Renewed Rest
The idea of ‘rest’ is something we’ve all faced after doing something long, tiring, or hard. In this sense the reason and need for rest is obvious, but are there ways to do it well, or even badly? Researcher Esther Bernhofer writes: “Without a clear definition and understanding of rest and its parameters, its restorative […]
Winning the Battle in the Mind
What has been occupying your mind in the last few years? Due to the unprecedented amount of disruption and change that we have experienced in our life time, the last few years has seen our minds often flooded with fearful and worried thoughts–it hasn’t been an easy time. This is why it’s now harder to […]
Jesus the better…
For the period of lent, the period of preparation for Easter, we’ll return to a familiar theme: Jesus the better! We looked at the same theme two years ago, but got interrupted by a certain new respiratory illness! To be over simplified (to make a point), there is just two ways to read the Bible: […]
Advent: preparation towards…
Advent simply means preparation, so it’s supposed to be the period in the church calendar when we prepare for Jesus coming to earth, spiritually and in the organisation for Christmas. Advent has traditionally the double meaning of preparing for the festival (of Christmas), but also making the acknowledgement of Jesus’ second coming—his return to earth—or […]
Chosen Aliens: Part 2
Last year, in the height of lockdown and Zoom church we started a series from 1 Peter, now we are coming back to finish it off. For a few years I lived as “foreigner” in an overseas country, and I was given an identity card which was officially called an “Alien Card”! I didn’t get […]
Luther’s 1520
Well many of us had a 2020 where what we were planning to do, just didn’t happen! One of the things I planned to do in 2020 was to mark, with a sermon series, the 500 years since the reformer Martin Luther wrote three important pieces: A treatise on Good Works (read it here) The […]
Real Talk
A couple of years ago a few high profile people announced publicly that they were giving up on what they had understood as Christianity. What one of the people, Marty Sampson (a songwriter and performer at Hillsong), wrote at the time caught my attention and this series comes directly out of what he wrote at […]
Exploring Identity
Some issues that we study in the bible are at arm’s length to us personally. For example: Is there a second heaven? What about angels and baptism of the dead? But the concept of personal identity is not at arm’s length to us! The personal question of “Who am I”? has many layers, and at […]
rest
The amount of change, uncertainty, and new aspects of life to include that we had to manage over the last 12 months has left many of us weary! Summer is often a time for a break, a slow-down from the normal schedule, a time for rest. So in January we will look at rest from […]
Christmas Characters
This Advent, each week we’ll have a ‘visit’ from one of the characters associated with Christmas to tell their story of what they saw and heard–and how it impacted their life. Joseph, Matthew 1:18-25; 2:13-23 and Luke 2:22-40 (Nov 29) A Shepherd, Luke 2:1-20 (Dec 6) A Magi, Matthew 2:1-18 (Dec 13) Mary, Luke 1:26-56; […]
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