The Messiah is come. Immanuel, God is with us. Don’t miss Him in the busy crowd. Don’t pass by oblivious to His presence. Slow down and soak yourself in the story again and listen to the voice of the Spirit who inspired Luke to write.

The reason for the names of the wicked and the good … and others, too, is important. Good or wicked, Jew or foreigner, male or female, they were all part of the Messiah’s line. Matthew is showing his readers that God has been using all types of people to…

Well, Christmas is coming – and seems to be in a hurry this year. Christmas trees and decorations are popping up everywhere and the Christmas buy-up is happening as we look for gifts for loved ones and friends. Every year we see the same, of course, and we Christians see the crass commercialisation of Christmas, too – it is rampant and driven…

Now, we all know that when you light a match in a pitch-dark room, that one little match dispels a lot of surrounding darkness – way out of all proportion to its physical size. Light is incredibly powerful – remember I said that. John says several things here about Jesus;…

The Gethsemane scenes are harrowing and filled with such intense, exhausting anguish that He sweats blood. The Lord shares with His friends His deep sorrow. They sense the approaching dread but are still struggling to understand it all. They have no idea how shocking and faith destroying the next hours will be for them. They fall asleep praying, leaving Jesus to battle on alone.

But social media platforms are not the cause of all this, they are just the means to that end. The causes have been fermenting for many decades. The power of social media has simply accelerated things. There have always been disagreements between people. But, on the whole, the nature of public discourse has been polite and respectful of differing points of view. Not anymore.

Many of us have heard the rowdy chant in the streets of our capital cities in the last few weeks – “End the occupation!” The chant has gone up almost like a war cry as has the other chant, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!” Both chants have featured in what the media intentionally and falsely label “pro-Palestinian” demonstrations in our capitals. They are actually “anti-Israel” demonstrations when we understand what these chants actually mean.

I had that experience in 1988 when I had been fasting and praying for my son, Tristan, who was suffering chronic asthma – so very frightening I could not leave him for a moment. On the eighth night in the early morning hours, as I was praying over him, suddenly everything went quiet. Absolute, utter silence….

This spirit is not new. It is beyond time and space and it is everywhere in the world – we saw it screaming obscenities at the Sydney Opera House last week. It has been seen all throughout human history in ancient and modern times. Hamas is but one of the major manifestations of this principality. It is demonic.

Why? That is THE question! Why is the prince of the kingdom of Persia so fanatically determined to kill Jews?

Last week’s attack on Israel from the terrorist group, Hamas, has triggered a fresh outbreak of end times speculation. This seems to happen every time there is a serious clash in the Middle East involving Israel. That’s understandable, I guess, but this latest conflict is major and has triggered even more heightened speculation than usual. Some “commentators” reckon this could be “it”.

As I shared breakfast this morning and engaged in conversation with Ps Tony our talk ranged across many different themes. Prominent in all this was the eruption of violence in the middle east, and the upheavals and unrest all around the world including in our own land of Oz with The Voice tensions running high, and so on. And a feeling of…

There are other manifestations from the “second heaven” we see on the earth, too. These are bad. They’re inspired by demonic powers and principalities unseen by us…

A group of faith leaders were able to prayerfully make a difference back in 2000. Thousands of Christians and pastors can make a difference today – while we have today. But we all have to act.…

Baptism is no mere ritual, it is an “enactment” by faith of the believer, of an eternal redemptive truth, in such a way that our former life is gone – God designates it as dead. He sees us differently now. The old me is dead. The new me is…

Jesus was talking about the same thing as the psalmist had realised – one human soul is worth far more than the whole universe. God’s scale of values. There is a very different scale of values in God’s economy of things. In that scale of values we human beings are…

And this deeply grieves me – to see our nation so now divided. And worse, if the proposed change comes into being, is to have our constitution – which is for all Australians – forever divided also. The division would be enshrined in law that no parliament can change.

There is very good reason for God’s apparent slowness, I think. I would rather have this slowness guided and held by God’s faithfulness, than the swiftness of my ignorance of how things really work. Imagine that carnage?

The fourth year is the same, too. Apparently, nothing is happening despite all the watering and fertilising going on. Then towards the end of the fifth season green shoots suddenly break through the surface of the earth and begin to rapidly grow - sometimes as much as a metre in a single day…

There is something gentle and precious, and enduring and delightful about walking with God. We keep pace with God, and He with us …

But demons do not die. Yes, their time will come – Jesus, Himself, will deal with them. For now the church must be strong, righteous and courageous in intercession and prophetic declaration against all demonic influences without fear or favour. Through the work of the priests of God – the church – who must stand against demons and evil practices in their day, The Restrainer (Holy Spirit) works to ensure…