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Jesus says something extraordinary in the Bible.  He had just finished visiting a town called Capernaum where He preached and did miracles but the people of that town didn’t care and it didn’t move them or change their hearts towards God.

Do you remember what happened to Saul of Tarsus – he was a man who hated the early Christians and persecuted them.  He was personally responsible for the murder of St Stephen who was stoned to death. 

One day Saul was on his way to Damascus (modern day Syria) to arrest Christians when he was arrested by the power of God and converted.  Saul’s name was changed to Paul and he served Jesus Christ wholeheartedly suffering many times for the name of Jesus and setting a great example for us all.  We refer to him as St Paul.

Archbishop Reverend Abuna Elias Chacour is the head of the Melkite Church in Israel – he is a Christian Palestinian whose parish covers the areas where Jesus was born, died and rose again.  Archbishop Chacour was just a boy of 8 years of age when the armies of Israel swept into his village and forced them to flee for their lives.  His father was herded into a truck and they never saw him again. 

This week I am performing two funerals for people we have known through our work in the church and I have been thinking about the significance of comments that are made at funerals. 

Everyone is racist, however I’m not saying what you think I am.  If we would be entirely impartial, objective, unbiased and sincere, then we would readily recognise that every human being struggles with racism in some form or another. 

When I say racism - I'm talking about something coming from right in the heart - from inside.  Most Australians DON'T seem racist to me - but inside we struggle with sin, pride and human nature. 

Just a short note to tell you about a great website called Sermon Index.  My wonderful cousing told me about this just a few weeks ago and I have been very blessed by this site.  Sermon Index is a website with sermons from hundreds of preachers, including many famous ones like Keith Green, Brother Andrew, Billy Graham, Bill Bright, David Wilkerson and many more.  Even William Booth has a 1912 (very hard to hear) recording made just before he died.  This site will be a great blessing to you.

In my previous blog which was a book review of Stop the Traffik, I mentioned that slavery and trafficking are huge issues in the world today. 

I have been staying at my Aunty & Uncle’s home for a few days (today was the lats day) and it’s always refreshing to read other people’s books.  They had a book on the shelf called “Stop the Traffik” which is all about slavery in today’s world and people trafficking.  I hadn’t realised it was such a HUGE issue.  In fact slavery and trafficking today is so large that it is the second biggest international crime issue behind illegal weapons sales. 

Today in the world there are also more people in slavery than in the whole entire time the British empire were trafficking slaves to the Carribean for the sugar plantations.    Back then a British politician called William Wilberforce made it his life’s work to campaign against slavery and was able to have it abolished.  See the movie Amazing Grace for this story.

Recently for my birthday my wife gave me a $20 iTunes gift card.  I used that to buy “The Shack” as an audiobook.  I had heard so many things about this book - some really good, and some really bad that I didn’t know what to expect.