Congratulations Tim & Shona!

It was awesome witnessing this today.
Congrats guys! May God bless your new life together.

Friday Friendships

Sorry for the lack of blogging lately, but I would just like to thank God for living in a city where you can pick up friendships with old friends you haven’t seen in years, make friendships with new people you have never met before, and just plain hang out with current friends! And thank God for being able to call up old friends and catch up. And laughter. That’s ALWAYS fun. Isn’t being a Christian such a blessing?

Fridays tend to make me think about the friends that I have...seeing as how its a day to enjoy friendships. Tonight a group of us went out for pizza- the funniest thing that happened- one of the girls there was trying to tell her friend that she had some green food on her teeth. Her signal was to put some green food on her own teeth. Subtle but hilarious. It reminds me of my own age old joke- which consists of putting some food on my nose at the dinner table and then waiting for someone to notice.

I need to get out more.

Our Only Entry to Heaven

The only righteousness in which we can appear before God is the righteousness of another- even the perfect righteousness of our Substitute and Representative, Jesus Christ the Lord. His work and not our work is our only title to heaven. This is a truth which we should be ready to die to maintain.

(Holiness, JC Ryle, p21).

Do you appreciate just how sinful you are?

So much of our religious teaching betrays no sign that the speaker has descended into hell, been near the everlasting burnings, or been plucked from the awful pit. He has risen with Christ—what right have we to deny it?—but it is out of a shallow grave, with no deepness of earth, with no huge millstone to roll away.

~PT Forsyth, The Church, the Gospel and Society

What sweet words- that we are risen with Christ. But do we really see how far we have risen up out of the grave? Does this come through in my preaching? My conversations? My prayers? We do we shrink from the doctrine of sin, when it makes the doctrine of our completeness in Christ even more sweeter?

A Snapshot of This Thursday

The day starts with finishing off my pastor's corner for the local newspaper. My latest article is on 'Amazing Grace'- an article arguing that 'Amazing Grace' is more than just a hymn- its a song about us! Hopefully with the upcoming movie, the article will generate some interest. And then there is the sermon series that I want to promote in the local rag on 'Eternity...everything you wanted to know but were too afraid to ask'. Also, an email about the bon fire night tomorrow night. A phone call or two. And the morning is gone.

Then there are Scripture classes. I teach year 4 in two schools. The kids are better behaved at the second class I teach than the first one. But is this because I'm better prepared for the second class, having done it once already? I have no way of knowing, other than travelling to a parallel universe to find out.

In between classes I catch up with Shannyn at one of the local cafes for a coffee. We solve all the problems of the world during this time, starting with our own.

Lunch at home. My dog is excited to see me. After lunch I send some more emails. (Our poor secretary gets a bombardment of emails from me on Thursdays...) I hope to rope in some volunteers to help move a 'woman-in-need' from my suburb to East Kurrajong. I'd call her a widow, but she wasn't married to the deceased. What do you call a woman in a de-facto relationship where the partner dies? Still trying to figure that one out. The forecast for the projected removal day is rain, so it could be unpleasant.

Finally some sermon work. Preaching on Romans 5:1-11 on Sunday morning, at 8:30am and 10am. Then I cover Ruth 1 in the evening. Ruth 1 still needs some fine tuning. (My sermon, not the actual word of God, in case you were confused!) Romans 5:1-11 is looking fine. I'm glad I did some hard work on it earlier. I look forward to preaching both. I also start writing next week's Bible study on Romans 5:12-21.

The evening- a few phone calls, more emails, a visit from Dad, and all is well in my world.

But looking forward to a day off tomorrow...a visit from my cousin, perhaps a beer with a mate, and a bonfire night at church with the local kids.

Totally reliant upon my God and in awe at this life He has given me.

Amazing Grace- the movie

My boss had free tickets to see a prescreening of the movie Amazing Grace. So I went along and saw it with him. (The perks!)

I have to say first and foremost I loved the movie. There were some serious and somber moments where the gruesome brutalities of the slave trade were realised. There were also some light moments, like when Wilberforce was matched up with his wife-to-be. There was romance and humour. The political scenes were well done. There was suspense as a plan was hatched to pass the Bill of Abolition. There was drama as Wilberforce delivered a stirring speech to the Parliament.

But I don’t think this movie does much to help you ‘speak’ the gospel with your friends. There is a point in the movie where Wilberforce is at the death bed of Pitt, the Prime Minister, and Pitt says ‘I’m afraid.’ Wilberforce asks ‘what are you afraid of?’ Pitt says ‘Death. I wish I had your faith.’ At this point I thought ‘now he is going to show him that he doesn’t need to be afraid of death’. But Wilberforce merely takes his hand and holds it. End of scene. What the? When I'm about to die, I don’t need someone who is going to hold my hand…I need the Saviour. I was on the edge of my seat, thinking ‘Wilby, preach it brother.’ But apparently that doesn’t make for good movie making.

The difficulty is that the movie doesn't really explore the Chrisitan motive behind the ethics. It just explores the ethics of slave trading. I see this movie as a ‘flag waving exercise’. It adorns the gospel. It shows that Christians have stood up for Christian issues and they have been unpopular about doing so. And Christians still do the same thing today. When we speak up against the plight of refuges, or about euthanasia, or killing fetuses or embryos, its because we believe in the value of human life, that all are equal- men, women, Africans, Australians, embryos, elderly…all are made in the image of God, and are to be cherished as such.

It also strikes me that one of the challenges of atheism is to come up with a good reason why slavery is wrong. I mean, if people have no created worth, (the atheist's view) then surely it is OK to view people as commodities to be used, rather than people within relationships who are to be cherished?

Movies like these put Christianity into the public sphere, which is always a good thing. (The 200th anniversary of slave trade abolition in Britain was 25 March, 2007, so the movie comes at a significant time). I'd recommend going to see it. Who knows how God might use it? Perhaps you can use the movie to speak of Newton- the wretched man that he was- guilt driven, yet found by God. And explain the story of the well known words, Amazing Grace. Perhaps you can take your post modern friend along who doesn't believe in a category such as 'wickedness' and see what he thinks.

Incidently, here's some interesting trivia on Wilberforce: he used to say Psalm 119 to himself from memory when he was most under pressure. Not bad for a psalm which is 176 verses long. Wilberforce chose that particular psalm because its about the importance of relying upon God’s word.

Last Day of Our Holiday

I'm back at work now, but the last day of holidays was by far our greatest adventure. We were driving along the highway to fly out of Townsville doing around 80 when something in the back of the bomb we borrowed shook. The car started backfiring and shaking quite badly, and Dave had to slow the car down to 60. Eventually the shaking got so bad that we had to pull over.

Its funny how quickly a bunch of ministers can turn into a bunch of mechanics. I got under the car. Dave popped the bonnet. Steve offered suggestions about what could be wrong. Would we make our trip back to Townsville in time? Can you feel the suspense dear reader?

We pooled our collective experience about what had gone wrong with bombs we had driven in the past. Was it the carby? The petrol line? The spark plugs? (I don't mean to boast here, but incidentally, my particular speciality is radiator overheating. This one time, on another holiday, Dave and I drove home from the Hunter in my previous car- my old Corolla, which kept overheating on us... admittedly it took us a while to get home, but since we had a set of Boules with us, while we waited for the car to cool down, we played Boules by the side of the road. But that's another story for another time. Back to the current one!)

We decided that it was the fuel line. Dave gave the petrol filter a little shake, which seemed to do the trick. There was also a bit of a problemo with the exhaust. It was hanging decidedly low...So Dave being the Macgyver that he is, sacrificed a cable connection from his mobile to allow us to cable tie the muffler to the rear bumper. Having fixed that, we were on our way again.

But we didn't get far. We called the owners of the bomb and told them the sad news. The owner graciously met us at Frosty Mango, the first northern stop outside of Townsville. And the NRMA guy (or whatever its called in Queensland) came to give the diagnosis. It turned out it was the fuel pump!!! The next problem was, the guy couldn't start the car. We had driven it into the ground. It had given up the car-ghost.

The owner graciously drove us to Townsville airport, and we made our plane. Fun times.

Rest in peace, bomb!

Mission Beach Hoons

We got to the water taxi this morning to be told that there were no trips to Dunk Island today because the weather was meh. (That's not the word they used btw).

So this was plan B....

As you can see, basically the plan was to look like something out of C.H.I.P.S.

And then after we accomplished that, we decided to fang around Mission Beach on our scooters all day.

Sweet fun.

Do you know this person??

So recently someone got hold of my camera, and left a nice picture on it. It was very kind of her, and I'm guessing she did it so I can share this special picture with you.

You just never know where your picture is going to end up!

De-bunked from going to Dunk

...because of the weather. I mean, you can hardly see the island!

So maybe tomorrow.

Meh.

Mission Beach- not meh!

Now I'm in Mission beach. The bus trip here was a little meh. It took only 3 buses to get here from Cairns. But the place where Steve, Dave and I are staying is not meh. It's a beach side apartment with 3 bedrooms. My room is an ensuite equppied with double bed, spa, TV and air con, and it faces onto the beach. So yeah, its not meh, because I fall asleep to the calming sound of the ocean. Did I mention that I have an ensuite?

Yesterday we went for a walk on the Kennedy trail. 3 hours return. The sand by the water's edge was a metallic gold. A fool's gold maybe, but gold nonetheless. PLus the beaches stretch for miles. We need more beaches like this in Sydney.

We also went snorkelling near Bingel Bay. To be honest there wasn't much to see except for a few tropical fish and dashes of coral. At one point I thought I saw a stinger's tail (they are grey with a white tip, right??) I even found myself protectign my heart with my hand in case the guy felt threatened by my presence, but come to think about it, that was pretty stupid huh? Like if a stinger's tail could go through Steve Irwin's sternum and pierce his heart, it could do the same thing to my hand and my sternum I'm sure. But one does not think about these things when you are snorkelling and see a stinger's tail poking out from under a rock.

Tomorrow we conquer Dunk Island.

Did i mention I have an ensuite?

So yeah, not meh.

More than just a trip to Cairns

OK, so here it is. Especially for Shannyn, cos I’m sure that since I haven’t been updating as regularly as I used to, my blog readership is suffering drastically. So Shannyn (and anyone else who still visits this page) ... enjoy!

So I’ve been in Cairns for the last few days. Palm Cove to be exact. The flight in was rather smooth. An air stewardess comments on my Thirsty Merc t-shirt and tells me that one of the band members had flown with Virgin Blue recently. I wonder if that’s true. And if there is any way of finding that out.

I reflect on how flying is such a strange phenomenon. To think that you can get inside this little capsule and be hurled through the sky to the other end of the country and come out and feel like it was no real distance that was travelled. I open my drink bottle at mid-flight. When the plane starts to descend, I go to open it again, and I notice that my drink bottle is all crumpled. My mind starts whirring about differences in air pressures and how there is a lower pressure in the bottle at a higher altitude, but then I wonder if cabin pressure would cancel out such altitudinal differences. I conclude apparently not.

Then I land and Chris is there. Chris used to attend my church but moved to Cairns to recover from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. We just talked on Skype the night before so it doesn’t seem like so long since I’ve seen him. We chat away about the last 24 hours and the few days ahead we have to hang out, how his chronic fatigue is going. And I start to realize I’m here and how much I’m hanging out for these next few days with my friend. And I know he will challenge my own walk with the Lord, as I trust I will refresh him.

And, can I just say, not by way of rubbing it in, but by way of thankfulness to God, that I am utterly loving it here. I could put it down to the jogs by the beach, the lazing on the sand to the sound of the waves washing up on the ocean. It might even be the coffees near the water, or the warm temperature (OK, so those things are rubbing it in…I realize that!). But I think most of all it’s the time of refreshment I get with Chris. He really does challenge me to be Christ-like. To live in the fullness of grace. To simply have faith and believe. To learn what it means to be forgiven. To realize the depth of my own sinfulness. To learn what it means to have a contrite heart. We talk about brokenness and how everyone is filled with something…and we talk about being filled with God. We talk about humility and waiting upon the Lord. We speak about loving God with all our heart. We talk about helping others to love God more, and setting others hearts on fire with the love of Christ burning deeply within them. We talk about growing in godliness and forming good habits, and trusting in God. We talk about how people love doctrine but neglect God. I’m challenged to not just love the doctrine of justification, but to love the One Who Justifies. I’m challenged yet again about my own pride and selfishness and need to believe myself dead to sin in Christ. To depend upon Him as dying to sin for me, and to look upon myself as dead to sin in Him. We talk about how we trust Him for salvation, but we trust Him for so little beyond salvation. We talk about how the Lord wounds and also heals. We talk a lot about things that are on my heart at the moment. We talk about God’s sovereignty, how He hurts us where it’s precious to us, so that we will hand over every single area of our life to Him. We talk about giving up precious dreams by faith. We talk about how we don't have to hang onto things if we are in Christ. We talk about how desiring in God actually changes our desires. We talk about how the notion of 'I feel, therefore I am' is such a lie. We talk about prayer and telling God how we feel. And handing all over to the Lord. We talk about abiding in Christ. We talk about the Puritans. And Luther. And Calvin. And Spurgeon. And Romans. And Galatians. And complacent Christians. Above all we talk about being IN CHRIST, the paradigm for my life which I keep coming back to again and again and again.

So yeah, you can see why I love spending time with Chris, and how refreshing it is to be with a brother who sees me through the eyes of Christ, warts and all. A man of God who encourages me to love God more. God bless him!

Too much info Shannyn? :)

Happiness

O LORD,
Help me never to expect any happiness from the world, but only in thee.
Let me not think that I shall be more happy living to myself,
for I can only be happy if employed for thee,
and if I desire to live in this world
only to do and suffer what thou dost allot me.
Teach me
that if I do not live a life that satisfies thee,
I shall not live a life that will satisfy myself.
Help me to desire the spirit and temper of angels
who willingly come down to this lower world to perform thy will,
though their desires are heavenly,
and not set in the least upon earthly things;
then I shall be of that temper I ought to have.
Help me not to think of living to thee in my own strength,
but always look to and rely on thee for assistance.
Teach me that there is no greater truth than this,
that I can do nothing of myself.
Lord, this is the life that no unconverted man can live,
yet it is an end that every godly should presses after;
Let it be then my concern to devote myself and all to thee.
Make me more fruitful and more spiritual,
for barrenness is my daily affliction and load.
How precious is time, and how painful to see it fly
with little done to good purpose!
I need thy help:
O may my soul sensibly depend upon thee
for all sanctification,
and every accomplishment of thy purposes
for me, for the world,
and for thy kingdom.

~A Puritan Prayer

(p168, Bennett, The Valley of Vision, 2005)

The Pain of Knowing God

1. I asked the Lord, that I might grow,
In faith, and love, and ev’ry grace;
Might more of His salvation know,
And seek more earnestly His face.

2. ’Twas He who taught me thus to pray,
And He, I trust, has answered prayer;
But it has been in such a way
As almost drove me to despair.

3. I hoped that in some favoured hour,
At once He’d answer my request,
And by His love’s constraining power
Subdue my sins, and give me rest.

4. Instead of this, He made me feel
The hidden evils of the heart;
And let the angry powers of hell
Assault my soul in ev’ry part.

5. Yea, more, with His own hand He seemed
Intent to aggravate my woe;
Crossed all the fair designs I’d schemed,
Blasted my gourds, and laid me low.

6. ‘Lord, why is this?’ I trembling cried,
‘Wilt Thou pursue Thy worm to death?’
‘’Tis in this way,’ the Lord replied,
‘I answer prayer for grace and faith.

7. ‘These inward trials I employ,
From self and pride to set thee free;
And break thy schemes of earthly joy,
That thou may’st seek thy all in Me.’

John Newton, 1725–1807

Heaven- Working the Crowd Eternally

My mate Jimbo has been in love with a girl- Viv- for years and years. Well, she finally accepted (wore down? gave in?) Jimbo's advances. And today they were announced to be husband and wife....and I had the joy of attending their wedding.

What struck me about the day was there were so many people from my church past who were there- people I'd laughed and cried with, people who had lost babies, people who I've seen married and have kids (well, I wasn't in the delivery room if that's what you were thinking!), people I've planted churches with, people who I've seen fly overseas to be missionaries, people I've been in Bible study groups with, people I've been on church staff with, people I've prayed with and prayed for, people I've studied at Uni with, people I've seen come to the Lord and...the list just goes on and on.

More than one person commented to me 'this is what heaven will be like'. It sure did feel that way. Time stood still. We picked up relationships where they left off. I 'worked the crowd', catching up with as many people as possible.

And I'm sure the new heavens and new earth will be an eternal opportunity to 'work the crowd'.

I can't wait. Until then there is work to be done. Like tomorrow's preaching on the resurrection body. What a great joy to tell everyone about this! (And that's exactly what I plan on telling people!)

To Booze or not to Booze...

I was in big trouble on Sunday- one of my parishioners complained that the Communion wine was alcoholic.

Whenever we have communion at church, I try to make sure that we have grape juice, and not port, sherry or wine. You never know if there are recovering alcoholics in the congregation who may get a whiff of the stuff and want to get back on the sauce. And you don’t know who is going to be offended. So I insist on grape juice (must be my strong Baptist heritage- thanks Mum and Dad!)

In my church however, there is a couple who are constantly offended that we use grape juice. So instead, we give them a seperate cup of port, but everyone else gets grape juice.

On this particular Sunday, since we had run out of grape juice, there was no other option but to use the port. I didn’t know at the time we had run out. Imagine my surprise when I took a cup and gulped it all down! Man, did that put hairs on my chest that morning!!!

Afterwards, a lady came up to me the following week and told me that she had taken a vow before the Lord that alcohol would never ever pass her lips again. D'oh!!!

So this Sunday, its back to the grape juice. The things a minister has to deal with…*sighs*

Ridiculous Grace

I met a guy at a house warming party who used to come to my church when he was a teenager. He was telling me how he wandered away from the Lord, but now he was back. He said 'the grace of God is ridiculous'.

The grace of God is ridiculous. I love that description. Calvin said irresistible grace. I'm going for ridiculous grace.

I mean, grace is what we are constantly learning. Grace teaches us how to forgive, how to give, how to live. Grace that changes our hearts. Grace that means that everytime we fall flat on our face, or stray or stumble, the grace of God is always there to restore us. Grace that means its not by our own efforts. Grace that means that a squeaky clean track record means diddly squat, for we are all on equal footing at the foot of the cross. Grace takes away the Pharisee's pride of clean living. But by the costly grace of God, go I.

Grace- amazing, irresistible, costly, rich and free. I'm going to throw around ridiculous.

Ridiculous grace. Isn't it?

Bondi & Recovering Humility

I had an awesome day today with my cousin Clare, who has just moved to Bondi. It was good to explore some cafes while we read the paper, sit on the beach and draw, and then have dinner. Bondi became my new favourite place today- the packed cafes and restuarants, the smell of coffee and pizza, the laid-back atmosphere, the buzz about the streets- everyone just loves being there. We ended the day at Boarders at Bondi Junction, reading magazines and sipping coffee.

Whilst browsing through the magazines at Borders, I came across an issue of Quadrant, an Australian commentary on society and culture. Tom Frame (Anglican Bishop to the Australian Defence Force) has written a fantastic piece called Humility: The Depised Virtue? It sparked my interested because of my own reading and understanding on humility lately. The article basically looks at how humility is such a foreign virtue in our society. But yet so important because it affects the way that we see the world, how we treat people, and conduct public debate (like national apologies by governments for the misdeeds of the past).

The article is not available online, but some articles from back issues are available here.

Happy Resurrection!!!

Phew...I made it.

Don't get me wrong, I love Easter, and love sharing the Easter message. But its a crazy time for us ministers because of so much preaching and organisation of services that need to take place. While this is a great privilege, its also going to be nice to just chill out now that Easter is over!

Some highlights over the last few days :
Receiving TWO home made lots of Rocky Road from a woman in my congregation who wondered if I was allergic to nuts...so she made TWO lots- one without nuts and one with! (in dark chocolate too might I add cos I love dark chocolate the most- yum!)

Going to a bucks night where my mate Jimbo got dressed as a Raider when he is really an Eels supporter...it was to an Eels vs Raider game (I hope he didn't get bashed...I'll find out next week at the wedding!)

Doing kid's talks where I am popping balloons in church and one of the kids took off cos he was so scared...

In sermon tonight, saying 'the tomb was rolled away...' Not the worst slip-up in a sermon I have made.

Getting addicted by the on-line community of facebook. Check it out! And make me your friend if you join!

Being challenged by my own study of 1 Cor 15...Jesus is the man who has defeated death. He brings order to God's universe and rules the way we were supposed to. So make him your ruler!

Can't wait to just chill out with my cuz in Bondi tomorrow... fun times.

The Way a Day off Should be...

With apologies to other days off I have had.

This was probably one of my most favourite days off ever. Why? Time with friends, time to relax, time to hang out in our great city, and time to for 'silly Dave' to come and play for a while and no one seems to mind. Its all part of the destressing of ministry life anyway! Here's how it works.

Start by riding a river cat from Rydalmere and actually run for it in order to board. But once you are on, you can relax and enjoy the surroundings. Laugh at the little girl who sits behind you and asks her Mum after every bridge you go under: 'Is that the Sydney Harbour Bridge?' Little kids are good for a giggle like that.

After some lunch, cruise on in to the Sydney Aquarium. You'll love the crocs and stingers, but you can act like a bigger dill than you already are. Crickey! How long can you hold your breath under water?

Next, re-live that time you got lost in the mirror maze when you were a kid, and the time you threw up after going on the Gravitron as a teenager by heading to Luna Park. You'll see magnificent views of Sydney Harbour from the ferris wheel, and your thirst for silliness can be quenched a little more.

Throw in some quality time spent in Conney Island with slide races, spinning out on big wheels and through tunnels. Once you're done, play some pinnies and race each other in Daytona! And may the force be with you, because relfexes and sheer talent certainly won't be! (Why can't I ever win at these things?)

And then, when the day is over, sit back and chill back over dinner, share some more laughs, have some 'serious' time in talking about life and God and relationships- some of my most favourite topics. Intense stuff!

Then, when its time to bid thee a farewell, release all that excitement that is left and teenage angst that you never got rid of as a teenager by shooting up some bad guys! Yeah! bring that on!

Ahhh...now I'm ready to get back to the grindstone!

Any similiarities to real people are intentional and voyeuristic on your part.