Blessings of Being Reformed Last week I spent a week at the Reformed Theological College (RTC) in Melbourne. For those who don’t know, I’m a Candidate for Ministry in the CRCA (our denomination), and the RTC is our denomination’s college. Once per semester, candidates travel down to complete an intensive training week, spending 9-5 each day in lectures. It’s long, tiring, and intense (pun intended!) but also a lot of fun. We get to meet other candidates, eat lunch together and wrestle through lots of different topics. This particular semester, we looked at Pastoral Ministry in Reformed Churches. This means we looked a lot at the core beliefs of our church, how church is structured and run, and a bit of the history of our denomination as well. Throughout

Hope for Overwhelmed Dads In light of Father’s Day this Sunday, the following is a blog post written by Jon Tyson, pastor of Church of the City (New York) and author of The Intentional Father: A Practical Guide to Raise Sons of Courage and Character. “A good father is one of the most unsung, unpraised, unnoticed, and yet one of the most valuable assets in our society.” (Billy Graham) “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.” (Ephesians 6:4) Figuring out how to be a good father can feel like a mystery these days. As much as I have written on it (The Intentional Father) and preached on it around the country, it can still feel overwhelming and complex. Almost everywhere I

Don’t Wait for “Tomorrow” We’ve all, at some point, put our relationship with God on the back burner. Life gets in the way, and we tend to make excuses for why we don’t have enough time to maintain, let alone grow, our relationship with Him. This is something that I found myself doing in my own life as “things got busy”. We often think that once we finish our exams, finish a project at work, or get out of this busy slump, we’ll start reading our Bible again, start praying, or start putting in the effort with God.  Here's the thing: while it can be good to be busy, being busy can also harm our relationship with God. We might be busy doing good things, but those good things

Proverbs 31 – A Guide on Biblical Womanhood or a Universal Note on Godly Wisdom?  Having had “The Proverb’s 31 Woman” jotted down on my list of passages to further explore for some time now, I was curious about what other people thought. The reflection’s I’ve found are varied, especially in women – some feel inspired by the sheer scope of the woman’s commitment and capabilities; while others feel demoralised by a sense of personal failure in never quite reaching the wife- and motherhood standards themselves; and still others disregard her altogether as an outdated depiction of a ‘perfect Christian woman’. And what of the men, some of whom are bound to see her as the benchmark for an excellent wife, while others write her off as too precious a jewel to find?  Where do you fall? As a woman? As a man? As married? As single? It seems that often this passage is best thought of as a useful guide for women aspiring to marriage or as a tool best used in the context of women’s bible studies… but is this all that we are meant to glean from Proverbs

In Exile  Have you ever felt like you didn’t fit in? Maybe all your friends are really into running. And it’s all they talk about. And none of it sounds remotely fun to you. Getting up before the sun? Getting all sweaty? Losing your toe nails? Needing to carefully schedule your toilet visits? No way! Maybe you’ve even quoted Proverbs 21:1 to them. You know the one about ‘only the wicked flee when no one pursues.’    But seriously, it doesn’t feel great to not fit in. And as Christians we can often feel this way. Like we just can’t relate to this world. Like we’re walking a different path. Like we don’t really belong here. And maybe that’s because we don’t.  In the opening verse of 1 Peter, Peter addresses his letter ‘to those who are elect exiles…..’ That’s us. We are in exile, living in a land that is not our home. No

Story Behind the Song: O the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus  This Sunday we are singing a hymn I haven’t heard or sung for a long, long time. As soon as I started reading the words again, I was reminded just how rich they are. They’re packed with truth, drawing our hearts to reflect on the greatest love we will ever know: the deep, deep love of Jesus. Even better, these beautiful lyrics are paired with the well known tune Ebenezer, making it a hymn that’s both theologically rich and easy to sing.  Much can be said about this poem, which later became a hymn. Research reveals that the writer was Samuel Trevor Francis (1834-1925), an English businessman, lay preacher, poet, and hymn writer (what a resume!) While many modern retellings claim he battled depression and wrote this poem following a dramatic personal experience, there is little historical

Why Do We Serve?  Every Sunday, something remarkable happens at Oasis. Before many of us arrive, people are already here. Coffee is being made. Musicians are rehearsing. Kids rooms are being prepared. Sound systems are being switched on. Welcome teams are ready at the doors. After the service finishes, people stay behind. They stack chairs, wash dishes, pray with others, clean up, and lock up.  And that's just Sunday! Across our church, almost 290 people are serving on a team in some capacity—nearly half of our adult church family.  But why? Why serve? Why give up evenings? Why arrive early? Why stay late? Wouldn’t life be easier if we didn’t serve?  The Bible gives us at least three reasons why we serve.  We Serve Because God Has Served Us The most important reason we serve is simple: we

Remembering God’s Faithfulness in Unfruitful Times Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer’s; he makes me tread on my high places. Habakkuk 3:17-19, ESV How often have you wondered whether God is really faithful? Is He really in control? Can I really trust Him? Having doubts like this is not uncommon. When we are stuck in the rut, in times of hardship or sorrow, and