Church News (Page 100)

By Not Known Our Botanic Gardens recently had an amazing sight. The talipot palm flowered. This palm grows for several decades without flowering. It flowers once in its life. Then it dies. But, as the tree dies, it sows the seeds of new life. It is as though the whole tree was created for this one purpose of one flowering, one dying and one gift of life. It was the same…

By Not Known We sometimes have a problem of balance between the unity of the group and the diversity of its parts. For example, to what extent do a married couple think and act as one unit and to what extent are husband and wife distinct from one another? The same issues arise between parents and children, as well as in other close relationships. Today’s Bible…

By Not Known A healthy prayer life has prayers of adoration (or admiration), confession (Saying ‘sorry‘); thanksgiving (saying ‘thank you‘) and supplication (asking for help). They can be remembered by the word ‘ACTS‘. What is the mix of these different types in your prayer life? Let's think about confession. Our first prayer in…

By Not Known Prayer arises from our relationship with God. When we believe in God’s Son Jesus, we become God’s adopted children (Jn 1: 12). Amongst other things, this gives us the privilege of prayer. As God’s children, Christian believers are entitled to call God ‘Father‘ and to talk with him as a child to a parent. But, what kind of a…

By Not Known Many of us go to the gym regularly or engage in some other form of physical exercise. This helps us stay healthy and builds fitness. But what about exercise for the soul? What do we do to develop godliness within ourselves? The Bible motivates us to spiritual exercise by holding out the promise of great gains: For physical training is of some value, but…

By Not Known Some people say that we are stuck with the religion into which we were born and cannot change. The Bible tell us otherwise. it gives us many stories of people who left the faith of their families and started believing in Jesus. As we read these stories, they help us to see that we too can change our religion and become Christians. One of these stories is…

By Not Known Connections are very important in many cultures. Chinese culture is well known for the sense of 'guan xi‘ and the sense of individual lives being conducted within an invisible and all-powerful set of relationships that starts with the family and extends through the whole life. The idea of guan xi can also be used to sum up the wisdom theme that is…

By Not Known It doesn’t really matter whether the author in 1 John 2: 12- 14 is addressing people at various stages of their chronological age or at various stages of their spiritual maturity. What really matters is that God’s word has this ability to speak individually and address human needs in a most personal way and we do well to take heed. The symmetrical…

By Not Known To us, wisdom tends to be intellectual erudition. ON this model, the wise person is someone who thinks deep thoughts about deep matters and perhaps expresses them in incomprehensible prose. Biblical wisdom is about life. It is practical, Biblical wisdom is a road map to a life that is happy and successful because it is lived with God. The practical nature of…

By Not Known The ‘fool‘ has a mixed history. In ancient royal courts the fool was an insightful outsider who made penetrating comments. For some, the fool is a playful person who wastes his time and that of others. For others, a fool is a person of low mental ability. The Bible’s fool is something different. He is a person who denies God. The classic…