Monday, July 31, 2006

Was it the wine?

Well I heard from the horses mouth that it wasn't the wine that ended up by putting him in hospital. He was using a spittoon the whole day. He was admitted to hospital for possible Meningitis!!!

Makes you think really who have you been around......

Friday, July 28, 2006

wine

maybe thats what happened to the miss universe girl who collapsed after winning the prize...

Thursday, July 27, 2006

wine tasting

so can anyone tell me what happens if you do too much wine tasting?? i heard of one person who spent the afternoon with his girlfriend only to be admitted to hospital the next day. i have heard of people not handling their drinks but that has got to take the cake!!!

TV

yep i agree about the TV. its a stupid thing really! i have often thought about selling ours and not having one at all. i heard of a family the other day who don't have one, they just watch a DVD on the computer if they want to watch anthing. but Sheila has got a point... every tv has an off button. so its up to us to turn the thing off and get on and do something with out lives. i do wonder about people who get involved with 'soaps' of various kinds - why don't they live their life rather than living through someone elses?? it seems a bit odd really! of course it sounds like i am a purtian but i do watch a bit of tv, not as much as i used to mind you. i have been watching the series "Earl" latley, more for a laugh than anything though. this how issue is pretty emotive though. what do others think?

Thursday, July 20, 2006

good questions!

hmmm. those last couple of blogs make you think eh? why are people trying to do all these things and why don't the people who have the power make decisions and take the actions that could help? there is so much trouble in the world and so much pain for those who are innocent. i suppose that is one significant reason why i connect with the Gospel so much. and why i am so keen on Jesus. i believe that in all this somewhere and some time there is going to be a final reckoning. and that God being all knowing will sort out the right from the wrong.
is God trying to test us? good question! maybe. but i suspect not in the ways we are thinking of. to a fair extent i think we are just reaping the results of our own actions. mostly those actions are driven by our own needs and selfish behaviours. i have been wondering latley what the world would look like if we actually gave 60% and took 40%. it makes you think...

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Bush and Blair What the.....

In case you havn't or have looked at the link i put into my last blog here is a longer version of it so you can watch it.
http://ninemsn.video.msn.com/v/en-au/v.htm?g=9E7FFC3E-D199-4781-BE1B-2DF6AACBAE34&f=39&fg=email

Why?

RefresH
Hi everybody,

Just thought I would add a bit more content to the site. With all the drama happening in the world at the moment it seems like there isn't any sense to it all.

I mean the Israel have a fair point to try and get the Hezbollah out of Lebanon, but is there any need for them to keep bombing and trapping poor innocent people there? When world leaders don't realize that they are being filmed and say things they shouldn't say in public, if you want a great example of this have a look at this link.http://ninemsn.video.msn.com/v/en-au/v.htm?f=39&g=43a6dade-5a73-4747-b68a-1313d1162fd0&p=aunews_aunationalninenews&t=s29 Probably not the best thing to be saying, but then again it is George W!

Now today we find out another tsunami has hit off the coast of Java killing more people. Haven't they suffered enough.

I was watching TV the other day and it was a show that shows music videos a new song came on that I had only really heard once before but I had never seen the video clip for. It starts off with a well known rap singer singing(sorry talking) away and doing what rappers do. Next thing the main 'group' start to sing and what do you know they are all girls and they are walking around in there underwear. Well fair enough they haven't finished getting dressed yet but they then proceed to sing and the words and the visuals that come up onto the screen is sure enough to make any man happy. But than I remember aren't there going to be young girls watching this and thinking oh so this is how I am suppose to act? Forgive me if I sound a bit ignorant but this really does look like soft porn I will use the word they were acting 'slutty'. I know for a fact that young girls think that this group is 'cool' as they put it, and this does have me worried.
Is TV getting slack about what is aloud to show?

Why do we always seem to be seeing the negative things that are happening in the world are do not see what good is being done?

Why are people so critical about others and what they do, wear, watch or how they act?

Why does it seem that there is so much discontent around but hardly any happiness?

Is God trying to test us (common question I face everyday) with everything happening in the world? Or is he trying to show us the bad so we can see the good, or what we can do to help?

I would love to get some feedback about what you think, please don't hesitate to tell me I am wrong about what I have said.

Feel free to visit my blog, My Life in an Xbox, and chuck a few comments on there. thanks for reading!

Oh and if you don't know who this is also let me know. you are only a blog away!

new series on the roll...

hi Friends!
as you might have gathered we are starting a new series on 1 Peter. this very small book has a lot to say to us, even though it was written so many years ago. Phil started us off last sunday night with 'thinking right'. this sunday night we will be talking about 'doing right'. trust you can join us!

the service room

9.07.06 Malvern@6 The service room


I’m holding on for a hero… (play music)

So who are the real heroes anyway? What makes a hero? Someone who does really great sporting achievements? Academic success, someone who has business savvy and can make a lot of money?
Of course that is what society says. That’s what is drilled into our heads all the time;
Pick up any mags,
Surf many sites,
Watch any tv

And you just get the same thing over and over again.
‘heroes’ are people who;
· have all the right bits in the right places
· have all the money
· have all the right things to say
· go to all the right parties
· wear all the right clothes
· drive all the right cars
· and are seen with all the right people

Of course you know what I am going to say. I’m getting a bit more sceptical in my old age.
True heroes are found in very different places than what Who weekly or Cleo Batchelor of the year suggest.

Let me give you my definition; True heroes are people who give of themselves.

And as Australians we know this. We get the fact of service. Australians know what it is to serve and help each other, even if it cost them a lot. Just think what is in every sing town across this nation. In every park in this entire country there is a monument to the soldiers, sailors and airmen who gave their life in what? In service to their country. Interestingly our armed forces are called the services.

You see we get service. We get the fact that you give of yourself sacrificially and without asking. The idea of mateship is built on service. In this Aussie culture is closest to that of Jesus. Jesus knew what it was to serve.

Tonight I am finishing part A of our core values. Next week we are going to start a new series in the book of 1 Peter. But tonight we open the door to another room.

If you remember we were talking about using values that come from living in the house of difference. Remember there is a whole stack that separates us from other clubs and institutions in the world. We are not the Red Cross, not the mothers group, not the historical society, not a gamers club, not a group that has gathered around a particular interest. And even though we might pick up some of the practices of these groups, fundamentally we are different. For we are the Church. Gods church and nothing comes close to who we are, and nothing should distract us from what we are meant to do. And if you find that confusing that’s ok, if you find that confronting that’s ok, if you find that exciting and challenging that’s ok. For we are actually on a journey, on the road of discovery and we haven’t yet arrived. Its something that we work out in light of the past and in dialogue with the future.

So can you remember what we have named so far as our core values?

As I am sure you have guesses that tonight I want to talk about the service room.

The service room is the place in the house where you do stuff. But not just good, easy stuff. Things that are sometimes difficult and hard and other people don’t like to do. It’s a bit like the laundry, or the place in the kitchen where you have to do the dishes or the cleaning of the shoes. I mean who in their right minds wants to do the laundry, who wants to put their hands into the pockets of kid’s trousers and fish out all those things that kids gather up in a school day! Who wants to do all those greasy dishes after everybody has enjoyed a roast?

You see the thing is that the church has always done things like that. The church has always been involved with the ‘dirty’ things of life – if you know what I mean.

I read an outsiders view of church the other day.
"Now, he goes to the 'mall church', and boy, have things changed. Lots of parking --first good marketing ploy. He's greeted at the door by a guy who welcomes him, and says that he must be new here because the greeter does not recognize him. Therefore he is told not to bother putting any money in the collection plate. So far so good. Then some guy who's been on Canadian Idol belts out a hymn. More sing-along music, then a 10 minute sermon (very upbeat --God loves you) and you're out of there in an hour feeling good about yourself, and the fact that you've been to church is a bonus."

My friends - How did we go from the crucified Galilean carpenter to a cross-less Christianity? How did we go from a Jesus who invited disciples to follow him to a God who blesses affluence and the American Way of life?
It might have been a great place but it wasn’t church.

Church always has and always will cost something for those who belong.
In 1914 Ernest Shackleton placed an add in the London newspaper"MEN WANTED FOR HAZARDOUS JOURNEY. SMALL WAGES, BITTER COLD, LONG MONTHS OF COMPLETE DARKNESS, CONSTANT DANGER, SAFE RETURN DOUBTFUL. HONOR AND RECOGNITION IN CASE OF SUCCESS."
Ernest Shackleton received over 5,000 applications from people wanting to join him on his expedition!

In many ways that’s a bit what we are asked to do. Lay down our agendas, safety and comforts for the cause of the mission. And the reason for that relates to our first core value in the service room.

1. We value a servant hearted approach to life.
And if you knew your bibles you would understand this to be a no brainier when it comes to core values.

We value this servant value because we are followers of the great servant. And if you thought you were into the Christian life for the glory… then I’m sorry to inform you of the opposite.

When I went to Bible College down the road from here in the 90s we used to sing a song that just about sums up this thinking. It went something along of the lines of “This is our God the servant king who calls us now to follow him to give your lives as a daily offering in worhsip to the servant king’.

The Christian life is all about service. If we had to define why we had this core vale we could simply put this way; we have an attitude of service because that is what Jesus had.

And just like today many people found this aspect of Jesus very surprising. The Son of God who yet served. How can that be? What sort of a joke is this? But yet it is no joke. Jesus deliberately picked up servant images from the Old Testament and used them to refer to himself. He even went so far as to say that his mission was to serve, listen to Mark 10:45 “for even the Son of Man (that was how Jesus referred to himself) did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

And then think about the cross. What happened then? Jesus served you.
He served in your place,
he served as your substitute,
he served as the sacrifice for all sin,
he served as the sacrificial lamb,
he served as the bridge for you to access God in the most remarkable way.

Do you remember Jesus being in the desert for those 40 days and then the devil tempting him right at the very end? And do you remember what the devil implies in his questions to Jesus? He says something like why do you want to do things the hard way, the servants way. When you could have it all! And Jesus says get away from me Satan, they are your thoughts not Gods thoughts. I am here to do Gods things, Gods way. Which is very different to anything else.

My friends, heroes as defined by God look remarkably like a servant who model the way of Jesus. This is who Jesus was, the servant of humanity.

So what does this mean for us? Well let me unveil servant room core value number 2.

2. We value empowering and releasing people to serve together using their God given gifts. (I know a bit of a mouthful – you can tell me how to shorten it later!)

So not only do we have a saviour who is a servant, each one of us has been given at least one gift (some many more) to serve each other and to serve the world. And it’s the job of the church (that is all of us) to help you discover, develop and deploy your gifts. They are things that were given to you to help all of us. To make all of our lives better. And to help us to be the church.

Each and every person here has a role to play in serving, in being the church. And just because you think you are no good, your undereducated, your to old, to young, to poor, to geeky – whatever – doesn’t mean a thing. God is calling us to a non negotiable – that the Christian life is about serving and each one of us is being equipped to serve.

My friends the people who are heroes in Gods eyes are those who give their life in service of others. You know there are heroes among us and they are in front of us every single day. People who make it their lives calling to serve in the way of Jesus. And instead of looking for the bright lights, the stand outs, the people who make it on to the front cover of who weekly – if we looked for the humble the servants we might discover a most remarkable thing.

You see funny things happen when we serve let me give you three different examples of what I mean as we understand this core value of service.

1. If we serve each other in the church we pretty soon cotton on to the fact that Jesus is active among us. Think about this one for a moment. Serving is not a natural action its not something that we do easily or with out effort. But when we do it, something holy happens. Something not ordinary takes place in our presence and if you really take the time to look you can see if for yourself.
I get so excited when others use their God given gifts and serve.

2. But it’s not only us that notice these things. People know that Jesus is alive in the world if we use our gifts to serve the community. They know he is alive because they see people who claim his name doing things that no one in their right mind would do. The history of the church is chocker block full of people who have in many peoples eyes thrown away their life in service of others. People just don’t get it why the church serves, they just don’t understand and all they can do is say either these guys have been smoking some really funny kind of weed or they have had something change them internally. You see God has intended service to be evangelism. That people might see our actions and give praise to God for what they have seen.

3. And the 3rd point. I remember reading a book titled 20 hot potatoes Christians are afraid to touch by Tony Campollo in it there was a chapter about how single, widowed and divorced Christians can resist sexual temptation and yet remain sane. Campollo, if you have ever read anything of his or heard him speak is a straight shooter. You think Dr Phil from Oprah Winfrey has got tough love, you just wait till you hear this bloke! In this article, he makes the outlandish statement that the ‘cure’ if you like that word, the cure for the build up of sexual tension can be relieved by serving. In other words God designed serving to ease the pressure of all that goes on inside. I told you funny things happen when we serve! You know I think he is right. I think that God gave us service for a whole stack of reasons.

My friends let me finish. The serving room is a really important part of who we are as the Church. It sets us off because we were made to follow the great servant – Jesus. And each one of us have been given gifts to serve.

What a great privilege it is to go against all that the world says is right and heroic. I couldn’t think of a better challenge to take up. Do you want to join me in gaining hero status?

Monday, July 03, 2006

2.7.06 The worship room
Isaiah 6 Isaiah's Commission
1 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. 3 And they were calling to one another: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory."
4 At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.
5 "Woe to me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty."
6 Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 With it he touched my mouth and said, "See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for."
8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I. Send me!"



You remember that over the last couple of weeks we have been working through our core values. The first week had to do with fellowship – or how we relate to God and to each other. Last week it was around the message we have received from God and how we are to share it.

I was planning to span this over 5 weeks. But I have decided not to but to do tonight and finish with next week. In a couple of months we will come back to it and have another look. I didn’t want to core value us out!

And you will also remember that we have been using the house image.
The place where we live that separates us off from a footy club or the guides, or the uni society that exists to drain every bar in town and boost Coopers profits.

Tonight we enter the third room of the house where we reside as the people of God. The worship room.
I did think about calling this the throne room, but sometimes people refer to that as the toilet – so that cancelled that one.
I also did think about calling it the TV room because we seem to be very good at giving the TV our undivided loyalty. But then just decided to stick with the worship room. Simplicity is good I think.

So the worship room is tonight’s big theme.
I reckon if I asked you to describe what worship is you might well say its coming here for an hour or so on Sunday singing some songs, saying some prayers, hearing the Bible read and a sermon preached and not forgetting the cup of coffee afterwards. And if you were to say that you would be exactly right with the first of our core values.

1. We place the highest priority on gathered worship.
If anybody has ever listened to me over a period of time you would know that there are a couple of themes for me that remerge over and over again. One of them is that it’s important to meet together as a community to celebrate what God has done for us.

And recently I have come to understand that there is a wide variety of emotions that need to be engaged in our gathered worship.
Ecclesiastes 3 gives us a fair list, many of which apply to our gathered worship times. Let me read it out for you.
A Time for Everything1 For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven.2 A time to be born and a time to die. A time to plant and a time to harvest.3 A time to kill and a time to heal. A time to tear down and a time to build up.4 A time to cry and a time to laugh. A time to grieve and a time to dance.5 A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones. A time to embrace and a time to turn away.6 A time to search and a time to quit searching. A time to keep and a time to throw away.7 A time to tear and a time to mend. A time to be quiet and a time to speak.8 A time to love and a time to hate. A time for war and a time for peace.

But the thing is that we should meet. And even though there is great admiration in society for people who stand alone against all the odds there is no such thing as solo Christians. The bible and the church have never endorsed Christianity in solitude. Of course there are periods where you need to be alone but then there must be a coming back together.

The book of Hebrews reminds us to “not give up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another”. (Heb 10:25). If you read carefully through the book of Acts you will see just how many times the early church got together to bring their praises to God, to break bread, to hear the apostles preach and to pray.

The story of the minister and the old Scott farmer.

Let me tell you why it is so important for us to be here together every week;
It strengthens us, it bonds us together.
It reminds us who we are – the church
It helps us reframe life from Gods perspective
It unites us in a common purpose and allows us fellowship.
It knocks our rough edges off – the chair in the glass beads.
It lets us hear the message, the story of faith, from a different perspective.
But more importantly it gives God his due. We take an hour and a bit out of our week to remember first things first that he is God and we are his creation. – we worship him for the simple fact that he is worthy of our worship. We remember creation, cross and consummation.

And in this gathering together we remember just whose presence we evoke when we come here.. Isaiah 6 our reading tonight. What could Isaiah say but woe is me.

You see primarily Worship is dangerous. You come close to The Holy God. You will not always hear what you want to hear or feel or experience what you think you should.

And so to reflect the nature of God we work hard to make this the best event we can. We have a value of being excellent to the best of our abilities in corporate worship. I and the team here are committed to making this holy hour the best representation of what God means to us that we can.

But there is more to our core value of worship than one hour a week. So here is our second core value in the worship room.

2 we have a commitment to worship that permeates all aspects of our lives.
(there are a number of components to this one)

I used to be really worried as a kid. I had this huge dilemma on my hands. Because my parents would tell me about heaven. That it was a place where God was. The most wonderful place on earth, all the best things that you ever imagined were there. And I used to love that and really look forward to being there. But then the problems would start because they would say that when we got to heaven we would worship all the time. I cannot tell you how much of a tight spot that would put me in.

Because I did truly want to go to heaven but I didn’t like the one hour on a Sunday that I called worship. I didn’t like the songs, I didn’t like the seats, I didn’t like having to be quiet, I didn’t like being indoors, I didn’t like the moth ball smelling old ladies that used to rub my hair and tell me how big I had gotten but above all I didn’t like the sermons my dad used to preach!!

I wanted to go to heaven but I didn’t want to worship for the rest of eternity!!!

Finally I discovered that the definition of worship was far more than one hurried hour where my dads talking filled half of it!

Worship encompasses all of our life. Our whole life is worship. If you want to follow Jesus then you have no other option but to think this way. And that’s not a comment I make often.
Listen to a well known passage from Romans 12:1 “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sister, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – (why) this is your spiritual act of worship.” This implies that all of life is about worship – about Giving God the glory.

You see, to portion out our life into different segments is the great danger of the Christian life. There really is no such things as a Sunday Christian. You don’t clock your Christian life on when you wall in the door and then off again when you walk about. We are followers of Jesus when we fill in our tax returns, go to the footy, when we drive, when we work, pay or bills, speak with the Indian calling about the new mobile phone deal, play, sleep, watch TV, hire DVDs’ go on the internet and every single other activity that humans can do.

This church has long had the slogan “a 7 day a week church” maybe we should think in terms of “7 day a week worshipers”. All of our life as Christians exists to bring glory to God.

The thing is though there is more to this than meets the eye. to live your life where God is in every part - does something to us. To live your life in an attitude of worship changes us and in the process transforms us. So as part of this core value I want to affirm that growth is the norm is for every Christian. People who have a passion for God, who worship with their every breath have a hope for life that can been seen by everyone. They have something there that stands out from the crowd. Its like they have been in the room with the living God who’s train fills the temple and their life has been touched with the coal from the alter.
Don’t you want to be like that!? I know I do.

My friends tomorrow morning when you wake up ask God to help you be a 24/7 worshipper. As God to help you pray, ask God to give you eyes to see where he is working in the world.

But not only does it make a difference to you but it makes a difference to us You see I suspect that our corporate worship reflects the hearts of the individuals. The quality of what we have here in part comes from what we bring collectively.

My friends let me encourage you to hunger for God, an enthusiasm for life, faithfulness in prayer and a life that worships every single minute of the day. And let me call to you every Sunday night to gather here and be the church.