The old biblical adage that those who spare the rod spoil the child has become rather politically incorrect these days. And, yes, there are far better ways of disciplining our ...

Freedom is something that we all yearn for. Freedom from rules, from burdens, from responsibilities that weigh us down, from difficult relationships – you name it, we want to be ...

Sure, it’s sill a few weeks out from Christmas. But the stores are all decorated and we’re on our inexorable way once again, to eh 25th of December. Christmas Day. But this ...

Here we are heading into this Christmas thing again – and for most of us, it’s a bit of a challenge just even to pay any attention to what it’s all about. Every year – ...

The word “equality” is highly misunderstood these days. Many are looking for equality of outcome, when what we should be focussing on is equality of opportunity. Allow me to ...

In the world of luxury goods – handbags, shoes, clothing – there’s a massive and thriving business in creating and peddling knockoffs. Imitations of famous brands using ...

There are currently almost a billion undernourished people in the world whilst 2½ billion are either overweight or obese. Over half a trillion dollars will be spent on illicit ...

The message that Jesus died on a cross so that the sins of the world – yours, mine and anyone else’s who believes in Him – would be forgiven feels so jarring in the context ...

A question for you today: What sort of friends have you surrounded yourself with? Good friends, loyal friends, mediocre friends … friends who aren’t even friends at all? What ...

It’s a big step – a huge one, in fact – to believe in Jesus. To decide, once and for all, that He is who He says He is; that He came to save you; that He came to give you a ...

Truth is very much a contested space in this post-Christian age in which we live, with everyone clamouring for their version, their truth narrative if you will, to gain supremacy ...

One of the really uncomfortable things that Jesus talked about was the fact that here on our journey through this life to eternity a whole bunch of us have this tendency of ...

“Truth” is an interesting concept. We understand it to be objective – something’s either true or it isn’t. But it can be offensive, hurtful, to the point where we ...

I guess most of us have watched action movies with superheros clothed in some mythical suit of armour that makes them invincible. If only we could borrow their suit! Yesterday in ...

Whilst the average lifespan of the average person is on the increase in almost every nation around the world, you simply can’t rely on the average to estimate how long you have ...

One of the really uncomfortable things that Jesus talked about was the fact that here on our journey through this life to eternity a whole bunch of us have this tendency of ...

Let me throw something at you and see what you think: Any Christian who doesn’t realise that they’re living life on a spiritual battlefield is, by and large, kidding ...

Our emotions are a huge part – a massive part – of who we are. You can’t ignore them – nor should you. But at the same time, they have a huge capacity to lead us astray. ...

So when was the last time that you felt insulted, miffed, hard done by? It happens for all sorts of different reasons. Sometimes we’re just in a bad mood and the smallest thing ...

Resilience is something that we need to instil in our children as they’re growing up because life can be tough down the track. But how resilient are we? How well, for instance, ...

For so many people who believe in Jesus, there is a yawning gap between the life that Jesus promises, and the life that they’re actually leading. The compelling urgency of just ...

There’s a world of difference between a full life and an empty life, one that blesses others and one that doesn’t – a life of deep satisfaction and one of chronic ...

There has always been (and I suspect there will always be) a considerable amount of friction between people of faith and those who aren’t; between those who believe in Jesus and ...

Anyone who believes in Jesus in this day and age is under enormous pressure – pressure to conform to the world’s immorality, pressure to adopt its measures of success. Serious ...

Suffering is one of those conundrums in life that can easily destroy your faith. How could a loving God possibly allow me to go through this? THIS?!! I wonder if I could ask you ...

One of the things I absolutely love about God is His desire to help us; to give us strength when ours is failing; to get us through situations that we can’t seem to get through ...

It seems to me that pretty much every da there’s someone out there who wants to insult you, to offend you – either directly, personally, or by insisting that you conform to ...

Have you ever been just a bit more than moderately concerned as to what lies on the other side of this life … when you’ve breathed your last? You wouldn’t be alone. Allow me ...

For so many people who believe in Jesus, there is a yawning gap between the life that Jesus promises, and the life that they’re actually leading. The compelling urgency of just ...

Life throws a lot of stuff at you, right? Constantly, day after day … challenges, conflict, uncertainty … you get the drift – so let me ask you, how well equipped are you to ...

So when was the last time that you felt, shall we say, “ethically challenged”? On the one hand, you knew the right thing to do. On the other, with a just quick sleight of hand ...

Hurling stones at Christians seems these days to be par for the course. In part, that’s because of some of the overt hypocrisy that goes on. Fair enough… no one likes ...

One of the worst things that can ever happen to small children is to be separated from their parents – to be lost and for that bond of security to be severed, even for a short ...

When some dies, people say things like “She’s gone to a better place,” or “May he rest in peace.” And whilst those platitudes might make us feel better, they make no ...

Have you ever wondered why there’s so much trouble in this world? Why are people so antsy? Where does all this anger come from? Why is everyone shouting? Why, indeed! One of my ...

Tiredness is one of the greatest pandemics sweeping the globe. Sure, we’ve seen other more spectacular ones like COVID come and go, yet tiredness contributes to more deaths each ...

For so many people who believe in Jesus, there is a yawning gap between the life that Jesus promises, and the life that they’re actually leading. The compelling urgency of just ...

You don’t often hear people in my position talk about the fact that we get tired. After all, I’m the preacher. I’m supposed to have all the answers. Yeah, right! But we do ...

When adversity slaps you in the face (yet again!) how much do you feel like reaching out to God? The answer for many, is not all that much. So we just sit there and stew in our ...

Like it or not, we all secretly keep a ledger in our heads. And each ledger has two sides. The credit side and the debit side; the good things we’ve done and the bad things ...

It’s nice, isn’t it, when other people value you – who you are, what you’ve done, perhaps even the potential they see in you. That’s nice. But we live in a world where ...

I wonder if you, like me, have ever found yourself labouring away, trying your darndest to do good things for God … but it feels, well, so hard. It’s as though God’s not in ...

None of us is perfect. I’m not and neither are you. Which presents us with a problem if we believe in Jesus. Because His promise is that when we put our trust in Him, He’ll ...

We all carry burdens around in our lives. For some they’re heavy burdens indeed. For others, not so heavy, but even those tend to slow you down; they have this effect of taking ...

Many people have heard the term “walking in the Spirit”.  That would be awesome, wouldn’t it?  I mean it sounds great.  But exactly what does it mean to ...

It’s funny how in life an accumulation of the little things – the minor inconveniences, the small annoyances, all the needs that others have of us – can grow into something ...

We all get to feeling weary at some point. It doesn’t matter how strong or enthusiastic you normally are – at some point. it all gets too much. “What’s the matter with ...

Have you ever seen someone in desperate need and thought to yourself ‘why doesn’t someone help that person?’ Why doesn’t the government, the church … someone, help them? ...

Don’t know about you, but I believe in Jesus. So on that day of judgement, which is surely coming for all of us, I know that I’ll receive God’s mercy. But here’s a scary ...

So, how often do you judge a book by its cover? Without being too judgemental, it’s likely that, if you’re being honest, the answer is … rather a lot. It’s the same for ...

Elite athletes are amazing. Whether they play a team sport or compete in individual events, they train so incredibly hard to become the best they can possibly be. So when you ...

On a scale of one to ten, let me ask you, how busy is your life? Are you one of these people who, when asked how things are going, answers “Oh, you know, busy, busy, busy”? Of ...

Many people have heard the term “walking in the Spirit”.  That would be awesome, wouldn’t it?  I mean it sounds great.  But exactly what does it mean to ...

One of the great tensions of following God’s call on our lives is how much faith to exercise in following the crazy ideas that come to mind, versus how much rational thought to ...

Anyone who’s ever set out to do something for God will know how tough the early days can be. But as things stabilise, as they get better little by little, the prize of success ...

Have you ever found yourself wallowing in the consequences of your mistakes, wondering what the road back might be – the road back to wholeness and ultimately, the road back to ...

We all yearn for a sense of deep satisfaction with our lot in life; a contentment that’s equally present in the good and the bad; an abiding peace that persists through every ...

The opinions of other people – especially when they’re strongly expressed (which they so often are these days) – appear to shout down the truth of God’s ...

Most of us have rather an uncomfortable relationship with the idea of death. On the one hand we know with absolute certainty that one day we’re going to die. On the other, we ...

How we see other people has a lot to do with how we treat them. And how we perceive them isn’t always that healthy. So when was the last time you took stock of the lens through ...

Believe it or not, God promises each person who believes in Jesus, the power to overcome. The power to overcome temptation. The power to overcome sin. The power to overcome ...

Have you ever noticed how difficult it is to change just a single bad habit? Giving up smoking, quelling your hair-trigger anger, dealing with the negative self-talk rattling ...

You have a lot going on in your life right now, no doubt. Happy things, sad things; good things, bad things; relaxing things, stressful things … all of which occupy your waking ...

Might I ask you quietly, plainly, directly … where are you at in terms of your faith in Jesus? Are you completely anti, lukewarm perhaps, or on fire? Wherever you’re at, would ...

If only some days we’d lift our gaze to the cosmos and realise how truly small we are; how precariously our planet hurtles through space around a minor star, just one amongst a ...

Personally, it’d suit me just fine if God would fit more with my expectations; do things the way I’d expect Him to. How about you? But, oh no … He absolutely doesn’t. And, ...

Most of us would like to think that we have a pretty decent head on our shoulders; that we’re able to reason through things; that we’re able to examine the facts and draw the ...

I don’t know if you’ve ever been belittled, rejected, even reviled for believing in Jesus, but let me tell you, it’s not a nice feeling. That being said, when you stand back ...

Believe it or not, God promises each person who believes in Jesus, the power to overcome. The power to overcome temptation. The power to overcome sin. The power to overcome ...

Believe it or not, God promises each person who believes in Jesus, the power to overcome. The power to overcome temptation. The power to overcome sin. The power to overcome ...

I’m sure you know how frustrating it can be when you know that you know that you’re right, and yet you have some idiot (sorry, but that’s how it feels, right?!) arguing ...

Have you ever felt even just a bit embarrassed at how little you have to give into the needs of other people, and if you’re a person of faith, toward God’s work? Others can ...

Don’t you hate it when evil people get the better of you? It rocks you to the core. It’s like “God, what are you doing? Why are you letting this happen to me?” I have a ...

So, humour me for a moment – whatever you happen to believe about the existence of an all-powerful, all-loving God … if He does indeed exist, would you really want to become ...

So, how do you know whether or not your faith in God is growing? Is it slipping backward, is it stagnant, or is it surging forward? What’s the yardstick by which you measure ...

All too often, the gifts and abilities that God’s woven into our very being go unappreciated by the rest of the world. Worse still – and you’ve probably experienced this too ...

You, no doubt, have days when you feel absolutely invincible – on top of the world. And then there are days when you feel powerless. Perhaps you have even more of those than the ...

Do you believe in signs, wonders and miracles for today? The supernatural power of God disrupting the natural order of things by breaking into your, natural, mundane little old ...

Who doesn’t want a more fulfilling life – one that’s free of the blunders they’ve made in the past, one that really impacts this world for good? That’s a natural, ...

It seems to be one of those fundamental laws of the universe that with every blessing comes a responsibility. So, for example, if you’re wealthy, you have a responsibility to ...

Most of us consider accountability to be a good thing. We should all take responsibility for our actions. There should be a reward for goodness and a punishment for evil … ...

The fiery judgement of God isn’t something that people want to believe in. It’s incongruous to think of a loving God in that way – not to mention the fact that no one wants ...

There are times in life when, as the expression goes, we feel the heat; when there seems to be a scarcity of the living water that Jesus promised. And it’s in that place that we ...

Let me be bold today and say to you that there’s no such thing as “comfortable Christianity”. In fact, what an oxymoron! If you want to just diddly-bop through life, go on ...

When you’ve made a blunder – I mean, a really bad one – it’s one thing to believe that God’s forgiven you. It’s another thing entirely to be able to accept that ...

Do you believe in signs, wonders and miracles for today? The supernatural power of God disrupting the natural order of things by breaking into your, natural, mundane little old ...

Interest rates go up and down on a regular basis. When they’re up, those who’ve borrowed find it harder and harder to repay their debt. And some, sadly, end up drowning in ...

I saw a coffee mug advertised online recently with the following inscription on it: ‘I can do all things through a verse taken out of context’. I thought to myself … man, I ...

Have you ever felt that you’re living life in a rut? You know what they say – a rut is just a grave with the ends kicked out. But believe it or not, God has given you the ...

On the surface of things, there seem many points at which the Word of God and contemporary thought collide. And when that happens, you and I are left with the choice of which one ...

I think most of us have many times had to decide – Will I return the shopping cart to the place marked out for that purpose in the carpark or will I just leave it, like so many ...

I don’t know about you, but I don’t like it when other people hurt me. Sometimes it’s intentional, other times not. But however it happens, at that point our natural ...

Each of us has opinions about … well, lots of things. About what’s right and what’s wrong. About politics. About celebrities. About what’s wrong with our wives, husbands ...

Jesus said that You shall know the truth and the truth will set you free. Problem is, most of us don’t know a lot of the truth and the devil has an absolute field day in our ...

Well, here we are … it’s Sunday, when we can hopefully set aside time to worship God and for some much-needed rest. And this Sunday, I just feel to share a powerful word of ...

Can I ask you to think back over this last week and ask yourself, what thoughts have I had, what words have I spoken, what things have I done that I know absolutely are wrong? ...

It’s easy to be hopeful about your future when the going’s good. But when it’s not, a sense of hopelessness – of despondency, even – can set in. And quite honestly, that ...

Can I just ask you to pause for a moment and take stock of how you’re feeling right now; of your emotional state? And in doing that, let me ask you, how hopeful … how ...

Some days you wake up feeling flat. Hey, some days I wake up feeling flat. We know we should be filled with the joy of the Lord, but … we’re just flat. That’s how it goes. ...

When you make a blunder that really should have you bearing the consequences, how do you feel when the person you’ve hurt, instead of criticising you, instead of punishing you, ...