Tiger really has messed up

Is there anyone who has lost more money because of his adultery than Tiger Woods?
Seriously, how much has he lost financially since the news broke, and kept growing?

But that is not the worst part.
Now he has lost his wife, and presumably a lot of contact with his kids.

Respect, integrity, relationships....all gone.

I wonder why he did it, not just once, but again and again....

Husbands, love your wives, wives, love your husbands.
It is not always easy, nor does it always feel 'natural'

But at the end of the day, I have seen and heard enough about adultery to know most things turn to mud when married people give in to temptation....the fantasy does not match up with the reality.
Love your wife, love your husband.....

Post script Mark Connor has some good thoughts on this here

More churches...more pastors...should be doing this....

Yawn.

How many people/bloggers are there out there that are wasting their time posting blogs and comments on what pastors, and what churches should be doing....
'churches should be focusing on....., Pastors should be focusing on.....'

Seriously...get a life!

If you are a Christian...you are the church!
If you are a Christian...you are a minister!

Stop focusing on what someone else should be doing, and start focusing on what Jesus wants you to do!

What Jesus wants you to do may very well be an exciting, life transforming, redemptive ministry!

In fact, I am sure it is what He wants you to do.

Posting a blog post on the ills of this minister or that church, chances are that the person you are posting about will never read it, and if they do...they wont change! And why should they? Because you said so?

Huh! Most of my good friends who are pastors are too busy doing ministry to be worried about your blog post.... so get on with it...Christ has a plan for your life, and it does not involve telling others what they should be doing, it involves you serving Christ!

Blessings and peace to all...and honestly this is not directed at any one individual, it is for us all, the Body of Christ, myself included...to apply.

Christmas is almost here

Really busy and my mind is full of issues and opportunities, so I have not given much thought space to Christmas.
But I am looking forward to it.

Here is what we are doing at Inglewood Church.

Christmas Eve Children's Service 6.30 to 7.30pm

This service is particularly tailored for children and will include Christmas items from our various children's groups, including Toddler Jam, carols, and a short devotion.

If your child has asked you about the true meaning behind Christmas, you might enjoy bringing them along to this fun night. We guarantee that if you need to leave, the service will be over by 7.30pm at the latest. This will give you time to go home, make the bikes, put out some carrots for the reindeer, and prepare for the early morning onslaught!


Family Christmas Day Service 9am to 10am

This service is for everyone to enjoy, including families. It will include carols, songs, items and a short devotion on Christmas.

If you feel that Christmas is a time to enjoy with your family, to the full, this short service will be a great way to start the day. Once again, we honour your time and guarantee the service will run from 9am to 10am sharp. This will give you time to check the roast, put the ice in the sink, and prepare for the onslaught of relatives and freeloaders.

Set the bridge on fire...message two

Speaking from Acts 28 this week, when Paul gets attacked by a snake.
'Here is Paul the missionary, who has devoted his life to Jesus, he hears the Lord voice on the road to Damascus, he turns himself around, he preaches against those who he had once served, he sees thousands of people come to know Jesus, he travels the known world to spread the gospel. Now he finds himself on a stormy island in the middle of nowehere, cold, wet, tired and with a snake hanging off his arm"
See you Sunday for the rest.....

This is awesome...I want to do this!!!

Morality and Leadership

My son and I sat down to watch some of the Australian Golf Tournament recently. Not because he is interested in golf, but because I wanted him to see the greatest golfer of all time in action.
A man who has smashed the racial divisions in golf, and brought excitment to a game some feared had lost its edge.
He certainly brought them in through the gates at an Australian golf tournament threatened with irrelevance.

I said to my son, 'there is the greatest golfer ever!"

Now we find out that his feet are well and truly made of clay, with multiple affairs becoming apparent.

What interests me though is what the failure in a moral sense means for a leader.
We find out today that sponsors are dropping off the Tiger... News

While on one hand we seem to be a society that endorses a hedonistic lifestyle, when someone public crosses that indistinguishable line, we drop off them!

People actually do have in innate sense of decency about them, a conscience. We might all be hypocrites and hold others to a higher standard than ourselves, none the less, none of us really think we are just animals, nor do we think we behave like them.

Rick Warren biograhpy

"At another point in Wednesday’s discussion, Sheler talked about Warren’s time of depression and how he literally went to the desert to take refuge. When Warren was in seminary, he had the vision of building a church for people who don’t go to church. He felt God told him that the church would one day have 20,000 people and be on a 100-acre property.

During his first year at Saddleback Church, the congregation already grew to 200 regular attenders and the number was increasing. But Warren, after giving a Christmas service that year, fled to the Arizona desert and described himself as falling into a depression. His depression, Warren said, stems from feeling that the success that he was already experiencing as a pastor was undeserved and from feeling that he was not equipped to pastor a 200-member church let alone a 20,000-member church as God had promised.

“He felt even that he wasn’t all that great a Christian and ‘maybe I shouldn’t even be a pastor',” Sheler said.

But during his time in the desert, Warren said he had a “dialogue” with God when God agreed that Warren didn’t deserve to be successful or to be saved. However, he was saved by grace and by the same token his ministry is successful because of grace."

Fascinating! Rick is the real deal, a humble Pastor, aware of his own failings, yet hearing from God keeps him going.
More

60% of Aussie men share an ancestor with BONO

Perhaps more interesting is the fact that scientists are confirming what we have believed all along, we all come from one man..the so called 'Y Chromosome Adam.

"'The Y chromosome is the piece of DNA that makes men men, only men pass it on to their sons,'' Dr Wells said. ''We can trace every man alive today, every Y chromosome, back to a single Y chromosome, therefore a single man, who lived in Africa 60,000 years ago."

More

For the 'Kim Hagdorn is a goose file'

In contrast to Kims dire 'whiteant' prognastications of the past few months, the twice All Australian Dockers ruckman, Aaron Sandilands, has signed on for life at Fremantle, extending his contract until he reaches veteran status.
(Kim gets it wrong again)

Like the former All Australian Ruckman before him, Dean Cox, Aaron has rewritten the standards for a mobile ruckman. Other teams are being force to go defensive against him, because trying to counter him is a little difficult.

I have watched Aaron chase down what would appear to be much more mobile players. Obviously it takes him a little longer to get going, but once he does, he is a sight to behold. He is also incredible 'below the knees', if you know what I mean. When he leans down and picks up the ball, on the run, you know you have someone special.

Confronting

I hate confronting people....
I prefer things to be nice and good and calm.

But there are times...like when someone asks you a question, where you have to say what you think and feel...even if it comes out wrong and jumbled...and are left with that debilitating feeling in the pit of your stomach.

But saying something, even when nauseating, is probably...probably....better than not saying anything at all...at least I think it is..but it may not be.

I hope that when you confront, you do it with grace and love...but that the other is better because of it, not worse.

Off to pray

When I started off in this pastoral caper I was in a peer group of 6.

4 of those blokes are no longer serving in the ministry.

1 of them that left is now suffering with as serious sickness, but it does appear he is out of the worst of it.

He is 44.

Today I am off to Northam to pray for him with two of the other guys from my peer group.
Its an interesting and emotional day.

Only a bloke would understand...

Why a bloke would post a picture of his new trailer on his blog.
Very light! 120kgs Just the right size for the power challenged Vitara.

mmmm that snuck up!

Google "markedly'
Guess who comes up second, before the Webster dictionary! :)

Set the bridge on fire!

Speaking on breaking free from those things that bind us...during December...

Going to speak on Moses....no turning back to Egypt

Elijah...turn your back on fear of people

Acts...turn your back on the denial of the supernatural..

When you become a Christian...there is no turning back! Burn those bridges!!!

So much on

and so much happening next year.
I feel like I am on a boogie board at dusk, and the wave is pushing me towards the shore...but there is another wave behind me....ready to pounce as the present wave runs out of puff....

Its a little scary, but I have nothing to complain about.

Relevance and whingers

There are so many that are critical of the church, in a whole raft of ways.
However the keenest and most consistent of these are generally those who would call themselves Christians.

You don't really hear the Muslims, the Bhuddists complaining about what a Church is doing.....and for that matter you don't really hear the Christians bleeting about what the Muslim is doing...and I am talking about a question of degrees here, there are always exceptions.

I wonder how Jesus dealt with those who were critical of His ministry? Who were they, what did they look like? What did he say to them, and how did He treat them?

A fault I have is that I take criticism to heart, I take it personally.
Instead of focusing on that which is affirming, I focus on that which is critical.

There are so many great things about Inglewood Church...and our affect on the community. It feels like we are on a wave of blessing, expectation and fruitfulness.
My prayer is that I don't get in the way of what the Holy Spirit is doing at the moment, but facilitate it.

Met up with someone from high school

I am repeating myself, but I did not like high school.
I felt trapped, I felt I could not be myself, and I did not really like myself either!

But today...I met up...for the first time...with a mate from high school days.
The first time I have met up with anyone from my time at Scarborough High.

It was a great experience, a really nice guy, and it made me feel like some of that time was redeemable. We had a great conversation abour our time at Scabs, some of the good times we had.. life, philosophy, spirituality.

We also talked about what some of the blokes from 'our group' are up to.
It feels like an age away now, but it was refreshing to have it brought into the present.

Servicing the Suzuki Vitara 1994

On Saturday I 'serviced' my Vitara 1994.
This involved...
Changing the oil, oil filter, air filter, coolant and sparkplugs.

All up...cost was $74

There are three of four types of air filter, and the price difference is incredible.
Over $70 for one type, $11 for the Repco one!

I use reasonable oil, but oil has gone up so much in recent years. However I chose a middle of the range one...with 20w-50w of course.

I have found Repco to be the best auto parts shop, because they are the cheapest, and they carry the biggest range. They always have what I need.

Auto One the most expensive, and generally the guy behind the counter treats you like an idiot...maybe cause thats how I come across!

While Supercheap Parts can be cheap, they rarely have what you need, they carry bulk items, so if you have a 2000 Commodore, you should be okay! Anyone else will need to go elsewhere..unless you feel like buying a $2 air freshener in the shape of Bart Simpson.

The most painful aspect of servicing the car yourself is getting the oil filter off. The Suzuki one is reasonably easy to get to, but what a pain to get off! I eventually had to drive a screwdriver through it to be able to turn it to get it off....Oil dripping all over the joint.

The spark plugs are reasonable easy, but you need a good sparkplug socket, or, like me, you could use your sons super strong magnet to pull them up...as they are right inside the block. But thankfully...no points.

All in all, a massive saving, and with my son at my side, a good teaching exercise.

Grace

No other religion has it
No one who has not experienced it thinks it fair

Those who know it, know its the only thing stopping us from sliding....
Thank God that He knows what we are really like, and knows that grace is the only thing that is of any use to us.

What made Jesus madder than anything? Those who did not show grace, yet were under its covering.

What perplexes me? Churches with grace in their title, but who show anything but grace to a dying world oblivious to their need for it.

What spurs me on? To be relevant to those in need of Gods grace, who don't know it, but who I know....need it.