Westy's Weekly Blog

  Perhaps as you reflect on a year that is almost over you find yourself in a similar situation to Asaph in Psalm 73. The psalmist complains there that God is unfair.   If he was writing his complaint today it would sound something like this:   There’s no point in serving God!   The bloke next door is a fitness freak with the build of Sylvester Stalone in 'Rambo'.   A dozen times a day he blasphemes God but he has never had as much as a toothache in his life.   He openly lies and cheats but it seems he has never had a care in the world. Meanwhile I struggle with the disability I was born with.   I've always tried to please the Lord and live by His standards, but for me life seems to lurch from one crisis to the next.   In all my dealings I've struggled to be honest and above board but the problems in my life just won't go away. God is unfair!   Well, okay, Asaph, in Psalm 73, doesn't quite say that.   But what he does say is that...

  A pastor-friend related an interesting story.   There was a preacher whose eyesight was becoming somewhat of a problem – so after visiting the optometrist he appeared in the pulpit the following Sunday wearing spectacles.   A young tyke in church who had also just begun to wear glasses, turned to his mum with excitement and announced: “Isn’t that great Mum?   God is wearing glasses too.” That brought back memories of my experience with a similar serious case of mistaken identity.   I was away one Sunday, helping out in a church without a pastor.   Back in our own church there was a Mum who was unwell that morning.   When her young daughter came home with Dad from church she announced to Mum, “God was not in church this morning, Mummy.”   Mum told her that God was always present in church, however, her daughter continued to insist otherwise.   In that same week we sent two of our children to drop something off at their home since they li...

  The Christmas event is the story of a great mystery.   It’s the mind boggling drama of the Creator of the universe taking on a human nature.   The Son of God, born in Bethlehem, is now also the Son of Man.   But apart from that great mystery of the incarnation the Christmas story is surrounded by lots of smaller mysteries. One of them is recorded for us in Luke’s gospel.   It’s the occasion when Mary, the young mother to be of our Lord goes to visit her relative, Elizabeth, who has conceived in her old age.   And then Doctor Luke records this interesting information about the meeting between the mother of John the Baptiser and the mother of our Lord: "When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby leaped in her womb...!" (Luke 1:41). “Leaping in the womb” is quite a mystery too.   Within the limitations of the womb the scope for leaping is somewhat restricted – to say the least.   But seriously, the mothers among us must wonder sometimes w...

  Time It’s almost Christmas... and I’ve been hearing the usual laments: “I can’t believe it’s almost Christmas again – already!”   “Where has the year gone?”   This week Australia Post delivered my new calendar for the new year.   My Canadian pen friend and I have been exchanging calendars with each other for several decades.   That way he gets to enjoy some Australiana and I some of the sights and scenes of Canada.   But every year it’s also another reminder of the relentless march of time. We human beings have a somewhat ambivalent attitude to that which is marked – not only by clocks and calendars – but also by lunar phases and sunrises.   If we have too much time on our hands we quickly complain of boredom.   If we run out of time for any activity we soon whinge about our anxiety levels. Perhaps it’s helpful for us to keep in mind that time too is a created reality.   That’s a concept that is hard to get our head around.   A...