Monthly Archives: June 2005

Honesty Pays

Posted on by
Reply

One of our Brighton community is an 18 year old first year Uni student. Lets’ call her Jane for the sake of anonymity.

Last week during her exam period she got the date of her exam wrong and missed sitting the exam. Ouch! That means redoing the unit. It was suggested to her by one of the academic staff that she write a letter explaining that she failed to front because her car broke down because that would give her a chance to resit it – however it was plainly not true. She simply forgot.

Although fairly devasted, (because there is no leniency for ‘forgetting’ and it means sitting the whole subjet and exam over again), Jane chose to write and tell the truth about what happened and ask for a break.

We prayed for her on Sunday, that she’d be able to re-sit the exam even though these things ‘don’t happen.’

Today she heard that the academic council had given her permission to resit the exam. Nice!

As a teenager growing up I was very influenced by Eric Liddell’s integrity choice not to run on a Sunday and the small slip of paper given to him that said ‘he who honours me I will honour’ has always stayed with me and has shaped my decisions.

This was one of those kinds of decisions that Jane was faced with.

To choose to tell the truth when you could get a better result by telling lies is to put faith into practice – to live by your convictions not because you might get caught but just because it is the right thing to do.

Its the wise woman ‘hearing my words and putting them into practice’. Its decisions like these that build a strong faith foundation for the years ahead.

Very proud of Jane!

4 hours later…

Posted on by
Reply

Today I went to catch up with old friends – John & Angie Wilmot, now with 6 kids who are missionaries in Malawi.

I dropped in for lunch at 12.00 and left at 4.00. It was one of those days when time flied and common bonds had us talking and totally losing track of time.

I find I now learn much more from overseas missionaries than I do from most local Aussies. We are running on very similar tracks.

Today was supposed to be a study day at the library. I think I could safely say I did a lot of learning – just not with books!

Legislating Courtesy

Posted on by
Reply

The WA govt is considering making it law for young people (non full fare payers) to stand for older people on public transport.

What is the world coming to when we have to make a law for people to do what people ought to do?

I think its an idea fraught with difficulty and the time/money would be better spent developing a culture where age and maturity is respected. No easy task I know, but to legislate for people to be nice is to say ‘we have failed’.

And… FWIW In my experience I am yet to be on a train where younger people have not given older people a seat.

Shame

Posted on by
Reply

In the last five years I have forgotten just 2 appointments.

Both this year and both with the same person… This afternoon as I realised that I had stood the same guy up twice I wasn’t quite sure what to say. ‘Sorry’ was about all I could manage as I phoned to apologise.

I said to Danelle if I ever stuff this guy up again I doubt I could face him!

Thankfully he was very gracious and kind about it all. Maybe he feels bad for me too?

Perfect

Posted on by
Reply

Its not often you get to say that about the surf but today was just that.

sahara download After 3 weeks of rain we finally scored a sunny day, with light offshores, so Paul (another local church planter) and I launched the boat and made the 10km trip up to the Alikmos.

The reef we surf over is 2km out to sea so the effects of any wind is greatly exaggerated. Its easy to get a bad day up there, but a good one can be very rare.

Today was sensational.

Head-high waves, very light breezes and only 3 or 4 other guys made it one of the best surfs I have had in a loooong time.

We were going to take the camera and should have… but alas…

The only bad part was when my arms stopped working. After not having surfed for 6 months a couple of hours is way more than I can manage. I was about to paddle back to the boat but got suckered into one more wave… a left hander. I was so wiped I couldn’t paddle hard enough to get back out thru the lefts and had to paddle right around thru the right – probably another 2-3 hundred meters.

By the time I got to the boat there was nothing left in the arms!

It was great to hang with Paul too, another surf lover and all round good bloke (for a South African 🙂

The Ashes has a Blog

Posted on by
Reply

Yep.

At this stage there isn’t much for us Aussies to crow about, but if you want to stay in the loop of all that’s going on in pommyland then drop over here and have a read.

I have been invited to contribute and probably will at some point… if I have anything vaugely useful to say!

In the mean time it looks like Darryl and Gaz are doing a pretty good job.

Douglas the Dipstick

Posted on by
Reply

I was as ecstatic as anyone the day we heard that Douglas Wood had been freed from captivity in Iraq. He is someone’s husband, dad and brother and is in many ways ‘one of us’.

I was impressed with how the Wood (en!) brothers handled the whole process and how the different groups made it happen.

Then this morning I just about choked on my muesli when Wood was asked if he would consider returning to Iraq and he said… "Yes"

Why?

Because of some potential business deals – which would seem to infer that there is big $$$ to be made. (Of course the book and speaking deals he has been setting up could be enough to look after him for life anyway.)

Thanks everyone!… Thanks for the 12 million dollars spent, thanks for risking your lives and worrying about me. Now I think I might go back and add a few more $$$$ to my bank account.

‘Dipstick’ is the word that comes to mind. At least the word that i am happy to post 🙂 Lets not treat this clown like a hero. The reason he got out alive is because some people did intelligent and courageous things.

They are the heroes. Douglas Wood is not a hero.

The Stuff You Think You Know

Posted on by
Reply

"The wise man built his house upon the rock…"

So starts that old kid’s song that those of us who grew up going to Sunday school would know. It compares the wise man who built his house on the rock with the foolish man who built his house on sand. And the basic conclusion is that the bloke who built on sand is on a very shaky foundation.

Here’s the question though:

What does Jesus mean when he speaks about building our ‘house on rock’?

Think about it before you read on…

1232366_img_1

(The picture is of Pete showing the kids what happens when you build on rock and sand. Actually I reckon we learn as much here as the kids – visuals are powerful)

If you said the rock is ‘Jesus’ then you are WRONG. Although I sense that is what many of us have grown up believing – that or some permutation of it.

This passage comes right at the end of the sermon on the mount in Matt 7 where Jesus says some rough stuff – where he calls his disciples to radical counter-cultural living and then he finishes by speaking about:

– the narrow path – only a few will find it

– not everyone who says to me ‘Lord Lord’ will be saved but only those who do the things I say

– and then he says "Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on a rock’.

Who’s the wise man?

Simple – the person who hears Jesus words and actually does what he says. It seems that Jesus is saying a life of submission to him and conformity to his will is a solid foundation.

Its funny how often you hear people looking for a church with ‘good teaching’, but how I have never heard someone look for a church that ‘actually puts into practice the things Jesus said’.

This isn’t rocket science, but neither is it an area we have done particularly well on as the church. The whole idea of ‘doing it’ seems to resonating with me very strongly at present. Disciples are people who do the things Jesus said – not think about them, talk about them, agree on them…

If it wasn’t about books…

Posted on by
Reply

I’m not a big fan of internet tag – but when someone gives me a chance to talk about the books I love them I’m right in there!

Thanks Darryl.

download good dick dvdrip Here are my answers to the question:

Number of books I own – My guess = 1200?… Doesn’t really sound like a lot does it? I remember when i used to walk into the studies of older pastors and see walls of books… and feel so dumb… Now I use libraries a lot more and do a fair bit of reading online. I’m not dumb (I think) just living in a different age.

Last Book I Bought: Emerging Church.Intro by Michael Moynagh. I still haven’t finished it! After a while ec books become a bit ‘blah blah blah’, and while Mike’s book is one of the best around I just haven’t been bothered finishing it yet.

Last Book I Read – William and Catherine by Yaxley and Vanderwal. This was an absolutely inspiring read. What an amazing couple they were!

Books that mean a lot to me:

Cloustreet by Tim Winton

The Turning by Tim Winton

Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

Anything by C.S. Lewis

Reaching for the Ivisible God by Philip Yancey.

What I love about both Yancey and Lewis is that they are absolutely brilliant minds who ask the difficult questions about God and who (despite their intellect) arrive at the point of saying ‘there is an element of mystery we cannot fathom’. They push intellect to its boundary and then take a leap of faith.

I’m supposed to pass this on to 5 more people, but that’s the bit I don’t like, so if you’d like to write about your book fetishes then do so!