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

The Best Promise in the World Promises are a big part of our lives. They can be small and ordinary, like ‘I promise to be home by 6pm’. Or they can be big and significant, like ‘I promise to have and to hold from this day forward, as long as we both shall live.’ We all make many and varied promises. God, of course, makes many promises as well. The Bible is filled with them. Perhaps none bigger or more significant than John 11:25-26. Jesus says to Martha, as she grieves the death of her brother Lazarus, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” It's quite the promise. In

Passing the Baton What is the gospel? It’s a deeply important question. It’s a question that takes us to the very heart of our faith. One of the clearest definitions of the gospel that I’ve heard comes from one of my former pastors, Dave Miers, who defines the gospel as “…the good news that God saves sinners and restores all things through the perfect life, sacrificial death, triumphant resurrection, and glorious ascension of King Jesus, who is currently seated at the right hand of the Father; from where he will come to judge the living and the dead”. This is a good summary of the good news. But perhaps a more important question is: Do you believe it? Do you truly believe the gospel? The reason I ask is

Called to Forgive  I’ve recently been thinking about forgiveness a lot. I think most Christians probably think about this a lot, because most Christians (just like all humans) are wronged by the people around them. Here are three reflections on forgiveness, I hope they will be helpful to you if you are in the process of thinking through forgiveness.  Forgiveness is Urgent  The Scriptures even indicate that if we are unwilling to forgive others, we may not be forgiven by our Maker. This highlights just how important it is to our Lord that we truly seek to be following his example in the area of forgiveness. It would take too much space to go through all the passages which talk about this, but I’ve linked some of them below.

Feeling Anxious about Money? I was sipping on a coffee with a friend recently. And while we were chatting, he mentioned the pressure he’s feeling around money at the moment. It wasn’t crushing him, but he said he was feeling the pinch. The truth is many Aussies are feeling anxious about money. I read an ABC article today which said, “The majority of workers are struggling with soaring costs, reduced purchasing power and rising interest and mortgage payments.” That’s the situation we’re dealing with right now, and it’s leaving some feeling anxious or worse. What can you do if you’re feeling anxious about money? The emotion of anxiety is like smoke that’s coming from a fire in the human heart. We’re meant to follow the smoke to its source