May the King Live Forever!
At the coronation of King Charles, the public were exhorted to cry out, “May the king live forever!” Someone suggested that Charles may end up being disappointed in this, since history has not given any precedents of kings or queens living forever! That, however, is not what the phrase means. There is One King over […]
“COO-EE”
‘Coo-ee’, described as a prolonged, shrill, clear call or cry, was used as a signal by our indigenous people from the Dharuo language and adopted by early settlers. Who has not yelled ‘coo-ee’ to produce a clear echo in the bush? In 1915, during World War One, when Australian soldiers were fighting in Gallipoli and […]
The Source of All Evil
The Times of London once invited readers to write into the newspaper on the theme, “What’s Wrong with the World?”. A brave invitation to a general population of human beings! Amongst the many contributors was one from Christian novelist, G.K. Chesterton. In answer to the question his letter read, “Dear Sir, I am!”. Basically, we are responsible […]
Soar We Now
At the end of three years of pandemic, a whole year of war in Ukraine, a cavalcade of horrific natural disasters, and increasingly difficult economic conditions, (not to mention our own particular trials) it would not be surprising at all if we found ourselves on a bit of a “downer” this Easter. Yet, in light […]
Loser
We can be committed to the cause that faithfully serves God and upholds His truth, yet false forces that undermine Him can seem to win out and defeat us. This is understandably painful and demoralising. Yet we should neither be overly surprised, nor despair. The One we follow as Lord was the greatest seeming loser […]
Death is Horrible
There’s a heresy that says that death is just an ordinary, natural part of life, and that we can learn to accept it and feel OK about It. This is usually the main message spoken at funeral homes – i.e., that we shouldn’t think of the person as dead but rather as still with us, […]
Awakening
The language of awakening has a great place within the traditions that formed the Uniting Church. It has been used to describe times of significant revival in the spiritual life and mission of the Church. Awakening is also about individual believers becoming fully aware of the truth and power of Jesus Christ and being transformed by it. […]
You Can’t Shut Up
Every person, all the time, is proclaiming a message to those around them. It comes out in our actual words, and in how we live our lives. Jesus said that what comes out of our mouths tells what is most important to us in our hearts (Mt 15:18,19); and the Bible teaches that what we […]
Lent
Lent is a period of forty days prior to Easter that is recognised by many Christian traditions. It was designated as a time for fasting and prayer to help believers prepare to celebrate the great events of Easter, and to be enriched spiritually. However, at times the practice of Lent has been approached – consciously […]
Hurt
It gets harder to watch the TV news. The tragic scenes from the Turkiye and Syria earthquake become more and more devastating. Human beings cannot see other people in pain and distress and feel no different; some of the pain transfers to us. One of our gut reflexes is to look away and try not […]