Indescribable

From the highest of heights to the depths of the sea
Creation's revealing Your majesty
From the colors of fall to the fragrance of spring
Every creature unique in the song that it sings
All exclaiming

Indescribable, uncontainable,
You placed the stars in the sky and You know them by name.
You are amazing God
All powerful, untameable,
Awestruck we fall to our knees as we humbly proclaim
You are amazing God

Who has told every lightning bolt where it should go
Or seen heavenly storehouses laden with snow
Who imagined the sun and gives source to its light
Yet conceals it to bring us the coolness of night
None can fathom

Indescribable, uncontainable,
You placed the stars in the sky and You know them by name.
You are amazing God
All powerful, untameable,
Awestruck we fall to our knees as we humbly proclaim
You are amazing God

Indescribable, uncontainable,
You placed the stars in the sky and You know them by name.
You are amazing God
Incomparable, unchangeable
You see the depths of my heart and You love me the same
You are amazing God
You are amazing God

Spritiuality is the Foundation

Am sitting in a Zarraffa's reading through the book I have to review for my Ministry Formation subject.

Leading the Congregation by Shawchuck and Heuser is giving me a good insight into the constructs of a spiritual leader... I'm only a few chapters in, but I'm already learning stuff (and taking furious notes so I can turn it into a kick-butt book report :-p).

The book begins with investigating the Leader as a Person, and has challenged me that your own personal spirituality is the foundation on which to base your ministry outreaches and work.

Even Jesus spent a lot of time working on his spirituality through prayer with his Father as a continual supplement to his ministry on earth.  If Jesus needed this, how come we feel we can fill our lives with the 'work' of being a minister to people, and set aside the time of quiet reflection and prayer.

We do it to a point where we even feel slightly guilty saying "No I haven't been in planning meetings or running around setting stuff up today, I've spent the entire morning sitting on the couch praying and reflecting on God's current call in my life." It's almost as if the time with God shouldn't be part of our paid position as a vocational minister.

Would you rather have someone be told "I'm sorry the pastor's not in today, he is off in a council meeting discussing the issues of the church" or "I'm sorry can I have the pastor call you back, he's spending the morning in prayer in his office"??

Which do you think a member of the congregation would react better to?  Would they feel they had a right to interrupt the prayer time?  I wonder if they would.

Jesus had some key areas that he used to maintain his spirituality during his time on earth.

Waiting Passively - Jesus spent time alone in prayer with his Father, waiting on him and asking him to guide his ministry on earth.

Communal Spirituality - Jesus spent time in constructive discussion with the disciples, and then took it to higher levels with just 3 of the apostles... He had a group of people in which o communicate outside of his ministry to the masses

A Holistic lifestyle of Spirituality - Jesus perfected this one, living a life totally without sin.

I'm challenged as I start my journey at Bible College to really get the spirituality of my life in order to build a firm foundation on which I will be able to base whatever ministry God has in store for me

New Knowledge

This week has been very intense.  The first lecture in each subject unloaded a heap of information on us about outlines, assignments and exams.  All that was very overwhelming, but as each lecturer got into some of the beginnings of the course content I found I was really enjoying it.

One thing I learnt this week, that I just love... but something I'd probably realised but not actually grasped completely, was in the New Testament lecture.

In discussing exactly what it meant by New Testament, and going through the old and new covenant we touched on the fact that Jesus was actually alive and living under the old covenant. Seems obvious, but when you really think about it, it changes the whole perspective of the Gospels.

Jesus was perfect under the law of the old covenant... which is was made him the perfect subject and only way to pay for sins under the law.  For example it's no use someone who has already murdered someone then saying they will take the punishment for another murderer. The first murderer is already guilty and should be serving his own sentence, and isn't a viable replacement for the guilty party.  

Jesus' life met the bar of the old covenant... God brought in the new covenant because he knew our best efforts were futile in living up to his standard, so as Jesus, the creator of the universe met his own laws, just to then sacrifice himself so that a new law (that is so freely and easily attainable for us) would be set in motion.

It also sets a different thinking about how the disciples and other people reacted to Jesus.  We look back knowing that Jesus is the Christ... yet in that day all of Israel were looking for a Messiah, and as Jesus began to fit that role people noticed, but withing Judaism there was a strong preconception of who the Messiah would be and Jesus' servant attitude didn't exactly fit that.

How much more then do Peter's words "You are the Christ" mean when you know he was stepping outside the general Jewish perception and realising God accomplishing his prophecy in his own way.

O-Week

Well I have been well and truely orientated into life at Malyon College.

It was a pretty full 3 days of stuff... giving us a bit of an information overload, but the other 30 or so first year students look like a good bunch.

It's excellent how well the Malyon faculty go about creating a close knit community, already I know a lot of the students there pretty well, and have some good personal insight into nearly every one of the lecturers I have met.

Oh and to continuing students... don't get too angry the first years broke your table tennis table before you guys even get to go back for the year.

We'll try and fix it we promise :-p

Weekly Photography Assignment

This week's assignment is 'Cold'

Which is all well and good for the majority of the members of DPS - who live in the Northern Hemisphere - however there's nothing remotely 'cold' about the temperature here in Ipswich at the moment.  

Though nothing refreshes you better in this heat than a ice cold lemon, lime and pineapple cooler!

Quite a contrast to every other photo there this week, which are all snow covered, icy and freezing shots.

Dunno what people will think, but I was at a distinct disadvantage with this one :-p

First Monday at Home.

It did feel a little strange not to be getting up at 6am and then rushing around to get ready for work.

But I was keen not to fall into the 'lazy student bum' mode so made sure I was up by 7am, and went for a jog.  It was great - having more time (have no work or college on Mondays) meant I could go for a longer jog, not being worried about having to get back and be somewhere.

In the end I ran about 5ks, and was well and truely stuffed... a good start I say.

Had some breaky now I have to go figure out austudy and rental assistance and all that jazz... I'm thinking that will be more painful than the jog!

KazooKeylele - always makes me feel better

A mate Dave showed me this one on youtube a few months back...

...these days I pull it up if ever I need a bit of a laugh, or pick me up.

The guy is 100% DORK... but here's proof that's not always a bad thing -  it's just awesome :-)

What lies ahead...

Spending this afternoon trying to learn the Greek alphabet - writing it out, pronouncing it, remembering it's order.

An ending is a new beginning right?

Yesterday was my last day at work. I start college next Tuesday, and am surprised at the easy calm I've felt this entire migration period.  

The guys at work threw a fairly decent farewell yesterday, lots of time spent down at the local pub - and a big feed for a morning tea with two managers making speeches and saying nice things about me.  I dunno, I didn't think I'd done that much, but it seems people were sad to see me go - most understood that I'd eventually choose to go off and do some full time ministry work so I take that as encouragement that I was being a witness for Jesus there.

This morning I've woken up and I've got piles of stuff I've brought home off my desk - not sure what to do with it all, since I'm not going to a job where I'll have my own desk, but hanging on to most of it in some kind of sentimental way anyway.

But even with college starting, I think I'm going to have more time on my hands these days (well until the semester gets into full swing at least), so I'd love to hear from some people for a catch up  - I think the new beginning will be easier to dive into if I can spend a heap of time with friends!

Thirsty Koala

I received this email yesterday from someone down in South Australia.


They'd been experiencing a heat wave all week, and I'm not sure if he knew the guy or not, but someone's wife sent the following photos into work.


It had been well over 40 degrees for quite a few days when this woman noticed a baby Koala come onto their porch to find some relief. She put out a bowl of water and the photos pretty well tell the rest.

Ha, that third one is a classic, just need to photoshop in a can of XXXX Gold in one paw and he'd be set :-p

There have been other thirsty Koala photos on news.com but I think these are by far the best!