Gathering to hear the good news of Jesus and scattering to share it
Have you ever given up something valuable because you believed a promise that turned out to be empty?
Perhaps you invested money in something that failed, moved for a job that never materialised, or bought something online only to discover that you had been deceived. It hurts to lose something precious because you trusted a promise that was not true.
This is the concern behind Paul’s words in Colossians 2.
Continue reading “Thoughts on Colossians – Part 3”If Christ has reconciled us to God, what happens now? The Christian life is not simply about the moment we first believe. There is a journey ahead.
Paul speaks about continuing “in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel”. This is serious. There are people who seem to begin well but do not finish. There are people who once professed faith but later abandon Christ. There are people who turn away from the Gospel and embrace another hope.
So how do we know that someone truly belongs to Christ?
Continue reading “Thoughts on Colossians – Part 2”Is Christ truly enough?
This is a question that lies beneath much of the Christian life.
We may never put the question into words, but we answer it by the way we live. When life becomes difficult, what do we look to for security? When we feel spiritually weak, where do we turn? When the world offers us a hundred competing voices, how do we know which one to listen to? When we look at the church and see imperfect people, how do we remain committed to one another? And when we think about eternity, what gives us confidence that we will actually make it to the end?
Continue reading “Thoughts on Colossians – Part 1”
Have you ever obeyed God sincerely, only to wonder whether it made any difference at all?
Many Christians know that feeling. We step out in faith, serve where we can, pray faithfully, share the gospel, or labour through difficult circumstances—only to look at the results and feel discouraged. Our efforts seem small. The impact appears insignificant. We begin to wonder whether it is worth continuing.
Continue reading “Haggai (Part 2): When your obedience feels small – the reassuring presence of God”“Consider your ways.” That simple command still searches the heart.
Haggai spoke to returned exiles who were rebuilding their lives in Jerusalem. Their homes were finished. Their routines restored. Everything looked respectable. But one thing lay in ruins: the temple.
God’s rebuke was sharp: “Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your panelled houses, while this house lies in ruins?” (Hag 1:4). There was no open idolatry or dramatic rebellion. Their sin was subtler — preoccupation with their own lives. Reasonable excuses had hardened into settled neglect.
Continue reading “Book of Haggai — A Call to Re-Prioritise”
Howard Hughes was once one of the richest and most influential men in the world. He possessed enormous wealth, remarkable engineering brilliance, and resources that could shape industries. Yet toward the end of his life he withdrew into fearful isolation, hiding away in darkened hotel rooms while much of what had been entrusted to him sat stagnant and unused. The tragedy was not that he had nothing. The tragedy was that he had so much, yet did so little with it.
Jesus’ parable of the talents carries an even more sobering warning.
Continue reading “The parable of the talents: What your stewardship reveals about your heart”
Isaiah 40 opens with one of the most striking turns in all of Scripture. After chapters filled with warning and judgement, the tone chnages to surprising tenderness, “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.” This phrase follows a troubled history. Israel’s rebellion had led to devastation, exile, and the loss of everything familiar. Into that darkness, God speaks not with further rebuke, but with consolation.
Continue reading “The comfort of an almighty, but tender Shepherd”
Five young women stand in the dark, shut out of a wedding celebration. They were meant to be part of the joy, part of the procession, part of the feast. Instead, they are outside, knocking, pleading. From within comes a chilling reply: “Truly, I say to you, I do not know you.”
What happened?
Continue reading “The longing of true sons of the Kingdom”
“Is it possible to receive God’s invitation, and still be excluded from His feast?”
That is the tension at the heart of Jesus’ parable in Gospel of Matthew 22.
A king prepares a wedding feast for his son. The invitations go out to a privileged group. The feast is ready, everything has been prepared. But when the moment comes, the guests refuse to come.
Continue reading “The invitation and the rejection”We can be comfortable with Jesus when He remains one voice among many. A tension emerges when He speaks with final authority into the whole of life. That is exactly what happens in Matthew 21:23–46, where Jesus is confronted in the temple and asked a question that is less about information and more about control: “By what authority are you doing these things?”
