Spirited Word

Send us Fan Mail We find ourselves witnessing that marvellous moment high up on a hill somewhere in Judea with Peter, James and John. The glory cloud descends and the two greats; Moses and Elijah appear, representing the Law of God and God’s prophets sharing a holy huddle with the Son of God. It is mesmerising and then it is gone. But not before that audible voice confirms Jesus as the Saviour is...

Send us Fan Mail It is hard to be confident sometimes. It is hard to be sure of the world’s future, our church’s future, the whole Christian church’s future. It is hard to sure of my own future when it come to my health, aging, my relationships with everyone.  Isaiah is God’s mouthpiece to a people who have lost it all and probably think they have no future at all. They are already in exile in a f...

Send us Fan Mail Unity among any people of any group is so fulfilling. Unity in a team makes it so much fun and is so crucial for any ‘success’. How much the more for a fledgling new community of the resurrected Jesus in a hostile world?! Paul continues recounting his story to try and call the people in the Galatian network back to what he first taught them, - that the gospel of Jesus’ dying and r...

Send us Fan Mail God has his plans, but can they ever change? Are we on some unchangeable schedule that is set in concrete that can never be undone and re-shaped?   Seems that in the account of this conversation between Jesus and a gentile woman way out in gentile territory, things are not so set in concrete when it comes to living a life faith in Jesus’ love and authority.   This woman is a mum,...

Send us Fan Mail These are changing times for anyone living life as part of a local church. it feels like it is all new and we have to try and figure out the 'silver bullet' that will fix all our problems. Of course, there is no silver bullet, but there are some wise things to consider. One is the need to pivot from a clergy centred/led supported by the people kind of church to a people...

Send us Fan Mail In the pressure cooker of a rapidly changing world where it seems we are all somehow supposed to now not RECEIVE our identity but MAKE our OWN identity based on our own experiences, values, feelings and thought, what does define you and who chooses you to love? And what about that Christian thing called 'Baptism'. Did that happen to you in your personal history. if so, s...

Send us Fan Mail John 1:6-8,19-28 God entering our human flesh and bones in this Messiah long-promised, chooses a fellow human of the same flesh and bones to point to his move, his presence, his light, his Star of Christmas.  Makes me wonder that if there is no John the Witness, we might miss Jesus the Saviour? If we don’t hear John’s witness, we might miss the bold move of God to truly be ‘Emmanu...

Send us Fan Mail Titus 3:4-7 Christmas actually does things to us because this Saviour-child did things and is still doing things he began back in that shed.   Of course, it is safer to keep Christmas happy and traditional family time. Nothing wrong with family or tradition. But if that is all this celebration is for you who have been on the receiving end of the kindness and love of God, that is s...

Send us Fan Mail Revelation 21:1-6a   This picture of the 'sheep and the goats' at our end always seems to come across as an angry God finally getting his payback on people.  This is no mere piece of art imagined by a mere human being pondering great mysteries unsure of who God actually is. This is God giving the vision of how it actually is and how it will be.   Even more, this is a vis...

Send us Fan Mail What and why this Child? Luke 1:26–38  Mary is not feeling the glow of Christmas lights or the warms and fuzzy vision of a family Christmas lunch! Mary is terrified at the arrival of the news.   But in her fear, she finds a crucial question. What child is this?  And even more: Why this child? Why lies He in such mean estate,  Where ox and ass are feeding?  Good Christians, fear, f...

Send us Fan Mail I Am Legion Luke 8:26-39 26 They sailed to the region of the Gerasenes,[ a ] which is across the lake from Galilee. 27 When Jesus stepped ashore, he was met by a demon-possessed man from the town. For a long time this man had not worn clothes or lived in a house, but had lived in the tombs. 28 When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell at his feet, shouting at the top of his voice,...

Send us Fan Mail We all want this final affirmation for living now with some clarity, some hope, some meaning some joy. I want to ‘enter in the joy of the Master’ who knows what I am doing and have done and will do, so that in the end he ticks my contribution as good, useful, meaningful, gospel good news in a very ‘un-gospel’ world. 

Send us Fan Mail Press On toward the goal: Into the Water           1 Peter 3:18-22 The flood a symbol of baptism 18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit. 19 After being made alive,[ a ] he went and made proclamation to the imprisoned spirits – 20 to those who were disobedient lo...

Send us Fan Mail We Are His Building John 2:13-22 13 When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. 15 So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money-changers and overt...

Send us Fan Mail The Spirit is Working Acts 7:55-60 55 But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 56 ‘Look,’ he said, ‘I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.’ 57 At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him, 58 dragged him out of...

Send us Fan Mail The Treasure We Live and Leave 1 Peter 1:3-9 3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by God’s power un...

Send us Fan Mail We seem to have settled for ‘church’ being a building more than a people, where the building is an end in itself and not a tool for different people, where the church we belong to is more a fixed institution than an adaptable movement, only a weekly gathering more than a daily relating, something we ‘attend’ more than a life we ‘do’ together; a spectator sport we watch rather than...

Send us Fan Mail Christians always have four things to ponder as they live their faith in the face of an overwhelming non-Christian or even anti-Christian society. They could either; Go along, Go underground, Give it back, or Give it up. What if there is a fifth way to live it well?

Send us Fan Mail Jesus' close friends found out just how Jesus can shine. No matter how we might try to hide him or dismiss him, or how much we struggle to live in him, he will always find a way to shine.  Whatever happens in my life, he is in it. Jesus will be heard, and his kingdom will continue to come close to me. Whatever happens to us as a church, he will speak and some people somewhere...

Send us Fan Mail Real complaint to God, brings real clarity from God. Job sees. He sees his own limit, weakness, lack of power and certainty and he sees God’s unlimited goodness, power and commitment to the world. Job sees God as Giver:  everything the Lord lists here is gift – gift for life, gift for human life, gift for Job.  In Job’s suffering the sun rises, the clouds form the rain comes the s...

Send us Fan Mail We remember Paul and Peter who became big names for the first Christians and all Christians since those first heady days of the Jesus movement in the world.  We live in a righteousness that does not come from achieving, performing, being good or bad, but comes as gift from Jesus' achieving, performing being holy and true- enough for us all.  Any lasting peace, unity, confiden...

Send us Fan Mail What do you need when you are under heavy pressure at work, in your relationships, your study, your family? You need someone important to you to tell you have their approval and support no matter what.   Even better when this respected person; the boss, the teacher, the lecturer or your spouse or parent or child says these affirming words.. and even  publicly.   Like when the boss...

Send us Fan Mail I suspect we want to know we did something good, we made a positive difference with all we were given. We all want and have wanted all along to breed love and joy in our kids, our families, workplaces, present friends and associates. We know the world needs joy, hope and love.   We all want this final affirmation for living now with some clarity, some hope, some meaning some joy....

Send us Fan Mail Nathaniel was found by the fig tree. He was looking for new hope there. it weas not in the tree. it would be in the man who would give his life on a cursed tree so we be free!

Send us Fan Mail I listened the Luther on this and it made sense…..    The Lord …… compares it (the Christian community - us) to ten virgins. Five are wise, five foolish.   The foolish virgins are those Christians who give the appearance and impression of being godly. They want to be good evangelicals (Lutherans) and are able to say much about these things. They praise the Word and say: “Yes, it i...