No galaxies, no sun, no Earth, no oceans, no flora or fauna, no history, no you or me. Only the living God, who is Spirit. The Bible begins with this breathtaking sentence: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). Those words serve as a doorway through which every conscientious reader of …
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, …
Even greater things
John 11:21-27; 14:12 Teaching, training apprentices, rebuking religious leaders. Healings, exorcisms, turning water into wine, calming a storm, feeding a crowd with five loaves and two fish. And then the biggest of all: raising a widow’s son from death to life, and then raising Lazarus from the dead. Jesus was one of the most unusual, noteworthy …
Mountains of Scripture (8): Mount Hermon
One of the less well-known mountains of the Hebrew Bible is Mount Hermon, the highest mountain in Israel. With a snow-capped summit of 2,814m (9,232 ft), Mount Hermon is 586 metres taller than Australia’s tallest peak, Mt Kosciuszko (Kunama Namadgi). The mountain range is located at the north-eastern border of modern Israel, between Syria and …
Mountains of Scripture (2): Mount Ararat
Ivan Ayvazovsky, "Descent of Noah from Ararat," oil on canvas, 1889. National Gallery of Armenia “Almost from the beginning of the Bible, mountains are sites of transcendent spiritual experiences, encounters with God or appearances by God.”[1] In Genesis 8:4, after what must have been a terrifying and tumultuous experience navigating the Great Flood, Noah’s Ark …
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