coenorfolk

Bracing for a new year!

Without knowing what the future holds, we can safely say that there is one thing we will need for 2016: godliness. To weather all of the “we’re-not-in-heaven-yet” moments that are sure to come our way this year, we will need a high dose christlikeness! When Paul thinks of his own job description as an apostleContinue reading “Bracing for a new year!”

2015 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2015 annual report for this blog. Here’s an excerpt: A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 3,000 times in 2015. If it were a cable car, it would take about 50 trips to carry that many people. Click here to see theContinue reading “2015 in review”

Drifting…

D. A. Carson: “People do not drift toward holiness. Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate toward godliness, prayer, obedience to Scripture, faith, and delight in the Lord. We drift toward compromise and call it tolerance; we drift toward disobedience and call it freedom; we drift toward superstition and call it faith. We cherishContinue reading “Drifting…”

Leadership

This quote from a sermon by Tim Keller has stayed in my mind ever since I heard it, and I believe every word: My dear friends, most churches make the mistake of selecting as leaders the confident, the competent, and the successful. But what you most need in a leader is someone who has been broken byContinue reading “Leadership”

Guest Post: “Yes, you were at this meeting” Al Stewart

OPINION | Al Stewart Tuesday, 8 December 2015 We all arrived in our cars that morning, much the same as we always did. We parked in the car park and wandered in the main door. I had done this many times before, but this morning I thought I would take a step back and haveContinue reading “Guest Post: “Yes, you were at this meeting” Al Stewart”

The three-minute rule

Ed Stetzer: “The three-minute rule begins when the final prayer is said or song is sung. This is not the time to talk to your best friends. During those first three minutes, two things are going to happen: people who are familiar are going to talk to each other and people who don’t know anyoneContinue reading “The three-minute rule”

A wasted life

“And people who do not know the Lord ask why in the world we waste our lives as missionaries. They forget that they too are expending their lives… and when the bubble has burst they will have nothing of eternal significance to show for the years they have wasted.” ~ Nate Saint In honor ofContinue reading “A wasted life”

Thanksgiving on Norfolk Island

Since the mid 1890’s the community of Norfolk Island have been decorating All Saints Church and celebrating Thanksgiving together (this year the festivities begin at All Saints from 10am). But how did the most American of holidays end up on a remote island in the middle of the South Pacific? According to current churchwarden, Mr.Continue reading “Thanksgiving on Norfolk Island”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer – Be Grateful for Christian Fellowship

Be Grateful for Christian Fellowship By Dietrich Bonhoeffer. “If we do not give thanks daily for the Christian fellowship in which we have been placed, even where there is no great experience, no discoverable riches, but much weakness, small faith, and difficulty; if on the contrary, we only keep complaining to God that everything isContinue reading “Dietrich Bonhoeffer – Be Grateful for Christian Fellowship”

Thankfulness is a funny thing…

Thankfulness is a funny thing. By its very nature the giving of thanks cuts straight across the self-focus of the human heart. When we are thankful for something, we acknowledge that we are in someone else’s debt… …that there are good things in our lives for which it just doesn’t seem appropriate to pat ourselves on theContinue reading “Thankfulness is a funny thing…”