The PASSION Blog

I am one of those strange people who loves TV adverts. I especially like the ones that are new in some way or particularly creative. One of my new favourites is the new Ryobi advert on TV.

It starts with a neighbour coming over to borrow some tools. His neighbour opens his garage to reveal a tool collection most real blokes would die for. He then loads his neighbour up with assorted power tools and then takes a photo of him with his mobile. This is for proof that he has borrowed them.

It cracked me up the first time I saw it. Both my wife and I loved it. We loved it so much that we decided to do the same thing when we lend out books from our home library. It might mean that we actually get some of them back!

One of the great things I enjoy about homeschooling is when you are teaching one of your kids and they get something for the first time.

Sometimes in homeschooling you have times when the kids have just not picked up a concept or it hasn’t clicked. You try to explain it in a few different ways so they understand. When the light goes on inside them and they say I get it, it is very exciting. When they explain it back to you in their own words and show they grasped the concept, it is priceless for me.

I have had this with both of my girls this week in Maths. It is such a great feeling and something I feel priveledged to be involved with. I am thankful God has called us to homeschool our kids. It is such a blessing.

Recently there have been a couple of high profile Christian ministers who have fallen and come out and confessed to their wrongdoing. One was even on the national current affairs show Today Tonight last night.

Does this news surprise me? No not really. Does this news disappoint me? Yes. Does this news destroy my faith? No way, because my faith is not in people.

When we discuss the issue of ministers falling I think there are a couple things to consider.

1. All Christians are human - Regardless if you are a minister or not, as Christians we are all frail human beings with our faults and failures. None of us are perfect and none of us can live up to the high standards we set in place. After all that is why Jesus came to die on the cross for our sin. He died because we all sin. We just can’t escape that fact and the Bible makes this clear in Romans 3:23 and 1 John 1:8-10.

2. We put people on a pedestal - I really belief that as Christians we place too much emphasis on peoples ministries and their public success. We often look at the impact people are making and place them on a pedestal. In reality if they are doing what God has called them to do, then they are no different to the person who faithfully does the flowers every Sunday morning for church or the person who visits someone who is sick. When we place people on a pedestal we set them up for failure. The only one who has ever walked on this earth who deserves to be put on a pedestal is Jesus!

One of the things I try to do as a part of my daily prayer time is to give thanks to God for the good things in my life. I am so thankful for my family, my home, our life, my salvation and the work God has called me to.

One thing I am especially thankful for at the moment is my health. Regular readers will know I was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis as a 12 year old. This changed my life dramatically. However as I have gotten older my health has steadily improved and this is no longer an issue for me.

I am so thankful that at the age of 41 I can run around at the park with my kids, I can kick a ball, play chasey, go bike riding, climb a tree and do physical work. These are things that I never thought I would be able to do. Especially when at the age of 18 my specialist doctor told me to accept that crippling pain and stiffness would probably be with me for the rest of my life.

Yes there has been a lot of hard work and discipline involved of my part in exercising and eating right, but being healthy only improved my condition so far. Most of the real work was done by God moving and working in my life as a result of prayer and out of His goodness towards me.

I am so thankful to God that at the age of 41 I can do all the things I can do, things I never dreamed of doing. I am also so thankful that I feel like I haven’t yet come to my peak physically. I don’t know when that will be, but it still feels like a few years away. Praise God.

How about you? What are you thankful for today? In what ways do you feel blessed? I think that is worth reflecting on today.

One of the blogs I have been following on and off for the last couple of years is Chuck Warnock’s Confessions of a small-church pastor.

One thing I have really enjoyed is his ability to think a bit differently from most of us. He tends to (sometimes) think outside the box and as a result he brings insight in to church and community life.

Some of the posts that have made me think recently are below. You might like to check them out.

• Church membership re-imagined
• Are sermons dying?
• Keep warm and well fed
• If only one person gets saved, is it worth it?
• Priority drift and how to fix it
• How church might face the coming crisis?

The thing I like about Chuck is that he has a way of making me think and reflect on the topic of his posts. In doing this it helps me to formulate what I think on different issues.

Over the last two years I have felt God speaking to me about house churches. I have been reading about them and praying about them. I have also been following a number of house churches through their websites and blogs.

All the way through this process the desire has been growing inside me to plant a house church and reach out to people who have never really fit into the traditional church setting. The people who are Christians, but do not have a place where they regularly meet with other people to grow and journey together.

In Perth when God first spoke to me about this idea, it made sense, but it didn’t seem to fit into the context of our neighbourhood. Because of this I put it on the back burner and prayed about it. Now we are in a smaller country town and we have met a number of Christians who don’t go to church, it is starting to come to the forefront again. It always made sense, but now it makes a lot more sense.

My heart is to provide a safe place for people to meet where they can feel comfortable and relaxed and we can journey in faith together. A place where we can pray, study the Bible, be discipled and learn how to disciple others, worship God and enjoy the fellowship that can only happen in a small group type setting.

At this stage my wife and I think we will begin house church early next year. In the meantime we are going to meet as a family once per week to pray, worship and study the Bible together. In time we know that God will prompt us to invite others along who He wants to be involved.

A friend asked me what my favourite Bible was recently. This was a hard question as I have a number of Bibles that I use for different things and some of them have been bought at different parts of my journey of faith.

My first favourite Bible was a hard cover Good News Study Bible I bought when I when I was a brand new Christian. I purchased the gold leaf tabs with all the Bible names on them to make it easier to find the places. Now it is old and worn and underlined all the way through. It has served me well and in many ways feels like an old friend when I pick it up.

My current favourite Bible is my Thompson Chain New International Version. This one is great for students and it has loads of extra material in the margins and refers you to lots of other passages to help in your research. In the back it had lots of maps, book overviews, timelines and more. It is my favourite at the moment as I am full on into the books. And yes it has the gold leaf tabs on the side to help me find the books easily. One of my friends regularly comments on how I like them!

How about you? Have you got a favourite Bible? What do you like about it? Have you got several favourite Bibles? Is one like an old friend?

Over the years I have had a number of people come to me when they are going through a difficult time. While I am not a trained counselor, there are certain things that I have found I can do just by being there and listening. It is interesting that how most people who have come to me have just needed one or more of the following three things.

1. Suggestion - Sometimes they just need an outside opinion on an issue or needed to run something by me. Generally all they need is a suggestion of a few options they could take in a situation. Sometimes the things I suggest might not necessarily be overly spiritual, but it helps them in the decision making process and helps them to move forward.

2. Cathartic - Sometimes people who come my way just need to get things off their chest. I have found that most of us when we are going through a rough time just need to download our thoughts to someone. Most of the time their head is full and they just need to empty and in a sense “restart” their computer. Speaking to someone outside the situation can help to do this.

3. Reassurance - Sometimes the people who come to me need to just be reassured that things will be ok. In the midst of a painful time it is often hard to see when it will end and things might return to “normal”. Reassuring people that God is in control and that God is with them helps a great deal. It is also great if you have personally been through the situation and you can share how things have worked out for you.

Regardless of whether you are a trained Pastor or a counselor sometimes people just need someone to be there and listen. One or more of the above things can really make a difference to people in short term crisis and can help them to move forward in faith and in the hope that things will get better.

My kids asked to do a science experiment this morning for homeschool. At first I thought we would look through the science book we have, but then I remembered something I read recently.

I was reading some comedy from the American stand up comedian Steve Wright. He is very dry in his delivery and has a bald head on top with very fluffy hair on the sides…perfect for a stand up comedian!

Anyway, he talked about how cats always land on their feet no matter how they are dropped, even if they are turned upside down first. Then he mentioned that toast always land butter side down when dropped. He said he decided to strap toast to the back of his cat to see what happened.

I mentioned this to our kids jokingly as a possible science experiment. I am thankful they realised I was joking and they laughed.

Afterwards I wondered what would have happened if they had wanted to do the experiment. I also wondered which one of our poor cats would have been chosen!

My wife just reminded me that I am a creature of habit and how once something becomes ingrained in me it takes a while to shake it.

In my last job in Perth I worked in an office four days per week - Monday to Thursday. Every Thursday morning I would spring out of bed all excited as it was my last day at the office. She noticed I would bounce around the place, whistle and sing out loud and generally be very excited about things.

Often she would say you are in a good mood today and after a while we realised that it was Thursday and I was all excited about the long weekend coming up (this happened every week for me as I only worked four days). It was like Monday-itis in reverse to say the least!

Anyway, it has been 15 months since I have left that job and working Monday to Thursday. Now my days and hours are very flexible being a student, but I still spring out of bed on Thursdays and sing my way through breakfast.

For me it is a strange phenomena that just seems to happen without thinking about it. Maybe as my wife suggests I am a creature of habit…or maybe I just really like Thursdays!

What are some of your habits? Have you got special days or is one day just like the next for you? Do you find yourself doing certain things on certain days out of habit?