by Andrew Corbett | 2023 Aug,11 | Pastor's Desk
All of us feel sad at some point – even people who are usually happy most of the time. Usually though for most people there will be some understandable reason for it. This might include the loss of a loved one, a certain disappointment, an accident, or sympathy for someone. This kind of sadness is temporary. But there is a kindness of sadness that lingers which leaves a person drained, teary, thinking dark thoughts, and feeling desperately lonely. This is usually when we consider someone is experiencing ‘depression’ and it is one of those things that Christians find difficult to admit to or even talk about.
by Andrew Corbett | 2022 Sep,16 | Pastor's Desk
In Australia, it’s football finals time and the U.S. the last Grand Slam event for the year has just concluded. I find a lot of life lessons from observing elite athletes — including and especially those who play football and those who play tennis. Most people might consider football to be a team sport and tennis to be individual sport. But the distinction is not so clear these days. Often times footballers are individually coached by “position coaches” and a tennis player is often just who the public sees of a team of people responsible for the performance of that player. At the time of writing, there are remaining four Australian Rules Football (AFL) teams about to play off in the Preliminary Finals (including my beloved Geelong Cats). Last weekend, Carlos Alcaraz of Spain defeated Casper Ruud of Norway. Both players have intriguing stories which I will mention shortly. In the AFL, after a disastrous last season, the Collingwood Magpies appointed a new coach for this season, Craig McRae. Even though they got off to a slow start this season, under McRae’s oversight ended up having an 11-straight winning streak toward the end of the season and now look like genuine Premiership contenders. What do Carlos Alcaraz, Casper Ruud, Craig McRae, and the Collingwood football team, all have in common? All the players at the elite level of their sport make an enormous commitment to train, practice, sleep, hydrate, and eat a regulated diet. Yet at the very highest levels in their respective sporting codes the difference between the elite and the extra-elite is no longer skill or fitness. In fact, the difference between them is so applicable to everyday life that it may be the most relevant and do-able thing you hear for a long time. So, think about this.
by Andrew Corbett | 2020 Aug,6 | Pastor's Desk
The young Jeremiah was called by God at one of the darkest times in his nation’s history. He was given a dangerous and potentially deadly task. God told him that he would be rejected and hated. But, despite this, and Jeremiah’s traumatic reaction to this divine mandate, God gave him a priceless promise:
Do not be afraid of them,
for I am with you to deliver you,
declares the LORD.”
Jeremiah 1:8
When would you most appreciate hearing God promise you, “I will be with you!” — in good times or bad? Jeremiah didn’t have this choice. God promised him that He would be with him. We might be forgiven for thinking that if God was with us, it would result in us being successful. After all, this is what …
by Andrew Corbett | 2020 Jul,25 | Pastor's Desk
In times of community tragedy even the most religiously indifferent political leader has expressed “Our thoughts and prayers are with you.” This expression universally conveys sympathy, compassion, and heartfelt concern. But there has been times when a nation or state has faced a looming threat largely out of their control where its leaders have actually called its citizens to pray for this threat to be averted. One of the more famous examples of this was when the newly appointed Prime Minister of Great Britain, Winston Churchill, announced a national day of prayer for the fate of the three hundred and thirty-eight thousand British and French troops on the beaches of Dunkirk who were facing certain annihilation from their approaching enemy. What immediately resulted was either a remarkable coincidence or an answer to the prayers of a nation!
by Andrew Corbett | 2018 Dec,21 | Pastor's Desk
THE SIMPLE A.F.L. SOLUTION TO SOCIETY’S WOESBy the late nineteenth century, the rate of women dying during child-birth had reached epidemic proportions. Louis Pasteur proposed a simple solution and wrote it up as a scientific paper for medical doctors to...
