“Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted.”  That’s another of those strange sayings of Jesus that seems like nonsense when we first hear it.  Someone has suggested that to be blessed is to be happy.  But if that’s so then we’re really saying: Happy are those who are grieving!  But what a cruel contradiction to say: Happy are the sad!  Are the sad really to be envied...? Our world is filled with all kinds of grief: bereaved partners who still mourn many years after their spouse was taken from them; the grief of a deserted wife or a...

Some of the sayings of Jesus recorded in the Bible don’t seem to make too much sense when we first read them.  Take for example these words of Jesus in the ‘Sermon On The Mount’: “Blessed are the poor for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.” Those words make up the first of what we call ‘The Beatitudes’.  There are nine such sayings - although the last two are on the same theme.  In the coming weeks I’d like to take you through those Beatitudes.  Jesus repeatedly singles out certain kinds of people so as to pronounce God’s blessing on them. ...

Have you noticed how often these days we are asked to take short surveys.  I’m talking customer feedback surveys.  You speak to your insurance company about a claim and after the matter has been resolved the lady on the other end of the phone tells you the company will email you a brief survey about your experience with the company - and would you kindly fill it in as it only takes about three minutes.  We recently had some electrical work done and when the invoice was later emailed to us it came with a request to provide some feedback for...

It’s Christmas... but... how real is God to you this Christmas?  Do you put God in the same category as elves and fairies?  Or do you accept that there’s such a being as almighty God but see him as distant, impersonal and uninvolved? It may help you this Christmas to think about some ‘mysteries’.  A mystery is something puzzling... something that keeps us guessing and wondering.  The dictionary defines mystery as something difficult or impossible to understand or explain.  Well, Christmas is a mystery.  No, I’m not talking about the jolly gent in the red suit living at the North Pole. ...

During his term as president of the United States, Lyndon Johnson was overweight. His wife challenged him: ‘You can’t run the country if you can’t run yourself.’ The ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle said, ‘I count him braver who overcomes his own desires than him who conquers his enemies; for the hardest victory is the victory over self.’ The Greek word, which we translate as ‘self-control’ literally means power over self or self-mastery. But self-control as a fruit of the Spirit is more than that. Paul writes “I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For...

Last week in this Blog I mentioned the horrible atrocity perpetrated by Hamas in southern Israel on October 7th.  I also stated that many of us find it distressing to watch video images of such real violence.  Allow me to make a bold and daring claim: our distress, for example, at Hitler’s murder of 6 million Jews during World War II, is one of the best proofs for the existence of God. That may sound incredible to you.  One of history’s most notorious atrocities - commemorated with a Holocaust Museum and concentration camp museums such as Auschwitz - and here I...

Has anyone given the advice ‘If you want to get somewhere in business be meek’? My dictionary defines meekness as ‘1. Having a patient, gentle disposition. 2. Lacking spirit or backbone; submissive.’ No wonder being gentle is not a popular concept. Our culture says one should be self-assertive, get what you deserve. What the Bible means by being gentle is usually misunderstood. At a rodeo a popular event is the cowboy trying to stay on a wild horse for ten seconds. A bucking bronco seems very powerful, doesn’t it? Compare that horse with the mounts used in the Olympics for the...

With some reluctance I’ll admit to being a bit of a woos... a softie...!  Reluctant... because I’m a male - and while I may not be of the Alpha variety - I know it’s not cool for a male to admit to ‘woosiness’.  Why do I say this?  Well, after the movie, The Power of One came out in 1992 one of my daughters had to watch it for her high school studies.  She invited her mother and me to watch the movie with her.  I did... for about 10 minutes.  A year later when Schindler’s List came out I had...

Finding a suitable card for a special occasion can often be frustrating. Many are either crude or overly sentimental. I once saw a Hallmark card that said, ‘I can’t promise you forever, but I can promise you today.’ Really?! Remaining married for 40 years requires faithfulness. The story is told of a man who had prayed 50 years for his friend, when he was finally converted. That is faithfulness, which is the seventh fruit of the Spirit. The Greek word for faithfulness means ‘to be assured, a firm persuasion, reliability or dependability.’ The Hebrew word for faith means ‘to believe, to...

A retired couple moved into the other half of a duplex that we now co-owned. She, apparently, was a church-goer, He wasn’t.  She had dropped into our introductory conversation that she was a Presbyterian.  I told her that she was blessed - there was a Presbyterian Church just around the corner.  Some months later I happened to speak to her again but our conversation didn’t go well.  She told me that she was never going back to that Presbyterian Church again.  Of course she justified the reason for her ban on the Presbyterians.  She complained that the preacher had had the...

While I was training for the ministry, I did a week’s practical under one of the original Dutch ministers of our denomination. He tended to mangle his English, producing some foot-in-mouth moments. He once compared all the voluntary work done in the church to those who were in paid ministry. He said, ‘I am paid to be good, and the congregation is good for nothing!’ ‘Goodness’ is the sixth fruit of the Spirit. The Hebrew word for good, ‘tov’, means that which ‘gratifies the senses, is delightful, delicious, sweet’. By extension it includes ‘that which is morally satisfying and right.’ The...

A Canadian pen-friend and I have exchanged national magazines for more than forty years. His Canadian publication arrived in the mail this week.  As usual it was brim-full of very readable articles and the kind of photography that leads one to marvel at the wonders of God’s creation. The concluding pages contained some reflections by a man who had just done some hiking in a national park in the Canadian Rockies. Having spent some days there myself some years ago I could understand the writer waxing lyrical about the beauty of the mountain trails of British Columbia. However some of what...

Coffee time at the Men’s Shed... and one of the blokes asks, “So John, you claim God made this world, what about the moon?”  “Yes, He made the moon too!”  “Well, what about all the stars... and I read recently that there are as many of them as there is sand on the seashore...?”  “Yes... God made the lot... this whole shebang universe!”  Good grief... what was the name of that book again by J.B. Phillips?  ‘Your God is too Small!’  My Men’s Shed friend sounded like one of those ancient Syrians who believed in localised gods: “Their gods are gods...

Once I was overwhelmed with ministry responsibilities while my wife was in hospital and our youngest was very sick. I didn’t have time to eat and was beginning to feel ‘h-angry’ as my sugar levels dropped. It was then a church member dropped by and said, ‘I heard things were going a bit tough for you. I didn’t know how to support you, so here, I bought you this hamburger.’ You can imagine how touched I was by that act of unexpected kindness. I remember calling him ‘angel from heaven!’ It’s been said, ‘Kindness is the language which the deaf can...

God’s Word transforms people - and even society. The history of revivals makes that abundantly clear. The message of The Book is proclaimed and lives are changed. During the Welsh revivals pubs went out of business and the police had an easy time as crime dramatically decreased. Many Christians can testify to God shaping and moulding them through The Book. But that’s where I also have some concerns. Over recent decades surveys in various countries show that amongst churchgoers daily Bible reading is dropping at an alarming rate. I grieve when I hear of members of my own family and my...

The town-house we were checking out was built twenty-five years ago.  But it looked much older.  There were three good reasons for that.  Two years ago a violent storm seriously damaged the roof.  Water got into the ceiling and walls.  The roof was fixed but the ruined plaster work was never repaired.  A second reason why it looked much older was no doubt because an elderly disabled gentleman lived there for the past decade.  I could imagine that it’s hard to stay on top of home maintenance when one is both elderly and handicapped.  But there’s a third (and more important)...

In the early 80’s I was in my first congregation where we were involved with EE III, Evangelism Explosion. We learned a method of presenting the gospel which revolved around two questions. We would go door knocking in the community and ask the person at the door: 1. ‘If you were to die tonight, are you sure you would go to heaven?’ 2. ‘If you were standing at heaven’s gate, and Peter asks why should I let you in, what would you answer?’ We had some interesting discussions, even at times being invited into the person’s home. (One intriguing response was...

Studying to become a pastor was dependent on my having — what was then known as — a Matriculation Certificate. My handicap was that I only had three years of High School. I had commenced work at 15 to help the family out of some financial difficulties. One of the subjects I took for ‘Adult Matric’ was European History (The Renaissance and The Reformation). As part of my College education I had to take Church History. One of the units was on The Reformation. I therefore thought that I had a pretty good grasp of that event that was kicked off...

At the end of the King’s Birthday long weekend, we drove our grandson back to his boarding school in Sydney.  Of course, it was very congested on the M1 Pacific Motorway.  Many people become quite impatient and angry in that situation.  I read the story of a man whose car stalled in heavy traffic just as the light turned green.  All his efforts to start the engine failed.  A chorus of honking and yelling behind him only made things worse.  He finally got out of his car and walked back to the first driver.  He said, ‘I’m sorry but I can't...

Most of us know the hymn, ‘When peace like a river’.  A lawyer from Chicago wrote it in the 19th century.  He had sent his wife and four daughters on a holiday to Europe by ship, and he would catch up later.  Their vessel was struck by an English ship halfway across the Atlantic.  His four daughters drowned while his wife was saved.  Overwhelmed with grief he wrote the words of the hymn, ‘When peace like a river, flows all through my life, when sorrows like sea billows roll: whatever my lot, you have taught me to say: it is well,...