It has been a tough year for farmers and grape growers in the Barossa Valley. Poor seasonal rain, a couple of severe frosts and challenging market conditions has made life really difficult. Over the last six months or more I’ve heard stories of people having almost nothing to show for the year’s work as they... Continue Reading →
Back to Basics (1 Corinthians 13:1-13)
Matthew, Mark and Luke all tell stories of conversations Jesus had with people about the greatest commandment (Matthew 22:34-40; Mark 12:28-34; Luke 10:25-28). Jesus quoted the Old Testament when he said that the greatest command is to love the Lord God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength (Deuteronomy 6:5), and to love our... Continue Reading →
So Many Choices! (Ephesians 1:3-14)
Have you ever looked at a menu and found it hard to decide what to order because there were so many good choices? Sometimes we can go to a restaurant or café and something on the menu appeals to us, so we choose it straight away. At other times, however, there can be so many... Continue Reading →
Joy in the Mess (Luke 2:1-7)
When people are expecting a child, they often plan for the baby to be born in a birthing suite at a hospital. These maternity wards are clean and sterile where every care is taken for the safe delivery of the child. Experienced medical professionals are present in case there is an emergency of some kind,... Continue Reading →
Joy (Philippians 4:4-7)
In 1974, a Hungarian sculptor and architecture professor named Ernö Rubik invented a puzzle which has challenged and frustrated people ever since. If you’ve never seen a Rubik’s Cube, it is a small cube with nine tiles on each face. When you buy a Rubiks’ Cube, the tiles on each face are the same colour... Continue Reading →
Peace (Luke 1:68-79)
Finding our way from one place to another has become much easier since the Global Positioning System, or GPS, was invented. Finding our destination on a map, working out the best way to get there, and relying on someone in the passenger’s seat to give the driver accurate directions could get pretty complicated. It was... Continue Reading →
Faithful (Ruth 3:1-5,4:13-17)
How far would you go to keep a promise? We all make promises to people at some stage or another in our lives. Some of those promises can be relatively minor, such as saying that we will pick up something from the shops, take the rubbish out, or be somewhere at a particular time. Some... Continue Reading →
A Glimpse of Eternity (Revelation 7:9-17)
A few months before any new movie is released in the cinema, a trailer for the movie usually appears. We might see these trailers in a few different places: as advertisements on our televisions, at the cinema before we see another movie, or on YouTube. Their purpose is to give us an idea of what... Continue Reading →
Sweet! (Psalm 19:9,10)
One of the good things about joining in with school worship on Friday mornings is the complimentary tea or coffee that is provided. A few different options are available and after letting the very kind volunteers know what we would like, they usually respond with the question, ‘Would you like sugar?’ I’ve been told that... Continue Reading →
Unstained Religion (James 1:17-27)
The word ‘religion’ can mean lots of different things. For example, when people say they aren’t religious, it can mean that they don’t attend church services. An increasing number of people talk about being ‘spiritual but not religious’ which can mean that they believe in something but aren’t part of a religious organisation. People can... Continue Reading →