Bush Chaplain Sunny has a big job. His patrol area of Parkin-Sturt in South Australia includes 49 towns, around 170 farming stations, and multiple mines. But while his job may be big, he says it’s the small things that make a difference.
If most problems come from unforgiveness, we can understand why Jesus emphasises forgiveness to an extreme degree.
A down and then up perspective doesn’t fit into our Western philosophy of progress, nor into our desire for upward mobility, nor into our religious notions of perfection or holiness.
The love of God is an unconditional love, and only that love can empower us to live together without violence.
Esther followed God’s direction. Patiently waiting for the right moment, God opened the King’s heart to her plight which resulted in his favour bestowed upon Esther, Mordecai, and the Jewish people. She was willing to risk her life for others and for what God called her to do. I’m not saying we need to do this but I am saying we must be willing to do the hard stuff if God calls us to it.
Jesus begins His public ministry immediately after being tempted by the devil while in the desert for forty days. As He begins His ministry, He declares: ‘This is the time of fulfillment.’
Every person has the right to education (Article 26 - Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948), but not everyone gets it. In fact, some congregations that support school breakfast programs know all too well that children going to school without breakfast can fall behind their peers because of their inability to maintain attention and focus.
Each month more and more are attending Emergency Relief Centres as they struggle to put food on the table. You can help by hosting your own Pancake Day event either on Shrove Tuesday or on any other day before the 31st May 2024
At times we experience life as difficult. Our spiritual life may appear to be dry or overwhelming. Our sins may seem to be too much to overcome. And our relationship with God may appear to be too difficult to foster.
'I am offering you life or death. Choose life, then, so that you and your descendants may live in the love of Yahweh, your God, obeying his voice, holding fast to him’ (Deuteronomy 30:19–20).
Currently expressions of interest are sought from members of the Uniting Church in South Australia with professional experience and skills to serve on the Synod Standing Committee, Resources Board or Property Committee.
We long for that moment when everything will be made right; when our world will be released from pain, poverty and injustice. We wait in hope, however; sure in the knowledge that God’s promises never fail, and that Jesus is already King.
We are now entering Advent, the season that begins the Church’s year, and it reminds us that our hope is not in ourselves but in God coming to us.
The Gospels tell us that Jesus often went away by himself to pray, but in this chapter, we get a rare chance to overhear one of his prayers.
Christian community is the place where we keep the flame of hope alive among us and take it seriously so that it can grow and become stronger in us.
The crossing of the Red Sea is an event of tremendous drama. Older generations might remember Charlton Heston in the famous scene in the movie The Ten Commandments (1956), in which the water literally forms walls in the sea on either side of the fleeing Israelites.
This is an extraordinarily moving story because it shows so clearly the reality of grief. A loved brother has died, and his sisters are prostrated with sadness – and they're confused and resentful, because they believe Jesus could have saved him.
I believe that, right now, Jesus is asking us the question, couldn’t you watch with me even one hour? How do we answer? Do we go back to sleep? Do we mumble excuses? Do we change the channel?
Several years ago, I complained to a mentor that my relationship with God felt flat, distant and like I was going through the motions. On top of that, I found dealing with people increasingly frustrating and my patience waning.
The older we become, the more we realize how limited we are in our ability to love, how impure our hearts are, and how complex our motivations are.