May 4, 2022 2:51 pm
Published by Pete Jobes
“Until the lion learns how to write, every story will glorify the hunter.” – African Proverb I still remember when I first walked through the doors of the church. I’d heard about places like this, I’d seen them on music videos, but to find one in Newcastle was something else. Smiling people greeted me and got me a drink before taking me into the auditorium. It was in darkness with haze rolling across the stage and strobe lighting. I’d grown up in a cult and leaving it had been hard, not because I didn’t want to leave, but because cults...
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June 7, 2020 3:09 pm
Published by Pete Jobes
There’s a word that Jesus used when he walked the streets and byways of first century Judea: repent. “Repent,” he would say, “for the kingdom of heaven is at hand”. It’s a word that carries a heavy weight. For that reason it’s been sometimes sidelined a little within some of our circles. We try to explain it without saying it, to summon it without asking for it by name. But if we’re followers of the way of Jesus, repentance should be a consistent theme of our life’s journey. Repentance means to change our mind or purpose, to turn back in...
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May 13, 2020 8:34 pm
Published by Pete Jobes
It was my birthday a few weeks back and a friend sent a card with some photos on, one of which is me at the helm of a sailing boat. I’d quite forgotten about it and the memory made me smile. If you didn’t know the context, you could even look at that photo and think I knew what I was doing. What you can’t see is the storm we were sailing into – only minutes later I was wrestling the helm as the wind and rain lashed the boat and the sea reminded me of my amateur status. In...
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April 10, 2020 10:38 am
Published by Pete Jobes
Good Friday, they call it. Good Friday. Except about a third of the world’s population is living under some form of lockdown, millions have lost their jobs as the economy has shut down, hundreds of thousands have contracted a brutal virus, and tens of thousand are mourning. So how can the events of that Friday, almost two thousand years ago, help us now? What does it really mean that the Romans tortured and killed a Rabbi, called Jesus, in the province of Judea? And if the whole God thing is true, then why has everything went so crazy? What relevance...
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April 10, 2020 9:32 am
Published by Pete Jobes
“Leave them, take me.” It’s become a standard scene in hostage films. A brave parent offers themselves in place of their kids, or a husband in place of their wife. They’ll willingly endure the pain of whatever comes next in order to save their family. I couldn’t help but think of this as I read the Easter story again this morning. I found myself left in awe at a few simple words, spoken in the Garden of Gethsemane; the whole message of Easter is wrapped up in them. Jesus had walked with his disciples to the garden. When his one time friend Judas arrives, with about...
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