We feel enormously uncomfortable distinguishing between those who are Christian and those who are not within the church. John doesn’t. In fact, he has left the church tests by which to identify genunie Christianity from false. The reason this matters … Read more
Category: Faith
Matthew 19.1-30. Commitment
Jesus opens up the topics of sex, power and money, topics that were as difficult to speak about when he addressed them as they are for us today. His solution is not to proclaim our rights in these areas but … Read more
Matthew 14.22-36. Shame & vulnerability
Brené Brown in 2010 spoke of how her research on vulnerability discovered that people who live in cities like Melbourne have lives marked by shame. Shame, she says, is more than acknowledging we have made mistakes, it is concluding that … Read more
Matthew 13.1-23. Choking the word of God
Why doesn’t God make himself more obvious? Jesus’ answer is that God does make himself clear and will one day make himself unavoidably so but what we see or understand now of God depends upon whether we see ourselves clearly … Read more
Genesis 25 – 27. Hating God’s promises
We expect faith to be accompanied by goodness but in this story it is accompanied by shrewdness and deception that everyone knows will soon be discovered. Yet, Rebekah is commended by her husband for the determined way she values the … Read more
Genesis 12. Faith with fear
The life of Abraham strikes the modern reader as full of faith and full of fear at the same time. There are many challenges he must face since leaving the safety of his home land. When God calls us to … Read more