Water is one of the most essential and healthy drinks that there is. Some nutritionists believe that it's good to drink around 8 glasses of water each day. Other people are into herbal teas of all sorts - green, peppermint, chamomile, to name a few. Still others say that a glass of red wine a day is good for your health, especially for your heart (though caution needs to be taken due to the potential damage caused by excessive alcohol). Another drink developed recently by scientists at the University of Queensland is a tea called Spearole. Each cup contains the... Read more →

Today's post includes excerpts from a recent letter to Australian church leaders from Jim Wallace, Managing Director of the Australian Christian Lobby. I encourage you to read it, take appropriate action, and ask others to do the same ... With the National Human Rights Consultation Panel having reported to Government in favour of a Charter of Rights, we have serious concerns that this might become a reality, and that while doing little if anything to improve human rights for the most vulnerable, it would create a serious threat to religious freedom. Paradoxically it would inhibit the Church in maintaining the... Read more →

As of this weekend our church is moving all of our weekend messages online and making them available free of charge. We no longer sell CDs or DVDs. Right now there is a library of about 100 messages available. Click here to visit the library. Messages can be downloaded for listening to either on your computer or your favourite mp3 player. You can also convert them to an audio CD using a program like iTunes.New messages from this weekend onwards should be up on the web site by about Tuesday noon each week. We also have a weekly podcast, which... Read more →

With the recent closing our of church bookshop, WORD Australia is now the official distributor of books by Kevin, Mark and Nicole Conner. WORD currently has nineteen locations throughout Australia as well as an excellent online shop. Of course, you should be able to find these books in most other Christian bookstores throughout Australia and New Zealand, including Koorong. For those living in the USA, check out City Christian Publishing or Anchor Distributors. Sower's Seed distributes many of my dad's resources in the Asian area. Happy reading :) Read more →

A few final thoughts for my Pentecostal friends ... I recommend that we continue to be unapologetic about our Pentecostal roots and its distinctive values, while clearly communicating the strengths and weaknesses we see in this movement and our response to them. Referring to ourselves as “Pentecostal” can be helpful for those Christians who are seeking a tribe to identify us with. However, we should all take steps to clarify our uniqueness. In fact, why don't we all make efforts to seek to model what potentially could be a more balanced and biblical brand of Pentecostalism without some of the... Read more →

I also see a number of weaknesses in some of the Pentecostal movement. Obviously, not all of these weaknesses are limited to Pentecostals nor do all Pentecostal churches necessarily exhibit them. 1. Extreme Prosperity Teaching. Many Pentecostal churches have embraced the prosperity gospel which promises riches for those who love and obey God. One of the main problems with this teaching is the ‘give to get’ mentality which is so opposite to the nature of God. He loves and he gives unconditionally - with no strings attached. If we choose to give to God or to the poor in order... Read more →

I see a number of strengths in the Pentecostal faith tradition. Here are a few of the main ones. Obviously, these strengths aren't limited to Pentecostals nor do all Pentecostal churches necessarily exhibit them. 1. The Holy Spirit. The Pentecostal expression of the Christian faith presents God as someone who is not only known by faith and through the Scriptures but who wants to interact with each believer on a daily basis. Pentecostals teach that God wants a personal and intimate relationship with each believer and that this occurs through prayer (including the use of spiritual language or ‘speaking in... Read more →

The Pentecostals are a relatively new section of the Christian Church. For many years they have been considered to be outside mainstream Christianity; but, more recently, due to their phenomenal growth, they have begun to be noticed and heard. Here in Australia, they are the fastest growing of all the churches and their wider influence in society is increasing. In the past century, Pentecostal Christianity evolved from a small group of believers to a worldwide movement with an estimated 588 million adherents. This incredible growth is unprecedented in the historical development of Christianity. Although the participants in this movement at... Read more →

The Bible Society has recently released a 'Poverty and Justice Bible' which highlights what God's Word has to say about these two important current issues. Almost every page of the Bible speaks of God's heart for the poor, his concern for the marginalised, his compassion for the oppressed, and his call for justice. There are over 2000 verses that address these important topics, yet so often they are over-looked or neglected. This new Bible, in the Contemporary English Version (CEV), includes a unique 32-page study guide, written by best-selling authors Nick and Claire Page. Each of 50 in-depth studies is... Read more →

Recently, I read a book by Eugene Lowry called The Homiletical Plot: the Sermon as Narrative Art Form. It was a paradigm-shifting book as it suggests that sermons or messages should be more like stories than like a lecture presenting material in a structured and outlined manner. When Jesus was asked about who a 'neighbour' is, he didn't launch into a three point sermon with an introduction and conclusion. He told a story - a powerful one with the punch line right at the end. Jesus was a brilliant story-teller. In fact, he never spoke without using a story (often... Read more →

The World Wide Web is an amazing source of information and communication. However, it's becoming so huge and complex that you can easily get lost in it or miss out on some of spots well worth visiting. Here are a variety of sites that may be if interest to you. BIBLE. Visit www.biblegateway.com for an excellent site with multiple Bible translations, all for free. ENCYCLOPEDIA. Visit www.wikipedia.com – the world's largest online encyclopedia with a wealth of information on just about anything. FREE IMAGES. Visit http://commons.wikimedia.org – a massive collection of more than 5 million free-to-use images. Also check out:... Read more →