City on a Hill: Melbourne: Recent Episodes
City on a Hill: Melbourne
Sermons from City on a Hill: Melbourne, a church committed to Knowing Jesus & Making Jesus Known. For more resources, visit https://resources.cityonahill.com.au.
In Jesus, we find a Saviour who redefines what it means to be great — not through status or strength, but through humility, self-denial, and sacrificial love. It begins with the death of John the Baptist whose greatness points to the true and greater One.
Passage: 'John 13:34-35'. Preacher: Javi De La Rosa. Visit www.cityonahill.com.au for more about our mission to know Jesus and make Jesus Known.
Jesus teaches on the kingdom of heaven in a series of parables such as a treasure found hidden in a field, or a mustard seed that grows into a beautiful tree, or a pearl worth selling everything you have to keep. Will those who seek find hope in the kingdom of God?
Sam Allberry (PM). Visit www.cityonahill.com.au for more about our mission to know Jesus and make Jesus Known.
Opposition and evil escalate in a plot to kill Jesus. Signs are demanded by those who have failed to recognise who Jesus is. The end of evil for eternity is foreshadowed. Who will see Jesus as hope for humanity in darkness?
John the Baptist expresses doubt that Jesus is the Saviour that he had prophesied would come. The mystery of Jesus’ revelation begins as He invites all troubled souls to come and find rest in Him. Who will see and behold the glory of Jesus?
Jesus sends the twelve disciples to proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God, and gives them authority to heal and cast out demons in his name. The mission is bold and costly - will the disciples prove faithful to the call?
The mission of Jesus is revealed as he continues to heal and bring life, teach the crowds, and call the twelve disciples to follow him for the ministry ahead. Could there be more to Jesus than just a prophet, good teacher or healer?
Jesus’ teaching astonishes the crowds, demonstrating His authority. He performs miraculous wonders - healing the sick and calming the raging seas. The crowds begin to ask “who is this man and by what authority has he come?”
Mary Magdalene comes to the tomb in grief, seeking Jesus—but a dead Jesus. As she weeps, He stands before her, asking the same question heard at His arrest: “Whom do you seek?”She seeks a body, but finds the risen Lord. In an instant, sorrow turns to joy as Jesus calls her by name. The one who drank the cup of suffering now stands victorious over death. He is not just alive—He is sending His followers into the world. “As the Father sent me, so I send you.”Whom do you seek? A memory? A historical figure? Or the living Jesus, who brings peace, power, and purpose? The empty tomb calls us to see, believe, and go tell the world.
On the night of His betrayal, Jesus steps forward from the shadows to meet those sent to arrest Him. Soldiers come expecting a criminal, armed with weapons and torches. Yet, it is Jesus who takes control, asking, “Whom do you seek?” His declaration—“I am”—briefly reveals His power, causing them to fall to the ground in awe.Judas and the soldiers seek a revolutionary, Peter fights to defend a king, but Jesus stands as the willing sacrifice. “Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me?” He asks, making it clear: this is no accident. Jesus is on a mission to the cross, to take the cup of wrath for the sake of others. Even in the chaos, He protects His disciples and heals the wounded, revealing His heart of grace.This Good Friday, whom do you seek? The answer stands before us: Jesus, the crucified one, who came to save.
True or false? Wise or foolish? Jesus ends his “sermon on the mount” by inviting us to walk the narrow path, following His way that leads to life. As followers of Jesus we put our firm foundation in Him, withstanding trials and temptations and finding everlasting joy in Him.
Jesus warns against hypocritical judgment, teaching that we should examine our own faults before criticising others as we grow in humility and self-awareness. God is the only worthy judge of good and evil and so we seek his forgiveness and thank Him for redeeming us.
Jesus invites us to look beyond this world and what it can offer us, and look to His kingdom where eternal treasures lie. God is our provider - we do not need to be anxious about tomorrow for He gives us all we need for life and righteousness in Jesus.
Jesus calls His followers to seek a deep, genuine relationship with God rather than outward religious performance. Practice humility in prayer, devotion and generosity as you serve the Lord as your King in secret and in public.
Jesus came not to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. He came to redirect our fixation from rules and laws, to loving and knowing Him. Jesus is serious about sin - He wants us to walk the path of righteousness that leads away from darkness, towards His marvellous light.
Jesus calls us to be ‘salt’ and ‘light’ - to be people who seek Him and show the world His beauty and grace. As followers of Jesus filled with the Holy Spirit, we are to shine in a way that invites the world to want to find out who Jesus is.
Jesus promises blessing, fulfilment, and the kingdom of heaven to those who are poor in spirit, mourn, and are persecuted for His sake. Jesus invites us to walk in His light, to truly see God and to rejoice that our reward is great in heaven.
Jesus begins his ministry, revealing His kingdom of light to the world. Jesus endures forty days of temptation in the wilderness before He begins to preach the good news, calls His first disciples and performs healings and miracles.
John the baptist prepares the way for Jesus. As Jesus is baptised in the river Jordan, the heaven’s open up and the Spirit of God descends like a dove and God declares “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”
Jesus is born, the promise fulfilled and the Saviour is here. King Herod hears of the news and, seeking to kill Jesus, wipes out all the newborn sons in Bethlehem. Joseph and Mary flee to Egypt following an angel of the Lord’s warning, before returning to Nazareth.
God’s promise to send a Saviour to redeem Israel is made clear in the genealogy of Jesus and the generations before His birth, from Abraham to Joseph. God is faithful to save His people by sending His Son - Immanuel, God with us.
Passage: 'John 13:1-17'. Preacher: Andrew Judd. Visit www.cityonahill.com.au for more about our mission to know Jesus and make Jesus Known.
Passages: 'Joshua 1:8 / Psalm 119:9-11 / John 8:30-32'. Preacher: Mike Bird. Visit www.cityonahill.com.au for more about our mission to know Jesus and make Jesus Known.
Passage: 'Luke 18:18-30'. Preacher: Andrew Grills. Visit www.cityonahill.com.au for more about our mission to know Jesus and make Jesus Known.
Passage: ''. Preacher: Louis Glazebrook. Visit www.cityonahill.com.au for more about our mission to know Jesus and make Jesus Known.
Practice love, hospitality, and compassion, as you trust in God’s provision. Fix your eyes on the kingdom of God, as we continue to praise Him, abide in His word, act mercifully and share the good news with others, for these sacrifices are pleasing to Him.
Through Jesus, our mediator, we are invited into His kingdom of joy and celebration. Jesus invites us to listen to God’s voice, reminding us that one day everything temporary will be shaken, leaving only God’s unshakeable kingdom.
A good father will discipline his children. Likewise, God disciplines us as his children to produce holiness within us, and to form us into the likeness of Jesus. The way we live is an example to the world of Jesus’ ways, and the power of the Holy Spirit in us.
Many have gone before us in trusting God, and in His promises, without seeing the end reward. We endure the difficulties of this life by looking to Jesus, who perfected faith by enduring the cross, and strengthens us to stay steadfast in the face of opposition.
Through Jesus, we can draw near to God with assurance that we are forgiven of our sins. Despite struggle, in Jesus there is great eternal reward. Stand firm, resist sin, encourage one another and remember God is faithful to forgive and save you.
The old covenant's earthly tabernacle and repeated sacrifices were abolished with Christ's once-for-all sacrifice. We do not have to earn our faith or perform sacrifices to God. Jesus has paid the price for our sin and sanctifies us by his blood, giving us a new identity in Him.
Jesus entered the heavenly sanctuary, offering His own blood as a sacrifice to secure eternal redemption for us, to cleanse us of sin and to gift us the presence of God, the Holy Spirit. Through Jesus we are invited into the throne room of God, to enjoy a relationship with Him.
Jesus fulfilled God’s promises of a new and better covenant, making the old obsolete. This new covenant is built on God's promises to write His laws on the hearts of His people by the Holy Spirit, offering complete forgiveness and a direct relationship with Him.
Unlike earthly priests, Jesus' priesthood is permanent because He lives forever. His perfect sacrifice brings complete salvation, making Him the ultimate mediator between God and humanity. Jesus is the guarantor of a better covenant between God and us, his people.
Our hope in God's promises serves as an anchor for the soul, with Jesus as our eternal High Priest. Hebrews 5-6 encourages believers to keep trusting Jesus, warns against spiritual stagnation and reminds us to trust in God's promises and persevere in the faith.
Do not harden your hearts towards God is the warning penned by the author of Hebrews. The world and its temptation will be strong, but Jesus is the only one who will satisfy. Encourage one another in faith to keep following Jesus, lest you fall away.
In Hebrews 3:1-19, the glory of God is embodied in Jesus as the Wonderful Counsellor. Compared to Moses, Jesus’ glory surpasses that of the greatest Old Testament leaders. His faithful leadership and guidance reflect the divine wisdom and glory, offering us a deeper understanding of God’s plan and purpose for His people.
Hebrews 2:1-18 highlights the glory of God as seen in the sacrificial role of Jesus, our Saviour. Through His incarnation and suffering, His willingness to become human and endure suffering for our salvation reveals God’s magnificent grace and redemptive power.
Jesus is the perfect, ultimate, final revelation of God. He is the ultimate expression of God’s glory, surpassing all previous revelations and angels. In Jesus, we’re invited to witness and experience the majestic glory of God’s presence.
Worshipping “in spirit” involves a heartfelt devotion, love for Jesus and full surrender to God. The Holy Spirit reveals and illuminates truths about God’s character, His will, and His redemptive plan through Jesus Christ to our heart, leading us to praise and worship him with our whole lives.
Those in Christ stand secure in the kingdom of God, yet we know the prince of darkness rules the city of man. The Holy Spirit allows us to fight sin, darkness and evil, as we put on the armour of God and take out the Sword of the Spirit.
God gives signs, wonders and gifts by the Holy Spirit to point us to his power, grace and love. He wants us to walk in the newness of life given to us in Jesus, seeking and using our spiritual gifts to help us to know Jesus deeper and to make Him known.
God’s Spirit and His Word are intimately connected and mutually reinforcing in the life of a believer - both are needed to flourish in Christ. The Holy Spirit illuminates the message of the Bible, enabling us to understand its truths and apply them, and to see and know the person of Jesus.
Disciples of Jesus are not only called to follow him, but also become like him. The Holy Spirit transforms us into the likeness of Jesus - leading us to a deeper sense of dependency on God as we navigate seasons of trial and temptation, and seek His guidance and strength.
Salvation is the work of the Holy Spirit, reminding us that our redemption is not based on our own work or efforts but is a gift of God’s amazing grace. By the Holy Spirit and through faith in Jesus, we get to walk in our new and transformed lives.
The Bible teaches that the Holy Spirit is a gift received by faith, allowing us to encounter God, enabling our transformation and empowering us for life and ministry. As a living member of the Trinity who is with us today, The Holy Spirit desires ongoing fellowship with us.
In an age of social media, comparison and jealousy can easily creep into our hearts. God desires us to not be jealous and to be content in his gift of salvation in Jesus.
Is it ever okay to tell a lie? Deception and mistruth is evident throughout our world, but Jesus himself claims to be the truth and the light. Will we follow him in our actions?
Theft hurts other people, but it also dishonours God. Jesus teaches us that all we need for life can be found in him, and that God is our ultimate provider.
In a confused generation, where is the line on adultery, cheating and affairs? We are all searching for the “right” way to do relationships. Will we follow God’s way?
Murder is wrong. Most of us would agree on this. But is it ever justified? What does God have to say about life, death, and the value he places on humanity?
God created the heavens and Earth in six days, and on the seventh day he rested. God also desires us to rest and practice the Sabbath, and ultimately find true rest in Jesus.
Family is designed to be a place of love and safety, but it can also be messy and hurtful. How should we honour our parents and follow Jesus’ example, even when it’s difficult?
God reveals his character and power in the Bible. But there are many who share false gospels and misuse the name of Jesus. How should we honour Jesus’ name in truth?
Our hearts seek satisfaction in many idols like money, sex, power and entertainment. But we are made to be fully satisfied in Jesus. Do you desire God above all else?
There are many Gods, religions and understanding of the “divine” in our age. God wants us to know and worship him above all other Gods. Will we devote our hearts to him?
Which way is the “right way” to live? Where do we find true morality in a modern age? God has a vision for life and the way it should be lived, through Jesus.
Jesus moved the stone. He didn’t need to, as John tells us he could just show up in places with his resurrected body (John 20:19), but he did. He did this to show how comprehensively he has beaten death, but more than that, to ensure that even the doubtful would know that he is alive. There was an empty tomb left in the garden as a testimony to God’s offer to the world to believe in him.
Jesus’ side was pierced to prove that Jesus truly was dead, but also, John tells us, in fulfilment of prophecy, that ‘not one of his bones will be broken’ and ‘they will look on him whom they have pierced.’ This detail is provided to us so that we may believe. The spear highlights to us the sharpness of the suffering and the significance of Jesus’ death. It was painful, but it was planned.
Queen Esther and Mordecai’s courage and faithfulness to stand up for their people - the Jews - will be remembered and observed in every generation by every family, and in every province and in every city. Hope will always arise.
King Xerxes responds to Queen Esther’s plea for mercy, issuing a new decree to allow the Jews to defend themselves. The tables turn and the Jews stand in victory against their enemies with a joyous celebration and feast.
Queen Esther reveals Haman’s evil intention to the king. The king is furious and orders Haman's execution on the very gallows he had prepared for Mordecai. Will Esther's courage and strategic revelation shift the fate of the Jews?
Queen Esther plans her strategic plea to save the Jews. King Xerxes learns of Mordecai’s foiling of the plot to kill the king and orders him to be honoured, sparking Haman’s jealousy as he is instructed to parade Mordecai through the streets.
Mordecai learns about Haman's decree to destroy the Jews. Distraught, he urges Queen Esther to intercede with the king on behalf of her people. Will Esther risk her life and find the courage to approach the king?
Haman, an influential official, gains the king's favour and devises a plan to annihilate the Jews. Mordecai refuses to bow to Haman, leading to his vengeful plot and a decree to destroy the Jewish people. Who will stand up in the face of opposition?
Xerxes' search for a new queen continues through a beauty contest. Esther, a Jewish orphan raised by her cousin Mordecai, wins the king's favour and becomes queen. Meanwhile, Mordecai discovers a plot against the king and foils it.
King Xerxes hosts an extravagant 180-day-long feast for all his officials and servants in an indulgent display of power. The king calls for Queen Vashti to join him to show off her beauty, but she refuses resulting in her dethroning and sparking the king’s anger.
Andrew Judd shares a message on the verse that changed his life from Ephesians 4:11-16.
Death doesn’t have the final word as Jesus raises his good friend Lazarus from the dead, pointing to his ultimate sacrifice to be made on the cross.
Jesus passes a blind man begging in the street and acts mercifully, restoring the man’s sight with his touch and revealing his light.
The disciples encounter a vicious storm as they attempt to sail through the night and Jesus miraculously shows up, walking on water and delivering them to safety.
5000 people are gathered to see Jesus, and with only 5 loaves and 2 fishes to feed everyone Jesus performs a miracle and the crowd are fed in abundance.
Paralysed and unable to walk for the last 38 years, a man is healed by Jesus in Bethesda, breaking the rules of religious authorities on the Sabbath.
The royal official begs Jesus to intervene when his son falls ill, and with a few words Jesus miraculously heals the boy.
Jesus performs his first miracle at the wedding in Cana, turning water into wine, revealing his divine power and initiating his ministry.
Death: we are destined for it, yet many of us rarely think about it. What does wisdom have to say about the final reality, and the life we live before it?
Words have the power to make and to mould, to build up and break down – so tune your ear to what God has to say about them in Proverbs.
Work: we need it, we love it, we loathe it, drawn either to under-work or over-work. What does God’s word have to say about this fundamental feature of human life?
Riches can do great good, but the love of money can consume and deform us – so how do we train our hearts to what is truly valuable?
In a world of anger, injustice and oppression, God’s commitment to justice is startling, and he stands as sovereign Judge. Align your life to his purposes for the world through Proverbs.
What do you look for in a marriage partner? How do you protect your marriage, and let it blossom? Let God show you how in Proverbs.
Our Heavenly Father has created us to live in families, and Proverbs provides wisdom for building and shaping the fundamental unit of our community.
In a world of information and data, knowledge and technique, find wisdom. Find its source, its substance, and its power.
God has promised those in Christ the fullness of his salvation and life. And yet there is a tension between the “already and “not yet” as we experience a broken world. We press on towards holiness, understanding it will take patience and work, all while trusting in God’s transformative power.
Work is a meaningful part of our purpose and worship - God called Adam and Eve to work and care for His creation. Work must also be balanced with rest, acknowledging our dependence on God and recognising that our worth is not found in what we do, but in who we are as beloved children of God.
A healthy “rule of life” involves finding joy in God and His gifts, while also following Jesus’ example of self-denial. We should live Christ-centred lives of celebration, but also sacrifice, service and self-denial, not for punishment but for healthy detachment from the world for the sake of joy in Christ's presence.
Examination practices and rhythms such as “The Daily Examen”, prayer, fasting and journaling help us cultivate an awareness of God's all-encompassing love. Just as we ask God to search our own hearts through examination, so we ask God to show us other people’s hearts, so we can encourage them in their journey.
Examination practices and rhythms such as “The Daily Examen”, prayer, fasting and journaling help us cultivate an awareness of God's all-encompassing love. Just as we ask God to search our own hearts through examination, so we ask God to show us other people’s hearts, so we can encourage them in their journey.
A trellis is crucial for supporting a vine's growth, just as Christians need structure to remain in Christ. A "rule of life" serves as a pattern of spiritual disciplines to encourage flourishing in your walk with Jesus, and is a means of God's grace to deepen love and joy in Christ.
Disciples of Jesus are called to abide in Him and bear his fruit - joy, peace, patience, kindness, self-control and love. As we walk with Christ, the aim is not that we go deeper into ourselves, but deeper into Jesus who has all we need to grow in His life and His love.
How do you prepare for big things? Paul's pastoral plea to the Corinthians is that they examine their faith and abide in the grace of Christ. Even when we struggle with sin or feel stagnant in our faith, we trust that our life is hidden in Christ and that the resurrection power which raised him from the dead is at work in raising us up too. May the love of God strengthen you in your weakness.
Weakness amplifies the grace of God and magnifies the power of Christ. It is when we are weak, that we are strong. The way of the world is to boast in our strength, but the way of Jesus is the way of weakness. Bad things will happen to us, but God can use evil for good. No matter what comes our way, God will never forsake us.
The church ought to be bold, empowered, and boastful not in ourselves but in the Lord. Boldness is about facing our problems head on. Turning the other cheek isn’t about being a doormat or tolerating evil. Strongholds aren't to be toyed with, but taken captive in submission to Christ. Jesus grabbed a whip and flipped tables to drive out sin. Paul was neither physically impressive nor especially eloquent. Wordly tactics and human strategy will not do, we need divine power through the mighty weapons of prayer and the ministry of the word. The bible is more than a text, it is the sword of the Spirit, to advance his kingdom and fight the darkness. Therefore, "let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord."
As Australians, we are living in one of (if not the) richest country in the world, in one of the most prosperous times in history. How can we be generous with the blessings God has bestowed on us? May we rejoice in the richness of God's grace to us, and seek to give generously. May we learn from the Macedonians how generosity springs from overflowing joy, for God loves a cheerful giver.
Idols and holiness do not mix. We become what we worship, and idols embody the demonic darkness from which we need deliverance. So, may we worship Christ with purity of heart and spirit, fully devoted to him. Idols don't have to be tiny shrines of gods we keep in our homes, but good things that have become distorted. What are you chasing after that is keeping you from full devotion to Christ? What false relationships are you holding onto? Lay them down at the cross.
The gospel transforms breaking bodies and ruptured relationships, so we make the goal of our lives around pleasing God and serving as his ambassadors on earth, making a difference in the lives of the people around us. Don't let sin corrupt you and lead to death, seek reconciliation with God and embrace the treasure of eternal life.
We are jars of clay, but this is a good thing. Our fragility and brokeness are beautiful because God wants to use ordinary people. Are you willing to take up the hazardous journey of faith and entrust that God has hidden treasure in jars of clay?
Is it going to be the crocs or the cross? Paul critiques the celebrity pastor culture of the Corinthians, urging them that not even he ought to be considered as anything, but rather that the focus be on the gospel.
Christianity is not about the easy and comfortable life. Affliction is at the heart of our faith, but amidst it he comforts us so we can comfort others in theirs. God is the God of all comfort, and while he can deliver us from affliction, his power is best displayed in our weakness. God can use suffering to strip away our pride. To be built up, we have to be torn down. Don't give in, and don't give up. God loves you. He's got you.
Seeing is not always believing, so Jesus invited the disciples to touch his wounds, to see the evidence of his claim. He then went through the scriptures, and showed how they point to him.There's life in your lungs for a reason, and you are no accident. Jesus rose physically and spiritually to redeem creation physically and spiritually. Jesus rose so you could repent of your sin and return home to God. Dutch artist, Rembrandt, felt the weight of this in his life, when he painted "The return of the prodigal son" after a tumultuous time of self-indulgence to intense grief.
No one's death has led to more music, literature, statues, art, and memorials than the death of Jesus Christ — on a day we call Good Friday. This day is good because Jesus' death means our forgiveness, reconciliation, and eternal life.
God gave Israel land, a command, and an inheritance. He had kept his promsies to his people, and now it was time for the people to settle into the promise. If God was in control of the details then, he is in control of the details now. We obey God now because we are undeservedly loved and given an eternal inheritance far greater than anything in earth, the inheritance of Christ, and of heaven.
Without God's presence, Israel could do nothing. God chose the weak to shame the strong, the foolish to shame the wise. When you face a wall, trust God even when you feel like you're going in circles, the battle feels beyond you, and the world is burning. How do we handle a God that preaches life but allows death, that demands righteousness and judges wickedness? In God's judgement, there is mercy. The same Spirit that brought the walls of Jericho down, lives in the faithful. For all who look at Christ, there is life forevermore.
Rahab's story is a reminder that faith without courage is dead, and that the grace of God reaches unexpected places and unexpected people. His arms are never too short to save. God is looking for people of word and deed, faith and action. It is much easier to talk about courage under fire, than it is living it. Real faith comes from courage under fire, hearing God's word, and seeking refuge in the hand of God. Let the story of Rahab hiding the spies be an encouragement to you today.
As Jesus is lord over this cosmos, so shall he be lord over the new heavens and earth as the first-born from the dead, the only one who was able to defeat death once and for all. There will be no referendums nor any limits to his reign, for Christ is preeminent and he shall reign forever.
There is nothing in all creation that doesn't find its origin and design in Jesus. It doesn't exist primarily for us, but for Jesus. Every planet, every sunrise, every mountain, every valley, every ocean, every heart, and every nation. The supremacy of Christ over all creation helps us stay curious, practice thankfulness, steward God's world, and worship Jesus as lord over all.
In Colossians, Paul was speaking to a church battling the heresy of Gnosticism, that the spiritual is better than the physical and Jesus was fully spirit yet gave the illusion of having a physical body. To this Paul writes about the pre-eminence of Christ, who is 'the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.'In Jesus, the invisible God became visible, the cosmic God who held the stars walked on Earth to be close to us. God became one of us. God has written himself into history and the story of our lives, to reveal himself to us and make himself known through Jesus. When Paul calls Jesus the first-born over all creation, he is not calling Christ a creation but reminding us that Christ is first and foremost over all things: every planet, every being, every nation, and everthing in all creation. Is he first in your life, your purpose, your possessions, and your time?
No one wants to fail. We are all trying our best to make this life work but somehow our flesh and this world have a way of catching us out. We will end up finding ourselves amidst our frailty and sin. What do we do then?The prodigal son is the story of all of us. Promised inheritance of our father’s land, we squander our blessings and live life our way, until life doesn’t work out anymore and we find ourselves bearing the weight of our sin and longing for a home to rest. We become overcome with fear that our father would never want us back. Yet, the father is waiting for us with open arms. When he sees us seeking him and facing him, recognising the mess of our life, we are not met with reproach but a father who runs to us. clothes us with a rich robe, and prepares a banquet to celebrate the return of the one who ‘was lost, but is not found; dead but is now alive.’ May we forsake the distant country of this world, and return to our inheritance in heaven, knowing God is waiting with o...
No one wants to fail. We are all trying our best to make this life work but somehow our flesh and this world have a way of catching us out. We will end up finding ourselves amidst our frailty and sin. What do we do then?The prodigal son is the story of all of us. Promised inheritance of our father’s land, we squander our blessings and live life our way, until life doesn’t work out anymore and we find ourselves bearing the weight of our sin and longing for a home to rest. We become overcome with fear that our father would never want us back. Yet, the father is waiting for us with open arms. When he sees us seeking him and facing him, recognising the mess of our life, we are not met with reproach but a father who runs to us. clothes us with a rich robe, and prepares a banquet to celebrate the return of the one who ‘was lost, but is not found; dead but is now alive.’ May we forsake the distant country of this world, and return to our inheritance in heaven, knowing God is waiting with o...
The Christians finds themselves living in the tension of two opposing kingdoms asresidents of the temporary kingdom of the world, yet citizens of the eternal kingdom of heaven. We all want to work for the good life, and then to imagine a better world for everyone. Yet, even if we reached that golden age, it will never reach God’s vision in the new creation. So, as we live as exiles on earth, we are to be involved in God’s kingdom on earth, and committed to growing God’s family and our own, but we do this all in light of the eternal. We are to be a city on a hill within the world, yet a people longing for the city of God.
The Christians finds themselves living in the tension of two opposing kingdoms asresidents of the temporary kingdom of the world, yet citizens of the eternal kingdom of heaven. We all want to work for the good life, and then to imagine a better world for everyone. Yet, even if we reached that golden age, it will never reach God’s vision in the new creation. So, as we live as exiles on earth, we are to be involved in God’s kingdom on earth, and committed to growing God’s family and our own, but we do this all in light of the eternal. We are to be a city on a hill within the world, yet a people longing for the city of God.
It’s immoral to incarcerate someone indefinitely to deter someone else, but the politics involved with supporting asylum seekers arriving by boat is complex. The dangers of people smuggling, and drowning at sea, are very real. There is also a cost to nations that house refugees, but currently poorer nations like Turkey are carrying the greatest weight of the cost. Rich countries like Australia can afford to pay the price.In the end, the barriers separating us from God and each other has been overcome and overturned in Jesus. If we are moved by justice and care by what is happening in the world, if we would have the same compassion for Ukraine as we would for Afghanistan, South Sudan, and Myanmar, we ought to seek solutions to help refugees feel welcome, and ensure our government has godly wisdom in how they handle these policies. May we welcome well, no matter the story, and be a light to the nations.
It’s immoral to incarcerate someone indefinitely to deter someone else, but the politics involved with supporting asylum seekers arriving by boat is complex. The dangers of people smuggling, and drowning at sea, are very real. There is also a cost to nations that house refugees, but currently poorer nations like Turkey are carrying the greatest weight of the cost. Rich countries like Australia can afford to pay the price.In the end, the barriers separating us from God and each other has been overcome and overturned in Jesus. If we are moved by justice and care by what is happening in the world, if we would have the same compassion for Ukraine as we would for Afghanistan, South Sudan, and Myanmar, we ought to seek solutions to help refugees feel welcome, and ensure our government has godly wisdom in how they handle these policies. May we welcome well, no matter the story, and be a light to the nations.
Who decides what speech is free? Once free speech is given, it is often forgotten to be shared to others, particularly those who are not in power. Freedom of speech is the right to express an opinion without censorship or restraint. It is a nod to the created order of form and function, but it also accounts for human finitude and frailty. Because free speech accounts for a fallen world, objective truth ought not be legislated because legislation is governed by fallible people. Freedom of speech is in tune with the gospel, and is for love of neighbour. We need each other and the different ways we see the world to best image God to the world. Yet, in sharing the gospel we bring teaching and not a sword, believing the gospel is enough, and being able to share it with gentleness and respect.
Who decides what speech is free? Once free speech is given, it is often forgotten to be shared to others, particularly those who are not in power. Freedom of speech is the right to express an opinion without censorship or restraint. It is a nod to the created order of form and function, but it also accounts for human finitude and frailty. Because free speech accounts for a fallen world, objective truth ought not be legislated because legislation is governed by fallible people. Freedom of speech is in tune with the gospel, and is for love of neighbour. We need each other and the different ways we see the world to best image God to the world. Yet, in sharing the gospel we bring teaching and not a sword, believing the gospel is enough, and being able to share it with gentleness and respect.
Christians ough to reclaim a high view of the world as having been created by God. With one hand God holds the universe, and with the other he feeds the sparrow. Caring for the world does not mean worshipping it, but it does mean we put aside our comfort and ease in order to satisfy the creation mandate of being stewards of the earth. As Christians, we know the heart of the problem. Sin is deadly, and the choices we make have consequences. Creation is subjected to futility. Yet, we take hold of the living hope in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. This doesn't mean we can just sit back and watch the world burn, instead we prayerfully seek wisdom in government, corporate, and individual actions and alternative resources.
Christians ough to reclaim a high view of the world as having been created by God. With one hand God holds the universe, and with the other he feeds the sparrow. Caring for the world does not mean worshipping it, but it does mean we put aside our comfort and ease in order to satisfy the creation mandate of being stewards of the earth. As Christians, we know the heart of the problem. Sin is deadly, and the choices we make have consequences. Creation is subjected to futility. Yet, we take hold of the living hope in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. This doesn't mean we can just sit back and watch the world burn, instead we prayerfully seek wisdom in government, corporate, and individual actions and alternative resources.
We all have the right to life with dignity but do we all have the right to live to die with dignity?Death comes to all, and in any form death is the enemy. Euthanasia is wrong because it claims that a human being loses dignity when it loses autonomy. Yet, the bible makes it clear that every human being has inherent, incorruptible, and unlosable dignity because we are made in the image of God. If life is no more than breathing, it's still a life made in the image of God. Life and death are God's domains, not ours. Jesus is good news now and forever, because in Jesus we have eternal life, a life without suffering and pain and death. A life forever in a perfect immortal body. Until then, we endure through suffering as Christ endured his, showing compassion to those in suffering and caring for the sick and vulnerable, advocating for palliative care and rejecting voluntary assisted death.
We all have the right to life with dignity but do we all have the right to live to die with dignity?Death comes to all, and in any form death is the enemy. Euthanasia is wrong because it claims that a human being loses dignity when it loses autonomy. Yet, the bible makes it clear that every human being has inherent, incorruptible, and unlosable dignity because we are made in the image of God. If life is no more than breathing, it's still a life made in the image of God. Life and death are God's domains, not ours. Jesus is good news now and forever, because in Jesus we have eternal life, a life without suffering and pain and death. A life forever in a perfect immortal body. Until then, we endure through suffering as Christ endured his, showing compassion to those in suffering and caring for the sick and vulnerable, advocating for palliative care and rejecting voluntary assisted death.
The gospel of Jesus calls for more than racial diversity, it calls for reconciliation. That is, the coming together of an unbreakable bond marked by love and friendship. All people carry the signature of God, having been created by him and made in his image. By nature and choice we have been separated from God, yet through the blood of Jesus we are reconciled to God, who tore down the wall of hostility and remade us who believe in him one new humanity. In Jesus, we are one family of brothers and sisters from every race. To pursue reconciliation, we must be truthful when it comes to our past and present. We must acknowledge that Australia is stolen land, and the resurrection of Jesus compels us to work together for justice and hope for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples who called the lands we know as Australia home for at least 60000 years, according to the Uluru Statement.
Trans people are real people, and like all people, are made in the image of God. They are not a political tool to be weaponised for social commentary. We ought to remember who God says we are and that we are loved by him. We are not who the world tells us we are because we live in a broken world, marred physically and spiritually because of the fall. Our hope is in Jesus, the suffering servant, who is good news of great joy to all people. We remember that in Christ we have a new identity that transcends gender, and the people who don’t feel at home in their bodies are people whom God cares for and whom he wants to know him.
When it comes to engaging the big issues, sometimes Christians don’t read the room. We have responded to politics in different ways: withdrawing from it, worshiping it, succumbing to worldliness, else warring over opposing views. People used to look at politics in view of the bible, now they look at the bible in view of politics. It’s important we understand the left and the right, and why we need both. Additionally, we must recognise that discussions on culture are politically charged but also incredibly personal. Lastly, we acknowledge the great contribution of the Christian faith and repent of our own failings and sin, the times we have focussed on the twig in the world rather than the log in the eyes of the church. Jesus didn’t come to raise an army and overthrow the world. Christians, you don’t have Labour or Liberal written on your heart, but the name of Jesus. Don’t go left, don’t go right — go deeper and go deeper into Jesus. May we show Christ-like conviction over the truth...
What do you value in life and what are you willing to make sacrifice for? The most valuable thing we could ever have is the free grace of Jesus, and he is worth making sacrifices for.Mary valued Jesus, anointing him with an expensive perfume as recognition of his worth and of his upcoming burial. Judas overvalued something of insignificant value, and was willing to sacrifice Jesus for money. There is a little Judas in all of us, overvaluing earthly things such as wealth, comfort, pride, and pleasure but forsaking the eternal. On that night, Mary walked away justified, but Judas walked away condemned. Soon after, Christ’s blood was poured out as a sacrificial fragrance to God on the cross, where he died for our sins. Yet, Christ did not stay dead and will return as judge of all the living and the dead, making right those are washed by his blood and bringing right condemnation to those who negated to see his value. Today, you can choose to live like Judas and cling to your life, or li...
Recapitulation, the repetition of a bad phase, is the opposite of rehabilitation. After all the work of rebuilding the temple, Israel recapitulated. The people of God had gone back to the things we thought they left behind, desecrating the priesthood, neglecting the temple, and marrying foreign wives, showing their contempt for God and his commands. The lesson to be learnt is that a building can always be rebuilt, but a community cannot be rebuilt without their hearts being renewed. See, our strongest enemies are not external leadership or opposition, but internal: our own heart, captive to sin. Yet, God will remember us for good even when we forget him. He sent Jesus to take the punishment we deserve for sin upon himself, so that in him we have hope. Putting our hope in anything else but Jesus will disappoint us. Churches will fail. People will fail. Yet, God’s love will never fail.
Even after 141 years of despair, ruin, and trouble, Israel found something to rejoice in, and the joy of Jerusalem was heard far away. The Israelites cast lots to decide which families would relocate to the heart of the city. This was common practice in the ancient and biblical world. They embraced the risk and uncertainty that came with casting lots, trusting God had a plan for his people. God was faithful to his promise then, and he is faithful now. The risen Jesus declares life, salvation, and joy to all in him. Saved from sin and death, we have every reason to rejoice and sing together as God calls for our celebration more than duty and discipline.
Sorry is an uncomfortable word. Yet, if we truly understood who God is and who we are, we would understand the necessity of repentance in the Christian life, and that it’s a good thing. God was faithful and attentive to Israel, yet they remained stiff-necked, refusing to obey. Even we remain stubborn in our sin, saying sorry for being caught and being sorry for the consequence, but not being sorry for the condition of our heart. Genuine repentance looks like taking responsibility for our sinful position and pursuing God’s glory. Anything less than ongoing confession and repentance is opposition to God. He is the all-knowing creator and there is no faking it with him. He is watching ever single moment of your life, every thought and action, all to be brought to account on judgment day. May we make a firm covenant to live a life of true repentance, knowing we have been blessed by God in Christ to be a blessing to others.
The city was large but the people were few, still they came from every generation reading the word and responding with understanding and praise in the public square. It takes a village to raise a child in the Lord, and to be a people of God we need to be around the people of God, praying for one another and reading the word. The word of God, rightly understood, is always good news. That’s why in Nehemiah 8, the people opened the word not at the temple but at the water gate, as if to say the word is for everyone in every sphere. The word is meant to shape our street, our market places, our work, and everywhere we go. May we be people of the word.
Not only is opposition to the rebuild coming from the enemy outside the city, but also within God’s people inside the city. In Jerusalem, greedy leaders became loan sharks, piling interests onto loans given to their poorer neighbours, breaking God’s law. The poor, unable to pay back the loans, had to sell their lands as collateral, or had they no land but relied on weekly wages, forfeit eating and even sell their children to slavery. Yet, in the end, despite the enemies outside and within, God wins. The wall is rebuilt. The heart of Israel’s issues was that some within the community would do whatever it takes to protect themselves. Even now, 60% of church plants in the world fail not due to external aggression but from enemies inside, seeking to divide. Satan attacks the internal well-being of God’s people. We cannot do the rebuild at any cost. We must walk in fear of God as creator, working our salvation with fear and trembling before him who is the consuming fire....
Proximity doesn’t always equal intimacy; Judea and Samaria were neighbours but always at odds with one another. When Sanballat, king of Samaria, sees the Israelites rebuilding the temple, he opposes them by questioning their strength, motives, capacity, vision, and ability. The devil doesn’t antagonise God’s people with thunder, but by questioning truth and identity. He sneaks just enough poison to pull people apart.In the world, we are despised. As we pursue God’s presence and seek to live a godly life, evil will push back. When it does, we don’t stay silent but fight for justice and truth — yet we remember the battle belongs to God, and our weapon is prayer. Even when evil pushes back as we pursue the presence of God, we trust that in Jesus God will fight for us and grant us victory over the darkness and the lies we face. Jesus always has the final word.
Four months Nehemiah prays for a breakthrough, and then with the king’s approval, he returns to Jerusalem to help them rise up and rebuild the temple. Jerusalem was once the city of God, but it had become the city of fools. Sometimes we can become so accustomed with brokenness, we forget it exists. In order to do something about brokenness, we have to first admit the problems exist. Then we rise up and build. There is joy in the build, as God watches us step in faith to live for Jesus and serve him with our giftings and resources. With his hand upon us, we can do meaningful work, and everyone has a part to play. All 32 verses of Chapter 3 are basically a list of names, with the places they served, the things they built, and the people they were next to. May we, with God’s help, do the same in rebuilding the church.
Nehemiah could have minimised the tragedy of the destruction of his home city, or felt apathy toward it. He is living in Susa, the most liveable city of Persia, and has influence as the loyal cupbearer to King Artaxerxes I. Yet, Nehemiah wept and prayed. First, he adores God and praises his glory, realising that he cannot do anything without God. Second, aware of God’s steadfast love, Nehemiah prays on behalf of his people, bearing the responsibility for Israel’s disobedience, prefiguring Christ. Many times we come across mess in our lives, our work, our family, the church, and the world. Everytime we have the choice to keep calm and carry on, or to reckon with the mess and do something about it. It is easy to shift the blame, and the responsibility, to someone else. Yet, we ought to take the responsibility on ourselves. May we repent of the deceit, false teaching, hypocrisy, hardness of heart, misplaced love, worship of idols, disdain toward the church and contempt toward our fello...
Light cannot have fellowship with darkness; A believer cannot marry a non-believer. For those already in relationships with unbelievers, however, the Bible says to persevere so that your holiness might stir the heart of the other. Yet, cases of non-believers coming to faith because of a faithful significant other are few and far between. If you are single seeking a spouse, seek one that serves Christ.Israel had a problem with compromise, marrying pagan wives and thus marrying their gods, breaking the first commandment that God is to be worshipped exclusively. Ezra sees that Israel’s sins have piled up to heaven, and he prays and fasts for mercy. Repentance is required in the rebuild, and we need leaders that pray on behalf of the people. We have forsaken God’s commandments and our guilt has reached heaven. Yet, Christ died as our substitute on the cross, incurring the wrath of God in our place, that we might no longer be slaves but through his mercy be adopted as children of God....
The rebuild requires complete devotion to God’s word, that we would obey and live his word, trusting the hand of God’s grace. In a culture where the Bible is challenged, and in a world that pulls and pushes us away from God, we need to take time to pray that God will help us believe in the inspiration of scripture by faith. The Bible is not merely a historical text or a text of laws, it is a notebook written by God to us that we might come back to him. May we learn from Ezra and set our hearts on God and his word, not confusing knowledge with obedience but being doers of the word.
Seduction, suffering, and slander of God’s people left the temple unbuilt so God’s prophets, Zechariah and Haggai, called the people out on their inaction. Haggai rebuked God’s people for prioritising building their own houses while God’s house remained in ruins. Rebuilding the temple was necessary to rebuild relationship with God. We cannot waltz into the presence of God without him making a way to meet us on his terms: the temple was that holy mediating place. Israel’s rebuilt temple was eventually destroyed, but we have a living temple in Christ. May we not be too busy building our own life that we forget Christ and his church. Use your gifts and passions to meet the needs of the church and the world.
God’s people are prone to experience seduction, suffering, and slander. The world seduces us with compromise — that if we adapt our beliefs to fit the culture around us we would be supported.Christians are judged more by their reactions than their actions. We don’t plan to be seduced, nor do we plan to react badly to displeasing situations. Yet, neglecting to compromise, we experience suffering and slander which is liable to silence and oppress us. May we not cave in. May we stand firm on Christ and his words, lest we be ashamed of him and he be ashamed of us when he returns.
Church is not a consumeristic product or spectator sport, it is a commitment that calls for investment from all hands on deck. Rebuilding the church requires an altar of our God, obedience to God’s word, all hands on deck, and is marked by tears and joy. The early starts of the rebuild centred on repentance and desire for God’s word as Israel remembered following the ways of culture led to exile. Those who knew the first temple wept when the foundation of the second was set as they recalled their fall from grace and their burden of sin and shame. Yet, many shouted with joy as they celebrated their release from exile and their arrival home.
In exile, Israel wept. They were spiritually distant, unsure of God’s promises, and caught in complete darkness. These last few years of lockdowns have caused frustration and loss, and we are now coming out of the rubble and must work together to rebuild the house of the lord. The rebuild begins with God, who never gives up, but promises to rescue his people. God’s plan for his people is good, and he won’t leave them by the rivers of Babylon for ever.Rebuilding the house of the lord requires a reordering of our life and loves around Jesus, the perfect fulfilment of God’s renewal and rescue. He is the greater temple, and a temple that cannot be destroyed. The world wants us to rebuild our lives on our own, but Christians are meant to be a city on a hill, established in Christ and seeking first his kingdom, not our own. Everyone matters to God, and is required to be part of the fulfilment of his promise. Let us resolve and commit to rebuild.
The tomb is empty: if it weren’t, all the Romans and Pharisees needed to do was go to the tomb and show Jesus’ body to his disciples. Yet, his body was never found. Furthermore, women, who in the first-century were not valid witnesses, were the first witnesses of Jesus’ resurrection. One of the women was Mary, a former prostitute, and when she bows down before the risen Jesus, he receives her worship and comforts her.Every day, we fall short of the expectations required for us to be considered “good enough” for “the good place” but the story of Easter is that Jesus is good enough, loves you no matter what you’ve done, and has died a substitutionary death to defeat the darkness and bring us into his glorious light. Evil will have its day, and one day Christ will return to usher in a new heaven and earth, wiping away our tears, and ending suffering. Until then, may we be a City on a Hill that stands for Jesus’ truth, love, justice, and hope, trusting that he is risen, and triumphant o...
How should we feel about the death of Christ? We ought to remember that it was a death undeserved in the place of a life undeserved, Barabbas. Like Barabbas, we have all committed treason against the king of the universe through rebelling against him through our sin, making a mess of the life he’s given us. Like Barabbas, we are responsible for the debt we owe yet Christ took our place and paid the debt of sin for us, dying the death we deserved for sin and satisfying the wrath of God.When Christ cried ‘it is finished,’ the temple’s veil was torn from top to bottom signifying that God has made a way for man to come receive eternal life instead of a tomb, and a feast in heaven at the table of the Lord.
Pride is the innate desire of our hearts to be entitled to more than what we have. Pride takes, humility gives. We are to daily clothe ourselves with humility by casting our anxieties onto Christ and being watchful for the devouring devil by staying sober-minded.God is supreme, all-knowing, and all-powerful: We are not. May we humble ourselves therefore and trust that we will be exalted in the age to come. On that day, when Christ returns not as as a servant but as the king, the weak will be strengthened, the broken restored, and the humble exalted. Until then, may we endure through suffering and live righteously, not boasting in our strength nor being overwhelmed by our weaknesses, but casting our burdens onto the one who bore our grief on the cross.
Suffering refines true faith and removes the dross of false faith. Opposition to Jesus and friction with the world forces us to decide where we stand and counterintuitively can be a source of joy as we share in Christ's sufferings.When bad stuff happens, respond with good. Whatever people say about us, do what God thinks is right. We live in light of God’s judgement, not the world’s judgement. In the end, we are accountable to God through how we act amidst suffering. May we as the people of God entrust our souls to our faithful creator, trusting that he rests on us through our suffering.
As Christians, living for God in these last days, we must be alert yet not alarmed with the war of ideas between the world and the Christian life. This is not our home, but still find yourself some travel companions: the church, the only place where pursuing godliness is celebrated.Don’t be surprised by suffering or by antagonism to the Christian life. The kingdom of the self and the kingdom of God are at war with each other, therefore arm yourself with the knowledge that Christ is risen and one day you will be too. Pursue godliness in the church and gospel communities. Live like Jesus, not like the world. Be obedient to God.
If you want to live an authentic Christian life, speak the truth, pursue peace, and let God reign supreme in every sphere of your life. By this we “honour Christ as holy” and become zealous for doing good.When Jesus calls us to follow him, he calls us to a life abounding in truth and full of grace. Even in suffering and hostile environments, we are meant to pursue peace amidst evil because we are blessed in knowing that the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus is ours. God is for us, and so we do not fear those who can kill the body but rather fear the one who can destroy both body and soul in hell. May we be zealous for doing good, defending our faith by our gentleness and respect, whilst holding fast to the gospel — that “Christ suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God” and is now seated “at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him.”
Marriage is a live drama of Christ and the church. If we are to live righteously in the home, we must partner together — husband and wife — to live humbly and understand each other. Christ loved the church not by dominating her, or belittling her, but by washing her feet and sacrificing himself. When the Bible says that wives should submit to their husbands, it also says that husbands should honour their wives as co-heirs. Husbands should use their strength to protect and not to impose on the woman who is biologically designed to be physically weaker. Abuse is not masculinity. Every week a woman dies at the hands of their current or former spouse. This is not masculinity, but the mark of the beast. The Bible does not condone remaining in submission to an abusive relationship, but rather calls wives to submit to a husband who is able to love and honour them as Christ loved the church.
We are wired to resist pain, yet as Christians we are called to be like Jesus even when it hurts. Though God is opposed to slavery, he plays the long game and calls his people to fight injustice not with injustice but with humility and grace. When we’re treated like slaves in the workplace, suffering for doing what is right, we are to be encouraged that God sees and has gone ahead of us. Jesus knows what it means to suffer like a slave despite doing good, yet he persevered. Peter was a witness to this — seeing that Jesus ‘committed no sin, and was reviled but did not revile in return, suffered though did not threaten, entrusting himself to him who judges justly.’ So too we ought to follow in Christ’s footsteps, becoming uncomfortable for his sake, restoring relationships that have been broken and standing upon our faith wherever we are, shining the light of Jesus to those around us. Justice for our suffering will come, but until then our job is not to fight back injustice with injus...
While we live as elect exiles, we can’t drink from the spring of living water while at the same time poisoning it with the sin of the flesh. Our right thinking ought to shape our right living. If we are in Christ, we will abstain from sin, pursue a life of beauty, and honour all — even government.Living in what was the world’s most locked down city and coming out to vaccine mandates and political tension can make it hard to want to obey the government. But Peter wrote this letter during the time of Nero. So we submit in recognition that God is sovereign over all, and has all authority. The purpose of the government is to work for good and restrain evil. If they fail, we can speak out and shine light against authority that is misusing power and acting contrary to the goodness and grace of God. In the end, governments will give account to God. Until then, we submit to the king and honour one another — that “through our good acts we should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people...
Jesus, as the chief cornerstone, is infinitely precious. The chief cornerstone was the largest and most expensive stone used in building. It had to be perfectly cut, and it reminded the other builders who began the work. Jesus must be the foundation of life, for when we believe in him, the cornerstone will not be put to shame. The world may shut you in, but Jesus welcomes you in; the world may talk behind your back but Jesus will shower you with praise; the world may point at you as dirty and broken, but Jesus heals and makes us whole.The love The Father has for The Son, is the same love he has for us now. It is not conditional upon our merit, or whether we have it all together, but on the legitimacy of Christ. Belief is more than intellectual assent, but complete trust in Christ as the foundation of our salvation and of our lives. We cannot build our life on any other foundation, because it is all sand. No one and nothing but Christ can carry us and hold us together. Let us live us...
The Bible is more than the best selling book of all time, it is the living word of God that is life-giving, lasting, and maturing. Thus, we obey the Bible by believing it, and being born again. Our rebirth is not something we gain ourselves, but something that God alone can give you through the life-giving and life-restoring word of God which does the work of God to accomplish the will of God. Kingdom’s will rise and fall, but God’s word endures forever.As children of God, born again through the living word of God in Jesus, we must rid ourselves of hypocrisy, jealousy, and deceit. We must not slander one another, but seek to out-do one another in love and showing honour. To become mature we must drink the pure milk of God’s word, and live a life of repentance in light of this reality as the beloved children of God.
How do we remain faithful to Jesus in a post-Christian secularist age? By understanding that we are exiles sojourning on earth as temporary residents in a foreign place, and our home is in heaven. Although the world will try to tell us that this life is all there is, God has placed eternity in our hearts and we will find that nothing else will satisfy. Still, instead of rejecting earthly blessings we ought to be thankful for them, but never confusing them as the eternal thing.It takes courage to live out our faith as outsiders in the world, but we know our hope is not in the world but certain security in the living hope of Jesus. When we chose sin, Christ chose holiness. When we chose the world, Christ chose God. Now all who place their trust in him for forgiveness of sins are his elect, inheriting his kingdom and his righteousness, a kingdom unshakable and without end. In his kingdom, our true home, we will enjoy every spiritual blessing and the wholly satisfying pleasure of the pr...
The Great Commission is global, for all nations, because in Christ we are all one. We as the global body of Christ exist to know Jesus and out of the overflow of our knowledge of him to make him known. Instead of building walls, Christians should be building bridges. May we recognise the need for the gospel in our city, sharing the hope of the goodness of God to the some 200 nationalities within our own city of Melbourne. The Great Commission is vital, and by God's presence and power that will be with us always, it is achievable.
Baptism is a symbol of our engagement to Jesus, and is open to every believer. Faith is about word and action. The Great Comission instructs us to be baptizing and teaching the faith. It is amazing to see what God can do when we meet together and read through the Bible. It is not complicated, and could be as simple as meeting up with someone over coffee and to read a chapter of the Bible together. May God help us to live out our faith in word and action, pursuing community through loving God and loving one another.
Everyone is a disciple to something that influences us, and is part of our environment. Who are you a disciple of?A disciple of Jesus is someone who loves, trusts, obeys, and is becoming more like Jesus.There is nodiscipleship without community. As part of the body, we are to encourage one another using the gifts God has given us. This is more than being friendly and talking to people at church, but being vulnerable with and learning from one another. You need not travel the world to go and make disciples, let us know Jesus and make Jesus known to those around us, trusting the Holy Spirit will make us more like Jesus.
To understand Christ’s authority, look at the cross. His authority is self-sacrificial and humble, giving rest to the weary. He has come to give us eternal life and rest to the weary, freedom from sin, and Satan, and death. Instead of living our own truth and submitting to our own authority, let us fall down and submit to the kingship of Jesus, who has all authority in heaven and earth. Tomorrow is not ours, but it is God’s. The kingdom of this world is coming to an end, but the kingdom of Christ is everlasting. Trust that he is no tyrant, but that the supreme one is loving kind.
The first Christmas is historical fact. Some of the first witnesses of Jesus’ birth were pagan magicians, shunned characters that a religious Jew would not have put into their story if it weren’t true. The first Christmas, though predicted by prophets, was still unexpected. He was born in a poor town, slept in a manger, hung out with tax collectors and sinners, and was crucified as king of the Jews. We can choose to be consumed by our self like Herod who secured his own power and kingdom, or the religious leaders who knew the prophecies but did nothing. Else, we can be like the wise men who in their wisdom knew that the maker of the stars and king of kings lay in a manger: Jesus, the Son of Mary.
Jehu was anointed by God to strike down Ahab, the former king who did more evil than any king before him, committing atrocious idolatry with his wife Jezebel. Jehu, directly and indirectly, slaughtered the entire house of Ahab and Jezebel, and all the worshippers of Baal. Idolatry angers God and incurs his righteous wrath. Like Jehu, our world wants justice and God has called us to take action. Better than Jehu, we are to show the world how our faith has changed us to push back against darkness and evil with goodness and light. In Christ, we are called to fight the good fight for our faith against the powers with the sword of the Spirit (the Bible) and the armour of God. Christian, use a sword and not a butter knife. First, use the sword of scripture on yourself to pierce through the idols in your own life, then use it to pierce the lies and idols in other’s lives.
Wisdom without worship is worthless, and kings rise and fall when they lose sight of the wisdom of God, take pride in themselves, and seek to build Eden on Earth through money, sex, and power. Solomon, made king at the age of 12 with the death of his father David, was offered anything by God, and he chose to ask for wisdom. This led him to become renowned as the wisest man in all the world, who wrote elaborate proverbs and was the first to build God’s temple. Yet, he rapidly fell into pride and riches. He became known for accumulating multitudes of horses and chariots, hoarding excesses of gold, and taking many foreign women as concubines and wives. All of this in direct contradiction to God’s command regarding the prerequisites for a king.Like a ship adrift at sea, the compass needs only be off by a few degrees. To reverse engineer our life and live with the end in mind is the key lesson from the wise fool to never forget. Let us pursue our first love, beware of our subtle sins and...
The blessing that comes through Jesus is not about worldly riches, but about being adopted as children of God. In our sin and rebellion we have been incurring spiritual debt despite thinking that there’s a glitch in the system that lets us have profit instead. The pandemic has increased people’s desire for God. He is on the move and the gates of hell cannot persevere against the church, but we have a job to do. Here at City on a Hill, we have felt God call us to make disciples, to care for the homeless and disadvantaged, to reach the next generation, to focus on growing the church in the digital age, and to build a community on prayer that hungers for intimacy with God and fights battles on their knees.
There are occasions in life where God appears inactive and indifferent, letting the wind and waves take over to the point that the boat seems like it will sink. The waters of chaos may overwhelm us with fear — of division, big government, vaccines, or viruses, of loss, grief, suffering, or death. There will be storms and winds, but a day is coming when the sea will be no more. Until then, we trust that Jesus is still king. His miracles reminds us of his divinity, and that he is on the mission to restore order in a chaotic world of sickness and suffering and death, and to establish his reign on earth as it is in heaven. Not too long after calming the winds and waves on the boat, Jesus, at the cross, was drowned in the waters of chaos and wrath which we deserve for sin, was submerged in death, then raised eternally victorious over sin and chaos and death.
A mondegreen is a misunderstanding or misinterpreting of a section of a song. In a similar way, many of us have misunderstood the figure of Zaccheus, seeing him as a short man who climbed a tree to see Jesus. Yet, Zaccheus was a rich tax collector, stealing from the poor and giving to the rich. His riches meant that he was corrupt, and had gotten away with taking cuts from tax collection for a long time. Jesus knew the type of man Zaccheus was, but he still called him by name and wanted to dine with him. Though Zaccheus was rich and corrupt, an unlikely convert with an undignified pursuit. Yet, unlike the rich young ruler who held onto his riches, Zaccheus was willing to humiliate himself and give from his riches after his encounter with Jesus. This is the heart of Jesus: one that seeks the lost, and dines with them. If you are to reject Jesus, reject the Jesus of the Bible and not a mondegreen Jesus. He longs to bring the rebel, the renegade, and the unloveable home. Let this Jesus...
When will the cost be too great for you to follow Jesus? Despite having kept the commandments since youth, the rich young ruler had one thing he lacked: giving up his all to follow Jesus. After he walked away saddened, the disciples were shocked and said: ‘who then can be saved?’ To which Jesus says: ‘What is impossible with man is possible with God.’ We cannot do anything to earn material inheritance, but have a good relationship with our family. How much less so can do we anything to inherit eternal life, but be born in the family of God, have a right relationship with him, and follow Jesus.
For twelve long years, the bleeding woman was outside looking in. For twelve long years, she was touched by no one. When she reached out by faith to touch Jesus, in hopes of healing, Jesus calls her his daughter, and says that her faith has healed her so she can find shalom. That is, the full restoration of peace with each other and peace with God. Her healing was not a tap and go transaction, but a relational connection. She had faith that Jesus could heal her, and it was this faith that made her well. Her faith was not blind trust or a superpower, it was trust in a person. To have faith in Jesus is to realise that he is the only one who can free us, save us, and heal us. It is not about the strength of our faith, but about the strength of the person we have faith in. Whether you feel like a somebody like Jairus, or a nobody like the bleeding woman, all of us end up on our knees begging for Jesus. Let us live our lives caring for the ones on the sidelines in truth, love, and grace....
Chaos is the disruption of God’s good design, and the forefront of the darkness in the spiritual realm that is over the world. The forces of evil in the spiritual realm knew that Jesus came to overthrow chaos and the power of darkness. Darkness is also self-destructive, and in the same way that Legion was cast into the herd of pigs and drowned in a lake, so too every force of darkness will eventually be cast into the lake of fire. Violence, disease, chaos, and death will not have the final word: Jesus will. The war with the spiritual realm is real, but Jesus is the victor and through him we too can have victory. Jesus not only delivers his people from evil, but he also makes them new, clothing them with his righteousness and granting them a peace beyond understanding. Yet, without Christ we remain enslaved to sin and the powers of darkness.
The woman who wiped Jesus’ feet with her hair and tears was a ‘woman of the city’ known to be a sinner and prostitute. Her alabaster flask was her appeal, and once the flask is broken to pour the ointment there is no turning back. Furthermore, a Jewish woman wouldn’t reveal her hair until her wedding night, yet here she was breaking her flask and unbinding her hair, wiping the feet of her saviour. Thus, overcome by guilt and shame, yet realising Jesus is the only one who could set her free, she laid down her all at the feet of her saviour.We are all in spiritual debt and need a saviour to come on our behalf and pay our debt. The religious and rebellious are both equally in need of Jesus. A faith with conditions is no faith at all, so may we lay down all our sin and shame before the feet of our saviour who on the cross said ‘it is finished’, paying in full our debt of sin by his life, death, and resurrection.
Widows were the most vulnerable of society. When Jesus saw a widow had lost her only son, Jesus had compassion on her, without her even asking for help. He then raises her son from the dead, unafraid of becoming polluted by being near a dead body because Jesus is the source of life.God is never too busy for us, nor is he unable to do the extraordinary. He does feel compassion on us. And he has the power to set us free from our greatest threat and pollution: sin and death. Therefore, we can be fearless to give the rest of our days to living for the glory of the one who loves us and has raised us to eternal life.
The law mandated that the unclean had to live in isolation outside of society, and if they ever came across another person they were to shout their shame and say: “Unclean! Unclean!” Lepers, wherever they went, were unclean outcasts who no one dared approach, lest they too become unclean. Yet, in Luke 5, we see the leper approaching Jesus, bowing facedown, to receive the healing he so desperately needs. By asking Jesus “if you are willing, make me clean” he shows that he knows Jesus is able to heal him. When Jesus touches the leper before healing him, he is showing that his love for the unclean person is not dependent on their cleanliness. Grace is the arms of Jesus reaching into the mess of our lives, and pulling us close. There is no affliction or suffering beyond Jesus’ power to heal, if he is willing. At the cross, Jesus willingly took upon himself our greatest affliction — sin and death — so that whoever comes to him, trusting in his power to save, shall be made clean and set f...
Jesus, like Moses, is in the desert at the edge of the Jordan river. Where Israel spent 40 years there because they failed to be faithful, Jesus spent 40 days in the desert and persevered. In the desert, Jesus relived the story of Israel and rewrote the ending. The devil wanted to offer Jesus the crown without the cross, to give Jesus the glory without walking the path of suffering and faithfulness his father has set for him. Throughout the temptations, Jesus trusted that his father will provide, is for him, and has a better plan and greater kingdom.The story of Jesus’ temptation helps us with our own. We are to be like Jesus in our trust of God’s promises and plan, but also not too much like Jesus in being the hero of our story and facing the devil. The Bible says we are to flee temptation, pray against it, and resist the devil so that he will flee from us. Trust in the righteousness of our forerunner and great high priest, Jesus Christ. Trust in the father above who cares for us,...
In 1st Century Israel, Rome controlled Israel through tyranny. It is a time where Israel felt isolated and hoped for redemption and freedom from political oppression. Simeon was ‘a righteous man who waited for the consolation of Israel’ and didn’t die until he saw the Messiah. Oppression through sin, brokenness, and evil isn’t just out there — it’s inside us. Yet Jesus comes into the essence of our being, looking into our heart and wanting to transform us from the inside out. We are made to have a real relationship with Jesus, to encounter his presence in our daily lives. In the midst of fear, uncertainty, suffering, and despair, Jesus is our hope, our anchor, and our love. We ought to wait upon the Lord through prayer, setting our eyes on things above, and reading through the promises in the Bible. Every promise finds its yes in Jesus.
The cross is about how we relate to God and how knowing God changes us. We are refugees fleeing the oppressive regime of darkness, but God has come to bring us to his kingdom of light through the cross of Christ. Jesus is now our peace with God. His death is our life. His strength is perfected in our weakness. You can’t earn the cross of Christ, but you will have to pay the cost for receiving it by taking up your cross daily. Let us trust ourselves into him who judges justly. We can know that we belong to God’s eternal family, and know him as our perfect and attentive father by living under the cross of Christ, the only place of salvation, security, and safety. We can trust God for the future because of the cross of Christ. We can be a non-anxious presence to those around us because of the cross of Christ.
True worship is about approaching God on his terms. Anything apart from that is false religion. The institution of the tabernacle is a microcosm of creation, and of God’s will regarding offerings. The willing of heart (God’s people) bring the resources and the wise of heart (builders) make it happen. God wants us to use our gifts to bring beauty in chaos. You don’t have to be the best but do your best with what you have for God. It wasn’t the sheer glory of the tabernacle, or the skill of the workers, that was worth the presence of God, but rather the presence of God chose to dwell there. Now he chooses to dwell in our hearts by his Holy Spirit. Let us live as his priests and workers, using our skills to the building of the church and the advancement of the kingdom in the world. Jesus was the ultimate sacrificial offering to God, revelation of his character, and fullness of his glory. Let us truly worship him in Spirit and in truth.
In a tent outside of town, God’s presence dwells away from his people as a reminder of what could have been had they not disobeyed in idolatry and their stiff-neck ness. How often do we forget that the prize of heaven is the presence of God? On the mountain, God reveals himself to be firstly merciful, abounding in love, and slow to anger. He is not quick to look for excuses to condemn. His love extends to thousands of generations. Yet, God is not apathetic to evil. His mercy is not ignorant to sin, but it is lopsided. While his justice is poured upon a few generations, his love is poured upon thousands. His greatest act of love and judgement was met at the cross, when the judgement we deserve for sin was put upon Jesus, because of God’s love for us.
Where does your mind go when it’s free? Whose approval do you seek most of all? What are you pursuing that you believe will make you complete? What are you most fearful of losing? Who or what do you look to when things get tough? What are you making the most sacrifices for? Who or what do you see as the answer to the world’s biggest problem?Many times we fail to give God the glory and honour he deserves. Let the story of the golden calf be a warning for our own lives. The Israelites projected their own image and desires onto a mute god they created so they won’t have any accountability, a god that let them play games of sexual immorality. They lost sight of God, yet God never lost sight of them. Even when it feels like God is high on the mountain away from us, persevere and pray. Do not take the easy route and create a god. Do not forget to pray, for the little things and the big things. Do not lose sight of God. Remember his fearsome holiness, then lean into his arms of grace. What...
Israel’s priests are the mediators between the holy God and a sinful people, representing God to the people and the people to God. They were to stand before the Lord for the people: offering gifts and sacrifices for sins, helping those who are ignorant or astray, teaching the people, and interceding in prayer. In their consecration, the priest put the blood of a ram on their earlobes, thumbs, and big toes. This represent the priests becoming hearers of the word and mediators of God, giving an example to the people of how to walk. Yet, all these men died but we know a high priest who lives forever. He did what those high priests could not do, and was what they could not have become: God’s true and perfect son. Jesus perfectly represents God to us, because he is God, and he perfectly atones for our sin by offering himself to God in our place, dying our death for sin, and living forever to make intercession on our behalf.
The tabernacle is the sanctuary of God’s holiness, the place of his absolute morality, perfection, glory, and goodness. As such, because of sin, no one could enter his presence without specific boundaries and rules in place. Even the outer sanctuary was designed to separate the people from God. The sanctuary of our king is full of blue (like the sea and heavens) and purple (a rare colour used by royalty), representing God’s dwelling place and kingship. Jesus was given a purple robe as he was beaten by the Romans. The word that was with God in eternity, the reason which formed the world, became flesh for us and we have seen his glory. When he died, he tore the veil for, top to bottom, making a way for us to live with God, and God to live with us. The tabernacle was the sanctuary and home of God, but now God makes our hearts his tabernacle. Pitch the tent of your life around God, with him at the centre of our life. Don’t fall for a false Jesus. We want a Jesus of acceptance, but not o...
We are always ready to accept the terms and conditions for any company we use, but whenever we hear about God’s terms and conditions we become hesitant. Making the terms and conditions a religion is a problem, but wanting a relationship with God without accepting the terms and conditions is like telling your loved one you love them but don’t want to put in any effort to maintain that relationship. Yet, the law is a covenant of grace that pointed to God’s promise: that those under the blood of Christ, through grace, will one day see his face. Neither the elders nor Moses on Sinai could see God’s face, in fact, no one has seen God’s face in all his glory. Yet, as on the mountain God feasted with a few chosen people, so did Jesus feast with a few chosen people at his last supper. Through his death, he has drawn all people to himself so that through obedience by grace many from every nation will feast with the lamb in heaven.
When we read the Bible, we must remember we are travelling to a foreign country and be good travellers. We must understand the context of the time (the ancient near-east 3500 years ago), and then we can see that God was indeed showing mercy to the vulnerable and oppressed. By Exodus 20, the Israelites were rescued from their slavery in Egypt and given the law to help them reflect God’s character amongst themselves and to the nations around them. The law embraces the vulnerable. People weren’t allowed to be abducted, slaves (which worked more as interns) were only obligated to work for seven years and then given a choice of freedom. Furthermore, runaway slaves had to be protected on the basis that they ran away from an abusive master. God’s laws are not oppressive. They work in the dark reality of our world, and provide mercy and grace amidst the darkness. Now we live in light of Jesus’ death and resurrection. Let us live in light of the kingdom, and live to see bondages released an...
Like us, Israel doubted, disobeyed, and were divided. The ten commandments ultimately reveal the heart and holiness of God, as well as the chief goal of our life.The idols we bow down to are never static, and your religion is what you do in your solitude. We are to give our all to God and see the disconnect between what we know, and what we do. Many Christians understand biblical concepts, but they struggle to obey them because of innate desires prevent them from doing so. Set your eyes on God, for he is jealous for our affection and will not share his glory with another. This is because he knows what we ultimately need, and seeks to keep us free. Therefore, rest within his presence. Take time from your work, and from your recreation to rest in God. When we live rested in God, we live free and love God and neighbour as God intended. When we cover, we are saying that God isn't enough. Let us not grumble, but have gratitude with what we have. In Jesus, we have been blessed with every...
Exodus 18 speaks of a reunion, redemption, and a revelation. Like Jethro, we were not part of God’s people, but now we are brought to reunion with him, through redemption found in the one who prays and intercedes on our behalf to God. For Jethro that was Moses, but for us it is the greater Moses: Jesus Christ the Son of God. The revelation in the dialogue between Jethro and Moses is that pastors ought to not carry the burden of ministry and care alone, lest they burn out. In fact, 70% of pastors consider leaving the ministry due to burn out and 50% do after 5 years. Let’s pray for our pastors, look to Jesus more than any servant of his, help our pastors by caring for one another and dealing with smaller matters amongst ourselves. As Jethro suggested to Moses, and Moses was all the better because of it.
Pharaoh wanted a world without God, so God uncreated Pharaoh’s world, by using the plagues to demonstrate his superiority over the gods of Egypt. Moreover, the Nile had been the place Egypt drowned Jewish babies, so God stopped it from being a source of life; the Egyptians used brick kilns to oppress the Israelites slaves, and from the same kilns came the dust that caused the plague of boils. A life without God’s order is chaos. It is only in God’s presence that we, like the Israelites during the plagues, find grace and shelter amidst the chaos and judgement. God pleads with us to turn away from our pride and sin, finding safety and salvation in him. Christ died to absorb the judgement we deserve for sin so that we can find new life and await the new creation in him.
God empowers the weak, hardens the proud, and defeats the strong. Moses had anger issues, pride, and didn’t take God seriously for most of his life. After murdering an Egyptian who was hurting an Israelite, Moses spent 40 years running away from his problems. Still, God made Moses like God to Pharaoh — empowering Moses as his divine representative and authority, putting Pharaoh, known as 'the son of Ra' (the Sun God), in his place. In judgement, God gives people over to their own depraved desires. When he hardens Pharaoh’s heart, he is actively handing Pharaoh, through his already-hardened heart, to the judgement his sin deserves, his pride being his downfall.All will know that God is sovereign and reigns supreme. When Moses’ serpent swallows up the Egyptian magician’s serpents, God showcases his dominion and hints at the cosmic warfare about to occur through the plagues. The swallowing up of the serpent also prefigures Christ, who swallowed up the grave on the cross, defeating sin,...
Pharaoh had many opportunities to do the right thing, but he didn’t so his arrogance had cost him his dynasty. God did not force Pharaoh to harden his heart, but rather used Pharaoh’s pride and already hardened heart to enact his plan of redemption. When Moses and Aaron politely but firmly ask that Pharaoh lets Israel go, he sabotages his own economy by making Israel work harder with less resources just out of spite. This in turn makes Israel turn against their liberator and saviour.Leaving Egypt is hard. Leaving our sin is hard. Jesus knows how bad this slavery is not only for us but for our relationship with God. We need the son to save us and to set us free. It’s never easy and freedom is not easily won. There is opposition and difficulty. Yet, through adoption in Jesus, we are as God’s firstborn son Israel, and so receive the same promises and loyalty that that entails. Christ is faithful and he will surely free us. Don’t give up to turn back to Egypt, but cling to Jesus to the...
After years in the Midian desert, decades from failed attempts at delivering his Hebrew brethren from injustice, Moses is being called by God to become an instrument of deliverance. Moses rightly notes his own inadequacy for the mission, his concerns mounting up to doubting the very Lord commissioning him. Here we are reminded afresh of God’s exceedingly holy and uncreated nature, independent from any need for sustenance or help. Wonderfully, this lofty and un-coercible God set loving promises on his people, and continues to be faithful to keep these promises throughout the generations. This chapter leads us to consider our own identity. While the world tells us we can find our identity through our associations, achievements, or in what we assert ourselves to be, God’s word reminds us our identity is one received: we are creation, redeemed and adopted children. We are also given a destiny; like Israel, we are freed to serve and worship God. We are delivered from our former evil mas...
Down by the river, a baby boy is placed in a basket to escape genocide mandated by the Egyptian Pharaoh of the time. Yet Pharaoh's daughter snatches this baby from the jaw of death and adopts him into the royal family, naming him Moses. An adult Moses stands up for Hebrew slaves by killing the Egyptian, consequently having to flee from Pharaoh to Midian where he saves the priest's daughters from shepherds. Moses' acts are at times villainous and others heroic and benevolent; we are reminded that God uses complex, sinful people for his good purposes.Chapter 2 of Exodus ends with a revelation of God's response to his people's groaning under slavery. He hears, sees, remembers, and knows. God is invested in his people, and even if he allows them to suffer for a while he will rescue and redeem them according to his faithfulness. We see, too, that we now have a greater exodus and greater Moses through Jesus the Christ. When the clouds overhead are thick and dark, remember the baby boy who...
The journey to the promised land wasn’t easy. Joseph died and the new Pharaoh that ruled over Egypt didn’t know Joseph and felt threatened by the Israelites, ruthlessly enslaving them to seal his power. Even today, slavery and oppression are still rampant. There are 21 million victims of human trafficking, mostly young girls who are also sexually exploited. We don’t have to look beyond our city to see slavery and oppression at work today. There’s sin, poverty, addiction, and domestic violence. We are called to help mitigate this. Like the midwives who defied Pharaoh’s command to kill every Jewish boy, we too must stand up against injustice. In Christ, we ought to be a people of mission and mercy who display God’s love in Christ. He is the father to the fatherless and the saviour of the oppressed.
What do you see when you imagine a City on a Hill? The lost found? The sinner forgiven? Men and women rising up in faith? Jesus is transforming lives in every moment, meeting us in his goodness and grace. There is so much more to come and more to see of his great work in his church.Reimagine is a unique opportunity for City on a Hill Melbourne to seek after God’s heart and vision for the city of Melbourne. It's a season of prayer and humble dependence upon God by seeking his heart for our church and our city.
Death is humanity’s greatest enemy, but there is one more powerful than death, who has conquered the grave: Jesus Christ, the Son of God. In the midst of sorrow, Easter proclaims joy. In the midst of despair, Easter proclaims hope. In Jesus we find our answer, and we find our hope. Mary Magdalene, who was oppressed by seven demons before knowing Jesus, was the first witness of the resurrection. She was also the first to bravely share the gospel with her friends and family, in joy because she knew the truth of what she saw: her lord risen from the dead. We exist to know Jesus, and make Jesus known. His story is our story.
Death by crucifixion was excruciating. After six minutes, the victim can barely breath and for the next few hours their limbs dislocate and their lungs suffer through plural effusion. Not only that, but crucifixion was so despised that when a hgh ranking Roman actor mimed the action of the cross in a play, he received threats of death by crucifixion for even portraying such an embarrassment and despicable thing. Yet, Jesus, knowing the law and prophets, saw that his crucifixion was necessary to save the world. Today, you can choose how you view the crucifixion of Christ: you can be repulsed by it like the Pharisees and Romans, indifferent to it like Pilate who also used the crucifixion as a means to execute a power play, you can cast lots and sell Jesus for profit, or you can choose to surrender your sins at the cross and rejoice in that true love was displayed by Jesus on the cross as the propitiation for our sins.
Jesus ends his sermon on the mount with a warning about false belief. True belief is about putting what we hear to practice, but we can still do the right things in the wrong way. Jesus warns that many who have even prophesied, cast out demons, and done many miracles will not enter the kingdom of heaven. It's a harsh and confronting warning. How can we know if we are truly saved? We must be poor in spirit and find the narrow gate. We must recognise that we are not good enough to know Jesus, but need to have absolute dependence on what Christ has done for us on the cross. We are only his because of his love for us. May we build our foundation on him, knowing that obedience without forgiveness is useless but forgiveness without obedience is incomplete.
The human heart believes it has the right to defend our actions and prosecute the actions of others. Yet, all have turned away from God and are worthy of judgement because of their sin. We need a righteousness outside of our own, and that is only found in Jesus who died a substitutionary death for us. Jesus then quickly pivots back to his original point of God being our Father, to whom we can ask and receive, seek and find, knock on his door and know he will open it. Let us then live a life of love and neediness, always asking God for his grace and knowing he provides for our needs.
Treasure is more than what's in our wallet, but what's always on our heart. Even those who love money love it for what it can give, not for the money itself. Jesus is saying that money, acceptance, fame, anything else we desire on earth is temporary. We cannot take anything to the grave. How do we find meaning and purpose here on earth? We find connection with God. We recognise that eternal life is knowing the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he sent. Anxiety and worry are due to disconnection from God. The longing to be liked, secure, safe, healthy, noticed, and assured is due to our desire to find that Something Else. So, seek God. Instead of being consumed by the world, be captured by God. Use what God has given you to shine the light of Jesus in the world, and point to his kingdom.
How you pray is shaped by who you pray to, and Jesus teaches us to pray as children to God our father.When we hallow his name, we acknowledge his name as sacred and worthy of worship. When we pray for his kingdom and will, we pray for restoration, salvation, healing, and peace to spread throughout the world, and in our hearts. When we ask for daily bread, we trust that only God can provide for our holistic needs, and the needs of the world. When we confess our daily sins, we allow for spiritual growth and a heart to forgive others. Finally, when we pray for deliverance from evil and strength against temptation, we trust Jesus as the only truth, and the only one able to teach us and strengthen us through difficult times.
Jesus spoke with greater authority than the Pharisees and scribes who were seen as the pinnacle of righteousness and biblical knowledge. He rebuked falsehood, deceit, anger, and lust, to give us laws surrounding relationships because he wants us to live a life of truth.Instead of embracing sin, we put sin to death. Instead of harbouring bitterness, we walk the road of forgiveness. Instead of cloaking our speech to get people to like us, we stand secure in the acceptance of God and speak truth. Instead of running the religious treadmill, we stand firm in the righteousness of God. Instead of building a life around ourselves, we build our home in Jesus.
Jesus didn’t come to abolish the law, but to fulfil every letter. The Old Testament shows us we cannot live up to the law and God’s standard, but Jesus having fulfilled the law transforms us to live like him. Righteousness means being made right with God, and this is required to enter heaven. The Pharisees thought their self-righteousness made them right with God, which Jesus rebuked them of as having false righteousness. To gain true righteousness, we must be willing to look above and not within. We must come with empty hands knowing we don’t deserve grace or forgiveness, finding righteousness in Christ’s substitutionary death on the cross. Let’s embrace the life that we were made for: loving God and resting in Christ’s fulfilment of the law. Stop ignoring God’s commands: not because you need to be justified, but because you are a child of God. Resist the degradation of sin. Be stewards of the earth.
The world tells us we can believe whatever we want so long as we keep it to ourselves. Yet, Jesus says we are to be the salt and light of the world, a city on a hill that cannot be hidden. We are designed for impact, and we are not powerless in the world we live in. If we are to follow Jesus, we are to be salt and light. Like salt, we are to draw good out of the world, cause people to thirst for righteousness and more of Jesus, and slow the decay of a dying world. Like light, we are to be a beacon of hope in a dark and hopeless world, guiding the lost and attracting them to the safety and security found in Jesus Christ. Let us stand out and stand in. We are Christ's representatives in the world, and so we are to stand out in the world and stand in the word of God. What should make us different is Jesus, and our lives being transformed by his Spirit. Let us be the salt and light in the world, pointing to Jesus in all that we do.
The kingdom of heaven is a compelling one. The word repeated throughout the beatitudes is ‘blessed’, or makarios. To the Greeks, this meant inner contentment and joy so great that philosophers like Aristotle were convinced only the gods could truly enjoy it. The kingdom of heaven is radically counter-cultural. The world celebrates sin, but Jesus calls us to mourn our sin. The world says to hunger for success and pride, but Jesus says to hunger for righteousness. We learn that the first four beatitudes are inner attitudes to describe a Christian’s relationship with God, whilst the final four flow out from that relationship with God into the relationship we have with others. The kingdom of heaven centres on Christ. In every beatitude, Jesus is giving a vision of himself. The point of the beatitudes is that we cannot do anything on our own, but be poor in spirit and ask for Christ to live in us so we can live like him. Jesus took on our curse to become our blessing, and was raised...
All that we do is work, but we find joy in work by joining God in his work. Work is a vocation, a calling to serve God and others. Taking part in God’s work, loving Him and our neighbour, is worship. We enjoy God by loving and serving others, not ourselves. Without a sense of satisfaction through helping others, work cannot be enjoyable. It is the way God has wired us. Still, for most of us work is hard and draining. We should try seeing God in our work, seeking opportunities to enjoy God even when we don’t enjoy work. The good news of the gospel is that our work is not in vain, that God works through us and we are more than our work. Our identity doesn’t come from our work, but from Christ’s work on the cross in paying the penalty for our sin and being our salvation.
We live in a fathered world where every good thing comes from our Good Father in heaven. We can enjoy God in the little things, the deep things, and the best thing (Jesus Christ). We enjoy God through our work when we work for him and through strength he provides. God gave us responsibility over the world to bring out the good potential within it. Yet, we should not only keep ourselves busy as culture demand of us, but also enjoy God through rest. God himself rested from his work on the seventh day. We need to guard our rest. God invites us to enjoy all the good things he has made for us, for example, relationships with one another. God himself is a relational being: the three persons having related to each other in perfect love and unity forever. The world is the overflow of God’s relational instinct. We enjoy God through our relationship with Him, and with each other. There are few things worse than a broken relationship. The greatest chasm between the greatest relationship is s...
What do you truly treasure in life? Our purpose is to know God, and enjoy him forever. Being joyful in the Lord is also one of the most powerful apologetic tools we can use to make Jesus known. Jesus knows the heart desires treasure, but also that the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil, so he offers us the greatest treasure of all that never corrupts: the kingdom of heaven. Through a parable, which is both a short story and Trojan puzzle designed to puzzle and conquer, Jesus explains how the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field. The fact that it’s hidden tells us that not many know that the treasure of heaven exists, or if they do know of it, they devalue and remain skeptic about the treasure. When the man in the parable finds the treasure of heaven, he sells everything he has to buy the field, not begrudgingly nor in sacrifice, but out of joy because he knows the hidden treasure is far greater than any material possessions.Christianity isn’t about know...
After a year like 2020 sometimes it's hard to think of anything except starting again. So much struggle, difficulty and pain which we want to leave behind. But what if this past year God has used every situation and circumstance to show you more of him? What if God has a bigger and better plan than making our lives comfortable and pain free? Jesus is our guarantee that in all things God is working for good. Have you taken hold of the good God has worked this past year?
This has been an extraordinary year – a hard year – and one of the defining experiences for people all over the world has been distance. Distance from family, and friends. Distance from the rest of the world. Distance from normality. We know that this is necessary to regain normality - ‘Staying apart will keep us together’ – and to help get us through this, we’ve been encouraged to look to Christmas; after long months of separation, we will once more be able to enjoy family and friends, joy and closeness. But what if Christmas doesn’t give us that? You see, even a ‘normal’ Christmas can remind us of the distance between us – the distance of fractured relationships. We want closeness, but we have a habit of creating distance – and so we’ve been ‘socially distant’ for years! That’s because, ultimately, we are distant from God. We were created to live with him, enjoying intimacy and fellowship, but sin separated us from him – and each other. We were made to be close, but sin makes us d...
We can be held captive by our circumstances but Christmas reminds us our current circumstances do not define us. Weighed down and paralysed by heavy burdens, Christmas helps us look back at where we've come from, and look ahead with hope to where we will be (heaven). God is greater than our circumstances. Judgement doesn't have the last word, and God will console his people with great comfort through his words. Firstly, the word of pardon tells us that though we have sinned against God in thought, word, and action, God will speak tenderly to us and offer us rest in Him through Christ. Secondly, God gives a word of providence, showing us that he is before and behind us wherever we go as the Word made flesh who dwelled among us. Thirdly, there is a word of promise that only God's kingdom and word will last forever, that all his promises will come true. Lastly, there is a word of peace that the gospel of Jesus is good news of great joy. Knowing Jesus is the greatest peace of all....
Sometimes there is a gaping chasm between expectation and reality, and this has been especially true for this year. When we face disappointment, where do we turn? Even when everything goes well, where does God fit in the picture? The Rabshakeh of Assyria sought to undermine everything the Israelites put their trust in. Judah had no hope but in the Lord. King Hezekiah turned to the Lord as his sole hope, and saw 150,000 Assyrians die the next day by the hand of God. However, Hezekiah did not stay loyal to the Lord. By the end of his reign, he boasted in his own accomplishments and showed the Babylonians all the riches of Jerusalem to woo them as an ally. Alliances are a sign of unbelief to God’s people, because it shows they do not trust God enough to deliver them. This became Hezekiah's undoing, and his people ended up in exile in Babylon. Hezekiah was thought to be the promised messiah who would rescue his people, but he failed them.There is no end to the depth of disappointment if...
In a world of barren forests and stumps, one stump bears fruit. There is a king from the root of Jesse who came in true humility. He was filled with the Spirit and lead with wisdom, counsel, strength, and the knowledge and fear of God. In a world of conflict, suffering, and despair, we need this message of hope: that the promised root of Jesse is Jesus Christ. In his baptism, we see that the Spirit rested on him. In his life, we see him as the perfect leader whom we long to be led by. He welcomed children and outcasts, judging hearts and not the superficial, in truth without favouritism. There is hope in no other name but in Jesus Christ. Yet, we must also remember that the ultimate picture of Isaiah 11, where prey and predators play with one another, is a picture of heaven, not earth. Here, we are creatures with corrupt desires who fight and destroy one another. In heaven the wolf and lamb will play together, the lion and calf will both eat grass, and children will play with snakes...
Israel once thought King Hezekiah was the answer to its hero problem. He was a descendant of King David, and he was a profoundly good king where his contemporaries failed. Where others - such as King Ahaz, had chosen badly, Hezekiah chose wisely, and seemed to be the prophesied child God's people had been waiting for. Yet, near the end of his reign, Hezekiah began to boast in his achievements, and all he had accomplished was eventually lost to Babylon. Hezekiah was not the promised child nor the hero of humanity. Jesus is. Jesus is the one who is truly profoundly wise, the one who secures wholeness and peace (shalom), who is the mighty God, and the ever-caring eternal Father in flesh. However, when he came, Jesus' people turned against him because he was not the hero they wanted. Israel wanted someone who would take down Rome, but Jesus came to rescue Israel from an even greater enemy: themselves, under the wrath of God for sin. Israel didn’t want to hear that the needed rescuing,...
Names carry meaning and reveal the mission of the child. Isaiah’s son is named Shear-jashab, meaning ‘a remnant will return’, conveying Israel's hope for its future. So too, does the promise of Immanuel convey hope for us as God's people. In times of crisis, we see a strong connection between faith and courage. Fear sucks as out, but faith can keep us firm in the chaos. Strength and safety is not merely found in the nature of our faith, rather it is found in the object of our faith. We ought to trust God in a way that is authentic and not just as external signal to an audience on the other side of the screen. Let us not test God, as Ahaz did, but have an authentic faith that will not weary ourselves or our Lord. God was with Israel in Isaiah's time, demonstrating his power through the destruction of Damascus and Samaria as prophesied, and God is with us now through Jesus Christ. Through Jesus, God did all that was necessary to ensure that we could be with him and he with us - in a...
Against the backdrop of a depraved world and an invasion comes this unveiling of God’s majesty and glory. If there’s any time that we need a reminder of God’s bigness, it is now. 2020 has made us more aware of the futility of our plans, our visions, our health, and our lives. In this chapter, Isaiah received vision of how big God is - the hem of his robe filled the temple. The seraphim, six-winged courtiers, called God ‘holy, holy, holy’; his glory filling the earth. In Hebrew, there are no superlatives, so repetition is used instead. God is the most holy - the holiest - and his glory and power is beyond description. Is the God of Isaiah 6 the Jesus you know? We regularly make God to be small. The ‘all-matey’ when he is the almighty. Isaiah needed his unclean lips to be atoned for by a burning coal from the altar, we have a mediator and saviour in Jesus Christ, God with us, who has atoned for our sins and made us clean through his blood shed on the cross. Now, we are to take this...
In the midst of doom and gloom, Isaiah changes tone and shares a vision of hope. Though Israel had sought after idols and have tried to become objects of worship themselves, their sins will be washed away. Jerusalem will be clean, inside and out, pure and holy as God is pure and holy. However, it cannot be made clean by itself. God's people need to be purified by God, through Jesus, the glorious branch, who alone is worthy of worship. In a world where everyone worships something, we must choose to worship Jesus, the beautiful branch that makes us righteous, whose blood alone can wash our sins away and make us clean and holy. The imagery of the glorious branch reminds us of the beauty of God; the clean city reminds us of the holiness of God; and the mountain reminds us of the nearness of God. Let us fix our eyes on eternity, in the comfort of a bigger vision: Christ will return to completely purify and clean his holy city, and we will dwell with him forever.
Isaiah, writing in the 8th Century BC, begins with a 360 degree review which exposes darkness through a hurting father, a hurting children, and a hideous religion. God is a personal and intimate father who is not distant and uncaring toward what his children do, being broken over the depravity of his children who continually forget him and rebel against him. Estrangement from God through rebellion in sin has brought darkness, loneliness, emptiness, hurt, suffering, and death. Our sin has caused us hurt, and hurt the Father. Our religion, without relationship, is a hurt and broken religion. Our rituals, without restoring our relationship to the Father, is empty. Still, there is a hint of hope: scarlet sins will be made white as snow. Restoration will come. There’s hope of sins that will be washed away, a city that will be made righteous and learn justice, and a people who will walk in the light of the Lord. Through the murder of God’s son, Jesus Christ, the light of God has shone thr...
The Psalms end with a doxology calling all to praise God. When we praise God together we are reminded that all creatures of our God and King in Heaven and Earth are united in praising God for who he is and what he has done. The mightiest deed of God that the psalmist had known was the Exodus, and even this pales in comparison to the glory of the cross. We praise God for coming in the flesh through the form of Jesus, and dying on the cross for our sin in an indescribable act of love and mercy. We praise God with our whole being, gathering all the available musical gusto to praise his name in church. Yet, worship is a daily thing, and our lives are to be lived in worship of him.
Living with Jesus, the good shepherd of Psalm 23, is living peacefully, meaningfully, together, and forever. Peace can only come by knowing Christ, and all other forms of peace are hollow. You will never find the green pastures and still waters unless Christ the Good Shepherd leads you there, and you are his sheep. Jesus paid the price to save us from dead, and to bring us to his fold. The peace we know in Jesus is to encourage us to live meaningfully in righteousness. Our life is for his reputation: The measure of our life is to reflect our rescuer. We live together with him through the mountains and valleys of pain and suffering. God is with us. His rod and staff comfort and protect us; his nail-scarred hands reminding us he has overcome. In the valley we know that God is God, and when enemies surround us we can picnic with Christ. When we see our weakness, we learn Jesus’ strength. When we get out of the valley, we can share of the peace and goodness of Christ our Good Shepherd....
Sin is the barrier that cuts us off from the goodness of God. It is a sickness that ultimately leads to the pit. Through Christ’s death and resurrection we are rescued from sin, the brokenness of the world, death, and hell.The rescue of the cross pulls us out of the depths and sets us on the shoulders of our Heavenly Father, crowned with faithful love and compassion, satisfied with goodness, and with youth renewed like an eagle. God is renewing and restoring us one day at a time to be the perfect version of ourselves through Christ.God is God and we are dust, yet He loves us with an unconditional love. We are to see what God likes and remember what God deserves. Psalm 103 is the song of a rescue from sin and hell to the goodness and faithful love of God. We are to sing this song over the soundtrack of the world, knowing one day we will sing this song in Jesus’ physical presence.
Guilt over sin is God’s kindness to us, reminding us that we have done something wrong and we need to do something to rectify that. Guilt over sin reminds us that our nature is sinful, naturally rebellious toward God. Our sinful nature is not easily fixed. Guilt over sin reminds us that our sinful nature still wars within us. When we act in sin we are telling God that we get to define what is right and what is wrong. We have classified sins, and given them levels, as if some are more respectable than others. Yet, all sin is rebellion against God, displeasing Him and damaging us. There is freedom in the grace of God. We must let go of defensive hearts that minimise sin and claim we’re good, knowing that we are guilty before God and that only Jesus can set us free. We must come with our shame and empty hands to Him, knowing we are loved and forgiven by his mercy. God will never reject a humble heart that is broken over sin, and accepts Jesus as the only way to forgiveness and salvat...
How do you pray when you’re in the dark night of the soul and God is silent?Heman was suffering physically, socially, emotionally, and spiritually. No one was around to comfort him; Darkness, his only friend. Heman knew the source and solution of his pain and suffering was God. Ultimately, Psalm 88 is a monologue where God is distant and silent. There are times that God will be silent, even in the dark night of the soul. Faith is belief in what is unseen, trusting God even in His silence, believing that the dark night will end and the morning shall come. It’s okay to wrestle with God in our pain. Jesus, the Man of Sorrows and Suffering Servant, knew what it was to experience physical agony, to be betrayed, to be rejected by his people, and to feel forsaken and alone. There is nothing wrong with you if you’re in the dark night of the soul.
God speaks through the cosmos, the law, and Christ. The stars testify to his glory and all creation reveals his wonder and nature. His voice is also in his command, as perfect and true as he is, revealing his holy nature. The law brings joy and wisdom, refreshing the soul. Though we come to God by faith, the law guides us in the way that we ought to express our faith. We are free from the law as a system of salvation, for Christ fulfilled it, but when we ignore the law, it is like ignoring the voice of God: for to love him is to keep his commands. His commands are not a burden to box us in, but a way of life to restore our soul. The cosmos and the law both ultimately point to Christ, the creator of the cosmos and the one who fulfilled the law, through whom God speaks because Christ is God. He is the one whom made the stars yet loved us enough to die on a cross for our sins. He is the one, through whom God truly speaks, and the only one able to set us free from our sin and from our w...
In Psalm 8 we see that God is big and good. He is the maker of heaven, earth, and everything in between. He carefully set the stars in their rightful place, making each of them unique and knowing them all by name. In the vastness of creation, God is certainly big and we are small (yet significant). He made us to rule over His creation as His representatives: to be the means that show creation how the creator is like. Yet, because of sin we have fallen short of the glory of a big and holy God. We either think too highly or lowly of ourselves. But out of God’s goodness and love, the creator became flesh and died on a cross for our sins to reconcile us back to Him and restore us to His image. In Christ, we truly see how great God is and what man ought to be. We are small and significant, and we belong to a God that is big and good.
Life is not the way it should be. Even when ‘Normal’ comes, life will still be riddled with isolation, fear, death, and injustice. Now, amidst COVID which threatens to take our physical breath away, we must take the time to breathe spiritually. Psalm 1 shows us two ways to live: in wickedness soon to be blown away like chaff, or in righteousness like a strong tree planted by a stream. To be a tree, beware of what is influencing you, what is entertaining you, and what is shaping you. Do not listen to the counsel of the wicked. Delight in the Bible, and meditate on it. Know that trees take time to grow, but prosperity will come: not in the shape of riches, but in the shape of spiritual growth and peace. In Psalm 2, we are reminded that there is only one King to follow: He who laughs at those who conspire against Him, terrifying them with His wrath. There are two ways to live: in rebellion to God, perishing in our rebellion like chaff in the wind; or by homage to the Son as the one tru...
The Corinthians were divisive over many things: leaders, the spiritual gifts, tradition, and the concept of the resurrection. Yet, as Paul ends this letter, we are reminded how the work of the Lord comes through even in the mundane details of our lives, and that Christians have one job. Our one job is to make Jesus known. That Jesus died to win the victory over sin, satan, and death. Our mission is strategic and dangerous, but also unified. May we stand firm in the faith, that Jesus died a substitutionary death for our sins and had a physical resurrection. May we not manipulate the faith in any way, and be child-like not childish in faith. May we not disguise ourselves but do all we do out of the love we have received from Jesus. May we not be too stern that we forget to love. We are one family in Christ.
We attempt to make a heaven out of earth, but earth could never be heaven. There is sickness and suffering in our perishable bodies, but the resurrection of our bodies will be glorious and victorious. Now, our bodies are perishable and decaying in dishonour, then they will be imperishable and raised in honour. We will be remade in the image of Christ, and restored to a Greater Eden, a New Heaven and New Earth. The paralysed will run, babies who died will be reborn fully formed. Jesus’ death and resurrection is the first-fruits of a new harvest, to whom and through whom we will be restored and reconciled. Let us put our hope in Christ, be steadfast in our faith, enduring through suffering, and knowing that our true life is not here, but in heaven. We trust in the Lord and that our labour in making Jesus known is not in vain. The tomb is still empty, our labour is not in vain. As C.T Studd says: ‘Only one life, ‘twill soon be past, only what’s done for Christ will last’....
Greek Philosophy, where the body is inferior to the soul and a resurrected body is foolishness, had taken over Corinth. So begins Paul’s 'if the dead are not raised' speech where, had Christ not been raised, all is vanity: our preaching, our faith, and our very lives. We are left, under Adam, spiritually dead in sin, under the judgement (wrath) of God. We are left with overwhelming anxiety, or unfulfilling hedonism, or nihilistic apathy. Yet, there is hope, a blessed assurance that Christ is raised from the dead, the first fruits of a new life. Christ bore the full judgement of God, representing us in our sin, and bearing the consequences of it (death), rising again to grant us eternal life. Now we are no longer slaves to sin, and we await a new resurrected body after death. In our lives, we must point to Jesus, the first fruits of a new life, who rose from the dead to restore us and reconcile us to a new life in Him.
The Resurrection is foundational, historical, and transformational. Corinth had made their religion and reputation their foundation because they were the best church of its time. They knew the scriptures, they have seen and performed signs and wonders. Paul reminded them the foundations of the Gospel to remind them that the resurrection is the prime doctrine of Christianity, and the foundation of our faith. We do not believe in vain. The cross has overthrown the grave, putting death to death and giving us eternal life. Let us hold fast to the foundation of our faith, The Gospel that Christ died for our sins and rose from the dead that we might live resurrected lives for Him.
The nature of God is peace, not disorder, so what is the church for, and how is it to be ordered? The church is one body under Christ, and spiritual gifts are given to us for the edification of the church. Yet, there are rules and structures for using tongues and prophecy in the church. Tongues require interpretation, and only one speaker and interpreter at a time; Prophecy again can only be given subsequently by two or three at a time, to be evaluated by the others in the congregation. It is in this context that Corinthian women were told to keep silent (in the weighing up of a prophetic word as this task was to be fulfilled by the male elders of the church). Despite this verse sounding culturally jarring to us today, we see throughout the New Testament how Jesus valued women and revolutionised the Greco-Roman view of the day.
Are tongues and prophecy still valid today? How do we know when tongues should be used, or if a prophecy is truly from God? We should desire the spiritual gifts which God gives freely to his people for the edification of the church, and we should use them in love. We should also desire the higher gifts (tongues and prophecy) as they are good gifts from God, but not having those gifts does not make us less Christian, less Spirit-filled, or not saved. Perhaps you have witnessed when tongues or prophecy were faked, or felt it was a devilish manipulation. Sadly, that can be the case. We must always ‘test the spirits’ against the Word of God. God is a God of order, but may we never put our own idea of order above God’s idea of order.