want to know. (more…)
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God’s gift
Walmart in the United States stays open 24 hours of every day of every year … except for Christmas day. It’s an example of how, all over the world, Christmas is so much bigger than Easter. It’s estimated, this year, Australians will spend $11 billion on Christmas presents – and that’s just the presents – not the food or travel. So, why is Christmas so much bigger than Easter? Surely part of the answer has to do with whether we prefer a beautiful little baby or the horrible murder of an itinerant preacher. Where’s the contest? Babies are cute and cuddly! Fresh and innocent… full of promise and potential. While Easter is all about the awful thing that happened to that little baby when he grew up and became a man.
So, can’t we just focus on the Christmas story? Can we not marvel and dwell on the miracle of childbirth and especially… especially the wonder of God coming amongst us in human form?
No. Jesus didn’t come to be a perpetual baby. His mission was not to be the cutest or the most cuddly. When He grew up Jesus spoke most clearly about His mission to His disciples. This is what He told them. He “…came not to be served but to serve others, and to give His life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28).
What happened at the cross was an intervention by God on behalf of the human race. The shedding of Jesus’s innocent blood was a payment or ‘ransom’ to satisfy God’s requirement that blood be shed for sin. Jesus’s death on the cross allows us to escape that payment. And it’s the reason why people everywhere can have peace with God. Is it any wonder the cross is the universal Christian symbol.
Back when Jesus was born, an angel said to shepherds at night nearby,
“Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord (Luke 2:10-11).
When those shepherds went to gaze on the baby held in the arms of Mary, His mother, they knew He was their ‘savior’. What they couldn’t have known is how His death on a cross would be the solution and how generations to come would find there, comfort and joy.
Bible Verse: Luke 2:11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.
Prayer: Dear God, I praise you for sending Jesus my savior.
Acknowledgement: This article was sourced from Outreach Media, Sydney, Australia.
Images and text © Outreach Media 2018
Posted December 2018
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Put your mind at rest
“Grant me sexual purity and restraint, but not yet” – is the famous prayer of a young Saint Augustine. You see, Augustine enjoyed his numerous affairs and hedonistic lifestyle too much to change. Born in North Africa in 354 AD, Augustine described himself as a “slave of lust” before he eventually yielded and put his faith in Jesus at the age of 31. This great event occurred because he was so impressed by the faith of his mother and other Christians close to him.
Augustine’s conversion is famous because he chose to share his story and because he was so insightful about what God was doing in his life. Indeed, great quotes from Augustine have continued to help Christians from every subsequent age understand more deeply what God has done in their life. In fact, Augustine may just be the most quoted Christian in history.
For example, Augustine understood how universal the problem of sin is. He wrote, “There is no saint without a past, no sinner without a future.” And he knew how hard it is to change. Here is another insight, “The mind commands the body and is instantly obeyed. The mind commands itself and meets resistance.”
In the Bible, King David wrote emotionally about how hard it is to face up to God and confess sin. Psalm 32 records his experience of shutting God out.
When I refused to confess my sin, my body wasted away, and I groaned all day long. Day and night your hand of discipline was heavy on me. My strength evaporated like water in the summer heat. Finally, I confessed all my sins to you and stopped trying to hide my guilt. I said to myself, “I will confess my rebellion to the LORD.” And you forgave me! All my guilt is gone. (Psalm 32:3-5)
When Augustine finally understood this and gave his life to Christ it was the words of Paul in the New Testament of the Bible that convicted him.
Because we belong to the day, we must live decent lives for all to see. Don’t participate in the darkness of wild parties and drunkenness, or in sexual promiscuity and immoral living, or in quarrelling and jealousy. Instead, clothe yourself with the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. (Romans 13:13-14)
In response Augustine wrote these famous words about his new relationship with God,
Oh Lord, restless is the heart until it rests in you
Bible verse: Psalm 32:3, “When I refused to confess my sin, my body wasted away, and I groaned all day long”.
Prayer: Great are you, O Lord … because you have made us and drawn us to yourself, and our heart is unquiet until it rests in you (from Augustine’s book: Confessions)
Acknowledgement: This article was sourced from Outreach Media, Sydney, Australia.
Images and text © Outreach Media 2018
Posted, November 2018
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