North Ryde Christian Church

The L’Oreal slogan “Because you’re worth it” spearheaded a revolution in beauty product marketing. The original line “Because I’m worth it,” spoken by a woman directly to camera in the 1971 L’Oreal tv commercial, broke the mold of women’s beauty products being about women being attractive to men. Rather, the groundbreaking commercial celebrated the woman’s perspective and experience of her hair care and self-worth without mention of a man.

While there is validity in women knowing their worth without regard to men or their physical appearance, the slogan remains ironically tragic. It was created to sell products to women, products that inherently rely on women being discontent with their appearance. In this way L’Oreal’s “because you’re worth it” appeals to a woman’s desire to feel valued while backhandedly telling her she isn’t enough as she is. L’Oreal’s “worth it” is conditional, shallow and financially motivated.

The Bible says you’re worth it very differently. Rather than wanting to sell you something God wants to give you something. In fact God has bought you something more precious and of greater cost than anything else on earth. When Jesus reached out hHis arms to be nailed to the cross He was showing you the measure of your worth to God. And it is way beyond being worth a bottle of hair colour!

Ephesians 1:7-8 announces, “In Jesus we have redemption through His blood[death], the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that He lavished on us.”

On the cross Jesus was paying the price of your sin and buying with His death your eternal forgiveness. ThHis only perfect son. Not because we are good, or beautiful or accomplished, but because we are loved.

Can you accept your worth to God? Can you accept His lavish gift of forgiveness and love through Jesus?

Prayer: Dear God, it’s hard to believe I’m worth so much to you that you sacrificed your precious son Jesus to purchase my forgiveness. May I trust in your love and forgiveness always. Amen.

Acknowledgement: This article was sourced from Outreach Media, Sydney, Australia.
Images and text © Outreach Media 2025

The terms and conditions (T&Cs) of the multinational tech company, Apple, have been the subject of controversy. The T&Cs length, complexity, and potential to be used to entrench Apple’s market power have led to serious criticism. Can we compare Apple’s T&Cs to the T&Cs God put in around the “apple” of the Garden of Eden? Continue reading →

What do you like to do on the Easter long weekend? Most of us get two extra days off giving us the opportunity to go away, spend time with friends or family, relax at home or do something a little different to our normal weekends. Our family tradition is to spend the weekend in the beautiful autumnal Blue Mountains of New South Wales, staying with friends, eating, drinking and playing together.

The Easter long weekend has come to an end this year and most of us are back to our normal busy lives. Yet what was done on the very first Easter weekend 2000 years ago has not ended.

“We… see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honour because He suffered death, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone.” Hebrews 2:9

The cross and crown of thorns Jesus suffered on that first Easter was temporary. He submitted himself to their horror on our behalf. He tasted death to take away our eternal death. Then He rose again. And His victory over death and sin continues to this day. He is now crowned, not with thorns but glory and honour.

While our Easter long weekends come and go, how Jesus spent that first Easter long weekend has eternal consequences. Have you accepted Jesus’s substitute death on your behalf? Do you trust that His Easter suffering means you are forgiven for your sins and can share in His eternal glory? Don’t let Easter end with a couple of extra days off work, receive the everlasting rest and peace Easter really brings.

Prayer: Dear God, Thank you for Jesus’ suffering and death on my behalf. Because of what Jesus did that first Easter, forgive me for my sins. May I trust Jesus is now crowned with glory and honour and live with Him as my King. Amen.

Acknowledgement: This article was sourced from Outreach Media, Sydney, Australia.
Images and text © Outreach Media 2025

What does the death penalty have to do with love? The crucifix was a brutal means of capital punishment in the ancient Roman empire. Death by crucifixion could take between 6 hours and 4 days resulting from excessive bleeding, dehydration or progressive suffocation. It was an extremely painful and shameful way to die, inflicted upon those considered repugnant. And yet today we hang pretty crosses from our ears and necks, tattoo them into our skin, hang them on our walls – bejeweled, ornamental, celebrated.

The cross, the shape of a gruesome death has been infused with something greater and more powerful and has captured the hope of billions over millennia.

The apostle Paul explains to Christians in ancient Colossae:
“You were His [God’s] enemies, separated from Him by your evil thoughts and actions. Yet now He has reconciled you to Himself through the death of Christ in His physical body. As a result, He has brought you into His own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before Him without a single fault” (Colossians 1:21-22).

Though many have died by crucifixion, one person, Jesus Christ, transformed the painful, shameful cross into an act of supreme love. On the cross Jesus willingly took our punishment to bring us forgiveness and reconciliation with God.

The cross shows us our sin, our just punishment for ignoring and rebelling against God. And it shows us the depth and breadth of God’s love for His rebellious people. It is the interchange of death and life, horror and hope, guilt and forgiveness, punishment and purity. And so the brutal cruciform is also the shape of supreme love, worth remembering and celebrating.

What is your response to the gruesome gracious cross? Do you trust it as the place where God’s love has been poured out on you and your sins paid for and forgiven?

Prayer: Dear God, Help me comprehend and trust the paradox of the cross and what Jesus did for me when He died on it. Amen.

Acknowledgement: This article was sourced from Outreach Media, Sydney, Australia.
Images and text © Outreach Media 2025

In urban planning, a buffer zone is an area that separates different land uses to reduce conflicts and negative impacts between them. Like between houses and noisy motorways or houses and smelly industries. Or it can be protective like the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea. Did you know about the buffer zones in the book of Exodus?

The book of Exodus has two main sections, God rescues the Israelites from Egypt (Ch 1-18), and God establishes a covenant with the Israelites (Ch 19-40).

When they left Egypt, “By day the Lord went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night” (13:21NIV). God was with them all the way. But there was a buffer zone between God and the people.

God made a covenant with them at Mount Sinai. He came down to the mountain in a “dense cloud” (19:9) and Moses was the only person allowed on the mountain. God said, “whoever touches the mountain is to be put to death” (19:12).

“There was thunder and lightning, with a thick cloud over the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast. Everyone in the camp trembled” (19:16). And “When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear” (20:18).

There was a large barrier between the people and God. This is because God is sinless, and people are sinful. Sinners can’t come near a sinless God. Moses alone was set aside by God as a mediator who could come near to Him. He went up and down the mountain to communicate between God and His people. He bridged the buffer zone.

After Mount Sinai, God dwelt in the tabernacle. It was God’s residence among His people on earth. The tabernacle showed the holiness of God and the sinfulness of people.

The tabernacle had 3 buffer zones. There was a curtain that restricted entry to each of them.
– Only Jews could enter the courtyard, where they could offer sacrifices.
– Only priests could enter the first room to tend the table with 12 loaves of bread, the lampstand and the altar of incense.
– Only the high priest could enter the inner room (the Most Holy Place) where God dwelt.
It was once per year with a sacrifice for the sins of the people. Animal sacrifices were made for the sins of Israel as substitute deaths in the place of sinners.

So there were buffer zones between God and people at Mount Sinai and the tabernacle. The whole mountain was a buffer zone where people were not allowed. They were excluded. And there were three zones in the tabernacle where certain people were not allowed. They were excluded.

The book of Hebrews shows that Jesus is greater than the high priest because He died, rose, and ascended into heaven to secure our salvation. He did this once for everyone. When He died the shielding curtain in the temple was torn from the top to the bottom symbolising the opening of direct access to God through Jesus Christ (Mt. 27:51). By his blood (death), Jesus entered the Most Holy Place (Heb. 9:11-14). And we can now “enter the Most Holy Place by the blood (death) of Jesus,” showing that through Christ, we have a new and living way to come into God’s presence (Heb. 10:19-21). The buffer zone was destroyed.

The buffer zones in Exodus show us that God is accessible, but He is also holy and set apart. The proper way to approach God, requires a sense of awe, reverence and respect. God’s holiness requires separation from sin. While we have direct access to God through Christ, we must still honour His holiness.

Prayer

Father God, we realise that the events at Mount Sinai were awesome. The people trembled with fear at your power, glory and holiness. They were at a distance and very aware of the buffer zone between them and yourself caused by their sin.

Likewise, most people were prohibited in the tabernacle. We thank you for the sacrificial system that required continual animal sacrifices because of their ongoing sins. This was a pattern prophecy of how you would destroy that buffer zone.

We thank you for sending Jesus to die for the sins of all the people of the world. Through His death our sins can be forgiven, and we can look ahead to a home in heaven. In this way, Jesus is better than Moses and better than the Jewish high priest. In Christ’s name, Amen.

G Hawke

Sometimes getting dirty can be fun. Painting, cooking, gardening, sport, can all be activities we do for fun that may get us a little messy. Sometimes getting clean can be fun. Having a shower and putting on fresh clean clothes after a sweaty, muddy, soccer game feels great.

But there are also times when getting dirty is downright disgusting. I remember watching horrified as my dad cleaned out a blocked sewerage trench – reaching down into the stinky sludge with his bare arms. And there are times when the dirt just won’t budge. The stain on a beloved piece of clothing. Or much worse a psychological or spiritual sense of being tainted, guilty, that just won’t go away.

While most dirt, even sewage sludge, can be scrubbed away with a good cake of soap, spiritual cleansing doesn’t come that easy.

The Bible describes spiritual cleansing, the washing away of all one’s wrongdoings and moral guilt, as something that can only be done by Jesus Christ.

“Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word [Bible], and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.”
Ephesians 5:25-27

Jesus Christ sacrificed His life to make us spiritually clean forever. By dying on the cross He paid the price for our wrongdoings and guilt. All who trust in Jesus’ loving act of cleansing will stand before God “without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish” and even better be considered “holy and blameless” in God’s sight.

The dirt and mess in this world is inevitable and temporary, but eternal purity through Jesus Christ will last forever.

Read God’s word the Bible, see what Jesus is offering you and get clean forever.

Prayer: Dear God, I want to be spiritually clean, holy and blameless in your sight. Thank you for loving me so much that Jesus sacrificed Himself to make me clean. Please help me to trust this everyday. Amen.

Acknowledgement: This article was sourced from Outreach Media, Sydney, Australia.
Images and text © Outreach Media 2025