The Bible Bloke

Happy New Year.  We say it with a sense of hope each time midnight rolls around on the 31st December.  Christmas is over for another year. The Hot Cross Buns are already our in stores. Too early to be thinking of the death of our Saviour.  And yet, Jesus offers us a new beginning when we invite Him into our hearts.  Bible reading plans start on New Years Day with Genesis Chapters 1 and 2. (and Luke Chapter 1. I invite you to take up your Bible and read them now.) Genesis starts with the words we all know: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."  Here is the beginning of time. The beginning of all things. Outside of this moment there has only ever been God almighty and eternal.  Now. This moment. Beginning. In one commentary is the statement that " If anyone is in search of accurate information regarding the age of this earth, or its relation to the sun, moon, and stars, or regarding the order in which plants...

Recently we had to update my wife’s mobile phone to a newer model. Over a coffee she started down the path of setting things up. At one point she went into the WiFi settings. A very long list of available WiFi connections appeared on her screen. And a long enough list it was too! Not all of the networks in the list were free to join. They belonged to the shops surrounding us. But what if they were free? This question buzzed around in my head for a while, and what struck me was the similarity to the world we live in. Our first world problem: we are saturated by choice. I choose this one because I like that product, I like the ad, I like the look of the people who advertise it …. And on it goes. It is a case of which voice gets your attention, which voice is the most attractive to you? The Book of Proverbs begins with an exhortation: Read these words, these “proverbs,” to know wisdom and instruction in order to achieve understanding. The use of the word “wisdom” – chokmah ...

Consider for a moment that the average person in a first world country consumes 34 gigabytes of content and 100,000 words in a single day. Putting it into perspective, this massive consumption is made up of TV, video games, radio, the internet, text messages and social media. The average social media user consumes 285 pieces of information a day. 1 If you think 100,000 word is a lot, then consider that contained in these 285 pieces of social media information is around 50,000 words. Note though that this is all disparate information about a multitude of topics, and let’s face it, how much of it are we actually paying attention to? Yet, this is an astounding amount of stuff that we are taking on-board. But, if you take a moment, pause, and ask “What is all this stuff about?” then I think our perspective changes just a bit.  If I open up my Facebook page and scroll down, I have a story on how socialism ruined Brazil, someone’s photo of the northern most tip ...

Sometimes you stop and take stock. My walk to work takes me past a house on a corner lot that has been empty for sometime. Or at least it did. I understand it was a deceased estate, and it wasn't too surprising when the Auction sign went up, nor when the sold sign appeared and the development notice right along with it. It is an area booming with unit development, being in a so called transport hub. As I walked up the hill to work the other morning there were men in blue protective suits stripping the inside of the house of asbestos sheeting. That afternoon as I walked back down to catch my train, the demolition had begun. I was saddened by the need to destroy something that had meant something to someone. A house where life had happened. Where perhaps children had been born, grown and moved away. A house where there had been laughter and where there had been tears. A house that was more than wood and glass, but rather was a home. But then I thought, no, it...

There are things in life you can control and things in life you can’t.  Overall the things in life you can’t control outweigh the things you can.  The World seems to be set up that way, but it’s hard to tell when you are in the middle of it.  There comes a time when this awareness, this lack of ability to control ceases to be important.  Why?  I think of how God placed Adam in the Garden of Eden, to fulfil His call of Place and Purpose. Adam, whether or not he realised it, had a sphere of influence. Was Adam aware of this? You can debate it either way I think. I sometimes wonder how different things would have been had Adam trusted, and I mean fully invested who and what he was to that state of faithful trust that God, Creator and Father and Sovereign had things under control.  To be in the presence of the One whose Love was responsible not only for the things that can be controlled but also of the things that can’t... My realisation...

Sometimes the meaning of a ritual, or a habit is lost. We become so familiar with the actions we stop thinking about it any deeper level than just doing. I will give you an example. Every afternoon when I arrive home from work, I pass the shelf on which my father’s barometer sits. It’s an old aneroid model, two pointers, one giving the pressure, the other one used to show any movement in the reading. Every afternoon I give the barometer a little tap on the glass and adjust the silver needle according to the change, up or down. Occasionally I forget to do this, but I am pretty reliable. As far as it goes there is no intrinsic importance in my checking the air pressure every day. At least, that’s what I thought until a comparison came to mind that made me stop. With each movement of that silver needle I am following the air pressure’s lead. I am taking for granted that the barometer is giving an accurate reading of the current air pressure.  Isn’t our faith like that? ...