A reflective time of worship for Good Friday 2025 Welcome and call to worship In the name of Jesus, our Saviour, our Master, welcome to the Good Friday service at North Rocks Community Church! This morning we gather to remember the worst of days, what we ironically call “Good Friday,” the day on which Jesus …
The problem with atheism
Roman, Entry into Jerusalem, marble, late 4th century. The fool says in his heart, ‘There’s no God.’” (Psalm 14:1; cf Ps 53:1). Psalm 14 opens with these famous words. No one likes to be called a fool. But these words, as I read them, are neither an attack on a specific person nor a rebuttal of a …
When human rights fail us
Psalm 12:1-8 Australian navy personnel rescue asylum seekers from a sinking boat off Christmas Island in 2001. I have had the privilege of sitting with asylum seekers at Villawood Immigration Detention Centre in Sydney, and at the Curtin Immigration Detention Centre in remote north-western Australia, as the asylum seekers shared their stories of oppression, fear, …
How to face the reality of evil
Psalm 4:1-8 Individuals associated with the federal government have, in defiance of a court order and without a trial or any form of due process, deported hundreds of people from the territory of the United States to El Salvador, where they will be held indefinitely in a concentration camp.[1] That was American historian Timothy Snyder, …
Two ways to live
What is your experience of the Psalms in the Hebrew Bible? Take a moment to reflect on the following: Which psalms most readily come to mind? What memories do you associate with those psalms? What people and places do you think of when you hear a psalm? What Christian hymns and songs extend the reach …
