Watch him. Watch him. Watch this child, who grows into a boy, who grows into a man, and is found to be so much more. Watch him. Watch as he is born—with angelic visitations, amongst farmers and seekers and bright...
I’ve just had the most wonderful week in the Philippines. Compassion took me there to record material with our Compassion Day host Vaniza Apostol—you might remember that beautiful voice that captivated us last year. I’m looking forward to an amazing...
I think the past few weeks will turn out to be some of the most memorable of my life. Merryn and I spent January in Peru, the Dominican Republic and Haiti, and the sights, sounds and smells will not be forgotten quickly.
‘Where there is no vision, the people perish…’ It’s a famous proverb, often quoted in business texts and church growth books. But when it was originally written some 3000 years ago, the sage responsible for these words wasn’t talking about...
Every Friday night a little group of us get together to eat some food, read the Bible, share our lives and pray together. We’re a diverse bunch: we’ve got a mathematician in the group, a musician, a lawyer, a public...
Earlier this year, New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd was in Australia talking about her book, Are Men Necessary? At one event in Sydney, Dowd and an interviewer walked on stage, took their seats and settled in to discuss their...
I wonder what you made of the story this week that a 12 year old girl has become the face of a Gold Coast Fashion festival. Prime Minister John Howard, Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd, Queensland Premier Anna Bligh and child...
A few weeks back you might remember me talking about a friend of mine whose brother was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. Cameron is his name, and he’s just 33-years-old. Six months ago he began feeling pain and...
I’ve just finished reading through the Gospel of Luke again, in the New Testament. It’s not that large a book—you could read it from start to finish within a couple of hours. But this time I read it over a...
I was doing a bit of internet research this week and came across an interesting story in the UK’s Guardian newspaper, about the shantytowns of Rio de Janeiro. Rio has about 600 of these settlements (or ‘favelas’ as they’re called),...
Merryn and I spent this past weekend with a couple who are becoming really good friends. We talked and ate and prayed and watched DVDs with Mike and Rachel—and just had a great couple of days. But the weekend was...
This week a few of us caught a pre-release screening of Amazing Grace—the film about William Wilberforce and the abolition of the British slave trade. I don’t like becoming an advertisement for things, but I must make an exception here....
The African impala is a dear-like animal that can jump to a height of over 3 metres and cover a distance greater than 11. Yet it can be kept in any zoo enclosure with a 1 metre-high wall. Why? Because...
Yesterday I had the privilege of speaking at a breakfast for Macarthur Chapel’s Men’s Ministry, in the south-west of Sydney. I spoke about conviction—the power of a belief that has been tested and proven true. I shared a couple of...
Earlier this morning, our time, the funeral of Ruth Bell Graham was held, beloved wife of world-renowned evangelist Billy Graham. She died on Thursday at her home in North Carolina, aged 87, surrounded by her husband and five children. Billy...
I spent a day and a half at the Sydney Writer’s Festival last week. One part artistic, one part intellectual and one part bohemian, it’s an event largely inhabited by creative, philosophically-minded, melancholy sorts wearing lots of classy blacks, browns...
I wonder if you were as sickened as I was this week to hear of the Dutch reality program called The Big Donor Show, where three nervous candidates would compete in front of a prime-time audience for one life-saving kidney...
Over the years, a number of studies have been conducted on prayer and whether it can be proven to improve physical health. The results have been mixed and often contradictory. Now two Australian researchers have come to the conclusion that,...
In May 1846, a guest speaker named James Caughey visited a little church in Nottingham, England. The Bible verse he chose to speak on that night was a promise found in the eleventh chapter of Mark, where Jesus says: I...
It was a Sunday night in 2004. I was the scheduled speaker at my church and had just launched into a prayerfully-prepared, carefully-researched sermon which deep down I hoped would be blindingly insightful and occasionally humorous. I had PowerPoint slides....
It was a typical Friday in a downtown street. A non-descript man in jeans, long-sleeved T-shirt and baseball cap emerged from a Washington DC train station. He found himself a spot against a wall, just beside a rubbish bin. He...
I made a new friend last night. Merryn and I had spent a leisurely evening in Sydney’s China Town, and were walking up George Street towards the city centre. Merryn stopped in at a McDonalds to use the toilet and...
One of my little hobbies is looking for God’s unseen footprints in life—hints of His presence; signs of His activity in the world. As I read news reports I often find myself asking, ‘where might God be in all of...
Last week Andrew Bolt, a journalist with the Sun Herald newspaper, made some comments that I must share with you. Rarely has a self-described agnostic described my feelings and frustrations—and those of many I know—so well.In his article entitled ‘My...
Few have captured the life of Jesus Christ as elegantly as the journalist James C. Hefley. In a paragraph he summed up Jesus’ life this way:‘Here is a man who was born in an obscure village, the Child of a...
‘He was always in search of something, but God knows what.’ These are the words of Terry Hicks, spoken during an interview four years ago, about his now infamous son David. They highlight the fact that before his capture in...
I received a beautiful letter this week. I must share it with you. Dear Sheridan,Congratulations on a great and inspiring program. Please may I suggest an interesting topic for you.I am a volunteer children’s and youth worker and have been unable to...
Well, here’s the scene. I’m sitting in a shopping centre food court. My body is tense, my stomach is knotted, my mind is overwhelmed. My to-do list is long and my progress this particular day is small. Unexpected delays and...
Yet another aviation disaster in Indonesia. Yes, I say ‘another’ because while this week’s crash of Garuda flight GA-200 in Yogyakarta was horrific, it’s another in a long line of aviation mishaps for the country. Wednesday’s tragedy took 21 lives;...
Rich and famous. That’s what a US study of 18-25 year olds suggests are Generation Ys highest goals. Eighty-one percent of those surveyed in a recent Pew Research Center poll said getting rich is their generation's most important or second-most-important...
If there’s one TV show Merryn and I can’t miss it’s The West Wing. We’ve come to the series late but are endeavouring to hire out the previous episodes. The writing and acting is brilliant, and opens a wide window...
In yesterday’s Good Weekend magazine, Fairfax newspapers asked this question: ‘Could infidelity save your marriage?’ The shock headline pointed to an excerpt from a new book by controversial marriage therapist Esther Perel, who suggests that a third person—either real or...
Most religions have pilgrimages: sacred journeys of spiritual importance. Islam has its pilgrimage to Mecca—the Hajj—a journey required of all able-bodied Muslims who can afford it at least in once in their lifetime. Buddhism has four pilgrimage sites in India...
Hope and tears in the City of Smiles. That’s how I’ll remember the afternoon of Saturday January 6, 2007. On that afternoon a fifteen year old girl named Riza Gallego stole my heart, then broke it. As a result, I’ll...
Christmas is a great season but, boy, I tend to lose focus around this time each year. Am I alone in that? All the staff Christmas parties, running around looking for those final pressies for the hardest-to-buy-for members of the...
For the past couple of weeks I’ve been preparing for a speaking engagement I have in Newcastle this weekend. A businessman there is bringing the staff of his two companies together for a two-day retreat, and he’s asked me to...
I don’t know if you caught the ABCs Australian Story program this week. A very moving program looking at two women suffering from a rare and debilitating disease called lymphangioleiomyomatosis, or LAM for short. It strikes women of child-bearing age,...
It may only be 14 years away, but experts say life in the year 2020 is going to be very different. Popular science magazine Cosmos recently asked some of the world’s leading scientists to forecast the future, and this is...
With all the hoopla this week of the Superman Returns movie, you might be interested to know that almost all our superheros have some kind of denominational affiliation. Baptist, Anglican, Methodist, Catholic—you’ll find connections in the storylines of our best...
“It is time for climate-change agnostics to put aside their scepticism and acknowledge reality” says Alan Dupont, from the Lowly Institute, in an article for the Australian newspaper recently. He says, “The Earth is heating up at a rate never...
I want to get a bit spiritual on you, right up front this week. How much should you read into your dreams? Is there ever any message in them for us? I came across the story of a Missionary named...
What makes a song go to number one the charts? According to researchers at New York’s Columbia University, it may have little to do with talent or slick production. In a story published recently in the science magazine Cosmos, the...
Not long ago I heard about a US text book publisher that had revised its editorial policy. As a result of the review, a number of words and phrases were no longer considered worthy of publication. 'Adam and Eve', for...
Merryn and I joined the ranks of the wise, studious, lofty-minded and turtle-neck-sweatered folks at the Sydney Writers’ Festival yesterday. I got to one of Thomas Keneally’s sessions, and got to hear a bit of popular philosopher Alain deBotton. Fascinating...
Happy Mothers Day to you—if that term fits your job description. Although, according to a recent poll, the status of being a mum is believed to have a negative affect on your job. More Australian women believe motherhood is affecting...
Life is fragile. If this weekend can teach us anything, it can teach us that life is fragile. For the past 12 days the nation has been on its toes, awaiting the fate of two men buried in a wire...
What do Bono, Easter eggs and Jesus have in common? No, it’s not an Irish joke. After reading a quote from U2s front man, I wondered if there was indeed a connection. In a recent interview Bono says, I quote:...
This story caught my eye recently. Frank Warren, a small business owner, began an experimental art project a year or so back: he distributed 3,000 blank, self-addressed postcards near his suburban Washington D.C., home. He left them at bus stops,...
