Blog Archive (Page 13)
Pastors Ponderings
We have been away for a break and it was nice to catch up with each other and have time to read some books. One of them was a book by Michael Frost called ‘To Alter Your World – Partnering with God to rebirth our communities’. A lot of the ideas and thinking are things we are already implementing here at CBBC but there was also much food for further thought. In it there was a quote which Frost felt…
Pastors Ponderings
I don’t know how many times I’ve read the scripture “how beautiful on the mountains are the feet of the messenger bringing good news” (Isa 52:7) and I’ve always pictured someone going out—someone being sent—and telling people about Jesus. I don’t know why? Probably because I always think ‘good news’ must mean the gospel of Jesus and so it must be talking about evangelism. Of course, the good news is Jesus! However, this scripture is actually talking about a messenger…
What is the truth?
Sometimes it’s hard to know what’s the truth…these words kept going through my head. She sat there staring out the window, her little girl playing on the floor beside her. I stood there watching this young mum who was so deep in thought. She’d been telling me of a conversation she’d had with another Christian…it had been a disturbing and confusing conversation. As she picked up her child and turned to leave she quietly said, ‘Sometimes it’s hard to know…
about being real
‘Be real,’ say Daniel and Julie. ‘Are we actually doing what we say we believe?’ they ask And so I ask myself the question, am I willing to be real? Sometimes it’s a bit like…will the real me please stand up because I don’t know if I know the real me yet!!! To be a real group of Jesus followers here at CBBC isn’t necessarily going to come in a neat package…it could be messy! In Aussie terms, I guess…
A Christians’ Response to Terrorism
I’ve been thinking. Recently I’ve heard that a Christian leader I highly respect was leading a forum on ‘The Christian response to Terrorism’. While I’d really like to hear that discussion, I began to think about my own attitude. Oh, I pray for our country that we will be protected from such attacks…for the wider Christian church and for those who are presently suffering because of terrorist attacks…but what are my true-deep-down-honest thoughts about these terrorists? Can I love these…
Pastors Ponderings
We are currently going through the book Acts for our sermon series. Already we have learned that the book was a record of how, what was to become the global Church, was founded. The book was supposed to be read following the book of Luke (who is the author of both books) with the gospel of Luke being an account of the coming and then death and resurrection of Jesus. Acts is an account of how everything changed after Jesus’…
pastors pondering
When people talk about what happened after Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, his ascension to the Father, and the start of ‘the early church’ they agree it all stared in Jerusalem. But defining the ‘it’ is more difficult. What began in Jerusalem? Some say Christianity but the word ‘Christian’ didn’t appear for decades so obviously those new believers didn’t think they were starting Christianity. So what did those first believers think was starting? In his book ‘Christianity in the Making’…
yes – no – or wait?
I’ve been thinking… As I grabbed my keys and picked up my handbag to race out the door, I flipped over my daily calendar and the comment for the day was, ‘God always answers our prayer with a yes, no or wait a while’. I thought, ‘Mmmm I don’t think I’ve heard those words when I’ve prayed!’ Although I know what they mean by that expression, throughout the day a question kept going through my mind… How do I know…
to love or to condemn?
To love or to condemn? How do I respond to those living a lifestyle that makes me uncomfortable? How do they see me? What attitudes am I conveying to them? Praise God for leaders with the courage to speak up and put these challenges out there for us to face. Praise God for those who continually make us think, read, pray, search your Word and ponder the questions from which we’d like to run! I’m scared, I’m uncomfortable and yet…
Pastors Ponderings
Pastors ponderings 21st july 2017 Acts is written by Luke and it is the continuing story from Luke’s Gospel. A notable thing about Luke’s storytelling is that he always uses the least likely characters. Luke chooses to focus on the people who you wouldn’t think were important, or who are normally excluded, to reveal the salvation of God; for example, poor widows, prostitutes, and tax collectors. It’s not surprising then that the first example of salvation seen in Acts…
Pastors Ponderings
As Christians, part of our calling is to herald the coming Kingdom of God to the world around and to start living our lives in a way that models that Kingdom. I have to say that often this is harder than we would like to admit. Screaming kids, a huge bill, an annoying co-worker, sickness – even walking on a piece of lego left on the floor can ruin our day making our lives sometimes a poor reflection of how…
Pastors Ponderings
I watched the film ‘National Treasure’, I suspect that most of us have and in it Nicolas Cage reads the map that leads to a hidden treasure using special glasses. Each time he pulled down the different lens, he saw a new clue, a new direction he could take. I thought afterwards that we should just watch ‘National Treasure’ instead of the sermon because it showed what is said about reading the Bible. We all come at the bible already…