by Australian Christian women. Since September 2015

For years I thought that God was inefficient. It just didn't seem to make sense that the Bible could be so big and so full of complicated stories. Surely if God really wanted us to know what he was like and how to live, he could have done it in less space, surely? And with the use of a few, well-placed bullet points. Thankfully, as I have gotten older, I have come to appreciate efficiency less and relationships more. Now that I understand that God operates in relational ways,

For years I thought that God was inefficient. It just didn't seem to make sense that the Bible could be so big and so full of complicated stories. Surely if God really wanted us to know what he was like and how to live, he could have done it in less space, surely? And with the use of a few, well-placed bullet points. Thankfully, as I have gotten older, I have come to appreciate efficiency less and relationships more. Now that I understand that God operates in relational ways,

For years I thought that God was inefficient. It just didn't seem to make sense that the Bible could be so big and so full of complicated stories. Surely if God really wanted us to know what he was like and how to live, he could have done it in less space, surely? And with the use of a few, well-placed bullet points. Thankfully, as I have gotten older, I have come to appreciate efficiency less and relationships more. Now that I understand that God operates in relational ways,

John 21:1 Later, Jesus appeared again to the disciples beside the Sea of Galilee. Jesus told his disciples to return to Galilee and he would meet them there. Back to the Sea, the place of so much of his teaching and so many of his miracles. The place of faith. The favourite place of many of the pilgrims who continue to visit this land. It is a joy and privilege to be able to walk on this shore, to walk in the footsteps of Jesus in this land. It can bring these stories to l

Matt. 28:1-2 Early on Sunday morning, as the new day was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went out to visit the tomb. Suddenly there was a great earthquake! For an angel of the Lord came down from heaven, rolled aside the stone, and sat on it. There is more than one empty tomb in Jerusalem, where people go to remember Jesus. Does it matter which one is the ‘right’ one? I don’t think so, because we don’t go there to mourn or set up a shrine, as you might for a lon

John 19:17-18 Carrying the cross by himself, he went to the place called Place of the Skull (in Hebrew, Golgotha). There they nailed him to the cross. These stones form the foundation of a church that dates back over 1650 years, built on what was thought to be the rocks of Golgotha. A place outside the city walls in Jesus’ day, but a place near enough for passersby to see the humiliation of those being punished and mock them mercilessly. A place of death and defeat. Where the

Luke 23:26 As they led Jesus away, a man named Simon, who was from Cyrene, happened to be coming in from the countryside. The soldiers seized him and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus. Making a winding, narrow path through the busy streets of Jerusalem is a road called the Via Dolorosa, or the Way of Suffering. This is the traditional route Jesus walked, carrying his cross from his beating to the place of his crucifixion. Many pilgrims walk this path e

On May 22nd several hundred people gathered at North Sydney Independent Theatre (hosted by Northside Baptist Church) to think further about how the local church can respond to Domestic Violence. We were confronted by the heart-wrenching story shared by a victim-survivor, and challenged to think about how our theology and every day practices help or hinder us to hear the voices of women and particularly of domestic violence victims in our midst. We were challenged to think abo

Matt. 26:36 Then Jesus went with them to the olive grove called Gethsemane, and he said, “Sit here while I go over there to pray.” An olive grove on the Mount of Olives. A quiet place Jesus often withdrew to in order to pray. A place he found peace and rest. But on that Thursday night it became a place of spiritual turmoil as he wrestled with the sacrifice the Father had called him to make. And it became a place of physical turmoil as one of his own betrayed him and soldie

Luke 19:47 After that, he taught daily in the Temple, but the leading priests, the teachers of religious law, and the other leaders of the people began planning how to kill him. These steps leading up to the Jerusalem temple were built by King Herod, and would have been used by Jesus and his disciples as they entered the temple. It is also likely that Jesus sat here to teach his disciples. Here he spoke words of judgment upon the temple and what its leaders had turned it in