The God We Pray To
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…
God’s Gym
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…
Changing your Religion
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…
Guan Xi with God
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…
A Word for All
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…
Wisdom For Life
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…
The Fool
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…
The Earthquake and Tsunami
By Not Known Our region is stunned as the funerals, damage assessment, clean up and rebuilding continues after last Sunday's terrible earthquake and tsunami. The accounts of lives lost and property damaged draw our horrified fascination. What do we make of this as Christians? For one thing, we identify with those who suffer. Many of us have taken holidays in the…
Responding to the Gospel
By Not Known As we have seen in recent weeks, the gospel is God’s message to us about his Son Jesus Some of the messages we receive are‘for your information‘. That is, we don’t need to do anything in response to this message; we just need to know it. Other messages demand action by their very nature The message about Jesus demands action. The Greek…
Christmas in Story and Song
By Not Known Today's services of Lessons and Carols follow a well-established traditional pattern. It is a good pattern, for it sets the coming of Jesus into a wide Biblical perspective. Let's think about today's Scripture lessons. We start with a passage that reminds us why Jesus had to come (Gen 3:22,24). Our rebellion against God meant exclusion from the…