Have you ever wondered why we should bother praying or evangelising when God has predestined everything that will happen? What’s the point of praying when God has already determined what he will do? Why bother evangelising when God has already determined those whom he will save? Is there an inherent contradiction between predestination and things like prayer and evangelism? 

In his book Preaching the Whole Bible as Christian Scripture, Graeme Goldsworthy reminds us that, “The meaning of all the Scriptures is unlocked by the death and resurrection of Jesus”. Here are ten ways we see Psalm 22 fulfilled through Jesus.

Yesterday, we explored a definition of joy, and considered where we can find joy. Of course, the reality is that sometimes we will struggle to find joy. We won’t be feeling it. What do we do then? What kinds of habits will help? Here are four brief thoughts. Nothing ground-breaking. But also, purely ground-breaking.

Yesterday, I mentioned some pretty confronting mental health statistics. A lot of Australians—especially younger Australians—are dealing with some pretty serious stuff. I then mentioned that Paul has some helpful stuff to say. Especially when it comes to joy. In this post, I want to have a go at defining joy and thinking about where we can find it.

I recently came across the National Study of Mental Health and Wellbeing. According to this study, in 2020–2022, 42.9% of people aged 16–85 years had experienced a mental disorder at some time in their life

Ever wondered how many volunteers there are at your church, and how many volunteer roles people are involved in? It’s actually harder to count than you might think. But not that hard with some help.

In term 3 at Hope Youth, we’ll be studying at 1 and 2 Samuel at Hope Youth. Here is a basic introduction to the books.

Context

1 and 2 Samuel is set in the period from around 1100 BC to 970 BC.

Yesterday, I mentioned that the Robinsons have been a bit busy writing books. I reviewed three books by Levi, my six-year-old son. He likes to remind me that he has composed more books than I have. Thus, it was only fitting that I review his works first. But today, it’s my turn. Though its title lacks the catchiness of Levi Robinson’s publications (most notably Flip It, Don’t Rip It), the title, Augustine, Rahner and Trinitarian Exegesis: An Exegetical Exploration of Augustine’s Exegesis of Scripture as a Foundation for Rahner’s Trinitarian Project and Rule, still gives some clues to what the book is about.

The Robinsons have been busy writing books recently. Four in fact. I’ve particularly enjoyed three of them, written by Levi, my six-year-old son. Here’s a short review of three of his books.

Over the last few days I’ve been (somewhat unpopularly!) suggesting that we reappropriate the melodies of favourite hymns, and add new lyrics (actually, kind of old lyrics). Yesterday, I suggested that we slide the words of the Apostles’ Creed into the melody of Nettleton (aka Come Thou Fount). Shout out to Jeanette Chin who was inspired to spend some time revising the lyrics to Come Thou Fount. Here’s my wild suggestion for today: we mash up the words of Colossians 1:15–23 into the tune Slane (aka Be Thou My Vision or That Song from Harry and Meghan’s Wedding)

Yesterday, I wrote about how many of our favourite hymns are really just mashups, matching lyrics with melodies sometime after each was composed. I noted that some people have tried to modernise the lyrics of older hymns. Some of the attempts are pretty decent, but they haven’t managed to gain much widespread acceptance. What should we do?

Back in the day, Contrafactum was a thing with church music. Contr-whatta-what? Yeah, you heard me. Contrafactum. Basically, it’s where you get a well-known melody and then slip in your own lyrics. And guess what: as a result, many of your favourite old-school banger hymns did it. Contrafactum.

In the early 1980s, a member of my family was rostered on to give the Old Testament Bible Reading at St Mark’s, Yagoona. The scheduled reading: Genesis 5. This reading went down in history—at least from this person’s perspective—as the worst Bible reading of all time. The reader simply could not compose herself. And if you read it, you can understand why. So, so repetitive.

Ever wondered how you can view all of the different volunteers at your church in one report on Elvanto? A report that shows the people listed by department, but in a mildly readable way? This is something we’ve been working on recently.

Tonight I discovered a hack that will save me many hours in the future. And maybe it will save time for you too. This evening, with the children in bed and my beloved watching her Gilmore Girls, I set upon the cumbersome task of entering all of the volunteers for our upcoming Holiday Kids’ Club into Elvanto, the database our church uses. Nine different categories of volunteers. Just short of a hundred volunteers needed to be added to these nine categories.

Ever worked for an organisation where you often need to claim receipts for work-related expenses? I have. People often complain about how laborious and slow the process is. I disagree. I think it can be fun. Today I created a new game: the receipt processing time trial challenge. This is how the game works.

As much as I like cannons, this article is not about cannons. It’s about canon. "Canon" originates from the Greek term kanōn, meaning “rule”. When talking about the Bible, “canon” means an authoritative list of books accepted as Holy Scripture.

Last Friday night at Hope Youth, we looked at 1 Corinthians 11. It’s a pretty controversial passage and I expected lots of questions, especially from our older youth. What got me really excited—some of our senior girls were asking about verse 3 and what it means for our doctrine of the Trinity.

Many Christians deliberate over the bar for ordination. Some feel that their denomination demands too much of their clergy. Too much training, too much screening, too much theological alignment, too many interviews. Others feel that the bar is too low. There should be more of these things. After all, these people are going to be pastoring flocks of God’s people. We want to ensure that they are fit for the task.

Over the years I’ve seen several people experience what might be described as “burnout”. That thing where someone is mentally and even physically fried and feels that they cannot keep going. There are usually various factors at play. Perhaps mental health stuff, physical health stuff, work stuff, marriage stuff, family stuff, friendship stuff, community stuff. And it’s really hard. A person has been going hard and then all of a sudden has to stop.