Gospel Brew The gospel of Jesus Christ; faith brewed with a distinctly Australian flavour

There’s nothing like the cold cup of reality thrown upon the dreams of youth. I mean, I never said it was nice – but there really is nothing like it. And unless you’re one of the few who dodged the cold, dreamed big and made it – then you’ll be in the same boat as me. The dreamer When I was 19, ...

It’s Christmas plus three weeks. The advent calendars are closed. The presents have been opened or regifted. Families have been seen, stomachs filled, the Christmas lights have lit up our kids faces and the carols have been sung. We’ve started thinking about how long we can leave the Christmas tree up for (mine is down already), and wondering just how long the Christmas left overs will ...

I remember being a very young man, passionate for God. I had a call to ministry on my life, and I served and sacrificed and tried and obeyed. I obeyed God because I wanted to please God, and I thought that if I pleased him, his plan for my life would come to pass. I’ve found this to be quite ...

It’s become the selling strategy behind many an advertising campaign (starting to become quite the cliche  throw away marketing spiel). And optimises much of the attitude of western culture. You should buy this product because… You deserve it. You work hard. Your life is hard. You’re a good person. You’re too hard on yourself. You’re amazing. You deserve to treat yourself… For ...

One of the objections I hear about the Christian faith goes something like this; “I don’t understand how could a loving God send people to hell.” At first glance there does seem to be a contradiction here. A Loving God? Judgement and Hell? Surely not. The argument concludes that God is therefore a bully – who destroys those who don’t believe in ...

Much of Australia is now mourning the deaths of Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, the two Australian nationals executed in Indonesia this week. There is much to be said about ethics surrounding the death penalty, but that has already been covered by others. These men and their story have impacted me deeply, and remind me so much of the gospel. Like ...

I’m sitting here watching the Aussies thump New Zealand in the One Day Cricket World Cup Final, and thinking about lucky I am to be an Australian. And in less than a week’s time we celebrate Easter, the most holy day in the Christian calendar, the time when I think how lucky I am to be a Christian. You could say ...

Why should you do the right thing?  Have you ever stopped to think about it? Even if you aren’t a practicing Christian, the vast majority of us will have a fairly similar moral compass – we know WHAT we ought not to do, even if we’re a bit hazy on the why. We know that we shouldn’t steal, murder, rape, cheat, bad mouth, ...

Recently, I got sued. It’s something very uncomfortable to admit. I had a third party supplier fail to deliver for a project for which I was responsible. It didn’t go to court, but lawyers got involved and we eventually agreed to a figure. It was a big figure, and it’s going to affect my family financially for years to come. So ...

Muslims. Extremists. ISIS. Terrorists. Our news sites are filled with stories about the latest terrorist news; atrocities, and the comments filled with anxiety about what might happen to us in Australia and Muslims not integrating into our communities. Recently, our Prime Minister coined the phrase ; “Team Australia” (reference) and said that new migrants are welcome as long as they are ...