Spiritual principles series We don’t know much about the prophet Habakkuk, but he probably lived around 600 BCE when the Babylonians were becoming powerful and a threat to Jerusalem. Habakkuk is shocked by the violence around him, and asks God how long he will tolerate it. He gets a shocking and surprising answer, but one […]
Spiritual principles series Every morning, unless something extremely unusual happens, my wife and I spend about half an hour praying together. We pray for each other, for our children, our friends and other relatives, for the ministries we are involved in, and anything else that comes to mind. Maybe you’re thinking there’s nothing so unusual […]
Difficult issues series We have seen (Who were the first human beings?) that it is difficult, perhaps impossible, to say when in natural history the first human beings existed. Quite possibly it was a gradual process over thousands of years. This leads on to a related question: when in the process of sexual reproduction does […]
Famous atheists have said that religion is harmful to the believer and to society. Religious belief is “poisonous”, making believers “delusional” and anti-social. And internet sceptics have followed them in repeating the allegations until they have some sort of authority. These accusations may trouble some christians. But the thing is, the scientific evidence shows otherwise. […]
CS Lewis was probably the biggest influence on my young christian faith. I read virtually everything of his I could get hold of, especially enjoying Mere Christianity, Miracles, The Pilgrim’s Regress, That Hideous Strength, The Last Battle and his essays Is Theology Poetry? and Modern Theology and Biblical Criticism. I read his autobiography, Surprised by […]
This last week has been a disturbing one for many Australians. A hostage siege in Sydney, that left two hostages and the gunman dead, made a deep impression. Of course other countries have experienced far worse senseless killing and atrocities. This week has also seen the shooting of about 140 people, mostly school children, in […]
I was driving home tonight, listening to Van Morrison’s Astral Weeks, possibly for the hundredth time. It is probably my favourite album of all time. And it transported me – yet again. Approaching home and listening to the title fact, I was uplifted. And I started reminiscing.
I originally wrote this post shortly after bushfires near Sydney destroyed 200 homes and took 2 lives. But since then, Typhoon Haiyan has caused much havoc, hardship and loss of life in the Philippines, totally dwarfing the bushfires. But whether it is the fires or the typhoon, their ferocity and the apparent randomness of the […]
Today is World Day Against the Death Penalty.
So, we have seen that the structure of our brains can be changed by what we focus our attention on, and that this can lead us to “harden our hearts” and be inflexible in our thinking, especially as we grow older. What can we do to prevent this?