Seasons of waiting  I love Autumn! The shorter days, the changing colours in my garden, the cool breeze, the amazing sunsets. But Autumn seems to get shorter every year and I know it won’t be long before the cold of winter sets in.   In my garden, winter seems to be a season of quiet, a season of waiting. The colour and fun of summer is over. The plant growth slows down. There’s less sunlight. Nature seems to be dormant, sleeping. All is still. You could be forgiven for thinking nothing is happening.  But of course, as any gardener will tell you, this is not the case. Under the ground, root growth is in full swing, preparing to take up water and nutrients when the time comes. Flower buds sit fully formed, ready to blossom, just waiting for the warmth. We may not see it, but nature is making preparations for brighter days, warmer weather and plentiful growth.  I can’t help but see a connection between winter in

Amazing Grace At the heart of the gospel is grace. Grace beautifully describes the event that is the most significant event since the world began. At Calvary, Jesus Christ died on the cross for the sins that he did not commit, our sins. Furthermore, he gave us his own righteousness instead of our own. The prophet Isaiah said “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags…” (Isaiah 64:6). That is grace. This event has changed my whole life. Yet I must confess that I have much to learn about grace. It is a nebulous concept, intangible, almost mysterious. I tend to understand things in a black and white way, and I have difficulty in seeing things outside the box as it were. I

At the end of 2025, Stephen, the Youth Pastor here at Oasis and my Life Group leader, asked me, along with others in our Life Group, if we would be interested in participating in the church’s internship program in 2026. I was not sure whether this would work for me. I have a part-time job, study full-time at Uni, and I still want to see friends, spend time with my girlfriend, and spend time with God. I just did not know if I could make it work. However, after seeing a few of the people in my Life Group say yes, I thought, "Why not?” So, I said yes, and then he asked if I would like to do an extra internship day, where I could choose a focus

Idolatry: Turning Good Things Into God Things   Idolatry is the giving of worship, love, adoration, or trust that belongs to God to anything or anyone other than God.  To put it simply, idolatry is taking a good thing and making it a god thing.  The first two of the 10 Commandments address the issue of idolatry.  In Exodus 20:3-5a, God says to the Israelites: “You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them;”  Some idols are pretty obvious.  People make things that are meant to represent a god.  The Israelites made a golden calf.   Hindus have images of gods they worship.  Now, you might be like, “Well, I don’t have any

Fearfully & Wonderfully   It’s a nice sentiment for someone to imply that you’re made wonderfully… but fearfully, on the other hand? Not so much.   Are you made in fear? Or to be feared? Or maybe through a fearful process? It’s not immediately clear what King David, the author of Psalm 139 means in verse 14: “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.” The psalm is commonly characterised as being part of the final Davidic collection (Psalms 138-145) and is thought to have been written during his persecution by Saul or his son Absalom’s rebellion.   So, what exactly does our fearful and wonderful creation actually mean? And what does it say about God? In his feature Crossway article, Sam Allberry puts it this way, in relation to having your first child: “… there's a sense of

“When Joseph arrived at Shechem, a man found him wandering around in the fields and asked him, ‘What are you looking for?’ He replied, ‘I’m looking for my brothers. Can you tell me where they are grazing their flocks?’ ‘They have moved on from here,’ the man answered. ‘I heard them say, “Let’s go to Dothan.”’ So Joseph went after his brothers and found them near Dothan. But they saw him in the distance, and before he reached them, they plotted to kill him.” (Genesis 37:14b-18) Sometimes it’s difficult to see the bigger picture in life, and sometimes it even seems impossible. We live in a culture that’s me first in almost every way, from the way that we interact with other people, to how we use our time

Psalm 48 Reflection – Selina Fyfe Kronborg Castle stands beautiful in the sunlight, its walls straight and tall and its towers stretching up to the sky.  It sits on the edge of the island of Zealand, in Denmark, with only four kilometres of water between it and neighbouring Sweden.  During my time in Denmark, I walk through and around Kronborg castle, marvelling at its strength and history.  Psalm 48 has been my special Bible passage for this trip, and as I walk around the castle I’m struck by the fortress analogy this psalm uses to describe God. Psalm 48        (NIV) A song. A psalm of the Sons of Korah. 1 Great is the Lord, and most worthy of praise, in the city of our God, his holy mountain. 2 Beautiful