Posts from 2019
You feed them!
It had happened again. It was one of those moments where, from a familiar passage of scripture, something new jumped out at me. It was early one morning when I was reading through Luke and came to the familiar story of the Feeding of the Five Thousand where Jesus said, “You find them something to eat.” Why did Jesus ask this question, I wondered and what did he expect from his disciples? Reading back through the earlier verses in the…
Pastors Ponderings
The Ponderings this week comes via Mrs Jesus Follower: The Story “Halloween is much more fun than Christmas”, I overheard a lad saying to his mate as he pushed his mother’s cart along the aisle of sweets. We get to dress up, go to parties and eat lots of lollies. Halloween or Christmas? Is this going to be the question in a new generation? It set me thinking. True, between our current emphasis on political correctness, and a hunger for…
What does it mean to be a “spiritual church”?
Exciting things are happening at CBBC. God is at work; lives are being changed. There is nothing more exciting than to see and to know the power of the Holy Spirit at work in our lives. Daniel mentioned that we all come from different Church backgrounds. Never were truer words spoken! I grew up in a generation where emotions were squashed, suppressed. It wasn’t right to show emotion or value experiences. It seemed ‘dead’. I’ve been thinking about that this…
Pastors Ponderings
This week’s Ponderings comes via Colin and contains some useful and important IT advice: A friend of mine and his wife are fostering two children aged about 6 and 8. He was doing some repairs and painting for me at the time and asked to have a quick chat. He is a tradie. There have been some problems settling in the children, and he asked me if there was some simple solution to controlling the internet, without tears and angst.…
My church, I have looked
My church I have looked and seen your hearts, and a time of healing has come, a time I have set aside. I shall refine my people in these days. I have said, I have lit a fire in my church and I shall breathe upon it with my breath until it burns white hot with fire, a refining fire. When gold enters the furnace it is heated the impurities rise to the surface, it is then scraped off and…
Pastors Ponderings
Last week I highlighted the bold claim in Romans 8 that there is no condemnation for those who belong to Jesus. But there is a very obvious counter argument to this claim…we still sin and make wrong choices, even though we belong to Jesus. Isn’t this bold claim simply a licence to sin? Can’t we just claim the grace of God covers what we do and carry on sinning? It’s the argument Paul’s audience bought up when they heard this…
Will He Find Faith?
I sat back and looked out the window, a barrage of questions tumbling around in my brain. Why hadn’t I thought about this before? What did it mean? Why is this question put on the end of this story? What’s Jesus wanting us to understand by adding this to the end of his parable? I’d just read the parable from Luke which has been titled, The Persistent Widow. You’d be as familiar with this story as I am but it’s…
Pastors Ponderings
Romans 8:1 says there is no condemnation for those who belong to Jesus. Condemnation is defined as ‘very strong disapproval’ and is probably a word we can quickly associate with. I mean, who hasn’t lived with the horrid feeling of condemnation? But the bible tells us we can stand before God the Father totally free from the feeling of condemnation. How is that possible? I can tell you that I often feel condemned and I’m presuming you would feel the…
It’s only a storm
The rain was bucketing down as we drove along. Would it ever end? It’s only a storm, says Julie in her own profound way. It is still Spring… the daffodils bloomed and the trees are in blossom. I haven’t been able to forget that statement nor the amazing truth I saw as I thought about our journey with God. Jesus Christ the same… yesterday, today… forever. God’s faithfulness never ends… his mercies are new every morning! I’m sure I’m not…
Pastors Ponderings
This week the Ponderings come via Mrs Jesus Follower: The View “But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:4-6) There is so much more in this passage but it’s these verses and this truth that I’ve been thinking about lately.…
My Rights
Romans is written to change the behaviour of the people in the church, so you would expect to be confronting and challenging and uncomfortable. I’ve had all of those feelings as I’ve studied this letter and we are only 7 chapters into a 16-chapter letter. So, I guess there is still more to come. Knowing what I do about the author Paul, he is just getting started. However, I’m surprised that the result of all that challenge is how exciting the gospel…
Holy Labor:
How Childbirth Shapes a Woman’s Soul By Aubry G. Smith “pains” [itsavon] means anguish not just physical pain. It is the same word used for Adam’s curse only it’s translated as “painfully toils” with the ground. We don’t associate physical pain with Adam in the same way as we do we Eve, why? We talk of Adam’s struggle to be fruitful, the anguish or worry whether the ground will yield its crop. It’s possibly because we know labour can be…