What Is Love?
Is love biochemistry at its best, a psychosomatic delusion, or a philosophical commitment? What is love in a Christ-centred worldview, and how can it last?
Download the Discussion Questions here.
What was the greatest impetus for growth in the infant church? Persecution. This Saturday we will be looking at how the early church overcame persecution by experiencing God through prayer.
Download the Discussion Questions here.
Have you seen this Thai commercial? Disconnect to Connect
Or read this ABC article about Screen Addiction? http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-01-27/screen-addiction-experts-raise-concerns/5221278
The fact is, it’s far easier to watch trending Youtube videos than to read our Bibles . We’re so busy checking Facebook during our commutes that we don’t notice the elderly and pregnant women standing near us. We instagram pictures of food but fail to genuinely communicate with one another.
Our loved ones deserve our undivided attention. God deserves our undivided worship.
We invite you to join us in doing a 40-day media fast (9 February – 20 March).
This media fast is not a fast from ALL media, but from the kind of media that does not promote the principles of Philippians 4:8: “whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”
Our commitment for the next 40 days is to instead seek God earnestly, spending our time with reading, prayer and community.
Instead, we are reading Conquering the Dragon Within by Marvin Moore together, one chapter a day: http://www.amazon.com.au/Conquering-Dragon-Within-Marvin-Moore-ebook/dp/B009KACH84
We are “redeeming the time” – claiming back our precious minutes and hours to spend on what we truly value and desire to build.
If you’d like to join us, please contact us (jinhakim@adventist.org.au or roykim@adventist.org.au) and we’ll add you to our 40-day fast email list!
“I like God but not religion,” people often say. Is organised religion a necessary evil? Why and how did the early Christians organise themselves into a church? What were the results?
Download the Discussion Questions here.
As part of our ongoing series on the History of Christianity, we will be looking at what took place in Acts Chapter Two and why the events that took place led to massive growth in the early church. Come join the discussion on what it means to experience spiritual revival in the present as we look see how God touched the lives of individuals in the past.
Download the Discussion Questions here.
Believing in and sharing the story of Jesus in the first century was a dangerous task. What inspired the early Christians to share their stories? And how did that lead to a worldwide movement that became the Christian religion?
Download the Discussion Questions here
Christmas is a time when we reflect on the birth of Jesus, the greatest Gift of all. But Jesus Himself received an extravagant gift that reminds us of the true meaning of giving.
Download the Discussion Questions here.
I think this sounds right
Have you ever sat a multiple choice test where you weren’t sure of the correct answer? You re-read all the options and then thought, I think ‘C’ sounds most correct.
When I taught English to Cambodian high schoolers I was trying to explain why their sentences were incorrect. Since English is my first language, I speak it fluently but do not always understand why I say things in a certain way. So the best I explanation I could come up with at the time was: ‘it just sounds wrong when you write it this way. This way sounds better.’
Or perhaps you are going somewhere you have been before but you aren’t entirely sure of the way. And as you walk or drive along you think, ‘hmm this way feels right.’
What is it that gives us this impression of ‘right’? And how do we ensure that our impressions actually are correct? So often we put the wrong answer down on a test or we give incorrect grammatical advice or end up lost because our inner sense of right is misplaced.
In the case of the test, if we didn’t learn the material correctly then incorrect options will sound correct to our minds. If I learned to speak English incorrectly then I will likely teach others to speak incorrectly. And depending on how well I know the route to a destination will determine how easily I get there! In each case it is a matter of knowing the right way. To add complexity to this, there are degrees of knowing and with each degree of knowing comes increasing chances of getting it right.
And so it would seem with our life choices – which way seems right? What path feels right to you?
These are often questions we pose to ourselves and to others who are at a crossroads. Should I make this purchase or that? Should I go abroad to gain more experience or stay in my company to gain a promotion? Should I marry this person or keep looking? Should we have children? How should we raise them? The problem is if we don’t have any concept of ‘right’ then really anything could seem or feel right at any given point in time. And we may be faced with the question: ‘do I trust my feelings?’
God provides us with an avenue to know the right way. He illustrates a purpose for our existence through the Bible and in it are visions, mission statements, directions, examples to follow (and not to follow), descriptions, pictures and in some cases, explicit instructions. Just as the textbook and the test questions are not duplicates of each other, so with life the text and the choices given demand an applicable knowledge of one to answer the other. And so the more familiar we are with God and His way, the more correct our feelings about what is the right way will be.
Some people call it ‘feeding on God’s word’, others may call it ‘quiet time’, ‘devotion’ or ‘Bible study’. It doesn’t matter what name you give it, becoming familiar with the Bible is the best way to know God and His thoughts. As Albert Einstein said, ‘I want to know His [God’s] thoughts. The rest are details.’
I am one of the extremely blessed ones who didn’t have the struggle of becoming pregnant. I don’t have any angsty stories of months or years of trying or going to fertility clinics. For some reason God just made it happen. I know that this child is a gift from heaven.
And I knew when I had received the gift. One day I just felt different. It was an odd awareness that there was something inside me that was new.
We didn’t test until about week 8-9. I had been procrastinating since the pharmacist wasn’t on my way to anywhere and it would mean a special trip to pick up a test – besides.. I already knew I was pregnant! But after my supervisor at work asked me if I was I decided it was time to know definitively and actually do something about it.
So what is it like for me?
I felt nauseous and vomited about 6 times. One time I remember just lying on the floor against the wall to keep my head up because it felt worse when I lay flat. I couldn’t vomit and I couldn’t eat. I just felt this feeling of wanting to throw up but not quite. Then when I finally did throw up I didn’t feel a whole lot better. It was dreadful and I felt a deep sympathy for those who experience this day in and day out for months. I also threw up on the way home in the car. I managed to hold it in with one hand while the other hand steered into a pub’s carpark. I threw the door open and let it all out all over the ground.
There is one thing about vomiting that does ‘release the valve’ on the nausea somewhat but it does leave you feeling exhausted and the awful taste in your throat takes a long time to go away.
Since this was not a big issue for me I think the most noticeable thing early on was the fatigue and low mood. I have been anaemic and that fatigue does not compare to this. You wake up, feel tired. Go to work and want to sleep. Come home and want to sleep. Then sleep all night and want to sleep some more. And then I read on the net that I should sleep at work. I am not sure who actually wrote those articles but they definitely don’t work in most ordinary work places. It was really quite incredible. I went to gym classes and couldn’t keep up. Normally I could be there for 1-2hrs. But half an hour was really killing me.
And then I got sick and couldn’t shake it. My nose was blocked and runny and I had become a first class mucous producing machine. Then my nose kept bleeding and I kept blowing blood out of my nose. (Don’t worry, all of these symptoms were mentioned in the book What to Expect When You’re Expecting – a good read for those in my category)
But if you asked me what was I suffering with the pregnancy now? The main thing is ITCHINESS. I have almost scratched my skin off. And its not always polite to say where! Apparently when the skin stretches it gets itchy and some of it is just down to hormones.
Moodiness is another awful factor to deal with. It is really easy to get mad these days. Doesn’t take much to trip the wire! Poor Darrell.. he has really taken a beating.
But apart from all this ‘sufferance’ that I (and other expecting mothers) endure. I cannot believe that inside me there is a real live person growing. And when we first saw our little one on the screen at the ultrasound appointment I started crying. It was dancing and waving its little arm and leg buds. I have an actual person inside. It is so incredible and makes me feel so blessed and amazed. I don’t feel like I deserve this but nevertheless here we are: parents in the making.
Never so humbled. Never so blessed.
Sometimes prayer can feel a bit one sided and the awkward monologue can feel a bit forced. This Saturday we will talk about the art of listening in prayer.
Download the Discussion Questions here.