Word on Wednesday with John Mason

Lord Acton observed in 1887, that leaders are inclined to use their powers corruptly. this is especially true of despotic rulers who are not held accountable. Significantly, Isaiah the prophet spoke of a very different leader who would emerge.

Thanksgiving is a theme that permeates the Bible - especially the Psalms. And while we do live in an uncertain world, there is still much for which to be thankful. Paul the Apostle encouraged the Philippian Christians to be thankful in these words in chapter 4 and verses 4 through 9: Rejoice in the Lord always.This week's podcast reflects on this during this time of Thanksgiving.

Jesus's physical resurrection from the dead is fundamental to the Christian faith.Without it, as Paul the Apostle says in First Corinthians chapter 15, our faith is meaningless.

The 1995 Joan Osborne hit What If God Was One of Us? asked the seemingly impossible question about seeing God face to face in human form. It challenges our worldview and our view of God. This podcast reflects on these issues.

John the Gospel writer tells us of a woman at a well in Samaria two thousand years ago, who was longing for happiness. It had eluded her, until she had an unexpected conversation at the village well.

In March 1973, Pink Floyd introduced the line, 'The dark side of the moon'. The album enjoyed great success, addressing dark questions about life. In the sixth of the seven signs, Jesus encounters a man who had known nothing but darkness from birth.

'Do you want to live forever?' was the question leading into an article, 'From Here to Eternity' in the Weekend Australian Magazine (May 27-28 2023). The article took up personal stories of a small number who believe in the science of freezing their body at death and holding it in cryonic suspension until a future time when science and medicine will have addressed the issue of death.But someone has already been resurrected from the dead. Find out more in today's podcast.

Christian faith is regularly considered to be 'a leap in the dark'. But daily we take countless steps of faith - faith that the food we eat and the water we drink won't harm us; the traffic will stop when we step out at a marked crosswalk and the flight we board will land safely at the destination for which we were ticketed. Today's reflection focuses on the faith of a father when Jesus healed his son from afar.

Death is the ultimate certainty we all face. It's why literature, film and philosophy so often dwell on the themes of our mortality. But it's rare that anyone claims they can do anything about it.

Jean Paul Sartre, the French existentialist anticipated the sense of aloneness people experience today. Jesus makes it clear that life is about more than bread for the body. Satisfying life calls for bread for our sou - which he alone can offer.

John continues his account of Jesus with a fourth sign - the miraculous provision of food for five thousand people.

Do we think that Jesus was the greatest teacher in history? Do we agree with the author HG Wells that 'Jesus Christ is easily the most dominant figure in all history'? Or is there more to this? John records in chapter 5 of his gospel, the moment when Jesus healed a paralyzed man. This is the 3rd sign, giving a further clue to Jesus' true identity.

God has built into the universe, laws, the regularities we observe. However, these laws don't prevent him from intervening, if he chooses to create an irregularity which we call a miracle. Jesus performed his first miracle at a wedding in the small village of Cana in Galilee, when he turned water into wine. He did this for a bigger purpose than simply resolving an embarrassed bridegroom's dilemma. This miracle in John's Gospel is the first of the 7 signs revealing Jesus' true identity.

Despite the 2009 campaign by Atheism UK - There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life - people are still looking for answers to life's meaning because they are depressed, isolated and disillusioned. Many thinking people are now asking if their worldview needs to be reviewed.

Despite advertising and promotion by the atheist society in the UK, people are still disillusioned with life, depressed and alienated. Many are re-assessing their lives and philosophy of life which has resulted in an increased interest in Christianity.

In January 2009, the atheist society in the UK ran a campaign on London buses. The slogan read: There's Probably No God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life. However, people are still disappointed with life, depressed, lonely and disillusioned and many are re-thinking their philosophy of life. They are wondering if their worldview needs to be reviewed.

In 2009 the atheist society in the UK ran a campaign on London buses with the slogan: There's Probably No God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life. However people are still depressed, disappointed with life, lonely and disillusioned, so many are reassessing their philosophy of life. This podcast discusses some of these issues with reference to John's Gospel, chapter 1.

In January 2009 Atheism UK ran an advertising campaign on London buses. It read: There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life. Despite this, people are disappointed with life, depressed, lonely and disillusioned. Thinking people are now asking if their worldview needs to be reviewed.

How often do we express our gratitude to the LORD? Do we wake up in the morning and go to bed at night with thanksgiving in our heart and praise on our lips? This podcast encourages us to be thankful with the words of Psalm 95 which begins: ' O come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!'

For the first three hundred years or so after Jesus' death and resurrection, his followers were regularly persecuted under Roman rule. Yet they were called up to pray for their leaders as people whom God had provided for the good order and protection of society in a fallen world.Do we criticize our leaders? Or do we pray for them?

A criticism of Christianity that constantly arises is over the question of suffering in the world. It's one of the toughest to answer for anyone who believes that God now only exists but is also all-powerful and all-compassionate. This podcast, includes a reflection on Psalm 13.

Who Am I? Is this a question you ask? Have you found the answer? This reflection on Psalm 8 comes up with a surprising answer.

God's people are regularly mocked for their faith. Psalm 2 alerts us to the plotting of men and women against God.

Are you ever resentful of successful people who post their lavish lifestyles on social media: their achievements, perfect family and exotic vacations? Is this really the epitome of life? Or is there something more? Psalm 1 takes us to the two choices we have.

To be happy is something we long for. But how can we achieve it? Psalm 1 helps us find the key to being happy.

How can we weather the challenges of our changing and uncertain world? Find encouragement in this reflection on a profound prayer of the Apostle Paul in Ephesians chapter 3

What does Jesus expect of everyone who believes? A third part of Jesus' prayer in John chapter 17 provides the answer to this question.

To say that Jesus is the only way to God seems very narrow-minded. The story of Jesus is woven around a virgin birth and miracles. The greater part of Jesus' prayer in John chapter 17 focuses on. his disciples and their significant role in the promotion. of God's good news.

Are your prayers all about you? Are they like Christopher Robin's bedtime prayers - God bless ... God bless ... ? Listen to this week's podcast on Jesus' prayer in John chapter 17 and be encouraged in the focus of your prayer life.

How often are your prayers prompted by your meditation on God's Word? In Daniel chapter 9 we find Daniel confessing not only his own sin, but also the sins of God's people. And he then asks God to honour his promises to the people of Israel.

Do you have any regrets? You may regret words you let rip and can't take back, or a relationship you should never have started. Listen to this reflection on Psalm 51, where David expresses his guilt to God following his adultery with Bathsheba.

Is there anything we can do that might make a difference in our world, where daily the news seems to get worse?Listen to this reflection on a prayer of Moses found in Numbers chapter 14.

Do you ever feel alone, isolated from people and from God? Find encouragement in this week's podcast looking at the words of Psalms 42 and 43.

What can shake us out of our apathy and fear and make us an intrepid people? Listen afresh to the events of the Pentecost following the death and resurrection of Jesus.

Porocity is an important aspect of the world around us and to our own life and well-being. However there is another dimenstion to porocity: the porocity of the universe. Find out more in this week's podcast.

Porocity is an important aspect of the world around us and to our own life and well-being. However we tend to overlook the fact of the porocity of the universe - the non-material supernatural dimension of existence, beyond the space-time material world that is capable of movement within the material universe. Find out more in this week's podcast.

In a culture which ignores or rejects transcendental truth, the fact of Jesus' resurrection from the dead gives us hope.

The orthodox Christian creeds state that 'we believe in the resurrection of the body and life everlasting'. How can this be? Paul the Apostle answers our question in 1 Corinthians chapter 15.

How do we face a broken world where any day, we might unexpectedly die?

If the resurrection of Jesus is the foundation of the Christian faith, why is the cross the symbol of Christianity and not an empty tomb?

It is imperative that we think about the truth ad reality of the resurrection. If it is true, then our lives gain meaning and purpose.

It is imperative that we ask whether the account of Jesus' resurrection is an invention. If it is true, it is life-changing.

Jesus' death was not the end of a heroic life but the inauguration of a new age. This is God's extraordinary gift and for those of us who have received it, a legacy we want to share.

Despite humanity's progress in science and technology, human wisdom has not found a solution for lasting and just peace.

Vindictiveness, anger and lack of forgiveness pervade our society. How can we respond?

Augustine of Hippo, North Africa, one of the great minds of the late Roman Empire, wrestled with the notion of God and the question of evil, before coming to believe that Jesus Christ is truly the Son of God. He writes in his Confessions that as a young adult his prayer was, “God, give me chastity and self-control, but not yet”. One day when he was reading in a garden, he heard a young child’s voice singing, Tolle lege; tolle lege – ‘Take up, read; take up, read.’ He had been reading Paul the Apostle’s Letter to the Romans. Going back to the place where he had left the text, his eyes fell on the words in chapter 13: Let us live honourably as in the day, not in revelling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarrelling and jealousy. Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires. As he read, he found the solution to his heart’s longing. “How sweet did it suddenly become to me to be free of the sweets of folly: things that I once feared to lose, it was now joy to put away. You (Lord) cast them forth from me, … and in their stead you entered in, sweeter than every pleasure…” (Confessions VIII) Paul’s advice in Romans, chapter 13 is similar to what we find in the first section of Colossians, chapter 3. There Paul writes, Since you have been raised to a new life in Christ, set your hearts and minds on the things above…And in verse 5 he says: Put to death therefore what belongs to your earthly nature… It is because of the new relationship that God’s people have with the risen Lord Jesus that Paul exhorts us to adopt a new lifestyle that reflects the goodness of God. Everything we think and say and do is to be framed by our new identity. Paul touches on three important areas of our behavior: sex, speech and relationships. Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. Passions. If you know the Lord Jesus, Paul is saying, then sex is for marriage only. ‘You used to do what you wanted to do,’ he says, ‘but now having linked yourself with the Lord, put to death such behaviour.’ People often argue that they are ‘making love’, but with his reference to greed in this context, he is saying that it is really lust. In recent years studies suggest that the internet is having a negative impact on marriages. People are so consumed by it, especially pornography, that they have less time and inclination for their marriage partner. What a strange paradox: ogling at pictures more than enjoying the precious gift of the personal, intimate sexual relationship in marriage. As Augustine came to realize, God is not interested in spoiling our fun. Rather, we are reminded, that as our Maker, God has a good and wonderful purpose for us in marriage. Paul frames his exhortation here in the context that we have died and been raised with Christ. When we feel the impact of this, the desires of our hearts will change. We will see the rightness and true joy in living out the Lord’s good plan for us in a committed and faithful marriage – one where there is forgiveness and renewal. Paul also speaks about the tongue: But now you must get rid of all such things—anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive language from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have stripped off the old self with its practicesand have clothed yourselves with the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator. It seems strange that Paul writes about controlling the tongue in the same context as he writes about sex. What we forget is that the New Testament sees the tongue as our most sin prone organ. In his Letter, James says that the tongue is a restless evil. You may think that to get on in life you need to express yourself with vehemence and an edgy vocabulary. But malice, obscenity and anger constantly damage and destroy relationships. Sometimes people tell me that nobody likes a saint: they’re so self-righteous. But to say this is to forget what true humanity is. To be truly human is to be like Jesus. Let me ask, ‘Do you get the impression that he was a dull, anaemic personality?’ He was man as men and women are meant to be. Which brings us to Paul’s further exhortation – about relationships: In that renewal there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all! Here in Colossians, chapter 3, verse 11 Paul tells us that we need to recognize the unity we have in Christ and, in turn, provide a picture to the world of God’s new society. One of the significant features of New Testament Christianity was the breakdown of racial and cultural barriers – not least between Jewish and non-Jewish Christians. Paul’s words set the agenda of unity across the social and racial divisions for God’s people. Yes, we’ll disappoint one another, we won’t always be as tolerant as we should be, we won’t always

Where do we find life and light in the darkness of our world?

What can we do when we feel spiritually dry; when our Christian life and walk seem automatic and we feel far away from God? The Apostle Paul, writing in chapter 2 of Colossians, helps provide the answer.

From Captivity to Liberty through the Cross.

What's life all about? Is it meaningless? Ecclesiastes now gives the answer: 'Fear God and keep his commandments'. We're not alone and there is a purpose to all our toil and to our lives. And we find it when we acknowledge our Creator God, the Father of the Lord Jesus.