Posts from July 2015

Trivia Nights are a well-known way of doing fund-raising.  Here in Toowoomba several churches have run Trivia Nights to raise funds for school chaplaincy programs.  Trivial Pursuit is a board game that many of us are familiar with.  Trivia is what is unimportant; it’s what doesn’t carry much weight.  Trivia is what we find easy to dismiss. That word, trivia, came to mind when we recently had some days away at the coast in Yamba and I ended up watching…

Recently, in preaching, I mentioned the case of Tini – an elderly lady in failing health.  On one occasion things looked grim and the family were called in to say their goodbyes.  As her pastor I was kept in the loop and since she was not expected to make it through the might I called in at the hospital.  While struggling for breath Tini assured me that she was at peace and longed to be with her Saviour in glory. …

am biased.  I am terribly biased.  I am prejudiced.  I am frightfully prejudiced.  There, I’ve got it off my chest and said it. When I left school and entered the workforce I was envious of people with strong convictions.  I wasn’t naturally like that.  I tended to want to hear all sides of an argument and I was not very forthcoming with my own opinions.  That was more than half-a-century ago when I was a shy and somewhat insecure teenager. …

We had a baptism at church this morning.  ‘Nothing unusual about that!  Christians have been baptising since the Lord Jesus gave the Great Commission in Matthew 28.  All Christians (excluding the Quakers and the Salvation Army) believe in Holy Baptism as an essential sacrament of the Church. Ah, but the baptism this morning was of a baby, as Peter and Ina presented their son Hudson to receive the sign and seal of God’s grace.  Suddenly we not only have the…