There’s a stand of huge old oak trees in the park where I walk. They have a slightly surprised air, as if they’ve been transplanted from a genteel English landscape and are wondering how they ended up here, surrounded by scruffy wattle trees under a burning Australian sun, with graffiti tags on their trunks and white cockatoos squawking from their branches like rowdy antipodean visitors. (more…)
Author Archives: Jean Williams
Teaching the Psalms to our children
Up front, Sola Panel
Picture my husband and I sitting side-by-side on the couch in semi-darkness, watching a DVD. There’s the patter of little feet on the floorboards. A plaintive voice says, “Mummy, I’m scared. I can’t sleep!” And as always, there’s the same response: “Do you want me to pray with you?” “Yes.” “Okay, snuggle up and we’ll pray.” (more…)
Animism, alive and well
Life, Sola Panel
I worked with a group of southern Sudanese pastors to help them to develop a discipleship training program for their churches. Remembering my own experience, I suggested that the starting point be a study explaining the nature of grace. “Yes”, they agreed, “after we have taught about witchcraft”. It seemed extraordinary that ‘Discipleship 101’ in Sudan should begin with a study on witchcraft. But as I talked with my Sudanese friends, I came to appreciate that to understand grace, we must first realize that God is sovereign over all creation and that our world is not controlled through curses and spells. True grace cannot be understood properly by those trapped in an animistic worldview.1
What the Sudanese church is learning, we are unlearning. We walk around towns and claim them for God; we seek deliverance from family curses; we release Christians from spirits of anger; we refuse to live in places where bad things have happened. Many Australian Christians share the belief of our non-Christian neighbours that evil clings to places and has to be cleansed or it will threaten the future occupants. (more…)
Teaching the Psalms to our children
Life, Sola Panel
Picture my husband and I sitting side-by-side on the couch in the semi-darkness, watching a DVD. There’s the patter of little feet on the floorboards. A plaintive voice says, “Mummy, I’m scared, I can’t sleep!” And as always, there’s the same response: “Do you want me to pray with you?” (more…)
A bad case of mother guilt
Everyday Ministry, Sola Panel
I’ve been feeling pretty guilty recently. What have I been feeling guilty about? I’m a mum, so you shouldn’t have to ask! Like so many mothers, I feel guilty because I’m not doing enough for my family. I’ve been trying to juggle too many things, and I’m worried I’m neglecting my children. (Actually, I don’t think I am when I’m thinking logically; if anything’s neglected, it’s only the dust balls. But guilt doesn’t think logically.) (more…)
Review: ‘You Can Change’ by Tim Chester
Review, Sola Panel
You Can Change: God’s transforming power for our sinful behaviour and negative emotions
Tim Chester
IVP, Leicester, 2008. 192pp.
Picking up Tim Chester’s You Can Change, you’d be forgiven for mistaking it for a self-help book. It has all the trappings—a title promising transformation, testimonies of change, an invitation to choose a personal “change project”, ten chapters with titles like ‘What would you like to change?’ and questions for self-reflection. You Can Change is designed to communicate to a society obsessed with personal change, but it turns the self-help genre on its head. (more…)
The temptations of ministry: the three Ps
Up front, Sola Panel
Just over a year ago, I started a blog. I was full of enthusiasm and daring—the kind of enthusiasm that only comes from an almost complete ignorance of the project you’re about to embark upon. I guessed it would be a great opportunity for ministry. What I didn’t anticipate is how God used this new ministry to perform surgery on my heart. (more…)
God’s cure for weariness
Life, Sola Panel
Weary (adj.) Physically or mentally fatigued. Having one’s interest, forbearance, or indulgence worn out. Extremely tired: bleary, dead, drained, exhausted, fatigued, rundown, spent, tired out, wearied, weariful, worn-down, worn-out.
It was a weariful week. It came right at the end of three months of draining ministry. I’d been looking forward to this week for months. I’d been telling myself that I just had to make it through the next month/week/day, and then I could rest.
As I spoke the final words of my final seminar, I could feel the burden lifting. Yes! Time for relaxation! But it seems God had other ideas. My week of rest turned out to be a week of sickness, exhaustion and discouragement.
Spiritual Depression
Review, Sola Panel
Spiritual Depression: Its causes and its cure
D Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 1965, 300pp.
Available from Moore Books
02 9577 9966 (more…)
The blessing of unanswered prayer
Up front, Sola Panel
I hate unanswered prayer. This is not just because I want what I pray for (although that would be nice!), but because my unbelieving heart takes unanswered prayer as an opportunity to doubt God. Here are some examples:
(more…)
The temptations of ministry: The three Ps
Pastoral Ministry, Sola Panel
Just over a year ago, I started a blog. I was full of enthusiasm and daring—the kind of enthusiasm that only comes from an almost complete ignorance of the project you’re about to embark upon. I guessed it would be a great opportunity for ministry. What I didn’t anticipate is how God would use this new ministry to perform surgery on my heart.
The blessing of unanswered prayer
Life, Sola Panel
I hate unanswered prayer. This is not just because I want what I pray for—although that would be nice!—but because my unbelieving heart takes unanswered prayer as an opportunity to doubt God. Here are some examples:
I pray for my son’s only close friend, whom we’ve lost contact with, to call. He doesn’t.
I pray that I’ll be able to find my car keys so I can get the kids to school on time. They’re late.
I pray that my husband will get over his illness; after all, he needs to teach the Bible and care for our family. He stays sick.
I pray that my excited, expectant three-year-old will see a kangaroo on the way home. There’s no wildlife to be seen.
I pray that my mood will lift. I stay discouraged.
These are all trivial prayers, and I could give you much bigger examples. But, oddly, I find it easier to trust God with the bigger things. It’s the small prayers that trip me up.
Ageing beauty
Up front, Sola Panel
I’m sitting outside a cafe at a wobbly iron table, my pen moving lazily and messily across my notebook as I dream and write, dream and write. I sip from my mug-sized chai latte. A European wasp hovers hungrily above the frothed milk. (more…)
A cure for gospel tongue-tie
Everyday Ministry, Sola Panel
Tongue-tied adj. unable to speak. Synonyms: aghast, amazed, astounded, at a loss for words, bashful, choked up, dazed, dumbfounded, dumbstruck, garbled, inarticulate, mum, mute, shocked, shy, silent, speechless, stammering, uncommunicative, voiceless, obstructed.
I know people who talk about the gospel in a relaxed, friendly, winsome way. I’m not one of them.
Ageing beauty
Life, Sola Panel
I’m sitting outside a cafe at a wobbly iron table, my pen moving lazily and messily across my notebook as I dream and write, dream and write. I sip from my mug-sized chai latte. A European wasp hovers hungrily above the frothed milk. (more…)