A sermon by Rod Benson Matthew 5:23-24 You’ve all seen them: by the side of the road, or lying derelict in the bush, or on the scrap heap – old cars, their windows broken, seats disintegrating, engines forever silent, slowly rusting away as the iron alloy is exposed to oxygen and moisture over time, producing …
Wisdom for church conflict
A sermon by Rod Benson Proverbs 29:20 There’s a lot you didn’t know about your tongue. The human tongue is the main sensory organ for taste, with between 3,000 and 10,000 taste buds. There are eight muscles in our tongues, four of which are attached to the bone, and the other four are the only muscles …
Why forgive?
A sermon by Rod Benson Matthew 18:21-35 Forgiveness is a gift we all like to receive, but we don’t all like to give. English writer and apologist C.S. Lewis said that forgiveness is a beautiful word, until you have something to forgive. One of Lewis’s mentors, G.K. Chesterton, said that forgiveness means pardoning the unpardonable, or …
Ethics and prayer (part 1 of 2)
If we are faithful in the way we follow Jesus, then our deepest and truest desires will find their expression in godly, counter-cultural, justice-shaped prayers passionately aligned to the kingdom and mission of God. Our best prayers will be ethical prayers. In this and my next column, I want to explore the relation of ethics …