Once I told Bronwyn that my new year’s resolution was to have no new year’s resolution. One minute later I realised that I put myself into a conundrum – if I kept my new years resolution I would fail to keep it (think about it). I have avoided New Year...
2 Chronicles 16 has an interesting story that shows the heart of God. This chapter tells the story of Asa, a king of Israel, who took money from God’s treasuries to fund an alliance with a foreigner so as to gain political power over the king of Judah. God spoke...
Did you know that Santa Claus was a real bloke? The word ‘Santa Claus’ comes from ‘Saint Nicholas’. St Nicholas was a real bloke who lived around 280AD. He was the local bishop in the city of Myra in Turkey. Tradition tells us that he was imprisoned by Emperor Diocletion...
Following the visit of the Wise men, Joseph took Mary and Jesus to Egypt to escape Herod. Joseph, Mary, and Jesus lived in Egypt as refugees until Herod’s death. Interestingly, Matthew saw the return of the boy Jesus as a fulfilment of the prophecy of Hosea (Matt 2:15) 1 When...
Christmas is an awkward time for many families. This was most true at the first Christmas. 4 So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. 5 He went...
Being close to people is tricky because friction is inevitable. People rub against each other because they are different or sinful. Yet managing relational friction well leads to deep and satisfying relationships. Ephesians gives great teaching on this. …speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every...
Do you believe in Hell? Jesus does. In fact Jesus spoke more about Hell than anyone in the Bible. He even uses the fear of Hell as a motivator to obey. 42 “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for...
I love collective nouns for animals because they capture the essence of the animals behaviour: a ‘school’ of fish; a ‘murder’ of crows; a ‘crash’ of rhinoceros; a ‘flock’ of sheep. In the 1990s Bronwyn and I walked through a ‘gang’ of standing water buffalo. There were about 60 in...
I am not much of a follower. I do not follow any rugby team, soccer team, AFL, or cricket team. I do not follow anyone on Facebook, Instagram, snapchat, or twitter. While I like people, I rarely follow the crowd. I do not follow these things because they don’t follow...
What is the difference between shame and being ashamed? Shame is something that is given and when someone owns that shame they feel ashamed. Shame works from outside a person whereas being ashamed works from the inside out. When someone does not receive the shame given by another they are...
