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Desire, romance and the mind of God
By Patricia Weerakoon, medical doctor and sexologist, author and speaker. It is hard to think of two topics that are further apart than sex and God. Sex is about hot passion and mind-blowing orgasms. Surely all God has to say about it is “don’t do it”? We will explore sexological research, on sexual desire; romantic love or limerance; and attachment of couple bonding. Second, we will take a critical look the role sex plays in today’s society. Finally, we will peek into the mind of God, the creator of sex. The brain in love Recent neuroscience...
read moreCoffee with Heart
Nabi Saleh spoke to RISE Magazine about Gloria Jean’s success and reveals how God is transforming the vision into a reality far greater than he ever imagined. Article by Wendy Rush. In 1995 Nabi Saleh had a dream. The dream was to establish 25 Gloria Jean’s Coffee outlets in Australia within ten years. Within ten years more than 400 stores had been opened across the country. Gloria Jean’s is now in more than 50 nations. It is one of the largest global specialty coffee operations in the world and the second most recognized brand in...
read morePoverty-fighting greeting cards
Article supplied. What if someone told you that buying one card could change the world? That’s crazy, right? You can’t just buy one greeting card and change the world. Changing the world for the better is a monumental task that would require billions of people, hours and dollars—certainly a lot more than just one card purchase. But what if seven billion people bought just one card? Around the world every year, seven billion greeting cards are purchased, with annual retail sales estimated at almost $10 billion. That’s a lot of people buying a...
read moreBe Selfish, Lose Control, Own your Church
Article by Kristen Johnston with Scott Berry. As a fourth year university student and someone who had recently become unemployed, I almost felt safe; assuming that I was able to exclude myself from any discussion around giving money. Having said that, it would be foolish for me to think that when Jesus challenges His followers about their finances, He is just talking about finances. Like every one of Jesus’ commands, He not only discusses our actions, but He questions and tests our hearts. Money is something we rarely talk about, but Jesus...
read moreSuing the Devil
Wendy Rush spoke with South Australian producer David Turrell about his movie which is being referred to as the best Christian film since ‘The Passion of the Christ’. When he read the script for ‘Suing the Devil’ Malcolm McDowell said “this is the best script I have read in 30 years and I want the part of Satan in the film”. When the movie opened in select cinemas in the USA in 2011 it had the second-highest grossing average of any independent film in the nation. ‘Suing the Devil’ exposes Satan’s greatest lie: that he doesn’t exist. It...
read moreHeart on Sleeve and Guitar in Hand
Wendy Rush talks to Leigh Cunningham about the band’s journey, and the passion and power of making music. Their latest album is titled ‘Don’t Look Back’, but Leigh Cunningham is happy to take time out to reflect on The Leigh Cunningham Band’s journey so far. Leigh was given his first guitar by a youth leader when he was about 14 years old, after commenting that it was something he ‘might be interested in’. As a teenager he found learning the guitar and writing songs to be a great release for a lot of stuff that was going around in his head. ...
read moreMaking Choices: learning how to engage the heart and the head
Article by Janette Warwick. There are many times during the course of a day when we have to stand at the crossroads and make a decision about something. Put simply, we have to decide whether we will say yes or no to the choices put before us. What are some of these choices? On the home front, perhaps your spouse has asked you to do a particular task. Will you do it? Will you do it lovingly or grudgingly? Will you do it now or in your own time? A single request may seem like such a little thing but in the broader context of whether we...
read moreIt Starts With Me
Article supplied. There are more slaves on earth today than at any other time in history. ‘Slave’ is a word that sounds so ancient… so distant. It evokes images of bare-backed men working in fields under the watchful gaze of slave masters and women cooking and cleaning for wealthy families in far off lands. But today, slavery is much closer to home. While the majority of slavery in our world today revolves around labour exploitation, across Asia, slavery often looks like a little girl (or boy), born in rural poverty, sent to the city at age...
read moreGirls Mag Watch: stereotyped and limiting messages for girls
Article by Melinda Tankard Reist. This article is just a small extract from the second of Melinda Tankard Reist’s reviews of magazines for girls and young women, published by Generation Next. For many girls, the magazines they read are their lifestyle bibles. How should they look, dress, act and relate? What’s important in life? Who should they look up to? My analysis of the November issues of Girlfriend, Dolly, Girlpower, Disney Girl, Little Angel and the October and November issues of TotalGirl shows that girls are being delivered a...
read moreWalking into Walls
By Stephen Arterburn. Too many people live needlessly in defeat, immobilized by their own mistakes or the mistakes of others. They repeatedly walk into emotional walls that block the work God wants to do in them. It doesn’t have to be this way! No matter how broken or hurt, every person can discover the way to helping, hope, and a new way of living. Phantom walls that stop us Sometimes when I want to just put my mind in neutral and be entertained, I will flip the TV remote to America’s Funniest Home Videos. One of the funniest and most...
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