You know what its like, frustrating cliche Christian answers…
here are some good tough questions, a few of church we had a look at in our small group.

# God is wrathful, jealous, hateful, and kills nations of people like it is a bodily function. He is certainly not just or “holy” in nature.
# The act of throwing people into infinite torture and punishment for not believing a Jewish guy from 2,000 years ago was God’s son, or unknowingly worshiping the wrong god, is extremely cruel and sadistic.
# The statements, “God works in mysterious ways,” or “It will all make sense in heaven,” are little more than irrational cop outs. This God allows horrible atrocities to be committed against innocent men, women and children every day.

More…

Knowing that Moses wrote this Psalm, really gives it context for me.
A humble leader, driven to get his people to the Promised Land.

“¹³ O Lord, come back to us!
How long will you delay?
Take pity on your servants!
¹⁴ Satisfy us each morning with your unfailing love,
so we may sing for joy to the end of our lives.
¹⁵ Give us gladness in proportion to our former misery!
Replace the evil years with good.
¹⁶ Let us, your servants, see you work again;
let our children see your glory.
¹⁷ And may the Lord our God show us his approval
and make our efforts successful.
Yes, make our efforts successful!”

At times asking for success may seem a little self seeking, some people even rail against Christians/Churches being succesful. Yet the humble Moses pleaded for God, for success. What he defined as success was that Gods people would reach their Promised Land, a place of rest in Gods presence. Sounds like a great prayer to me!

I reckon the Freo Dockers have the best young developing side, bar none.
A really solid effort against the musch heavier, stonger, more experienced Western Bulldogs side today.
Chris Maybe, on his game back, kicked three great goals.
Broughton, Hill, Suban, Pierce…all names to look forward to seeing them develop.

This is why we are doing what we do…to avoid these sort of situations, kids should love coming to church! 🙂

We are kicking off a new series for August….sort of.
We are actually going to continue the series on David…moving from his pre king days, to his king days.
he is an awesome character, a hero, …..read Psalm 89

“9 Long ago you spoke in a vision to your faithful people.
You said, “I have raised up a warrior.
I have selected him from the common people to be king.
²⁰ I have found my servant David.
I have anointed him with my holy oil.
²¹ I will steady him with my hand;
with my powerful arm I will make him strong.
²² His enemies will not defeat him,
nor will the wicked overpower him.
²³ I will beat down his adversaries before him
and destroy those who hate him.
²⁴ My faithfulness and unfailing love will be with him,
and by my authority he will grow in power.
²⁵ I will extend his rule over the sea,
his dominion over the rivers.
²⁶ And he will call out to me, ‘You are my Father,
my God, and the Rock of my salvation.’

Now this psalm does refer to David, but it is also what they call a ‘messianic psalm’, meaning it points in a fuller sense to Jesus. Jesus was the anscestor of David. What this means to me is that David displayed some characteristics in his life which were Christlike….thats amazing when you consider that he was a Warrior King. But look at the above picture, he fought and defeated the enemies when he needed to, but he also displayed meekness, great strength under control.

“The expulsion of a Year 11 boy, and the shunting of seven of his friends, from Winthrop Baptist College for allegedly smoking marijuana at a school camp has caused consternation among parents.” (Link)

I listened for an hour or so on 6PR this morning as the various viewpoints were expressed on this issue.
This is my take on it, for what its worth.

1. The parents knew the rules and results for breaking them, they are clearly stated. The boys broke the rules, and got what they deserved.
2. There was a definite sense from the parents that there should be forgiveness expressed, in the spirit of Christianity. Christianity does tell us to forgive, but there are still consequences. Forgiveness does not mean that there are not consequences for our actions. These boys need to, in my view, understand that their actions have consequences. For the parents to want for them to ‘get off’ with community service, means that the boys may risk growing up without realising a valuable lesson.
3. One of the key attractions of Winthrop College for parents is its values system. To allow these actions to occur without consequence is to basically deny that that value system has any merit. The school is built upon reputation. This unfortunate event has the capacity to destroy that reputation, something the school needs to protect.
4. I hope the boys get counselling and understand that while there are consequences for their actions, it is not a terrible offence, but something they can deal with, and move on from. It does not need to be something that defines them. It was a mistake, deal with the consequences, move on.