Many years ago, a man living in an insane asylum died and was carried to his grave. When they were cleaning out his room they found some words written on the patient’s wall. This is what he had written … Could we with ink the ocean fill And were the skies of parchment made Were every stalk on earth a quill And every man a scribe by trade To write the love of God above Would drain the ocean dry Nor could the scroll contain the whole Though stretched from sky to sky These amazing words were eventually incorporated as... Read more →

Someone once said that trust in the glue of all relationships. Trust holds things together. In contrast, when there is no trust, the relationship starts to break down. Trust creates confidence and removes suspicion and fear. When trust is high in a relationship, you could say the wrong thing and it will be okay. People give you the benefit of the doubt. Where trust is low, you could say the right thing and even then, people take you wrong or misinterpret you. How do we build trust? Trust starts with being trustworthy. Be transparent – open, real and genuine. Don’t... Read more →

If you think about it, the entire population of the world, with one exception, is composed of OTHERS. What would life look like if we stopped seeking to get everyone else to revolve around US and started taking OTHER people’s needs and interests as our first concern. That would be pretty counter-cultural in a world that tells us to “Look out for number 1!” What kind of a world are we creating when everyone wants everything and everyone to orbit around them? When people do things and give affection to others, only as long as it helps meet his or... Read more →

The apostle John boldly declares that, “God is love.” He doesn’t say that God is loving, although that is true OR that one of God’s activities is love, although that is true too. He says that God IS love – it is the very core of his being and nature. The Christian God is revealed as one God existing as three persons – the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit – a Trinity. Think about it … If there is NO God, then we are here by blind chance, merely a result of natural selection and love is nothing... Read more →

Have you ever been hurt or offended by someone? If you haven’t, you probably haven’t lived long or you need to get out a bit more. Everyone gets hurt – many times, either intentionally or unintentionally. When other people hurt us we have two options. 1. Our first and natural response is often one of anger, bitterness, resentment, hatred or even revenge. We want to make the other person pay. Unfortunately, this type of response stops the healing process, which results in dramatic affects on us physically, emotionally, relationally and spiritually. We were not designed to live with the destructive... Read more →

The majority of Australians believe in God – they have some sort of what we could call ‘faith.’ Genuine faith in God provides a strong foundation for many people’s lives – especially when everything else around us seems so uncertain. Of course, real faith is more than just believing in something or someone. Back in the 1800s there was a famous acrobat named Blondin. He became well known for crossing the Niagara Falls on a tightrope 335 metres long and 50 metres above the raging water. He astonished people by carrying a small table, chair and stove to the halfway... Read more →

Once upon a time, the animals decided they would do something meaningful to meet the problems of the new world. So they organized a school. They adopted an activity curriculum of running, climbing, swimming and flying. To make it easier to administer the curriculum, all the animals took all the subjects. The duck was excellent in swimming; in fact, better than his instructor. But he made only passing grades in flying, and was very poor in running. Since he was slow in running, he had to drop swimming and stay after school to practice running. This caused his web feet... Read more →

Have you ever considered the tangible impact of the coming of Jesus Christ on our world? Sociologist, Alvin Schmit decided to do an extensive research project to answer this question. A summary of his research can be found in his excellent book How Christianity Changed the World (formerly published with the title Under the Influence). It is an inspiring and insightful tour of church history, from the first century right through to our modern world. The number of people transformed through their faith in Jesus Christ is nothing short of astonishing, as is the resulting impact on every sector of... Read more →

As a child, I am sure someone asked you, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” We each had ideas about what our future might one day become. Sometimes those dreams become reality while at other times our very desires change. However, one thing we all want to be is useful. None of us want to be useless! Deep inside of us there is a longing to make a contribution and to leave the world a better place than we found it. God's Purpose To understand our purpose, we need to begin with God, not ourselves. God... Read more →

A new study by the Barna Group reveals that families are more dependent on technology and media than ever and could benefit from some reflection on how they manage their time on-line, in front of the TV and on their digital devices. The research found that: Parents are just as dependent on technology as teens and tweens. Most family member, parents included, believe technology has been a positive influence on their families. Very few adults or youth take substantial breaks from technology. Few families have heard or expect to hear churches address technology. David Kinnaman, president of the Barna Group,... Read more →

I first heard this story in a sermon by Tony Campolo. It never fails to bring a tear to my eye ... "There was once a little boy named Mike. When he just was a toddler, he wanted a sand box and his mother said, 'That’ll be good', but his father said, 'There goes the back yard. There’ll be sand all over the place and it will kill the grass.' The little boy’s mother smiled and said back, 'The grass will grow back.' When Mike was 5 he wanted a jungle gym that would enable him to climb into the... Read more →

What would Jesus look like if he were living on earth today? One artist, Stephen Sawyer, thinks he'd be more macho than wimp. Click here to read all about it. No doubt our image of Jesus is important. It's so easy to create a God who is what we want him to be and something we are comfortable with. The philosopher Rousseau once said, "God created us in his own image then we returned the favour." Today we have images of a spooky Jesus, a plain Galilean Jesus, a hippy Jesus, a revolutionary Jesus and now a macho Jesus. We... Read more →