Maurice Ashton is a retired lecturer who lives in Australia. He taught Science and Mathematics at high school level before taking a research interest in Computer Science. He lectured at Avondale College for nearly 30 years before retiring in 2012. He is married to Carmel and they have two adult children and two grand children. Currently Maurice is pursuing a keen interest in bird photography and spends much of his time sitting in swamps observing and photographing birds. He has been involved with Sabbath School Net since about 1997.
We were saddened to hear that our friend Jackie Locke passed away yesterday after battling illness for quite some time. Jackie did some moderating for SSNET until she was too ill to continue. Even then, she would send the moderators a prayer every week, thanking us for our work and asking the Lord to bless … Continue reading –>
I have had the opportunity to observe Buddhist culture a couple of occasions when I have taught college courses in Thailand. The overtness of Buddhist devotion was something new to me. It was not uncommon to encounter a shrine to Buddha where people were praying, chanting, and offering incense, or rubbing gold leaf onto an … Continue reading –>
Sometimes in our efforts to express the importance of conversion, or “being saved” we underestimate the role of the church. While we all understand that being joined to the church does not save us, it is or should be instrumental in us maintaining the saving relationship with Jesus. We are social creatures and we need … Continue reading –>
I was driving at 110 kph, the speed limit, along the F3 freeway into Sydney when I passed a traffic police car sitting on the side of the road, ready to catch the unwary who strayed over the magical 110. I glanced at my speedo, saw the 110, reminded myself that all speedos are a … Continue reading –>
A friend of mine tells the story of the time when he was on a train filled with other academy students, returning home for a term break. It was one of those trains where the carriages comprised individual compartments, called “dog boxes” in Australian parlance. Students, being students, were making the most of these dog … Continue reading –>
I know a woman who is a fabulously good cook. Not only is the food delightful to taste – it is seriously good for you. The problem is that all her food comes with commentary. Did you know that this food has Vitamin K? And you get 85.6% of your selenium requirements from this kind … Continue reading –>
I was introduced to Galatians in Bible class many years ago. “Pauline Epsitles” was the name of the teaching unit. The lecturer was a theological academic and the students were a bunch of third and fourth-year undergraduate science students studying for London BSc Part 2 examinations. It was an interesting time. Anybody who has studied … Continue reading –>
A few weeks ago I mentioned three categories of worship – private worship, community worship, and living worship. You may remember my article on personal worship. Now I want to reflect a little more on community worship. While this discussion will feature some of the issues of community worship I want to remind readers that all … Continue reading –>
In a previous post I commented on three types of worship, including personal worship, and some have asked me to expand on the latter. Personal worship has come under some scrutiny recently with the rise in interest in “spiritual formation.” The topic is quite relevant to the lesson on Conformity, Compromise and Crisis in Worship because … Continue reading –>
Before we take this week’s lesson title (Conformity, Compromise and Crisis in Worship) as an excuse to proscribe forms of worship that we do not like, we need to consider worship in its wider context. There are three aspects of worship (Yes I am well aware that my classification is not the only one but … Continue reading –>
