Windows On The Soul

The world says, "When the going gets tough, the tough get going". But Jesus says, "My power is strongest when you are weak". The world says, "Tough it out". But Jesus says, "Come to me all you who are weak and heavy laden and I will give you rest". The world says, "Be the master of your own destiny". But Jesus says, "Take up your cross and follow me" ----xxxXxxx---- 2 Cor.12:9 "My grace is all you need. My power is strongest when you are weak" 1 Cor.1:27 "He chose what the world considers weak in order to shame the powerful" Isa.55:8 "My thoughts are not like yours and my ways are different from yours" Heb.11:33 "...they were weak, but became strong..." 1 Pet.4:1 "Strengthen yourselves with the same way of thinking that he had" Ph.2:5,7 "You should have the same attitude Christ had...gave up all he had and took the nature of a servant...

Having been challenged last Sunday about seeing Jesus in the needy, it would be good to praise God for some of our quiet achievers. Thank God for:- t he bread company donations that are collected and distributed regularly by some of our ladies. the supporters of Azeline House special accommodation for girls; for financial, spiritual, moral, emotional and physical needs. the Temple Day offering, especially the ministers distribution of the Emergency Welfare Fund offering. contributors to the casserole "bank". Heathmont Inter-Church Help volunteers. Please remember the box in the foyer for donations of food. Remember too the collection box for our missionaries’ Christmas Hamper. A short list like this can only give a hint of the depth of these ministries.  If you have or know some-one with a special need, or would like to help in any way, call the office or any of the Church's pastoral carers. ----xxxXxxx---- Mat.25:40 "Inasmuch as you did it for the...

In this age of Industry Restructuring and Business Process Re-engineering, everyone seems to be preparing "Mission Statements".  Even when one consults a Financial Adviser, he asks, "What are your Life Goals?". Anyone of "?0 something" asks "What have I done with my life so far? What will I do with the rest of it?". As we start this "Missions Month", it would be instructive to look at Jesus' personal "Mission Statements". Matt.5:17 "Don't think that I have come to abolish the Law and the Prophets, rather I have come to fulfil them" Matt.20:28 "The son of man did not come to be ministered to, but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many" Luke 4:18 "The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor, to heal the broken hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, to free those that are bruised, to p...

“ 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...

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...

In our years of “coffee shop” youth out-reach work, we put up with being sworn at, occasionally spat upon, and personal property damage. But I can’t think of any time when we felt in bodily danger. However, a week ago, such an incident did arise. In our 26 years of fund-raising for the Royal Children’s Hospital, we have volunteered our services to sell the Herald-Sun ‘WEG’ Premiership posters. Unfortunately, this year, the ‘out-of-towners’, Adelaide, won, and we were faced with trying to sell Adelaide premiership posters in the face of a rather angry, parochial crowd. Football crowds have always been a noisy fickle lot, but this was the worst I have ever endured. A boozed load-mouth slew our stock off the table, and as I turned, a swinging fist caught my cheek. I must confess, that my immediate thoughts did not include offering him my other one. Fortunately, his cohorts dragged him away and the incident was over as quickly as at started, but leaving my onlooking...

In 2 Tim.3:1-5 , Paul warns of the perils of the last days, including “ greed, boastfulness, pride, blasphemy, disobedience, unthankfulness, unholiness, unloving, unforgiving, slander, anarchy, brutality, treachery, head-strongness, haughtiness, decadence and spiritual impotence (having forms of godliness but denying its power) ”. The Christian gospel is a message of power, but a Godly power, and we are promised that we will receive power from Holy Spirit ( Acts 1:8 ). We are warned that the Kingdom of God is not in words, but in power ( Mt.6:13 , 1 Cor.4:20, 1 Thes.1:5 ). The spirit of Christ is the power unto salvation ( Rom.1:16 ) which impacts the church’s procreation. The power we have available by Holy Spirit is the power to heal ( Lk.5:17 ), for wonders and demonstrations ( Rom.15:9 , 1 Cor.2:4 ) and against spirits ( Mt.10:1 , Mk.3:15 , Lk.9:1 ). More importantly, Holy Spirit gives us power in our personal lives - over the temptations of all flesh ( Jn.17:2 ), the p...

A dozen years ago, my wife and I were asked to counsel a young couple who had a young child with a minor congenital deformity. They had spent tens of thousands of dollars travelling to every major paediatric hospital in the world. The consistent answer was “Why come to us when you have the world’s best back in Melbourne”. But the saddest part of the situation was the father’s family’s almost complete rejection of the child - they simply couldn’t accept that any descendant of theirs could possibly be anything less than perfect. This is not an uncommon attitude in our ‘post-Christian’ society, and even some western Christians have great difficulty coming to terms with illness. It is soon forgotten that the wonderful life-style we can have, educational opportunities, justice, health care, ‘human rights’, the status of women, etc. are nearly all due to the work and influence of Christians. And yet society wants to keep the gifts and ignore the giver. The ‘world’ is not a natu...

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...

I thank my parents that as a child I was taught to write an "I want" list. This helped me identify those things I "really" wanted well after the initial plea had faded. Then came the hard part of giving up some things to save up the money to buy my heart's desire. The same principles apply to our Christian walk. We want to serve, but are we prepared to pay the price? We want to be humble, but are we prepared to be humiliated? We want to be a true disciple, but are we prepared to truly discipline our body, mind and soul? We want to be loving, but that includes the "unlovely", and carries the cost of sacrifice, non-reciprocation, even outright hostility. We ask in pray, but are we willing to accept and obey the answers given? ----xxxXxxx---- Lk.18:18-23 "'What must I do to have eternal life?'...you lack one thing, sell all you have and distribute to the poor...he was very sorrowful for he was very rich" Mt.16:24 "If anyo...

I was saddened during the week to receive the following prayer request through the International Christian Leadership electronic network. This Elder's Church has been involved for about 2 years in outreach to chronically mentally ill patients at a home, bringing residents to worship services. Some had become members. However, a fair number of the core Church members felt uncomfortable and threatened. Consequently, the Church "Session" voted to exclude these disabled members from worship. The carers have taken to conducting special mid-week services at the home. But how does one tell these people that they cannot go to "their" Church to worship any-more? This from the land of "free speech" and "freedom of religion". Please pray for this elder and his faithful band of carers. Also pray for the other members, that they might understand the " Acceptable year of the Lord". ----xxxXxxx---- Jn.8:7 " He that is without sin a...

Ian Fleming’s ‘007’ said, “ Twice is coincidence, but three times means enemy action ”. Have you ever had, seen or heard of those series of incidences that when least expected, quietly whisper, “ God’s incidences! ”? It’s a truth that the most beautiful, desirable things in the world can never be grasped. It’s as if in the very reaching for the desirable object, relationship or emotion, it is immediately polluted by the selfishness of the grasp, and immediately slips further away. How many times have we pleaded with God to act in a certain way, or desperately looked for signs of some answer to “prayer”. But in the silence of His reply, He is saying, “ Don’t you worry about what I should do; I will do what I need to in my time. You just get on with what YOU should be doing ”. It's in these times when we are faithfully, obediently and lovingly saying and doing what God invisibly leads us to do, and boldly stepping forward to tackle the needs of the world that He puts across our ...

To laugh is to risk appearing a fool; To weep is to risk appearing sentimental; To reach-out to another is to risk involvement; To expose feelings is to risk exposing your true self; To place your ideas and dreams before the crowd is to risk their wrath; To love is to risk not being loved in return; To live is to risk dying; To hope is to risk despair; To try is to risk failure. BUT....Risks must be taken Because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing. The person who risks nothing, has nothing, does nothing, and is nothing. He simply cannot learn, feel, change, grow, love, or live. Chained by his certitudes he is a slave; He has forfeited freedom because only a person who risks is free.

"Scripture Union is sad to announce the death of a staff worker in Rwanda.  Simon-Pierre Mugabo was a 34 year old schools evangelist who joined the staff in 1990. SU (Victoria) do not have the details of the circumstances of his death, or of the situation of his wife Marie and their one year old son." "SU has also been informed of the death of Israel Havugimana with his aged father and two children. Israel is a former SU staff worker, but was working with Africa Evangelistic Enterprise at the time of his death." "Please pray for the tragic political situation in Rwanda, and for other Christian workers in the area" Scripture Union "Outreach", Winter 1994 ---===X===--- Mt.16:24 "If any man wants to follow me, he must deny himself..." Ps.143:10 "Teach me to do your will, for you are my God..." Lk.14:26 "...does not love me more than family, he cannot be my disciple" Mt.26:42 "...if this cup ...