What Joy Can Do For You
“When I crashed with burnout, the chronic fatigue and depression that followed were some of the lowest points in my life. But that’s where joy came in. In seven years of not being well, joy was a major factor for my healing – in my mental health, and in many other areas of my life.”
Can We Talk About Jews?
“I’m asking you to re-examine your thoughts and feelings about the Jewish community. I’m asking you to be cautious of discussing Jews without defining exactly who you mean. I’m asking you to use respectful and appropriate language but my main plea is that you respond to Jews, and anyone else who is suffering, with compassion.”
Science and Faith, or, Swallowing Camels
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!” - Matthew 23:23-24
The Stars Speak: Chapter Three
“Here we look into the future as we see the story in the stars telling us of the second coming of our Lord and the glory that follows.”
Turning Points: Hold Fast
“Jacob is the proof that character gaps can be bridged. The triumph of radical change is open to a disciple. That a disciple, today, wherever they may find themselves, and whatever circumstances surround them, can grab on and Hold Fast to God, and triumphantly just relinquish a life to God, choosing to Wait Continually on Him.”
The Floating World
“This is the truth of our Floating World: its sometimes beautiful structures, finely balanced — until they aren’t. How convincing they seem— how permanent— until, inevitably, they break up at the slightest movement of the deeper reality they ride upon.”
Joy: The Neglected Commandment
The fruit of the Spirit is joy. Joy is a commandment, and a pleasurable commandment at that. It’s an invitation into the joy of our Lord. And joy will bring us healing and love. It has for me, and it will for you too.
"The fruit of the Spirit is joy. Joy is a commandment, and a pleasurable commandment at that. It’s an invitation into the joy of our Lord. And joy will bring us healing and love. It has for me, and it will for you too."
The Stars Speak, Chapter 2
This second chapter is about the birth and development of the Church and shows the result of the Christ’s resurrection, with the Holy Spirit being poured out on the early Christians as the church becomes established, despite the severe persecution it suffered.
"This second chapter is about the birth and development of the Church and shows the result of the Christ’s resurrection, with the Holy Spirit being poured out on the early Christians as the church becomes established, despite the severe persecution it suffered."
Judah: A Story of Struggles and Salvation
Judah is a person that grows up in a family that has messy, awkward problems. He has issues with anger, with jealousy. He struggles with his emotions. He lies and deceives those around him. He runs away from his problems. He's afraid. He gives into his lusts and desires. And so if you look at him in that way, he actually becomes a very relatable person.
"Judah is a person that grows up in a family that has messy, awkward problems. He has issues with anger, with jealousy. He struggles with his emotions. He lies and deceives those around him. He runs away from his problems. He's afraid. He gives into his lusts and desires. And so if you look at him in that way, he actually becomes a very relatable person."
Why Are We Struggling to Stay Engaged?
One of the challenges that I've observed and many have observed as well in our community, is the question: ‘has our Sunday morning worship become too structured, too rigid, too formal, and is no longer serving the needs of our community?’
“One of the challenges that I've observed and many have observed as well in our community, is the question: ‘has our Sunday morning worship become too structured, too rigid, too formal, and is no longer serving the needs of our community?’”
Our Post-Pandemic Ecclesial Meetings
“We are at a critical juncture in our history with much opportunity but also much danger. As a community, we can easily find our fellowship reduced to, or possibly exposed as a loosely affiliated, fractured group of believers if we don’t prayerfully manage this post-pandemic transition period in our history.”
Why I am Not a Christadelphian
Mistaking our participation in a church for our spiritual identity can impede our walk toward Jesus. He wants the best for us, and the best from us. Our church should enable that relationship.
Love As Jesus Loved
Jesus loved the unlovely. He saw the love where we see neediness, he recognised the inner anguish and need for forgiveness where we see an embarrassing lack of protocol and poor behaviour.
Union With God
“Right at the heart of this gendered conception of God then, is the assumption that just as men and women were taken from the same whole, so God and Christ are not complete without us, and we are not complete without them.”
-Karam Ram
A Time to Die
“And as far as other people’s deaths and opinions are concerned, we should try to have open minds and listening ears, and a readiness to admit we don’t have all the answers. We won’t always know what the right thing to do is. Our personal history, beliefs, attitudes, circumstances, might well influence us. We need to have the humility to accept that others may reach a different conclusion. And that’s OK.”
-Hazel McHaffie
Holy Living Today
“When your religion prevents you from loving your neighbour, you need to change your religion. When holiness separates us from our neighbour, we need to change our holiness from one that is only ‘separate from’, to also include ‘dedication to’ the Lord's new commandment to love one another. This is our full — our complete — mission.”
-David (Zazz) Oosthuizen
The Stars Speak
“I believe that when God created the universe he wrote a message in the stars for all the people on Earth to see, so that all mankind could understand his purpose. Just as God’s message ends with the pictorial book of Revelation, I believe it began with the story in the heavens.”
-Angela Riley
Turning Points: Jacob Awakes at Bethel
“Jacob’s turning point is for you and I. Your relationship with your God cannot be through people or place. Your discipleship doesn’t have its ultimate foundations in Christadelphia. Nor being a member of your ecclesia. Nor in attendance at church activities. Nor even in being engaged in church talk about church things.”
-Adam Byrnes
The Breath of Life
“These thoughts encourage me to practice conscious, present-focused living, being mindful of God each day and communicating with Him and with His Son. Focussing on the breath helps me to stay in the present moment, rather than ruminating about the past and becoming depressed, or starting to worry about the future and increasing anxiety.”
-Mary Styles