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For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son. But if God so loved the Inner West, will we?  What does Jesus mean when he says, “You must be born again”? As we continue our Vision season, Dominic Steele opens up John 3, where Jesus confronts Nicodemus, one of Israel’s most respected religious leaders, with the startling truth that no one can enter God’s kingdom without being born again by the Spirit of God.

What kind of church do we want Village to become? As we begin our Vision season, Dominic Steele opens up John 1:1–18 to take us back to eternity—to the Word who was with God and was God, through whom everything was made.  This same Word became flesh and lived among us. In Jesus, we see God’s glory, grace and truth—and discover the extraordinary invitation to receive him and become children of God.

In our passage today Jesus turns his face towards Jerusalem and we get a first sense of the reality of the cost to him of going there - rejection!  Plus we see that following Jesus will mean being on mission, sacrificing comfort and that ‘nothing gets to be “first” before him.

In our passage today Jesus turns his face towards Jerusalem and we get a first sense of the reality of the cost to him of going there - rejection!  Plus we see that following Jesus will mean being on mission, sacrificing comfort and that ‘nothing gets to be “first” before him.

Have you ever had a mountaintop experience? A time when you stepped back from everyday life, and had a breathtaking moment of clarity, fulfilment and awe? Well, sadly such moments never last, and we come back to the mess of everyday life.   In today’s passage, Jesus comes down from the original mountaintop experience, where his glory had been revealed in a powerful way, and he enters the mess of the world around him, facing evil, arguments and division.   In each of the events in today’s passage, there’s a clear contrast between the disciples and Jesus… while the disciples’ power is substandard and used in selfish and sectarian ways, we need Jesus’ power, which is supreme, selfless and shared.

It is soap opera ugly!  And one of the funniest chapters in the bible.  What a family! Jacob falls desperately in love with Rachel, works seven years to marry her — and then wakes up the morning after his wedding to discover the wrong woman in his bed.  What follows is a painfully messy story of deception, rivalry, infertility, jealousy, sexual bargaining and a family desperately trying to manufacture for themselves the blessing God has already promised to give. Yet through all the dysfunction, God sees, hears, remembers and keeps his promises.

What if the way to God isn’t something you climb? A man on the run. A night in the desert. A rock for a pillow. Jacob has grasped his brother’s blessing, but now he’s alone, far from home, with nothing to hold on to except promises made to his father and grandfather. Then heaven opens. A stairway reaches the earth, angels ascend and descend, and God promises this undeserving deceiver: “I am with you.”  We don’t climb the stairway to God. God comes down the stairway to us.  Grace comes first. The question then is how we respond?

What do you do with a God this big? Twins wrestling in the womb. A father who plays favourites. A mother who schemes. A firstborn who trades his inheritance for a bowl of soup, and a younger brother who cons his way to the blessing instead. Genesis 25-28 reads like a royal scandal — heir and spare, golden child and disgrace — except the twist is that God had already chosen the *younger* son before either boy had done a single thing to earn or lose it. "The older will serve the younger." Because God is God, and the choosing is his to make.

In life there are so many moments where our faith is tested. It happens every day.  But the question is when the test comes - will our faith look like Abraham’s?