An elderly church member living in an aged-care hostel was visited by a well-meaning relative.  He’s into New Age stuff and asked her whether she had yet ‘discovered her true self’.  He suggested that with time on her hands she should learn some meditation techniques and come to terms with her inner identity?  She told me about it later and remarked with some indignation, “Why should I bother with that, I know who I am!  I’m a child of the King.”  I was delighted and encouraged.  Humanly speaking this lady is close to the end of her earthly journey.  Life has...

  The story is told of a retiring Supreme Court judge in the United States.  He explained his choice of career by saying, ‘I might have entered the ministry if certain clergymen I knew had not looked and acted so much like dour undertakers.’  ‘Sad thing is, ordinary Christians can be also regarded as being dour and judgmental.  When it comes to being ‘attractive’ people in the community that is not helpful.  Our behaviour can be a stumbling block for the gospel.  A joyful people, even in the worst of circumstances, can have others observing them saying, ‘We want what they...

WHO CAN PAY THAT MUCH? It is some two centuries ago that one of the Russian Tsars liked to disguise himself and then go out among his people.  His aim was to try and discover their sentiments about the nation and its leadership and simply to observe the behaviour of the common people. On a certain night he went out to a soldiers’ encampment with the idea of listening in on their conversations.  Walking past a tent, he saw a soldier sitting at a table, head on his arms, sleeping.  Carefully and softly, the Tsar went up to him.  Looking over...

When I did my research for my master’s degree (psychology) thesis I focused on ‘expectations’ in marriage.  Over the years in ministry, I have had lots of opportunity to provide premarital and marital counselling as well as lectures on the subject at the RTC.  The key to marriage, of course, is that the couple love each other.  But what do we expect from that love?  How do we define ‘love’?  This is important.  As one person wrote ‘The very essence of life is the need to feel loved and give love; without love life is without rationale whatsoever’.  Mother Teresa once...

Many of us who are a little older will still remember some of the silly ditties we sang in the schoolyard thirty, forty or more years ago.  Sometimes I find that a problem.  At my age the amount of brain memory still available must be shrinking rapidly.  So why am I remembering rubbish songs from the schoolyard?  However, this retention of songs in our memory can also be a wonderful blessing.  That was certainly the case with a man I’ll call Jim. Jim ended up in prison after committing a crime.  And it wasn’t a short term incarceration either.  So Jim...

KEEPING IN STEP WITH THE SPIRIT There’s a saying that says we are not only to ‘talk the talk, but also walk the walk.’  There is to be integrity between what we say we believe, and how we behave from that belief.  That is especially true in our calling as Christians.  We are to make Jesus known by our witness.  But how we act is vitally important if our testimony is to be heard and valued.  So, what does a Christ-like life look like?  The Apostle Paul spells that out in Galatians 5 as he lists the fruit of the Spirit. ...

While driving to an appointment I turned on the car radio... just in time to pick up the words of the song, ‘Poetry in Motion’.  I found it somewhat sobering to realise I could sing along with just about every line of that 1960s song – word perfect... almost!  “She doesn’t need improvement; she’s much too nice to rearrange...!”  Good grief!  And those words come from an era when plastic surgery and liposuction were still unknown. Hearing that song again reminded me why I’d rather not relive my teenage years – even if I could.  Sure, they were great years.  In...

As Christians in a local fellowship, when your local church is ‘vacant’, the inevitable question arises, “What do we expect the new Pastor to concentrate on when he comes to help us?”   Some Christians hope that the new Pastor will be a dynamic preacher who will be able to encourage us in our Christian faith, give good pastoral care to all, especially the elderly and unwell.  They expect him to be a great evangelist, counsellor and be able to set up programs for our young people, and if they can develop a five- or ten-year plan that would be a bonus.   Other...

Last week the oldest lady in our Seniors Bible Study group confessed to a horrible crime.  Back in primary school she had dipped the hair of the lass sitting front of her into the ink-well. Ink-well...?  Good grief, what’s an ink-well?  Okay, I guess that’s something that needs explaining to anyone who started primary school after 1960.  Why 1960?  Well, because that’s about the time ball-point pens became commercially viable.  Prior to that you could certainly have purchased a ball-point pen – they were first patented in 1880 – but it would have cost you the equivalent of more than $200...

Several newspapers recently carried reports of a study of how babies and adults responded in similar ways to Van Gogh paintings.  Stone the crows!  I didn’t realise babies aged between four and nine months could be art connoisseurs. The report told how pairs of paintings were held up in front of the babies and the focus of their eyes recorded for each pair of paintings.  When adults between the ages of 18 and 43 were then asked which of the same pairs they preferred, it was usually the identical one as had held the attention of the babies.  Psychologists at the...

When I first began some serious courting we quickly developed a routine for Sunday family time.  Church going was not optional.  My girl-friend and I went twice every Sunday – I guess, because we didn’t have three Sunday church services.  I once – in my teenage-years – asked my mother why we had to go to church twice every Sunday.  She said, “Oh, we don’t have to!  But isn’t it a wonderful privilege that we’re allowed to?  I never asked again and adopted my Mum’s philosophy on church-going as my own. But back to our family arrangement!  Between worship services we...

It was with some measure of relief that I recently read a report of some studies of procrastination.  It estimated that less than ten percent of the population have never had problems with procrastination and some twenty percent of the population have serious procrastination issues affecting their ability to function well.  That makes me feel a little better.  I’ve had my battles with procrastination – but then it seems, so has more than ninety percent of the population. Procrastination happens in all sorts of ways.  We put off doing the ironing... or the weeding in the garden.  We stall on the...

Walking through town on my way to the Men’s Shed I pass three gymnasiums.  I know of at least another three in town.  Why does a place like Coffs Harbour need six gymnasiums?  And – let me add – they all seem to be well patronised.  The first one I passed at 8.30 this morning had at least a dozen people doing various workout activities.  The second one I pass has an al fresco area out the front where there are always small groups of people enjoying a coffee – or even having their breakfast – probably in between their spell...

It's not for me to tell you how to vote this coming Saturday but I do want to remind you to think Christianly about your vote. So to stimulate your thinking let me share three particular 'gripes'. Gripe number one is that politics in Australia in the last few decades has been less and less about parties and policies and more and more about people and personalities. A stranger from another country could be forgiven for thinking that the whole Federal Election is being fought solely between Kevin Rudd and Tony Abbott. Political leaders often further that kind of thinking by...

This BLOG began it's life as a meditation on my 'Songs Of Faith' radio program on Community Radio 2MaxFM.  You can listen in on this program on Sunday nights at 8pm AEST - using the Community Radio App and searching for 2MaxFM.   Early in my married life I learned the difference between furniture made with veneer wood and furniture made of solid timber.  We bought several items that looked very attractive and that suited the budget of a young family.  But we hadn’t reckoned on how that furniture would stand up to the punishing usage exacted by two very active...

The advertisement I put on Marketplace attracted much interest.  I was selling off some equipment I’d used some years ago to do some home renovations.  The man who came to pick up the last item appeared to be in his early thirties.  As he paid me he asked what I had done before I retired.  I told him I had served as a pastor; a minister of religion.  He responded by telling me a crude joke about Jesus.  He thought he was being funny.  When I made clear that I was not amused he couldn’t get away fast enough.  Sad!  It...

No!  I’m not hopping on today’s popular “Pride” band-wagon – that’s Pride with a capital ‘P’.  You know what I mean – the Pride that's celebrated annually in Sydney’s Mardi Gras Parade every March.  No, I’m talking about ordinary old kitchen-variety pride, which used to be regarded as one of the seven infamous deadly sins. What brought this on...?  Well, I’m putting some thoughts together for this blog in the week when that innovative submersible, the Titan, was lost while examining the wreck of the Titanic.  It’s a tragic story of five lives lost – one of them, a young man...

Recently, a well-known past AFL footballer had a heart attack and after two days without regaining consciousness passed away.   And then without any reference to the grief his family must have been experiencing, the comment was made, "What a nice way to go, but not if he wasn’t a Christian.”  That comment started to make me think that perhaps dying by a quick heart attack is a nice way to go, both for a non-Christian and Christian alike.  I am not making a judgement call about anything that comes after death, for that is a whole different matter.  But to die with a heart...

We had relatives visiting from Melbourne.  We showed off the local scenery here in Coffs Harbour where the mountains meet the sea.  After walking around for a while we took a seat in a restaurant where we could enjoy a coffee and at the same time watch the ocean.  At about the same time as we sat down a middle-aged couple also sat down at the next table.  My guess was that this was a husband and wife duo.  Perhaps he had an RDO and they had decided to avail themselves of the beautiful weather for some time out together for...

Over coffee I asked a cobber at our Men’s Shed whether he believed in God.  He shrugged, pointed to his head and replied, “John, God exists only in our imagination!”  I told him he was in for a rude shock.  He’s got lots of mates who will be in for a rude shock too – because it’s so common these days to meet folk who put God in the same category as elves and goblins – or leprechauns if they’re Irish!

Not content to let him get away too easily with his trite dismissal of the Creator of the universe, I followed up with a second question.  “So what’s your explanation for all the varying events of life... the ups and downs you face daily?  He had obviously thought that through because he shot back, that all of the things that happen to us, are determined by the stars.

So there we were – two good friends at the Men’s Shed – but each with a vastly different world and life view.  For one of us Jesus Christ is central to life, for the other – if anything controls the universe – it’s the zodiac signs.

What we’re talking about of course is Astrology: a method of predicting mundane events based upon the assumption that the celestial bodies – particularly the planets and the stars (in configurations called constellations) – in some way either determine or indicate changes in our human world.  Astrologists will make predictions for you based on the movement of stars and constellations in relation to the particular star sign you were born under.  I have two serious problems with that.

First – astrology is unscientific and superstitious.  Okay, my cobber at the Men’s Shed would also accuse me of being unscientific and superstitious.  At this point those who are into zodiac signs get very defensive.  Pick up any book in the library on astrology and it will claim that astrology is scientific.  Wrong: astronomy is scientific, astrology isn’t.  We can observe heavenly bodies through telescopes, monitor their radio waves and analyse their colour spectrums.  However, trying to analyse scientifically whether a Taurus is more likely to be impulsive than a Scorpio is fraught with difficulties.  As a Christian I have far better evidential claims to truth than an astrologist.  My truth claims focus on historical facts: Jesus was born, claimed to be Son of God, died on a cross for humanity’s sin and arose again on the third day.  The point is that these objective truth claims can be checked out.

Second – astrology is fatalistic and impersonal.  My friend believes everything that happens in life is determined by our relationship to the heavenly bodies in our solar system and beyond.  It is all written in the stars.  We can know how those bodies will impact our lives and we can then live in conformity with that knowledge.  But there is a strong element of fatalism inherent in astrology.  We’re told, for example, “A Gemini cannot help being a fidget.  A Virgo cannot help being picky.  A Sagittarian cannot help stepping on toes.”  That raises two key issues for me.

On the one hand it absolves people from taking responsibility for what they are and do.  At best we can learn to understand that we ARE picky or have long toes and try to minimize the problems that may result.  However the astrologist is doomed to be stuck with his ‘Sagittarian’ personality.  How different the Christian faith, which tells us that we can work at becoming more Christ-like.

On the other hand it also leaves one feeling helpless about what happens in life.  An astrologist once claimed that Charles and Di’s marriage was doomed from the start since it was ‘astrologically’ unsound from the beginning (he, a Scorpio, and she, a Cancer).  The strange thing is that today many non-Christians object to the idea of a Sovereign God who has decreed His purposes and makes all things happen in conformity with His plans.  Yet many of those same people have no problem accepting the far more fatalistic idea – the deterministic influence of the planets on our lives.  And the worst is that it is all so impersonal – just the impersonal forces of the universe.  For the Christian there is always and in every situation a far more comforting reality – that the Sovereign God of the universe has, for the sake of Christ His Son, a Fatherly care for us.  In fact He promises to make all things work together for our eternal wellbeing.