Risk

Played the board game Risk tonight with some fellas. I bowed out in only the fifth round after a bit of bad luck. It's a strategy game but luck comes in when you go head to head in the first round and get a few bad rolls of the dice! It was good fun, Eric cleaned up again making him world conqueror twice in a row!

Slack!

Woohoo, been slack as with this blog page! Here's the communion thing as promised. I didn't actually use this on Sunday night because I felt led to speak on something else...but I'll use it eventually.
Found out that I get to preach my first sermon at the morning service in February...on John 2. The Water into Wine. Doh! I think they're setting me up with a nice controversial topic: alcohol! Should be good :)
I couldn't figure out how to link to the document...so here it is, a little long for a web page.

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.”
Genesis 1:1-2

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
John 1:1

In the beginning was God the Father, God the Son & God the Holy Spirit, the Trinity, Three in One. This sets God apart from any other religion because he isn’t bound by his own limitations. For eternity he experiences 3 persons in one, he experiences community. So when God created us in his image, he created us to have community. God said that it wasn’t good for Adam to be all alone in the garden of Eden, so God created Eve. He commanded them to fill the earth with their family, to keep growing the community that God had established here on earth.

But when Adam and Eve sinned in Genesis 3, it wrecked God’s plan for perfect community. Since then there have been divisions between us and God and between us and each other. Genesis 3 outlines contention between men and women, the tower of Babel outlines contention in languages, there soon became contention in social classes and different races. These divisions and contentions remain in the world today.

When Jesus Christ died on the cross, he died to restore God’s perfect plan for community. He died to restore our vertical community with God and he died to restore our horizontal community with each other. In John 17:21 Jesus is praying to God before he was to be crucified. He prayed for his disciples and he prayed for all who would ever believe in him, that includes Christians today. He prayed that we would have unity just as God and Jesus have unity.

So our vertical community is restored. When we trust Jesus for our salvation we are declared right before God. Our relationship with God is restored because Jesus took away the sin barrier. Jesus died to take away the divisions between us and God.

Our horizontal community is also restored. Galatians 3:28 says “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
When Jesus died, he died to take away these divisions and contentions.. Physically they still exist, but in Christ they don’t matter at all. As far as God is concerned and as far as we Christians are concerned, they are inconsequential. There are no racial divisions, we are one in Christ Jesus. There are no social class distinctions, we are one in Christ Jesus. There are no gender distinctions as far as God is concerned, we are one in Christ Jesus.

When Jesus died on the cross, he restored community, he restored unity. Individually when you trust Christ for your salvation, you have unity with God. Together, we have unity with each other because the divisions don’t matter anymore. We are family not because of common interests or hobbies. We are family not because of how hard we work at ironing out our differences. We are family all because of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

And that’s why we celebrate communion each week. In a moment the stewards will come down and after I pray they’ll be standing in the aisles. If you’re trusted Christ for your salvation, please join us in taking a cup and a bit of biscuit and finding a quiet spot to reflect on what Christ did on the cross 2000 years ago. As you get your cup and biscuit from the stewards have a look around the church, take some time to look around and see who your family are. Thank Jesus for what he did on the cross. For restoring community both vertically and horizontally!

All over red rover...

I preached last night on John 9, the man born blind. That pretty much signals the end of the whole string of things I had on this month! All my assignments are done, I just have to hand them in...my speaking engagements are all over...and youth group is over for the year! What in the world am I gonna do now?
I've got communion next week, I'll post that actually cos I'm thinking about doing something a bit different. I'll get that up in a few days. We've got 'Coffee Shop' training every night this week. Doing Youth Dimension's beach mission called Coffee Shop. Never done it before so I'm really looking forward to it.
Then from now till Christmas, all I have planned is hanging out with the kids in our youth group, planning for next year etc. I know stuff will come up but that's cool.
Righteo, it's my day off so I need to go and do something constructive...like sleeping!

The Book Brigade

Finished this book early yesterday morning at about 5am. I woke up at 4.30 with a toothache and couldn't sleep so I read...crazy. Anyway, finished this book Community 101 by Gilbert Bilezikian. Excellent book, it's a theological kind of thing on God's plan for community. Really interesting, solid teaching and concepts. New stuff to me a lot of it; stuff on women in ministry and gender roles. Nice and short, only 200 or so pages. Recommended.

In other news: finished all my assignments. Woohoo! Just have to prepare my sermon for Sunday night now. Having a planning/strategy afternoon today (Thursday) for youth ministry next year then picking up a friend from the airport at 7am Friday. Did I mention that I finally sold my Ford Laser? They're picking that up on Friday as well.

Luther...

Watched the movie Luther on the weekend starring Joseph Fiennes. It's a two hour production of Martin Luther's life from his days as a Augustinian monk to his translation of the New Testament into German. I knew a little bit about Luther, however a much healthier knowledge of history would have helped in watching this movie. They take a little bit for granted as far as people and places go. Fiennes is quite a good actor, especially his tone and voice acting. The movie was a bit too long but quite inspirational and interesting for the most part. Quite a professional production too, it hit the cinemas in Australia earlier this year. Recommended.

Meanwhile, I'm reading a great book by Gilbert Bilezikian called Community 101. More on that later. I've got to prepare my sermon for this Sunday night on John 9, the healing of the man born blind. Something along the lines of being used as a vessel of God's grace.

Big Birthday Bash

We had our last night of Youth Group for the year last night. Had a big birthday party/break up party and it went off! There were about 80-90 youth plus leaders, heaps of food and an 8m x 8m jumping castle! Had really good feedback from some of the youth saying that they loved it so that's always a good sign! Thanks to some of the Junior High boys it turned into a massive water fight towards the end, I ended up soaked through and with sauce all over my shirt from a 'sauce bomb'! But we got them back!

So that's it for youth group programs in 2005! We're winding up our school's program next week, last leaders get-together next week as well and then my classes finish the week after. I can't wait for the holidays cos I can just hang out with leaders, youth, plan for next year youth group, relax, have a blast!

Indo

You might have read a previous post about a guy named Rob. October 19. Rob and two girls from our church, Katie & Mel, left for Indonesia on Sunday night. They're away for 3 weeks on a trip to help out some medical missios somewhere in Indo. Katie & Mel are both nurses and Rob is there to help out in anyway possible. Pray for these guys, it'll be a hugely hard time but also an awesome growing time for them all.

Growth/Comfort?

When this man heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea, he went to him and begged him to come and heal his son, who was close to death. "Unless you people see miraculous signs and wonders," Jesus told him, "you will never believe."
The royal official said, "Sir, come down before my child dies." Jesus replied, "You may go. Your son will live." The man took Jesus at his word and departed.
John 4:47-50
There's something surprising about this story. The man asks Jesus to heal his son, and Jesus shuts him down! He says to the whole crowd that they're a bunch of non-believing people who just want a miracle. He wasn't only speaking to the man here, but the man was included in the crowd. But being persistent, the official asks again. This time Jesus heals, but he doesn't do what the man asks. He doesn't go back to Capernaum and heal the boy, he makes the man walk 15 miles home in faith that the boy is healed.
Why would Jesus have done this? Why didn't he go with the man and heal on the spot like he had done before? Why did he make the man walk back? What would the man have been thinking on the way back? The Bible says that he took Jesus at his word but he would have definitely had doubts during that trip home. What if? What if my son is dead? What if Jesus didn't really heal him? I have no visual assurance. I can't get back in contact with him. I didn't even get his address or his camel rego...
Jesus wasn't really concerned with the man's comfort and ease of mind, he was concerned with the man's growth. God is totally committed to our growth. If that means hard times, being stretched out of our comfort zones then he's quite willing to do that for the sake of our personal and spiritual growth.
No disipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.
Hebrews 12:11

This is my life...

My mate Anson (see previous post) wrote this in 2001. It hits home for those of us who lived the lives of missionary kids. And it's not bad for a guy who was in year 11!

"...But then the goodbyes
Always the goodbyes. The end looms near
It's easy to say that it's not the end, really
Easy for the others to say. They don't know..."

(c) 2001, Anson VanDoren. Used without permission (thanks Anson!)

Check the whole thing out here.

Now it's really time for bed...

High School Reunion!

I was just about to go to bed...but I was having a quick surf around the net. Little did I know that I was about to stumble down memory lane! I found the blogpage of my best mate in high school, Anson!! Check it out here. Then I found his parent's site with photos and stories and heaps of stuff! This is awesome, I haven't heard from these guys in ages so it's great to see what they're up to! It takes me back to my days as a missio kid in PNG!

Also found out this arvo that my dad is coming up in December so that will be cool!

Topped off the day with an amazing walk on the beach under the full moon. Fantastic!

Busy this week and next cos I'm preaching the next two Sunday nights and have a big assignment due. Preaching on John 4 this week aboutJesus' healing of the official's son. Going to talk about God being totally committed to our growth rather than our comfort. Then on John 9 next week with the man born blind. Not sure where to go with that one though! It's all very exciting!

Time for bed...

All the Pieces Fit...

A friend who read my last blog about John 1 showed me this cool verse:
"He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God." Revelation 19:13
Speaking of the Rider on the White Horse. Very cool!

I'm off this morning down to Burleigh to get my car inspected before I can register it. Some government loophole for written off vehicles. Easy way for them to take $330 off me just to tell me that my car is fine apart from the hail dents! Duh! Ah well, it's all good in the long run!

'Jesus' is the Word...

I was reading John 1 this morning and I thought...how much more meaning does John 1 have when you realise that it's talking about Jesus?! It's clearly talking about Jesus but when I read it over again and chucked Jesus in whenever John was talking about him, it was so much clearer! Check it out:

"In the beginning was Jesus, and Jesus was with God, and Jesus was God. Jesus was with God in the beginning. Through Jesus all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In Jesus was life and that life was the light of men. Jesus shines in the darness but the darkness has not understood.
There came a man who was sent from God; his name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning Jesus, so that through him all men might believe. He himself was not the light; he only came as a witness to the light. The true light, Jesus, who gives light to every man was coming in the world.
Jesus was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognise him. Jesus came to that which was his own, but his own did not recieve him. Yet to all who recieve Jesus, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God-children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.
Jesus became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth."
John 1:1-14 (Adapted from NIV)

Back to Jerusalem

I just finished Back to Jerusalem by ‘Three Chinese Church Leaders with Paul Hattaway’. What a fantastic book! I’d recommend it to anyone. Most of the book is devoted to outlining the vision the Chinese Church has for taking the Gospel ‘Back to Jerusalem’ and the testimonies of those who carry the vision. The testimonies are powerful and amazing, captivating and inspirational. The last few chapters of the book are devoted to some of the principles that the Chinese house churches hold to. They are excellent and quite challenging to those of us caught up in the typical Western church denominational mold. The book isn’t just a pay-out of Western Christians but lovingly challenges them to re-assess their values and beliefs.
Check this out:
“Millions of churches around the world, including inside China, are bound by legalism. Obeying man-made rules has become more important than taking the hand of Jesus and walking with him in the cool of the evening. The Christian life has become an endurance test, and all traces of life and joy have long since evaporated.” (p137)
“There are more than enough Christian ‘believers’ in the world today. God wants more disciples!” (p138)
If you have the opportunity, grab a copy of this book. You won’t regret it!

I know I’ve been lazy in blogging stuff here but I have plenty of good excuses! Hopefully I’ll be able to jot a few more things down soon.

You Cannot Impact What You Do Not Engage

Just read a great article a friend of mine recommended. It's by Steve Gonzales "The Key to Engaging and Impacting Kids on the Fringe".

"You don't deserve to dream." I remember reading that message on the T-shirt of one of my boys as we prepared to leave for summer camp. He was just stepping on the bus as we headed to an urban outreach camp that I've been involved with for 10 years. The bearer of this remarkable statement was a young man I'd met and befriended at school. This camp was his introduction to "Christian" camping - or any camping, for that matter. You don't deserve to dream. What a statement!

Check out the rest of the article here.

So...do you like Stuff?

The weather on the Gold Coast is fantastic!!! It's a balmy 26C in my room as I type this, I was just outside hanging up some washing and putting the bins out and it's a beautiful day! The sun's shining, the freshly cut grass smells like summer and there's a cool breeze blowing. It's days like these that make me glad I don't live in Melbourne!

I watched Phantom of the Opera on DVD on the weekend. Didn't expect to like it at all, but I watched it anyway. Apart from the whole 'as if anyone has a singing conversation' thing, it was pretty good! The music was awesome and the movie was made really well. I'd recommend it to anyone who's into music, but bear in mind it is kind of long! I enjoyed it.

Was reading in Genesis on Saturday and came across this passage; Genesis 24:63
"One evening as he was taking a walk out in the fields, meditating..."
This is Isaac out in fields as his new wife Rebekah arrives by camel. So he just happens to be out in the fields, sees the travelling crew coming and he wanders out to meet them. What I found really cool though is what he was doing out there in the first place: meditating! That's my idea of spending time with God. I get really sick of people going on about 'quiet times' and spending hours reading and journalling etc. I'm not a sitting still kind of guy so I really don't like the idea of doing that for ages. But I love going for walks on my own, away from civilization, away from other people, away from noise and just spending time with God. Walking along down the beach or through the bush or somewhere in the middle of night when most people are asleep and just hanging out with God. Meditating on his Word, talking to him, listening to anything he might have to say to me, thinking about what's happening and where I'm going in my life. That's the ultimate quiet time for me, just me and God and no-one else. That's what Isaac was doing that afternoon in the field. On ya mate!

David said this in Psalm 119; "I honour and love your commands. I meditate on your principles." (vs 48) "I reflect at night on who you are, O Lord, and I obey your law because of this." (vs55)

Q.O.T.D.

I spent some time down at the beach this morning, just sitting in my car in the shade watching boats and jetskis go past and doing a bit of reading. I started reading Paul Hattaway's Back to Jerusalem which he wrote with three Chinese Church leaders. Speaking of the history of the Chinese church and the doubts of the missionaries in the early 1900's Paul says this:

"God, however, had other ideas. He would not allow the Chinese masses to languish in their sin and spiritual darkness while the glorious news of the victory of his beloved Son on the cross remained unheralded in the world's largest nation."

Powerful words! That's the Q.O.T.D. (Quote Of The Day)

Selahphonic

Over the last couple of days we've been blessed to have the guys from Melbourne band Selahphonic in town. Jamie Coyle from Youth Dimension started the band a couple of years ago and gathered together a few musicians who had the same vision: to record & perform a musical journey of the Gospel targeted at High School young people. Check out more here.

They played in Helensvale High on Thursday, Southport State High on Friday and came to our Youth Group on Friday night. Jamie on guitar and vocals, Matt Dickens on guitar and vocals and QLDer Nick Gibson on drums. Their message was fantastic and the way they presented it was fantastic! After the service they hung around with our Senior High youth and answered some of their 'hard questions'! From what I heard it was pretty full on!

Meanwhile the Junior High youth were off at a local park running around and bashing each other up...well sort of! We had pizza & games in the park.
What was really awesome for me was that a lady from church rang yesterday afternoon and asked me to make contact with a guy in year 9 who was thinking about coming to youth group. So I rang him and he was keen to come. He came along and was pretty quiet but I had a chance to chat with him because we went to grab the pizzas together. It's so encouraging when God tees up that kind of thing and all we have to do is make a phone call and put in a bit of effort. So often God is just waiting to partner with us!

Wherever You Are

I bought the new Third Day album Wherever You Are on Wednesday. It's excellent! It's a studio album and all the songs have a kind of hope, encouragement, reflection theme. The opening track Tunnel has been in my head for the past two days straight! I also love two songs in the middle of the album Communion and Carry My Cross. They're in Third Day's traditional rock style and the words are really powerful! Mac Powell's vocals are always amazing. I saw Third Day live in Januray this year at Sonfest 2005. It was one of the most exciting nights of my life! I was right in the middle of the mosh pit about 10 people back from the stage, it was a hot night so the security guards were spraying a hose in the air to cool everyone down. And the band were fantastic! I was blown away by how good they were live! It was a very polished performance but they still made it unique to our crowd. I wouldn't hesitate to see them play again, it was great!
I'm just listening to Carry My Cross from the album, a song from Jesus point of view. Check out the lyrics:

As long as I remember
I've been walking through the wilderness
Praying to the Father
And waiting for my time
I've come here with a mission
And soon I'll give my life for this world

I'm praying in the garden
And I'm looking for a miracle
I find the journey hard but
It's the reason I was born
Can this cup be passed on
Lord, I pray your will be done
in this world

So I'll carry my cross
And I'll carry the shame
To the end of the road
Through the struggle and pain
And I'll do it for love
No, it won't be in vain
Yes, I'll carry my cross
And I'll carry the shame

I feel like I'm alone here
And I'm treated like a criminal
The time has come for me now
Even though I've gone no wrong
Father, please forgive them
They know not what they've done
In this world

Three more days and I'll be coming back again
Three more days and I'll be coming back again

Copyright 2005 Consuming Fire Music

Forgiveness Part 2

We continued our studies on forgiveness the other night at small group. The studies, by the way, are from a book called Groups by Ortberg, Pederson & Poling. Some of the book is quite simple and not a whole lot of indepth bible study, but this stuff on forgiveness is really good. Insightful and challenging!
We looked at the parable of the Unforgiving Debtor in Matthew 18:23-35. The key in this is that we are that unforgiving debtor. We've had our sins forgiven by our gracious Lord, so when we don't pass on forgiveness to our fellow man for much lesser things we aren't acting as we should. The debtor in the parable clearly didn't understand the extent to which he had been forgiven, the fact that his debt had been cancelled hadn't impacted him. He hadn't changed his lifestyle as a result of being forgiven.
Similarly, the story of the woman and the alabaster jar of perfume in Luke 7:36-50 sends the same message. Someone commented the other night that this parable makes it sound like we should sin all the more, so that we can be forgiven for more, then we will love the Lord even more for his forgiveness! Romans 6:1-2 pretty much answers that one; that we shouldn't sin just so that grace can abound to us. The message of the parable is that for us to love Jesus all the more we should learn to understand the extent of our sin. Not our individual sins that we commit but our very nature and the fact that prior to our forgiveness we were even under the wrath of God, under his anger. (John 3:36) Simon the Pharisee didn't have as many visible sins as the woman in the story, but he was still under God's wrath if he didn't trust Jesus for his salvation.
What we can take from these parables is that we should take the time to understand the nature of sin, the nature of our disconnection from God prior to salvation. We should understand God's position towards us before we were saved. When we understand this, we will be so much more thankful to God for saving us through Christ. A hugely deep love for God will come as a result of knowing what he's done for you! And when we understand our own vast forgiveness we will be much more willing to forgive others for comparatively petty things.

Hurray for clean cars!

I finally got everything back into the old Laser. Gave it a good wash and now it's *almost* ready to sell! I've advertised it online, I just need to chuck a couple of things in it: Radio Cassette, 1 side mirror, and she'll be ready to rock and roll! She drives quite nicely, but I'm looking forward to getting into something a bit newer: a nice Honda Accord comes to mind :)

Saw 'Transporter 2' at the cinema this evening. It had good action but some parts were just ridiculously over the top. Not the worst movie I'd ever seen but I wouldn't highly recommend it to anyone.

More on the Chaplaincy stuff...

It’s Monday evening, I’m sitting out on the patio overlooking the canal and watching the lightening crackle out to the east. I can hear the water lapping at the shore, feel the warm breeze, hear the thunder in the distance and the muffled sounds of some kind of organised sport from the field a few blocks away. Nice!
I work at this house in Palm Beach every Monday night as a personal carer for 3 disabled adults. It’s a challenging job at times but the perks include the patio overlooking the canal!

As promised, here’s more about our church service last night. Gary Coleman was there from Sport & Leisure Ministries. He’s the chaplain for the Indy here on the coast and other motorsport events around the country. He had with him Hunter something-or-other from motorsport chaplaincy USA. Charlie Tonga from the NRL also shared his testimony.
Gary shared how it is our role as Christians to ‘be Christ’ to the people around us. To our friends, our neighbours, our work colleagues, our families… Every single person in the world is hurting inside without Jesus and they’re watching us Christians intently to see the difference that He makes in our lives. Not many people will sit down and listen to the Gospel, but they are watching and they can see the Gospel unfolding and at work in our lives.

This doesn’t undermine the powerful work of the Holy Spirit in drawing people to the truth, but it highlights the important role we have as followers of Christ in partnering with God. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 9:22-23
“…I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel…”
A simple message, but it’s one we all need to hear over and over again to remind us and encourage us to reach out to the people around us, not but preaching to them but simply by being Jesus to them.

Gary said that if we don’t have non-Christians around us, we can’t fulfill our role as Christians. If we don’t have people who name us as their friends, we can’t live the Gospel to them. That’s challenging for me, I know there are some old friends I need to start reaching out to, some old friends I need to start modeling the Christ-life to.

Time to Spring Clean...

I've been busy all weekend cleaning my Ford Laser, getting it ready to sell. I took all the seats out, all the carpet, all everything. Then hosed it, scrubbed it, upholstery cleaned it, hosed it again, banged sand out of it, dried it then put it back in! Mammoth job, but I finally got it done! Now I just need to do a few more niggly little things to the car and she'll be ready to go! Stand by for further developments!

Also, had Gary Coleman - Aussie Motorsport Chaplain at church this evening to share after Indy here on the Gold Coast. Awesome message, will blog more this week when I've had some sleep!

Life Doesn't Start Tomorrow

Let me set the scene for you...the Israelites have been in slavery to the Egyptians for about 400 years. Along comes Moses & Aaron and God uses them to rescue the Israelites. God sends plagues on the Egyptians to make them let His people go. First was the plague of blood, turning all the water to blood. Then came the plague of frogs. Hundreds and thousands of frogs came up out of the river and invaded the land. They were absolutely everywhere and on absolutely everything...even the people!
So Pharaoh gets sick of it, he caves in, and that's where this passage picks up:

Exodus 8:8-10 NLT
Then Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and begged, "Plead with the Lord to take the frogs away from me and my people. I will let the people go, so they can offer sacrifices to the Lord."
"You set the time!" Moses replied. "Tell me when you want me to pray for you, your officials, and your people. I will pray that you and your houses will be rid of the frogs. Then only the frogs in he Nile River will remain alive."
"Do it tomorrow," Pharaoh said.

Do it tomorrow? What the...?! Is this guy crazy? He's inundated, overwhelmed, covered in frogs...but he's willing to live with them for one more night? Pharaoh clearly didn't realise that life doesn't start tomorrow.

How often do we make that mistake? We're willing to keep on living our mediocre lives and we keep saying...I'll do it tomorrow. Tomorrow I'll get right with God. Tomorrow I'll get serious about my faith. Tomorrow I'll be passionate and fired up for Jesus. Tomorrow I'll start telling my friends about the Hope I have in Christ. Tomorrow. Tomorrow. Tomorrow.

Life doesn't start tomorrow! Why are we so much like Pharaoh and we're willing to put up with crap rather than sort things out today?! Life starts today!

Only the proud...

"Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall."
Proverbs 16:18

The old saying, 'Pride comes before a Fall'. I was thinking about it this afternoon while chatting to my mate Dave and I thought...everybody falls, but it only really hurts the proud. We all fall, in the sense that we all experience trials and hard times and 'storms', but they don't affect the humble as much. Humble people aren'as concerened with themselves but moreso with other people around them and primarily God. So when they fall, it doesn't hurt as much. But for the proud, a fall hurts big time.

Moral of the story...don't be proud! But I guess that was the moral of the story all along.

Thanks Dave.

Blogging or Bogging?

So I'm in the office today, working hard and my friend Laura's at the next desk, also working hard. And one of our youth leaders, Rob comes knocking at the window...as he does! So we let him in and chatted for a bit and I was telling him about my new blog page. Telling him how much fun it is and what I've blogged and all about the blogosphere etc etc. Basically: that I'd done a 'blog'.

Now, I don't know what Rob was thinking...maybe he thought I said I'd done a bog! Maybe he hadn't had much sleep cos he turned to Laura and said, "Have you done a poo as well?"

Don't be scared of Rob's pic, he took that himself...trying to be tough! Rob is one of our year 8 boys' leaders. If you're the praying type...please pray for him cos he's going on an overseas trip next month to serve God!

If 'Sorry' Seems to be the Hardest Word...

So if sorry seems to be the hardest word...then 'i forgive you' must be the next hardest!

We had our youth leader's Bible study this evening on the topic of forgiveness. One of the passages we looked at was Luke 17:3 "If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him." Wowser! 'If' he repents? I always thought that if someone sinned against you, you should forgive him anyway! But this is saying that you should forgive them ONLY if they repent. I was thinking as we discussed that this has gotta be in context of helping to bring them to repentance with God. The aim in any human relationship is reconciliation and the same with God. So if a believer sins against you, you hold out on forgiveness ONLY for the purpose of them identifying their sin and repenting and reconciling to God. Also, this is in line with Matthew 18 where it talks about the appropriate ways to approach a believer who has sinned. Confidentially, with a witness, etc.

So this has given me a bit of a different spin on forgiveness. As it also says in Matt 18; forgive them 70 times 7 'if they repent', I am willing to forgive over and over with the strength and grace of Jesus. But if they need to come to repentance for the sake of their relationship with God, maybe public forgiveness must be held back for that sake... Hmmmm, still working this one through! The Bible: always bringing out the pearlers!

Sword Wielding Western Australian

My mate Scott over in WA witnessed a bizarre event on the weekend! A man storming into a church service wielding a braveheart-style sword and starting to preach! The story had a sad twist in the end, thought-provoking stuff! Read more here.

Sausages on Tap

Just quickly this morning as I'm off to go do a BBQ brekkie at a local high school here on the Gold Coast. Organised by a few of the local church youth groups we get together, chip in, and put on a brekkie for the youth at the school every Wednesday.

It was my turn to bring the snags this week so I went to the butchers on Monday and was chatting to the guy there (they usually start asking questions when you buy 5kg!) Told him what I was up to and he ended up giving me a discount on the snags...and then gave me two dozen eggs as well!!! There still are some generous people in the world! Good on ya mate!

Professor Snook

I'm studying Certificate IV in Christian Ministry, only 6 weeks to go till the end! There's only 5 of us in the class but it's a good environment to learn because you can't get away with sleeping in class!

So anyway, our regular lecturer had something else on this morning and the course convenor was away so she asked me to lead the class! The content was already written so I just had to make sure I understoon it and lead the class through the work. The topic: Sanctification. Very exciting.

We had fun, it was a good short lesson and easy to grasp. My dad always told me that I should be a teacher so now I've fulfilled his wishes!

Sanctified: holy. Not anything that we do or any measure of our ability, works or personal spirituality but all about God setting us apart for His purposes. We as Christians are sanctified: set apart to God, by God and for God.

Call me Professor Snook.

Do you really believe?

So I've been having a bit of car trouble lately. I had an old Holden Ute. '82 Rodeo 4x4 Single Cab. Loved it, but it was time to move on. I needed more seats for youth group activities and I needed something cheaper to run. So I put it on the market and had a few bites. I then went out to the auctions and picked up a cheap '87 Ford Laser Ghia. I found out after buying it that it had done a head gasket so that's proved to be a bit difficult. I still had the ute at this time, quite confident in selling it. That didn't happen quite as I'd planned either... The gearbox got stuck in reverse one morning...and then after my mate fixed that for me...it happenend again 3 days later. BUT, God was working in mysterious ways because it was during this time that I sold it! I had more hassle getting the roadworthy certificate for it, and all this time I kept getting more and more frustrated! I was thinking...why is this happening, surely God can fix this for me! Surely God wants me to have a good, functioning car so that I can serve Him in it! It was driving me crazy, I was frustrated, annoyed, stressed and worried! So I'm driving to work last week on Monday, about a 30min drive and I'm arguing with God. I'm wondering why all this is happening, why as soon as it looks like everything's all sorted...something goes wrong again!
Then plain as day, God said to me..."Geoff, do you really believe what you're going to tell the youth on Friday night?" Hmmm! You see, that Friday I was speaking at Youth Group on giving your worries to God. Telling them that when their eyes are on Jesus, the storms in their lives don't matter as much. I know I believed it in the past but as I was preparing for this message, God had been preparing me for it as well! In my life at the time I was doubting the principle, I wasn't keeping my eyes on Jesus. I was holding onto the storm and worrying about it!

I learned my lesson. Thanks God! So I sold the ute, the Laser is at the mechanics getting fixed and a great friend loaned me his Callais while he is overseas this week. God had a plan, He knew what was going on the whole time!

As in a Mirror

So we had a worship/prayer night for our youth group the other nite. Started off with music led by the team and then moved into prayer & reflection stations. To reflect on God and to pray for our friends, our church, our city & our youth ministry. Admittedly, I was quite preoccupied that night. I had a couple of things on my mind and on my heart and I was finding it really difficult to release control of them to God. I was having trouble worshipping God freely because of these things weighing heavily. I was being disobedient to God because I wasn't committing them to Him. As I moved around the room one of the stations had a big mirror and the sign for the station read something along the lines of...

"And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit." -2 Cor 3:18
Look in the mirror. Do you reflect God's glory?

As I read that last sentence my heart thumped. I didn't want to look in that mirror! I wasn't reflecting God's glory! How could I relfect the glory of God if I wasn't even able to release control of the things in my life and worship Him? I was scared, I didn't want to look in the mirror. I didn't want to see my reflection, the reflection of a sinner.

So I sat down, I avoided the mirror and I sat at the station with my head in my hands and I prayed. I finally released those things I was holding in my heart and I committed them to the Lord. I couldn't do anything to change them, I was just holding onto them and worrying about them. So I committed them to the Lord. I stopped being disobedient to what He was asking me to do. I submitted to His Lordship and I humbled myself. And I felt better.

But as I sat there I realised that regardless of how I felt that night. Regardless of any sin in my life or disbodience or resistance to God, I do reflect God's glory. My reflection in the mirror isn't a true representation of my reflecting God's glory. Colossians 3:3 reads: "For you died when Christ died, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God." When God looks at me, he doesn't see me and my sins. He sees me in Christ. He sees Jesus' holiness, and Jesus' glory. When God looks at me I reflect the glory of Christ. I reflect the glory of God! If you're a Christian, your life is hidden in Christ, you reflect the glory of God! Not from anything good we can do but entirely from God's gift to us: Jesus!

Wow! So I stood up and I looked in the mirror. And I saw Geoff, the sinner. But God didn't, he saw Geoff whose sins are forgiven. He saw the glory of Jesus Christ all over me! The 2 Corinthains passage from the mirror station said that the glory comes from the Lord. Not from us. It comes from God. Thankyou Jesus!

Me 

Welcome!

Hey.

This is me having a go at this whole blogging thing and seeing what happens. Please leave comments on anything I post. Cheers!

Snooky