au
AFL's ultimate prize on show

AFL's ultimate prize on show

The ultimate prize for the 2012 AFL Season is just around the corner. The AFL Grand Final will see the one victor and, unfortunately, one loser. The big game attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors to Melbourne for the week long party, including the Friday\'s street parade. .

  • To be honest…

    I became a thief at the innocent age of eight.

  • Where's your hope, at?

    We find ourselves in the season of September. For me I find September a rather hopeful month, summer feels like it is just around the corner as we emerge from a dark cold winter. Seasons never stop, the keep ticking over. There is regularity about seasons. We will always go from summer to autumn, winter, spring and then summer again. Now I don't want to get all clich̩ on you, but I'm sorry Рtoo bad. It's true; life is full of our very own seasons. I'm sorry if you find it painfully typical.

  • Reflections on the nature of love

    For all intents and purposes it's practically inescapable - the dynamics of romantic love is on display everywhere. In our most popular magazines, on our television, in the way products are marketed. As we go about our day romantic love is the prized ideal. Which is not to say romantic love is bad at all, but am I the only one asking myself, is this it? Is love really just this narrow conception? This one we see, and are exposed to, all the time.

  • Arsenal steal the show!

    Arsenal proved they don't need Van Persie with a thumping 6-1 win at home to Southampton on Saturday. Arsenal only conceded late on to ensure the newly promoted Southampton a horrible trip back to the south coast. Wenger was clearly happy with his sides performance and insisted this wouldn't be the end of Arsenals reign near the top of the Premier League.

  • Put the passion back in compassion

    I disagree with the dictionary definition of compassion. I think if we take compassion simply as 'sympathetic pity and concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of others', then we've missed the point.

  • Wolves with Pens: Discernment and "Christian" Literature

    The books you read mould your mind and chisel your character. Books are like minds alive on the shelves. By picking up a book and opening it, we gain access to some of the greatest minds of history. Martin Luther, for example, has much to teach us today, and, though dead, he speaks through his written works. Books are also mental dumbbells. Reading is to the mind what physical exercise is to the body. As we read, our minds are stretched and strengthened. And so, if we want to get acquainted with

  • Same-sex marriage: civil or spiritual?

    Last week the controversial Marriage Equality Bill passed it's first reading in New Zealand Parliament, after a flood of arguments, protestations on both sides and heartfelt pleas. Re-entering into those debates is not my intention here, but I am, as always, fascinated by the response of the Church in all her facets, to these socio-political issues.

  • David Smethurst concludes his Paralympic London Ministry with telling conversations

    Oscar Pistorius the "blade runner" is no doubt one of the greatest Paralympians of all time but he is a very humble man. When I met him in the South African team office at the London 2012 Paralympic Games, he greeted me respectfully and asked how I was. Now, I am a nobody when it comes to serving these high profile athletes, but it's very touching when a great person stops and talks personally and graciously allow one to be in a photo with him.

  • To lose it or to find it?

    \"For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.\" Matthew chapter 16 verse 25.

  • The Haka Is Not Enough

    The scene I had ended up creating was just so very wrong on so many levels. I had gone to the Ukraine for a few days to teach English to a lucky group of enthusiastic female tweens, and because I was a Kiwi I was asked to teach the students anything I could about New Zealand culture.

  • My Choices as a young Christian

    If anyone tells you it is easy to follow Jesus, they have either not followed Jesus seriously or have a weird sense of how challenge occurs in the choices that confront a believer, especially a young Christian like me (18).