The Afterword

Tag: christianity

  • The Word I’d Ban (For Now)

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    Peter
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    If you could permanently ban a word from general usage,which one would it be? Why? It’s just a word, right? A throwaway word.A quick word.A word people use all the time and think nothing of. So why get worked up about one word? Because words are not nothing. Because words shape what we see.Because words…

  • Blessed in the Dust – Matthew 5:17-32

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    Peter
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    Jesus sits downand says to burdened people,Blessed. Blessed?Under Rome?Under law?Under shame?Under the endless need to prove ourselves? They know the weight of commandments,the crushing pressure of getting it right.And Jesus says:I have not come to abolish the Law,but to fulfil it.Not a dot will be lost. No wonder they slump in the dust. We know…

  • #Blessed – Matthew 5:7-12

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    Peter
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    Do you want to live a blessed life—not the sunset-caption kind,not the #blessed kind,but the steady goodnessof God’s kindnessfinding you in the ordinary? I didn’t have language for it.I knew God—Scripture, church, study—but enjoying God felt like a foreign country.And then Jesus sits on a hillsideand says Blessed—not as a reward you earn,but as a…

  • Petros

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    Peter
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    Write about your first name: its meaning, significance, etymology, etc. The name Peter comes from the Greek Πέτρος (Petros), meaning “rock” or “stone.” It’s one of those names with an instant personality attached to it: steady, solid, dependable. It also how the ancient city of Petra got its name — same Greek word, different purpose.…

  • The Shape of My Learning

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    Peter
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    What colleges have you attended? I am a perennial learner. Not because I am restless or obsessive, but because learning itself animates me. It is the process—attention, discovery, application—rather than the outcome, that draws me forward. I began with pure mathematics at University of Sydney. I was young, immature, and not  ready for what I…

  • A Light Has Dawned – Isaiah 9:2-7

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    Peter
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    Long before Google,before WhatsApp, Messenger,before the soft tyranny of notifications—no ping, no buzz, no banner across a screen—a message came,not broadcast, not algorithmic,but carried quietly,wrapped in a name. Not everyone received it.Some were in the dark. Isaiah stood eight hundred yearsbefore the first Christmasand dared to say it:A light has dawned. Who were these people?A…

  • In Season and Out – 2 Timothy 4

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    Peter
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    Preach the Word of GodStand in the square like a town crier,with no message of your own.Not what you think is there,not what people want to hear,but what the Word already says. Charles Simeon knew this.Locked pews.Locked doors.Chairs dragged into aisles.Preaching outsideto people who wished he wouldn’t.Thirty years of resistanceand a sentence carved into wood:Let…

  • Stand Firm – 1 Peter 5:6–14

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    Peter
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    Stand firm.The words rise like an ancient tree in the mind—the kind that has seen centuries come and go,its roots sunk deep into the earth,holding fast while storms tear across the ridgeand whole generations pass like mist.It remains steadywhere everything else shifts. To stand firm is firstto rest under God’s mighty hand.Humility isn’t instinctive,especially when…

  • A Leadership Podcast – 1 Peter 5:1-5

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    Peter
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    When you look across history,you see the pattern—good leaders steady the ground beneath us.Workplaces flourish under good bosses,families grow under gentle parents,whole nations rise when wise handsguide the wheel. And the opposite is also true:harsh, domineering, or careless leadersscatter harm in every direction. The church knows this too.We bear scars from shepherdswho forgot the flock,who…

  • An Opportunity to Serve Him – 1 Peter 3:8–22

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    Peter
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    In some corners of the worldto follow You is to risk everything—a North Korean labour camp,a Somali beating,a Yemeni home where owning a Bibleis a dangerous act.One in seven of Your peopleknows this intimately. Even here,where streets are safeand speech is free,faith can still feel costly—misunderstood,dismissed,pushed to the edges.And when pressure rises,many of us bend,blend…

  • Strength Under Control – 1 Peter 2:18 – 3:7

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    Peter
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    We are called to live differently—not with defiance,but with the quiet courageof those who trust God’s handmore than their own defence. Do your friends see anything different about you?Not the words you say,but the way you live:how you work when no one praises you,how you love when it is not returned,how you stay gentle when…

  • A Conversation with Time

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    Peter
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    What will your life be like in three years? Peter: So, Time, they say the next three years could bring the biggest changes of my life. Time: They often do, if you’re paying attention. Peter: My current role finishes in two years. After that, retirement. A new rhythm. Maybe even a quieter purpose. Time: Retirement…

  • Who Wants To Be  A Trillionaire? – 1 Peter 1:13-25

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    Peter
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    Elon Musk has not yet become a trillionaire.Halfway there, they say —five hundred billion reasonsto keep going.More than the worth of a hundred and sixty nations,and still, he worksone hundred and twenty hours a week.What drives a manwho already owns the world? What motivates you?What keeps your mind awake at night,or sends you running before…

  • When I Think of Success

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    Peter
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    When you think of the word “successful,”who’s the first person that comes to mind and why? The first person who comes to mind is Paul Barnett, who served as the second Master of Robert Menzies College from 1980 to 1990 before becoming the Anglican Bishop of North Sydney. He recently turned ninety, and though his…

  • Exiles with a Living Hope – 1 Peter 1:1-12

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    Peter
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    All around the world,our brothers and sisters suffer—imprisoned, beaten, killed.Twelve churches attacked each day.Four thousand four hundred people killedthis year alonebecause they named the name of Jesus. We are strangers here,foreigners in our own land,and it feels strange because it is.We do not quite belong.Our neighbours say, Yeah, nah,and laugh,while we feel the tug of…

  • What Happens When I Die?  – 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

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    Peter
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    One hundred questions,and a third were about death.Is heaven real?Is hell real?What happens when I die? Not many of us like to ask it.Google asks about our digital assets,I don’t care about my emails—I do care about my soul. Four theories walk beside me:You rot.You are recycled.You are weighed on the scales of justice.You wake…

  • The Way Back to the Garden – John 14:1-7, Genesis 2

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    Peter
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    One question for God—how can there be only one way?It feels sharp,a polarising claim,as though doors are slammed shutand other paths erased. Fear asks it with trembling,anger asks it with fire,injustice asks it by way of challenge.The disciples asked too. We love choice—rows of coffee beans,different milks,different temperatures.Thirty percent of Gen Zchanging not just jobs…

  • Why Does God Allow Suffering? – Psalm 23, Revelation 21:1-5

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    Peter
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    I don’t need to persuade you—the evidence is all around:a child’s bruised silence,a friend’s lost job,cancer cells multiplying unseen,an earthquake flattening homes in Afghanistan,a surfer pulled under by a shark,young people shot at a music festival,sixty thousand gone in Gaza. If you are loving,wouldn’t you stop this?If you are powerful,couldn’t you stop this?And if you…

  • That They May Be One – John 17:20–23

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    Peter
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    There is something holyabout being one—the swell of voiceshearts caught in a single rhythm.Or friends,who have carried one anotherthrough laughter and lament,their lives stitched together.Or a song that names a nation:We are one, but we are many.And for a momentthe fragments belongto something larger. On the night before his death,Jesus prayed for us:that we would…

  • Once Common, Now Rare

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    Peter
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    When I was a kid, Peter was everywhere. It was a widespread boys’ name — unremarkable, ordinary, as common as peanut butter sandwiches in a school lunchbox. In the classroom roll call there were always a few of us, and at sport you could shout “Peter!” and three heads would turn. My parents didn’t choose…