Monday 20th August 2007 Unshakable....

...Identity. That was the subject of the Vicars message this morning. We attended the 0915 service today. We are trying to get to a different service each Sunday. So this morning it was the 0915 service. Next week it will be the 11am service. The following week it will be the 0915 service and so on. The 0915 service has old hymns and is very traditional in its approach. The 11am service is more modern and contemporary in style. The sermon is essentially the same. This is St Luke's I am talking about. It was a good sermon. It was from Ephesians 2. In this passage Paul talks about where we were and where we now are. The preacher pointed out that this epistle (letter) was written to gentile believers(If your not Jewish, your gentile). And it is intended in part to be a word of encouragement. It is a word that is needed in this time of uncertainty. Christ offers identity and a sense of belonging. A sense of who we are. Many are those who go through life not knowing who they are. They are in a sense trying to find themselves. Many never find out and for some of them life becomes so hard, they decide it is not worth it and commit suicide. What a tragic waste of life. You are who you are. And you are what you are. You can be more than you are in Christ. In Christ you can be the complete you Christ created you to be. Without Christ you can never be complete and will never reach your full potential. You will also never fully appreciate life or be truly happy.

Back to the suicide thingy. I said before it is not an answer. Yet tonight that is precisely what some poor young lady tried to do in front of me. The only thing that saved her life was God. And her boyfriend who pulled her out of my way. If he hadn't I would not be writing this now. The possibility of a fatality is something I face every working day. There are always those who think it's not worth it all. For them life is too tough. They have, as they see it, no hope, no identity, no future. Why go on. What's it all about. Usually by the time they do the awful deed they are already, in their mind, dead. They just need to do it. Not to succeed is failure. Yet it isn't. They may be dead but others live on and are affected by their mistake. Help is available. For the young lass tonight, the police were called and she has gained time to sort herself out. I pray some one can help her and offer her hope. Fortunately my brakes worked well and so I was able to buy her some time. I pray it is enough.

Now it is time for bed and my Hot Water Bottle. Yes, that is my new name for Cathy. I use to call her Grumble Bum. (Don't ask.) Now I call her Hot Water Bottle. It is cold at night now and she warms our bed quite nicely. Yes, she shares our bed. And a very nice hot water bottle she makes. And do I grumble if my hot water bottle is not there! I whinge and whine and moan. But eventually my Hot Water Bottle joins us in the bed and all is right with the world again.

One more thing. I have included a picture. It is of Michele, myself and another little boy from Michele's preschool. Yes, we parents also get involved in preschool. It is a good way of seeing how your child is coping and a time to look at the way the preschool does things and the teachers. Back to the photo. Michele, in this photo, is using headphones to listen to music for the very first time. She had never, prior to this, used head phones before. It was one of those precious moments and one which her teacher had a camera handy and was able to catch the look on Michele's face. Priceless!

Friday 17th August 2007 Can I have ....

.... have 48 hours in a day please.

Oh, the above photo is of Michele and Mum on a tram on the day we went to the Victoria Markets. You can see Catherine. Mum is wearing her I think. We went to the Vic Markets to get bread and goodies for our house. Steph wanted some wall hangings, dresses and, would you believe, sourdough bread. Yes, a one hour trip in the car, plus 1/2 hour in the tram, just to buy bread. Actually we went there "coz". Coz we could. There are markets all over Melbourne. Victoria Markets is just one of them. Most have fresh food produce. In fact that's what they specialise in. We have also been to the Preston Markets. Each market usually specialises in a particular commodity. The Vic is clothing. Preston is food and kitchen stuff. Adelaide in South Australia also has an excellent market. Lots of yummy goodies there. Not recommended if one is on a diet.

These are the other Markets we have yet to get to. We want to go to South Melbourne, Parhran and Springvale Markets.

Today's Bible reading from St Luke's is 1 Samuel 21 and 22.

Here we see what happens when one stops relying on God for their safety. David makes a very costly mistake here in verse 1 of chapter 21. A mistake that is to cost a man and most of his family their lives. Yes, some things we do have a great cost, not always to ourselves. As we progress on we see that Saul's madness knows no end. His jealousy and hatred of David continues to grow. However, the main person in these two chapters is David. Now most folks I know think David is great. Not I. I actually find him a little depressing. In this these two chapters he leans not on God, but on his own understanding and ability. He goes through all sorts of gymnastics to save his own skin. I might add, so do we. The flesh, that old man, will do anything to preserve itself. What is God's purpose in this? What is God trying to show David? Maybe that David needs to die to his own efforts and rely on the very One who had taken care of his before. The One Who was able to help him to slay a Philistine. Why is this for me difficult? Maybe because their is a little of me in what I see with David? What is the outcome of these two chapters? David makes a prize fool of himself on more than one occasion and a priest is killed. Was God glorified? Not that I can see. OK, lets go a hunting. What's God's purpose in all this? The Making of a Man of God, that's what. It is not until we reach the end of ourselves and our own self effort that we will be what He wants us to be. That will be painful. It will be costly. Others will get hurt. But at the end, we will be what He wants us to be. The question is: Will we surrender? Has David? Not yet in this story!

Friday 10th August 2007 A riddle to solve.

St Luke's Bible reading for today is 1 Samuel 16.
Here are my comments.
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Thy site. Speak Lord, some precious word, some message that Thou intend only for me. Let me hear the words to hear. Amen.
This small chapter is loaded with goodies for me. It is like a good "T" bone steak with loads of chips and salad. But then all of God's word is like that. It is a smorgasbord of spiritual food. It has appetisers, mains and desert, all in one.
The measure of Samuel is to be found in verse 1 or maybe God is fishing. Look at Samuel's response in verse 2. That is very telling. Quite apart from Samuel's response, it shows his character. He is, above all, an honest man.
Then we have David's anointing as King over Israel. Verse 7 is God's standard. Is mine the same?
Let's look at some of those not chosen.
There is Eliab whose name means God of his father; Abinadab whose name means father of generosity; Shammah whose name means ruin or consternation. Jesse's, the father, name means to stand out. Finally the chosen, David. His name means loving, friend.
Ponder this: The first shall be last and the last shall be first. It is a riddle for you to think upon and maybe post your answer in here for others to see.
In the later part of this chapter we see what can happen when God departs from a man. It is a sad and sorry tail, but one that proves to strengthen David, although I am not sure that David appreciated that.
Lord, this chapter serves to strengthen my resolve to stay as close to You as possible. You promised never to leave us or forsake us. Upon this to I rely. May we chose to anoint in the manner You would anoint. For Your Glory, Amen.
I worked afternoon shift today. And got cranky. With a bus driver. On my way to work. Here in the land down under they have this crazy law that makes every one give way to buses entering onto a road. No matter that the motor vehicle may be travelling fast. No, if a bus pulls out we have to give way to it. It is a law that is not only dangerous, it is down right stupid. I mean to say, what crazy idiot would pass a law that allows for a dangerous situation to exist. It could only happen in Victoria. I am convinced that Victorians consider it mandatory to break the law. They make an art form out of it. They then looked stunned when called to account for it. Sometimes I do wonder.......
Here in the great south land of the Holy Spirit the leader of the Democrats has a bee in her bonnet because, it would seem, too many of our politicians attend a Christian Fellowship breakfast that is held in Federal Parliament every Wednesday fortnight. It seems that she considers that because on 8% of Australians are so called Christians that because around 75% of politicians claim to be Christian, that Christians are over represented in our Parliament. How sad. Never mind that those Christian politicians go out to bat for the underprivileged in society.
What is the state of the religions of the various party's in our federal parliament.? Well, it would seem that the Liberal Party is mainly protestant with one or 3 Catholics. The Labour Party don't know but it would appear the leader of the Labour Party, Mr Kevin Rudd, may be a Christian. The Democrats don't know what religion, if any, they are. The Greens are anti religion, or maybe Atheist. Any who are gay don't like Christianity, or Islam for that matter, because both are a reproach of their life style. And lets face it, any one or any organisation who would cramp your style, is going to be a little unpopular.
And finally, I think, why should a wife or woman be called Ruby? And why is the woman called the weaker vessel by the Apostle Paul? It may actually surprise you when and if I give you the answer. The clue to this riddle is in the word vessel and the answer is all Greek. And I am not being racist when I say the word Greek. Remember this one really isn't a riddle, it is actually cryptic.

Thursday 9th August 2007 Why is it so?

Yesterday's post didn't publish even though I told it to and it said it did. Oh well, that's life.
Lets share today's Bible reading.
It is 1 Samuel 15.
This episode was to have far reaching consequences. In fact the end of this is played out in the book of Esther. In fact two of the people in Esther have their origins in this book. Saul was to utterly destroy. That was God's command. Just as an aside, I had something pointed out to me the other day. There is a difference between God's will and God's command. It is this: God's command is much more direct and narrow than God's will. With God's will there is room to negotiate. Not so with His command. Saul was under a commandment. Go and destroy. But then Samuel returns. Verse 14 "But Samuel said, "What then is this bleating of sheep in my ears? What is this lowing of cattle that I hear?" Even at this stage Saul still has a chance. All he needed to do was repent. Simply hold up the white flag. We are exactly the same. What is our bar of soap? 1 John 1:9. Unfortunately Saul didn't avail himself of that. He tried to pass the buck. When he realised he couldn't he then tried to save his own skin. We also will try to do that. The flesh, the old self life, will try to preserve itself at any cost. God has only one answer for our "old man". That is death. Am I willing to have the "old man" put to death?
I made a statement at the beginning that I need to follow up on. Let us slip forward to the book of Esther for one minute. I will let the reader read the verses, I will just supply them. I will say this, obviously our King Agag had been up to some monkey business that Samuel didn't know about. So, two principle players in Esther are found in Esther 2:5-6 and Esther 3:1.
Prayer: May I do exactly as Christ commands me and when I do wrong may I be willing to confess it and seek His forgiveness. May I not try to make excuses for my bad behaviour and or wrong actions. In Christ Jesus, Amen.
Saul was the first king of Israel, David was the second and Solomon the third. Sad to say, Saul and Solomon started out well but finished poorly. King David was up and down. But he did rely totally on God and has that in his favour.
Now, your not going to believe this but we finally, it's only taken 4 and a bit years, now have a good TV antenna. Don't that beat all. No I didn't do it although I easily could have. We paid to have it done. Am I lazy? Yes. Well, actually but I am busy. What with house renovations and babies I just never got to it. So now we have a you beaut sound system, a have way decent DVD/video and a TV that actually has good picture and sound. Oh yes, I broke the sound on the TV not long after we got the TV. I never got around to fixing that. Today I asked the antenna man if he could. He did It in about 2 seconds. Mind you we never watch TV so why bother. Michele watches Play School on ABC TV but that's about all.

Wednesday 8th August 2007 More bragging....

Did I ever happen to mention that I love my kids. Well, I love the wife to. After all she is the mother of both our kids. Cathy lived up to her nick name tonight. She was grumbly. Tired poor kid. It's me you see. I wear the kid out. Nappy change(diapers for those who live in USA) time is fun time. Now we have discovered foot kicking. It goes like this. One has a race with Dad to see if one can plant a foot in the poo when Dad undoes the diaper. So far were not doing too good, depending on your point of view. Dad so far is one step ahead of his little girl. But it is one slip away from the daughter having success. But the training to keep the legs down upon request is a screaming success. Around 9 out of 10 times she will keep her legs still when asked to. That's not bad for a 5 month old. Who said you can't train them And when she gets praise does her little eyes light up. She just loves the approval. Stephanie is working on the fingers in the mouth thingy. That is a but harder. Consistency is the key. And unfortunately Stephanie can't be 110% consistent. But at this time we are working on training. Stephanie was concerned that I was expecting too much. But as I said, I expect nothing. I am only training.
Look at it this way. When one doesn't know, we train. We expect nothing and so we train. However, once one knows then we expect compliance. Until then we train. A baby knows nothing. It only understands that certain things will bring certain responses. It has no idea what is required of it and mainly doesn't care. At this point of its existence it knows only "self" and "self" satisfaction. It is, to a degree, trying to work out its place and what is required of it and, even more importantly, how it can get what it wants. Our job as parents is to find out what it needs and satisfy those needs before they get out of hand.
Now if we could get passengers to be compliant we would be in business. But that's another story for another time.
Today's Bible reading is 1 Samuel 14.
Here are my comments:
This is how it is done. See verse 6. I like also verse 7. That ought to be my attitude to my leaders. Contrast Jonathan with Saul. Hmmm, I thought the saying went "Like father, like son". Not so here.
Saul comes in for the mop up. But it is the son showing the leadership.
Where am I at? Hmmm, you be the judge.
Now, lets apply the S.O.A.P. principle.
Scripture: 1 Samuel 14;
Observation: See above;
Application: Seek the Lord. Rely on Him. He will get the victory every time. The battle is not ours.
Prayer: Lord, please use me as You will and purpose. Not my will but Thine be done. In Jesus name, Amen
And now finally, maybe. Did I ever tell you that we have a photo page? Well we do. Isn't that good?

Sunday 5th August 2007. It's been a while

http://www.stlukesfrankston.com.au/bible.php That is the web page for St Luke's Anglican daily Bible reading plan. If one clicks on the link for the daily reading one is taken to the appropriate reading. There is no commentary. However, occasionally I write some notes on the daily reading. This can be viewed on the forum page. I do this purely out of interest. I don't write notes for every day's reading. I could but don't. It is good for every one to read the Bible and then let God speak to them from it. And yes, the vicar, pastor or what ever you want to call him, is quite happy for me to do this. I have had people say they value my input.
As I write, Michele is in her bed, snoring and Cathy is in her pram behind me also snoring. When we eventually go to bed she will join us. No, Cathy still isn't rolling over from her back to her belly yet. However, it is only a matter of time. Cathy, for some reason best known only to a five month old, thinks that anyone sneezing is a highly amusing event. Michele for her part, will go to 4 year old preschool next year. We were informed this last week that a place has been reserved for her should we wish to take up the offer to continue. Which we do. This year has been so positive for her. We do live in a cloistered environment here and eventually she will have to go out in the big wide world. It is important for her to be able to manage that big wide world. Contrary to what some would have us believe, she has not picked up some knew horrible habit. She probably passed on a few to other children. One small detail that people like to forget is that we are all born with a sinful nature. It is not something one "catches" from having contact with other children. If that child is going to "pick up" bad habits they would do it anyway regardless of what their contact with others is like. Far better that they should have those bad habits bought out into the open at a very young age in order that they can be corrected before it is too late. Train up a child, not shield up a child.
Now finally, perhaps. Today's sermon from St Luke's. It was called "Unshakable Faith" The reading was from Ephesians 1 verse 3-14. I am praying that the vicar got my hint about posting his sermon notes. Anyway, the Bible reading is a big encouragement in itself. In the crazy world it is hard not to have our faith shaken. I think we all wonder what God is in all the rubbish that happens. One good be well forgiven for thinking that God doesn't exist and that the Bible is a load of "bull". It takes Hebrews 11:1 to make any sense out of it all. Yet Christ didn't promise us an easy ride. It was always going to be tough and only the tough will survive to the end. May we all be able to join with the Apostle Paul and fight the good fight right to the very end. For what it is worth, it is only faith, call it a crutch if you want, that makes this world worth it in the first place.
Well I lied didn't I? That last bit wasn't the end after all. Unless you have been living under a rock for the last 6 thousand years, you will have no doubt heard of the predestination versus free will thingy that has raged since Adam was in diapers. Well I have always been able to see both sides. I must admit that the predestination theory and God sovereignty thing almost paints God to be evil and I seriously object to that. I mean if we are all just puppets in all this then why bother. Similarly if all this world is about is a grandiose fight between God and Satan then quite frankly that is a load of bull dust as well and also paints God as this overbearing evil monster. I mean, really, some people predesignated, or God purposes that some will be evil? Give me a break and at the same time credit God with some semblance of brains please. Anyway, for what it is worth go here http://www.khouse.org/enews_article/2007/1089 for a balanced look. It is also the position most near to my own.
Enough of my waffle for just now.