One game that is often played at church picnics or school sports days is a tug-of-war. Two teams of people engage in a competition of strength and persistence as they dig their feet into the ground beneath them, hold on tight to the rope in front of them, and pull with all their strength against... Continue Reading →
Love or Hate? (Luke 14:25-33)
We can all have things in our lives that we love. Sometimes, our love for those things can be so strong that we can reject, dismiss or even hate other things. For example, we might love chocolate so much that we never eat lollies, or the other way around. We might love our football team... Continue Reading →
The Spirit of Truth (John 14:8-17,25-27)
Most of us would have done a True or False test at some stage in our lives. These tests are simple: we are presented with a statement and asked to say if it is true or not. For example, we would say that “3x3=9” is mathematically true. The statement that European settlement in South Australia... Continue Reading →
The Golden Rule (Luke 6:27-36)
A couple of weeks ago we talked about the heart of the Christian message being love: trusting God’s love for us in Jesus and loving others the way Jesus loved us. One way the Bible describes this love is 1 Corinthians 13. We talked about growing in our capacity to love others in 1 Corinthians... 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 →
Birds, Flowers & Worries (Matthew 6:25-33)
There are a lot of good things about living in the Barossa Valley. Over the last year since we’ve moved here, two aspects I enjoy about living here are the birds and the flowers. There are a wide variety of birds that live in the Barossa. I can understand why they can be a problem.... Continue Reading →
Making Disciples (Matthew 28:16-20)
Just about every day, most of us go somewhere. There might be days when we just like to stay at home and not go anywhere special, or our mobility might be limited and we might not be able to go where we would like as often as we might hope to, but in one way... Continue Reading →