Saturday 26th September 2009 It's bragging time.

It's braggin' time. Yep. This is where I resort to being a boring egotistical boring dad. The one every one avoids.
The first photo is us. Me, Cathy, Mum and Michele. And we are standing at the Elms, which is in Karingal Hub. Michele is the reason we are here. You see it is school holiday time just now. And the only time we can go out as a family and do breakfast is when Michele is on holiday.This next photo is of Cathy doing her level best to carry a bucket of water that is near on as heavy as she is. And yes, she did move that bucket although she did get very wet in the process.
And lastly, this photo is one of the three favourite ladies in my life right now. One Proverbs 31 woman and 2 Proverbs 31 Women in training. Stephanie is practicing for her Grade 8 classical music exam and the 2 girls just decided to tag along for the ride. The boring bragging dad is on the other side of the camera.
There are more photo's. But you will have to go here to see the rest.
Tonight we watched a Testament DVD. It was one about Jonah. Now you may recall Jonah was sent to Nineveh to warn those people about the impending judgement to come. Short version, the repented and Jonah was not happy. Go here to read the whole story.
After the DVD finished we got to talking about people we would like to talk to when we got to heaven. For me, I would like to have a chat to Jonah. After all the book ends with Jonah not being all that cheerful. Michele wanted to meet Adam and Eve, coz they ain't got a belly button. Michele then decided that she also wanted to have a chat with Judas. You know, the one who betrayed Jesus. Never did get to find out why. Anyway, I told her that I didn't think she would get to see Judas coz he committed suicide and as far as I know he never ever repented. Although maybe he did. After, as I recall he did say he had betrayed innocent blood.

Thursday 24th September 2009 What is church?

I am getting educated. Church tag educated, or maybe pigeon hole educated. Once upon a time way back when I got born again there was church. In those days there was 2 streams. Tongue talkers and anti-tongue talkers. Tongue talkers said they were baptised in the Holy Spirit and the rest weren't coz they didn't. Of course there were Catholics. But they also were pigeon holed along the same line.
Fast forward 30+ years. Now we have a thing called Organic Church. Oh, and Emergent Church. What ever happened to just plain Church? Maybe we can explore what Jesus wants to do in church and how He wants to live in His church and where He wants us to go. And maybe that is what is behind the Organic and Emergent Church. Jesus trying to get back into us and our church. Oops, did I say that?

Monday 14th September 2009 Church 3

Cole-Slaw is a blog I found some time ago. Hop across and have a read. Neil Cole is the author and thinker. He is the sort of pioneer of Life Transformation Groups of which I happen to be a fan. We at St Luke's here in down town Frankston "do" LTG's. Although the way we do LTG's is slightly different to Neil's.
We call our LTG's Triple M's. And we mainly meet on a Saturday morning at Macca's for breakfast.
That was not the purpose of this post. Although a little boasting and advertising is good for business.
This: What Do You Mean By Church 3.0 is what I wanted to comment on. I guess what Neil is doing is looking at what it means to do church today and also what it means to be the church.
Why was man created? To be the visible expression of an invisible deity. We are to be the "image" of God. And what is an image? It is a visual expression of something. In our case, that is God. A photo is a visual expression of what you look like imposed on a piece of paper or what ever. It is not you. Only you can be you. And only God can be God and only Christ can be Christ. But, by allowing Christ to live out His life in and through us, we can display His image in the world.
Neil Cole is really exploring in depth what it mean to be Christian. And to be church. Church 1 is the early church. The persecuted church. Church 2 is the institutionalised church. Church post 313 when Constantine decided to make Christianity the state religion. Church 3.0, as I understand Neil's post is a combination of Church 1.0 and 2.0.
Can we have a combination of the two? Yes. As I have commented to Neil, we need both. We need the institutionalised church for corporate worship and as a meeting place for welfare in the community at large.
The church is the place where we meet for solemn assemblies and so on. It can be the place where the public, those out "there" meet us in "here". It the place where we, as a body of people, meet to collectively express our worship and love of God. It is the place where the different small groups, or cell groups, meet to interact and share ideas and resources.
Small groups, or house church's, as I see it, is the place where we are ministered to as individuals. This is the place where people know us, warts and all. Here we share out laughs and hurts and our joy and pain.
LTG's are the accountability place. This is the place where I must account to another for where I am in my Christian walk. Is the sin in my life, have I done my Bible reading. In other words, have I breathed in and out.
That brings me to another thought. We breathe in before we breathe out.
Back on topic. So, as I see it, Church 3.0 is a necessary transition on where we are.
I look forward to more of what Neil has to say. What this space.

Why does God allow suffering....

That was the topic of Phil's sermon. Why does God allow suffering and bad things. And he chose as his Bible reading Genesis 3:1-8.
It is a tough subject and one that I pondered in a life crisis about 7 to 8 years ago. I applaud Phil for tackling the subject. It is a tough one. He arrived at the same answers I did. When I questioned God about it I didn't like the answers I got. because I got the same answers Phil did. We are responsible for where we are at. Six thousand years of human history is the mess we are in today. Six thousand years of sin.
What do we want? God to step in and stop fires? But hang on, God preordained the way the earth was to be managed and if we violate the laws then what? God steps in and doesn't allow it? So then what, God is interfering in our affairs? We can't have it both ways. We want to have it both ways. We don't want God to interfere and yet we want Him to get us out of trouble?
And what about when we violate His standard? What then? He just lets us go free and doesn't hold us accountable?
Phil said where is God. His answer was that God is in the suffering. God is right there where they are. And He has provided a way. The cross.
Back to my original point. Way back when I questioned God about why He allowed things and didn't stop others. Did I get an answer? No voices spoke out of the mist. All that happened was that He kept taking me back to the source of the problem. And that was us humans all the way through. It is our sin. It is our disbelieve. It is our disobedience. And that folks is a hard and bitter pill to swallow. When ever we point the finger there is always one pointing forward and four pointing back. So where did that leave me? Did I get answers? No. Did Job get answers when he went down the same questioning road? No. Job was show God's glory in creation. I was shown my own ugly sinful and selfish nature.
But I was also shown the cross. And to the cross I cling and nothing do I bring.

Friday 4th September 4 2009 Amazing.

Just now a good friend and myself are engaged in Bible reading. We are reading around 14 chapters of the Bible each week, or there abouts.
This week it is Acts chapters 1-14.
Acts chapter 4:24-31, the believers prayer is a truly remarkable prayer.
Look in particular at verse 24: "And when they heard that, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord, and said, Lord, thou art God, which hast made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is:"
Can you imagine that? They are all in one place. Peter and John have just been up before the Sanhedrin and have been released. And then this prayer. Did they all say the same words? This says they did. At least to me it does. What convinces me? Look at verse 31. The place where in they were, was shaken. Now that's powerful. I have been in corporate prayer before. And yes, it's powerful. But not like this. And we didn't all say the same words in unison it suggests was done here. Or maybe I am reading more into the passage than is here?
I am going to let you, the reader, ponder this one and make up your own mind.
And no, I don't think it was a liturgical prayer such as we have in our beloved St Luke's in down town Frankston.

Wednesday 2nd Septemer 2009 A milestone.

Yes, today is a milestone for me. At 0730 WST on the 2nd September 1972 I commenced my life in the rail industry. It was a Wednesday that I went to the Forrestfield wagon repair depot of the West Australian Government Railways and applied for a job as anything they had on offer.
I had got fired from my previous job for questioning my manager's decision. Not a good career move.
Anyway on Wednesday the 1st September 1972 I applied for a job, any job, at the WAGR. They asked me when I could start. I said when ever it suited them. They said to be there at 0730 the next morning, which was a Thursday.
I started out as a labourer doing this and that and very little else. I went from being a labourer, to a wagon repairer, to wagon examiner, to train guard, to trainee engine-man, to train driver. That little lot took me 22 and a half years.
In March 1995 I resigned from Westrail, as it became known, to take up employment with National Rail Corporation at Kalgoorlie. I was at Kalgoorlie for the next 6 years, working as a train driver and later as a Driver Trainer.
At the end of April 2001, I resigned from National Rail Corporation and on 25th June 2001 commenced with Connex, soon to be Metro, driving suburban trains around greater Melbourne.
Where do I go from here? Retirement, hopefully, in about 10 years time.