We don’t ever “come to church”, no, no, we the church come to worship to minister to the Lord for He is so worthy of that ministry … and, in the process, we receive from the Father far more than we could ever possibly offer Him…

As I was preparing this week’s Connect Group bible study guide (‘One Another Commands” #4), and reading the apostle Paul’s command to the church at Rome (which he hadn’t visited yet), I was struck by the strength and insistence of it …

Remembering is intrinsic to who we are … because no one wants to be forgotten. To be forgotten is to lose something of our very humanity, to lose our sense of significance as a person made in the image of God. And so, we remember while we can remember, because at some point we, too, want to be remembered. I find it incredibly moving that…

The anointing quickens faith in the one ministering and in the one receiving! We need to know and understand that. Why?

Because a new season is upon us where we are being given, as God’s called out people, anointings to use in specific ministry moments. But there is more…

But what I have always found fascinating is how did these other prophets know? They knew! But how? And back then, as we know, there were no phones, email, Zoom or other communication technologies that we take for granted today.

But they knew!

The Cross states in the most horrific, bloody, gruesome way that sin is no joke. It is death. And one way or the other it will be paid for, either at the Cross, or at the judgement seat of Christ. We get to choose.

The extremism label is now the weapon of choice for many media commentators. Why? Because it is so effective. It instils fear – the fear of association, the fear of reputational damage, the fear of being marginalised. The extremism label is being used as the blunt instrument to control the parameters of public debate and polite discourse – who is allowed to say what, and be properly and respectfully heard.

It is the word from the ancient Greek language which is translated “fellowship” in English. That word, “fellowship” has some kind of currency these days, but mostly in church circles or amongst Christians. You rarely, if ever, hear that word used anywhere else in society. To me, that makes it a special word.

Recently a visitor to one of our worship services enquired of me afterwards during morning tea why we placed our hands on people when we prayed. He had never seen this occur in his Baptist Church heritage. Come to think of it, I never once saw the laying on of hands when I was growing up in Churches of Christ, either. So, what is this “laying on of hands” thing we do in prayer?

So, a canary in the coal mine. Something, or someone, whose sensitivity to dangerous conditions makes it a useful early indicator of such conditions before anyone else has realised; something which warns of the coming of greater danger or trouble by a deterioration in its health or welfare. But here’s my point. We have “canaries” for a reason. What sane person, or board, or government, ignores what the canaries are signalling?

There is today, I believe, the unprecedented challenge of postmodernity cynicism which mocks and tears down most forms of traditional truth and reason – especially biblical truth. The church is experiencing big challenges as a result. So, my question to the promo question is, exactly what do we have to do to “adapt” to the situation? What does “adapt” even mean here?

Although, probably, no statues will be erected in memory of most of us, individually, what if that could happen? What if someone erected a statue to your memory? And, somewhere down the track some skeleton in the closet was discovered that meant that vocal activists would start screaming for its removal?

When John was suddenly “in spirit”. He saw wonders and terrifying things to come, and he heard Jesus very clearly, too - no uncertainty, no ambiguity, whatsoever. May I encourage you to persevere in prayer and in worship – and in consecration, too – in order to learn, not the theory of prayer and worship, but the believer’s skill of being “in spirit”.

This is not a pretty picture. We are so obsessed with the way we use time and loading as much into our schedules as we can that we are putting our lives at risk. And for what? What kind of returns are we seeing for such frantic, frenetic living?

On that cold August night in 1968 my whole life changed – forever. I heard the preacher preaching that night, as I sat there in church next to my mother and grandfather. An hour beforehand I had been brutally beaten by my father for some misbehaviour that I cannot recall … and I was still bleeding as a result, and quietly weeping in the sad lostness of despair.

Right towards the end of his message, Ps Les Dewberry was concluding with an explanation of Psalm 27:10…

The whole Christmas story has been so  romantically shaped and interpreted over generations. We know it off by heart – minus the smells of the stable where Jesus was born (you can’t have that in the Myers front windows!). We can predict the whole thing now in a way that has been shaped by us so that it fits into our schedule, our preferences and our mindset with all the appropriate niceties.

God never imposed “Christmas” upon the world. He made Himself vulnerable … the Word became flesh … and tabernacled amongst us … lived with us, full of grace and truth. In a very real sense, God came to earth incognito – almost secretly. In the same way, we must not seek to rescue “Christmas” from the machinations and manipulations of our secular culture.

I was chatting to a young couple this week as they were doing another session of “Prepare” with me, which is a pre-marriage preparation course (hence the name) that I encourage couples to undertake in preparation for married life. It is absolutely the best preparation course for engaged couples there is. Anyhoo, one of the sections in the Prepare questionnaire is about spirituality, and one question asks about whether one “understands what the Church teaches about marriage as a sacrament?”

One psychiatrist describes moral injury as the ethical and psychological toll/price that comes with doing things that stop us from meeting our own eyes in the mirror, or laying our heads on the pillow at night. There is a price we continue to pay when we violate our most precious moral beliefs…

So, where does all this leave us? One of John’s points with the man’s response was that he was relying on legend, myth and superstition for healing – and this was not working and had led to profound disappointment and loss of hope. Enter Jesus…