A couple of months ago, I was packing up at the park with Rosa when this other mum started a conversation with me. I could clearly see she had a purpose behind the conversation, and I was curious to see where she was going with it. To be honest, I figured she was a lonely mum looking for connection so imagine my surprise when she finished the conversation up with an invite to her church. I graciously explained that I was already a member of a church and left, and as I drove h

It's easy to say "I believe that", but in most situations we are talking about things that we agree with. Is that what the bible means by faith? Mental agreement with someone's argument or saying? I was talking to someone recently, and they raised something they believed about a church I know , based upon never actually going to that church, nor ever investigating the thing they were so confidently claiming to find out if it really was the case. This form of "belief" is preva

Making room is hard work. Kinda makes you want to pull a face like this cool cat below! Talking about making room is easy - that just requires us to think for ourselves or dialogue with others. Making plans to make room - it's a bit more effort, but there's no mess yet. Just some cool design ideas or calendar suggestions. But when it comes to actually making room...well that gets messy: We make room for God and people in our calendar, and then life throws all sorts of spanner

Over this past three weeks we have explored the concept of the Observing Self and how we can use it and the Thinking Self to hear God's voice clearer and without distraction. In doing so, we have explored cognitive strategies to work with our thoughts including diffusion and mindfulness. However, not all of us are good at using thought based strategies to quieten our mind and instead find that visualization techniques are a more effective strategy. In our final week on this t

"When the cares of my heart are many, your consolations cheer my soul." Psalm 94:19 Don't we want to get quickly to the experience of Psalm 94:19 - where we hear God's consolations and experience the cheer of our souls? But it's not always that simple in practice, is it? I mean, have you ever found it difficult to fall asleep because you keep thinking about things? Maybe it was what happened at work that day, or a disagreement with a friend. Or perhaps it is thinking about th

Have you ever been spending time with God and instead of being able to focus on him, you find your mind wandering to other things. Often they are menial thoughts such as "What is for dinner?" or "when was the last time I did the washing?" Other times the thoughts can be more powerful and, on occasions, distressing - such as thinking about a past fight that you had with someone you love, or some form of conflict at work. In any case, instead of focusing on God, instead of bei

First, a recap Over the past 5 weeks, we have been exploring the different stages we experience when going through change and different strategies to cope with these changes. "Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people." - Exodus 13:22 We began with recognizing the grief that occurs when situations change and we have to mourn what we have lost. We discussed the importance of recognizing the impact that something ma

"No one who has treated me with such repeated contempt will see [the Promised Land].” [‭‭Numbers‬ ‭14:23,‬ ‭MSG‬‬] These are pretty arresting words from God. There's a cycle that the people have "repeated" - contempt that has brought on God's appropriate judgement. How do we break such cycles of negativity, towards God, towards ourselves, towards the world around us? 10 Israelite leaders were the latest to practice this contempt of God - but the Israelite's hadn't long moved

"Caleb interrupted, called for silence before Moses and said, “Let’s go up and take the land—now. We can do it." But the others said, “We can’t attack those people; they’re way stronger than we are.” [‭‭Numbers‬ ‭13:30-33,‬ ‭MSG‬‬] In previous weeks we have talked about how Joshua and Caleb returned to the Israelites describing a completely different promised land to their 10 other companions. We know that all men visited the same land but their perspective ended up entirely

"Then all the congregation raised a loud cry, and the people wept that night." [Numbers 14:1] Sometimes it’s really hard to quieten the voice of fear or doubt when it is whispering to you. Especially in these uncertain times, when both the mainstream media and social media can be quite focussed on reporting the negative, maintaining a Godly and positive perspective can be tricky. In Numbers 14, Joshua rebukes the Israelites for being afraid of the people of Canaan, reminding

"The land we passed through and explored is exceedingly good. If the Lord is pleased with us, he will lead us into that land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and will give it to us." [Numbers 14:7-8] In Numbers 13 and 14, Moses sends 13 men to explore the Promised Land of Canaan. Ten of them return describing the people who lived there as “strong” and the cities “fortified” (Numbers 13:28). They did not believe that the Israelites could defeat the men and were afraid. Mea

"And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him." Hebrews 11:6, NIV What causes you to give up? It depends on what we're talking about, right! If it's doing endless loads of washing, maybe about 3 loads and I'm started to get fed up (soft, I know!) If it's reading a good book on a rich theological, biblical, or philosophical topic, maybe a few days and I'd probably