Sunday 23rd November 2008 Boys and their toys.

That's a picture of my new/old toy. I have had it for about 12 months, maybe a little more. It is an Icom IC-718 all HF band receiver and Ham band transceiver. So far I am impressed with the rig.
Yes, I am a Ham. Call sign, VK3BOT.
I also have other Icom radios. So far the only disappointment has been with an Icom IC-T90A. And that little thing is a bit of junk. I do wish I had read the reviews first. Had I read the reviews I would have left it where I found it. On the shelf. It receive is useless, even with a decent antenna. It transmit seems alright, provided one only wants to use it for 1.5 hours. Then look at a fourteen to fifteen hour recharge time on the battery. And the worst part is that it is nor big enough to make a decent boat anchor. Enough of the bellyaching.
Back to the original radio. Like i said it is the latest in a 17 year association with the Icom brand. By first Icom was a 725. That was followed by 735. OK, you go do a google and you'll find all about them. Good transceivers.
My first ever transceiver on the ham bands was a Yeasu 301. Good, simple radio, very easy to tune and fix.
No pictures of our kids this time. Sorry. They are in bed. Cathy decided it was time to test Mum's patience and tolerance. Silly move. Mum's patience was nil and her tolerance for children who play up was, as usual, nil.
Today was church day. At St Luke's of course. We didn't have a sermon today. We had a testimony. The Friends Luncheon was closing after 15 years of operation. Many who had been involved testified and also some who had received a lunch also spoke. One amazing aspect of the ministry was that it had paid for itself, and indeed had run a small surplus. The surplus had been placed into various church projects over the years.
One last word. As Christians we are free from the law of sin and death. There are some who would say we are free from the law. True in part only. Christian character will always testify as to how free we are. We are freed from the law of sin and death in order to be free with live as Christ would live through us.
Enough.

Sunday 2nd November 2008 I am bored....

.... or lazy or both. And I am still wondering what to do with Facebook. Obviously a lot of people are because a little while ago I wrote about this very subject and invited people to unconfuse me. Is unconfuse a word? I wrote on a couple of peoples walls and so far the police haven't been around to lock me up. That is hardly surprising, given the lawless state of Victoria. One can graffiti trains and get away with it, so why not walls.
What else has happened in my little world? Well, me mate is now 20 months old and she is still me mate. She kicks me in the head every night without fail. The tart. But I love her. My Friend has decided she wants to wash the dishes. I have been a bit reluctant to let her. She is only 4.5 and ever so young. I was also worried she might cut herself or some other such silly thing. However, yesterday I bit the bullet and let her do our lunch time dishes. She did well. Very well in fact. I was impressed. She washed and I dried. We made bread also. Well, I prepared the bread and she gave instructions as only 4.5 year old's can do.
This morning we did church. St Luke's of course. Well, is there any other church. You don't do church? What are you and atheist? Do you know what an atheist is? A believer in denial. That's right. Any way, we did church. And I decided to do things different in future. Mum sings in the choir and the choir has a choir loft. Yes, I know it's strange. A loft is normally where one keeps hay. Well, they do sing hay every now and then. OK, bad joke. Anyway, whilst Mum is upstairs exercising her vocal chords, I am down stairs acting like Mr Mum. Yep, I get the best of both worlds. I get to enjoy my kids and church at the same time. You don't? You don't know what your missing out on.
Anyway, I decided to do things different from now on. I use to taker the kids into the "cry" room during the sermon and then we would return to the chapel when the sermon was done and we would do communion. Well, I am not going to do that now. Mum can put in the offering and the kids and I will stay in the "cry" room until it is time to take the communion then will come out. Why? Because Michele can see better the lead up to the communion and I can instruct her better in what the different parts mean and what the priest is doing as he prepares communion for us all. She is interested and wants to get baptised. We wont do that yet, but in a while we will. How is that. One other thing, every Sunday the priest blesses our kids. Well, not just ours, but anyone who brings their kids out for communion will get their kids blessed.
OK, I have to do this. Who will win the elections? Really, who cares? It is what that person does that will count. It is their moral character that will count. Who ever it is my prayer is that they will seek Christ and be led by Him and what He says. past leaders have claimed to but in reality haven't. Some have claimed Christianity as their faith. Well, maybe that is so. But many do that and they are not born again.
The Bible reading this weekend is Psalm 143. I offer the following for your consideration. I wrote it yesterday and posted it on St Luke's Forum.

I have read this Psalm several times today. I found it quite gloomy. I prayed about it that God would give me enlightenment on it.
I did something I don't often do. I looked up commentaries on. Matthew Henry plus others. Then I went online.
Most agree this is a Psalm of repentance along with Psalm 6 and Psalm 51 and others. It also appears, or at least is accredited by some, to having been penned by David possibly when he was on the run from Absolom.
This http://www.ccel.org/ccel/calvin/calcom12.xxvii.html is where I got my information from.
As I read more of the Psalms I see more of David wearing his heart on his sleeve. One can see, both his tears and fears and also those times of great joy that he experiences. And even though he puts his foot in it with monotonous regularity, he seeks relationship with and trusts in His heavenly Father no matter what. That single thing is what marks King David out from all the rest.
I pray that I might ever be humble like King David and seek Christ in all I do, even in the hard time.
Amen