In Bible study yesterday we were talking about superstition.
Elderly Wife- Christians shouldn't be superstitious like that. I've seen some people kiss old relics, and as Christians we shouldn't be doing that.
Elderly Man- Is that why you don't kiss me anyone?
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Thirsty Merc- 20 Good Reasons
OK here's the deal...
Orginally I was thinking of seeing Thirsty Merc on Saturday night. But having to preach the next day kinda put a damper on things, and besides, that gig was sold out. But now I realise that the 2 March (Friday night) gig is not sold out, and they are not on stage until 10.45pm. And even though I have kid's club on, I could make it to Annandale by 10.45pm. I know its late, but its not a school night, so my big question to all my friends and acquaintances and whoever out there...are you interested???????
Let me know. Everyone and anyone. Especially Merc fans.
David
Orginally I was thinking of seeing Thirsty Merc on Saturday night. But having to preach the next day kinda put a damper on things, and besides, that gig was sold out. But now I realise that the 2 March (Friday night) gig is not sold out, and they are not on stage until 10.45pm. And even though I have kid's club on, I could make it to Annandale by 10.45pm. I know its late, but its not a school night, so my big question to all my friends and acquaintances and whoever out there...are you interested???????
Let me know. Everyone and anyone. Especially Merc fans.
David
Friday, February 23, 2007
Friday Dinner at Dave's
I love hosting dinners at my place…the only problem is, it really is out in the sticks where I live, so its an effort to get here. But boy oh boy, when you do, I hope its worth the trip out to the country…
The truth is, I love to bake things. It’s the idea of putting together some ingredients in an oven, and then watching to see what will come out in 30 minutes or an hour’s time. Lamb is one of my specialties. If anyone out there has some winning lamb recipes that they would be willing to share, I’ll be sure and do a swap with you. (Mine is made with local honey…)
After dinner and dessert we did something I’d never done with some guests before- we wandered over to the church next door and belted out some hymns, courtesy of Little Musician. Oh, and Little Miss has a pretty good voice as well so between them we rocked the church! And it was uplifting. After that I preached a sermon (only kidding).
And to top it all off, we watched an episode of the Muppet Show (from 1976!) over coffee, starring Candice Bergen. Remember her? I thought she became a little whiney in Murphy Brown. But she was stubborn and she had attitude, which is always cool in my books.
Men’s convention is tomorrow. There are 8 of us going, which is awesome. Just spending the day together makes for some leaps and bounds in relationships. Plus my sermon is actually finished…(and I’m preaching twice, 2 different sermons, so I’m feeling on top of things at the moment). If only that feeling could last!
Goodnight!
The truth is, I love to bake things. It’s the idea of putting together some ingredients in an oven, and then watching to see what will come out in 30 minutes or an hour’s time. Lamb is one of my specialties. If anyone out there has some winning lamb recipes that they would be willing to share, I’ll be sure and do a swap with you. (Mine is made with local honey…)
After dinner and dessert we did something I’d never done with some guests before- we wandered over to the church next door and belted out some hymns, courtesy of Little Musician. Oh, and Little Miss has a pretty good voice as well so between them we rocked the church! And it was uplifting. After that I preached a sermon (only kidding).
And to top it all off, we watched an episode of the Muppet Show (from 1976!) over coffee, starring Candice Bergen. Remember her? I thought she became a little whiney in Murphy Brown. But she was stubborn and she had attitude, which is always cool in my books.
Men’s convention is tomorrow. There are 8 of us going, which is awesome. Just spending the day together makes for some leaps and bounds in relationships. Plus my sermon is actually finished…(and I’m preaching twice, 2 different sermons, so I’m feeling on top of things at the moment). If only that feeling could last!
Goodnight!
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Where did God come from?
A common question keeps coming up each year in Scripture class- 'where did God come from?' or 'who made God?' I know how I would answer it, but I'm curious- how would you answer this one?
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Goodbye Shirley
Good bye Shirley...we have been places together. You carried me. I maintained you. We got lost together. We explored together. We picked up hitchhikers (well, only one, really). You overheated. We met NRMA people. We ventured far and wide. Remember the trip to Melbourne? Remember the trips to Port? We saw a lot of the east coast. I made such an impact on you...
...especially when I ran you up the back of that BMW back in 1998. Oh the memories!
120 years ago
In 1887...
Barbed wire was patented.
The first contact lenses were made.
Hertz invented radar.
The first gramophone was made.
A year before, Coca Cola had been invented, so was the dishwasher, and the chemical element fluorine was discovered.
And the first church service was held in my church.
Barbed wire was patented.
The first contact lenses were made.
Hertz invented radar.
The first gramophone was made.
A year before, Coca Cola had been invented, so was the dishwasher, and the chemical element fluorine was discovered.
And the first church service was held in my church.
Saturday, February 17, 2007
A Prayer to be Freed from False Forms of Belonging
Do you gain comfort from reading the prayers of others? Sometimes other saints are able to say things that we are feeling better than we can say ourselves. Here is a prayer a friend shared with me. You might gain some encouragement from it.
O Lord Jesus, you who came to show us the compassionate love of your Father, make your people know this love with their hearts, minds, and souls. So often we feel lonely, unloved, and lost in this valley of tears. We desire to feel affection, tenderness, care, and compassion, but suffer from inner darkness, emptiness, and numbness. I pray tonight: Come, Lord Jesus, come. Do not just come to our understanding, but enter our hearts- our passions, emotions, and feelings- and reveal your presence to us in our inmost being. As long as you remain absent from that intimate core of our experience, we will keep clinging to people, things, or events to find some warmth, some sense of belonging. Only when you really come, really touch us, set us ablaze with your love, only then will we become free and let go of all false forms of belonging. Without that inner warmth, all our ascetical attempts remain trivial, and we might even get entangled in the complex network of our own good intentions.
O Lord, I pray that your children may come to feel your presence and be immersed in your deep, warm, affective love. And to me, O Lord, your stumbling friend, show your mercy.
Amen.
O Lord Jesus, you who came to show us the compassionate love of your Father, make your people know this love with their hearts, minds, and souls. So often we feel lonely, unloved, and lost in this valley of tears. We desire to feel affection, tenderness, care, and compassion, but suffer from inner darkness, emptiness, and numbness. I pray tonight: Come, Lord Jesus, come. Do not just come to our understanding, but enter our hearts- our passions, emotions, and feelings- and reveal your presence to us in our inmost being. As long as you remain absent from that intimate core of our experience, we will keep clinging to people, things, or events to find some warmth, some sense of belonging. Only when you really come, really touch us, set us ablaze with your love, only then will we become free and let go of all false forms of belonging. Without that inner warmth, all our ascetical attempts remain trivial, and we might even get entangled in the complex network of our own good intentions.
O Lord, I pray that your children may come to feel your presence and be immersed in your deep, warm, affective love. And to me, O Lord, your stumbling friend, show your mercy.
Amen.
~Henri J. M. Nouwen
Thursday, February 15, 2007
V-Day
Happy V-day everyone. Today, one of my friends SMSed me to tell me this:
On Feb 14, 269AD, St. Valentine was martyred for not denying his faith in Christ! A good day to celebrate his faithfulness and courage!
Well, that’s as good as any reason to celebrate!
I will leave you with this picture. When I was at Bible college, some of the Uni students broke into my room and ‘girlified’ my room. They vacuumed and dusted the room, sprayed perfume everywhere, decorated it with glitter and flowers (all through my drawers, might I add), and left notes from a mysterious woman called ‘Hotlips’ who was apparently madly in love with me. Here is what they did to my mirror:
On Feb 14, 269AD, St. Valentine was martyred for not denying his faith in Christ! A good day to celebrate his faithfulness and courage!
Well, that’s as good as any reason to celebrate!
I will leave you with this picture. When I was at Bible college, some of the Uni students broke into my room and ‘girlified’ my room. They vacuumed and dusted the room, sprayed perfume everywhere, decorated it with glitter and flowers (all through my drawers, might I add), and left notes from a mysterious woman called ‘Hotlips’ who was apparently madly in love with me. Here is what they did to my mirror:
Its nice to have an admirer...even if its all in jest.
And thanks Chris for a great V-Day party!
Sunday, February 11, 2007
New Ministries in 2007
Men’s convention, evangelistic dinner, young adults Bible study group, several other new Bible study groups, church camp, men’s breakfasts, revamped youth service, a new puppet theatre in the works, Cedarville singers, a 3 month training /mentoring with an American friend…these are just some of the new and exciting ventures and activities that are happening in our church in the weeks ahead and during the year! Did I miss anything?
Sunday, February 04, 2007
Love Thy Neighbour...Share the Gospel with them!
On Saturday I was at a church planting conference. The speaker, Martin Robinson was sharing how he met some new non-Christian friends. Basically he decided to invited his neighbours, 10 doors on either side of him, over for a meal. What a great idea- in today's individualised society and isolated suburb that we live in it seems so foreign to do this! But its so essential if we are going to build bridges to people for the sake of the gospel. One woman piped up during the discussion and said that their church had set aside a weekend to spend getting to know their neighbours. I was quite inspired by their initiative!
These 2 testimonies stood out for me because I had said a week earlier to my congregations to spend time getting to know your neighbours. In my suburb, you'd be lucky to know your neighbour's name. It challenged me to make the next step and invite them over for a meal or a BBQ, or spend more time getting to know not just the people on either side, but further on down the road.
In other news, today we had our church's commencement service. I made one of the kid's cry during the puppet show when the monkey wouldn't come back to life...OK, so you had to be there to understand...and we farewelled JT. Fare thee well buddy!
These 2 testimonies stood out for me because I had said a week earlier to my congregations to spend time getting to know your neighbours. In my suburb, you'd be lucky to know your neighbour's name. It challenged me to make the next step and invite them over for a meal or a BBQ, or spend more time getting to know not just the people on either side, but further on down the road.
In other news, today we had our church's commencement service. I made one of the kid's cry during the puppet show when the monkey wouldn't come back to life...OK, so you had to be there to understand...and we farewelled JT. Fare thee well buddy!
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