Advertising is fast becoming the bane of smart-phone and computer users.  Talk about intrusive...!  Follow the latest click bait and you often end up at a web-page where there’s four times as much advertising as there is ‘whatever it is that you went there for’.  My bread-machine recently died and so I hunted on EBay for a replacement.  Guess what dominated my adverts for the next few weeks.  Yep... you got it – bread-machines!  I note with some satisfaction that there’s now an app to kill off the adverts on your smart-phone.  At least, I assume, until some tech savvy guy...

A Presbyterian friend and colleague once told a story that was funny, although it was horrible theology and quite contrary to the Bible’s teachings. A middle-aged woman died suddenly and unexpectedly.  She ends up (of course!) at the Pearly Gates where she finds Saint Peter in charge of admissions.  The lady says to him, “So, what do I need to do to get in here?”  “That’s easy,” says Peter, “all you have to do is spell the word ‘love’!”  So she spells ‘love’ and is promptly admitted.  Sometime later she happens to be passing the Pearly Gates when Peter calls her...

Last week I had the opportunity to call a man ‘a fool’.  I resisted the temptation.  He certainly was a fool – but calling him out as one was not exactly the way to win friends and influence people.  More importantly... I wanted him to keep the door ajar for possible further conversations in order perhaps to be instrumental in his conversion from a fool to a wise man. So, what led to my highly judgmental evaluation of this man as a fool?  The man had recently been in hospital and he was telling me his woes after I enquired about...

Someone recently asked an acquaintance what was involved in becoming a Christian.  The man discouraged the enquirer by saying: “You wouldn’t really want to become a Christian; it’s much too difficult – you wouldn’t cope with it.”  Well, that made the man all the more determined and he ended up becoming a follower of Jesus Christ. So was my acquaintance merely using some reverse psychology to entice the man into the Christian faith?  No!  Jesus often told people that they needed to count the cost.  Or just think of what is involved in being a Christian disciple.  I’m not an expert...

I wonder what stuff you’re carrying around that you’ve never owned up to.  Hey, all us of have some things in our past that we’re not proud of... that we wish we could undo.  Our problem is that owning up is tough. We already found that difficult as kids.  You blamed the broken ornament you weren’t supposed to touch on your little kid brother.  Dad asked you why the paint was spilt in the garage and you convinced him the cat knocked it over – rather than accepting the blame yourself. That kind of blame shifting already happened back in the...

Two weddings ceremonies recently had the bridal couples making extremely different wedding vows.  Both couples had made up their own vows... and obviously in consultation with each other – because I noted similarities between the bride’s vows and the groom’s vows. In the first one, the couple – amongst other things – promised they would love each other for ever and ever.  While I can appreciate the sentiment, I thought that their promises were just a tad over the top.  Okay, I guess that when young people are madly in love and just getting married, they don’t seriously think of the...

I have a theory I’d love to test – if that were possible.  My theory...?  That the most vibrant Christians are those who make the best use of the Sunday.  I’ll stick my neck out a little further.  It often seems to me that generally those who treat Sunday as special are those who have most got their act together. Think about!  For nearly two thousand years Sunday has been a day when Christian people have met together for worship.  I’ve lost count of the number of times people have told me that Sunday worship is a time for them to...

Not long ago someone in our family bought a property.  The reasonably modern home was on a life-style block a little way out of town.  The pre-purchase inspections panned out well except for some issues around the septic treatment system.  The seller had assured the buyer that the septic system had been approved by the relevant local government authorities.  Some further checks soon proved otherwise and an agreement was made that the purchase would go ahead but that $10k of the purchase price would be withheld until the septic system was approved.  As often happens in such situations things deteriorated and...

Back in 2006 there was an event that made a huge impact on many who heard about it.  A young man used his body as a human shield to save the life of a young woman he had only just met. Melbourne woman, Kimberley Dear was in the United States.  She was fulfilling a long-held ambition to work with handicapped children at an American summer camp.  While there she made friends with a British woman and together they decided to have a go at sky-diving. It was on their very first sky-diving trip in July 2006 that their plane suffered engine...

The ambulance was called out in the small hours of Tuesday morning.  Frank had woken up with severe chest pains.  His wife had the presence of mind to call the paramedics.  Three days later Frank was back at the Men’s Shed... even if it was only for a cuppa and a chin-wag.  We compared notes because both of us had now undergone an angiogram and the insertion of a stent in the circumflex artery of the heart.

But there was another reason why I was keen to engage Frank in conversation about his ‘cardiac event’.  I wondered where he was at, in terms of his relationship with God and his prospects of facing eternity.  He was a decent enough a bloke... a little too critical of others perhaps... but helpful to a fault.

“Do you realise, Frank, that if we had lived in the days of our grandparents we’d both be dead now?”  “Yeah, it sure makes you thankful for progress in medical science.”  I agreed with him and then asked, “So, if you hadn’t survived you heart attack, Frank, do you know where you would be now?”  My Men’s Shed colleague became quite animated and with a great deal of conviction pointed to a dead worm on the floor of the shed that had crawled in to find some shelter from a recent Coffs Harbour deluge.  “See that worm John?  As far as I’m concerned, when we die we’re all going to be like that worm: dead and shrivelled up and nothing else.”

Stone the crows, what a pessimistic view of life!  I told Frank that I found his outlook rather depressing and said that one can have a much more positive outlook on life than that of ending up like a dead worm.  I told him that I believed God had created us in His image for the purpose of spending all eternity with Him.  Frank, shook his head and changed the subject.

So why does Frank think that our death is no different to that of a worm?  Well, why shouldn’t he?  He’s part of a generation that has been bombarded all his life with the teaching that we are merely the product of time plus chance.  We evolved from amoebas in some primordial swamp, eventually crawled out onto dry land and over the space of several million more years evolved enough brain cells to be able to socialise in a Men’s Shed.  That kind of thinking has little space for the idea that we were made in the image of our Creator – and made for fellowship with Him.

Frank’s problem is that he is a strict materialist.  Only that exists which he can see, touch, taste – only what you can squeeze into a test tube or put under a microscope is real.  For the numerous “Franks” in this world there is no possibility of another dimension to life – the spiritual and the eternal.

That also helps to explain why there are two kinds of Easter celebrations today.  There are those for whom it is all about the materialist rituals of chocolate eggs, Easter bunnies and a long weekend to spend with the family.  What a contrast to those who know that Easter is the Christian Church’s celebration of the glorious reality that we are more than worms when we die.  The resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ is proof that there is a huge difference between human beings and the critters that are busy in a gardener’s worm farm.  The difference is not just that we’re much further up the evolutionary ladder either.  The difference is rather that God made humans – the climax of creation – beings for whom death is not the end.  The resurrection of Jesus is proof that like Him we will one day be raised to live forever.

Recently I read the story of a lady who had a near-death experience.  She was later quizzed whether she had experienced a tunnel of light or angelic beings.  She had experienced nothing like that – merely being unconscious for a time and then waking up in hospital.  One commentator saw that as proof that there is nothing after death.  Anyone who argues that way has to come to terms with the reality that Jesus really died and on the third day was really raised from the dead.  Paul claimed he could get some 500 witnesses to authenticate the Easter event and so prove that humans have a far more glorious end than dead worms.

John Westendorp

Have you counted your blessings recently? This week, I had the privilege of paying a relatively short visit with Irene to my mum in New Zealand. We left on Sunday night, and returned Wednesday evening. Stop and think about that for a minute. It's not that long ago that you wouldn't have dreamed of going to New Zealand for just three days – unless you were a businessman. Such travel was too expensive – you'd stay at least a couple of weeks to make it really worthwhile. But the airfares for this trip were only $200 return! This is just one...

Travelling on a train through India a woman aged 38 – a nun – had a vision.  She claims she heard God’s call for her to leave the religious order to which she belonged and to set out and work alone among the poorest of the poor.  Today we know that woman as the late ‘Mother Teresa’, who worked among the beggars and the destitute in the slums of Calcutta in India until her death in 1997. Today she is still highly regarded by all who have heard of her.  The world applauded when she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize...

Tears

I’m not a Star Trek fan.  I only once watched a Star Trek movie.  I’d called on a parishioner who was our local ‘Trekkie”.  Theo had the complete collection of Star Trek movies.  Seeing his collection reminded me of something I’d read some days earlier about the emotions of Jesus.  The writer commented that some people see emotions as undesirable and then referred to Spock, who in one Star Trek episode said: “Emotions are alien to me.” Well, Theo lent me the Star Trek movie that begins with Spock.  Spock has been undergoing a process of being purged of all emotions. ...

Singing in worship (No 2) After receiving some expected and constructive feedback on ‘Singing in Worship’ I thought I would expand a little more on what I previously said and attempt to correct the perceived imbalance.  Let me state it again, I appreciate the many new contemporary lyrics and tunes that have been written and sung in many of our churches.  For example, “How deep the Father’s love”, “Grace, greater than our sin”, “His mercy is more,” “Power of the cross”, “Speak O Lord”, the new version of “Just as I am”, “Amazing Grace – my chains are gone” and many more.  ...

Singing in worship Since my retirement at the end of 2020, I have often thought about our worship practices and especially the wide variety of hymns and songs we are now singing.  I appreciate many of the new hymns and songs that are being sung, and I certainly don’t wish to be a ‘wet-blanket’ on those gifted people who can write new lyrics with good singable tunes.   However, I do have a concern that in the process of trying to be more contemporary, we are losing a richness of biblical theology in our singing.  I am occasionally invited to still...

Trauma - who's responsible?

What misery and sadness!  What grief and suffering!  No!  I’m not talking about the war in Ukraine or the earthquake in Syria and Turkey.  I’m thinking of ordinary garden varieties of misery that sometimes overwhelms us.  Our Bible Study group copped more than its fair share of trouble recently.  In one family: a daughter took off and went missing.  In another: a man is in hospital with serious heart issues.  A third couple struggles with the breakdown of their son’s marriage and all the pain and trouble that creates.  In a fourth family an adult son battles leukaemia.  We have some...

A certain young lad was keen to become a footballer (Aussie-rules of course...!).  He had watched lots of games on Television and had occasionally kicked the ball.  The sport appeared rather attractive – there was a lot to be said for it, even from a mere exercise point of view.  And who knows – maybe there was the chance of immortality – if only he could do well enough to become a star and get his name in the record books.  Over the years he thought about it a great deal.  Yes, he really ought to become a football player! The...

In our home we subscribe to Australian Geographic (AG) magazine.  AG was founded by iconic Aussie, Dick Smith.  It generally has some very informative articles on Australian wildlife.  I’m currently reading issue number 172, which has an article entitled, The Million Dollar Reptile, highlighting the commercial value of crocodiles.  AG also regularly features articles on popular regional tourist destinations.  The current issue has one on ecotourism in WA’s Margaret River region. AG magazine takes a deliberate activist position in fighting 'climate change'.  Fair enough – who of us is not concerned about the way we treat or mistreat planet earth?  This...

My parents came here as migrants early in the 1950’s – before I had ever set foot inside a classroom.  So for my siblings and me, education was not only learning the three ‘R’s but also learning to adapt to a whole new culture and lifestyle. In our little country school in Bonnie Doon, in central Victoria, we were something of a novelty.  Post war migrants were a new phenomenon and in this rural setting we were unique.  In our small, two-classroom school there was only one other person without an Anglo-Saxon name – a lad of Italian descent whose family...

When it comes to doubt I’ve always considered myself extremely blessed.  There are many key aspects of the Christian faith about which I have never had the slightest doubt. I cannot ever recall seriously doubting God’s existence.  I have no recollection of ever doubting that Jesus died for me on the cross, that I am a child of God and that all my sins have been forgiven.  The closest I have ever come to genuine doubt about any of those things is in those fleeting moments when the thought passed through my head, “What if someone just made it all up?” ...