Blog

Most weekday mornings Anna and I go for a walk. We leave in the dark of night and get home around first light. The stars shine brightly as we turn and make our way into Pennant Hills Park. Familiar scenes are now indistinct and shrouded in mystery "What was that noise?" "I'm sure this path is clear, but ?" "There are potholes ahead, I'll be careful no I'll turn my phone ...

I'd like to share two ideas from Christians brothers I respect greatly. First, my mate, Kel Willis. One day he asked how comfortable I'd feel walking into a TAB. That's easy. I did it once in New Zealand (ask me later). I haven't done it since. I don't plan to. The TAB is not my scene. It's foreign. I don't know the people who hang out there and, although I've got a gener...

After this year's Pennolife week, the church kindly gave Jess and I tickets to Jenolan Caves for our own Cave Quest adventure. 2.5 hours later, 170kms from Pennant Hills and after a pitstop at the famous Leura flowerpot scones, we got to the Caves. It was magnificent inside the caves - much more spectacular than I could have ever imagined. Stalactites hanging in cluster...

Australian author, journalist, and radio personality, Kel Richards, has the following simple, some might say simplistic, definition of evangelism. Evangelism = Introducing People to Jesus. ''This definition",he writes,"makes our responsibility clear. And it also makes it clear where our responsibility ends". Let's say I have two friends, Craig and Fred. I say to myself,...

"Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun" Ecclesiastes 2:11 I had been raised in a Christian family and I knew theoretically what the gospel was and who Jesus was, but knowing didn't bring me any joy or comfort. I didn't begin to take it seri...

The 2016 Census results are in and, depending on who's reporting, it's either a cause for celebration or national mourning. The statistic I hear reported most often is this: 'Australia is losing its religion'. About one third of Australians now say they don't have a religion up almost two million from 2011. Furthermore, those who identify as Christian have declined in num...

'London Bridge is falling down, falling down, falling down my fair lady'. It's just a nursery rhyme, but over the past few weeks it seems eerily close to the truth. Every day there seems to be a new report of some atrocity happening in the English capital. But it's not just London, war in Syria continues apace, school children in the Philippines are targeted by militants, ...

Born in New England in the 1750's, Lemuel Haynes was abandoned by his parents as an infant and raised by a Christian family as their indentured servant. At the age of twenty-one he was granted his freedom whereupon he enlisted to fight in the American Revolutionary War, first as a Minuteman (civilian colonists who formed local militia) and then as a regular army soldier. ...

Only ten days till Winter Solstice. It's cold and dark. Some people prefer this time of year (I'm married to one), others can't wait for the heady days of summer. Winter in Judea, the land of Abraham and Jesus, is much the same as our winter we're about the same distance from the equator. For example, an average winter's day in Tel Aviv is 618oC, ours is 917oC. Winter m...

Earlier this week a friend of mine told me about a conversation he had with another friend of his. This person chose to make a decision detrimental to their health and well-being. In response, my friend responded in frustration, 'OK. You make your choice.may your gods go with you'. What I think he was trying to say was, 'I don't think this is going to turn out well. So wh...