By anyone’s measure, Adolph Hitler represents an archetypal evil leader whose reign of terror was powerfully augmented by the Nazi regime. Indeed, a person would be justified in thinking, ‘Surely God would endorse any genuine attempt to remove this malevolent influence from the world?’ Yet none of the pre-meditated attempts to assassinate the Nazi leader … More Prayer, Politics, and the Evil Government
The COVID19 Pandemic has led to some of the harshest limitations on people’s civil liberties in living memory. In fact, the State of Victoria, Australia, has endured the toughest restrictions recorded: at least 262 days in lock-down since March 2020. Understandably, these kind of restrictions have taken a toll on people’s psychological and physical wellbeing. … More Resisting the Government: Is it ever right?
There are two profoundly different sides to the thing commonly called ‘ life’. It was a hot summer’s afternoon and a group of farm workers had been labouring all day in the hot sun, picking onions on a vegetable farm. By three o’clock in the afternoon the burden of the heat had become all but … More One breath away from losing it all!
Flight or Fight When threatened, most ‘humans’ default to either one of two instinctive responses–flight or fight. With flight the threat is generally deemed too great overcome directly, so the threatened subject flees to the shelter of perceived safety. With the other response of fight, the threatened subject concludes that the challenge can be overcome by some … More Pandemic Panic: QR Codes, Vaccines, and the Mark of the Beast
If Christianity offers the only ‘real’ solution for guilt, why are so many Christians plagued by guilt in their daily lives? Of course, if you are a Christian in the Western tradition, then the notion of guilt is foundational to your understanding of the gospel. Whether you are a Roman Catholic , a Protestant, or … More Overcoming The Gospel of Guilt
Why is the gospel faltering in the first world? Many would be quick to blame the overall environment: The rise of secularism, philosophical postmodernism, political correctness, or the abandonment of the Judea-Christian ethic–the world ‘out there’. But is Christianity really that ‘intrinsically’ weak, that it needs to be coupled to a sympathetic world to prosper? … More What is holding the Gospel back?
The desire for power is deeply embedded in the human condition. Power is more than a phenomenon resident in political ideologies, more than a condition that can be defined sociologically, and more than a leadership practice to be learned. Power and its desire for dominance over ‘the other’ has a more primal source; originating deep … More Power Finds A Way
Fear can be a cruel slave-master. One does not need to possess a vivid imagination to perceive how the innate potential of people’s lives can be needlessly shackled by the debilitating consequences of this basest of all human emotions. The fear of failure, the fear of rejection, the fear of loneliness, the fear of hardship, … More A Fear Of Greater Consequence
Opportunities to ‘get real’ with God are rarely taken up. I suspect that many first world Christians are simply content to live out a tacit acknowledgement of Christ’s lordship, never wondering if there is more to discover, never desiring a closer walk with God, and never stopping to to ask ‘what if…’ But, what would … More When I asked God What He ‘really’ thought about me!
Classic literary works never date. Among such works is John Bunyan’s 17th century classic Pilgrim’s Progress. It has endured the test of time because it powerfully captures the believer’s imagination, allegorically portraying the Christian’s life endeavour and representing it as a pilgrim’s journey to a heavenly promised land. In the story, the pilgrim, one named … More Enchanted Ground
Spirit and Truth 