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

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