Dealing with bullies
By Not Known Bullies come in many forms. They are sometimes physical, but often verbal or psychological. A parent, spouse, teacher, work colleague or even a church member can be a bully. Bullies threaten, intimidate and demoralise us from some position of real or imagined strength. Who bullies you? Hezekiah faced a bully (Is 36-37). Hezekiah was Judah’s king and his…
The Steps to Salvation
By Not Known People become Christians in different ways. Some believe in Jesus after a slow, gradual and barely visible process. For others, it is a faster, more dramatic and very visible process. Acts 16:22-34 tells the story of a fast conversion. As we read it, we see a jailer walk five steps to salvation. Step one – conviction. The jailer was told to guard some…
The End of the End
By Not Known The Bible gives enticing picture of what things will be like at the end. Paul puts it this way: … God will be all in all (1 Cor 15:28). This does not mean that creation and its people will lose their identity. The heavens, the earth and its people will still ‘be’, but will have a renewed ‘shape’. Isaiah is one of many who draws a…
Easter for all people
By Not Known Palm Sunday was a very Jewish event at the start of a very Jewish week. The Jewish Jesus entered the capital city of the Jews at the start of the week when the Jewish Passover was to be celebrated. Matthew uses passages from the Hebrew Old Testament to interpret this (Mat 21:1-17, Zech 9:9; Ps 118:26; 8:2). Jewish religious authorities arrested Jesus and…
An I for Grace
By Not Known A book of simple mentat experiments urges us to be self-aware of our I. Our I is unseen and indefinable, yet it shapes every thought, word, action and moment of self-consciousness. The search to know their I has driven many to existential anguish as it eludes ‘capture’ again and again. Paul has a clear sense of his I. Note the number of…
The Easter Gospel
By Not Known Messages bombard us every day. Emails, SMS, IM and Face Book posts are a digital tsunami that threatens to swamp us. Let alone web sites, newspapers, government announcements, junk mail, phone chats, post-it notes, memos and even face-to-face talks. Many of these messages are spam. They have a momentary significance that passes with a digital stroke or a…
Steady As You Go!
By Not Known Our spirits are often trapped by restlessness and change is our only constant. Thus we seek whatever is new or different. This may be the trivial pursuit of the latest mobile gadget, the vain pursuit of a new ‘look’ , or,the ‘green grass’ pursuit of a new job. Or perhaps our search for the new makes us wistful for a new home, a new…
Truly Good News
By Not Known Some of us came from non-Christian families and followed another faith before our conversion. Others came from Christian families, but had a period of wandering from God before Jesus became ours in a very personal way. Others again have periods of wayward backsliding. Either way, we all have ‘baggage‘. There are things in our past of which we are…
The Lord’s Reunion Meal
By Not Known New Year is a time of reunion meals. These are times to remember the past, celebrate the present and anticipate the future. At these meals we cement the ties that bind us to loved ones and re-launch our family for the New Year. The Old Testament Hebrews had a similar annual meal in the Passover festival (Exo 12:1-20). Passover was a great occasion when people…
The So-Called Christians
By Not Known By now, we would surely begin to see a better picture of what the Corinthians are really like. It is so easy for us to point our fingers and say, "These people give Christianity a bad name!" Before we point our accusing fingers, let us remember Jesus’ words, "Let him who has no sin, cast the first stone." (Jn 8:7). In 1 Cor 5:11,…