surgeREFOCUS

Bible Reading: Matthew 14: 22-33 As we round off on Surge Refocus today, I want to share a cheat code with you! Have you ever used a cheat code? Isn’t it interesting what a cheat code can do for you? It’s amazing how a cheat code can make a game or task so much easier, and propel you way beyond the literal walk through that everyone else is entangled in and struggling with. I’m thinking around a whole lot of…

Bible Reading: Philippians 4:1-13 When I started to play tennis, it didn’t take long to appreciate how deliberate and intense the game is! One of the things that particularly hit was that in tennis, every single hit you make is a different shot and must be deliberately worked out. Even if they look similar, a tennis player would tell you how that he is constantly resetting before each new shot. He’s constantly trying to reset his feet and body positioning…

Bible Reading: 1 Corinthians 13:1-8 Have you ever had a movie-script kind of situation that ended with love making a way through for you? Maybe you were in a very tough conversation with a dear one, and then when you thought it was a hopeless standstill, love came through?  Or maybe you went the extra mile for someone you love and it proved to be a game-changer?  Or maybe it was I the power of generosity… There are probably a…

Bible Reading: 2 Samuel 23: 8-17 Have you ever done something way beyond yourself for someone and didn’t get the appreciation and recognition you expected? Like going out of your way to create an incredible surprise moment for your spouse and then she just texts you ‘ok, noted’ where you were expecting some love and gratitude lines from Jupiter or Mars. Imagine being one of David’s mighty men in our reading today. You basically overheard the king saying with longing…

Bible Reading: 2 Kings 13: 14-19 It probably happened to you- I think it was every one of us, that started out a new term as a school student with the ‘fresh page ginger’. Your first page of the book was the neatest thing in the world! You would use three Colours of pens to create an unrivalled beauty: green for the date, red for the topics and blue for the notes. Your handwriting was like a typewriter! Then as…

Bible Reading: Philippians 3:1-21 I remember one of the habits my brothers and I had growing up. We called it ‘pinching’ things around the kitchen. Mum could shout things like ‘did anyone take meat here?’ And a sincere reply could be something like ‘No, I just pinched a little!’ Pinching was so subtle that if you were the uninformed, you wouldn’t even know anything had happened to the meat. There were ways to pinch fried beef that wouldn’t give you…

Bible Reading: Exodus 3:1-15 Have you ever visited some astonishing scene in nature? Maybe some waterfall that you kept staring at, trying to figure out. Or maybe one of the wonders of the ancient world. There you stood with your mouth wide open, leaking out tonnes upon tonnes of awe! But I guess some days later- or maybe hours or minutes later- it had already become a distant thought. Your mouth is now well closed, or maybe just busy muttering…