I had a really interesting conversation with a good mate over a sloppy greasy hamburger at Hungry Jacks. (Actually I had the hamburger, he had a relatively healthy chicken salad roll or something)

We were talking about the EC and he made this comment, "you know there are slack inward looking people and leaders in all forms of church, whether they are EC, or other forms"
His point was we should not criticise the movents or forms of church, so much as challenge everyone to mission, no matter how they do it.

I thought that was a great point.

However all I would say is this, if you are leaving the less radical forms of church in order to be missional, because you have had enough of churches who just grow through transfer growth, then make sure you are being missional, and measure that in some way, so you know you are not just talking about it.

The same could be said to me and others in my position. If you are going to try and facilitate a church being transformed and 'renovated', then make sure mission stays your focus, and when you actually start to have an attractive church, don't be happy with just attracting other Christians.

Dockerland.com are pushing for April 29th to be Eagles deregistration day. The Management of the WC have been asked to come to AFL headquaters on that date to explain the shocking culture at the reigning premiers. Many of us believe the time has come, the call to action is here.....de register them!!! All their assests can be redistributed, and Freo can have Chris Judd.
You can read about their commmunity minded efforts here

Grumpiness thrown in free!

If you own a business maybe you could take some advice from a consumer....

If you sell a $2.99 cotton reel, why not smile and help a husband who has no idea about such things? The same customer might be in the market for an overloker in a few months. But rest assured if you are really grumpy and unhelpful over the small item, he probably wont ask you for the large one.

I am leading a graveside ceremony today for some parents who lost twins at 20 weeks. They have been trying for over 5 years. Both are now approaching the old side of 35.

What do you say in such circumstances? Why is life so hard sometimes, and why is it so hard for really good people, who would make great great loving parents? Then others find it really easy to have kids, and maybe, are not such great parents.

Life is not fair sometimes, and it always leads to us questioning God at some point. Why God?

Spent most of this morning celebrating my daughters third birthday.
Then had some family back tonight to continue the celeration, I cooked up a beautiful tasty lemon pepper chicken with 'Mark special' roast potatoes, cinnamon and brown sugar roast pumpkin and some chocolate cake for dessert. My brother in law bought round some 'James Boag', which quite frankly is superb.

As I tucked my beautiful little 3 year old daughter into bed we took the time to pray together and thank God for her, and today. I explained to her and my son that birthdays are more than just celebrating another year. They are how we celebrate the persons life. What an incredible privilege God has given me, and how thankful I am.

Thanks to the three people who have basically suggested I pull my head in in regards to the EC over the last week, and then tonight, the Selwood issue. All three had good points.
I have had over 100 unique hits today, so this blog is public, and I appreciate fair calls.
Therefore I have pulled a couple of posts.

Which is not to say that I am being compliant, if you knew me, you would know I have struggled with that in the past, but am pretty blunt and straight most times.

For the record in my view.....

In regard to Des and Selwood. Des was reckless in reacting the way he did, and is incredibly fortunate to get off a six week suspension, incredibly fortunate.
I am not convinced Selwood did not say what he was accused of but we will never know, and likely is that there was truth and misunderstanding on both parts. Either way its unfortunate that a players daughter was drawn into it.

Josh Carr is a niggly annoying player, and admitted he had struck Stenglein, but even West Coast Radio (6pr) are saying Chick did not tell the truth
There is a serious problem with the culture at WC, and it annoys me that the media here in the West give them a free ride.

Please feel free to express your own opinion here.

"We have to consider whether we are just going around and around–like a religious merry- go-round. Are we simply holding on to the painted mane of the painted horse, repeating a trip of very insignificant circles to a pleasing musical accompaniment?

AW Tozer

For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. 2 Corinthians 10:3-5

I don't really have any idea how it works, but Seth seems to think its a good idea as it is meant to get more traffic to your site.

Squiddo Lens

By the way, Seth is one of those people who you really only need to mention his first name. If you don't know who Seth is......sigh.

First message in my three part series on "Its all in your mind" Used some graphics and ideas from Life Church, but the message is mostly all mine. Use Philippians 2.5 as key verse.

Luke 16
The Parable of the Shrewd Manager
1 Jesus told his disciples: "There was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions. 2So he called him in and asked him, 'What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you cannot be manager any longer.'
3"The manager said to himself, 'What shall I do now? My master is taking away my job. I'm not strong enough to dig, and I'm ashamed to beg— 4I know what I'll do so that, when I lose my job here, people will welcome me into their houses.'
5"So he called in each one of his master's debtors. He asked the first, 'How much do you owe my master?'
6" 'Eight hundred gallons[a] of olive oil,' he replied.
"The manager told him, 'Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it four hundred.'
7"Then he asked the second, 'And how much do you owe?'
" 'A thousand bushels[b] of wheat,' he replied.
"He told him, 'Take your bill and make it eight hundred.'
8"The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light. 9 I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.

Chris Connolly commenting on the Eagles midfield,

"They are in outstanding form, but you must not underestimate the rest of the guys in the midfield too - they have got a great chemistry," Connolly said.

"We succeed - not by crossing the sea, but by seeing the cross."

If you missed the channel ten sports news, they featured "Jordo". A passionate Dockers supporter, soon you will be able to buy her cd.


check it out here or here.

Instead of a normal Easter Sunday Message, I got one of my friends to interview me.
It was based around some interviews I have been looking at, in particular one featuring Rick Warren and an atheist, Sam Harris. The interview asks some questions that an atheist or agnostic might ask.
It is not long, and I think it is good, hope you enjoy it. If you want to download it and give it to someone, you can click on the link. If you want to just listen for yourself, press play.

Its only a short one, but seemed to work out well, I talk about how we came to have the beautiful and moving song, "Were you there". Our choir sung this on Friday, and there was more than one teary eye.

0 wins from 2 games.
Umpiring was the worst I have seen for some time, numerous crowd frees to Essendon, how Pavlich did not get at least two more with Fletcher all over him like a cheap suit.

And having these players out from our 9 game winning stretch last year did not help.
Wizz, Michael Johnson, Steven Dodd, Heath Black, Justin Longmuir, Cookie, Schammer and Brett Peake.

Derby next week, might be our worst start to the year under Chris Connolly.

This past weekend has been without doubt the best Easter our church has had while I have been there.
After the great crowd on Friday, I was half expecting a less full crowd, but it was great today. Now don't get me wrong all you emerging guys, I don't think its about getting a big crowd in anymore than you do.
But what I do want to say is this. The majority of the visitors we had, and there were stacks, came because of relationships formed over many years, through ministries our church had done.
It has been hard work, but like Christmas time, Easter has been a time of fruit for our church. Some folk who never come to church came on Friday with no intention of coming on Sunday, but came none the less. You might think, so what, they came to church. But in fact we believe that they are putting themself into the position of hearing the gospel being clearly presented and also seeing that Christians love each other and others.
Another great story was the lady who came after one of our members sms'ered this morning. She rocked up and loved the service.
Why wouldn't she?
The choir was beautiful and moving, the music was great and well led, the multi media, the kids item, and everything was really purposeful, emotive and relevant.
We are just so grateful as to how God has changed our church and is growing it.

After church on Friday, people hanged around for ages, chatting, making friends and eating hot cross buns. Sunday was the same, only we ate chocolate cakes!.

This is what it is all about.

I did something really different for the message, I got a friend to 'interview' me as though he was an athiest, and he asked some pretty confronting questions. I used some of the material from the Rick Warren and Sam Harris interview. Harris is an athiest and author. I also used a J Johns interview which you can watch on U Tube. I think it was really good, and answered some questions. One of the key points I tried to get across is that all religions are not the same, you can't pick and choose because they are fundamentally different.
I also made the point that Jesus' assertion that He is the Way the Truth and the Life forces us to make a decision about Him. Either He is a liar, lunatic or Lord. If we dont make a decison about Jesus, one might be made for us!!

Soon you will be able to listen to the interview on line.

WARREN: We both stand in a relationship of faith. You have faith that there is no God. In 1974, I spent the better part of a year living in Japan, and I studied all the world religions. All of the religions basically point toward truth. Buddha made this famous statement at the end of his life: "I'm still searching for the truth." Muhammad said, "I am a prophet of the truth." The Veda says, "Truth is elusive, it's like a butterfly, you've got to search for it." Then Jesus Christ comes along and says, "I am the truth." All of a sudden, that forces a decision.

HARRIS: Many, many other prophets and gurus have said that.

WARREN: Here's the difference. Jesus says, "I am the only way to God. I am the way to the Father." He is either lying or he's not.

Woh, just finished it, here is the first paragraph.... Based it around the old Negro Spiritual, "Where you there?"

For the last 7 or 8 weeks or so our worship team and community choir have been led by a choir master, a young and very talented man Matthew.
One of the things Matthew said to us as we started to learn that song, "Were you there",
he said something very interesting. He said to us, as a choir what I want you to do is think about what the original writer of the song was thinking about when he wrote that song. The reason he wanted us to do that was because he wanted us to have emotion in our voices, to really sing the song from the heart if you like.
And I thought that was really profound. What was the writer of that song thinking about when he wrote it?
Well as far as I can tell, the original writer is unknown, it comes from a deep vein of folk writing known as negro spirituals. These were written by the negro slaves in the deep south of America during the time when Slavery in that part of the world was rife. Though the slaves were not allowed to read the Scriptures, they learned Bible stories at the church on the plantation along with the white folks. The Sunday morning routine included Sunday school, singing hymns, Bible reading, and the sermon -- where the preacher told them to obey the Misses and the Master.
On Monday of course they were forced back out onto the fields to pick cotton, fruit, to perform manual labour. All this to keep their lazy and rich masters in comfort. The slaves developed coping mechanisms, and many of them wrote songs, haunting melodies, rich with emotion, and deeply moving. They were songs of hope and anticipation. Some people called them the sorrow songs - eventually, they would come to be known as spirituals. They were the soul-cry of the black slave, longing for freedom. They were born in the fields, among the hoed rows of cotton and tobacco.
Most of the time they had their start in the fervent heat of a backwoods religious meeting. Slaves gathered secretly to encourage one another and to cry out to God for freedom. This activity was against the law, and they knew that a severe beating or even death could face them if they were caught. But the joy and peace that they received from heaven in these meetings made it worth the risk they faced here on earth. The atmosphere in midst of the woods was always charged with emotion. As they mourned their wretched existence, songs would develop spontaneously -- psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. In time, these melodies were memorized and passed along from plantation to plantation. The slaves were told by many of the white preachers that they were less than human, but.......

I have dismissed the abheration of round one from my mind, reminding myself that last year we suffered at the hands of Geelong in the middle of the year, and then won 9 in a row, storming into the finals.

This week we are up against the revitalised Essendon at our bogey ground, the dome.
But.....

We have Tarrant and Solomon, who are both Dome experts.
Matthew Carr is back, Pavlich was cleared.

Despite the hype, Essendon are carp, and Matthew Lloyd has admitted as much.
Its time we stamped our authority on this competition from the start of the season.
We need to win anywhere, against any side at any time to win the premiership.

In other news, Reivoldt is still out for this week, and despite the abheration of last week, it looks like being Bali for the boys from St Kilda in September.

RICK WARREN:

You will not admit that it is your experience that makes you an atheist, not rationality.

(Speaking to Sam Harris)

Sent out a lot of publicity, hoping for a good crowd,
preparing a lot of material, hoping to do something creative for the Sunday morning message.\


stay tuned, will be great!

Being a temple of the Holy Spirit, and how we can actually stop God...woh.

Quenching the Holy Spirit

Being filled by the Spirit, what does that mean?
Week Two

The two reasons people say no to your idea

"It's been done before"
"It's never been done before"

Even though neither one is truthful, accurate or useful, you need to be prepared for both.

Cited

Sigh......


disapointing loss, game we should have won, up by 40 points at half time.
No excuses. Already been paid out by people I know, and I lot I dont really know, fair enough too.....

Then to make it worse, Weagles pinch one against the Swannies.
It was not that good a victory though, one point, after having been considerably in front at half time, they should never had let the Swannettes get that close. And the bias nature of the football press, calling it one of the greatest victories of all time, what a joke, great escape of all time, Eagles lucky to stumble over the line more like it........Yes I am a bitter man :)

After a week sick, it was great to be back at Church
Really enjoyed the service this morning, couple of people who visited last week, back again. Some refugees from Zimbwawe. What is really heartening is that three different lots of people from Church have already visited them and donated clothes and furniture, in one case a brand new couch.
These folk are settling in well, with the dad securing work. But the government has not helped them financially at all.
Thank God for church folk who have gathered around and helped not just in welcoming them, but real practical help.

They have 3 children who seem to have settled in well to KFC as well, which is encouraging.

This is really interesting, Pav and Taz were talking and discussing what defender they normally got. It appears they used to get the same one, the best one.

Good luck, this year, if Pav does not get you, Taz will, and then of course you are going to have to deal with the underated Ryan Murphy, Sandilands, who Mike Sheehan has rated as the 14th best player in the AFL, and in round 7, a revitalised Jeff Farmer.

Story

FREMANTLE captain Matthew Pavlich and its Collingwood recruit Chris Tarrant could be causing double trouble for opposition defenders this season.
Pavlich said a discussion with Tarrant revealed one common thing – they had usually always been picked up by the same defender.

"We were talking about it the other day and going through the teams and we generally get the same opponents," he said.

"So it will be interesting to see how it works out and where we position ourselves on the ground.
"It is good to have Chris there, an All-Australian player with immense talent and a fantastic work ethic. I think that's another thing people have been misleading about because the work ethic we have seen has been fantastic."

Enrolled Clem at Auskick today.
What a great time he had. He loves being part of things, being social, and looks up to coaches and listens well.

Got to say how proud I am of him, slipping on his Morley Bulldogs Jumper, and kicking and handballing. Good to see he is as good as any of the other kids in his kicking. All those sessions with his dad have paid off. Not so good at the marking side of it, but its hard to get a six year old to not be cautious about catching a leather ball.

Did the sausage sizzle, cooked 200 sausages for hungry kids and parents.
Beautiful day, we are blessed to live in such a good country.

ABC Radio reporting that Kerr has been implicated with a police phone tap with a convicted drug dealer.

West Coast are not going to have a midfield at this rate

story

Have you seen this??

http://www.godtube.com/

God Tube is basically U Tube but packaged obviously as Christian clips. Looks a lot like they are using all the U Tube background stuff, putting their own label on it.
Here is a very useful clip fron Oprah

At the pre season gathering of all the AFL Team Captains, Fremantle received six votes, aside from their own, as the team in the competition most likely to make the Grand Final, with West Coast and Sydney receiving four votes each.

In a shock result, St Kilda received no votes.

story

Continuing my series on Spirit this week.

Looking at the idea of being filled with the Spirit. Is there any topic that has caused more concern and angst amongst 1980's churches than this one?
The issues about charismata, sign gifts, have caused untold stress and angst amongst more conservative churches for years.

Now, we find ourselves in the midst of the "Third Wave", so named by Peter Wagner. In a cultural response, similar to that found in modern culture, most people's attitudes towards tongue speaking etc seems to be, whatever works for you.

Let us consider this verse from 1 Corinthians 14.1

"Follow the way of love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy"

Paul goes on to state that while the gift of tongues can edify us, what is more important is that we use our spiritual gifts to edify others.
But what strikes me about this verse is the idea that we should eagerly desire spiritual gifts. Other versions state it as, we should pursue, spiritual gifts.
Have you, are you, pursuing spiritual gifts?

Fremantle are now favourites to win the 2007 AFL premiership.
Apparently there have been some issues down at West Coast (?) and so Freo have becomes the punters favourite.

COME ON YOU MIGHTY DOCKERS!!!

And if you want to make some money, bet on North Melboure to win the spoon, and the Saints to slip out of the eight.
I reckon Geelong might be the smokey this year.

It seems West Coast have had enough of their ex captains misbehaviour, and in a similar manner to Michael Gardiner, Ben has been suspended indefinetely from the club.

I am glad. If someone has serious issues, they need to be confronted and dealt with. If he is not told by those who really care about him that his behaviour is unacceptable, it will become self destructive.
The last thing anyone wants is to see Ben hurt himself, or someone he loves.

Rumours abound, but what is very likely is that Ben has serious issues with drugs. Watch to see if the results of the drug tests he took yesterday reveal that the issue is far greater than just missing a training session.

I hope such a champion and skilled player gets the help he needs.
If I was a parent of a WC supporting child I would tell them that he had been very naughty and done some silly things, and so the club could no longer play him. Lets hope some positives come out of this.

There is a problem within our denomination.
Just about every church that is growing, is looking for a youth worker, childrens worker, family Pastor. I know one Baptist Church that has been looking for a youth pastor for 3 years with not even a sniff.

Anectodal evidence suggests that there are not many young guys/gals of serious usuable talent coming through the ranks.
When I was studying, about 12 years ago, there was a heap of us. In fact my peer group started off with six members, and although it remains at 6, they are a vastly different 6, as some have dropped off, some have retrained as teachers.
There is a LOT of dissulusionment out there about becoming a Baptist Pastor. I don't think it is that evident amongst the present guys. Most of them that I mix with are doing exceptional work, in difficult circumstances. Underpaid, often undervalued, yet passionate about seeing the church grow.

Some of the younger potential leaders have left and started more 'emergent' type groups. This may provoke some discussion, but is not the point of this post. But generally there is very little evidence of real conversion growth within this movement. However many left the mainstream church because all they saw happening was transfer growth. To a true missional pastor, who has integrity, that is dissapointing, but I dont think the emergent stream is the answer.

Someone asked me why there are not many good young leaders coming through and this was my answer.
We have ourselves to blame. For too many years too many Baptist Churches have been caustic places that have despised their pastors. In a recent situation I am aware of, some leaders were criticised incredibly when they tried to introduce a children's ministry within the church. Some wrote a 10 page document detailing these folks problems. They had been at the church for 15 years! Then when they left, the same caustic folk said, "oh you cant leave, who is going to do this, and that!"
They reckon that now they have left, this incredible weight has been lifted off their shoulders.

Who on earth who want to be a pastor in such a church? It does not matter if you did get paid decent wages, why would you want to be there??

All this has been based on my speaking to other pastors. My own experience has been as follows.
I inherited a very traditional church which had many issues. BUT, after 12 years of hard slog, mistakes (on mine and others parts), we are now a great healthy church to be a part of. We are seeing real conversion growth and absolutely incredible missionary opportunities.
But it has been really really hard.

I reckon young people today, the so called Y generation, just wont put up with the stuff I and others have.
I think this is fair enough actually.
But for those of us concerned about the future of Baptist Churches, we have to keep change happening, and it has to keep happening now.......

Starting to feel human again,
still have a fair bit of back pain and nauseous feeling.
But at least I can stay awake, and am starting to eat again.
Still cant face the idea of drinking coffee, which is really awful for me.
But am drinking a lot of barley/lemon cordial.

Will be trying to get back into it at half strength this week. Love my work, dont like being sick!

Having a 3 and 6 year old really puts things into perspective.
With all the news coming out of WC headquarters, I am just so glad that for whatever reason I have brought them up in the right way.

Imagine having to justify and explain away my teams behaviour.
Imagine having to explain to them why Ben Cousins is on TV again, and why he looks so sick. Imagine having to explain to them why number 4 is always in trouble
Imagine having to explain why the captain is yelling at the nice reporter.

Winning the cup does not justify their incredibly bad behaviour.

I am glad I have bought my children up well....

Freo has had its share of problems, but nothing like the ingrained litany of drug fuelled, arrogant, we can get away with it because we are WC attitude.

Latest Story

Never been this sick before.
Had to go to RPH for two nights.
Staff are wonderful, food is not great, but you can't really expect much.

Because of my contagious state, I was given an "orange" status, which meant I had my own room, with own ensuite.
I wonder if being forced to lie down for 24-36 hours did me the most good.

It sure is good to be home though, and hug my beautiful wife and family. Boy, I missed them.
Its not like going to a conference or away for a week for some legitimate reason, being apart because you are in RPH is awful.

Feeling better, but still sore in the lower stomach.

How did I get to this point in my life?

Saturdays are no longer about a leisurely read of the West with a long homemade latte or two.
They are now all about what time we have to take one of our kids to their friends/relatives birthday parties.

I am no longer Mark, I am Clem's dad.

I no longer go to my own friends parties, we go to each others kids parties. We dont drink wine and eat fancy little morsels. We share red cordial and fairy bread.

In todays West Jeff Kennet has said that Perth is devoid of life, needs more access to the River, and does not have a lot of culture or key events.


What has he said that is incorrect?
We should use our river more. Southbank and even what they have done in Brisbane should point the way for us. Our river is beautiful, we now have the Air races there, lets do something with it, build some restaurants, tourist precincts to go with the bell tower.
Lets attract some more events.....

Yes Jeff...

You too huh???


Here is my message from a week or so back, sorry for lateness!

Booked my flight for Hillsong conference 2007 last night

For this first time, we are staying over for the Sunday, for one thing to go to Hillsong Church on the Sunday, but truth be told, also to go and see the mighty DOCKERS defeat Sydney for the first time at the SCG

Jeff Jeff Jeff........


The best forward in the AFL

Picked on by umpires, rarely given frees he deserves.....
Fevola got 2 weeks for the same thing
Kerr gets one week for punching someone in the groin

However........

He does need to focus on team....................

Here is the new series I am doing
How does spirituality affect us, does God really want to have a relationship with us, as Bono contends??

We are going to look at the HOLY SPIRIT and how God's presence affects us
who is HE?
what does HE do?
what does HE have to do with me?
does, and if so how does the supernatural affect a modern Australian?

I am one of the few West Australians who refuse to watch channel 7 news. Apart from having the Eagles PR man as one of their sports reporters (Mainwaring), they now have decided not to show Freo vs the Roos this weekend.

THAT IS PATHETIC

I have no doubt if it was the Weeeegirls who were playing, it would have been live.

RW.....

"Clearly explain exactly how to respond to Christ. Too many invitations to salvation are misunderstood. The unchurched often have no idea what's going on." - Rick Warren

I have to get better at this.
I have to get better at challenging people to action
I have to get better at being clear what I am asking for
I have to stop sounding apologetic when I call for action

This from the Herald Sun makes a lot of sense,

"Jakovich, a player recognised for his self discipline and professionalism, acknowledged there was a culture and discipline problem at the club. "Where the club gets a lot of criticism is they've let a few (indiscretions) slip in the past couple of years and it's come back to bite them," he said. "There's a lot of people now saying there is a discipline or cultural problem in the footy club. "(And from the outside) you perceive that there is. "They (players) need to understand their responsibility. How many times do you keep having these incidents and so-called meetings and counselling sessions? "It has to come to a certain point."

Now I has booed Glen more times than......well a lot anyhow, especially when he decided to slap Longmuir, and earned the moniker "Slapovich".

But here, what he says is exactly right. Contrast his comments with the doublespeak of Worsfold, "Worsfold yesterday ruled out West Coast enforcing an alcohol ban on its players. "I know a lot of our players don't drink at all, so there is no use putting an alcohol ban on them," the coach said. "

So, because some of WC players are responsible, or tea totallers, we should not ban those, like Kerr, who cant handle it. How does this make sense John?????

This final comment from Glen sums up the culture at WC for me,
"Asked would the player be at the club if it wasn't Kerr, Jakovich said on SEN radio: "No, he wouldn't."

Had my pastors peer group today,
could not have survived this long in ministry without these guys.
We have all been through a lot.

Their prayer support and innate understanding is really strengthening for me.
Being a pastor is unique, and I dont know of any job like it. There are some things only other pastors understand, like, I imagine, many other professions.

Apparently heard at Woosha's press conference after the game - he is so concerned at his teams fitness level and their inability to keep pace with freo last night that the eagles are going to install a gym at the East Perth lock-up

4 super goals, one from Paul Duffield of all people.


Against a side which won last years premiership, and had 18 of the players from that side in.

Woo Hoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Aussie males are a pretty comfortable lot. Pretty secure and happy, generally speaking.
Many of us have the time to think, formulate our own views, and have been encouraged to do so. How different we appear to the males growing up in Australian in the 1930's.
I wonder how we would go today if someone did actually attack Australia, and it become obvious that the general population of men had to go to way to defend our country. Forget wars in far off oil rich countries, what would we do if we had to defend our country?

Would we have the toughness, the agression, the willingness, the risk taking ability to take up arms and defend our land?



(This post was inspired in part by something Saint Gaz had on his site. )

I imagine most Christians struggle with belief at some point in their lives.
Doubts, fears, dissapointment with God.
If you are like me you have friends who struggle.
Have you ever warned them about that, exhorted, encouraged them to believe?

Heb 3
12See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. 13But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness.

It appears from this passage that if our fellow Christian is starting to doubt, we have to encourage them to stop doubting. Thats unusual, especially in this day and age when we encourage each other to journey together. Its almost non PC of the Bible.
We are to see to it...... That sounds a lot like confrontation to me. Confrontation is not something I like, at all. And generally I am a good listerner (I hope), and are rarely presciptive. But there must come a time when my friend needs a good kick, stop doubting, start believeing, and get on with it. (in love of course) :)

The last week I have been heavily involved in putting together our church's business plan for the next 3 years. We have had to do this for financial reasons, as we seek some funding for our relocation.

Its a pretty steep learning curve, but remarkably straightfoward if you have some guideance. Its also a faith thing. Determining where you want to be, with Gods help. Planning and believing your church is going to grow.
God wants His Church to grow, but plenty of them are not. Why?
Irrelevance, pride, stubborness, old paridigms, apathy.
Belief that if God wants the church to grow, He will bring the people, and all we need to be is faithful.

I think faithful is the most overused word in dying churches, faithful, yes faithful to the bitter end

I am so excited with our church at the moment, amazing possibilities, a great group of people whom I really care about. Together we can actually get the Bedford Bus onto the road. This is truly the beginning of an amazing ride.

If you are a pastor, and want to have a look at our business plan, send me an email.

Here is my third message in this series, took me a while to put this together.
The audio includes audio from a video I showed, sorry you cant see it!
Here I talk about doubts, lack of faith, when God seems absent....tough times.
I hope I prompt questions as much as share encouragements.
Download this or listen right now.

"the club has broken the 39,000-member mark on Monday before a ball has been kicked in anger in 2007". Schwab: "Our new membership level represents an increase in our membership of over 9 per cent on our record 35,666 members set in 2006."

No one can accuse me of being a bandwagon hopper. I thought this moment might come. Memberships and good seats are going to get harder and harder to come by.

Good luck trying to get a seat to see either of the WA teams this year.

Dealt with issues of faith this week. Tough sermon to write, spent a lot of time on it, trying to be concise, while also be comprehensive. Deliberatly asked and raised more questions than what I gave answers for. The whole point of this series has been that I want people to be vulnerable, be open. So to give pat answers is not going to help that.
Showed a good clip which dealt with issues of faith and a guy did not know how to pray for his sick friend.

Doubt vs faith, a battle we are stuck with this side of eternity. To try to pretend otherwise is ludicrous. But yet......


There are times The Holy Spirit breaks through in marvellous and suprising ways. Sermon will be online tommorow if you are interested.

“Imagine God in Heaven surrounded by the choirs of adoring angels singing hosannas unendingly… “If I create a perfect world, I know how it will turn out. In its absolute perfection, it will revolve like a perfect machine, never deviating from My absolute will.” Since God’s imagination is perfect, there is no need for Him to create such a universe: it is enough for Him to imagine it to see it in all its details. Such a universe would not be very interesting to man or God, so we can assume that God continued His meditations. “But what if I create a universe that is free, free even of me? What if I veil My Divinity so that the creatures are free to pursue their individual lives without being overwhelmed by My overpowering Presence? Will the creature love Me? Can I be loved by creatures whom I have not programmed to adore me forever? Can love arise out of freedom? My angels love me unceasingly, but they can see Me at all times. What if I create beings in My own image as a Creator, beings who are free? But if I introduce freedom into this universe, I take the risk of introducing Evil into it as well, for if they are free, they are free to deviate from My will. Hmmm. But what if I continue to interact with this dynamic universe, what if I and the creatures become the creators together of a great cosmic play? What if out of every occasion of evil, I respond with an unimaginable good, a good that overwhelms evil by springing out of the very attempts of evil to deny the Good? Will these new creatures of freedom then love Me, will they join with Me in creating Good out of Evil, novelty out of freedom? What if I join with them in the world of limitation and form, the world of suffering and evil? Ahh. In a truly free universe, even if I do not know how it will turn out. Do even I dare to take that risk for love?”” – William Irwin Thompson.

Fremantle have been installed on the second line of betting, at $7.50 to win the 2007 AFL Premiership. At this time last year they were installed at $18 and finished 2006 in third spot.


If you have some money to WASTE, I suggest you have a look at the Saints $9, or the Cats at $13.

Here is part two of my four part series on being unmasked.

Here I deal with the idea that we often feel we are not good enough for God, and this keeps us away from Church, from our Christian friends, from sharing Christ and from being all we can be, in God.

You can click play and listen online, or download it by right clicking link or go to file hosting site by clicking on the link

Phil Baker Pastor Riverview Church
Stanley Tucci Actor (American Sweethearts, The Terminal, The Devil wears Prada etc)

“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.”- Aristotle
ht lowercase

I dont want to be close minded, I want to grow, experience more of God,
I cannot accept that there is not more of God, of experiencing His grace and presence in a more tangible way.

Last night I had a really interesting discussion about the "presence of God"
God is always with us, His presence is here, with me,
right now, always.

BUT

I dont always sense Him there
I dont always see His Hand
He is the Ruach, the breath, the Pneuma of God, He comes and goes as He pleases.

I want to learn more, and listen more, from those who have experienced God in ways I have not.

An Eagle supporter, a Collingwood supporter and a Dockers supporter
were arrested in a small Arabian state when they were caught piddling on a religious building after an all night drinking binge.

The trio have to face up to the local sultan and are dished out the typical punishment for Religious desecration - 20 lashes of the whip to the back.
But the Sultan was a big football fan so he kindly granted them two wishes each – but they were not allowed to reduce the number of lashes or the type of punishment. The Eagle supporter says "Well we are on top of the ladder so I go first. I want the pleasure of a beer and a pillow." The Sultan grants his wishes. With a wide grin the Eagle supporter drinks his beer and binds the pillow to his naked back. But after 10 lashes the pillow falls apart and he has to painfully endure the remaining 10 lashes which leave deep welt marks on his back.

The Collingwood supporter saw all this and spends a few minutes thinking before, smiling. "I would like to have two pillows for my back". The Sultan thinks about the uniqueness of the wishes but decides to grant it given he has used up his two wishes in one go. However after 15 lashes of the whip both pillows have fallen apart and the Collingwood supporter has to painfully endure the remaining 5 lashes which leave deep welt marks on his back.

The Dockers supporter is grinning from ear to ear and mutters something under his breath about a bulldust penalty. "Ok my first wish is to double the number of lashes to 40."There is stunned silence in the hall. The Eagle, Collingwood supporter and Sultan are a little surprised at the first wish but then remember the strong fighting performance the Dockers have been putting up during the 2006 season.

The Eagle and Collingwood supporter look at each other and nod in admiration - obviously this Docker supporter wants to show how tough he is. The Sultan asks the Docker supporter for his second wish.

"Tie the Eagle supporter to my back" he replies.

HT Dockerland

Reality is...... praying sometimes bores me.
Ever felt like that?

Here is a message I gave on Sunday Morning about that, and about spiritual warfare, discovering who you are, being authentic in your prayers according to how God has made you.

We had a great Sunday today.
Church was packed, and it was exciting,
The worship team played at just the right level, and the Worship Leader led with sensitivity.
In my view worship time at Church is best when the church get into it, sing loudly, laugh, enjoy, pray together. Today there was a real sense of oneness and unity, it was quite profound.
I started my new series on Unmasked, talking about prayer, and how, if we are frank, it bores us sometimes.
I ended with an awe inspiring quote from Watchmen Nee, The righteous man. Woh, God's Spirit moved.

Then.........

We had our special members meeting.
Almost unanimous vote on the next stage of our relocation. Incredible sense that God is with us, as much as we are stepping out as the original founders of Bedford Baptist Church did, as pioneers. wow. wow. wow.

Story

Sort of reminds me of that old bumper sticker, "Jesus loves you, everyone else can't stand you"