Egalitarian?
Has it ever happened to you that a certain word comes into your mind and you keep repeating that word to yourself? The word rolls off your tongue – at least mentally it does – and you relish the sound of it. You then begin to wonder how that word came to be. Why did that particular combination of vowels and consonants come to represent that particular thing? I had that happen to me the other day with the word…
Mine
It’s one of the earliest words that very young children learn to say: Mine! A three-year-old will say it defiantly when he snatches his toy from his younger sister. The sad thing is that some fifty-three-year-olds can still say it just as defiantly. It’s one thing to endorse the right to ownership and private property, it’s quite another thing to cling so tenaciously to what is ours that we lose sight of the fact that under God we are merely…
What’s the point of it?
Questions about God’s existence and questions about my own salvation have rarely bothered me. I’m blessed that on both counts the Lord has gifted me with confident assurance. But there is one question that has periodically troubled me over the years. Why do some people seem to get much more than their fair share of pain and suffering in life? I must have been barely out of my teenage years when that question hit with particular force. The friend of…
Winter Spider-webs
One thing about these cold winter mornings is that the spider-webs in the garden look very pretty. The droplets of dew make them seem like tiny strands of sparkly diamonds glistening in the early morning sun. When the weather is warmer you don’t notice the spider webs until you walk into them but the droplets of winter dew make them highly visible. Examining one of them last week made me do a little thinking about what we call “fellowship” among…
Jake the Peg
It’s with reluctance that I write this week’s bulletin blurb. That reluctance was motivated by some serious questions. Why drag up unpleasant things that have caused lots of people much pain? And why focus on someone else’s sin when we’ve all got our own faults and foibles? And yet… there are some important lessons to be learnt. I’m talking about the iconic Aussie entertainer, Rolf Harris. Like many of you I watched the unfolding saga of the famous and now…
Some small gains
Sometimes when I listen to news and current affairs programs I get the feeling that our Western culture is moving, at a great rate of knots, away from its Judaeo-Christian roots. The list of concerns is endless: from gratuitous violence in movies to the sexualising of children and from same-sex marriage to corporal punishment. Already forty years ago, when I was at our theological college we talked about the coming of a post-Christian era. Well, I don’t want to be…
A bit of history: two men
Some folk may think that God calling for someone to serve as a pastor is a mystical and mysterious thing. The Lord certainly doesn’t send you an email saying, “I want you to become a pastor.” In some ways it is a mystical and mysterious thing. In other ways it is very ordinary as the Lord uses other people to guide us and steer us in that direction. There were two men in particular who helped steer me in that…
Comforting Sovereignty
You don’t have to scratch hard to find someone’s fears and insecurities. Okay, some of us have become good at covering up those anxieties. We put a brave face on it. We may even be under the illusion that we’re in control – as William Ernest Henley’s poem “INVICTUS” claims: Out of the night that covers me, Black as the pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods may be For my unconquerable soul. Through the fell clutch of…
A Christian handout
Two older women came to the door and after greeting me, asked whether I was concerned about the state of the present-day world. Well, who wouldn’t be? I cottoned on quickly that these ladies were doorknocking for a sect, so I politely told them that I too looked forward to the new creation that is coming when Jesus returns. But I made clear that I didn’t accept their views about who Jesus is. The leading lady was quite aggressive so…
Confused Sexuality
Recently my wife and I watched the finals of the Eurovision contest. It’s an annual musical competition in which the various European nations vie for the winning place in the finals. We’ve watched it for some years and have enjoyed many of the performances – although there are other performances that provide a good time to go and make a cup of coffee. This year the winner of the competition was a bearded drag queen, Conchita from Austria. I’m not…