Lifeshapes - Semi-Circle

A pendulum swings melodically, rhythmically and almost hypnotically at times. Like a metronome, which keeps time for musicians, pendulums swing in constant beat, spending equal time on each side of their swing, consistently moving, keeping time forever. If you trace a pendulum swing which swings from horizontal to horizontal it will create a semi-circle.



John 15:1-4 "I am the vine , and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me."

These days we're so busy. I mean we even brag about how busy we are, almost trying to out do others with stories of overtime, rushing around, picking things up, and complaining we have no spare time.

God created us to work, God worked hard in his creation, and then created us in His image. So we are built to be engaged in active work, and feel at a loss if we are unable to work for a period of time.

But looking at creation, what was mans first day spent doing? We were created on the 6th day. So our first full day as a created being was the 7th day, and that was the day God rested. So our first day on the planet, we rested with God.

But God also wants us to bear fruit and use our skills for meaningful work. But the key is that his first moments of time spent with his creation was in rest. So many times we plan our working weeks, and then use the little bits of time left over to catch a quick rest. That's not how God did it, he planned a rest time, and then worked from it.
The semi-circle shows us we need to work from rest, instead of resting from work. Like a pendulum we need to swing from a time of rest into our time for work, and then consistently swing back into a rest time, so we can again move into a time for working.

Jesus rested before his ministry, and seemed to pattern rest into his ministry as we went alone to pray with his Father. He also taught his disciples to 'get away' and rest so they could then move back into their work. (Mark 1:12-13, 35-39 & Mark 6:30-32)
When we rest we give God time to prune us, to allow us to abide in God, and from abiding we grow. From growing we bear fruit. From bearing fruit we are cut back. This is the pattern of the semi-circle.

The Wins Continue

Whitehill Div 4 wins 3-2!!!

Great game, though a bit dirty from the other team. 2-1 to Whitehill at half time with the opposition scoring very early in the second half.

Another great goal by out WA draftee Mr Zambra sealed the win for Whitehill. I was able to put a lovely through ball in for Ben so he could take on the goalie 1 on 1 and score our winning point.

We're becoming a real team, our communication is getting better and we're learning how everyone plays, I think we can only get better.

Whitehill Wins!

Well it's the third round of the season and my division 4 Whitehill soccer team won it's first game!

We played Raceview - another local Ipswich team - and I have to hand it to the guys, we held it together pretty well. Right from the start we pushed hard, and really worked on our offense, attacking their full backs and the goalie pretty intensivly. The first goal came from an own goal, which was lucky, but we created our own luck by pressuring their defence. Our second and third goals were scored off some great running by our forwards, and good kick placements from our mids. In the end we won 3-1.

A real confidence booster for all. Even though I spent the whole game nursing a swollen ankle which I'd twisted at Amped the night before and am still trying to recover from.

Lifeshapes - Circle

Eight shapes... eight different life lessons. Whitehill started running the lifeshapes program this week, using simple shapes to set examples on God's teaching. The first week is the 1 sided shape (a circle), week 2 is a semi circle (2 sides) and so on as the weeks progress.

The Circle

Kairos is one of several words which in Greek mean time. Another is Chronos, as in the passage of time (i.e chronology), kairos is a specific point in time, a moment which will be memorable for some reason or another.

We can use these kairos moments, and the shape of the circle as a lesson on choosing to learn from life.

In the diagram above the arrow is our life. The 'x' is a certain kairos moment, it may be something small (i.e spotting a beautiful sunset, a bible reading or a chat with a friend) or something more impacting (new job, death of a family member). The idea is that whenever you realise you're in the middle of one of these kairos moments there are things to do so that you learn from the experience, and make it a life changing moment for God to help you grow that little bit more.

Two things to do - Repent, and Believe. The word repent comes from a Greek word that means to change your mind or have a change of heart. Once we change, that will effect the outlook on the rest of our lives.

First thing to do in repentance is to observe our thoughts, reactions and emotions to the kairos event, then to reflect on why we reacted like the did, why we feel like we do and why this particular event brought on these emotions. Then we need to bring someone else in on the process, and discuss you reactions. Other's will have a completely different outlook on what you're going through.

Just because we experience a kairos moment doesn’t mean we learn from it. The only way to bring change into our lives is to take action through belief.

Again there are three parts, planning from your observations and reflections, finding someone to be accountable too (probably the same person you choose to discuss it with), and then you need to act on everything you've learnt and complete the change in your life.

Our lives are about connecting all the events that happen to us. In essence that's linking all the kairos moments in our lives. We have so many opportunities to learn and let God stretch and grow us.

So keep a lookout for kairos moments this week, and use this process to grow your relationship with God, and change your life.

What's going on!!

OK seriously, what a woeful start to the season. This weekend's game against Hawthorn just clinched it for me. COME ON BOYS! I thought the first round was great, we absolutely trounced Sydney, and Lloyd kicked the first 5 goals.

5 weeks later and looks what's going on. Lloyd's gone for the season, and we haven't won a game since that first week. Last weekend was horrific! 1 point!!! ahhh! I mean with all the controversy about the Freo v Saints game ending, I'm almost wishing the Essendon game went for an extra 30 seconds... we may have won!

Anyway, not loosing faith, just venting some frustration, let's go boys... make it like the 93 season... loose the first half, and finish with the premiership!

Weekend News

Well I had a GREAT long weekend!

Saturday I played soccer. It's the second game of the 06 season, and man, 90 minutes of football is a hard slog! We're playing division 4 of the church leauge this year, and having only ever play div 6 and 7 (bottom 2 divs) these first two games have been an eye opener!

Plus we played 1 man down for most of the first half - and were not able to make use of the new unlimited interchange rule at all, cause we've never had a reserve! 90 minutes of footy, and i'm buggered hey, time to work on that fitness!!

We lost 6-2 which sucks cause it was 2-2 at half time. We have the most lucious fields this year, Ipswich Boys Grammar school are letting us use their fields for free - they are awesome... I did the most excellent slide tackle and saved a goal in the dying minutes of the game.... it felt so good to get something exactly right, plus it's so easy to slide tackle on these fantastic fields!

I went for dinner at Ben and Julie's with Scotty, and had a great time. Watching young Elijah roll all over the cat, and having a push up competition (which I lost!).

Sunday was church, and lots of drumming. I played the morning and evening service, at night a strange thing happened. During the bridge of a song I was mainly working the Toms and snare for about 32 bars (for the musos out there), and when I finished my 10" tom fell clear off my kit! I must have loosened the grip screw holding it on, so it slipped off. Never had that happen before!!

I spent the afternoon pushing a lawn airator around our lawn, in the glorious pouring rain!

Monday was a good quiet day, set up another blog for Vanessa's wedding register - so people can check out the register email what they want to take off the list and have it removed. It saves her having a Myer one which forces people to buy only from one store... and more freedom for the 'little' things, like garden hoses and stuff.

The hours

7.23pm!

It's 7.23pm and I'm sitting at my desk at work, in an office building completely empty except for myself. I have 15 computers stacked beside me, and I've finished building 13 of them, so only 2 more to go. I am taking a drive to Toowoomba tomorrow to give the branch there brand new computers.

I find it slightly ironic that I'm going to Toowoomba tomorrow, after only having just come from there after AGMF - and am wondering if it is some cruel joke on the part of the guy planning the new pc rollouts.

I put so much time, so many hours, into working at this job, and what do I get out of it? Well the answer to that is money, but I feel that only getting money from the long hours I spend here isn't rewarding enough.

Why do we work so hard for money? I know we should see our workplace as our mission field and that should give us the motivation to continue in our workplaces, but there are times when I feel I could be doing so much more with my hours!!

Ok so now I've racked up 3 hours of overtime - it's now 7:30 - but do I want to be here? No! If I had planned my day better, I probably would not be here, but I had so much on my plate these computers kept getting put off, and now I have to get them done before tomorrows trip.

I guess also today - to make me more mindful of my attitude towards my job - we had a small mishap in our area. One of the guys (who could probably think a touch more before he acts,) had a freak issue with a network switch. Suddenly the switch on his desk created a 'loop back' and was broadcast over the entire network - effectively taking the whole of the company's computers offline! No small feat!

Unfortunately he did it a second time when trying to figure what the problem was. Now we have management looking closely at our work practices, and it looks like some of the privileges we've had to make our job easier will be taken away.

All this has made me think, is it time to give it all up and try something else? Bible College has been knocking on my mind for a while, but I just don't know whether God really wants me there.

Your prayers would be appreciated.

Well I've just finished the last PC (thank goodness for dual screens so I can blog and work at the same time) and Prison Break is on tonight so I'd better get home....

AGMF Pictures

Benz, Scotty and I leaning up against the Mighty XR6!

The Main Tent, including the SU Cafe and Merch area, what a huge tent!

Our tent in the backyard.

Mike Frost and the Icemen (Chris Poulsen on keys)

Scat at the Fancy Pants Ball - White house paint suits (sorry about the quality, was a mobile phone camera shot)

USQ Main Stage (Thanks to Bec for this pic)

AGMF 06

What a weekend.

Great music, good food, and awesome mates. I headed up to Toowoomba for the Australian Gospel Music Festival with Scotty and Ben on Friday, we set Benz tent up in the backyard of our senior pastors brother's house.

I've never been to AGMF for the whole festival before, there was so much good music! Actually there was so much that I missed some acts I would have loved to have seen.

The Chris Poulsen Trio was the one band I really wanted to catch, having never seeing them live before, and knowing Chris and loving his playing in Scat and Mike Frost and the Icemen. Unfortunately I forgot the time they were on, and we ended up going to a break dance workshop instead. However Scat were unbelievable! Chris absolutely burnt up the Fender Rhodes, the man is the best piano player I have ever seen, or heard! Scat always put on a good show, but they had an energy this weekend that was above and beyond anything I've seen before. The Fancy Pants ball finished off AGMF on Sunday night, and Chris had this idea that Scat should buy second hand suits and paint them completely white (using house paint). They looked amazing, but as Craig (lead singer) said many times during the ball it would have been mighty hot inside a stiff thick painted suit, shirt and tie!

Chris Poulsen has become a AGMF and Christian music scene star, as soon as he hopped on stage with any band he pulled huge crowds. It's great to see a good friend of mine enjoying his music so much, and sharing it with so many people, I'm sure he has a very prosperous future ahead of him.

Newsboys were the headline act, and they didn't disappoint. Ben, his niece and I ended up in the back of the mosh pit, enjoying the atmosphere and music from one of Australia's best Gospel rock groups. Having Paul Coleman as lead guitar was weird. It's almost a shame that a man with so much talent ends up playing guitar and doing backup vocals. But he is happy, and he still put on a great performance with the rest of the band.

Rebecca St James was good - well the part I saw anyway, we only caught the end. I was even able to get her autograph afterwards.

Other highlight bands were Half Way Out (Chris' brother Dave is the new saxophone player for them), The View (Sydney band I hadn't heard before, but were really impressed by), Rhubarb (haven't seen them in ages but woohoo!!), United Band, MIC, Soulframe and 24 Feet.

In other areas sharing the weekend with Scott and Ben was great. We went to Hog's Breath Cafe for dinner one night, and the Coffee Club another. We drove around in the XR6 and shot people with supa soakers, ran through the Bush Dance at full pace and sang unashamedly in line for Rebecca St James' signature.

I'll post some pictures in a second

12 months of Blogging

Well when I started my blog I created a few back dated topics just to get a heap of stuff on my site, but as of this week my Blogs been online for 12 months.

And it's come a long way.... looking back at some of the stuff from last year I can't believe it all happened 12 months ago!

Amped/Whitehill update

Hey well it's been a while since I've put something up here. My life has been pretty busy, but nothing too serious.

Amped is going great so far this year, we have two major nights running in conjunction with other outings and service events we do. One night is called Nexus - which is a night of awesome praise and worship music, teaching from the Word of God and time in our small groups which we call D-Teams. The other major night is Delta which is where we spend the whole night in our D-Team having a group discussion on some aspect of becoming Christ Like.

Amped's vision statement is to be a Christ Centred, Servant Hearted, Outward Focused Youth Community. We've been acheiving this by focusing on what the Bible tells us Christ was like, working in the community to serve as Christ served and looking to school friends and others to bring into our youth community. Recently we spent the night at a local Aboriginal Church painting their youth hall and sanding back furniture so they can decorate them themselves. It was a great night of service and the youth really enjoyed getting out and doing something productive.

Last week at our Evening Service, we ran what is known as an Open Space Technology conference. Anyone can post a question/topic for discussion on the topic of "The Church". It probably wasn't received as well as we hoped, but I found that the people who put the effort into the night all walked away having learnt something new. I myself enjoyed the night a lot, I posted a topic Why Do We Do What We Do? and had some awesome discussion about what the Church is all about, and why we do some of the different aspects of services. It made me and others think about the meaning behind our Sunday 'worship' services and what role they should take in our lives. I also visited a topic on Is there division between youth and older people in our church?, and What is the Church?

This weekend is Easter, and unlike other years I've decided not to go to the Keswick Convention on Tamborine Mt, but instead to head up to Toowoomba for the Australian Gospel Music Festival.

A New Year Begins

Well the year hasn't really begun, until the new season of the V8 Supercars starts. So even though I know this blog seems to be turning into a rev-head blog, the Adelaide 500 is a weekend I've been waiting for for some time.

And even better, good old Craig Lowndes won the first race, and he sure looks good to win today's race as well. But the whole field looks so good. New colours, new sponsors and new drivers has really made the whole V8 series look and feel so fresh for 2006.

So bring it on, can't wait for the Qld events so I can see em in person. And GO FORD!!!!!!

Soccer Continues

Well we had another game today, played another division 2 team, and only went down 1:0. So another good result, our team is developing, working on our fitness and getting ready for the begining of the real season just after Easter.

For those of you who know Ben Zambra, our WA friend came so close to scoring in the first half, he cleared the goalie and smacked the dead centre of the goal post, very unlucky.

For the upcoming season, I've been placed into the 5th Division team, so am looking forward to the challenge of playing up a division this year, and I get to play on the same team as my brother, and Ben.

What a Morning

Well here's something you don't expect while sitting stuck in traffic on Ipswich Road. This morning just before I left home I SMSed in my code for the new Pepsi "Rock, Paper, Scissors" competition, I sort of did it as an afterthought just before I walked out the door.

Well anyway; I received an SMS while I was stuck in traffic telling me I'd won the half hour competition, so I now have the choice of $500, 2 iPod Nanos or a Nokia 3250 phone as my prize! I already have an iPod, and my current mobile phone is dieing a painful and frustrating death so I'm pretty happy to get a brand new mobile, especially one as good and with so much stuff as the 3250!

Nokia 3250 Information

I love my Mountain Dew, and my addiction has finally paid off, I hardly ever enter these competitions, but with my phone dieing I thought I may as well have a go cause I need the new phone. Now I'm sure glad I did :-)

Bending It...

Ok so maybe linking this post to David Beckham is pushing it a bit, but I had my first game of soccer for the year last Saturday.

Lucky for us it's just the pre-season, meaning the games is only 20 minute halves (making the entire game shorter than one half of a real game), but it's a good way to build yourself up to the start of the season.

Anyway; after only one training session we were all still pretty rusty, and we were playing a Division 1 team. Amazingly we were able to keep the game 0-0, which means we didn't score, but it also means we didn't let them either - GO WHITEHILL!

After the rain we've had the field was pretty soggy, and some full back decided to perform a perfectly executed slide tackle on me so I ended up with mud all over me.

However I really enjoyed the game, felt pretty good at the end of it, and am looking forward to the coming season.

Oh and one more thing I learnt creating this post, if you type in Beckham and do an image search on Google, there are not many pictures of him actually playing soccer!

Nostalgia Drag Meet – 26/02/2006

I love old muscle cars! And I have absolutely had my fill today. Willowbank Raceway was packed with pre-1972 cars from both Australia and the USA. There was over 100 in the ‘Show and Shine’ competition and 75 race competitors, and it was the best day of racing I’ve seen since starting the Chaplaincy work with Dad.

The Willowbank team were running on a skeleton crew today so Dad and I ended up helping on the track (and in the process build relationships with the blokes we were working for). Dad was the ‘water boy’, basically using the hose to leave the start of the track wet so the cars can do their burn out before their run. I kept an eye on the cars doing their burnouts and made sure nothing came off the cars or spilt on the track while they were doing it. So that meant Dad and I were on the start-line all day, and it was fantastic.

I’ve never inhaled so much smoke and been covered in so much rubber; even after showering I’m still picking pieces of rubber off my arms. BUT IT WAS SO MUCH FUN!

Some of the highlights of the day were the twin turbo 351 V8 Mustang, a superchargers 1932 Ford 3 Window Coupe and a 1968 Pontiac Firebird. Unfortunately that Firebird’s day ended in the wall, it was a pretty sickening crash and it destroyed one of the most beautiful cars at the event. The driver was fine and walked away, but it was a horrific crash.

Also on the start line I noticed a 1947 Anglia backfire and the exhaust on the top of the carbie light up. I was able to stop the car before it took off, and the fireman simply blew out the flame and once the car restarted he was still able to do his run.

So I had a great day, and we were also able to build our friendships with the rest of the guys working on the start-line.

**There’s no substitute for cubic inches!**

US Muscle 4x4

Um yeah... is this a waste of a beautiful 1968 Pontiac Firebird? Or a clever and unique idea for a hot rod?

Read more about it at this site here. It seems like a serious muscle car, and a serious 4WD. I think it's slightly weird, but cool at the same time. Tell me what you think?

Anti-road rage

I was driving to work today, and as usual the traffic on Ipswich Road was pretty awful. It took about 20 minutes to travel from Dinmore to Gails where I get off onto the toll road for a relaxing commute down an almost car free road.

I'd sort of been following this guy in a Toyota Camry while stuck on Ipswich Road, and passed him just before I took the toll road exit, which he also took. In the light traffic I was able to reach 100km/h and use my cruise control for a nice easy drive the rest of the way to work. Obviously the guy in the Camry had his cruise control set slightly higher and was catching me consistently over a distance. Another car was speeding and overtook him and me. As this other car was passing me we caught up to truck doing about 80k/h I had to disengage the cruise control and coast until the car passed me, the Camry was also out to over take me and the truck, with a semi trailer coming up behind him.

The guy in the Camry actually slowed down and let me merge in front of him so I didn’t get caught behind the truck doing 75km/h and waiting for the other semi to go past as well. I was able to overtake at 100k’s then move back into the left lane and let the Camry pass me. As he passed he gave a little wave (which I returned) and off he went.

A nice experience of sharing the road, especially when we see so many occurrences of Road Rage these days.

LIVE Camp 06

Well I've just come home from Whitehill's first LIVE Young Adults Camp. What a fantastic weekend. I think there were about 39 of us, and we spent the whole weekend at Luther Heights Campsite at Coolum Beach. It was a beautiful location, overlooking the beach, close enough to walk down, and a short drive from patrolled beaches.

The trip up was a touch stressful, with traffic a nightmare in Brisbane, and then a friend was unlucky enough to be behind a truck when its tyre blew and ran over the steel rim. So we spent quite a while on the side of the highway, making sure the car was drivable and getting all the details off this truckie.

Once we finally got to Luther Heights we realised one other thing... it was extremely hot... and unbearably humid. I haven't felt humidity like that since I was in The Gambia! The whole weekend was an effort to stay out of the heat.

The speaker for the weekend was Scott Vawser from WA. I met Scott on the Youth Vision Melbourne Ministry Tour last year, and he's a fantastic bloke. Scott is also the reason I got more serious about blogging and I regulary check out his blog here.

Scott spoke on the Kingdom of God. He used the "Truman Show" as an example of what Christians can create which he dubbed the 'King-Dome of God'. For those who have seen The Truman Show will know the movie follows the story of a man who has lived his entire life inside a huge dome, being filmed and unknown to himself, become this star of a hit TV show. In so many ways Christians have created their own dome. We have our own world where everything 'bad' and 'ugly' is kept outside our dome, and we never venture outside ourselves.

Scott has some amazing ideas on the Church - not in the sense of the little white building on a hill, but as the body of Christ - and he was able to share and really challenge all of us to live Biblical lives, not just religious lives.

One thing that really hit me was the importance of the truth behind John 13:34 and 35. " A new commandment I give you, love one another, as I have loved you. In this way all men will know that you are my disciples."

We looked at what Jesus' love is all about, things like endless, sacrificial, empowering, life giving, unconditional and non deserving. And in that passage Jesus tells us to love one another just as Jesus loves us. So as Christians we need to love one another just like all the things we listed about Jesus' love. Jesus didn't command us to go out and preach to people, he didn't tell us to run huge outreach events, he told us to love one another. So through un-Believers seeing the way we love one another, this is the greatest witness of all.

It was a new and fresh way to look at the Christian life, and Scotts stories of how he is living in his neighbourhood and creating friendships/relationships and networks of believers and non-believers were an up lifting idea for how we should spend our time instead of sitting inside a religious dome.

I came away challenged, but also refreshed. The camp gave me an opportunity to have some quality alone time with God, and really take stock of where my life is at the moment. The biggest thing for me to realise was that I don't really know where I am at the moment, and I have to spend a lot more time searching God before I can figure that out.

I guess I can use this blog to continue to search myself and express what I'm feeling at times. And hopefully your feedback can help me to continue to search God, and stretch my own faith.

Our praise times on camp also allowed us to truely worship God, and Elise was able to be tender to God's will and lead us in woshiping him honestly and humbly.

So overall it was a special weekend. Full of good fellowship, teaching, challenges and praise and worship.

Myth Busters should see this

Remember the Myth Busters episode where they tested the CD's shattering in the CDROMS? Well we experienced that at work today. One of the new university industrial trainees brought a PC back from a user and was trying to figure out what was wrong with it. When she manually opened the CD ROM she found about a million pieces of CD ROM.

I've heard of it happening, but this is the first time i've seen it. Supposedly the RMP of the drive gets too much for the disk and it just cracks, which at that speed causes it to shatter. Needless to say the CD ROM drive is totalled!

But as the Myth Buster's proved correct, nothing came out of the drive, and nothing else was damaged. Well done boys!