Archives: jean-williams

Reading through the Bible in a year (or two)

Life, Sola Panel

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flickr: jjreade

I’m doing something I haven’t attempted since I was at university, many years ago. I’m reading through the Bible in a year. Make that two years: after twelve months, I’m half way through my Bible reading plan.

There’s something exciting about reading the Bible in big gulps. I feel well-fed, like I’ve been at the richest of banquets all year long. I’ve discovered long-forgotten treasures, and I’ve seen familiar verses shine with unexpected colours in their setting. I’ve been reminded how, verse after verse, chapter after chapter, the Bible tells the same story. I can’t wait to turn the pages and watch the history of salvation unfold.

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Finding a “quiet time” in a mother’s life that’s far from quiet

Life, Sola Panel

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flickr: bluebirdsandteapots

I used to find it pretty easy to find a quiet time to pray and read the Bible, back in the days when I had two children. This seemed a little unfair. Other mums told me, “It’s so hard to pray and read the Bible! Every time I try, my kids climb all over me! My baby cries! My son wants me! They won’t keep quiet long enough for me to pray!” But quiet times were still “quiet” for me.

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Loving people at our school

Everyday Ministry, Life, Sola Panel

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Here’s my second post inspired by Lionel Windsor’s ‘gospel speech’ series. The last one was about prayer; this one is about relationships; the next will be on gospel speech.

flickr: Adam Jones, Ph.D.

Our local primary school is marvellously multicultural. During the years they’ve been there, our kids have become best friends with Buddhists from the Punjab, Muslims from Pakistan, and Catholics from Serbia, as well as some fair-dinkum Aussie pagans. At last count, the kids at school trace their recent ancestry to more than 50 countries. In a place like this, mission knocks on your door and asks itself in.

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In my weakness, your growth

Life, Sola Panel

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None of us wants to be the cause of another person’s sanctification – at least, not unintentionally – and yet, so often, that is what we are.
Is this one of the reasons that God allows us to become weak, dependent and forgetful as we grow older? Is it so we can place a necessary burden on those who were once dependent on us: a burden of forbearance and loving care? (more…)

Praying for our school

Everyday Ministry, Sola Panel

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After all those great posts by Lionel Windsor about ‘gospel speech’, I thought it might be good to write about what this might look like in practice, with a post or two about getting to know families at our local school.

flickr: AndersRuffCustomDesigns

It all started when my friend Rachel sent an email to Jess, Tanya and me:

I’ve been dwelling on how much I want to see families I meet at pre-school and school become Christians. And the best thing I know to do is pray. I think you all share the same passion – why not pray together? How fun to enjoy seeing God work!

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Reading the Bible with kids – even the hard bits

Everyday Ministry, Life, Sola Panel

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flickr: Wikipedia Commons: Michelangelo, Sistene Chapel ceiling

The first chapter of Ezekiel (let’s be honest) is some kind of weird. A wind drives an immense storm cloud from the north; four glowing creatures emerge from the cloud, each with four different faces, with two wings covering their bodies and two spread out, darting to and fro with a sound like roaring waters; wheels within wheels, one for each creature, their rims covered in eyes, move in a straight line wherever the four creatures go; and above the creatures’ wings is an expanse like crystal, surmounted by a sapphire throne on which sits a human figure, glowing like metal in a furnace. (more…)

Two love stories – or three

Life, Sola Panel

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flickr: kelsey_lovefusionphoto

‘Every adult life is defined by two great love stories,’ writes author and philosopher Alain de Botton. On the one hand, there is our well-charted quest for romantic love, and on the other, our quest for love from the world (‘a more secret and shameful tale’). In his book Status Anxiety, de Botton argues this second love story ‘is no less intense than the first…and its setbacks are no less painful.’

-From Candice Chung’s article Finding success later in life in Sunday Life magazine, July 10th, 2011.

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Are holidays Christian?

Life, Pastoral Ministry, Thought, Sola Panel

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flickr: andrewmalone

There’s a certain amount of discomfort in Christian circles when it comes to annual leave and long service leave – or any kind of holiday, for that matter. The workaholics and type-A personalities amongst us (I’m putting my hand up now) can be even more uncomfortable about taking holidays. Perhaps they’re right. (more…)

Unlovely

Life, Sola Panel

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flickr: gogoloopie

Sometimes I feel so unlovely.

Sometimes it rises up and sickens me: the horror of my lovelessness, the ugliness of my self-absorption, the scandal of my greed. How God hates my impurity and despises my pride and abhors my complaining (Psalm 26:5; Proverbs 6:16-19; 1 Cor 10:10; Ephesians 5:5).

I’m left gasping for breath, as if the possibility of God’s love has been sucked from the air. My sudden self-awareness squeezes out any sense of God’s grace. Stripped of my defences, I’m naked, ashamed, exposed.

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The idols of a parent

Life, Sola Panel

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flickr: mermay19

There’s nothing like parenting to reveal your true values.

My 12-year-old daughter started secondary school this year. It’s an anxious time for any parent. Your mind fills with questions: will she settle well into her new school? How will she cope with the extra homework? Will she make good friends? Will she make any friends?

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Believing the deceiver

Life, Sola Panel

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Days like this only come along once in a while. On this sun-drenched morning, there’s a cool breeze and the air is clear. Every dancing shadow is sharp-etched, every leaf suffused with a deeper meaning, every branch lifts a multitude of tiny twigs in praise. The world seems fair and unspoiled, as if it was made new this morning just for me. It’s a small taste of how Adam and Eve must have seen the world, in all its shining newness, when they walked with God on the morning of creation, and discovered its beauties for the first time through eyes unmarred by sin, doubt and sorrow. (more…)

Emptied to be filled

Life, Sola Panel

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This is the eighth post in Jean’s series on women in the Bible. (Read the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh.)

I’m sure you’ve met her. She’s polite, poised and polished. She talks in correct and considered sentences, but rarely about herself; certainly never about anything intimate. You won’t see her at a loss. You can (barely!) imagine her in tears, but only when no-one’s looking. If she has worries or grief, they are well hidden. Her house is immaculate, her job responsible, her hospitality faultless. She’s strong, capable, and generous.

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Big M Ministry and little s service

Everyday Ministry, Sola Panel

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The word ‘ministry’ just means ‘service’.1 It’s a fact I already knew, and perhaps one you know too; but earlier this year I came to see its implications.

I was walking along, praying about my Ministry. I was praying for the wisdom to know which Ministry to do, how much energy to put into certain Ministries, and when to stop one Ministry so I would have more energy for other Ministries. Suddenly, like a bolt to my brain from the rather grey sky (it was the fading end of a Melbourne winter), came the word ‘service’.

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Equal and Complementary: a review

Pastoral Ministry, Sola Panel

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I was once a feminist. In my early twenties, I became a complementarian, with the view that God made men and women equal but with different roles and responsibilities. It didn’t happen overnight; I studied the Bible, read books by complementarians and egalitarians, and joined in discussions, until I was convinced that the Bible teaches that God wants men to be servant leaders, and women to be helpers by their side as, together, we make Christ known.

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