Our culture is obsessed with identity: we’re often told, “You do you” and encouraged to live according to our “true and authentic self”, expressing publicly how we feel about ourselves internally.

However, the very concept of personal identity is inherently slippery. It encompasses things like ethnicity, class, gender, sexuality, religion, belief, educational background, profession and personality, but it’s not fixed: it can change through time, circumstance, and even through self-invention.

So as Christians, how should we regard identity? God created us as unique individuals; how does our creatureliness affect who we are? Furthermore, as sinners redeemed and sanctified by the Lord Jesus and adopted into the household of God, how does Christ’s work change the way we view ourselves? How does the encouragement to “find your identity in Christ” actually play out in the complexities of competing sources of identity?

At our final event in our series on “Culture creep” in October 2024, Rory Shiner, Senior Pastor of Providence City Church in Perth, showed us how losing ourselves for the sake of the kingdom will help us find ourselves once and for all (Matt 10:39).

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Peter Orr speaks with Jocelyn Loane about her new book on Christian motherhood from Matthias Media: Motherhood: How the gospel shapes our purpose and priorities. In the book and in our conversation, Jocelyn helpfully shows how the gospel, more than anything else, should shape Christian motherhood. It’s very easy to read parenting books that contain a lot of helpful things, but in this conversation, Jocelyn shows us how key gospel truths are the most powerful things for thinking carefully and properly about Christian motherhood.

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Please note: The episode transcript on your podcast platform may have been generated by AI and has not been checked for accuracy. If quoting, please check against the audio.

The Centre for Christian Living exists to bring biblical ethics to everyday issues, and on each episode of our podcast, we seek to do exactly that. But every now and then, we like to share stories of how God’s people seek to apply biblical ethics to the everyday and specific issues in their own lives.

In this episode of the CCL podcast, we get to know yet another member of our student team: a Moore Theological College student named Michael Parker. Michael grew up in country Australia in Victoria, and in some ways, his path to ministry and Moore College was quite typical. But in many ways, Michael’s journey was not typical at all.

It is our hope and prayer that as you hear Michael’s story, you’ll come away encouraged—encouraged and eager to pray for and support not just Michael and his future in ministry, but also the College as it carries out its vision of seeing God glorified by men and women living for and proclaiming Jesus Christ, growing healthy churches and reaching the lost.

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For centuries, theologians have debated the doctrine of total depravity, the belief that people are wholly and naturally corrupt due to original sin. In this episode, Peter Orr speaks with Jonny Gibson, who has edited a 1,000-page book on this topic. They talk about why it’s important for Christians to have a clear grasp of sin, and what can go wrong if we don’t.

For an edited transcript and show notes, visit">https://ccl.moore.edu.au/resources/podcast-episode-128/">visit our website.

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In this episode, Peter Orr chats with Nick and Dorothy Jones about their life as a family—particularly loving and caring for their son William, who suffers from Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Nick and Dorothy reflect on how their Christian faith sustains and strengthens them as they love and care for William, and they offer some very helpful insights not only about caring for a child with a significant disability, but also about how Christians can support people in a similar situation in our churches.

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The world is becoming wealthier and wealthier. Since the turn of the century, the net worth of many countries in the West and in Asia has tripled, poverty rates have fallen, and life expectancy has increased by more than six years.

At the same time, the divide between rich and poor has increased, with the richest one per cent owning almost fifty per cent of all the world’s wealth. Five to ten per cent of people still live in extreme poverty, even in the most affluent nations. Furthermore, while money can buy happiness, it can only do so up to a certain point, and wealthier people are more likely to be less generous and less kind to others.

How as Christians should we think about affluence? Is material prosperity a blessing or a curse, or both? Given the state of the world and income inequality, what are we to do with the riches God has given us? At our 2024 August event, Michael Jensen, rector of St Mark’s Anglican Darling Point, helped us to see our earthly treasure the way our heavenly Father does.

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In this episode of the CCL podcast, we hear from Susanna Baldwin, a Bible translator in Darwin. She speaks about her work on the Plain English Version, the challenges of Bible translation, and also helps us to think through what questions to ask when we are considering which English version to read.

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Psalm 23 is perhaps the most famous portion of the Bible. It’s a psalm that has brought comfort to Christians throughout history. In this episode, Peter Orr speaks to David Gibson, who has released a book that walks through the psalm in detail—“The Lord of Psalm 23: Jesus our shepherd, companion and host”. David shows us that there are wonderful depths that are easy to miss, and how, in so many ways, this psalm encapsulates the entirety of the Christian life.

For an edited transcript and show notes, visit our website.

https://ccl.moore.edu.au/resources/podcast-episode-124/

In this episode of the CCL podcast, we speak to Jackie Gibson about her book, You are Still a Mother. The book recounts how Jackie and her husband Jonny lost their daughter Leila just before she was due to be born. Through this terrible experience, Jackie came to appreciate the comfort of the Lord Jesus.

We hope this episode is of comfort to you if you’ve experienced this kind of grief, or that it helps you to care for a friend or family member who has gone through something similar.

For an edited transcript and show notes, visit our website.

Artificial intelligence or AI is one of the most important concepts that people are discussing today. It’s something that, as Christians, we need to think carefully about. Akos Balogh spoke about AI at our March event earlier this year. In this episode, Peter Orr talks to Stephen Driscoll about his new book on AI—“Made in Our Image: God, artificial intelligence and you”—particularly looking at how the gospel helps us to engage with AI and think about it positively and critically. Stephen’s book is an excellent resource for thinking about AI. We hope this conversation gives you a taster of the subject and helps you to begin to think about this important concept.

For an edited transcript and show notes, visit https://ccl.moore.edu.au/resources/podcast-episode-122/