Recently Ivana Trump was interviewed on television.  Ivana is the ex-wife of Donald Trump, one of the wealthiest men in the US of A. Somewhere along the line the interviewer asked this lady what she had learned in life.  She replied, “I’ve learned that money doesn’t grow on trees.” When I picked myself up off the floor I couldn’t help but wonder about the priorities of the rich and famous.  Here is a lady who reportedly received some twenty million dollars as a settlement of the divorce proceedings from husband Donald.  Then asked what lesson she has learnt in life the...

This is now the final part of the story – a parable – that involves farmer Joe.Joe had begun to question the validity of what had become known as the restructuring of farming methods. Though he was reassured by those who were all for it that the science behind it was sound, Joe had become convinced that the methods were being used to decide the science.So it proved to be. Though the Coalition for Rural Change in Australia was seeking to enlist as many farms in its membership, and the pressure on Joe to conform was immense, Joe decided he simply...

This is the continuation of the story – a parable – that involves farmer Joe.Things were not going real well on Joe’s farm. The markets were in a slump, and crop yields were down over successive years. Joe felt that the work seemed to begetting harder, he was tired, and the results of his hard work were not providing any satisfaction. When he compared himself to neighbouring farms, they all seemed to be in much the same condition as himself. There was something going on here that was not just about Joe’s farm management. The confusing thing however were the stories...

I would like to tell you a story, a parable if you like. It concerns a farmer, and let's call him Joe. This is part one. Farmer Joe has been a farmer all his adult life. At first he worked the land with his father, and later he inherited the farm. This was the life he knew. The farm was central to his life. Apart from several years at university, this was where he grew up. It was where he learned the lessons of life from his father. This was where he brought his wife and where his children were born...

One of the passages in Scripture that always keeps me on my toes is Paul’s warning to Timothy. “For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.” [2 Tim 4:3-5]. It seems to me...

In our reformed churches, we pride ourselves on ensuring that the Word remains central in our worship services. Hence the Scripture readings and preaching of the Word takes primary place in our services. That doesn’t mean the singing of hymns and psalms and spiritual songs are secondary. On the contrary, we also try to ensure that everything we sing is in accord with God’s word and compliments the teaching and preaching of the Word and brings glory to God’s name. Let us also add that when we say ‘Word’ it means all of Scripture, even those sections which seem hard to...

This week I received an email with a question.  Apparently Cadbury has gone ‘Halal’.  What that means is that a Muslim Cleric comes into the Cadbury factory and prays over the products and the production process in the name of Allah.  The food is then labelled as ‘Halal Certified’ which makes it okay for Muslims to eat.  A similar practice is carried out by Jews and their special food is then declared ‘kosher’ – i.e. suitable for Jews to eat. The dilemma that my enquirer faced is whether it is okay to eat food that has been devoted to idols.  The...

You may have noticed recently – and it happens with increasing frequency – that the Bible being read in church is a little different from the one that you are reading. I explained in these columns last year that the problem is that the 1984 edition of the NIV was revised last year and there are some significant differences in the 2011 version.  The problem is that many people are not aware of this.  They need a new Bible and find an NIV at Koorong and purchase it without realising that it is not the same Bible as we have adopted...

After the recent debate between George Pell and Richard Dawkins, a Q&A poll of some 20,000 people resulted in 76 percent saying that religion does not make the world a better place. No one can deny that there have been some huge atrocities carried out in the name of religion.  Classic examples that are always quoted are The Crusades and The Spanish Inquisition.  The truth of the matter is that these were probably more about power than about religion.  Nevertheless we must accept that there have been abuses of religion.  Yet to say that religion is more of a power for...

Like many of you I watched last Monday’s Q&A debate between the vocal atheist, Richard Dawkins, and Roman Catholic Archbishop, Cardinal George Pell.  I figured beforehand that the program would probably leave me feeling depressed and I wasn’t wrong. There was the codswallop dished up by this so-called scientist that before the big bang there was nothing, but that this nothing was rather complex.  And as for the apologist for the Christian faith...?  Well, there were a number of Australian Christians who would have done a far better job than Cardinal Pell.  However what left me feeling most depressed was the...

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...

The subject of the after-life came up in a recent conversation.  The man I was chatting with told me that he wasn’t particularly excited about the thought of heaven.  On one level I can understand that. There was a Sunday School teacher who wanted to make the point that heaven is not earnt by our efforts – but rather that it is a gift of God, freely given as we trust in the saving work of the Lord Jesus Christ.  She asked her students, “If I gave away all my money to charity, would that get me to heaven?”  The students...

Most mainline churches will be struggling to attract people back to church as they transition past the pandemic and its restrictions.  I am not speaking about the building made of bricks and mortar, although a meeting place can be very useful, but the opportunity to hear the gospel preached through the mouth of God’s servant, as it occurs each Lord’s Day as well as enjoying the fellowship of gathered believers, a foretaste of heaven itself.  One of the reasons church leaderships are keen to see people back at ‘church’ is because the gospel needs to be heard, not only for the encouragement...

Technology has changed incredibly in my lifetime. Magnetic tape was invented in 1928. Okay, that's quite a bit before I began "my lifetime". But magnetic tape was limited at first to bulky and expensive 'reel to reel' recording machines. However in 1962 (two years after I began my apprenticeship as a fitter and turner) Phillips invented the 'compact cassette'. Show a compact cassette to a teenager today and chances are that he'll look at you with bemused bewilderment. Compact cassettes were replaced by compact discs (CDs) which are now being replaced by IPods and MP3 players. As I was saying, technology...

Recently my wife and I watched the finals of the Eurovision contest. It's an annual musical competition in which the various European nations vie for the winning place in the finals. We've watched it for some years and have enjoyed many of the performances – although there are other performances that provide a good time to go and make a cup of coffee. This year the winner of the competition was a bearded drag queen, Conchita from Austria. I'm not sure whether I should refer to Conchita as a she or a he or an it. This person certainly had a...

I'm sure many of you have heard of 'cheap-grace'. It is one of those things that can gnaw at my conscience from time to time. "Cheap-grace" is when we make it too easy for new converts as well as others to become members of a Christian church because they have made a 'profession' of faith and it proves not to be genuine. Jesus alludes to this when he says, "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord, will enter the Kingdom of heaven...'"(Mat 7:21). In fact, Jesus goes on to say in that very verse, that it is only those who...

I once remarked to a friend that a certain relative didn’t seem too concerned about her badly messed-up past.   My friend put me right back in my box.   He said, “Perhaps it’s because she understands the gospel so well.”   Touché! This past week I and one of our deacons met with someone who has spent some years in Her Majesty’s penitentiary.   He had told me at an earlier visit that although he is now a Christian he still struggles with guilt about what he has done in the past.   I remembered well the lesson my friend...

 As Good Friday approaches, we are reminded about our Lord’s death.  I am always fascinated by how the Old Testament keeps pointing us to Jesus as our Saviour.  Jesus, when speaking to Nicodemus, recalled such a story.  In the OT, when God’s people during the exodus complained against God and His provision, and against Moses, God punished them by sending venomous snakes that bit the people and they died.  When God’s people recognised their sin, they called on Moses to intercede to God for them. Moses was instructed to make a bronze snake and lift it up so that those who looked at it...

I would hope that most of us reading this feel blessed to be part of a Christian fellowship. Of course, it is our prayer that we will continue to be a blessing to each other until the day the Lord returns victoriously on the clouds, or alternatively, calls us into His eternal presence some other way. Sometimes being part of a Christian fellowship means that we need to have ‘awkward’ discussions before we pass into glory. A Pastor was once asked two questions concerning death. First, how many years can we reasonably expect the Lord to give us? He answered by...

It seems to me that our Creator God has put certain things in place that would normally workout by His ordained processes. For instance, the seasons we enjoy, summer, winter, autumn, and spring. Or to be more practical, when we hop onto a plane we know that not only is the plane well engineered, the air currents that lift the plane into the sky are constant, not withstanding the occasional air-pockets or turbulence that occurs in flight. I would suggest that the same is true for our bodies and our life expectancy. And how good it is when Christians realize that...