Revelation Teaches that We’ll All Get a New Name? …I will also give that person a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to the one who receives it. (Revelation 2:17) This peculiar promise is the final line of Jesus’ letter to the Church in Pergamum in Revelation 2:12-17. We’ll be investigating this passage together in the sermon on Sunday, but we won’t have time to dig into the meaning of this line. So, I thought I’d take some time to dig into it with you here. This final line is actually part of a larger promise that Jesus gives to encourage the Christians in Pergamum to be faithful (Revelation 2:14-16). But again, what exactly is Jesus promising here? When I first became a Christian,

How the Holy Spirit Helps Us I had a conversation with someone last Sunday about the differences between Islam and Christianity. Of course, there are a number of key differences, but perhaps the most fundamental one is their differing views of God. Islam posits one God, creator of everything, eternal, all-powerful and all-knowing. Christianity also believes there is one eternally existent God, but that this one God exists in a loving relationship of three distinct Persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. To use the (profound) words of the Athanasian Creed, “…we worship one God in trinity and the trinity in unity, neither blending their persons nor dividing their essence. For the person of the Father is a distinct person, the person of the Son is another, and that of

This Awe That? I was struck by the quote from Paul Matthies that Jesse used in his sermon last Sunday: “Sometimes we call ‘loneliness’ what God’s word calls a longing for unhindered intimacy with him and others. And we start thinking that other people can provide us what only God can provide. And it amazes me how often I call ‘loneliness’ what is actually a groaning for redemption. And instead of trying to numb it, I should embrace it and try to realize that it’s God’s good gift to me to remind me that this world is not my home.” This quote ties in nicely with a book that I’ve been reading recently – Paul Tripp’s Awe. In this book, Tripp states that we all have an awe problem.

Forget the Past, Focus on the Future The apostle Paul said to the church at Philippi, “Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead, 14 I press on towards the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenwards in Christ Jesus” (Php 3:13-14). The one thing that he was intent on doing was to forget the past and look to the future. He had put to bed his former life of “…making havoc of the church, entering every house, and dragging off men and women, committing them to prison” (Acts 8:3). We may not have committed such heinous acts as Paul, but we all have

Life Together My 11-year-old son, Asher, and I were talking about what he might do when he grows up. Like many 11-year-olds, a famous football player was high on his list! Other options included a carpenter, like his dad, or a professional gamer (I don’t think so, buddy)! He then asked me to explain what I do, which people often ask when I tell them I work at a church. I started to give him a brief overview; I help to organise Sunday services, I organise events for Oasis Women, I write emails and articles, and I visit people to chat with them or pray with them. At this point, he interrupted me: “Wait, you actually get to go to people’s home and visit them as part of your

God’s Gift to All Did you know there was a solar eclipse last week? Maybe you were like me and went outside in great anticipation of seeing something amazing, only to be a little disappointed. That’s because in Brisbane we experienced only a partial eclipse. But for those in Exmouth WA, they witnessed a spectacular sight, a total solar eclipse. I listened to an interview with a reporter who was there to see it. She spoke just moments after the eclipse and the wonder and emotion in her voice was obvious. She spoke about the drop in temperature that occurred just before the moon began to pass directly across the sun and of the eerie quiet and stillness in the birds and wildlife. The word that she kept using

Maintaining our Love for Jesus Last week I was at a pastor’s conference, and I heard something that deeply challenged me. One of the pastors shared his belief that: “If you are spending more of your free time consuming Hollywood and Reddit and Youtube and Tiktok than consuming the Word of God, you should expect to be an unhealthy follower of Jesus”. He went on to explain that usually, a person’s worldview is largely shaped by the people they spend time with, whether in person or on a screen. Today, we often spend significant amounts of time “with” Hollywood or with various segments of the internet.  This is also true for TV, and for news shows. I have known people in my life that every day consume political news

How Could Anyone Believe in Resurrection?! I was settling into bed when my wife turned to me and said, “Don’t you think people must think Christians are absurd for believing in the resurrection?” She was trying to understand how other people think about our faith, and it’s a fair question to ask. I wonder what your family or workmates think about the idea of someone rising from the dead. It sounds a little crazy if you just throw it out there like that! I spoke to Michanne that night about the surprising amount of evidence there is to support the resurrection of Jesus. Since then, I’ve been thinking about how we can show our unbelieving friends the plausibility of the resurrection. I ended up stumbling across an article written