Category Archives: Issues

As we noted last week, one of the key areas of our life that is impacted by disengagement is attitude. John Maxwell outlines the importance of attitude in the following quote: “Attitude… It is the ‘advance person’ of our true … Continue reading →

As we noted last week our Church Mission statement at St Jude’s is to transform disengaged people in to fully engaged men and women of God. This mission statement is aimed at inspiring our people to reach out to a disengaged world and bring them to Christ. However, the pressure towards disengagement also impacts all of us who have decided to follow Jesus in our lives. We need to be aware of the pressures at work in the world that drive us towards passivity; and as a result not only a disengagement with the things of life – worship, relationships, prayer and spiritual development, and service to God and His church – but also a numbness to the moral, spiritual and leadership issues of our time. Continue reading →

Our Church Mission statement at St Jude’s notes that it is our mission to transform disengaged people in to fully engaged men and women of God. This mission statement was aimed at inspiring us to reach out to a disengaged world and bring them to Christ. However, some of our members initially felt that they were disengaged themselves.

Many have felt a growing engagement with God as a result of the challenge they had been given. A fully engaged man or women of God is not a super -spiritual person or one who is perfect in all that they do. They are people who become engaged with God and are growing in their relationship with Him. Continue reading →

“The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest” Luke 10:2

We have over many years heard these words of Jesus about the need for more labourers for the harvest that God has for all humanity. We have also recognised that need for additional labourers. However, in our culture we have subtly felt that the harvest is not yet ready: people are not interested; we might offend them by talking about religious things; or there are three things you should never talk about in public – sex, politics and religion. Well the first two have been blown out of the water, but we still cling to the third. Continue reading →

I found this section of Lance McMurray’s book Moving Beyond Depression helpful not just for individuals but also for communities. It challenges us to consider what we are founded upon. He writes:

“Another source of depression comes from frustration and despair. It isn’t based on the loss of something, but on the absence of something that was never there in the first place. Continue reading →

You might ask: “Where has heaven gone?” John Lennon in 1970 wrote a song called “Imagine” where he promoted an Eastern mystical philosophy of life and wrote: “Imagine there’s no heaven; it’s easy if you try, no hell below us.”

Well it is not so easy to forget about heaven, but our understanding of it has become clouded. We live in a culture now that carries with it a number of different concepts about life, death, and the after life. The gospels are quite clear in their presentation of Jesus’ conviction that not only is there life after death, but there is a place where we dwell eternally with God (that has traditionally been referred to as heaven). Jesus’ concept of life beyond the grave, as well as St Paul ‘s, is that we, as personal living beings, continue our existence beyond death holding onto our particular personality and nature, but replacing this mortal body with an immortal body. Our soul and spirit continues after death and takes on an entirely new body. Continue reading →

“Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God!” Ephesians 4:30-32
What a profound statement! The thought that our BIG GOD could be affected in such a way by something we do. Can we upset God so much that the Spirit of God can become grieved? Continue reading →

Jesus said to His disciples, “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?” (Mark 4:40 ). Although this was to become a common question Jesus asked His disciples, it seems unusual in the context of the story about the calming of the raging storm. It sounds like the disciples had been learning about faith from Jesus for some time. However, they had only been recently chosen by Jesus to be His disciples and trained to be apostles in the new fledgling church that was to grow out of the events of His death, resurrection and ascension. Wasn’t it a bit soon to expect them to be experts in faith? Secondly, the circumstances that confronted them were extreme, for so strong was the storm that raged about them that the waves were filling the boat. Now many of these disciples were seasoned fishermen. They would not be easily frightened by adverse weather conditions. That they were frightened meant the situation was quite dangerous and the boat itself, as well as themselves, was about to be lost, destroyed by the storm. Continue reading →

Who would have imagined that the fire breathing, persecuting Saul of Tarsus would have become the early Church’s foremost theologian and preacher?

Most of the letters written in the New Testament were written by Paul (formally Saul). Prior to his conversion most of the Christian churches would have been praying for protection from Saul and his persecuting attitude and actions. God acts when we least expect Him to. Saul was on his way to Damascus to arrest and kill as many Christians as he could find and crush the Church there into extinction. Yet on the Damascus road Jesus threw Paul off his donkey, blinded him and told him to stop his activities and obey what God was asking him to do. As a result of this incident Paul was led by his friends into Damascus and left in a house where he began to pray and seek God in a different way. Continue reading →

After his resurrection Jesus appeared to His disciples and said to them: “Why are you troubled, and why do questionings rise in your hearts?” (Luke 24:38 ).

When we think of the circumstances they faced we can understand that things had become somewhat unstable and stressful with Jesus’ arrest, trial and crucifixion.

These men had already committed three and a half years to Jesus and His mission; only to find that it all fell apart at the very point when it seemed like it was going to succeed. Only a week before they were elated when the crowds finally cheered Jesus entrance into Jerusalem – the King had finally come to own His crown.

At that point all their hopes were flying high and the hard work and sacrifice looked as if it would pay off. Then Jesus died… Continue reading →