Sing a New Song!
There’s just something about music! Every culture throughout history has valued singing and musical instruments as a way of expressing what means the most to them. Happy songs, sad songs, retelling real or fictional events – all have this wondrous capacity to touch people’s hearts. It seems to be wired into our DNA. We shouldn’t […]
The Cosmic Spirit
We have been shocked and stunned by the chaos breaking out in creation in recent days: mountainsides, boulders, houses, trees, floods, mud and human beings thrown together in an uncontrollable, destructive maelstrom. When God’s Spirit first hovered over the chaos before creation, He brought order, separating earth from the waters so that plants, animals and […]
Why Do We Pray!
Prayer is one of the best known aspects of the Christian life… and also one of the least understood and most easily overlooked. For many people, prayer is seen as either a chore that religious people must do (think, for example, of Muslims’ daily prayers) or a desperate last resort when things are going badly. […]
Gifted
Today’s theme is “the gifts of the Spirit.” But what exactly are these gifts? Many of us will be familiar with the lists of spiritual gifts Paul gives us in 1 Corinthians 12 8-10 and Ephesians 4:11. Included are preaching, teaching, prophecy, wisdom, healing, speaking in tongues and many others. But we use the same […]
Life in the Spirit
In our Life in the Spirit series, we have seen that the Holy Spirit gives us new life as God’s forgiven, loved, and justified children. Jesus has already won this for us by His grace, and the Holy Spirit makes this new life real in us every day. Because of this, we are called to live by […]
The Israel of God
In the Bible, you will often see God referred to as “the God of Israel” or “the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.” What does this mean to us today? This is a particularly relevant question in light of current events in the Middle and Near East. Can today’s Israel be equated with the Israel […]
All My Boast is in…
Last week, we sang, “All My Boast is in Jesus.” But what does it mean to boast? We might think of people who are very “up themselves” and quick to tell people all about their successes. Here in Australia, where our culture is to barrack for the underdog, we don’t tend to like such people […]
Salvation in the Small Stuff
Exodus 2:1-10 is a popular tale among Sunday school teachers. After the king of Egypt orders all newborn Hebrew boys to be thrown into the River Nile, the baby Moses’ mother obeys the letter of the law… by leaving Moses in a basket on the riverbank. An Egyptian (the king’s daughter no less!) has pity […]
Christmas in July?
Seeing the number of Christmas in July sales at the shops recently, I was struck by the absurdity of it all. When did Christmas in July become a thing? I don’t remember it being celebrated at all when I was a child. Upon more research, however, I discovered that the concept is older than I’d […]
Back to the Future
In the Bible, remembering the past always fires our imaginations toward the future. We give thanks for 160 years of Golden Grove Church—for the people who came to faith in Jesus and joined together in worship, service, and witness. Yet the significance of those 160 years, and of the Church’s 2,000-year history, is not simply […]