Category: Faith & life

The Jesus prayer on prayer beads

March 13, 2025

The Jesus prayer has been used for centuries by Christians and Catholics alike. The key phrase “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner“ honours Jesus and asks for his help.

This prayer works well on the prayer beads above in the image. I

On the Cross

In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen

The Invitatory

“Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.” – Matthew 6:7-13

The Cruciforms

LORD, don’t hold back your tender mercies from me. Let your unfailing love and faithfulness always protect me. – Psalm 40:11 NLT

The Weeks

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God. have mercy on me, a sinner.

End Cruciform

O my Jesus, forgive us our sins,
Save us from the fires of hell.
Lead all souls to heaven,
Especially those in most need of Your mercy.

End Invitatory

Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son,
and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, a world without end. Amen.

The Cross

In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen

Authentic prayer

March 13, 2025

I love this quote about authentic prayer…

Prayer is not just spending time with God. It is partly that–but if it ends there, it is fruitless. No, prayer is dynamic. Authentic prayer changes us–unmasks us–strips us–indicates where growth is needed. Authentic prayer never leads to complacency, but needles us–makes us uneasy at times. It leads us to true self-knowledge, to true humility.”–Teresa of Avila

Making sense of suffering

March 11, 2025

Suffering is one of the hardest things we experience in this life. For some people it is physical pain and disability, for some mental pain and anguish, for others it is the pain of losing those we love.

I know in my own life, my faith would not be as strong if I did not suffer so many years with crippling Rheumatoid Arthritis. Every day I had to pray, “Help me Lord” a thousand times just to get through.

God did eventually heal me, but I would not have the depth of relationship with Him, if I did not go through the Rheumatoid Arthritis. There is a trust and dependence we learn that only comes through the most difficult trials.

In the above video from the Chosen, Little James asks Jesus why he has healed others, but not him. It is a heartfelt pleading for understanding. Jesus gives an answer that I understand from experience.

I would encourage you to watch and listen to Little James heart in the question. Listen to his fear, his doubts, his disappointment, then allow Jesus’ response to wash over you.

In an interesting aside, the actor who plays Little James in the Chosen has a real disability. He actually said in an interview that Jesus’ answer in the Chosen actually helped him understand his personal suffering.

Even though the Chosen is a tv show, I am hoping it will bring some comfort to those who live with chronic suffering every day.

Reaching the world

March 9, 2025

One of the things I wanted to do when we started PASSION Australia back in 1998 was to have a website. It was very strongly on my heart.

Back in 1998 you had to write lines of code in html to build a website. So I stayed up late every night after my family had gone to bed to learn how to do it. Some nights I would get to bed at 200am.

Eventually it all started to make sense. I had a website online and people started to come. I remember getting 50 people visit in a month and being very excited. Then 100, then 1000 and so on.

Now 27 years later we have had tens of millions of visitors from right around the world. So far this year we have had visitors from 77 different countries visit us on both PASSIONAustralia.blog and PASSIONAustralia.org. It is truly amazing to see the reach.

Our free discipleship booklet has been downloaded over 100,000 times. Our sermons get listens in the 1000s each week. And our salvation pages have been visited in the hundreds of thousands of times.

My prayer for the websites is that God will bring the people who need to hear about Jesus and His great love for them to us. We just want to connect people to Jesus and then help them grow in their faith. That is our heart.

One other thing we have always tried to do is make everything available for free. I do not want money to be an issue for someone finding Jesus and being encouraged in their faith. Finding Jesus is just too important.

If you are reading this today, no matter where you are in the world, I want to say thank you. Thank you for visiting our website. I hope you were blessed and encouraged during your time with us. We really appreciate you!

Our prayer for you

Loving heavenly Father, I pray right now You would touch the person reading this. Touch their heart with Your love, let them know how truly deeply you love them. Touch their mind to help them understand all that You have done for them in Jesus and what You will do in the future. If they need healing, place Your healing hand on them now. If they need protection, place a hedge of Your holy angels around them. If they are alone, let them know Your peace and presence right now. If they need provision, please open the floodgates of heaven and pour out from Your storehouse. But most of all Lord, fill them with the love of Jesus so full that it overflows continously. I ask in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Drawing from the older traditions

March 6, 2025

One thing I have been doing over the last few years is looking at some of the practices of the older traditional church groups like Catholic and Orthodox.

This started when I did a unit online at Tabor called, “The story of the church”. It was an overview of all the key people and events down through the ages. I had one unit to finish another qualification, so I chose that one.

Doing this unit helped me to realise that I had mainly been studying the Bible and church practices since the Reformation in the 16th century. I was missing a large part of my Christian heritage.

Doing this led me to read the early church fathers of the first to third centuries. I read the writings of people like Polycarp, Clement and Iraneus. I also read the Didache or the Teaching of the Twelve Apostles and the various ecumenical church councils.

It gave me a glimpse in to their worlds and what church was like for them. It talked about their issues they faced, the persecution, instructions on church and how to live a godly life.

One thing I also found as time went on was a connection to the “communion of the saints” that we say when we read the Apostles Creed. I was part of the visible church on the earth and the invisible church in heaven, those who have lived and died before us.

I have found reading these things have really enriched my life. I have a greater appreciation of my faith in Christ and the faith and struggles my Christian brothers and sisters have faced down through the ages.

If you are interested in reading the writings of the early church, most are available online for free. However, one of the best ways is to download the free program e-sword. It is a free Bible program that includes a lot of free resources like the early church fathers. I have used it for about 20 years!