I sit on the beach and watch the waves roll in towards the sand, a never-ending mass of water rising and falling, over and over. As I watch, the waves build, climbing higher and higher before breaking in white foam as they charge in towards the beach. The sea water is turquoise green, and the whiteness accentuates the movement of the waves. They reach towards the golden sand, making it solid and flat, perfect for a long walk on bare feet.  Psalm 93 (NIV)  1 The Lord reigns, he is robed in majesty;     the Lord is robed in majesty and armed with strength;     indeed, the world is established, firm and secure. 2 Your throne was established long ago;     you are from all eternity.  As I walk along the beach the sun

Doing Good  Have you ever been called a “do-gooder”? I have. It doesn’t feel very nice. Although, when you think about it, it should. It should be a compliment. Doing ‘good’ is actually a positive thing. How can it not be? And as Christians we are called by God to do ‘good’ in this world.  Ephesians 2:10 tells us, “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Hebrews 13:16 says “And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.”  The question is, what sort of ‘good’ should we be doing? Or more specifically, to whom should we be doing ‘good’? The answer of the Bible to this question

Justice Sunday: Living for Others  This Sunday is Justice Sunday at Oasis. Each year, we set aside a Sunday to stop and think about God’s heart for justice and mercy and what it means for us, as people who belong to Jesus, to reflect that heart in the world around us.  The words of Micah 6:8 are familiar to many of us:  “He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”  What does that actually look like in everyday life?  When we look around the world, the needs can feel enormous. We see war, poverty, persecution, trafficking and children growing up without safe homes. We see people

We don’t talk about oppression much in our society, or even in our churches, but some form of the word ‘oppress’ appears 125 times in the Bible. The Israelites were oppressed in Egypt (Exodus 1), by the king of Canaan (Judges 4:2-3), by other nations (Judges 6:2, 10:11-13), through the fall of Jerusalem (Jeremiah 39, 52 and Lamentations), and the exile (Daniel). Joseph suffered through different types of oppression from his brothers, Potiphar’s wife and in prison (Genesis 37, 39–40).  Hannah was oppressed by her husband’s second wife who provoked and taunted her (1 Samuel 1:1-20). Where should we turn in the midst of oppression? When mistreatment or cruelty comes our way? Psalm 94 is a prayer we can pray to bring our hearts before God through oppression.  Psalm 94 (NIV)  1 The Lord is a God who avenges.     O God who avenges,

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