Okay all, I have calmed down. You are not meant to get angry about a stupid game of football, its just a game.

The miners getting found alive is a far more important story to come out of Tasmania from today.

Yet I suppose what most angers me is the injustice of it all. This was not a bad free kick decision like last year, which cost us this game. This was a considered decision, when the umpire was presented the facts from the boundary and emergency umpires, the game has finished, yet in a fit of what can only be described as temporary madness made a calculated decision which was not only wrong, but could cost my team a spot in the finals.

The Derby is next week, with Mc Manus out with a hammy, Hasleby sore still and Farmer possibly under report, we need those four points.

It is time for some honest, openness and ACCOUNTABILITY to be displayed by the politically correct weak as water AFL and umpires. Admit your wrong, do the right thing, and lets all move on.

For those interested, there is a poll at the Herald Sun Website.
http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/footy

absolute carp from the umpires
totally unnacceptable disgraceful performance


DISGRACE TO THE AFL

FIX IT DEMETRIOU

Adobe Photoshop is a steep learning curve, but after about 2 hours with it, I think I am getting the hang of it. I know this is nowhere near as good as what I can do with this program, but its a start.
Any tips?
(Blogger wont let me upload this file in its best format due to size restrictions, it does look slightly better in photoshop format)

My first car was a 1973 Corolla Ke 26 not disimilar to this one. It was not in great nick. In fact there was a rusted out hole where the drivers feet go, that was covered up with some carpet. When you had some orange peel to throw out the window (to the birds of course!) you just lifted the carpet up, and dropped the peel through the whole. Eventually we sold it for $200 to some guy who said he was going to use it for parts.
I had some good times in that car, learnt that wet roads and gravel tracks and underpowered rear wheel drive Corollas went hand in hand for learning what a car does when its sliding.
It used to get driven to Scarborough High most school days, when I could afford fuel and prise it off mum.

In the midst of a very interesting topic on Andrews blog, I have been reading in my devotions Psalm 77.

1 I cry out to God without holding back. Oh, that God would listen to me!
2 When I was in deep trouble, I searched for the Lord. All night long I pray, with hands lifted toward heaven, pleading. There can be no joy for me until he acts.
3 I think of God, and I moan, overwhelmed with longing for his help

Life sucks sometimes, and we get mad and angry at God. I love how the NLT puts this.
Without holding back I tell God exactly how I am feeling. As a father, even when my son is mad, I love to hear what he is thinking and feeling. I know he feels a lot better about telling me. The anger somehow is validated, and yet also some of the sting is released.
If ever I am frustrated, angry, upset, depressed about something, I plan to tell God all about it. And you know what? I reckon He can take it. Sometimes he must think I am acting like a young boy again, but I reckon that level of honesty is what He craves in His relationship with me.

Well Duff has been named.
Channel Ten News, that most reliable news service (cough cough) reckon that Medhurst wont be playing. We will see Gossage.

Good to see Paul in anyhow, a tall skilled quick running defender. Just what we need to skirt around an injured Gehrig who will hopefully keep his "bible basher' comments to himself this weekend. (Don't you just loooove the yellow St kilda Jumpers??)

Today was a day I designated to spend with the family. Anzac Day was not a holiday for me, I spent most it working on some things for church.

What a beautiful wonderful day.
Morning tea at Sturt Park, a beautiful playground filled park in Kalamunda.
Then a leisurely drive through the hills to Mundaring weir. On the way we stopped into a couple of places for some bush walking with the kids, as much as their little feet, and my shoulders, would allow.

Then onto Mundaring Weir where a whole heap of beautiful parrots decided to share our lunch with us. The two kids hand fed them some left over bread.
On the way home we stopped off at 'Sticky Hands Lolly Shop' which made for a pleasant and relatively quiet ride home!

Some of you from North Beach days might remember this bloke Dave Fallon
An old mate (not that he's old, just haven't seen him since the 80's) now living in London, and a passionate Freo man, which automatically means he is a good bloke!
Check out his thoughtful and humorous blog.


Actually I want to add a little bit more thought to this post.
Reading through David's blog reminded me that time does not stand still, even if we intersect various points in people's lives. What I mean is this. Last time I remember David he was a humorous great guy, a good friend to spend some time with. But we were both about 12 or 13!
I remember riding our bokes home at about 9.30pm at night across Charles Riley oval, riding home from youth group.

The last time I remember seeing him was back in the early 80's. Now as I am reading through his blog it is obvious he is an intelligent, well read person living a great life half way around the world. He has changed enormously, so my perception of him, while accurate for a time, is no longer relevant.

It is a reminder to me of how time really does move. What are we doing with our lives? While it is important to enjoy the pleasures of the day, it is also really important to me that I find significance in my life. Is this an ego thing? Or is it a God given desire?

Animals dont seem to care 'two hoots' about significance, all they care about it their next meal, and maybe reproducing. Maybe that is their quest for significance, reproduction. In fact I wonder if our quest for significance is somehow tied in with our spiritual dimension. Maybe God desires us to crave more than just the 'base'. I suppose what I am arguing for is this.
Desiring significance in the spiritual part of our lives is not a sin. Desiring to be used of God for great things is not a sin.

The difficulty comes when the desire for self promotion is mixed in with the valid desire for spiritual significance.
But I dont want to be afraid of doing something 'big' for and with God, just because someone might tell me I am doing it for the purpose of building my own kingdom.

This quote interested me,

"Healthy things grow. Healthy churches grow. If a church isn't growing, it isn't healthy. This lack of health could be due to an overall unhealthiness caused by former or present hurts, that we as the leaders are not healthy and are holding the church back or by some other kind of past problems that exists in the church. Or the lack of health could come from a simple imbalance in the 5 purposes. "

Anzac Day has become, over the last 15 years or so, our Countries most spiritual day.
We go to services, at dawn, willingly. Men and women cry, children are taught spiritual lessons. We want to have a link with our past, remember those who have given their lives.

How is the church doing with being a part of this special day?
At Bedford we spent some time in prayer, remembering and thanking.
We have had veterans in our church in the past, but they have all gone now.
Now we have some widows.
Next year we will honour them and hear their story.

As Australia's most spiritual day, somehow we need to connect with it, and be a greater part of it.

Took my son and half my wifes family to the game on Saturday night.
Enjoyed the free coke they were handing out after the game.
The game itself was not that great, but could have been worse.
A lacklustre first quarter cost us the game, with Freo well and truly outscoring Premiership fancies Adelaide in the second half.
Some very dubious decisions by the Green M & M men did not help either. What had Grover ever done to deserve that treatment?

Pavlich looks sick and out of sorts, Hasleby looked sore.
Medhurst was having a great game right up until when he was moved from the forward pocket. Why oh why Chris did you move him?

Mc Manus was best on ground in my opinion and Farmer was not far behind him.

Adelaide looked tall and strong and used the flood very well.
There are a stack of 'if only's' to come out of the game, but that's life.

Roll on the Saints, stranger things have happened and we might record out first win at Aurora.

Success as a Church Pastor?
What does that look like, what is it, is it something I want?

I have been thinking about this for sometime. The old arguments of being faithful get a little stale. So does the 'if you have a big church' you are succesful.
Some of my good friends are pastors of churches which run at about 300-400. Does this make them succesful Pastors? I dont think so, not if the church was running at that number when they came in.
Does a church which grows significantly in numbers under their leadership make them succesful? Not necesarily either. In fact I have seen in the past few years numerous Pastors see their churches grow significantly, but when a real analysis of the people coming in is made, it is obvious that their church is just doing church better. I am not hugely criticial of this because we should be doing church well, and we often settle for mediocricy and plain laziness. What does concern me is when we deliberatly foster a consumer mentality because it suits our aims of drawing in a big crowd.
We are not yet a church consuming society as may be the case in the US, where stories of people driving down the freeway looking for a church to attend on the Sunday, in much the same way as they look for a restaurant on Saturday night, are prevelant.

Obviously the real key to success is in spiritual fruit, and the foremost importance is mission, leading people to Christ.

Therefore as the key leader in any church, I believe the SP must have evangelism as his primary gifting and focus. Instead of this we have favoured those who are good chaplains and good politicians. The less fuss you make, the less waves you create, the longer you get to keep your job.

But even if Pastor makes evangelism his key focus, it can lead to issues as well, where a group of Pastors think it is okay to abuse and insult and hurt the congregation because of their own agendas.

Another group of people, normally not associated or responsible to anyone, think it is okay to critique and criticise while doing nothing in community. Being a part of a community is hard work, being responsible and accountable to people is hard work, putting up with each other is hard hard work. My heart aches when we stand on the sidelines doing nothing, being accountable to no on, yet feeling it is our God given right to pour brown stuff all over those who are trying.

My version of success is this, a group of people who are cared for spiritually, whose families are cared for, whose children are seen as a priority. Yet this same group of people is also cared about too much to leave them in comfort. Instead they needed to be resourced, trained and kept accountable to be missionaries in their own context.
This is in my view the hardest ministry there is, and maybe why so many good younger leaders are saying, 'barleise', I want out of the traditional church community type of ministry.
The problem may just well be that many of my contemporaries have also opted out, and instead focused on what is easier to do as a pastor, either giving up on the church community altogether, or focused on being a chaplain as their foremost responsibility.

What I am struggling with at the moment in my own ministry is what is the key? Specifically what is the key to seeing Aussie men come to Christ. I am talking normal Australian men. You see we have seen a number of women come to know Christ in 2005. But what about their husbands? I have this vision or God given thought, that when one of them makes a decison, and I believe I know who he is, when he finally makes his decision, this will unlock the rest of them. I know this sounds disjointed, but it is what I feel God is saying to me.

Imagine training all pre-season, being made captain of the side, and then in a rather innocuous accident, being made physically incapable of continuing.
Matthew Lloyd has just found out that his season is over for the year after a hamstring injury has turned bad.

Hard luck, very bad news for the Bombers, who were probably going to struggle to make much of an impact this year anyway.
Will they stick with their rotational policy, or will Hird give it another go?

Can you change the name of your newly aquired dog?
Well yes, actually you can, because we just did.
We never did like the name Scout for our new Irish Terrier, so we have decided she is now to be called Scarlett. She looks like a Scarlett, so Scarlett it is!

Scarlet seems to like the new name change, especially when accompanied by a little treat!

Rodney's post about Randy Stonehill had me digging up some of my own classic Christian Contemporary music.

Darrell Mansfield is a blues guitarist/song writer that I became familiar with back in the late 80's. His infectious blues rifts combined with crunchy harmonica is the perfect foil for his gospel based music. Probably his best album was "Trimmed and Burning".
He is still producing music and in fact has a new album out.

This sunday we are looking at Peter's transformation, just before I start my series on "Identity Theft". So I have made up a countdown featuring some pictures of families and people, in different stages of their lives, and using Darrell's song, 'Never be the same', off the album, "Get Ready".
Here is part of the fairly simple lyrics.

"Love can be so blind when the one that you've been missing, has been here all the time".

Short Biography

Back in the late 80's mid 90's a favourite pastime of some sections of the mainstream evangelical church was u2 bashing. I remember Christian Uni students wandering around with t-shirts which had "I've found what I am looking for" on the front and with "U2?" on the back. There seemed to be an implication that as a Christian you were meant to be triumphant, have it all together, know the answers. This malady is evident in some sections of Christendom today as well.

The problem with criticising U2 for their faith, and in particular all the critiques that came about because of this song, is that I don't think people listened to the words!

" You broke the bonds
You loosed the chains
Carried the cross
And my shame
You know I believe it
But I still haven't found what I'm looking for"

Has such a clear proclaimation of the good news about Jesus ever sold so many copies?

Bono and crew are sharing something we all know the be true, though we are saved, and know Jesus, we are still on this side of heaven. The Kingdom has not yet been established. Christ shouted out in triumph, "It is finished", but at the time He was about to die on the cross, deserted by His followers!
It is this very paradox of the Christian faith that Bono has so eloquently captured in this song.

Here is the newest member of our family, 'Scout'. Scout is a three year old Irish Terrier.
We have been praying about getting a dog, but could not afford the $1000 price tag.
My wife rang up the breeder and Scout has unfortunately just lost her pups during childbirth. She was no longer able to breed. The breeder was looking for a good home for her.
Scout was the 2006 Australian Champion for her breed!

Scout is a very welcome addition to our family, and we look foward to walks down to the park, runs along the beach, and fun for the kids.

The embarassment of riches continues at Freo with Paul Duffield, the nephew of well known West Australian sports reporter Mark, being elevated from the rookie list to the seniors at the expence of perennial hard luck story, Daniel Haines. (right Achilles tendon)

Duffield showed oustanding pre season form, and has played some great games for the Bulldogs. He has a reputation as a tough ‘inside’ footballer, and was a key reason why South Fremantle won the Grand Final. He was also a Fremantle Supporter before being drafted to the Dockers, how good is that?

If he is to come into the team this week, as Mark Harvey suggested might happen, who on earth will we drop? And what about Cook, Walker and Peake?
Can't see Duffield coming in before those guys.

I am starting a new four part series on "Identity Theft"
I am using some of the material from Life Church. Basically getting some milk from here there and everywhere and making my own cheese.

It fascinates me how much people let what others say to them affect them. In fact it fascinates me how others opinion of me, shapes and affects my own view of myself. Jesus loves me and has great plans for my life, why can't I get that?

Should be great!

Okay, he is a St Kilda Supporter, and a Barry White fan, but apart from that he is not a bad bloke.

His blog has been ressurected and you can find it here.

What a great game.
Not only for the win, but the grinding out of it.
In stark contrast to the past two games, the Dockers kept up the pressure for all four quarters.
When Port kicked four of the last five in the third quarter, I was thinking, oh no, we can't lose this can we?
But we didn't The tough as nails Mc Manus well and truly kept his place for next week. I dont know where this leaves Walker and Peake, both who could slot nicely into the side.

But isn't it fantastic to see Hayden back in the side? Haven't we missed him. And Johnson was almost best on ground.

Aaaaaah, might go and watch the game again, without the screaming, swearing and heart attacks.

Another really great Sunday as we explored the in-between situation we Christians find ourselves in.

Yes Christ is risen, but we still find ourselves in this world, with all its issues, many of them our own making.
We still live with the consequences of our own mistakes, both personally and corporately as human beings.

Yet Christ could cry out, "It is Finished". And it is, we hope, we have faith, we look forward.

Eliot and Jason did a great rendition of "He's alive" and U2's "Gloria".
Used a great piece of multi-media where an artist painted a picture of the crucified Christ. Quite moving. Good crowd in Church as well, which is always encouraging.

"The soul needs beauty for a soul mate
When the soul wants...the soul waits ...

I could never take a chance
Of losing love to find romance
In the mysterious distance
Between a man and a woman"

Moving, challenging, very thankful......

Wonderful Good Friday Service. Good crowd in, lots of visitors.
Excellent restrained music.
Multi media was moving and appropriate.
Jim did a wonderful rendition of "I cannot tell" to the tune of 'Danny Boy'.
Band did a great job of "Pride, in the name of love" fitting end to a moving service.

It's Friday, but Sunday's coming!!

Thanks Jesus again, for all you have done. You have given us real hope.
In fact the Christian message is that in the absolute worst of times, Jesus' story gives us hope.
TODAY YOU WILL BE WITH ME IN PARADISE

"I got back into LEGO building in June, 2000, shortly after adopting Precious, my third cat. She loved to be amidst my building from the start. She didn't disturb partially assembled LEGO objects, or even piles of bricks, so I could leave her to play around my assembled work without too much fear of damage. " Amy Hughes

I have been to Robert Schueller Crystal Cathedral in LA, and this one made out of Lego Blocks looks similar.

"And it's you when I look in the mirror
And it's you when I don't pick up the phone
Sometimes you can't make it on your own
We fight all the time You and I...that's alright
We're the same soul
I don't need...I don't need to hear you say
That if we weren't so alike
You'd like me a whole lot more"

Bono has said that after this album, he hoped he wouldn't need to write anymore about his dad, and his relationship with his dad. That's interesting. Link

If your a bloke, and have any sort of relationship with your dad, then like me, you may relate fairly heavily to these lyrics.
Miss you dad, wish I could have said more to you when you were around.

In case you didn't realise it, the Dockers won on Saturday night.
It was my son's first time at watching a real AFL game.
I have taken him to pre season and practice match games before, but this was the first time he has gone.

He got a Johnny Docker pack, which had a radio/torch, pack of cards, autograph book, pen, stickers and Docker Bag. Really good actually, expecially considering he also has season tickets.

It case you didn't realise, the Dockers beat Calton. Listening to George Grizzleguts today, and some other commentators, you would have thought we lost!

The first half showed what Freo are capable of. If we get it together for four quarters, watch out!

As we were setting up yesterday for the concert I was half listening to the Eagles game against the Crows. They did very well to get up and win...................unfortunately!!!!!!

Big effort yesterday.
Well worth it as we saw about 80-100 non church people involved and about 60 of our own folk there.
It was probably not as big a crowd as we would have liked, but the weather and Osborne Park show may have conspired against us.

Positives: Band sounded awesome, Micks music was given the appropriate and deserved treatment.

60 - 100 people heard many times about the message of Christ. You cannot put a value on this. As Alf reminded us on Sunday morning, God's word does not return void, and if one person moves closer to God, its well worth it.

I heard about a number of our church folk talking to different people in the crowd, a special thanks to Bev and Melinda and Sandy, and others, who got around and spoke to heaps of folk and made friends.

A big thanks to Paul Ahearn, your hard work is appreciated.

But most of all to Eliot, who brought the band together in what was at times trying circumstances.

Lets pray and think about where God is taking us next.

Our church is helping organise this, along with the local Inglewood P & C and some sponsorship from Ray White on Walcott and Charcoal Chicken,

Should be fantastic!

Would love to see you there.

I have been praying for and reflecting on some really really bad news.
Two incidents that occured yesterday.
One, a disturbing tradgedy in the life of an aquaitance, someone associated with our church.
There are no words to describe the awfulness of what has happened.
There are no platitudes, no cliches, no cards or flowers that will help in anyway.
As a Pastor, I cant even say why God allows such things to happen. I know He does not cause them, and I believe He is greatly grieved as well. Which makes it hard to understand why He allowed it to happen.
This from Psalm 69. 3 "my eyes are swollen with weeping, waiting for God to help me".
This is not my experience over this event, but is surely the people involved.

Secondly some disturbing revelations about a closer family member, that I have been trying to help. The way people mistreat each other in this world is staggering. Some folk are egocentric and selfish and self absorbed. All they really care about is their own pleasure. This makes me mad. I am not perfect by any means, but what has been done to another simply because they only care about themself, is awful. And the ripple from their actions still causes unrest.

For those of you who read the West, and who turn to the back of the paper first, like me, you will know the name Steve Butler. For those of you who are Weagles followers, you will like him.

For those of you who are a member of the Purple Army, you will know that Steve's favourite activity is sinking the boots into Freo. Now I would not suggest he is biased, but if someone did suggest that, I wouldn't be arguing with them.
Which brings me to the point of my post. Steve B has tipped Freo to down the Blues this week.
Is this part of his cunning plan to unsettle the club? Or is he just trying to redeem himself after his woeful tipping perfomance last week?

Either way, we dont need your support Steve, in fact we dont want it. Go back to playing ER's AFL for playstation, and pretending Sampi marked that goal in the dying minutes of the 2005 Grand Final.

During our first move, from our home of 5 years to the rental, we got rid of a lot of stuff. About three trailer loads actually. I'm not exagerating. Three trips up Red Hill with a fully loaded heavy trailer, being towed by my 1.6 litre Vitara.
My son wanted to know what the 'funny smell is daddy?".
I told him the engine and gearbox were not happy about working so hard.

Well this move we had a few things surplus to our needs. Some we managed to give to a good home, another couple, no one wanted, which was fair enough considering their condition. Namely a desk with no drawers and a very wobbly side. As well a baby's high chair which had seen much better days. In fact I had got some gaffa tape onto the ripped chair, and my children (both of them) had stuffed weeties, vegemite toast and other such gourmet delights down the side of the seat.

Anyways, there was only these two things so I did what most residents tend to do, I stuck them on the verge.

They had been there for about 24 hours, and I was contemplating taking them up Red Hill when a marvellous thing happened. I came back from taking the kids down the park and they were gone. Mysteriously, wonderfully, conveniently gone.

Somewhere in suburbia someone is sitting at a desk which is about to topple over while their child is discovering 6 year old fruit toast ends.

Deary deary me, anyone know a good marriage counsellor?

James writes this on his blog,


"Even though our two month old daughter refuses to sleep without my wife holding her, and my two year son won’t even attempt to sleep without his pacifier, my wife still refuses to take my advice about how to fix these problems before they start to bring even more stress into our marriage.After begging and pleading with my wife (because I adore and love her dearly) to stop spoiling our children and ignoring my feelings, I’ve decided enough is enough.So I went on strike — and moved to the roof of our home.This is my last-ditch effort!"
LINK

9 O God, we meditate on your unfailing love
as we worship in your Temple.
10 As your name deserves, O God,
you will be praised to the ends of the earth.
Your strong right hand is filled with victory.


I am continuing my series on "What Jesus said that changed the world".
This verse from Luke 19.40, "He replied, "If they kept quiet, the stones along the road would burst into cheers!"

A great verse as we celebrate Palm Sunday.
For His name sake, and His glory, let Him be praised to the ends of the earth.

So I drop my son off at School today, and hope to slip in the back quietly. No such luck. His Eagles supporting teacher makes sure she mentions the results from the weekend to him, and me, just in case we missed it.

Sigh, sigh sigh.

Its hard being a real supporter, and not a bandwagon hopping fairweather Weagles supporting one.
I have been to every game bar one or two for the last 7 or 8 years, I have survived the Drum years, leave me alone. I'll get over it.

Roll on Carlton.

Eliot and the band did a fantastic rendition of Coldplays song, "Talk" on Sunday. I was suprised that a couple of musicians in the band dont like Coldplay. Who doesn't like Coldplay? They thought it was repetitive and that the band lacked credibility.
I encouraged them to look at the song itself, and judge that on its merits, apart from the band.

Oh brother I can't, I can't get through I've been trying hard to reach you,
cause I don't know what to do Oh brother I can't believe it's true I'm so scared
about the future and I wanna talk to you Oh I wanna talk to you
Are you lost or incomplete? Do you feel like a puzzle, you can't find your
missing piece? Tell me how do you feel? Well I feel like they're talking in a
language I don't speak And they're talking it to me
(Selection from song)

It was a good finish to my message on loving others, having a distinct love.
One of the things we fail to do as humans is address conflict well. Conflict comes in may shapes, be it unsaid statements, little gripes, looks of despair or even disgust.
At some point we need to adress these things, otherwise they fester and eat us up.
What does this have to do with love?
Truly loving action is saying what needs to be said quickly, keeping short accounts. Being honest and humble with each other.

One key for me is to think it through carefully first, think about what you are going to say, how you are going to say, even the facial expression and body language you are going to use.
How is what you say going to communicate love and truth? The two are not mutually exclusive, and at the end of the day, love and the relationship with people is more important.

We have moved into our new house!
After having bought it just before Christmas, it seems strange now to have finally moved in.

The owners have moved out,
the floors have been polished, and finally the bathroom is complete.
A HUGE HUGE thank you to Jennifer, Quentin, Jeff, Jason, Rowan, Holly, Nat, Scott and Sandra (the doughnuts were great!) for all the wonderful help moving in.

The computer and study is set up, most important room in the house for me, and the kids room looks fantastic.

I am walking to church tommorow!! Walking!!!!!

Praise God for His excellent kindness and provision to us. THANKS GOD!!