Someone once told me that if you’re asked to do the Bible reading at church, and you find that the set reading is Psalm 119, you need to run away. It’s really long. Psalm 119 is probably most well-known as the longest chapter of the Bible, with 176 verses and 1065 words in the original Hebrew (Psalm 117 happens to be the shortest chapter in the Bible). This also makes it the longest acrostic poem in the Bible (for other acrostic/near-acrostic poems in the Bible, see Psalms 9–10, 25, 34, 37, 111, 112, 145, Proverbs 31:10–31, Lamentations 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 ).

In 410 AD, Alaric and the Visigoths sacked Rome, sending shockwaves around the world. It was a symbol of the decline of the Western World, shattering the invulnerability of the impenetrable Rome, the “eternal city”. For Christians, this was particularly confusing. Christianity had just been declared the state religion of the Roman Empire by Emperor Theodosius just a few decades earlier, in 380 AD. The status of Rome kind of seemed to be tied to the status of Christianity.

This morning, I was reading Hebrews 8. I was struck by verse 13 (NIV):

By calling this covenant “new,” he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and outdated will soon disappear.

The Old Covenant is obsolete. This made me pause and reflect. Earlier in the year, I spent a bit of time thinking about Matthew 5:17 where Jesus says:

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfil them.”

In Psalm 55:11–14 (NIV), David describes feeling betrayed by someone. He writes: "Destructive forces are at work in the city; threats and lies never leave its streets. If an enemy were insulting me, I could endure it; if a foe were rising against me I could hide. But it is you, a man like myself, my companion, my close friend, 14 with whom I once enjoyed sweet fellowship at the house of God, as we walked about among the worshipers."

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.