Little seems certain anymore on so many levels … we’re all affected by it in some way in our daily lives in the wake of the COVID mess as we try to adjust and adapt to new realities.

So, is anything certain these days? Anything at all?

But here’s the thing. If Holy Spirit cannot be “at home with me”, the anointing is not released. It cannot flow. We can grieve Holy Spirit. Perhaps the main way, according to the apostle Paul, is through bitterness and everything connected to that. He writes this …

I grew up in a fairly traditional eastern suburban church where the worship, until the day I left to marry and relocate to Footscray, was pretty traditional, too. Worship of a Sunday morning consisted of a “four-hymn sandwich”…

The little girl kept talking to her dad, but I noticed that after a few minutes she had started raising her voice in order to break through the focused concentration of her dad on other, apparently more important, things. Dad remained studiously focused on his phone….

Mandela began to speak about his journey and where it had landed him. He shared many, many things about the years of imprisonment, deprivation and struggle. But one or two things, in particular, stick in my mind from that day. Mandela said, “hate is a luxury no one can afford;…

Our challenge, post-COVID, is to not just “get back on the horse” after all that has happened to buck us off these last two years, and just resume what was. NO! Our challenge, as Grady teaches, is to participate actively in what God is doing - and bring heaven to earth. When that happens…

What kind of a mission strategy is that? Pretty risky. Not much of a mission plan some would think, and it would probably be laughed down at denominational headquarters these days as lacking sophistication and common sense! Just blown where the Spirit of God would have them go – that was it. Yet, this was pure missional genius.

For some people right now, Christmas must seem a long way back in the rear vision mirror. Not for me. As I write this I am on my last day of annual leave – and some of the Christmas sounds and experiences are still fresh for me.

We’re about to land on Christmas after an almost year-long journey. The ride has been quite bumpy for the most part, and when the captain called lockdown #6 – which was expected to last about a week – it got very, very turbulent, indeed.

I want to encourage you all today to heed the words of Jesus … to acknowledge that in life troubles and heartache will come … but these do not define life. No! What defines our lives is largely determined by whether or not we choose to overcome – and how we do that.

I am very aware that I am about to tread on sensitive ground. However, I do so with much love and as much grace as I have, to discern the Body of Christ with great respect. I love the church. If it were not for the church – the people of God – I would not be a believer today, let alone be in ministry serving the King of Kings.

But here is the thing with discipline. There is no genuine discipline without delight and desire. The craftsman working with wood works with great discipline because there is a deep desire to see some new creation emerge from that piece of wood.

The issue was behaviour and attitude that not only created division and humiliation amongst the people of God, but accentuated and actively promoted it. This divisive behaviour was just so despicable and, as Paul warned, was an utter failure to discern the Body Of Christ.

Last year, in social media circles, FOGO – the Fear Of Going Out – was used by millennials as a light-hearted piece of slang to tease friends about their hesitancy to join in some social activity, especially night-clubbing. But over the course of 2021 FOGO has come to mean something far more disturbing.

That means that any law a state government introduces that impacts on religious freedom cannot be overridden by the constitution. In Victoria, we are fast coming to the place where we Christians and “religious bodies” will be required to justify to secular authorities our freedom of religious expression.

That is a line in the sand for me. And that means it is time to speak.

By the end of the process, after many stirring and scooping steps, the lead looked like pure silver in the melting pot – exactly like mercury. The surface looked like a small round mirror, in which I could see the shadow outline of my head.…

I am convinced that this is one of those times when the people of God need to speak and voice their concerns about the preservation of justice and fairness for everyone. It is time for God’s people to add their salt to all this…

I am convinced that a similar virus has infected much of the Australian church, too. We behave more like Gehazi and slip into panic mode, abandoning our renewed mind and losing our poise. Not a great witness, is it? The end result of that misshapen mindset is that…

I am forever grateful that Jesus never insisted on His rights but, instead willingly laid them aside because He loved me – even when I was still a sinner and far, far from Him. I have no rights of ANY kind to this grace and love. If Jesus had not given up His rights, as God, we would all still be in sin – and eternally doomed.

He wasn’t happy – not at all! He was cheesed off, to say the least, and what was God doing about it? Nothing. So it seemed. There he was, morning after morning, praying to the Lord and pouring out his heart. The frustration and anger, he does not hide. Just listen to him …