Recharge

Am back - and finally ready to lay out a few thoughts on Recharge 08.

I always enjoy Recharge, simply for the fact I can get away for a weekend with people I see often, and some I don't see very much at all.  There are so many up at Tamborine Mt for the weekend you're bound to bump into someone who you totally do not expect to be there.

This year instead of the Friday night Bush Dance, they put on an 80's Prom Night (which was basically a bush dance but you had to come dressed in bad 80's formal attire).  Was a little bit of fun, and good to catch up with a friend Bel Morrison who kind of became my 'date' for the night (sorry Bel) - but anyway check out her myspace as her music is fantastic - http://www.myspace.com/belmorrison

Anyway the social aspect of Recharge was good, as always (special note must go to Derek and his fantastic choice to get Merlo coffee for the cafe this year - GREAT JOB MATE!!), and it was heightened by the fact that a whole group of us from City North booked into the same accommodation at WEC and us boys shared a cabin and really got to spend some time chatting, which was excellent.

Tim Hein was the main speaker for the weekend, and I thought he was pretty good.  Tim spoke at the WHY Young Adults camp in January this year, and unfortunately the messages were fairly similar so I'd hear most of it before.  I still took some good notes though and was able to get stuff out of what he said.

I also went to 3 out of the 4 electives Tim did over the weekend, and thoroughly enjoyed them.  His one on the Emerging Missional Church was great  - and the two on Young Adults ministries wasn't far behind.

As usually Andrew Sercombe from Soul Survivor was back to lead worship and did an amazing job.  I knew some of the other people in the band this year and it was a different dynamic knowing the guys who were leading us in worship - not just Andrew.

I did react to the music differently this year, but I'll cover that in another post.

Anyway a brief overview of what I learnt this year...

• ~The God who is the same yesterday, today and forever is just as relevant today as he was at creation. Even though God may be seemingly different in his actions, "seeing everything as good", "wanting to wipe out the nation of Israel", "weeping over the people", "judging the nations" and "offering the ultimate forgiveness" God is still committed to being Himself through that in all those different emotions he is constantly loving us - and that is what has remained unchanged through it all, but has caused those different emotional reactions.
• ~God is committed to this world. God was so committed in fact that he left the divine environment of heaven and limited himself so that he could join what he had created, to teach and show us, and ultimately die in our place.
• ~God is committed to our personal transformation, his plan is written into our lives and it was placed there the moment we were conceived in him. His plan will evolve in my life by itself, just at the right time.
• ~God is not a god who is backing off.

That's just a little bit from the first session Tim did.  If I get a chance I'll write out some more of my notes later.

Wanting to blog about Recharge

Work's been a shocker this week, no time to think - and now I'm home I just want to veg... Expect some thoughtful blogs later - cause Recharge was great, and as usual produced some big thought processes during the weekend.

Sorry

Be back soon...

I'm off.

Heading up to Tamborine Mountain for the Recharge young adult conference... Looking forward to it... Especially the drive up the mountain; what a special road it is!

Fridays.

The new improved Employee 2.0 has a new driver feature with upgraded work ethic and we've also taken out the crude jokes and long lunch breaks. ~ can't half tell it's Friday eh?

You Can't Fix Everything

I've always been one of the Mr Fix-it kinda guys. I want to fix everything, not just physically, or mechanically, but also relationally and emotionally.

When I see someone hurting I want to fix it. I may not be able to, but I try.

However I've learnt something this week. Sometimes when it comes to relationships, friendships and just relating with people it doesn't matter what you do... it's not up to you to fix it. Even to the point that trying to do anything is only going to make it worse... not better.

I think there are times when you get to a point that you've done your bit - you've apologised, explained yourself or done whatever it is you needed to do. After that it is up to the other person to do their bit (even if that's just get over it).

I've had this experience this week - something is still not right, but I have to leave it where it is, it's no longer in my hands cause anything else I do will simply make it worse again.

It's hard and I'm struggling with it - I don't really know if I can just wait now... because I have no idea if it will ever be right.

Sometimes learning curves are painful.

Slow Victory

Wow, just watched the end of the Belgium Grand Prix! Rain fell with a couple of laps to go. Raikkonen lost his lead to Hamilton, then the rain gets harder and both cars on dry tyres start to slide everywhere.

Around the next bend a car had spun and Hamilton had to dive off the track to miss it. Raikkonen took the lead again, but spun coming out of the corner, Hamilton back into first as they slide around for one more lap to go... as they enter the main straight Raikkonen got his wheels on the white lines on the edge of the track and spins hitting the wall...

Hamilton then creeped around a very slippery track very slow to claim another Grand Prix title.

But what a way to finish, slow and careful, fearful of sliding off and hitting the wall, even at such a slow pace. And poor Raikkonen leading the entire grand prix to put his Ferrari in the wall on the second last lap!

Exciting stuff!

Sickness

Well missed my Thursday and Friday posts... I've been unwell. But it did give me another analogy and experience to think on.

I thought I was just getting a small bout of the flu, but then a tummy bug kicked in and I had a terrible day Thursday.

I slept most of the day, ate some toast and that was about it. I woke up Friday morning, tummy bug gone, but I had a hammering headache - felt totally normal except for the headache. I went to work, I took some panadole to ease the headache but it didn't work.

It was only when I got to work and filled the water bottle I usually drink during the day did I realise that all through Thursday, even though I was sick, I hadn't drunk any water. I drank that bottle of water very quickly, I hadn't realised how much I needed water until I started drinking.

I drank 3 bottles in a row.

Within 10 minutes my headache was gone... I'd simply been badly dehydrated. Giving my body what it needed (water) had solved all my problems.

It's like that with God too I think. We spend so much time doing our own thing, not listening to him, not reading the Bible that we start to get symptoms in our lives that we can't explain. We may try a heap of stuff to fix it (like I did with Panadol and coffee), but what we really need is the living water of Jesus.

Spending time in prayer, reading God's word, living a life in tune with the teachings of Jesus will be like the 3 bottles of water I drank... they'll fix you up straight away.

Quote on Relationships

"A woman's heart must be so hidden in God,That a man must seek God to find her..."

~~ MAX LUCADO

Single guy moment... that sounds well and good, so what's the deal? Am I not seeking God enough? Or has she not hidden her self in God enough for me to find her?

Is Temptation a sign we're doing it right?

Why do we see so many Christian leaders fall from grace? Why are there so many sex scandals in the church? Why wasn't I entirely surprised when I saw the news about Mike Guglielmucci?

And why don't we see the same sort of things from Muslim leaders, Buddhist monks, Hindus and Scientologists?

Maybe they're better at hiding it? And I don't want to make any excuses, all that stuff is wrong and should never happen but I wonder is Satan doesn't bother pushing the boundaries with Islamic Imams because he already has them in a place he wants. There's no doubt there's such temptation on the church, but is that because if we weren't tempted, and didn't stuff up we would be an unstoppable movement in the world today?

Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism aren't saving people. Those religions are not God working in this world, so they must be a tool of Satan - why would Satan tear down those tools? But the church is the movement of God, in fact with the Holy Spirit living inside each Christian the church can be God to the world around them... that must be the place Satan will try and tear down. The Islamic religion is always so quick to point out the hypocrisy of the Church, and their discipline is something that they can show off with pride... but is that just because the work of Satan is focused on the one group of people who could actually make the difference, and not worry about those preaching darkness already?

It's not an excuse, but it might explain the media coverage shown to church downfalls and not other religions. It's also a call for us to be extra vigilant. Why when I'm with the guys at work they may see a skimpily clad girl, make a comment and get on with the conversation, yet the image of that girl may linger in my mind as a continual temptation... if I give into that temptation it makes me an ineffective witness to those guys around me - wouldn't it make sense to make that temptation much bigger for the one person you're trying to stop being effective?

As always the answer to this is Jesus - as powerful as Satan may be over the minds of human, however he may weave situations for the purpose of our downfall, Jesus is so much more powerful than him. Again, due to the Holy Spirit's presence in each one of us, we have that power at hand when we are tempted.

James 4:7 says "Submit to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you." Is that what we are missing somehow? Is that why we're seeing so much stuff in the church that looks like a downfall? Are we failing to submit to God, because even if all the focus of Satan's temptation is on the church - that verse is still the truth and we should be able to make Satan flee!

Let's pray for each other, let's support each other through each of our temptations, let's not hide ourselves from each other, but let us stand together, submit to God and make Satan run away. For we are the salt of the earth, we are the way to God, and we are the group of people who can make the difference for the kingdom of God!

Made New Again.

A few months back now one of the guys at work had a crash in one of the company cars. It wasn't his fault, someone ran a red light and cleaned him up.

The Commodore was a wreck... my colleague was fine thankfully, but the car sure was a mess. Some photos of the car showed the damage, and looking at them I was pretty convinced our Commodore wagon was a right off.


Lucky the damage was all done in front of the driver's seat, but it sure looks like the engine, radiator and body has all been pushed across. Not worthy of repair.

However we actually got the car back just a month or so ago - the first day it was back I had a trip to Toowoomba and I was totally blown away by the car's transformation.


The car had been returned completely to its 'as new' state. I really didn't think it was possible.

Ever since I've been thinking about how God does the exact same thing with out lives. How often do I bring my life right to the state of that crashed Commodore... it looks like a total mess, unrepairable in my eyes, a point where I feel like I just keep screwing up so bad that I'm a write off.

Yet time and time again, God repairs my life, through the grace of Jesus my life is washed anew, my sin is cleaned away and forgiven. Like the Commodore I suddenly look like I did 'as new', sinless and free in the eyes of God.

Even when I crash my life again, God is able to repair it, because Jesus paid that ultimate price on the cross.

My mind continues to dwell on this amazing fact, not able to totally understand it, yet humbly accepting it as an amazing gift.