Posts from 2018 (Page 3)
Is your Church a Cray Boat or a Cruise Ship?
One day, while diving for crayfish off the east coast of Tasmania as a young man, I was invited on-board a professional cray boat. It was a big boat, designed to spend weeks off-shore setting and checking cray pots. I found it fascinating. It had narrow stairs that descended below decks that were so step they were almost ladders. It had a huge hold filled with sea water that had room for thousands of crayfish. The bridge was filled with…
Render Much?
“Governments are clumsy, lumbering entities that are insatiably fed by cash. But that is the way God wants it. The reservoir of funds is there to keep the beast fuelled so that God can use it. The fact that governments gush with overspending, splash out on the wrong pursuits, leak untold fortunes through inefficiency and corruption, is all besides the point. Let’s not forget whose money this is (hint: not yours).” Read more…
Our History and the Christian Connection
This past week was NAIDOC week and our article of the week this week will celebrate the stories of two people who spoke up for those unable to speak for themselves – our history and the Christian connection: “Before the 1960s, Australia’s indigenous people were not Australian citizens even though they had been born in Australia and their ancestors had lived here for generations. They were not allowed to vote, not counted in the census figures and didn’t have the…
Young Teens & Social Media
“Our children are growing up in a world that thrives on technology, and we must be faithful in helping them engage with it. As with many things, technology can be a useful tool and a source of enjoyment, connection, and education. It can also become an addiction, idol, or tool for malice. The more we build strong character in our children, and the more we actively teach them to steward technology, the more likely they are to handle it with…
Be a Mama Who Prays
“Imagine you are living in a kingdom where the king has ultimate control over your child’s life. He will decide who your child will be, where she will go, who she will associate with. And, because He is a good, kind, wise king, he allows you 24 hour access to his chamber, where you can come to tell him everything that you would like to see happen in your child’s life. You can ask for all kinds of crazy, unlikely,…
How to share the gospel with a stranger
“Christians talk about the importance of fishing and the abundance of fish, and we tell others to fish—but few actually go out and fish, because we feel we’re no good at it. Here are some practical tips to allow you to be more confident in approaching people to talk to Jesus and put your line in the water.” Read more…
Friends to Christ, Strangers To His Church
“It’s remarkable how often the Bible describes the Christian life as a shared life. We become Christians through a personal commitment to Christ, then immediately bind ourselves in a corporate commitment to Christ’s people. There are so many biblical commands we can fulfil and examples we can imitate only if we are involved in one of these Christian communities we call “church.” The notion we can be friends to Christ but strangers to his church is completely foreign to scripture.”…
Ordinary Christian Work
We care called by God to serve him in ordinary work. “There will be some who are called to full-time church ministry as their vocation. There will be some who will put aside manual labor in order to be trained and tasked as full-time pastors, dependent on the support of others. There will be some who will stop working with their hands to go into the mission field. This is good, and it honours God. But it is not a…
Being “Right” in Relationships
“… Walking to the beach the next day, with a relationship that was a bit chilly, and feeling stuck, a simple truth broke through. One of the beauties of Scripture is that it gives the way of wisdom and makes it available to anyone with ears to hear. Though there is a place for keen insight and sometimes our behaviours deserve careful analysis, simple truths are usually the means of our deliverance. The simple truth was this: Did I love?…
Be a Gospel Neighbour
“Every Christian wants to make a difference. It’s part of our spiritual DNA. We know humanity’s greatest need is salvation, so we long to see our friends respond to the gospel in repentance and faith. But if we’re honest, we admit we struggle here. We know our friends need the Good News, but we have a hard time opening our homes and opening our mouths to make the gospel known. Too often, we’re like a postal carrier who can’t seem…