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Tag Archives: A Big Year

Generosity is a gift

2014 is the year of growing faith

Every year in the lead-up to Christmas there is an increased focus on giving, but Jane Frazer Cosgrove says generosity is more than that. When we think of “generosity” our thoughts usually go first to gifts of money, goods, and charitable acts. These kinds of giving are important to us all. However at this time of the year, when such ...

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Great is thy faithfulness

2014 is the year of growing faith

Faithfulness and trust rely on one another. Wendi Sargeant explores God’s faithfulness to us and our faithfulness to God. In his book, The Faith of the Church, theologian Karl Barth explains that trust is the “essence of faith”. Trust or confidence, as in placing all our trust in God, comes from the Latin fiducia. Fiducia, he says, “is a term ...

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Let it go

Elsa from Frozen, mid-singing "Let it go." Photo by Walt Disney.

Janet Staines explains how an oft-repeated line from a Disney song reminds her to forgive. I recently saw a sign outside a school classroom that read, “This classroom has gone 28 days without singing the song from Frozen: ‘Let it go’.” If you have children or grandchildren you will know well the award-winning song from Disney’s animated film Frozen and ...

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Trust and follow the Spirit

2014 is the year of growing faith

In the lead up to Pentecost, Rev David Won Kim reflects on the power of the Holy Spirit. I am the minister of a very blessed congregation, and we try to follow the Spirit wherever the Spirit leads. Last year a church member named Mrs Ahn was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. In 2009, her family came to Australia to give ...

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Is that a speck in your eye?

2014 is the year of growing faith

Everyone wants to make a difference but that is easier said than done. “Recovering hypocrite” Rev Dr Schalk Pienaar explains that to change the world we should reform ourselves, not others. “In which area of life have you failed the most?” This challenging question was asked in a fellowship group and everyone had an opportunity to provide an answer. I ...

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Giving hand-to-mouth

2014 is the year of growing faith

It was the generosity of people who had almost nothing which taught Katie Wallis the true meaning of giving. Last year I spent a few months living in a boarding hostel for high-school girls in India. I sang with them, played with them, studied with them, and occasionally found myself brave enough to eat spicy Indian curries with them. I ...

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Faith grows through hospitality

2014 is the year of growing faith

By opening her home to asylum seekers, Margaret Landbeck has stretched and grown her faith. Hospitality has always been a largely subconscious expression of my faith—it is my instinct to offer hospitality when and where I can. As the writer of Hebrews says, “Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality ...

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