Horrible Impact of Fatherlessness
Last week, through Amazon, I ordered a movie named Courageous. As you might see in the blurb above this movie, produced by the Sherwood Baptist Church in Georgia, it deals with the issues of fatherlessness and how, through Jesus, men can be much better fathers to their children. The impact of fatherlessness is very significant:...
Ex-Gays? A Longitudinal Study of Religiously Mediated Change in Sexual Orientation
“Nothing comes from nothing; nothing ever could” – The Sound of Music Today in the mail I received a copy of an interesting book named “Ex-Gays? A Longitudinal Study of Religiously Mediated Change in Sexual Orientation” by researchers Stanton L. Jones and Mark A. Yarhouse. The authors conducted a study over a 6-year period that...
Out of a Far Country – Christopher Yuan
People need truth, but more than anything they love good stories, including testimonies of how people have survived trauma and adversity and gone on to live a thriving existence. ”Out of a Far Country: A gay son’s journey to God; a broken mother’s search for hope” is that kind of story. It tells of how a...
Chuck Colson on ‘gay marriage’
On the back page of the Australian Presbyterian magazine (October 2011) there appeared a telling article by American pastor Chuck Colson on the topic of ‘gay marriage’. Feel free to download and read.
Using prayer to get to roots
During my visit to South Korea last month, I remembered a healing ministry that I was once involved with there, named Wellspring. One person who was involved in co-ordinating the ministry there had recommended to me something called Theophostic Prayer Ministry . Essentially, TPM is a means of using prayer to get to the roots of people’s brokenness in...
Back in the saddle for 2012
A few days ago, I returned back to Australia from a one-month trip to South Korea. It was not a wasted time: I enjoyed good rest; worked for Liberty; blessing from my very generous in-laws; a white Christmas; caught up with good friends; and the death and funeral of North Korea’s Kim Jeong-Il. Every time I go...
Emotions, God, and the Whole Thing
In October of 2010, I purchased a book named “When People Are Big and God is Small: Overcoming Peer Pressure, Codependency, and the Fear of Man”, by Edward T. Welch (1997, P&R Publishing, New Jersey). For me, the fear of others has been a big feature in my journey of life and it’s often obscured my...
From the Pastoral Worker (1 Nov. 2011)
This morning at the website of the Melbourne newspaper, The Age, an article appeared about the biological sister of Steve Jobs, Mona Simpson. She happened to be at the bedside of her brother when he died. In the article, a very revealing comment was attributed to her: Simpson grew up as an only child with...
Katoomba Deputation and Judges 17
Two weeks ago I preached at Katoomba Anglican Church, St. Hilda’s in my capacity as Liberty Ministries pastoral worker and I preached on Judges 17. You can listen to the sermon here (MP3 and the October 16 2011 talk). Blessings, Haydn.
CRAVING for Love
Recently I heard of a book named Craving for Love by Briar Whitehead, as it was recommended by the founder of Liberty Ministries, Christopher Keane. I have read the the first 100 pages or so, and have a fair bit to go before completing it, but I would have to say that it is the...
Poems of Addiction and the Pit
Last weekend, I shared my testimony, preached on Judges 17, and taught on pastoral care at a church in western Sydney. I shared a couple of poems there, which resonated with a lot of people and I thought I would share them here. Both come from Briar Whitehead’s book, ‘Craving for Love: Relationship addiction, homosexuality,...
SSA and Addiction
THE PIT A man fell into a pit and couldn’t get himself out of it. Respectable people came and said: “We don’t associate with pit-dwellers”; An empathist came and said: “I really feel for you in that pit”; A sociobiologist came and said: “You were born in that pit”; A psychiatrist came and said: “It...