Windows On The Soul

1995 Back in '95, my younger brother developed a brain tumor. One day in his last weeks, his wife was beside his bed in Wesley Hospital in Brisbane. A girl friend arrived to visit and comfort my sister-in-law. At the end of the evening visiting hours, my sister-in-law said to her friend, " I'm afraid I'm not up to driving home. Would you mind driving? " " Of course dear. " said her friend. " I only bought a one-way train ticket ". At home, after a cup of tea, my sister-in-law, almost in tears, said to her friend, " I don't think I can bear being alone in this house to night. Would you mind staying over? ". " Of course! " said her friend. " I've got  nightie and toothbrush in my handbag! ".  Even angels sometimes travel by train (one way). 1939 In the 1930's a Chelsea church conducted a tent mission on the foreshore at Frankston, about 10km south, on the eastern coast of Port Philip Bay. From that missio...

Whilst thousands of books have been written about the key to success, there is only one sure-fire recipe for failure, and that is simply to " make no attempt ". Could you imagine the Adelaide 'Crows' football club saying "It’s too much trouble to fly to Melbourne. Lets not go", or the Collingwood 'Magpies' club saying "We're a bit tired this week; we can't be bothered playing the Grand Final". No, I couldn't imagine it either. Yet so many people treat Christianity this way, claiming it is useless without even trying it. Of all the religions and philosophies in the world, Christianity is The Way for triers, battlers and seekers ( Mt.5:3-11 ). The Bible is full of promises to faithful workers ( Lk.19:17 , Ps.132:15 , Lk.6:38 ) and warnings to slothful sluggards ( Pr.19:15 , 20:4 ). But the promised blessings are not dependant on the quantity of the work performed, for we are all blessed with differing abilities responsibilities an...

Thus goes this gem of potted philosophy advertising some already forgotten product.  First comes the dream, vision or hope of what could be - blessed are those who can see their need. Then comes the leap: what the motivational speakers might term "belief in yourself", or that "can do attitude"; what we call faith. With this attitude of faith, anything is possible: moving mountains, creating the vision. To the world, this is success, yet time and again, we hear of such self-made, successful people who are still unfulfilled. The apostle Paul, the greatest motivational writer of history, re-iterates the enduring importance of hope and faith. But greater than these is Love. Only in love does success find meaning, worth and true fulfilment of the heart's deepest desires. ----xxxXxxx---- Heb.11:1 "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not yet seen" 1 Cor.13:13 "These three things endure, hope, faith & love,...

“ What the Church needs are more ‘deep’ Christians ” (Richard Foster, “Celebration of Discipline”).  The Apostle Paul wrote, “ Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!!” ( Rom.11:33 ) How does one become a ‘deeper’ Christian? It takes ‘Time’ and ‘Experience’. To know the depth of something, one must have ‘plumbed’ the depth, that is attempted some sort of measure. To have some knowledge of the depth of God, one must explore the consequences and implications of Christian faith on one’s life and society, and thus to start to see the vast possibilities. Such exploration, takes time in God’s word, time with Him in prayer, and time in constructive, exploratory fellowship together. But most of all, depth of understanding and knowledge of the wisdom, grace and ways of God, come from experience. We learn only a small amount from what we hear, a larger amount from what we read and s...

One of the special aspects of Christianity, is that we have a personal God who desires to have a personal relationship with us. One of the ways that this is conveyed in the Bible, is the expression of “walking with God”. In 19 different passages, we read of people walking with God or of God walking among His people. For most of history, walking has been common to nearly every aspect of mankind’s life, whether for travel, work, socialising, holidaying, going to synagogue or simply to draw water. Walking with God represents sharing in life at an all-pervasive level. But more than simply walking with God, on at least 62 occasions, the Bible talks about the quality of our walk. Foremost, we are called to walk in His ways, paths, statutes, ordinances, light and judgments. Our walk is to be pleasing to God, by faith, in the spirit, circumspectly and honestly, in the new life of love, liberty, truth, integrity, wisdom and uprightness, worthily in the fear of God. We are called to wa...

Our family’s most prized piece of family history would have to be my great-great-grandfather’s apprenticeship indenture certificate from the 1860’s. To modern eyes, the terms and conditions border on slave labour. The young teenage George had to leave home to live and work with his ‘master’, who in turn had to teach him the mysteries and secrets of the trade of clothier, as well as house, clothe and feed him, and pay him the princely sum of two shillings at Christmas. When the Bible talks about Jesus’ disciples, the concept of Disciple is very similar to that of Apprentice. The disciples lived, traveled and worked with Jesus, learning ‘on-the-job’. The commitment, to which they were called, included leaving their homes and jobs. As we celebrate with the young people being baptised tonight, lets encourage them in their commitment. For the commitment of ‘becoming a Christian’ is not like joining an organisation, but rather the commitment of entering into a life-long relatio...

The Bible uses a number of different analogies to describe The Church, such as a ‘body’ ( 1 Cor.12 ), a ‘garden’ ( Isa.61:3 , Jn.15:5 ), a ‘family’ ( Jn.3:29 , Rev.21:9 ), or a ‘building’ ( 2 Cor.5:1 , Eph.2:21 ). All of these images illustrate multi-faceted growth, extension and adaptation, and all apply equally to The Church, any individual congregation or individual Christians. I’ve always liked the slogan, “ Please be patient. God hasn’t finished with me yet ”. When a ‘lost soul’ finds Christ, there is a sense of completeness in that a void has been filled. But as we grow in Christ, there is another sort of sense of incompleteness, not like an emptiness that needs to be filled, but rather being called onward in constant improvement. As God is constantly revealing areas of our lives that are not ‘up to scratch’, we are challenged to renewal. As our lives encounter new experiences and situations, we are challenged to meet them like Christ, with love. We are called to st...

One of the more common deep spiritual questions I hear, is “ How do I know God’s will for my life? ”. Whilst meditation and study of His Word will reveal general guide-lines, the application to any person’s specific situation is in the realm of the dynamic of Holy Spirit. We are not given a map showing every bend and hill on the road of life ahead, but rather the bends are revealed only as and when we need to know about them as we walk by faith. Its' no use whingeing about not achieving some high personal aspirations, when Jesus’ general command is to “ start washing feet (dishes, floors, tables, bed-pans, etc.) ”. Then as we show our faithfulness in the small things, God can start putting situations across our path, or using our words, or people start to seek us out - then we start to see God ‘nudging’ us around a bend, or challenging us to climb a hill. It can be quite surprising, humbling, even scary, when someone says to me, “ How did you know I needed to read/hear th...

One of the greatest inhibitors to personal and church growth is the FUD factor (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt). After the horror of Christ’s crucifixion, the incredulity then ecstasy of His resurrection and His times of sharing with His disciples, Jesus ascended to heaven. What did the disciples feel then? I’m sure they must have felt very “flat” after their mountain-top experiences, and probably uncertainty and doubts crept in - “ What do we do now?” , “ Why has He left us like this?” . In many ways, these phases in the birth of The Church mirror the phases in the birth and growth of our children. The teenage years are times of much questioning, of moving out from under the sheltering presence of parents, to discover one’s directions and goals in the ‘real’ world - these are the “Why?” years. Then the young adult blossoms, the world is at their feet and they are prepared to take on anything, with courage and determination. Just as parents must hold back in order to release thei...

What a sad pair of words they are - “If only...”. Often expressed as a matter of ‘fact’, they really express an attitude . It can be an attitude about the past , expressing regret about some-thing that did or did not happen. It can also express an attitude about the future - an attitude of not being able to progress in the here-and-now until some perceived future “need” has been met. Both attitudes run counter to the Bible’s teaching. Our failings and omissions of the past are covered, dead, buried and forgiven through Christ. In the present we are called to live by faith, not worrying about tomorrow ( Mt.6:25-34 ) . We are called to be good stewards of what we do have , even though we are all given different talents, opportunities and challenges (obstacles?). When we are good stewards in the use of the talents we do have (instead of whingeing about what we don’t have), then we will be blessed with further talents, opportunities and challenges ( Mt.25:15-29 ). If ...

A recent newspaper article reported that the rate of infant immunisations in Australia had fallen to around 68%. As a consequence, there have been a number of epidemics of preventable childhood diseases - measles in NSW, diphtheria and rubella in regions of Victoria. The decline in immunisation has NOT occurred among non-English speaking migrants - they understand the seriousness of these potentially fatal diseases prevalent in other parts of the world. The fall-off has occurred among 2nd and 3rd generation Australians who now take our high standards of health for granted. Another factor has been New Age thinking of people who believe that crystals and other such amulets have healing powers, and who put undue emphasis on alternative "medicine", rejecting proven techniques such as immunisation. If you still have doubts about the efficacy of vaccination, just ask your (grand)mother about the polio outbreak of the 1950's pre Sabin, or do some basic family history research i...

Two centuries ago with 'The Enlightenment', philosophers rejected the biblical doctrine of sin and began to teach that people are basically good - that only social structures are evil. If that is true, then to eradicate evil you do not have to change individual behaviour - only social structure. Moral effort was directed away from personal ethics and toward economics and politics. Jesus said that the one who is faithful in small things will be faithful in big things. It’s a matter of character. You see, the man who will cheat on his wife will cheat in his professional life. The man who has no self-restraint in his personal life will have no self-restraint in his political life. You can't have social morality without personal morality." Charles Colson, " A Dance with Deception " ----xxxXxxx---- Lk.16:10 "Whoever is faithful in small matters will be faithful in large matters; whoever is dishonest in small ones will be dishonest in large ones" ...

If you weren't at the evening service a couple of weeks ago to see 50 of our young people, fresh back from camp, arms linked, singing God's praise, you missed out on a great soul stirring night. Yet our children grow up so quickly. In a matter of 5 years or less, a thriving church can go into decline if there is no on-going flow through from nursery, pre-school, primary, juniors to youth groups. But even with the best Christian parenting, our children must become children of God in their own right - God has no Grandchildren . They must discover for them-selves God's salvation. So continue to pray for the youth and children’s leaders and teachers at all levels. The children of today are the church leaders of tomorrow. ----xxxXxxx---- Pr.15:20 "A wise son makes his father glad, but a foolish man despises his mother" Ecl.12:1 "Remember your creator in the days of your youth" Pr.29:5 "The rod and reproof bring wisdom. A child left...

It's the "great Australian dream" isn't it, the goal of every newly-wed couple - to "get on our feet". We have so many euphemisms - "getting ahead", "financial independence", "standing on our own two feet", and so forth. From childhood, peaking in our teens, we are exhorted to study hard to get a good education in order to get a well paid job. As newly weds, its scrimping and saving "just until we have enough for a deposit on a house". By then of course its having enough to give the new baby every opportunity. Finally, with the children off our hands, the prospect of retirement and living off our savings is looking us in the face. Right to the end, some are worrying whether they will have enough to pay for their funeral. What a worry-some lot we humans are ( Ps.39:6 ). This isn't the sort of life God wants us to lead ( Mt.6:25 ). The most joy-full life comes when we live by faith and trust ( Lk.12:29 ), when prayer...

Lord, what a relief when I discovered that temptation is not a sin! To know that I am in the company of the highest (and lowest) when tempted, even you yourself Jesus, I gain strength and encouragement. Thank-you Lord for your protection in not allowing me to be tempted beyond my means - help me Lord to realise the full capacity of the armoury at my disposal. Lord help me to realise that every temptation over-come is a cause for joy, of building up my character, a step along the path of obedience. Let me be "tempted" instead, by your grace, your love, your holiness, your beauty." ---===X===--- Eph.6:10-13 "Be strong in the Lord...stand against the wiles of the devil...resist the enemy" Eph.6:14-18 "...with truth...righteousness...peace..." Rom.6:13 "Don't yield to sin...give yourself to God...an instrument of righteousness" 1 Cor.10:13 "No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to all people. God will not...

" Man does not live bread alone ", that I know, but Man does live by bread a lot! Thank you Lord for recognizing and supplying my physical needs. But Lord, am I being unreasonable for asking for " Jam and Cream " on my " Daily Bread "? And perhaps a weeks supply in advance, " Just in case "! " You of little faith " you say. Yes! I see now. I must come to you every morning, Asking and trusting you for my needs for the coming day only, no more, no less. Forgive me Lord for trying to live on " stale blessings ", Instead of seeking and receiving from you " new every morning ". " Great is your faithfulness! " ---===X===--- Lam.3:22-23 "compassion never fails..new every morning..great is thy faithfulness" Lk.9:17 "They (the 5000) all ate and were satisfied" Ex.16:4 "...bread from heaven...gather enough for that day..." Ex.16:16-18 "...gat...