While I briefly served the Christchurch congregation some years ago I was forcefully reminded of the Seven Deadly Sins.  No!  It’s not that the congregation there was very good at them.  It’s rather that New Zealand has a pizza company called “Hell”.  Yes, you read that correctly!  On one occasion I found one of their advertising brochures in the letterbox and noted that their menu is based on the Seven Deadly Sins: lust, gluttony, greet, sloth, wrath, envy and pride. The concept of a list of key sins that alienate us from our God and that threaten our salvation is based...

One morning Bob came to see me in my study.  He had an issue with something that someone in the church had done.  His request was quite specific, “John, the elders of the church needs to talk to this man and deal with the problem.”  I asked Bob, “Have you followed the Matthew 18 principle?”  He admitted his ignorance and asked, “What’s the Matthew 18 principle?”  I reminded him of the words of Jesus, “If your brother sins against you, go show him his fault, just between the two of you.  If he listens to you, you have won your brother...

A number of years ago one of my elderly parishioners was quite distressed after speaking to her older sister in The Netherlands.  This sister was suffering from inoperable cancer and she and her doctor had agreed that her life would be terminated.  (Assisted suicide became legal in Holland in 2002.)  The only thing left to decide was the date.  Her sister had told her that it wouldn’t be this month because there was a family wedding she was still hoping to attend; then she did still want to celebrate her 84th birthday too... but perhaps after that. Euthanasia in The Netherlands...

Early in my ministry I preached on a passage of Scripture that Christians from Pentecostal churches would interpret quite differently.  I felt I needed to defend our understanding of the Scriptures at this point so somewhere in my sermon I unloaded against Pentecostals and Charismatics.  I must have done that in a less than gracious way because afterwards a dear friend in the congregation said to me, “John, what you said was absolutely true.  I agreed with everything you said.  But I found it painful because you were talking about some very dear friends of mine.”  That dear sister in Christ...

Someone asked whether I still had on file a copy of the “Letters to Keith”, a series of ten letters which were published by the late Rev. Bill Deenick back in the early 90s.  They were written at a time when the CRCA – like so many other churches – was going through the “worship wars”.  I didn’t have my copy anymore.  I suspect that I loaned it out to someone and that they were never returned.  So I contacted my brother, who is a son-in-law of the Rev Deenick.  He sent me an electronic copy of these letters so I...

We have this uncanny tendency as human beings to see things almost exclusively through our own grid.   When someone forcefully expresses views that are identical with our own we see him as being astute and a defender of truth but when someone takes a line that we disagree with then we see him as being opinionated and plain wrong. Of course it is true that some are opinionated.   Undoubtedly too there have been times when I have manifested that same arrogance of spirit.   However I find it sad when a teachable spirit is lacking. Towards the close of...

One of the things when dealing with forgiveness is the matter of justice. I am very mindful of the fact that if it were not for God’s mercy towards us, none of us would be forgiven, but all of us would remain under God’s wrath for our sin. Thankfully, God’s mercy and justice met in the person of His Son Jesus Christ and hence we, repenting and believing may be assured of our own forgiveness. Of course this is also true for those that sin against us, and especially so if they are Christians. Ultimate their sin is also paid for...

I have a natural tendency to be a bit of a hoarder – just a bit. I find it hard to throw out clothes that have passed their used-by-date. I have an excuse though. Old shirts and pants always seem so much more comfortable! The shed has a lot of junk that should go to the tip too – as my wife keeps reminding me. However as a handyman I’ve often discovered that two or three days after I throw out stuff I suddenly have a use for it. My present hoarding problem is one of paperwork. Over forty years of...

I don’t recall the context but some sporting hero recently got himself into trouble with some moral misbehaviour. That’s nothing new, but what struck me at the time was a television commentator asking the question: Does he deserve to be forgiven? In our local book club we were discussing Jamie Ford’s debut novel, “Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet”. It’s a good yarn. Ford tells about the fate of Japanese Americans during the Second World War as they were relocated into “detention camps”. In that context a lad of Chinese descent develops a close friendship with a Japanese-American girl....

Most of us have heard about the latest shooting in America at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando. Forty-nine people have lost their lives at the hand of a lone, crazed, gunman, claiming some affiliation with the terror network, ISIS, and with many others seriously wounded. What does one say when these acts of evil are perpetrated against ‘law-abiding’ citizens? Well let me suggest what we shouldn’t be doing or saying first. The last thing anyone should be doing is standing on their ‘soap-box’ claiming the higher moral ground, whether they be Christians or otherwise. Rather, let us weep with those who...

One thing that concerns me is what I call the “minimalist” approach in regard to the way we live our Christian lives. Allow me to begin at home, for that is where it all begins and from there it filters through to other areas in our Christian living, including the church. The “minimalist approach” to family and personal devotions is a disturbing trend and detrimental to a families spiritual development. Sometimes I have dared to ask busy parents whether they read the Bible and pray together. Occasionally the answer is affirmative (praise God) and at other times their answers leave something...

I cannot understand why so many people don't believe in an Almighty, Creator God. And then to consider, He was mindful of us, by sending His Son as our Saviour. Have a look at this interesting Youtube clip - I still can't get my small mind around the vastness and the intricacies of all that He has made.  So instead of writing heaps, let this video clip say it at least some of it....https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfSNxVqprvM      

There was a Facebook post recently: a picture of some clocks and a critique of how we label time. It read: “Time doesn’t exist, clocks exist. Time is just an agreed upon construct. We have taken distance (one rotation of the earth and one orbit of the sun), divided it up into segments then given those segments labels. While it has its uses we have been programmed to live our lives by this construct as if it were real. We have confused our shared construct with something that is tangible and thus have become its slave.” One could fault this critique...

This Sunday we remember Pentecost, 50 days after the resurrection of our Saviour and Lord from the dead. We know the story well from Acts 2, when God the Holy Spirit was poured out onto the NT church. It’s not that God the Holy Spirit wasn’t present in the Old Testament, He was, but now in the New Testament, He lives in the hearts of all believers in Jesus Christ. I wonder sometimes whether we really appreciate that the Holy Spirit is not some lesser person of the Trinity, but is equally God. I have a suspicion that if we thought...

Someone once remarked that not all readable books are Biblically sound nor does all Biblically sound material make for a readable book.  The delight for the Christian reader is when a book is both a good read and the content is soundly Scriptural. The same can be said for movies.  I am increasingly finding that the movie offerings these days leave much to be desired when it comes to content even though the cinematography can sometimes be very impressive.  On the other hand I have often watched movies that have been produced by Christians where the content is good but the...

Every now and then I am asked by a disturbed Christian whether he or she might be troubled by an evil spirit. The answer is, "Yes of course! We're all troubled by that embodiment of evil personified – Satan." As the Apostle Peter says, "The devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour." And this Enemy of our souls certainly has his helpers to trouble us night and day. C.S. Lewis gives some helpful insights into the work of those demons in his "Screwtape Letters". The problem is that this answer usually doesn't satisfy my enquirers. They...

Beginning with a disclaimer is probably worthwhile: I’m no prude! A hundred years ago (or so it seems) I began my working life in factory full of blokes. The language there could get very colourful. One man in particular had developed the fine art of splitting a long word in two and squeezing in an expletive. Consequently I’m not quickly shocked by someone’s colourful language. But I got to thinking about this at a recent meeting of our local book club. The book we were discussing had a fair amount of language that I would not use and that most of...

Solomon once wrote: "Of making many books there is no end..." (Eccl.12:12). I'm tempted to add: "Of the reading of many books there is no end either..." except that it wouldn't be true – because one day I will read my last book and my reading will come to an end. Maybe Solomon didn't get it quite right either – unless he knows something that I don't: that there will be books written in God's new creation. Maybe! I was reflecting on this recently when I was reading a book that I didn't particularly appreciate. I had bought it because I...

Jesus once quoted some words from the Psalms that have often left me more than a little mystified. He was debating with the Jewish leaders who challenged him because He had dared to claim that He was God – one with the Father. As they are about to stone him for the sin of blasphemy Jesus says, "Whoa! Hold on a minute! Doesn't God say in the Bible: 'You are gods!'?" (Westy's paraphrase). So is the Bible teaching us that we are divine? Lots of people seem to endorse wholeheartedly the idea that we human beings are really gods – or...

I am sure that most people have heard about the ‘Hajj,’ an annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, a city in Hejaz, in Saudi Arabia. It is a mandatory religious duty for Muslims that must be carried out at least once in their lifetime by all adult Muslims who are physically and financially capable of undertaking the journey, and can support their family during their absence. It is one of the five pillars of Islam, alongside Shahadah, Salat, Zakat, and Sawm. It seems to me that Christianity is in danger of having a ‘Mecca’ all of its own. The ‘Mecca’ I am...