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It's tempting

There is a great psychology experiment done with young children in which the child is placed in a room with a lolly on a plate. They are also told that if they wait a few minutes and don’t eat the lolly  that when the host comes back, they can have two lollies. Click here to watchThe videos of these children as they grapple with the temptation to eat the lolly now or wait is fascinating to watch. Some scoff it immediately, others are tempted to taste which invariably leads to ea...

I have a dream

The 28 August marked 60 years since Martin Luther King Jr gave his now famous ‘I have a dream’ speech.  In that speech King shared his vision of a country where black children and white children could play together as equals and in harmony. Set against the racial prejudice of his time the speech is a powerful invitation to dream of something that seemed impossible.  It’s true that his dream has yet to be completely realised, much has changed but there is still more to be done. Ki...

Favourites

Cadbury’s have for many years run an advertising campaign around the idea of having a favourite chocolate. So much so that they sell a box of Cadbury’s Favourites – with something for everyone. Occasionally debates will arise as to which one is the best. Some love the Turkish Delights while others consider them revolting.  Now having a favourite chocolate is not normally a matter of great consequence but having a favourite child or person can lead to all sorts of disputes and broken r...

What dreams do you have?

I wonder how many of you have watched the Football World Cup being held here in NZ. I suspect this world cup will be remembered by many as the cup where things didn’t go the way people expected. Teams who were easily expected to make the semi-finals or even the finals have been knocked out of the tournament. It’s quite emotional seeing the looks on the players faces when they realise their dream has now come to an end – much earlier than they expected.  I wonder if you have ever had y...

Weary

Have you ever set out on a tramp or hike and discovered part way through that you are just too tired to get to the end? Your body feels worn out and you can’t really go any further. Or maybe you are just feeling ground down by the pressures of life, paying the mortgage, feeding your family, loving your partner, and it all just feels too much. This worn-down, unable to go on, feeling is called weariness and it seems to dig down into our souls.Emma Stokes our speaker this coming Sunday writes, â...

Role-models

Today is the 5th anniversary of my dad’s death. My dad was a man deeply committed to following Jesus and it showed in the way he cared for others.  He opened our home to strangers, oddballs, and those he felt needed someone to love them. Some of them took advantage of him, at times even stealing from our house. But his response was simple – everything I have belongs to God, and he knows our needs, it will be okay. I wasn’t quite so sure at times.He was also a man of great patience, wi...

The right thing to do

I quite enjoy Dr Who, the British BBC show that has hung around for just on 60 years. And one thing I really like is the Dr’s speeches – the monologues set into each series that help to define what is going on. In one show the Dr says the following“Winning? Is that what you think it’s about? I’m not trying to win. I’m not doing this because I want to beat someone, or because I hate someone, or because I want to blame someone. It’s not because it’s fun. God knows it’s not becaus...

Blind spot

Recently I was backing my car out of a carpark in our local mall when I realised that another car had started to turn into the space behind me. Fortunately, I was able to brake and avoid hitting them. Even though I had checked my mirrors and looked to check for other cars, this car was somehow in a blind spot for me. Perhaps you have had the same situation. Sometimes that blind spot is not about seeing outside of ourselves but recognising that we have an internal blind spot. We fail to see how o...

Can you see?

Someone gave me the following words by Elizabeth Barrett BrowningEarth’s crammed with heaven,And every common bush afire with God;But only he (she) who seesTakes off his (her) shoes,The rest sit around it and pluck blackberries.Sometimes it is hard to see the hand of God in our world, not because God isn’t present, but because God appears in ways we least expect. Over the last couple of weeks, I have seen the generosity of God expressed through people who have gone out of their way to help o...

Who needs a nose?

A few years ago, I had to have nasal surgery and one of the things I discovered afterwards was a renewed sense of smell. For the first time in years, I could smell things I hadn’t even realised I wasn’t smelling. I must confess that it was pretty handy when our kids were in nappies not being able to smell. But I also discovered something else after my surgery. I realised that food now had a taste. I don’t know why but for me not being able to smell meant I was also unable to taste.  S...

Check that Facebook post.

This week one of our rugby referees has faced a torrent of abuse via Facebook for his actions refereeing the super rugby final. Refs will always have those who disagree with their decisions but why is it that so many feel free to use social media to denigrate and abuse those they disagree with. Sadly, the church and Christians have not been exempt from using social media in this way. When the early Christian leaders wrote these words, Don’t bite, devour, and consume one another (Gal 5:15), Don...

One another

During Covid we were encouraged by the then Prime minister to be kind to one another. We were being asked to consider others in the way we lived our lives, to think about how we treated others. The implication was that in a time of crisis being kind to each other would make it easier for us all to get along and get through what we were facing.The writers of the New Testament gave the early church a group of one another sayings like, ‘Love one another’ and ‘Encourage one another.’  T...

Sometimes life sucks

This week the news reminded us just how quickly life can be turned upside down, often when we least expect it. The report of a bus crash in which 10 people died travelling home from a wedding was a sobering reminder how fragile life is. Our hearts go out to the friends and families of those killed and those who were injured in the crash.  I suspect that many of us have come to expect that for us life should be good, that sickness and tragedy happen to someone else. It’s what happens in po...

Odd-balls welcome - including you

Philip Yancey notes in his book ‘What’s so amazing about grace’, that the prohibitions in the Old Testament about which foods one could or couldn’t eat excluded all the odd-balls – the creatures that didn’t really fit. And it also included the odd-ball people who, for whatever reason, were not like everyone else.  Those people found themselves excluded and often ignored.The story of Jesus however, reminds us that all of us are welcome, that all of us are loved and that includes ...

Just for you

In the story Babette’s Feast a woman housekeeper wins the lottery and uses her winnings to prepare a banquet for the family she has worked for, for the last twelve years.  What is so astounding about this story is that the family are members of a strict austere Lutheran sect who live frugally. Waste is considered sinful and their lives are controlled by a set of rigid rules. Babette the cook, prepares an extravagant meal, full of delicacies and fine wines.  The story, is a story of g...

And you're invited!

There’s a story Jesus told about a man who threw a banquet but on the day of the  feast the invited guests all made up excuses for not coming.  So, Jesus said, the man sent his servants out to welcome in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame. It’s a reminder that the good news of Jesus, or God’s love for us all, is not limited to a few or to those who are at the top of the pile – it is for all those who are desperate to be loved by God. We, all of us, including you, ar...

Precious in God's sight

Last weekend here at church two families brought their children to be dedicated to God. It was a way for those families to express their thanks to God for the precious gifts/taonga that children are. It can be easy for us to forget that at times – when they won’t sleep or keep us awake at night, when they lose that cuteness and we wonder what has happened to them. In those moments we need to be reminded that this little person is precious in God’ sight, that they are persons of worth and v...

Celebrating a King!

Last weekend many of you may have watched the coronation of King Charles III. During the news report on this, the news reader commented that this was the 40th crowning of a king or queen at Westminster Abbey in the last 1000 years. Which is pretty amazing.But it occurred to me that every week all around the world, millions of people gather to celebrate another king and they have done it every week for the last 2000 years or so. Every Sunday followers of Jesus gather, sometimes just a handful in ...

Who would you invite?

A popular talkback question used to be ‘If you could invite anyone to dinner, living or dead, who would you invite and why?  I wonder who you might invite and how the conversation might go?  The act of eating together reveals a lot about ourselves – What type of people do we invite? Who do we invite? Why do we invite them? Do we only invite people like us? Do we hope to get something back as a result of the invite?Jesus loved eating with people, in fact it got him into lots of trou...

Thanks RocketSpark

We want to give a big shoutout to @rocketsparkwebsites for their unwavering support! Thanks to their generosity, we now have an easy-to-manage website that communicates what we do. We are incredibly grateful for their support in helping us make a difference in our community. #thankyou #supportingnonprofits #makingadifference...

What do you see?

A few years ago a series of books appeared with magical hidden  3D images.  At first glance the image just looks like a mix of colours on a page which don’t seem to make sense but hidden within it is a 3 dimensional image. I still remember the first time I saw one of these.  A friend had a large picture hanging on a wall, so along with others I stood there trying to make sense of it. There were all sorts of suggestions for how to make the picture appear - squint, go cross-eyed, ...

Still Good News

Easter Sunday is gone but the good news it announced is still here and still good news. And the good news is this, – Jesus is alive, death and sin have been defeated, and Jesus is Lord of all.  And while for many people that may not sound like much, it does change everything for those who believe. It is our relationship with Jesus that defines the way we live, and care for others and our world. For us Jesus wasn’t just a good man, or a prophet, he was something else – God in the flesh...

The Big Con?

Easter and the claims of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead are either the biggest con job in history or the greatest news the earth has ever heard. After all, we all know that dead people don’t come back to life.Paul the Apostle knew this as well and he wrote these words, speaking about Jesus the Christ.And if Christ has not been raised, then all our preaching is useless, and your faith is useless. And we apostles would all be lying about God—for we have said that God raised Christ fro...

Easter Services

Come and join with us as we both remember and celebrate the story of Easter.Friday 9.30am 7 April - Good Friday reflectionSunday 10am 9 April - Celebration as we remember the resurrection of Jesus....

Not what we expected

Have you ever purchased an item sight unseen and when it arrived it wasn’t at all what you were expecting? Maybe a bit like a guy in the U.S. who decided to buy an electric sports car on Alibaba from China. He was expecting a high-end sports car but instead when he opened the crate discovered that he had been sent a tiny little two-person electric car worth only a fraction of the price. He was very disappointed.Sometimes we discover that people aren’t quite who we thought they were. Often, t...